DUFF & NONSENSE!

And the Germans are not the only ones to fall in love with war

Before I swivel my, er, 'gun' in the direction of America, let me admit that we Brits too have a long and less than distinguished history of fighting unwinnable wars of which the American war of independence was merely one such example!  However, I was very impressed with an article by John C. Hulsman at the 'CAPX' site today.  In it, Mr. Hulsman points up the syndrum suffered by America in forever doubling down on "the losing gambler syndrome" when it comes to unneccessary wars.

The losing gambler syndrome, better known in economic circles as the sunk costs fallacy, is a fact of human nature that casino magnates well understand. When someone losses big at the tables, invariably they have an overwhelming urge to invest ever more resources to make good on their catastrophic losses. Dad cannot go back to Mom telling her he has lost the kids’ college fund. So he keeps playing…and keeps losing. The reason for his demise—the terrible odds—is never analytically addressed.

I saw this doleful process up close and personal in Washington. From Vietnam, through Iraq, to the endless war in Afghanistan, the propensity to keep strategically gambling even as the losses pile up is perhaps the single greatest intellectual error the United States has made in the past 50 years, and it largely explains all three debacles. Yet, tragically, in the increasingly lame excuses the military has presently made to stay in Afghanistan, the US seems to have learnt almost nothing from their trio of calamities.

It is a doleful read, and for me, as a former supporter of American efforts in Vietnam and in Iraq, especially embarrassing.  To be fair, I was doubtful about Afghanistan but that was based on our own less than successful efforts in previous centuries!

Anyway, I must take the 'Memsahib' to her weekly 'keep fit' class whilst I do some shopping.

 

 

 

The other political story that never goes away!

Yes, we can all agree that the Brexit yarn has gone on - and on - and on some more - but hopefully, on October 31st it will finally end.  Alas, the other main story that never appears to have an ending grinds on forever - the American election!  Within 24 hours of a nominee being elected the preliminary moves begin to find his replacement - and hey-ho, we're off to the races.  Well, it sells newspapers, I suppose.

Today, The Spectator has a piece on the subject over at The Coffee House by Daniel McCarthy who writes for the American edition.  He maintains that not only will Joe Biden fail to beat Trump, he won't even win the Dem nomination!  He reminds us that in the unlikely event that Joe actually did win, he would take office even older than when Ronald Reagan left it.  Sorry, 'Gramps', it's time for the slippers and the rockin' chair!

Mr. McCarthy reckons the real fight is between another 'oldie', Bernie Sanders, a sort of American 'Jezza' Corbyn; and 'Fauxcahontas' Warren, a born-again lying liar and a self-confessed cheat.  Beyond those two lies a seething mob of 'Leftie-loonies' with roughly three brain cells between the lot of them and disrespectful as I am to the GAP (Great American Public), I cannot see them voting in one of those loons even if 'Barney Magroo' supplied them with gallons of his hooch!

So, provided no pictures emerge of 'The Donald' smacking the bare bums of some teen-age gals in one of  Jeffrey Epstein's villas, then he should walk it next year.  Oh, and provided the international financial scenery does not collapse!

 

 

Ominous rumbles

And they have been rumbling for some time now and they seem to be getting louder, or at least, the 'meeja' are repeating them endlessly!  I refer, of course, to the increasing warnings of a global financial crisis.  Alas, international finance is way beyond my pay-grade, in fact my personal finances have always tottered from one crisis to another!

If a financial catastrophe does hit, the effects will be somewhat similar to a war.  There will be blood and damage but nobody can be sure where and in what quantity.  However, if it strikes the USA 'yuuuuugely' then for sure 'The Donald', being the man in, er, control, will surely suffer considerable collateral damage which, given that he faces an election next year could be electorally fatal.  Hitherto, I have been leaning on my belief that the G.A.P. - the Great American Public - could not vote in a Democrat President from the collection sub-normal loons offered up by the Democratic party!  However, a major slump, mass lay-offs and a financial crisis could spin that round in a few months.

Better watch out, Donald!

 

 

 

Epstein - suicide or murder - who cares?

Increasingly these days, as my patience wears down to microscopic levels, I simply allow my eyes to pick out key words from various headlines which, when spotted, automatically cause me to click on to the next story.  Such a 'key word' recently has been "Epstein", a man about whom I know nothing and care even less.  Alas, given the number of 'slebs' with whom he fraternised, his woeful tale over-runs with 'yuuuuuuuge' possibilities for a starving 'meeja' and they have descended into a frenzy of non-stop 'ifs, buts and maybes'.  The man himself appears to have been the dirtiest of 'dirty rats' and in all honesty his suicide/murder (you choose!) is the best possible outcome.  The only thing of which you can be fairly sure is that all those wild, and getting wilder by the day, stories of who exactly did what to whom and who watched and assisted should all be taken with a shovel full of salt.  Eventually 'truth will out' but will anyone care?

 

 

 

Arguably, the greatest and dumbest double-cross in history

I refer to the 'German/Soviet Non-Aggression Pact' of 80 years ago, on which subject, Mr. Victor Davis Hanson writes, succinctly and shrewdly, at the National Review.  It is perhaps the greatest example of a duplicitous double-cross that at the time was considered to be a total world disaster but which turned out in the end to be a world saviour!  It all seemed like a Grand Strategic master-stroke to the two villains concerned, Hitler and Stalin but, alas for them, it turned out to be the sort of "cunning plan" that Laurel and Hardy might have dreamt up!

Yes, it set Hitler free to concentrate all his efforts in swallowing western Europe and providing a free run for him to take out the British once and for all, helped, of course, by massive supplies sent to him by his "new best friend", Joe Stalin!  At the time, the only grit in the deal was that the Japs, who had been attacking Russia confident that Stalin would have to keep his army facing West, suddenly realised that Hitler had dropped them in it and that their assaults on Eastern Russia would have to be scaled back as the massive Russian army was left free to manouvre.  As 'VDH' puts it:

Japan quickly withdrew from its losing Russian war. In time it signed its own non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, in April 1941 — ironically, just months before Hitler’s planned Operation Barbarossa, the massive invasion of Russia.

Simply too, too delicious!  Instead, the silly 'Ninjas' went south and attacked America - BIG MISTAKE!

The only lesson to be learned, I suppose, is that these rough, tough, allegedly crafty dictators steeped in the arts of real-politik, are actually just as dim, if not dimmer, than the democratic dimwits we elect to office!

 

 

The spirit of Auberon Waugh lives on, er, in David Cole, actually

The other day I mentioned David Cole, a resident scribbler at Taki's Mag, because not only was he exceedingly funny but he was also uncomfortably accurate.  As Waugh did 'back in the day', he can take a fundamentally serious subject and by applying the driest of dry humour to some common-sensical observations, reset your focus on sundry 'shlock-horror' stories driving the 'meeja' to hysteria.

Here are his opening paragraphs on a column addressing the problems of mass shootings 'over there':

What does a Japanese lesbian jumping into a volcano have to do with American mass shooters? I thought you’d never ask! Mount Mihara is an active volcano that sits on the island of Oshima, off the coast of Tokyo. For centuries, Mihara has been an exotic destination for suicidal Japs who believe that by jumping into the volcano their body will be vaporized by the intense heat, thus speeding the soul toward its heathen Nip afterlife. Mihara suicides have always been a thing, but an infrequent thing.

Then came February 11, 1933. Kiyoko Matsumoto, a 21-year-old student, had fallen in love with a female classmate. Seeing no future for her and her resbian rover, Matsumoto, after penning a heart-wrenching farewell note to her beloved, ended it all by diving into Mihara’s gaping mouth.

And a legend was born.

'Gotta just lurve' that phrase "her resbian rover"!  His penultimate paragraph more or less says it all;

For once, the news isn’t actually that grim. Opinion journalists [like bloggers!] will always inflate a problem to justify the need for their wise words of advice. But in this instance, ignore the opinion a-holes. They’re as full of hot air as a suicide volcano.

Quite so!

 

 

 

I do NOT under any circs wish to meet the Clintons!

Apart from the fact that everything about them indicates that they are deeply unpleasant people, what would worry me most is the extra-ordinary number of people acquainted with them who - ended up dead!  According to the Gateway Pundit site as reported via Zero Hedge, either in mysterious circumstances or by suicide, some 47 people, all connected to the Clinton 'family', are no longer with us!  And now, you can add the late, and definitely NOT very great, Jeffrey Epstein to the list.  He, of course, committed suicide - no really! - honestly! - in a high security prison just days after his first failed attempt, despite being under suicide watch by the authorities - HOODATHUNKIT?

Anyway, thanks, darling Hillary and you, too, good ol' Bill for the invitation but Mr. Duff regrets he will be unable to dine tonight!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 11.8.19

Plenty to bore about rumble about today!

The Epstein saga:   This is going to run and run and being an American scandal it will be 'yuuuuuuge'!  To be honest, I am already losing such minimal interest as I ever had but 'still 'n' all' there will be much fun to be had watching various well known faces turning scarlet!

 

Gauke the Dork:   I refer, of course, to that ineffably pompous prat, David Gauke MP.  Happily, 'Boing-Boing' pulled the trigger on him within days of taking over in No.10 but he had been Justice Minister and Lord Chancellor.  It was in that capacity he reprimanded a judge who had told a grossly fat, persistent offender to lose weight and get a job. As Mr. Peter Hitchens puts it in The Mail:

At first glance, the thing is just ridiculous. You think that at some point you will wake up in the midst of this nonsense, and grown-ups will return, from wherever they have been hiding, to restore the country to sanity. But they don’t. The one thing you can be sure of in this country now is that the state, where it possibly can be, will be against common sense.

 

'Boing-Boing' bangs the gavel:   And yet more good news!  At last we seem to have a Prime Minister determined to toughen up the criminal (non)justice system under which sundry malefactors are sentenced to 'yuuuuuge', long prison terms - and are then let out after a few months with a bag of sweeties and a message from the prison governor telling them to behave!  According to reports, 'Boing-Boing' is determined to have honest sentencing which is enforced and prison regimes which are strict and uncomfortable.  He had better get on with it because behind him, slapping her truncheon into the palm of her hand, stands Priti Patel, the new Home Secretary who has similar views and will brook no softness!

 

Better watch out, the 'Cummings' is coming!   Oh, how I wish I could be a fly on the wall inside No.10 and observe the howls of anguish as the 'Cummings Tornado' rip-roars through the hitherto comfortable, cosy establishment of quill-dippers.  I know little of the man except for his tremendous efforts in helping the country to win the Brexit referendum.  According to all the reports, Dominic Cummings appears to be a single-minded maniac but happily, very happily in my opinion, his maniacal energies are all directed at the slothful and mostly useless civil service to ensure that from now on all of them are concentrated 24/7 on driving through Brexit.  Go, Dom, go!

 

America, if you want your constitution, you can have your constitution:   Just don't send it over here!  Thus, speaks - or rather writes - 'MDJ', My Darling Janet (Daley) who will be, of course, the proto-mother of my children - if and when she ever gets round to answering my summons!  In the meantime, she has a fascinating article in The Telegraph pointing out the flaws and problems with the American constitution.

The Second Amendment to the US Constitution was devised to protect the new-found states against the danger of a coup by federal government which was seen as a form of proxy for the old colonial ruler. It guaranteed the right of the states to form militias and, as a necessary corollary, of the people to bear arms. It is an almost perfect example of the danger embodied in a written constitution – which is to say, it froze the historic concerns of the time in which it was written, into the unforeseeable future. [My emphasis]

Dammit, she is an exceedingly shrewd lady.

 

Best photo of the year!   A really good news photo is one which tells its own story as clearly as a written report.  Thanks to The Mail on Sunday:

 

Poor old 'Phil the Pill' Hammond as pictured on the Underground with his cases as he finally vacates No.11 Downing Street two weeks after he was given the push!  What can one say except - ohdearwhatapitynevermind!

 

Let's hear it for the 'extras'!  Yes, all those (sort of) faceless men and women who people the background to so many films, for example, the British born Mr. Robert G. Haines (1894 - 1961) in their role as 'extras'.  As an exceedingly amateur amateur actor myself, I have a sort of fellow feeling for them.  In a (sort of) interesting article at the Los Angeles Review of Books there is an article on Mr. Haines' career in which the sheer number of famous movies in which he appeared is quite incredible.  Most of his 'work' barely lasted more than a day but he never stopped working.  Good for him - and the rest of the unsung heroes!

 

The, er, Charter for a National Government:   Mr. Charles Moore is a well known 'naughty boy' which is only right, fitting and proper for an ex-editor of The Spectator.  So, very naughtily, he suggests a manifesto for the Remainer Faction, led by Kenneth Clarke, who are striving by all means possible to undo Brexit:

“We’re against the referendum. We’re against the result of the referendum and against the promise we MPs made to implement it. We don’t agree with the 17.4 million people who voted Leave and we don’t think that the biggest vote for anything in our history should be respected. Parliament, including many of us, voted for Article 50 and for the Withdrawal Act, which ensure that we leave if no deal is made; but we’re against them all the same. Unite!

“We want a second referendum – except some of us, including me, don’t. We want to leave the EU with a deal – except that some of us, including me – don’t want to leave at all. We think this Parliament would vote for a deal – except that most of us threw out Mrs May’s one three times by huge majorities. Unite!

“The Conservative Party has just voted heavily among both its MPs and its members for Boris Johnson to be leader. We’re against that. Jeremy Corbyn has twice been elected Labour leader, but we’re against that too. And by the way, we’re against the promises made by both the main parties at the general election to ensure Brexit – or at least I am. Unite!”

Couldn't have put it better myself!

 

Must stop now, I have a book to read:   Hitherto, I have never thought of John le Carré as a humourist although the title of his book that I am reading is "Our Kind of Traitor" and that drips with dry, sardonic humour!  I picked it up from the church fete a couple of weeks ago and it is a corker!  Packed full of the sort of odd-ball eccentrics you would expect to find inside MI6!

 

 

No more rumbles

 

 

'Taki' is "a very naughty boy" but so is David Cole/Stein!

Yes, yes, I know, yet another incomprehensible heading to one of my posts!  Let me explain - as best I can.  'Taki', of course, as you would know if you read The Spectator, is the Greek playboy "Taki" Theodoracopulos and also the proprietor of 'Taki's Mag', a magazine of, shall we say, idiosyncratic views which is why, possibly, he employs Mr. David Cole/Stein:

David Cole, the “Jewish Holocaust Revisionist,” spent the past eighteen years as David Stein the “Republican Party Animal,” working with GOP higher-ups and blogging for major conservative sites. His “outing” provided many examples of cringe-inducing humor, detailed in his book “Republican Party Animal.”

I will leave it to you, dear Reader, to investigate Mr. Cole/Stein's, er, interesting background and come to your own conclusions but on the subject of Baltimore and the idea of some do-gooding lady called Dana Loesch to organise a voluntary collection of the filth and faeces that litter the streets, he is, to say the least, acerbic:

Neighborhood cleanups have been tried, Dana baby, and the trash came back. The Pigpens of Baltimore don’t need to “see” individuals in action. They’ve seen it, and it has failed to move them. They don’t need the bwana to come in and do a Mary Poppins on the place. Baltimore would be clean if not for the fact that it’s top-heavy with folks who know exactly what trash is, and who are fine living knee-deep in it. It’s not that all Baltimore residents have such lax standards; it’s that too many do for those who don’t to make a difference.

Blimey!  

He then goes on to put the boot - and the baseball bat! - into one of my heroes, David Simon, creator, producer, and co-writer of the critically acclaimed HBO series The Wire and the Baltimore-set NBC crime series Homicide: Life on the Street, about which I have bored before.  Although Mr. Cole/Stein is a great admirer of Mr. Simon's creations, he takes no prisoners:

Simon is a hate-filled psycho. To him, Trump is Hitler, you’re Hitler, I’m Hitler, my cat is Hitler, even that stubborn pistachio you can never open, the one that rips up your nails and tastes terrible to boot, is Hitler. Politically, Simon’s a basket case. I wish I could hate him, but, in true Bobby Fischer fashion, he’s so brilliant at his profession, you almost have to overlook the insanity.

Needless to say, during that whole “Trump vs. Baltimore” WWE match last week, Simon was on the front lines, slamming Trump as an evil racist for calling attention to Baltimore’s ills…which Simon himself has been doing for his entire adult life. Of course, his Twitter feed blew up with people calling him a hypocrite, and Simon, in standard form, was way too angry and unreasonable to provide responses that went beyond “Suck my dick—blocked.”

Goodness me!  I have seen some sharp differences of opinion in the columns of 'Her Majesty's Daily Telegraph' but nothing so 'down and dirty' as that!  Mind you, they do things somewhat differently 'over there' and to be honest I find it rather refreshing when it is as brilliantly written as Mr. Cole/Stein's effort.  Not, I hasten to say, that I agree with everything he says but he writes it superbly!

 

 

If you're feeling cheerful, buddy, do not read this!

Grim reading from a site called 'American Greatness' which reckons that if matters continue in the same direction 'over there', then it might have to rename itself as 'American Disaster'!  It is not really necessary for me to stress that I am totally unqualified to judge the political possibilities and probabilities 'over there' but what I can say is that it confirms some of my worst fears.

"Saying hateful things about one’s opponents is a time-tested way of stoking supporters’ enthusiasm, of building support for one’s own side. But when blood is spilled, someone, then everyone else, tends to use it as a pretext for inciting more violence. That’s the meaning of blood-feud."

It seems to me, from 'over here', that the language in use these days is as hateful, or to be precise, full of hate, as anything I have heard before.  When violent language becomes acceptable, it cannot be long before violence, itself, becomes acceptable, and one thing is for sure, there is more than enough means to hand for violence to be executed!

The story of the contemporary American Left’s sponsorship of hate and violence begins around 1964, when the Democratic Party chose to abandon the Southern constituencies that had been its mainstay since the time of Jefferson and Jackson. In less than a decade, the party found itself increasingly dependent on gaining super-majorities among blacks, upscale liberals, and constituencies of resentment in general—and hence on stoking their hate.

For the past half century, America’s political history has been driven by the Democratic Party’s effort to fire up these constituencies by denigrating the rest of America. As elements of cynical calculation melded into self-images of righteous entitlement to rule inferiors, the boundaries between the party and the constituencies’ most radical parts have eroded.

I would add that the methodology of the Democrat party applied in the very many cities they control absolutely, in which they maintain Third World standards for their citizens in order to help them build a burgeoning revolutionary army which, eventually they hope, will erupt into a civil war against anyone and everyone who is white and reasonably prosperous.  For an example, look no further than the despicable Elijah Cummings, the 'Tzar' of decrepit Baltimore.  How long before he, and others, "Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war"?

There was a time when the Democrat party had a crust of sensible and civilised leaders who were aware of their national civic duty as well as their political desires.  Not any more and you need only glance at the collection of frantic, 'wannabe' revolutionaries preaching and screetching to win the Democrat nomination, to fear the worst!

"But since the ruling class’s condemnations of conservatives as racists, environmental criminals, and would-be terrorists are becoming well-nigh universal, the probability of deadly attacks on conservatives, of intolerable convictions or absolutions, and assassinations, rises to certainty. So does corresponding demand for protection and revenge.

For once, I genuinely hope that I am totally wrong.  Convince me that I am!

 

 

In which my thievery reaches epic proportions

As regular readers will know, I am prone to the habit of filching the occasional commentary of wiser men than me - and that is a fairly 'yuuuuuuuuge' number of people!  I had intended to tap out a few thoughts and observations on the current India vs. Pakistan match which is very definitely not a cricket match!  Alas, in thinking about it I realised that I know next to sweet F.A. about the history and the current situation in Kashmir except that, I suspect, 'there will be blood'!  At a loss, I clicked on to an article at The Coffee House written by Mr. Dominic Green who is Life & Arts Editor of Spectator USA.  It is on the subject of President Trump and it provides, for a change, a rather different view of the man.  I will not attempt to paraphrase it, instead I will 'nick' the whole damn thing and you can read it at leisure.  It is headed:

Donald Trump is the best prime minister Britain never had
The orange man succeeds where the mandarins failed

["Oh very witty, Wilde!"]

Britain has never had a better friend in the White House than Donald Trump. FDR may have bailed out Britain in its struggle against German imperialism, but the bailout carried the highest possible price: the surrender of Britain’s empire, and loans that weren’t paid off until 2006. By contrast, Trump asks for nothing that Britain isn’t already asking for: economic and political support as it escapes from the latter-day German imperialism of the European Union. And Trump is giving Britain much more.

By omission as much as commission, Trump is cleaning up the messes that Britain left behind as it lost its empire. The British tell themselves that they had no choice to drop their imperial obligations after 1945, that they were bankrupt in victory and the Americans didn’t like empires. This isn’t the full story. In truth, the British had been behaving shabbily in the Three I’s — Ireland, India and Israel — long before they were bankrupt, and with bloody consequences for the locals.

At the imperial apogee of late nineteenth century, British governments were incapable of managing Irish nationalism. In the 1920s and 1930s, British governments carved up Ireland, promised the Promised Land to both Jews and Arabs, and offset Hindu nationalists in India by supporting Muslim ones. In 1947, Britain’s Labour government, committed to what we now call ‘nation-building at home’, ditched India and the Palestine Mandate in shameful and cynical haste.

The partition of India caused the biggest refugee crisis in history, a death toll estimated between several hundred thousand and two million and, in time, a nuclear stand-off over Jammu and Kashmir. The failed partition of the Palestine Mandate caused the destruction of much of Arab society in the Mandate, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Arabs from Jewish territory and Jews from their ancient homes in Arab states, and a series of wars that culminated in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 with threats of nuclear war from the Arabs’ patron, the Soviet Union. As for Ireland, that too came home to roost in the form of Irish nationalist terrorism in the UK and, more recently, Theresa May’s minority government being held hostage over Brexit by its Irish Protestant partners.

For more than seven decades, British prime ministers and the suave mediocrities of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office — the heirs to the perpetrators of this blood-soaked diplomatic folly — have inserted themselves into these postcolonial disaster zones but failed to alleviate tensions between India and Pakistan or Israel and the Arabs. Worse, they have exacerbated these situations, by pandering to the Arabs for oil and defence sales and to Pakistan as a cheap way of keeping a toehold in Central Asia, and by sneering at the Israelis for being pushy Jews. The mandarins did no better in Ireland, either: the Troubles ended because Bill Clinton told the parties to stop fighting.

The solution that Britain’s clever civil servants and cunning politicians offered as the answer to their post-imperial poverty was to merge Britain into the floundering undemocratic monstrosity that became the European Union. This has turned out to be the sourest of cherries on the bitter cake of strategic failure, because it turned out that the British public doesn’t want to subordinate Britain to the EU.

Compare this record of failure by British politicians and administrators to what Donald Trump has done for Britain, and is willing to do. By the simple expedient of not wishing to be taken for a fool, and by recognising reality over dogma, he has unknotted the frozen politics of the Three I’s, and made it possible for each to move towards the resolutions that the Foreign & Commonwealth Office or, for that matter, the State Department, have failed to obtain. The orange man is succeeding where the mandarin men failed.

Instead of being played for a fool by the failed state of Pakistan and failed non-state of Palestine — both of them foully hostile to Western interests — Trump has stepped back, and allowed the successful and pro-Western states of India and Israel to begin the work of resolving the unfinished business of the Palestine Mandate and the Partition of India. The Indians are never going to relinquish Kashmir, and the Israelis are never going to leave Jerusalem or Beit El or, given the way the neighbourhood is going, the Golan Heights or the Jordan Valley. Instead of meddling and giving money to terrorists, Trump is allowing the political gravity of the last seven decades to work itself out.

Trump supports Brexit, and is apparently still offering a temporary free-trade deal despite the insult of Theresa May rejecting it the first time he offered it. Once the outlines of Brexit are clear, Northern Ireland, which voted against Brexit, can hold the referendum on its future status that was included in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. The Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland can finally decide whether they want to stay in the UK, which is a major economy with nuclear weapons, a seat on the UN Security Council, and unparalleled post-imperial links to the economies of Asia; or to join the Irish republic, a feeble and distant province of the EU whose economic future is as a kind of Cayman Islands, a tax haven and back office for American corporations. Trump, by pushing for Brexit, is pushing for resolution in Ireland, one way or the other.

All over the world, Trump is doing for Britain almost overnight what Britain’s leaders have failed to do for decades. He’s finally clearing up the shameful mess that Britain left when it welched on its imperial responsibilities, and he’s doing it for free. Instead of snobbishly deriding him, the British should thank the orange man for freeing them from their destructive relationships with the Orangemen in Northern Ireland, and the police-state Islamists of Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority.

The obvious way to thank Trump won’t cost Britain much either. The City of London is already full of crass monuments to greed. One more won’t hurt. Let him build a nice golden Trump Tower in central London, and a Trump Hotel too. If Brexit works out, the government should consider putting a statue of Trump onto the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square, so that the heroes of empire will be joined by the man who cleared up after them. It’s the least Britain can do to thank the best prime minister the British have never had.

Dominic Green is Life & Arts Editor of Spectator USA.

The Sunday Rumble: 4.8.19

Yesterday I lost a friend!   No, no, not a real one, an imaginary one.  I refer to "Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov, recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt", the witty, urbane and exceedingly honourable hero of the most excellent novel I have ever read in my 80 years!  Yes, alas and alack, yesterday I reached the final page of "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles.  I truly am at a loss for words to describe this literally enchanting tale.  Equally, I am unable to summarise my admiration for Mr. Towles' enormous learning and wisdom.  Not the least of my difficulties is in thanking him - in advance - for nudging me back to the writings of Montaigne, which I did sample some years ago but failed to follow up despite my admiration for them.  Stand-by, Kindle, my next purchase is on its way!

 

Do get a grip, America!   One massacre is bad enough but two in a single day is outrageous!  Yes, I know it's a rough-tough country and ordinary folks are entitled to possess a handgun at home just in case but these mass slaughters are way over the limit.  Who, in a normal environment, needs a sub-machine gun?  They should be banned and any subsequent 'perps' illegally owning such a weapon should be sentenced to a minimum 30-years!

 

Meanwhile, 'over here' . . .   These constant knife outrages need to be stamped upon!  'Stop 'n' Search' tactics should be enforced and any malefactors jailed for a hefty term.  Of course, that will require the 'Plod' to get out of their comfortable, warm cars and start walking the streets - "the horror, oh, the horror"!

 

Dammit, my ex-best friend, 'Rupe', owes me!   I used to be a Sky TV customer but as 'Rupe' upped the charges I exited in a huff!  These days he has all the rights to F1 racing so I can't watch my favourite sport live.  Today's race sounds like an absolute corker and confirms that (Sir) Lewis Hamilton is up there with the greatest!  

 

Crikey!  That Dominic Cummings is something!   Although, to be honest, I am not sure what sort of a 'something' he actually is!  Here are some quotes from a brief article over at The Coffee House:

‘the senior civil service now operates like a protected caste to preserve its power and privileges regardless of who the ignorant plebs vote for.’

Well, yes, I'd say that about sums it up!  He is absolutely confident that if a second referendum occurred the Brexiteers would win easily:

‘Remember: we won last time even though the Establishment had every force with power and money on their side. They screwed it up because they do not have good models of effective action: they literally do not know what they are doing, as they have demonstrated to the world in the farcical negotiations. They are screwing up their attempt to cancel the referendum. Beating them again and by more will be easier than 2016.’

And as for the ERG Group, hitherto the main Brexiteers inside the Tory party of whom you would think Cummings would have a soft spot - no way:

"the narcissist-delusional subset of the ERG who have spent the last three years scrambling for the 8.10 Today slot while spouting gibberish about trade and the law across SW1".

Blimey, with him at one end of No.10 and Boris at the other, we should look forward to 'interesting times'!

 

Worth a chuckle:   I am grateful, yet again, to the old grump who runs the 'I Hate The Media'  site for reporting the fact that the yuuuuuuge, fat crook, Elijah Cummings who represents the downtrodden people of Baltimore, which Cummings insists in a paradise, has had his house burgled!

 

When will I learn to stop moaning?   As I did a few weeks back when I complained about the state of boring-snoring F1 Grand Prix racing which seemed to have turned into a 'follow my leader' game.  Well, today's race, of which I was able to view a recording, was absolutely everything an F1 race should be with wheel to wheel contests all round the track in Hungary.  Needless to say, (Sir) Lewis reeled in the brilliant Dutch lad, Verstappen, and won a terrific race.

 

Spare a thought for the people of Whaley Bridge:  As they wait in increasing tension for a blast of warning sirens if the authorities believe the crumbling dam which dominates their town is about to collapse!  I know those most at risk have been evacuated but there could be immense collateral damage.

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

 

If you can, Boris, pick your moment carefully!

Just remember that, as in sex and drumming, timing is everything!  So, the timing of the next election will be crucial.  Even so, of course, given your thinnest of ultra thin majorities, er, one, actually, the choice may well not be yours.  There's not much you can do about that so you are absolutely right to start campaigning now, er, without actually admitting it, of course.  Keep on bouncing round the country, north, east, south and west, cheering up 'the Peeps', enthusing them if necessary by promising them anything and everything, remaining (not in the European sense, of course!) totally cheerful and enthusiastic.  If you manage to hang on until after October 31st and we actually manage to escape from 'Stalag Luft 27', then it might be an idea to call a quick election before the 'brown stuff' really hits the fan!  Brexit will be probably be messy and painful, although most of it will be due to the contrariness of our European enemies neighbours, or to be precise, their fat, bloated leaders.

The other consideration you should be aware of is the difficulties likely to arise from the supposed 'American trade deal'.  The last time we found ourselves isolated from Europe the Americans offered us 'Lend-Lease' and 'yuuuuuge' loans.  It was an exceedingly tough deal which helped the decline and fall of the British empire and left us in hock for decades.  You should not expect 'The Donald' to be any more generous than Roosevelt was 'back in the day' particularly in view of the fact that the Americans have nothing like the imperative to assist us now as they did then when they wanted to maintain an 'aircraft carrier' off the shores of Europe!

Even so, the absolute priority remains the same - just get us out of the clutches of the EU apparat on October 31st which will henceforth be known and celebrated as 'BOING-BOING DAY'.

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 28.7.19

This is better than "Downton Abbey":   As regular readers will have gathered over the years, I am not much of a one for dwelling on high society and its 'goings on', however, this story in The Mail had me chortling 'n' chuckling.  To give you the flavour, this is a copy of the reply sent by Lady Carolyn Seymore, aunt, to the wedding invitation from her beloved (not!) nephew, William, Earl of Yarmouth, on the occasion of his wedding:

I'd take that as a 'No', m' Lord!  Read the whole thing, it's hilarious!  By the way, they are repeating the "Downton Abbey" series on TV and I had forgotten how brilliantly written and produced they were.  The 'Memsahib' has requested a box-set of the videos.  Yes, m' Lady, immediately!

 

So who, exactly, is this Amor Towles?   I don't know but I think I should be told!  He has a wiki entry but to call it minimal would be an exaggeration!  He is, of course, the author of "A Gentleman in Moscow" about which I tipped y'all off a couple of weeks ago.  I was bowled over by the opening pages which I kindly and generously typed out for you - no, no, don't thank me, just the usual 'folding stuff' in a plain brown envelope!  I have progressed since then but somewhat slowly due to the heat wave we have all suffered - dammit! we don't 'do' heatwaves in 'Zummerzet'.  Even so, as I press onward I am truly impressed with the elegance and the wisdom of Mr. Towles' composition.  He is both witty and wise and, dammit, exceedingly erudite, and he has created a truly imaginative setting in Moscow circa 1922.  My only worry is that having created a gallery of immensely attractive characters, given the time and the place, I fear for their future.  I would say that this is a truly great work of literature.  Do yourselves a favour and beg, borrow or steal a copy!

 

Sort of 'Good News':   I am more than a tad worried about Boris' promise to spend money like a drunken sailor, however, the 'Good News' might be that if 'Jezza' and his apparat ever win an election there will be no money in the till and the lenders will have fled!

 

Peter Hitchens owns up:   Feeling a bit more cheerful after 'Boing-Boing's ascendency, were you?  Well, I was but Peter 'Jeremiah' Hitchens soon put a stop to that in his opening sentence:

I am a Doomster and a Gloomster, and proud of it. I am always suspicious of anyone, in politics or business, who demands permanent optimism and treats doubt as disloyalty.

Well, yes, you're right as usual, Peter, but just for once try and get over yourself and rejoice that the 'Maybot' is no more!

 

That "damned Hun" did well!   I am frequently rather rude about Sebastian Vettel but only because he is a rival to (Sir) Lewis Hamilton.  I haven't seen the race yet but I gather that there were lots of 'thrills and spills' but Vettel drove brilliantly which is unsurprising because he really is an excellent driver.  Alas, (Sir) Lewis was nowhere - something to do with dodgy weather at the Hockenheim circuit.  Incidentally, I don't know whether I have told you this before but I actualy hold the circuit record at Hockenheim.  No, no, not in an F1 racing car but in a Ford Transit van with a trailer on the back!  I was there in my capacity as publicity man for Yardley cosmetics who backed the old BRM team.  I sneaked onto the track before the race and did a circuit to show off the Yardley Cosmetics logos.  People still speak of it in hushed tones, er, well, I do!

 

Gotta hand it to 'The Donald'!   As regular readers know, I am an expert on life in Baltimore having been a dedicated viewer of "Homicide: Life on the Street" and all the series of "The Wire"!  Thus, given that Baltimore is a 'fester-pit' and run by crooks, it was a brilliant move on Trump's part to give that ghastly Baltimore politician, Elijah Cummings, what we would call over here 'a Glesgie kiss' - my e-pal, Jimmy Glesga, will provide a full explanation.  Suffice to say, that it was a master tactic for him to shine his 'twitter light' on Cumming's own disgusting backyard.  Far from being racist, I suspect that quite a number of black residents will be cheering Donald on.

 

I am a forgetful nitwit!   Beneath my desk sits a mysterious black box within which all sorts of 'whizzyd0' things happen to make my computer work.  Right at the top is a CD player which I know perfectly well because once upon a time I used it.  Then I forgot!  The other day, I rediscovered it and stuck in a selection of the late and very great George Gershwin.  Even for a wordy fellow like me, I cannot find the words to describe the absolute pleasure I get from his music.  Since then, I have given Ella Fitzgerald and Benny Goodman a go.  I tell you, there is no better way to start your day!

 

"Measure for Measure":   Just a tip off for my Brit readers but next Wednesday evening my local Cineworld Complex is showing a filmed production of "Measure for Measure" from the RSC.  One of old Bill's best, featuring a crooked, sex-maniac lawyer, a lovely Nun, and a totally dim-witted Duke.  Easy to follow and understand but, as always with old Bill, full of subtlety.  Check up, it may be on in your town.

 

 

 

No more rumbles

 

 

Let's hear it for good, ol' RBG - no, really!

I can't believe I actually wrote that title above!  For those like me with only the shreds of knowledge on matters American, let me explain that in "RBG" I am referring to 'Herronnor' Ruth Bader Ginsberg, an 86 year old Justice who sits on the Supreme Court of the United States.  Let me begin with an abject apology, alas and alack, I have on some occasions wished that the old lady would drop off her perch and thus offer up yet another empty seat for 'The Donald' to fill.  I have nothing against her personally, it's just that she appears to be a hopeless old 'Lefty' of the crankiest kind!

Well that shows me up for the ignoramus that I am because I have just read her kind remarks concerning her latest colleague on the Supreme Court bench, Justice Kavanaugh who, according to the hysterical Leftie 'meeja' is somewhere to the Right of Genghis Khan!  True, back in the day, she was a tad rude about 'The Donald' but, hell, everyone's rude about him - nearly as rude as he is to everyone else!  However, more important is the fact that she has given some of the madder Democrats a severe 'talking to' over their idea that when in power they should increase the number of Supreme Court judges from nine to fifteen.  Of course, that would be with the aim of packing the Court with Democrats.  

'Herronnor' will have none of it!  Nine is the traditional figure and nine should remain the maximum.  Dammit, she has turned out to be a genuine, small-c conservative.  Well done, Ma'am, and may you, so to speak, 'rule' for a good many years to come!

 

 

The Democratic Party couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery!

Fit for government? You must be joking! The ability of the Dems to get almost everything totally and hopelessly wrong is making 'Big Don' look like a cross between Talleyrand and Bismarck!  For example, they made a 'yuuuuuuge' effort to embroil Trump's pick for the Supreme Court in a rape scenario.  Big Fail!  The accuser was obviously a born-again lying-liar but the dim-dumb-Dems fell for her pack of lies and made complete fools of themselves.

Then they invested enormous amounts of political capital into proving that Trump only won the election with Russian assistance.  Like one of my old second-hand cars from back in the day, it set off with a roar but then gradually slowed to a complete halt with sundry bangs and clangs and a hiss of steam!  They thought that their arch-prosecutor-general, the 'Mighty Mueller', would stitch Trump up in a political body-bag and drop him in the Hudson.  Alas, his eagerly awaited report said nothing - zilch - nada!  And this week the great man was cross-examined by mostly Dem pols dribbling at the mouth for the chance to get 'The Truth'!  Apparently, according to reports in the media, the mighty Mueller came across like one of those old codgers you see sitting in the corner of an old folks' home constantly muttering to himself.

So that's two assassination attempts by the Dems and both ended up by stabbing themselves!  So, my American friends, what sort of a job do you think they will do in running America?

 

 

I say, thosed damned Yankees have stolen our Rudyard!

Stand by for yet another example of my appalling ignorance!  Some damned 'Yankee-doodle' has had the effrontery to steal our beloved Rudyard Kipling!  Honestly, the cheek of it!  I mean, Kipling is as English as, er, well, kippers and cups of tea.  Even so, some American literary swot is suggesting that 'our Rudyard' actually lived the most creative part of his literary life in, er, well, Brattleboro, Vermont, actually, and it was there that he wrote his famous poem "If" which was - wait for it! - a homage to George Washington!  'HOONOO'?

It gets even worse:

Although Kipling was a global celebrity, the Nobel Prize-winning author was intimately connected with the United States. “The White Man’s Burden,” in fact, was not meant as a hymn to the British Empire, but the emerging American one. Kipling, who had married an American woman and lived in Vermont, wrote the poem as “an explicit plea for the United States to adopt the Philippines as an American colony.”

At this point, deeply shocked, I was tempted to load my revolver and do the decent thing as decent British chaps did back in those days.  Happily, I recalled the wise admonishment of my old platoon sergeant who once told me that it was doubtful if I could hit a barn with a sub-machine gun - even if I was inside it!  Anyway, fortunately I read on and learned the good news that:

Ultimately, other political questions dampened Kipling’s attitude toward America. In 1895, an obscure dispute between the United States and England over their interests in South America forced Kipling to choose sides, and he chose Britain. A scandalous falling-out with his troubled American brother-in-law further complicated his life in the States. In 1896, he relocated to England.

Jolly good show, a 'pukka' fella that Kipling after all!

 

Baltimore Police Chief? 'You're 'avin' a laugh'!

I was shocked, I tell you, shocked by the news that the Deputy Head of the Baltimore Police had been mugged whilst walking with his wife in a park.  I, of course, am an expert on the Baltimore police service given that I watched avidly virtually every episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street".  This gave me an unparalleled, er, 'inside' view of the toughest, meanest cops - anywhere!  Alas, the report of the mugging included a photo of the hardman cop involved:

Baltimore Deputy Police Commissioner Daniel Murphy

Eh?  What?  Who?  He looks more like the lad who finished top of a sixth form class at 'skool'!  Somehow I can't quite see him standing over a villain with a cocked Colt .45 in his hand snarling, "Book him, Danno!"  Yes, yes, I know that was from a different series but you know what I mean!  Mind you, I bet he can write a really, really mean memo!  Oh dear, that's the problem with getting older, one by one my illusions are shattered!

 

 

HATE: Another of those tricky four-letter words!

I hate all this 'hate speech', don't you?  The phrase is bandied about by all and sundry but nobody ever attempts to define it.  It appears to be that anyone who objects to anyone else's political or social views and does so in written or spoken words is instantly - and I do mean 'instantly' - condemned for the use of 'hate speech'.  But then again, the preachers and praters who take instant offence almost always use 'hate speech' in return.  The practice has become so widespread that it is now totally boring!

And anyway, why is so-called 'hate speech' so dreadful?  People have always and forever hated certain other people.  Even I, the very epitome of a quiet, tolerant, easy-going Englishman - and I heard that! - sometimes express intense dislike - oh all right then, hate - of certain other people.  When I do so, I do not (usually) urge other people to do anything violent about it.  In the unlikely event that they ever would, it would surely be an indication of their mental vacuity not my powers of persuasion!

Just recently, the 'Big Donald' suggested to one of his more dim-witted and ludicrous political opponents that she might care to return to the green and pleasant land the sick, filthy, murderous hell-hole of her birth (Somalia, actually) since she appeared to find her adoptive country so awful.  This sensible suggestion was instantly classified as "hate speech" despite its accuracy and appropriateness.  This lady, apparently finds the USA to be abhorrent, especially so with the 'Big Donald' in charge.  Where is the "hate" in suggesting that she return to her birth country and do her best to help it out of its dire condition.  Of course, she might fall victim to rape and torture and eventual execution but surely that will be easier for her than living in 'Trumpland' which is full of, er, 'hate speech'!

 

 

 

Planned Parenthood suffers its own termination

Alas, not the entire organisation, just the 'Cutter-in-Chief', a certain Dr. (yes, a 'doctor' whose professional purpose should be to preserve life!) Leana Wen who, a mere eight months ago, was appointed head of Murder Inc, oops, sorry, I mean Planned Parenthood (PP).  To her slight, very slight, credit, according to Rich Lowry at the National Review, she indicated that she intended to shift the organisation more towards general health care rather than concentrating on killing babies.  Her termination was swift!

'PP' tries to sell the idea that killing babies is only a tiny part of its operations even if they amount to some 330,000 per year!  Happily, and 'The Donald' deserves some praise for it, their income from the government's 'Title X' financial support has been heavily restricted as far as abortions are concerned.  Whatever else 'The Donald' may or may not do during his 'reign' he deserves an enormous cheer for that!

 

 

Hey, 'goils', don't mess with 'The Don', he makes you look even more 'stoopid'!

There is an old saying, the exact words of which have disappeared down my memory hole - which is getting wider and deeper by the day! - to the effect that if you do something that does not work, then don't keep on doing it!  Someone should try telling that to the screeching quartet of black/brown, female, political dimwits who are leading the anti-Trump chorus of disapproval 'over there'.  Yes, he is crass but not as crass as those ultra-Leftist dimwits who keep falling for his trickery in which he rolls sundry political hand-grenades towards them which, instead of ignoring or dodging them, they then pick up and flourish to the crowd whilst screeching even louder.  Meanwhile, the GAP (the Great American Public) slowly begins to note their hysteria and increasingly Left-wing extremism.  Meanwhile, 'The Donald' sits back in his Presidential chair, smiles and strokes the big, fluffy, white cat on his lap!  (And that was "cat", not 'pussy'!)

If this continues and the 'ultras' on the extreme Left wing of the Democrat party allow themselves to be suckered into yet more and more hysteria then I think we can rest assured that 'The Donald', barring any truly serious allegations, will be a shoo-in for another Presidential term.  I am somewhat guided in these thoughts by my 'ex-Best Friend, Phil Carpenter, who in a fit of pique threw me off his blog site.  He is a dedicated Democrat supporter, in fact, back in the day, he was part of their election team.  By American standards he is a 'moderate' Leftie which is why I continue to follow him in order to gain an insight into that aspect of American politics.  Even so, even he throws moderation to the dogs when Trump upsets him, which is fairly often, but perhaps this is due in part to his increasing ill-health - which I hope he eventually overcomes.  In a post titled "How Not to Beat Trump", he takes the 'Shriek Quartet' to task for their inherent stupidity:

The Dems will never persuade Trump's base that he's a ghastly blight on America and the world. But swinging too far left in reaction is a superb way to also lose conservative and moderate Democratic voters, as well as independents. And that, gentle reader, is just plain dumb.

I agree but should make clear that I do not want Trump to be defeated because virtually all the Democrat 'wannabes' are even worse!

 

 

Ed Dwight Jnr. - 'hoonoo'?

There is an excellent history of the American space programme being broadcast over several evenings on BBC4.  Last night I watched two of the episodes and I was totally 'gob-smacked' to learn of the existence of Ed Dwight Jnr. of whom I had never heard before!  A commissioned officer and a trained test pilot, he was one amongst the very large intake of Air Force pilots chosen to compete for inclusion into the final astronaut training programme. 

He was not chosen!

No official reason appears to have been given but perhaps, I repeat, perhaps this photo provides a clue:

Yes, he was black and given the times it would be very easy to start screeching the never-ending lament of the extreme Left - raaaaaaacism!  Well, I will not do that until I find out more of the back ground.  According to Wiki, Capt. Dwight thought his exclusion was down to "colour politics" and shortly there-after he resigned.  He then went on a completely different path as a sculptor where he appeared to garner much success.  I am delighted to say that he is still alive at the ripe old age of 85.

Now, why can't Hollywood make a sensible and sensitive film about this man's life?

 

 

Whither India?

You will be much relieved to learn that this post of mine will be brief and to the point.  The reason is simple - I know next to nothing about India!  For me, if dear old 'Winnie' will forgive me, it remains "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma".  Not, I hasten to add, because it represents the sort of ominous, evil menace that was Soviet Russia and to which 'Winnie' was referring.  In fact, India is as open to inspection as any country on earth.  It is truly 'yuuuuuuuuge' and constantly bubbling with activities although I am not sure exactly what they are and where they are going.  What is important to me is India's sheer size not least because, situated as it is fairly close to China, I can't help feeling that "there may be troubles ahead"!

Of course, it lacks the disciplined power of the Chinese state but history indicates that the Indian people, 'zillions of them', are exceedingly proud and more than willing to fight for what they see as their rights.  An over-bearing China puffed with ambition might find India hard to swallow.  We, by which I mean 'the West', should do all we can to bolster India's strength.  I do hope 'The Donald' will recognise that and take a "softly, softly, catchee monkey" approach even though the Indian political caste are fairly reprehensible!  Dammit, they're no worse than the crooks in Chicago!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 14.7.19

Y'all need a really cold shower:   And, I must admit, that includes me!  Needless to say on a Sunday morning, nobody wields the hose-pipe with more deadly accuracy than Peter Hitchens in The Mail.  Today, dammit, his 'water' is freezing and his aim is spot on and reaches those parts that other commenters rarely hit!

 

Perhaps "Boing-Boing" has been allotted to the wrong politician:   I awarded it to Boris because of the opportunity to enjoy the alliteration and also because it indicates the impossibility of forecasting exactly how and in which direction he will bounce in any set of circumstances.  However, today we have a lady politician who, so to speak, 'bounces her own balls' in any direction she sees fit depending, I suspect, on how she assesses her own advancement up the greasy, Westminster pole.  I refer, of course, to Ms. Amber Rudd MP who has been pro-Boris, anti-Boris and is now pro-Boris again.  Mr. Dan Hodges, a keen observer, spells it out in his Sunday Mail column.  I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her and these days, alas, I don't think I could even lift her!

 

Sorry to bore on but . . .   My visitor stats have gone haywire - again!  Yesterday, they shot up to nearly a thousand and most of them seem to be hitting at random on posts from years ago.  Very peculiar!

 

By Jove, what a race!   And, of course, (Sir) Lewis romped home - again, his 80th Grand Prix win!

Of course, his, er, 'fashion' taste is ghastly but who cares - except when he goes before Her Maj to collect his 'K'!  To add to my pleasure, that damned Hun bashed into someone and was penalised.  More important than all of that, of course, was that the new Silverstone circuit offered up the chance for some real racing unlike the 'boring-snoring', follow-my-leader processions we have seen so far!

 

Iran - to war or not to war, that is the question!   I have been - sort of - following the American/Iranian contretemps but, alas, not closely enough to offer an informed opinion.  Of course, it is 'bleedin' obvious' that the Islamic loonies who run Iran are, and will forever be, a world menace.  The previous occupant of the White House decided to go 'softly-softly' in reaching his, er, 'deal'.  The fact that he was congenitally stupid and weak did not give one confidence in the end result.  The current occupant is a 'huffer 'n' puffer' with a tendency, as my dear old Mum used to put it, "to open his mouth and let his belly rumble!"  No one, and least of all him, knows what that will lead to.  The chances of an outright war between America and Iran are high and, following the Iraq war - another Republican idea! - that will go down like a plate of sick with the American public in the run up to a Presidential election.  Have a care, Mr. President!

 

I am exhausted!   Well, so would you be if you had spent all afternoon racing round Silverstone circuit, then watching the longest game of 'Plink-Plonk' ever in which that damned Serbian had the impertinence to beat our darling Roger who is, of course, an honorary Brit, and then, with one last effort, helping our brave Brit lads beat those damned Kiwis at cricket.  Pheeeew, how I keep up with it all is amazing but now I intend to take to my bed!

 

 

No more rumbles today

 

 

Brexit, like a hanging in the morning, should concentrate minds

Of course, my title above raises two instant comments.  First, I use the word "should" but, as the history of Brexit thus far proves, it is not a given!  Secondly, I used the word "minds" but so far there has been little or no indication from HMG that there are any minds available!  If 'Boing-Boing' has his way, and if the EU lives down to its petulant depths, then on 1st November we shall find ourselves all alone in the big, bad world.  Yes, I know we have been there before, many a time and oft, but even so, some deep thinking is urgently required.

For a start, we will need a friend and where better to look for one than 'over there'.  However, that will entail us doing a deal with 'The Donald' - yeeeeeeeeeees, quite!  Well, it could be worse, just imagine trying to cosy up to a deal with 'Xing Ping-a-ling' of China whose sole aim would be to swallow us whole!  Quite apart from the undoubted fact that the Chinese are determined to rule the world, they also have a long list of festering resentments arising from our earlier and disgusting imperial history with them.  Of course, there is always Australia and New Zealand but they are about as far away as it is possible to be from us.  So, it looks like without 'The Donald' we risk becoming an international 'Billy No-Mates'!

All that said, it does not mean that we have no cards to play with Washington.  We are up in the top 5 or 6 biggest economies in the world and we remain a nuclear power with the means to deliver them from basking submarines.  Also, we have a seat and a vote on the UN Security Council which, given that the USA is considered to be an international 'enemy of the people' by a 'yuuuuuuuuge' number of nations around the world, adds 'some lustre to our cluster'! So, methinks that 'The Donald', whilst he will wish to drive an exceedingly hard bargain with us, will nevertheless be careful not to drive us away.

A top priority for 'Boing-Boing' is to fill the now vacant Washington embassy with a political appointee, not one of those utterly useless, pontificating FO types who appear to be all suffering, not with serious 'group-think' tendencies but with 'group-grunt' fixations because, of course, in their eyes Trump would never have been let into Eton in a thousand years - lucky fella'!  Anyway, the 'never-quite-that special' relationship between us and US needs to be reset and recalibrated as a matter of considerable urgency.  Oddly enough, I suspect that 'Boing-Boing', with his own, er, eccentricities might be just the man to do it with 'The Donald'.

 

 

Donald, darling, calm down, he's only a diplomat!

Mr. President, allow me to refer you to the wise words of the late, although not very great, Sir Henry Wottan, 1568-1639 who said "An ambassador is an honest gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country."  Of course, it is not usual, but not unheard of, for an ambassador to go abroad and then lie to his own country!  In the case of Sir Kim (dim) Darroch I think we can all agree that he was not lying in the views he expressed back to London.  I am certain that he believed every word he wrote but that doesn't make them true or accurate.  As I am sure you, yourself, have discovered since entering the White House, all these, er, great offices of state have a kind of group think mentality which tends towards the lowest denominator in which it is difficult for any one man or woman to break ranks with the majority.

The fact is, Mr. President, you do possess a simply 'yuuuuuuuuuuuuge' ego which can lead you into saying things which other people find, at best, somewhat eccentric.  Alas, you cannot expect these other people to ignore the verbiage and concentrate on what you actually do!  Such close observation and reasoning is usually beyond them.  Also, of course, there is the constant pressure on a diplomat abroad to re-enforce the prevailing 'group think' back home.  To do otherwise would be to see your future prospects dim considerably, and intellectual courage is not something you would normally expect from Her Majesty's Office for Foreign Affairs which is why our nation's affairs go so badly wrong!

Anyway, Don, me old mate, just man up and realise that merely being 'Mr. President' does not make you a compilation of virtues.  If you doubt me, take a good, hard look at some of your predecessors! 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 7.7.19

Not frightfully diplomatic, Mr. Ambassador!   Apparently, Her Majesty's Ambassador to 'the court of King Donald' has opened his mouth and let his belly rumble although, to be fair, he was doing so confidentially to his 'boss' in London, Sir Mark Sedwill.  Personally, I wouldn't send my laundry list to that Europhile rat because it is surprising to see how often confidential docs leak to the press via his department.  As to what Mr. Ambassador said concerning 'King Donald', well, it's hardly news, is it?  Everyone knows that he is an exceedingly eccentric character whose mood depends on which side of the bed he errupts from each morning.  Even so, this constant leaking from Whitehall needs to be stopped and firing Sedwill would be a good start.  I hope you are reading this, 'Boing-Boing'!

 

'Go git 'em, boys'!   The "'em" I refer to are the exceedingly nasty Seamus Milne and Karie Murphy, bag and dagger carriers for the utterly despicable Jeremy Corbyn.  Happily, the knives are now out for them as increasing numbers of senior Labour party figures are determined to prise them out of 'Jezza's private office where they control his every move.  I don't know much about Ms. Murphy but Seamus Milne is, without doubt, the most despicable man in the corridors of power!  He is so far to the Left that that he makes Trotsky look like a decent chap!  Read Dan Hodges' column in The Mail for 'further and better particulars'.

 

Now, about this fox-hunting lark:  Poor old Jeremy Hunt put his riding boot in it last week when he suggested that he would like to make fox-hunting legal again.  Instantly, a flock of animal protection fascists supporters came out screaming their opposition and their determination to help the poor, little 'foxie-woxies'!  As for me, well, I am as torn up as the average fox is once the hounds catch them!  I hate killing animals for 'fun' but on the other hand there is nothing like seeing a pack of hounds trotting down the road - as they often did in the next village to mine - with what looked like a hundred tails a-wagging.  Equally, there was a time when on Boxing Day, I used to go over to another nearby village to see the local hunt go off and it was a magnificent sight.  Even so, the ending is usually exceedingly messy for the fox but, on the other hand, so is the ending of all the chickens and lambs that they kill and eat!  I remain pathetically neutral.

 

Are the Dems going bonkers?   I ask, hesitantly, because from 'over here' their list of candidates to run for the Presidency looks as though it could fill the Rose Bowl Stadium in California!  Who are all these people?  I follow American politics fairly closely for a foreigner but I have never head of 80% of them and those that I do know of include an old ege pensioner, a proven serial liar, a hopeless old Trot who makes 'Jezza' look like a Tory and sundry dim-witted adolescents who appear incapable of even telling us the time!  'The Don' might not be the brightest light on the Xmas tree but even he could see off that collection of 'no-hopers'! 

 

In case you are interested:   Which I very much doubt that you are but the other day I mentioned that my daily visitor stats, for no particular reason that I could fathom, suddenly doubled for two days.  Needless to say, that didn't last and I am back to the usual desultory 400 again.  Actually, that makes me feel more comfortable!

 

Thank God all that female football is over!   I should be honest and tell you that I lost most of my interest in male football some time ago so the chances of me becoming hooked on a ladies' version are minimal.  I cannot offer a proper criticism for the simple reason that I have never watched a match.  Somehow, I lacked the energy to press the required buttons on my 'do-flicker-thingie'! 

 

Two superb TV programmes on last night:   The first told the story of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.  Truly that was the greatest human achievement of all time!  Not just the courage of the astronauts but also the unbelievably immense concentration of brain-power that provided the ways and means.  I salute all those involved.  The second programme was a history of the British aviation industry from the end of WWII to the 1970s.  I felt part of all that, not because I took part because I was only an Air Cadet in the mid '50s but because I loved those "magnificent flying machines" and hero-worshipped all those test pilots who flew, and sometimes perished, in them. I was desperate to become an RAF pilot when I grew up but some bloody-bloody medic checked my eyes at school and told me I was red/green colour blind.  So instead of flying them, I ended up being thrown out of the back of them with a parachute.  "Life's a bitch - and then it rains!"

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

 

 

I cringe in embarrassment

How could I do it? Or rather, how could I not do it? I refer, of course, to the embarrassing fact, pointed out with some vigour by 'JK', that I failed to wish America a 'Happy Birthday' yesterday.  The reason, of course, is simple - yesterday I lunched not wisely but too well!  I did so at my absolutely favourite restaurant, Little Barwick House which some of you may remember I once described, in a fit of poetic adoration, as "the dog's bollocks painted gold!"  It is a charming, old building set in a delightful garden which is, happily, not too well disciplined!  I don't know about you but I am not too keen on gardens that look as they have been tended by an ex-RSM of the Guards!  They remind me, guiltily, of my own 0.004 acres which are best described as 'au natural'!

Anyway, the main thing is the 'grub' which is impeccable, imaginative and utterly delicious.  The front of house service is overseen by the lady of the house, Mrs. Emma Ford, who is delightful - and efficient!  Her husband, Tim, slaves away in the kitchen where he produces superb dishes which are both elegant and tasty.  Anyway, a few hours later I tottered out leaning on the 'Memsahib' and our friends drove us home.  The rest of the day, as they say, was a bit of a blur!  So, sorry America, but let me send you my belated birthday good wishes. 

Also, let me send my congratulations to 'Barney Magroo', Purveyor of Fine Wines and Spirits to the good folk of Arkansas from his eyrie 'up in them thar hills'!  A few days ago it was reported that the Jim Beam distillery had suffered a major fire so good ol' Barney has valiantly increased production to cater for the expected shortages - so no need to panic, 'JK'!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 23.6.19

Apologies and all that:   Yes, sorry about my going a.w.o.l. on Friday and most of Saturday.  No alarums or excursions, just a host of this, that and the other with an added dash of idleness - so no change there then!

 

When reality exceeds parody:   I refer to the less than delightful couple who live next door to 'Boing-Boing' Boris and who carefully recorded his domestic row before calling the police - and then reporting the whole thing to 'The Guardian'.  It turns out that they are both 'theatre people, darling', although neither of them seem to have, er, 'created' even a ripple of interest in that precious niche.  Needless to say, they are both 'Jezza'-worshipping Lefties which explains why their first port of call was to 'The Graun'.

I only republish their photograph just in case they ever become your neighbours - in which case I would urge you to sell up and move.  Mind you, as per usual, 'Boing-Boing' deserves the 'brown stuff' coming at him from all directions for being such a twerp - again!  For God's sake, man, eat your humble pie and go back to the 'missus' and try to concentrate on running the country!

 

The 'Quacks' are usually right:   Nobody is more sceptical of the 'Divine Right of Quacks' than me because, of course, they are merely human beings with all that that implies.  Even so, I always follow their instructions for the bleedingly obvious reason that they have the expertise that I totally lack.  Yes, of course, sometimes they get it wrong but on the whole, by and large, they get it more or less right.  If you doubt that proposition then let me ask you if, in the event of a faulty water-pipe in your bathroom flooding your house, would you call a carpenter or a plumber?  I raise the subject because of a story in The Telegraph today concerning the death by cancer of a 38-year old mother who resolutely refused the normal treatment and instead relied on:

"a vegan diet of mainly raw fruit and vegetables, supplemented with turmeric, seaweed and spells in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. She sought help at a clinic in Mexico, where therapies included placing her feet in a basin of water that supposedly drew toxins from her body."

You couldn't make it up but those scoundrels who propagate 'alternative' treatments do it all the time.  

 

I am in 'luuurve' with Condoleezza Rice:   Yes, to the best of my somewhat 'iffy' memory, she was a pretty sharp Sec. of State and was always an exceedingly attractive lady, so I enjoyed a good chuckle at her response to a black professor of English:

Condoleezza Rice was approached by a professor of English and asked to recommend a book by a black woman, to round out the racially and sexually sensitive curriculum. Rice said, “How about my The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army, 1948–1983?” 

Nice one, 'Condo', baby!

 

The same old, same old:   I know this will test the patience of my intelligent readers but, please, try and read this through to the end and then my summary:

The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot.

Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard of temperatures in the Arctic Zone. Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes.

Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed that the Gulf Stream was very warm. Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.

Very few seals and no white fish are found in the Eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring have never ventured so far north in the old seal hunting ground. Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will rise and make most coastal cities uninhabitable.

You must take this seriously because it was published in The Washington Post, no less, and several other distinguished newspapers.  The only teensy-weensy problem is that the publication took place in, er, 1922, actually! My thanks to Jack Helner at The American Thinker.

 

'Boring-snoring' but he won - again:   Yes, (Sir) Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory at the French Grand Prix most of which I napped through!  Still, what an incredible driver he is!

 

Trump's somersaults:   It is not necessarily 'a bad thing' for a POTUS to change his mind but when it is on a matter of war or peace then changing the Presidential mind 10 minutes before the first shot indicates a troubling lack of fore-thought and planning.  Thus it has been with the American/Iranian stand off and whilst I suspect that the decision of the President to holster his six-gun was right it was, in the words of a truly great General, "A fine run thing"! 

 

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

 

Will Trump lose in 2020?

Oh come on, you didn't really think I would answer that one without a dozen 'ifs, buts and maybes', did you?  Mind you, Mr. Jonah Goldberg, a distinguished and experienced Washington-watcher, is fairly definite.  Trump will probably lose for one simple reason, er, Trump himself!  The inescapable fact, constantly proven by the man himself, is that he is a total arse!  Of course, it must be admitted that the GAP (the Great American Public), just like the GBP (Great British Public), is absolutely jampacked with arses so his 'arse-like' propensities will be ignored by many.  Even so, after four years of honkin' 'n' hootin' 'n' tweetin', I fear that even the GAP will tyre of this former TV game show host - or at least, enough of them will to tip the game in the Dem direction.

That conclusion, of course, makes the current Dem parade of 'wannabe' Presidential candidates, roughly 387 at the last count, exceedingly important.  Most of them strike me as even more arse-like than Trump!  Even worse, most of their declared policies would constitute 'a clear and present danger' to the USA - which also means the rest of us!  So, please, Mr. President, just grow up, be statesman-like, keep your mouth shut and have your twitter finger surgically amputated!

 

 

 

Who would be a baker 'over there'?

I ask because it seems that the, er, 'LGBT' ( I am not absolutely sure what the correct initials are and, frankly, I can't be arsed to look then up) community are determined to put bakers out of business.  Not, apparently, because American cake-makers are crap but because several of then refuse to write loving sentences in favour of homosexual activities on their cakes.  If I were a baker, of course, I would take the money and give the, er, groom a kiss but that's because I 'luuuurve' money more than I dislike homosexual practices.  However, some bakers, particularly those in the rural hinterland of America, have strong religious objections and, whilst they would bake the cake, they refuse to adorn it with messages in praise of homosexual practices.  At that point, of course, the real 'dirty rats' enter the scene by which I mean the lawyers!  It appears that the lower courts, infused with political correctness, tend to act in favour of the complainants and dish out 'yuuuuuge' fines and damages which, thankfully, the Supreme Court tends to overturn.

I don't wish to be bogged down in the pros and cons of homosexuality which, by and large, is a subject of zero interest to me, but I am intrigued by the notion, which appears to be rampant these days, that we must, absolutely must, all 'luuuuurve' one another.  This appears to be something of a Left-wing 'schtick' but, of course, the Left-wingers always feel free to express not just their dislike of Right-wingers but their deep and abiding hatred of them.  Personally, I believe that people should be free to hate who they like (if you get my meaning!) but it is what they actually do about it that matters.

Now, about that Jeremy Corbyn . . .

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 16.6.19

Thank you - again - Mr. Hitchens:   There is not a better way to start a Sunday than with a dose of Hitchens!  Er, that's Peter, of course, not his late brother about whom I know very little.  Anyway, Peter's column in The Mail on Sunday is almost the equivalent of my regular glass of cold orange juice every morning, it clears the tubes, so to speak.  Today he discusses the merits and demerits of 'Boris' as a future Prime Minister and sums it up, thusly:

He is disappointingly different from the stage comedian so many think they love. As it happens, I have always quite liked him, but I wouldn’t ask him to look after my cat for a weekend, let alone put him in charge of a medium-sized nuclear power.

 

And you, too, Mr. Dan Hodges:   The other 'absolutely must read' columnist for The Mail on Sunday.  Today he confirms my own utterly uninformed opinion - call it a guess - that the Remainers and the 'Bolsheviks' (that's Labour!) will shoot down any 'no deal' plan to Brexit and, of course, as I have said many a time and oft', Brussels will not give a centimetre to aid our departure.  Boris will face exactly the same road block that the 'Maybot' faced.  There is only one way round it and that is a general election in the Autumn.

 

Let's hear it for the plucky little 'Hongers 'n' Kongers':   I refer, of course, to the people of Hong Kong who have demonstrated their courage in refusing to accept a dangerous directive from 'Xi Ping-a-ling' and his ghastly gangsters in Peking.  The 'Hongers 'n' Kongers' only represent a tiny fraction of the total Chinese population but I can't help wondering how many of the wider population are secretly - very secretly if they are wise - cheering them on?

 

Feeling cheerful?  Then don't read Jeremy Warner!   He reminds us in his Telegraph column that this Autumn two major economic posts will need to be filled.  First, a new Chancellor will be required when Philip Hammond is booted out by Boris.  This may be Boris's first and most critical decision.  Second, a new Governor of the Bank of England will have to be appointed when that mostly useless 'Canuck', Mark Carney, is sent back to Canada to change Justin Trudeau's nappies!  Good riddance to both of them but choosing their successors is going to require sound judgment - yeeeeeeeees, quite!

 

The end of the world must wait upon Rep. Elijah Cummings:   According to all those terrified 'Warmers', the end of the world is nigh and to prove it no less an authority than Rep. Elijah Cummings (Dem - natch!) summoned Ms. Judith Curry, an eminent climatologist and fierce critic of the current alarmist agitprop, to his Congressional committee.  But guess what!  Suddenly, the end of the world was put on hold because Rep. Cummings was more concerned with attempting to charge two Trump officials with contempt, or some such.  Ms. Curry sums it up this way:

If you follow me on twitter, you may have noticed that I was scheduled to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Jun 12. The subject of the Hearing is Contending with Natural Disasters in the Wake of Climate Change.

Late on Jun 10, I received an email telling me that the Hearing is postponed (as yet unscheduled). Apparently the Committee finds it more urgent to have a Hearing related to holding the Attorney General and Secretary of Commerce in contempt of Congress. Interesting to ponder that Congressional procedural issues are deemed to be more important than Climate Change.

To those of you unfamiliar with Rep. Cummings it is sufficient to say that he represents nearly half of the wreckage that is the once proud, bustling city of Baltimore - or 'southern Chicago' as I think of it!

 

And now the end has come:  No, no, not me, so you can put that champagne back in the cellar!  I mean my new hero, the late, great Thomas Cromwell.  I have finally reached the end of John Schofield's excellent but tragic biography of one of the shrewdest, wisest men ever to run the government of England.  What a pity he had to do his duty under one of the stupidest, most malignant kings ever to stain our throne.  Never mind, at least he managed to set a foundation for a new, Protestant England that would eventually rid us of Popery.  Mind you, reading that book left me with a profound shame for my total ignorance on the subject.  Moral: must read more books, er, but how I will find the time I do not know.  Next up is "Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges" by Antony Beevor and I already know how depressing that is going to be!

 

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

 

The law vs. politics

I have mentioned before one of my peculiar habits in bed - no, not that one, behave!  I am referring to my practice of sticking a radio earpiece in my ear and listening to the 'wireless' (what a lovely old-fashioned word that is!) during the night.  I switch between the World Service, Radio4 and 'Talk Sport' depending on which of them is the least boring.  However, I must admit that from time to time one or other of them come up with some fascinating programmes, for example, the current Reith Lectures given by Lord Jonathan Sumption, a former practicing lawyer, a Supreme Court judge and an historian of some repute.  This is a man who can rightly be described as a 'brainiac'!

I have only heard two of his lectures so far and, needless to say, given that I listen to them whilst in bed, I am prone to drifting off to 'nod-land' or waking in the morning and, as an officially 'old geezer' having passed my 80th, with only a hazy memory of what he had to say.  Even so, I was left with the distinct impression that this is a man of 'yuuuuuuge' intelligence and learning.  If you know how to work the latest 'whizzy-do-thingies' which will allow you to listen to his lectures then I urge you to do so.  If not, then you can read the text of his lectures at this site: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00057m8

If I urge you to do so you should not assume that I agree with everything he says.  However, given his learning and my ignorance, I would hesitate before arguing with him.  Whatever, you will learn much from an exceedingly intelligent man.  And I should add that given the breadth of his views, my American friends will be equally fascinated.

 

 

 

Krugman is a crock!

I refer to the gentleman in the photo below, Mr. Paul Krugman, an eminent economist, the recipient of a Nobel Prize for Economics and a regular contributor to the New York Times.  He is worshipped by the Left as a sage possessed of the highest possible intellect.  I think he's a plonker!  I confess that it is difficult for an economic ignoramus like me to prove my assertion but I am immensely grateful to the internet, which silly old 'Krugs' treated with total disdain 'back in the day'.  His own words say more about him than anything I could say! 

 

To give you the full quote, this is what he wrote:

"A winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Paul Krugman wrote in 1998, “The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in ‘Metcalfe’s law’—which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants—becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”"

Try telling that to Bill Gates and/or Larry Page!  And here are another list of Krugman's, er, 'forecasts' courtesy of 'Investmenty'.com:

Told Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan "to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble."

Praised the European economic model just weeks before the eurozone crisis began.

Argued before Argentina's recent default that the country's economy was a "remarkable success story."

Called the U.S. "just a bystander" in global energy only months before America surpassed Russia to become the world's biggest oil and gas producer.

Wrote in Rolling Stone magazine last week that Barack Obama is "one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history."

Would you buy a used-car from this man?

 

 

American justice ain't always bad!

As you know, because I often mention it and not withstanding "To Kill a Mocking Bird", I view the American justice system with extreme wariness.  However, regular as clockwork it defies my expectations.  Thus it is with the recent case of Gibson Bakery vs. Oberlin College.  In essence, an old established bakery situated close to a rather smart but provincial college was subject to constant pilfering by the students and one day a staff member attempted a citizens' arrest on one of the students.  There then ensued a campaign with menacing overtones against the bakery by the students, encouraged by the Dean of Students, who claimed racial harassment.  This campaign was aided and abetted by the college authorities.  Happily, this old, family-owned business decided to fight back and sued for damages.  The case has just ended its main phase and a jury having heard all the evidence has awarded the bakers $11 million in damages!  The jury will now sit to decide on the "punitive damages" which some experts reckon could reach another $22 million!

Simply too, too delicious and you can read all about it at the impeccably politically correct WaPo which must have given their editors severe heartburn!  I wonder if Hollywood will make a film of it starring who-ever is today's equivalent of Gregory Peck?  Don't hold your breath waiting!

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 9.6.19

Poor Thomas, his end is approaching:   I refer, of course, to Thomas Cromwell; a man, I am finally learning, who was a truly great Englishman.  My sincere thanks are due to John Schofield, the historian, who wrote the book I am reading: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell: Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant.  He lived in dangerously tricky times as Lutherism gathered strength from the dissatisfaction with 'Popery' but his 'murderous' boss, Henry VIII, never quite committed himself one way or another.  Given the nature of the religious dispute, I can understand that opinions on Cromwell have divided historians, however, Mr. Schofield is an admirer of whom I approve because, by and large, I am not an admirer of 'Popery'!

 

Politicians are lying, hypocritical ratbags!   So nothing new there, then!  I can't say I was too surprised to see Michael Gove 'outed' as a coke-sniffing lying-liar given his despicable 'stabbing' of Boris at the last Tory party leadership election.  As so often on drug-related matters, I take my lead from the estimable Peter Hitchens: 

Mr Gove was Secretary of State for Justice from 2015 to 2016. If proposals for proper enforcement of drug laws had come before the Cabinet he would have known as he studied them that he had, as an adult, committed the offence of possession of a Class A drug. For this crime he would have been open to a sentence of up to seven years in one of the prisons for which he was responsible. Knowing that, how could he have enthusiastically supported any initiative that would have genuinely made it more likely that drug abusers would go to prison?

In addition, 'Guido' chucks in another handgrenade with my emphasis:

The hypocrisy charge is already hitting Gove over his writing of an article for The Times arguing against the hypocrisy of journalists using cocaine and arguing for drug liberalisation. An article written during the period he was using cocaine. The hypocrisy charge will be turbo-charged when it hits the headlines tomorrow that when he was Secretary of State for Education he brought in legislation that bans teachers for life from teaching if they are convicted of cocaine possession. 

 

We're in trouble but so are the 'Cousins':   I have watched with increasing dismay the deepening and widening gulf opening up inside America.  Yes, of course, there have always been political and social divisions in their society but during most of my lifetime they have been contained within, so to speak, a 'large tent' providing room for manoeuvre in which relatively moderate people can agree to disagree and await their turn on the tiller.  From way 'over here' that seems to be disappearing and subsumed by vitriolic hatred and detestation which will bode no compromise.  I confess that one of my thermometers on American politics is the blog of Mr. 'Phil' Carpenter which I still follow even when, in a typical spat, he threw me out!  He claims to abhor what he considers to be the extremism of the ultra-Lefties in the Democratic party but in doing so he comes across as froth-foamed as the 'ranters and ravers' he abhors.  Needless to say, when it comes to Donald Trump, he and his commenters go into full on frenzy!  And he and they consider themselves to be, er, 'moderates!

 

Why don't 'skools' just teach maths, English and history?   Instead, I gather from the current 'kerfuffle' outside a 'skool' in Birmingham, they are finding the time to teach our 'likkle kiddie-winkies' the finer points of homosexuality, lesbianism and, er, well, anything else you might fancy in the sexual stable!  Needless to say, the local Muslims have kicked off in protest and now they are seeing the hard face of all those 'Leftie-poseurs' who assured them that their religious and social rights would be protected.  Well, they would be just so long as the 'Lefties' approve!  Frankly, I went through 'skool' without a single sex lesson of any kind and finding out the, er, hard way was quite good fun!

 

I knew it would be depressing but . . .    My Kindle needed recharging and so I have given Master Cromwell a rest and instead I started to get into Antony Beevor's history of "Arnhem: The Battle for the Bridges 1944".  It was a very British 'cock-up' and Montgomery stands accused of blind, obstinate stupidity of the sort he detested from his Generals during WWI.  I haven't even reached the airborne landings but already you can forsee the disaster approaching.  Deeply depressing!

 

If Boris wins, he should 'nick' some of Goves' ideas:   Everyone, by which I mean the journalistic 'know-alls', seems to think that Michael Gove is a very intelligent fellow, apart from his earlier drug taking, and he seems to have some good ideas on changing our antique tax system.  Perhaps, if Boris wins, he should forget old slights and get Gove on board.  The Tory party desperately needs some intelligent and original thinking to catch the imagination of the dreaded 'Peeps'!

 

Another book recommendation:  God I'm good to y'all!  I refer to:

The Europe Illusion: Britain, France, Germany and the Long History of European Integration by Stuart Sweeney

I have a copy, courtesy of 'SoD' because the author, Stuart Sweeney, is the brother of one of SoD's old university friends from way back.  I haven't read it yet because I am otherwise engaged with Master Cromwell and Gen. Montgomery but I have just received an 'e-advert' for it from the publisher and it jogged me into giving it a punt.

 

(Sir) Lewis wins, er, on a technicality:  Sorry, Herr Vettel, but rules are rules and you would be demanding their application if the roles were reversed. Anyway, (Sir) Lewis was only 2 secs behind you when you finished 'first' but, alas, you were carrying a 5 second penalty from an earlier error.  What's the German for 'ohdearwhatapitynevermind'?

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

 

Oh Lord, 'The Speccie' does my thinking for me - again!

I do try, honestly I do, to clarify my own thoughts as I ruminate my way through the day but, of course, with all this 'meeja' stuff coming in from all directions and on all sorts of topics it is not easy to clarify one's thoughts when it is time to hit the keyboard.  Happily, on those occasions I can always rely on 'The Speccie' to do my thinking for me and this week's editorial is spot on!

Their first paragraph puts a complicated subject into a nutshell:

Why is it that free trade, which almost everyone agrees is good when conducted with other European countries, suddenly becomes something to be feared when it is proposed with the United States? What is it about American chicken which means that Britons who eat it happily enough when they are on holiday are supposed to fear it when it is imported? And if Americans can offer world-class, well-priced medical services to Britain through the National Health Service, how is that a threat to our social fabric?

I could not have put it better myself, in fact, I could not have put it anywhere near as clearly and precisely as the editorial team at 'The Speccie'.  I still cannot quite believe the sight and sound of Tory politicians who are suppose to be in favour of free trade, fainting and swooning like a bunch of girlies seeing a mouse run across a room.  They are as pathetic as they are stupid!  And on the specific subject of chlorinated chicken with my emphasis added:

As for chlorinated chicken, the supposed health risks have long since been exposed as a scare story. UK consumers ingest far more chlorine drinking water than they ever would by eating American chicken: indeed, UK salads are routinely chlorine-washed, yet we do not hear Gove talking about them. In fact, once we are out of the EU, lifting the ban on chlorine-washed chicken is something we should consider doing even without a trade deal with the US. On this issue, and many others, it will soon be time to think for ourselves again.

Shortly, and it had better be very shortly, Britain will return to being an independent country again as we have been for nearly a 1,000 years until we surrendered to Germany and its acolytes.  That will require politicians of some calibre, politicians who can envision a world market in which Britain can thrive instead of waiting for orders in the ante-room at Brussels!  Do we have those sorts of politicians?  I doubt it and so does 'The Speccie':

In a few weeks’ time, Britain will have a new prime minister, charged with delivering the benefits that come from decoupling our economy from the EU. It’s often said that it would be bad for the Tories to fail to deliver Brexit. It would be worse for them to achieve Brexit only to discover that, due to a lack of imagination and courage, they do not know what to do with it.

Exactly!

 

 

 

This 'n' that!

I am on standby as chauffeur to the 'Memsahib' this morning so I do not have much time for creating one of my long, elegant and carefully-crafted analyses - and I heard that! - of the news of the day.  Plus, there are so many news items worthy of comment that I hardly know where to start.

Well, of course, I must start with the marking of the 75th anniversary of D-Day which was, I think, excellent in all respects.  Both here and in France, they were both serious and solemn but also, given the remarkable number of old veterans still alive, joyous.  Even 'The Donald' managed to recognise that on this occasion he was a supporting player and he behaved impeccably.  As to the memory of those who died, there simply are no words.

From the sublime to the 'cor blimey' of yesterday's by-election in Peterborough which has some ominous implications.  In effect, the Right-wing vote was split between Tories and the Brexit party which allowed Labour - just! - to sneak in.  This will require careful thought from all concerned.

Today, I gather, there is a women's football Cup Final.  Needless to say, I will not be watching given that the only ladies sport I might watch is Brazilian volleyball where the shorts are shortest!

At least I managed, er, with the help of my neighbour, to sort my TV out so that I could watch the CD version of the last series of "Line of Duty".  I deliberately avoided watching it on live TV because I knew it would drive me mad having to wait a week for every episode.  Well for the last four nights I have watched the first four episodes and they were total and utter crap!  Will I force myself to watch the last four.  Perhaps but only because I want to see if it sinks to even lower levels of total unbelievability!

Right, can't waste my time here, her Ladyship is calling!

 

 

 

I could be wrong, I frequently am, but . . .

I can't help suspecting that there is the mother and father of a legal and political storm brewing which is heading straight for the Democratic party in the USA.  Whilst the Dems continue to caper about like a bunch of unruly urchins, the Republicans are slowly but inexorably building a powerful legal case with which to indict leading Dems and their secret supporters in the senior ranks of the DoJ and the FBI.  The latest to feel the 'squeeze' is that 'dodgy British geezer', Christopher Steele, late of the 'MI6 parish' - yeeeeeeees, quite!  According to Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker, Steele has had his less than steel-like testicles put in the vice and finding no support from his own government who are eager to keep 'The Donald' happy, he has agreed to meet with American officials in London and answer questions.  Apparently, it was made clear to him that should the American authorities seek his extradition in order to pursue their enquiries into the pack of lies that constituted the Democrat claim that Trump colluded with the Russians, then HMG would make no effort to defend him!  Hitherto, Steele has refused point blank to speak to American officials but now it is 'squeaky bum' time for him and the chances are that he will sing like the infamous canary!

According to Joseph diGenova, a former US Attorney to the Dictrict of Columbia:

If Steele’s knowledge about the Democratic Party’s fraudulent and treasonous behavior becomes public, Democrats know that Trump will be virtually assured of winning re-election.

The bell is tolling for the corrupt Democratic Party. The upcoming Steele interview proves that Attorney General Barr’s investigators are closing in on the creators of the collusion hoax, and that should absolutely terrify every Democrat planning to run for office in 2020. as the stench of corruption is revealed and seeps into the political campaign season in earnest.

I do hope so because it seems to me that the Democratic party has lost its moral compass.  Yes, of course, politics was, is and always will be a dirty business but there are certain limits and inventing a totally false story of criminal conspiracy against the Trump campaign and using high-ranking members of the FBI and the Department of Justice to lie and fabricate 'evidence' is way beyond the limits.  If the leading 'perps' are investigated and then charged it may be enough for the Dems to drop the hysteria which seems to have gripped them and return them to being a normal and proper political party operating in a democracy.

 

 

 

The best D-day coverage from The Mail-Online

Well done to The Mail for providing a superb photographic report on all the many different activities that took place yesterday which were a superb tribute to all who took part:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7107305/300-D-Day-veterans-gather-Portsmouth-75-years-later.html

 

 

 

 

Let me imagine

I want to try, even if it is impossible to succeed, to imagine two things on this the 75th anniversary of the day before D-Day.  I want to attempt to put myself in the minds of two men.  I do have some experience in that sort of thing being an ex-(very amateur)-actor which involves reading a printed script and then injecting into it as much as you can of what you have worked out as the likely thoughts and feelings of the character you are portraying.  Alas, in these two cases, or roles, I have absolutely no idea what was going through their minds!

I will begin, appropriately, with the first man who stepped into the sea from a landing-craft on the Channel coast on the 6th June 1944 and, weighed down with weaponry and ammunition, had to struggle through rough seas and incoming fire to reach a hostile shore.  What was he thinking?  What was he feeling?  Alas, at that point my imagination slams shut because it is impossible to imagine, you need to have been there.  All one can do is struggle for words to express one's gratitude and admiration.

Moving from the bottom to the top, I would like to try and put myself, ex-Corporal Duff - yeeeeeees, quite! - in the place of General Eisenhower who had spent, what to him, must have seemed like a lifetime immersed in the incredibly complex details of the greatest military manoeuvre in the history of Man, and more-over, a manoeuvre which, if it failed, would shift the future of the world into a wholly new area and set back the allied forces at least a year.  Then, on the very cusp of the operation, a relatively lowly-ranked RAF officer from their meteorology department warns him that on the due day for the launch, the weather was likely to be too rough and that the best he could advise was that if the invasion was put off for 24-hours, the weather would still be unstable but not quite as bad.  What went through Eisenhower's mind - and heart - when he heard that and was forced to take an historic decision?

I have no idea and cannot even begin to imagine it.  All I can express is my profound gratitude to both men, and all those in between, for their courage, both mental and physical, in executing successfully the greatest military manoeuvre in the history of the world. 

 

Britain's decision time, Germany or America - you choose!

An excellent article by Victor Davis Hanson at The National Review which has a subtle heading: "Is Germany Becoming Germany - Again?"  As far as we Brits are concerned it is a crucial question which is given added importance as we host the POTUS 'over here'.  'VDH' stresses that there is a real and growing schism between America and Germany.  This chasm is increasing radically given the nature of the two countries involved.  It is hard for some people to recognise that beneath Merkel's 'Green and Liberal' cloak there is a determined German nationalist at work.  Germany has virtully succeeded in its ploy to take over the European Union and run it for its own German benefit.  Thus, its refusal to countenance monetary interchanges between EU nations keeps the Med countries in poverty which, in turn, keeps the common euro currency cheap on international markets - to the benefit of Mercedes, VW et al!  Similarly, its constant refusal to increase its contribution to NATO leaving the gross burden to be borne by the USA means that NATO is already crumbling. 

Merkel all but announced that Germany, or for that matter Europe itself, is no longer really an ally of the United States: “There is no doubt that Europe needs to reposition itself in a changed world. . . . The old certainties of the post-war order no longer apply.”

Well, there is some truth in that, Madame Chancellor, but I would remind you of these wise words, "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"!  Thus, as you lead your continent away from America on the grounds that Russia is now, more or less, a busted flush, I would remind you that a new and powerful and grossly ambitious China is arising in the East.  Merkel is impervious to the looming threat and in the sanguine spirit of the truly dim and dumb, she recently visited Harvard University where she delivered a thinly-veiled attack on the President.  How, one wonders, would she have re-acted to 'The Donald' conducting a similar operation in Germany and dropping a few bombs on her?  As 'VDH' puts it:

Perhaps imagine something akin to Donald Trump’s traveling to Munich to address a hard-right audience of Alternative für Deutschland members — and then winning their applause by systematically attacking Merkel’s disastrous solar and wind energy policies, disastrous open-borders immigration dictates, disastrous subversion of NATO by her deliberate reneging on past promises on defense investments — and then, without saying the word “Merkel,” calling her an abject liar for breaking her promises.

I would pay good money to hear that!  In the meantime, it is necessary for us Brits to face up to a Grand Strategic decision.  Do we abandon America and everything it stands for in its military power and its democratic foundations and instead tie ourselves to 'Mutti' Merkel's apron strings and rely on her?  You choose!

 

 

Welcome aboard, Mr. President

Presidents, and Prime Ministers, are a mixed bag!  Some good, some bad, most a mixture of the two, and therefor it is difficult to define them exactly which is why it is best, whilst they are in office, to keep one's opinion of them provisional and wait for the historians to decide the matter later - much later!  In my 80-year old experience I have come to the conclusion that the ones who seemed good at first tend to go bad later and vice verse.  

However, it is very much easier to work out the character of the shouty nincompoops who flounce out of their official duties as senior members of the opposition and lead demonstrations against the leader of the most powerful country in the world which is, they should bear in mind, our principal ally.  Of course, in their peculiar world view, the nations most of us think of as potential enemies are actually 'friends' to them!  Need one say more? 

None of that means that we must automatically kow-tow to the President of the USA but when we invite him to be a guest at the celebration of an historic battle in which America provided enormous numbers of men and materials to undertake an incredibly hazardous operation at a crucial time in our history, then good manners should take precedence over petty political disagreements.  Unfortunately, the current Labour party and their brain-dead adherents are incapable of thinking beyond the dumb slogans they display on their banners.  And the term 'good manners' is incomprehensible to all of them!

So, welcome aboard, Mr. President (and your elegant wife!) and let us celebrate together the actions of very brave men and women from another age.

 

 

 

"Freedom of Speech" by Norman Rockwell

It has been a while since I indulged myself in a bit of 'arty-farty' but, dammit, I came across the name of Norman Rockwell and that led me to his famous quartet of paintings called "The Four Freedoms".  They were inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech in 1941 which set forth an idealistic aim for the future of the world.  Roosvelt's aim was to ensure the existence of the basic Freedoms of Speech, Worship, Want and Fear.  Of course, in this modern, cynical world in which countless horrors are pumped into our living-rooms via TV on a 24-hour schedule it is hard, perhaps impossible, to cling to those ideals.  Indeed, Roosevelt himself was about to be launched into the conflagration of WWII where his idealism would be tested to extremes.  

Norman Rockwell decided to illustrate these noble ideals in four different paintings.  I give you "Freedom of Speech" as an example, not least because it is, in my poor opinion, the best from an artistic point of view.

It shows a working man in what looks like a small town meeting.  He is somewhat roughly dressed and is surrounded by other citizens who are, so to speak, 'suited and booted'!  The setting, I guess is a school-room and the blackboard behind the standing man makes an ideal background to concentrate on him.  Perhaps it was a tad excessive by Rockwell to make him quite so handsome!  Even so, note how he depicts the other members of the audience, all of whom are gazing with rapt attention to what he has to say.  In particular, the man in the light suit wh0 has twisted his body to better hear and see this 'speaker'.  Finally, note how Rockwell has the 'speaker' gazing slightly upwards, presumably to address citizens on a platform but which also suggests, perhaps, some inspiration from on high.

Yes, I know, I know, all the smart-alec sophisticates would, indeed have, and still do, sneered at its hopeless idealism, and indeed, I, too, have problems in that direction.  Even so, I don't care because there is nothing inherently wrong in high idealism as expressed by artists and particularly artists as skillful as Norman Rockwell.

 

 

Mueller is a sinister and dangerous agent of The Big State

So, there were allegations of unlawful conduct by the President.

Special Investigator Mueller was appointed to investigate and provided with an enormous team and powers to back them up.

Two and a half years later, they found nothing, zilch, nada, a big fat zero! 

Then, in the past 48 hours, Mueller issues this statement:

“if we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime we would have said that”.

In other words, Mueller implies that Trump is guilty as hell but, dammit, he couldn't actually find any proof - not a grain, not an iota, not a smidgeon - but what the hell, we all know the guy's as guilty as hell so let's string him up!

The high-pitched hum you can hear in the background is the sound of 'Atticus Finch' spinning in his literary grave.

Finally, a friendly word to my American e-pals.  Whilst Trump and his Republican cohorts can, no doubt, indulge in sundry sins of omission and commission, the current Democratic Party, with their insane, hysterical fury and stupidity, are capable of monstrous acts of wickedness which will change for ever the nature of your country!

 

 

Martin Luther King NOT a saint after all - 'shlock-horror'!

Well, of course he was not a saint, he was a man!  And, as 'as any fule do no', saints are as rare as snow flakes in hell which, of course, is not to say that MLK was a bad man.  No, he was just a man with the usual mix of 'vice and virtue' but the courage and tenacity with which he fought his long and dangerous campaign entitles him to be described as both courageous and dedicated.  He brought about a revolution in America without firing a shot!  Even so, revolutions, with or without shots, rarely occur without cost.  In his case the cost included his life! 

Needless to say, any revolution instantly produces an 'army' of resistors who will stoop to any tactic to bring down the trouble-maker.  A raft of stories will be released denigrating the character of the culprit and some will be false and others true.  Also, if the revolutionary becomes famous around the world then the stories will not cease with his death.  Thus has it been for MLK and the latest, rather disgusting, details of his sex life have appeared in a biography by a hitherto distinguished historian called David Garrow.  

As Ms. Monica Showalter points out in The American Thinker, these alleged revelations pose something of a problem to the Left in America who are always exceedingly happy to tear down statues and disfigure monuments of historical figures who failed their 21st century 'woke' test!  Will they now mount a campaign against MLK for indulging in a sort of '#MeeToo' life style?  Possibly, they're certainly dumb enough!

This bit of Shakespeare occurred to me:

“The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.”

 

 

Memorial Day, USA

I had no idea so I am grateful to Mr. Jay Cost at The National Review for teaching me that the last Monday in May, in other words today, is set aside in America as Memorial Day to acknowledge the sacrifices of their servicemen who perished on duty in sundry wars and conflicts.  So far, so good, but as this painting indicates, the first sacrifices were made against us, their British cousins.  Shockin', shockin'!

The March to Valley Forge, 1883, by William Trego (Wikimedia)

Heavens to Betsy it was actually a revolution against good, ol' King George III who, I am assured, was a very decent, old chap although, to be honest, he was subject to the odd fit of insanity.  Also, he was awfully hard up and really needed the money he tried to raise off those 'fat cats' in Boston.  Honestly, there was no gratitude back in those days!  Anyway, after considerable sacrifices of the ultimate kind by the new American army - and navy (in case 'JK' is reading this) - we Brits grumped off back home and invaded India instead which was, on the whole, much easier to run!

All that was a light-hearted piece of nonsense which should not be taken seriously.  The serious fact is that countless American servicemen and women have given their lives since then, mostly in noble causes and it is entirely right that they should be memorialised by their own kith and kin.  We in this country have much to be grateful for in their sacrifices and so, metaphorically, I salute them on this solemn day.

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 26.5.19

Hey-ho, it's off to the races!   The runners and riders for the Tory Party Classic are forming up and you will never see a bigger collection of monstrous and deluded egos, er, outside of the candidates' list for the Democratic Party, of course!  I have lost count of the number of hopeless dreamers who have rushed forward to offer their names.  I have never heard of most of them.  Why do they do it?  Well, as W. C. Fields never said, but should have, "You'll never go broke over-estimating the egos of politicians!" 

 

Peter Hitchens makes uncomfortable reading:   So no change there then!  His column in today's Mail begins thus:

If your car breaks down and won’t go, do you think you will solve the problem by giving it a new coat of paint? Not unless you are very stupid. So why does anyone think that ditching Theresa May and replacing her with Al ‘Boris’ Johnson will make any important difference?

If you are a Tory party supporter, have a large whiskey to hand when you read him!

 

'MDK' obviously needs me:  Of course, I am referring to My Darling Keeley Hawes who, er, 'smote' me when I first saw her in an early series of "Line of Duty" during which, alas, she was shot dead!

She isn't a classic beauty but there is just something about her that 'presses my buttons', so to speak!  Looking at that photo, it may be the way her upper lip very slightly protrudes over her lower lip which gives her an air of vulnerability.  Anyway, according to The Mail, she has confessed to suffering with frequent depression.  The solution, 'My Darling Keeley', is only a 'phone call away!  (Er, not a word to the 'Memsahib', chaps!)

 

There's trouble brewin' on them thar prairies:   Greenies vs. cowboys, according to The Telegraph which reports that some 'yuuuuuuge' conservation group wants to buy 'zillions' of acres of prairieland in Montana and re-introduce native animals to the area, such as bison, elk and prairie dogs.  The cowboys are not amused because they say it will put them out of business.  See y'all soon down at the 'OK corral'! 

 

Oh no, I'm in love again!   This time the lucky lady is Ms. Madeleine Kearns and I needs must tread carefully because she hails from Glasgow - or 'Glesga', as our friend Jimmy would have it! - although she is now based 'over there' and is learning journalism at The National Review Institute, an excellent choice.  She has written a review of two feminised Shakespeare productions in New York and they are shrewd and perceptive.  Go, girl, go!

 

Where's that damned crafty Frenchman hiding?   No, no, not 'mini-Macron', I mean Talleyrand.  I came across his name the other day when I was up here cruising the net, ooops, sorry, I mean tidying my attic, of course!  Anyway, his name popped up somewhere and as I have a weakness for wily statesmen, which is why I am enjoying Thomas Cromwell's life so much, it reminded me that I had an excellent biography of Talleyrand - somewhere!  Can I find it?  Can I hell!

 

(Sir) Lewis wins again!   What an incredible driver he is!  Surely now, the greatest of them all.  Mind you, Monaco has to be the most boring race of the season.  It is virtually impossible to overtake so that makes the practice sessions more interesting and exciting than the race!  Even so, how those guys thread their cars through the narrow, twisty streets is quite incredible.

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

The Dems really are dumber than a really dumb thing!

It is always exceedingly worrying when a normally fairly staid political party goes into hysterical meltdown but that, alas, appears to be the turn taken by the Democratic Party since their 'Holy' icon, 'HillBilly', was not just defeated but - 'shlock-horror!' - was defeated by a clown-like opponent with absolutely no class or political experience whatsoever!  Mind you, if their eye-balls are swivelling now, they had better brace up because a nuclear-level shock-wave is approaching over the horizon and should reach maximum force during the run-up to the next Presidential election.

With brilliant timing, 'The Donald' has authorised this statement:

Today, at the request and recommendation of the Attorney General of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 Presidential election.

The Attorney General has also been delegated full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation, in accordance with the long-established standards for handling classified information. Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions.  [My emphasis]

The delicious irony oozing from this action is almost impossible to describe.  The 'Dumb Dems' went into a frenzy when they realised that, against all the odds and expectations, 'HillBilly' lost the election and without thinking they launched a spectacular campaign to allege that, in Brit cockney language, "It woz the Russians wot dunnit!"  With, dare I say, a 'yuuuuuuge' fanfare they introduced us to their 'fav' 'Prosecuter-General', the mighty Robert Mueller who, living up (or down - you choose!) to his ruthless reputation for investigating every single nook and cranny found, after two and half years, er, well, nothing, actually!

Not satisfied with that utter fiasco, the 'Dumb Dems' also attempted to mount a ludicrous and despicable attack on a decent man whom Trump had nominated for the Supreme Court.  Within days it become clear to all but the politically purblind that the whole campaign was a vicious and dirty set-up.  By now they are dribbling at the mouth in their inchoate fury and appear determined to try and actually impeach the President of the United States!   Every one makes mistakes but the biggest and the dumbest is to carry on repeating them.

Over the next year, President Trump, via his 'hit-man' A-G, will out-do Mueller in digging deep into Dem behaviour before and during the last election and, with security restrictions lifted, he will shine a searchlight into their nefarious practices which should go down like a pile of 'brown stuff' with American voters.  Yes, like all men, Trump is flawed but compared to 'HillBilly' and the rest of the loons and crooks running the Democratic Party, he is a veritable 'angel'!

 

 

 

Time to Mann-up!

As I have mentioned before several times, I am exceedingly leery of the American justice system.  Of course, it is 'yuuuuuuuge' and therefor bound to throw up anomalies and contradictions and dodgy decisions but perhaps worst of all, it can be excessively long-winded and dilatory. Take The National Review (and Mark Steyn, too, come to that!) vs. Michael E. Mann, the 'inventor' of the 'Hockey Stick' chart which proves - absolutely and definitely proves, I tell you - that man-made global warming really and truly and cross my heart and wish to die, is occurring!  

Michael E. Mann took exception when the NR and Steyn stuck two fingers up in his direction and shouted, in effect, "Cheat! Cheat! Cheat!"   He opened court proceedings against both parties which were mounted in the DC circuit, so hardly out in the boondocks, and yet both cases, despite urgings from the NR, and Steyn, are still unheard and are about to enter their eighth year!  That is a national disgrace for a country that claims it has the greatest judicial system in the world!