DUFF & NONSENSE!

Never trust those damned, smoothie Brits!

A fascinating article via Zero Hedge which originated at The American Conservative.com.  It details the, er, 'dastardly deeds' of William Stephenson (a Canadian actually) who in 1940 - a rather sweaty time for Britain! - was despatched to the USA by Churchill in order to set up - dare I say it? - a 'fake news factory' to help persuade the American 'Peeps' to give up their really rather sensible insistence on neutrality as the rest of the world went to hell in a handcart!

Stephenson knew his way around the 'meeja' which barely differed in its crookedness then, to what it is today!  Also, given Roosevelt's quiet determination to get America into the war, he was content to allow Stephenson to pump his fake news into the American system.  Of course, it was not simply love for Britain and dislike of Hitler that moved Roosevelt but his absolute determination to use the disaster of yet another world war to provide an opportunity to create a new, American world order.

So, let's hear it for 'Fake News'! 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 8.12.19

Art criticism at its very best:   As y'all do know, I am in a quiet way a bit of an old 'arty-farty'.  I rarely pay attention to art critics because I know what I like even if, sometimes, I don't exactly know why!  But here is a man whose, er, 'taste' I would trust implicitly.  Recently an 'artwork' was unveiled which consisted of a banana duct-taped to a wall with a price tag of $120,000 attached.

On Saturday, the man, Mr. David Datuna, who is obviously of impeccable, er, taste, ate the banana!

 

Are you as confused as me over the forthcoming election?   Well, neither of us can be blamed given, as an example, two headlines in the same edition of the Sunday Mail:

"Tories scent victory with fresh poll showing late Labour surge has not materialised"

"Boris Johnson refuses THREE times to say if he would quit, should the Tories fail to win the election, as polls tighten with just days to go" 

I think I'll just stick to the pattern of the tea leaves at the bottom of my morning cup of tea!

From The Telegraph

 

Classic Peter Hitchens:   He is always a 'Must Read' on a Sunday but today he covers a range of topics all of which make you think.  I never followed his late brother and I wonder if he was a patch on Peter?

 

Hoot of the Year:   I am indebted to the Red State site for providing the hoot of the year from the lips of that well-known American comedienne, Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton.  She was re-acting to that mummified creature who calls herself Nancy Pelosi who has inveighed against Trump's evil ways and threatened dire legal counter-measures.  'HillBilly' responded with these immortal words: “no one is above the law”.

 

If only!   Apparently that irritating little girl, Greta Thunberg, is complaining that 'they' are trying to silence her!

Well, 'they' are obviously not very good at it because she never shuts up talking total 'tosh'!  Good job she's not my daughter!

 

Why I no longer go the theatre:  Particularly if it is a play by William Shakespeare.  The pig-ignorant dolts who rule 'theatre-land' these days are an insult to my intelligence but not to theirs because they do not have any!  This from a review of Richard III in this week's 'Speccie':

This modern-dress production (co-directed by Sean Holmes and Ilinca Radulian) has been cast without regard to race, gender or age. Anyone who doesn’t hold a professorship in Plantagenet genealogy will struggle to comprehend the sinuous plot. Richard (Sophie Russell) enters wearing a white footballer’s shirt inscribed RICHARD 03. Clear enough. Margaret, played by a man, also appears with her name embroidered on her football kit but with the letters covered by a coat. An easy blunder to correct. Harder to fix is the sparse company which isn’t populous enough to serve the text. Matti Houghton plays Anne and two other large-ish roles. Colin Hurley begins as Hastings and morphs into Tyrrell, the Mayor and Oxford. Steffan Donnelly opens as Margaret and ends as Richmond.

Need I say more?

 

No more Rumbles

 

 

 

A 'yuuuuuuuuuge' 'THANK YOU' to JK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd8_vO5zrjo

My American political/military/history correspondent and, I almost forgot, also my Chief Archivist, 'JK', sent me the above link because of my utter fascination with the Battle of Midway.  Whilst I recognise that not all of you share my fascination with matters military, this battle was utterly crucial in the war in the Pacific against Japan.  Given its, er, 'fluid' nature - well, dammit, it was a naval/air battle! - and therefor the myriad 'ifs, buts and maybes' - this computer generated illustration is superb! 

Even so, for anyone coming fresh to it, I would advise reading a couple of books on the subject first!  I would recommend "MIDWAY: The Battle that doomed Japan" by Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya which, just like the YouTube presentation above, gives a Japanese perspective to the battle.  For an American view, try "Miracle at Midway" by Gordon Prange.  In its way, this single battle sums up the nature of warfare in which tiny incidents and factors can tip a battle this way or that.

Sorry to bore on but  . . .

 

 

 

The day my latent homosexuality received a tweek!

I hasten to make clear that it was only the very merest of 'tweeks' and I was only 15 or 16 years old at the time and didn't recognise it as such until I was much older - by which time I was well past it having fallen in lust with the well-developed Josie B. who had the desk next to me in school!  So who, you ask, piqued my immature homosexual interest back then?  Marlon Brando, of course, who else?  His tremendous performance in "On the Waterfront" had just been released and his sulky, brooding good-looks were everywhere.  I saw the film and was awe-struck at his looks, his persona and, above all, his terrific acting ability which perhaps, just perhaps, set off my desire to try acting.

Nor was it a 'one off'!  He went on and on and on to a string of superb performances.  Who will ever forget his brooding 'Godfather'?  Alas, as Tom Leonard makes clear in a fascinating article in The Mail today, whilst Brando was a superlative actor, he was also a total shit of a human being!  His sexual appetite was gargantuan and given that he would 'swing on both sides of the street' he had plenty of choice.

'Still 'n' all', as they say 'over there', I don't care what he did 'off the set' because what he did on it was simply superb and unforgettable!

 

 

 

'Midway' - refought for the third time!

I have written before, many a time and oft', on the incredible battle of Midway.  In my heading I indicate that the battle has been fought three times but what I mean, of course, is that it was, in reality, fought once, and then refought twice by Hollywood!  The latest Hollywood version has just been released 'over there' and the appropriately named, Steve Sailor, offers a crit of it at Taki's Mag.  ( He approves, in the main.)

I am totally fascinated with this battle which, in effect, and in retrospect, won the Pacific war for America!  Not the least of its fascination lies in the element of chance which played a crucial role in the eventual outcome.  Another crucial element was what I used to call, in my Army days, 'SigInt' which the Americans had mastered to a high degree of expertise.  Thus, the Japanese steamed on in blissful ignorance and boundless conceit following their devastating attack on Pearl Harbour whilst the canny Americans listened in to their wireless transmissions and planned accordingly.

Even so, as in all battles everywhere, that fickle 'Lady Luck' played her part so that the first American warplanes to spot the Jap fleet were torpedo bomber who naturally attacked at sea-level, thus dragging down the Jap fighters from on high to deal with them.  This allowed the American dive-bombers, released from a Fleet of which the Japs were unaware, to arrive overhead and then dive down unopposed - with devastating results for the Japs.

The result - Japanese disaster and the first indication that they would lose their stupid, il-conceived war!

 

 

 

Cartoon Corner #1

I am a great admirer of cartoons, particularly political cartoons which sum up complex situations in a single illustration - with wit and humour.  This, the first of many, I hope, is from The Telegraph:

 

Pheeeew, so far, so good!

I must confess to opening my Daily Mail this morning with trembling hands.  Well, 'Big Don' was in town and the least I expected was a couple of 'hooooge' big 'clangers' to be dropped.  I mean, he was attending the 70th anniversary of NATO and was thus surrounded by dozens of national leaders so the opportunity for some 'schlock-horror' pronouncements was enormous.  Consider the opportunities offered by him meeting and greeting the likes of  'mini'-Macron, although I gathered they went into max-hand squeezing when they shook hands.  (By the way, don't you just detest those uber-masculine twerps who go in for that sort of thing - I always want to jerk them towards me and then 'nut' them!)

Even more potentially hazardous was the prospect of 'Big Don' meeting the ghastly thug who now runs Turkey - not so much the 'clash of titans' as the clash of total tits!  Incidentally, what the hell is Turkey doing in NATO?  Yes, I know that geographically it is situated in at an exceedingly strategic place but even so, do I want to go to war to protect the Erdogan government?

Rather wisely, given that he is in the middle of an election, Boris, I gather steered well clear so as not to offer 'Big Don' the chance to opine on the contest.  Any exuberant words of praise from him for Boris would go down like a shit sandwich.  As Michael Deacon describes it in The Telegraph:

The one subject he tried not to express a view on was our own election. Supposedly Boris Johnson is worried that Trump might inadvertently derail the Tory campaign – but on Tuesday, at least, the president was clearly striving with all his might to break the habit of a lifetime, and keep his opinions to himself.

Mind you, he couldn't resist the chance of bragging about Brexit:

Although determined not to comment on British politics, Trump did reiterate his support for Brexit. Not for the first time, he boasted that he’d predicted it. “I called it the day before [the referendum],” he told reporters, with an air of fond reminiscence. “I was opening up Turnberry [his Scottish golf course] the day before – many of you were there, I recognise that many of you were there. And they asked me whether or not Brexit would happen. I said yes, and everybody smiled, and they laughed. The next day they had the [referendum] – and I was right.”

A great story. Pity it isn’t true. In reality, Trump didn’t arrive at Turnberry until the day after the referendum. It’s fascinating. Not only does he seem to forget things that have happened. He also seems to recall – with the most dazzling clarity – things that actually never happened at all.

Actually, I don't think he's that bad a President but I just wish he would button up two things - his jacket and his mouth!

 

 

A new Queen of the Carnival?

Weeeeeell, maybe, baby!  The carnival I refer to is the current parade of the dim, the dumb and the 'doofers' who constitute the 'no-hopers' vying to win the Democratic nomination to take on 'The Ginger Ninja' at the next Presidential election.  From this distance it is not easy to categorise them but the impression I gain is that they are, politically speaking, sub-normal!  I gather that my impression is shared by quite a few Democrats.  

Hence, Mr. Peter Skurkis at the American Thinker site suggests the possibility - stand by - roll of drums - trumpet fanfare - that 'Her Majesty' Michelle Obama may be moved to stand for election.  Actually, I suspect that it would indeed be a shrewd move by the Dems.  As Mr. Skurkis points out, she would attract back much of the black vote that has been, surprisingly, tending towards Trump.  It would also, I suspect, inject some much needed enthusiasm back into the Democratic campaign which has so far been all over the place.

Question is - will she do it?  Somehow I doubt it because I have the impression that she is quite content to remain the former First Lady and have a life!  She must know that were she to attempt it, 'Barry' will be behind her every step of the way pulling her strings!  Can't see her putting up with that for too long!  'Still 'n' all', as they say over there, it would make for, er, those dreaded 'interesting times'!

 

 

And so we bid farewell to Harrison 'Bones' Dillard, R.I.P.

'Who the hell was he?', I hear you mutter and I don't blame you because that was exactly what I muttered when I saw his name on the obit page of The Telegraph.  Well, he was the winner of the 100 metres at the London Olympics in 1948 in a time that equalled that of Jesse Owens in Berlin.  He also shared a win for America in the 4x100 relay.  This took my notice because back in the day, er, in fact, way, way back in the day, my favourite sport was athletics, in general, and hurdles in particular.  'Bones' Dillard went on to win the 100 metre hurdles at Helsinki in 1952.

  Harrison Dillard (centre) on the Olympic podium following his 100m victory in London in 1948 Credit: Mark Kauffman/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

I still remember spending an inordinate amount of time after school hours practising with hurdles, working out exactly how far behind the start line I needed to be (about an inch, I seem to remember!) in order to hit the first hurdle at exactly the right place to clear it cleanly and come down the other side also in exactly the right place ... and so on down the line.  In retrospect, quite ridiculous, really, but there was somethimg immensely satisfying about sprinting down a row of hurdles and clearing them all at maximum speed.

So, farewell, 'Bones' Dillard, you were obviously a great athlete.

 

 

The Poles are mad but we all knew that!

A fascinating article by the distinguished observer of all things Eastern European, Ms. Anne Applebaum over at the CAPX site.  She begins with the Poles whom she suspects are going into one of their mad seasons:

Poland is very, very profoundly divided into really warring camps, people who not only disagree with one another, they don’t even agree on the facts of the day.

Well, that would describe most countries most of the time but the Poles do have a tendency to take things to extremes - sometimes for good, sometimes for ill!

At least half the country is extremely worried by the government’s attacks on the Polish constitution, by the government’s attack on its judiciary, and by the potential for future attacks on free media – there’s already talk of so called re-Polanisation of the media, and nationalisation of private business more generally. So, yes, there is a lot of concern. And then there’s the part of the country that is happy because it feels that it’s benefiting from the government’s social programmes.

Of course, looming over the Polish horizon is the ever-present threat of 'Mother' Russia!  At least there is one slightly modifying factor present in that Nato has moved further east with British troops in Lithuania and American troops in Poland which will give even Putin pause!  A delicate situation so we must all pray that the Poles don't go 'bonkers'!

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 24.11.19

Thanks, 'Jezza', for being so honest:   Yes, you did read that right but please note that I do not suggest he was totally honest which would be a ludicrous suggestion as he faces a general election. Even so, he and his 'polit-bureau' have laid their aims and purposes face up on the table for all to read. In the unlikely event of his and his 'Marxist-Labour' party actually winning, no-one will be able to claim that 'they didn't know'!  Now, precisely what 'Boing-Boing' Boris will actually do when he is in office is much more of an enigma wrapped in a puzzle, etc, etc!

 

Time to say good bye, your Honour!   The remarkable High Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 86, has been carted off to hospital yet again.  She is, of course, battier than a really, really batty thing but, dammit, you have to admire her guts.  Apparently she is determined to serve on into her 90s not least, I suspect, because she wishes to deny Trump his pick for the Supreme Court.

Wouldn't want to come up in front of her for some misdemeanour! 

 

"Great balls of fire!"   Er, well, 'great balls of steel', actually!  That is what Mr. Elon Musk arranged to have thrown at the windows of his new armoured van at its mega-launch a couple of days ago in order to prove how resistant is was to any sort of attack:

'Shurely shome mishtake here!"

What can one say except 'ohdearwhatapitynevermind!'  Never mind, Musk baby, at least you set Xmas off with a laugh!

 

Let's hear it for Ms. Joy Morrissey!   She is the lady contesting the Beaconsfield seat for the Tory party against that 'dirty rat', Dominic Grieve, who, in his impeccably snooty way pulled every trick in the book to ruin Brexit.  I hope he loses his deposit!

 

A little taste of Hopper:   I just came across his name and instantly, no hesitation, I went to look for some examples of his superb artistry.  He is, without doubt one of my favourite artists.

Lighthouse at Two Lights by Edward Hopper

 

Hotel Lobby by Edward Hopper

 

Automat by Edward Hopper

It's not just the paintings but the untold stories behind them which Hopper leaves to the viewer to invent.

 

An historical view of Britain and Europe!   I draw your attention to a thoughtful article at the CAPX site by the distinguished historian, Niall Ferguson, on the hoary, old subject of Britain and the EU.  The good news is that he thinks the EU is going 'tits up' irrespective of anything Britain does.  Bring it on!

 

You may need to fasten your seatbelts 'over there':   I offer this entirely unwanted, and indeed, un-needed, advice to my 'Yankee-doodle' friends 'over there' who appear to be headed for exceedingly tempestuous times.  This extract from a piece over at the American Thinker sums it up fairly well:

I'm sure I am also not alone in thinking that Attorney General Barr, with his recent speeches, is using his bully pulpit to lay the groundwork for shaping public understanding and support for drastic action that should result from those reports and that he is employing high-octane, carefully crafted rhetoric to prepare public opinion for the explosive, controversial revelations — i.e., possible judicial proceedings against high-ranking members of the Deep State in the CIA, the FBI, and the Obama administration, including such persons as Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and Rice.  [My emphasis]

What was that remark concerning "interesting times"?

 

No more rumbles

 

 

An interesting American politician - no, really!

I confess immediately that until I read an article in the National Review, I had never heard of Sen. Josh Hawley.  However, I do think the article is very worth reading.  This is a man capable of thinking outside the box, a man who can ask awkward questions and face up to the disturbing answers.

Last night, at a dinner held by the American Principles Project Foundation, Hawley gave a remarkable speech. Like most good political speeches, it was straightforward and accessible. But unlike most good political speeches, it was also a searing piece of cultural criticism, an indictment of America’s economic and social arrangements.

Well, in the 'never-never-land' of Trumpian delusion I suspect it is time America gave itself a good, long, hard look.  Sen. Hawley provides a magnifying glass!  He begins by attacking the oligarchy:

Discontent is the theme of our politics, the preoccupation of our popular culture. It is the very air we breathe.  But why? Why — in the words of another American senator — is this most prosperous of nations so troubled in spirit, so rent by division, so anxious and uncertain?  The statistics tell us that we are living in a new age of inequality. The divide between the wealthy and working Americans is wide, and growing wider.

He spells it out:

You’ve heard the numbers. As to wealth: The top 10 percent of the country’s earners control 77 percent of the country’s total wealth. As to wages: Over the last several decades, inflation- adjusted wages for the working class have barely budged, while income for those at the very top has soared.

Sooner or later, as discontent grows, a 'correction' will be demanded and if left too late the enforcememt might be exceedingly damaging, not just economically but socially, to the fabric of American society.

But the most telling economic divide in the country is between Americans with a high-school degree and those who have four-year-college degrees or more. A bachelor’s degree now earns a household in this country double the median income of a high-school diploma. As of 2016, families with a four-year degree or higher controlled roughly three-quarters of the country’s wealth. That’s a 50 percent increase since just 1989.

We are witnessing the rise of a new oligarchy of wealth and education. And not surprisingly, the leaders of this country’s government, its press, its corporations, and most of its popular culture most all belong to this same class. [My emphasis]

Sen. Hawley supports his case with some depressing statistics:

The number of 15- to 24-year-olds committing suicide is greater than at any other time since the government began tracking the data over 50 years ago.

For girls and young women, suicide rates have doubled during the 21st century. Doubled.

Taken altogether, nearly 36,000 American millennials died “deaths of despair” in 2017 alone.

There is now a death from drugs or alcohol or suicide every four minutes in this nation.

To paraphrase poor, old Bill, again, 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark America'!  Also, it is worth emphasising that Sen. Hawley is a Republican and it would be sensible of the GoP to attempt some of their own measures rather than leave it to the Dems to flock in with their usual lunacy!

 

 

Tarawa - HOONOO?

That will compete with numerous other titles to my blog posts as being one of the most incomprehensible - sorry!  I will try to explain.  I have recently stumbled across the Smithsonian Channel on my TV which seems to be totally concentrated on American battles in WWII.  Thus, given the almost total crap everywhere else it has become a favourite of mine.  This afternoon I chanced upon a documentary covering the battle for the island of Tarawa which the American Marines invaded in 1943 as the beginning of their thrust northwards to Japan.

Ferocious and bloody hardly suffices to describe this action in which the Japanese had prepared well and the Americans were, for the most part, beginners.  Even so, at huge cost and with unbelievable courage the Marines eventually succeeded.  Undoubtedly, lessons were learned which will have assisted in the numerous repetitions required in this Island-hopping strategy.  Unfortunately, at this beginning it was clear that the tactical thinking and planning of the Marine Corps staff was pathetic, if not downright useless.  According to Wiki:

Writing after the war, General Holland Smith, who in his biography was highly critical of the Navy, commented:

Was Tarawa worth it? My answer is unqualified: No. From the very beginning the decision of the Joint Chiefs to seize Tarawa was a mistake and from their initial mistake grew the terrible drama of errors, errors of omission rather than commission, resulting in these needless casualties.

Thus it is with most armies and as always 'lessons are learned' but at what a huge cost!  I salute the memory of those Marines lost at Tarawa.

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 17.11.19

Those damned Dambusters!   I am somewhat over-hyped because whilst slurping my morning 'drain-clear' (aka: my fresh orange juice) this morning, I read that part of Max Hasting's superb history of the 'Dambuster' raid in which the actual attacks went in.  I found myself gripping the arm of my chair!

Can you imagine flying that behemoth, straight and true at night, just 60' above the water, with German AA fire streaming in at you?  The courage and the skill required defies belief!  Mind you, it is worth pausing to also remark on the courage and sense of duty of the likes of Cpl. Schulze, the son of a local farmer, who remained at his AA post on top of the dam desperately trying to defend against this seemingly endless line of incoming bombers all of whom were firing back at him!  All that courage, all that skill, all that scientific expertise - and all for the purposes of mutual destruction!  One can only echo Othello: "But yet the pity of it, Iago! O Iago, the pity of it! "  And it's worth remembering that it was very much and Anglo-Saxon enterprise.  The crews were an ad hoc mix of British and British  Empire men from around the globe and also included an American (Joe McCarthy - no, not that one!) who had volunteered for the RAF before his country was involved.  It's a terrific book - treat yourself - or others - at Christmas!

 

Poor old Oliver Kamm, up the creek without a paddle!   As regular readers know, I have not just a soft spot for Oliver Kamm but admiration.  I remember way back in the day, long before he rose to the dizzy heights as a leader writer for The Times, when he was just another blogger, er, like me, really! (Well, not quite like me because he has brains, intelligence and learning and all that sort of thing!)  Anyway, I have, sort of, followed his progress since then and occasionally picked up his 'scribblings'.  Like today, for example, over at CAPX where the poor chap finds himself all at sea now that he accepts the cold truth that his lifetime of love and support for the Labour party needs must end.  He appears to be dismissive of the 'il-Lib-non-Dems' and somehow I cannot see him ever voting for Boris, so the question remains, who will he vote for next month?

 

We can't see ya' but we can hear ya and smell ya'!   According to the Sheriff's Office in Clay County, Missouri, a runaway dope-dealer suspect hid himself away so well they could not find him.  Alas and alack, he could not control his wind and let forth an almighty loud and long fart which gave him away.  The story does not say how long the sheriff had to wait up-wind before carrying out the arrest.  Possibly the suspect had over-indulged in a slug of Barney Magroo's finest!

 

Movin' along from Missouri to Louisiana:   Bad news for 'The Donald' in a State Governorship election in Louisiana.  The incumbent Democrat who took the 'Repubs' by surprise by winning the previous election, now he's done it again to win a second term.  This, despite three visits from 'The Donald' and a 'yuuuuge' campaign by the GOP who were anxious to regain what they considered to be a safe Republican state.  Not the best pre-Christmas gift Mr. President was hoping for!

 

Does anyone really know the real Boris?   I ask because I haven't a clue!  But next month I will probably help vote him in as Prime Minister.  What will he actually do?  The only 'hints', broadcast across the 'meeja' at full volume, is that he will spend money like a drunken sailor.  I must ask my e-pal, 'JK', how that works in practice but I fear the worst.  Part of the problem is that I have considerable difficulty in understanding what he is saying via that gurgling, stuttering,stammering burble that sounds terribly posh but is mostly indecipherable!  Mind you, I have no problem understanding 'Jezza's' agit-prop and I tremble!  Alas, when it comes to Boris, all we can do is hope for the best but expect the worst and comfort ourselves with the thought that his 'worst' is infinitely preferable to Jezza's best!

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

If you speak like a dork, write like a dork and look like a dork - guess what?

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman speaks during an interview in New York, May 4, 2012. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

I seem to have been reading Paul Krugman, off and on - er, more 'off' than 'on'! - for years now and my gut feeling is that he is indeed an 'A1' dork and given the fact that he was awarded a Nobel Prize clinches it as far as I am concerned!  Happily today, Mr. David Harsanyi at the National Review (where else?) strips away the BS and defines the 'dork-factor' that runs through Mr. Krugman [with my emphasis]:

One of the nation’s leading doomsayers has been the New York Times’ perpetually mistaken Paul Krugman, who warned shortly after the 2016 election that Trump’s victory would trigger a global recession “with no end in sight.” We could file that under “post-election hysteria,” but as late as April of this year he was still telling crowds that the bond-market signals predicted “a pretty good chance of a recession sometime in the next year or so.” And he has kept this going all year:

February 11: Paul Krugman expects a global recession this year, warns “we don’t have an effective response.”

August 1: “Why Was Trumponomics a Flop?”

August 15: “From Trump Boom to Trump Gloom”

September 5: “Trumpism Is Bad for Business”

October 3: “Here Comes the Trump Slump”

October 24: “The Day the Trump Boom Died”

A couple of weeks after the Trump Boom expired, CNBC reported that “October job creation comes in at 128,000, easily topping estimates even with GM auto strike.” This cycle has been going on for three years.

Is there a run on the banks?  Are Wall Street dealers hurling themselves out of skyscraper windows?  Are millions of industrial workers queuing for charity bowls of soup?  Is the dollar worth a shilling in the pound?  No, none of those things.  The American economy chugs on like a freighter through the waves of international trading and money exchange, with all the normal ups and downs.  Sometimes the climate is favourable and sometimes it can turn rough - thus has it ever been!

Voters vastly overestimate the role that presidents play in economic growth, to be sure. But Trump-era job creation was a far tougher task, since he was operating with less room for job growth than his predecessor. And considering the (self-inflicted) trade wars, political turmoil, and foreign-policy concerns that have dominated much of his first term, conventional wisdom tells us we should be struggling. Yet it’s clear that we’ve had a pretty resilient economy.

What has Trump done? The two things Paul Krugman hates most: Regulatory rollbacks and tax cuts. And yet here we are.

Demonstrating his wisdom, unlike Krugman, Mr. Harsanyi makes no specific predictions for the future except that, judging by recent history, things will, eventually, take a turn for the worst - because they always do!

At some point, of course, doomsayers such as Krugman are going to be right. In the past 60 years the United States has been hit with recessions in 1960–61, 1969–70, 1973–75, 1980, 1981–82, 1990–91, 2001, and 2007–09. History says we’re probably due for another one soon. When it hits, Krugman will blame tax cuts, unfettered capitalist greed, a dearth of regulations — and maybe climate change, or whatever hobbyhorse he’s riding at the time. MSNBC hosts will hail him as a seer.

Personally, given his record plus those awful-looking glasses he wears, I think Krugman should get himself off to 'Specsavers'!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDwK_AUk0FI

 

 

'Kalifornian Katastrophe'

What the hell is going on in California?  As "seen through a glass darkly", it is beautiful, mostly warm, gently washed by the Pacific ocean, gallons of wine and, er, Hollywood!  However, whilst I pretend to no expertise, more and more of everything I read about the place tells me it is going to hell in that infamous handcart!  My latest despatch comes from the redoubtable Ann Coulter, courtesy of 'TakiMag'.  You will not be surprised to know that she blames the Democratic Party and even if only half of what she offers in evidence is true, then she is spot on!

California is wholly controlled by the Democratic Party. The governor is a Democrat. The lieutenant governor is a Democrat. The attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer are Democrats. All these positions have been held by Democrats since the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger (who was a Democrat). The state Senate is just under two-thirds Democratic, while the assembly is more than two-thirds Democratic. Both U.S. senators are Democrats, as are 46 of 53 members of Congress.

So there are no excuses, whatever the final outcome is for California, the Dems own it, lock, stock and barrel!  Of course, they maintain their power, even as the State crumbles about them, by empowering the immigrant vote irrespective of whether or not they are legal immigrants.

But starting with Gray Davis’ refusal in 1999 to appeal an activist judge’s announcement that it was “unconstitutional” for taxpayers not to give welfare to illegal immigrants — an initiative that had passed overwhelmingly just a few years earlier — California’s elected officials began an all-out war on its own citizens.

Currently, the position seems to be that the Democrat polit-bureau simply ignores the stated wishes of its citizens.  Take for example, the death penalty:

I doubt any other state’s voters have been more emphatic about their support for the death penalty than Californians, voting for it in statewide initiatives in 1972, 1978, 2012 and again in 2016 — just three years ago. But earlier this year, Gov. Newsom flagrantly disregarded the voters’ repeated endorsement of capital sentences and single-handedly imposed a moratorium on the death penalty.

Then there is the tricky situation concerning gun law:

This September, during a fiery debate on guns, the left demanded “red-flag laws” to take guns away from citizens after having their politics, their writings, their previous exercise of free speech examined on a granular level by bureaucrats empowered to revise the Bill of Rights. In the middle of that debate, Gov. Newsom commuted the sentences of 21 convicted felons — almost all of whom were serving lengthy terms for murder or attempted murder with a gun.  And get this: Newsom specifically cited the unfairness of enhancing a criminal’s sentence merely because he used a gun when committing a crime. [My emphasis]

And so it goes on and on.  Citizens are leaving in droves - but of course 'bought and paid for' immigrants, legal or otherwise, flock in.  Where will it end?  I do not know but I fear the worst.

 

 

Well, Hillary's visit went down like a bowl of sick!

To be honest, I barely noticed that the ex-First Lady had graced these ancient shores but, happily, The Coffee House spotted it and today we had some commentary from Brendan O'Neill.

Mr. O'Neil was not amused!

She’s here with her daughter Chelsea — the dictionary should replace its definition of the word nepotism with just a photograph of Chelsea Clinton — to promote their book, The Book of Gutsy Women.

That’s clearly how Hillary and Chelsea see themselves. As gutsy women. I guess it does take a great deal of courage to live in vast mansions and earn £190k ($250k) for a speech to filthy-rich bankers about diversity or whatever. I wonder if the numerous women adversely affected (to put it politely) by the various Hillary-cheered wars in the Middle East think the Clintons are gutsy? Someone should ask them.

Apparently, she ticked us off for leaving the EU:

She’s called into question the wisdom of our democratic vote to leave the EU. She is ‘concerned’ about where the UK is heading. You shouldn’t ‘separate yourself from Europe’, she said. ‘Democracies need to stick together.’

Mr. O'Neil puts her right but I doubt he will receive any thanks!

We’re not separating ourselves from Europe, Hillary. We’re separating ourselves from the EU. Europe is a vast continent that has existed for aeons; the EU is a bloated, bureaucratic nightmare that has only existed, in its current form, since 1993. We’ll be fine.

And, Mrs. ex-First Lady, when we need your advice, we'll ask for it.  It appears that even the American public can do without it judging by your electoral record!

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 10.11.19

Remembrance Day:   An article in today's Mail took me by surprise.  They conducted a survey of some of those very 'foreign fields' on which British soldiers perished.  What was extraordinary was the fact that local people still tend these graves lovingly, some of them despite the fact that their history of inter-action with the British army was not always, shall we say, amicable!

In the heart of the African bush, Kokou Esso, an impoverished villager, carefully sweeps the grave of a British upper-class Army officer. It is well-tended, pristine and, most of all, remembered

Even in Russia the graves of various British servicemen who died there are still cared for - including the ones who perished in the abortive attempt to oppose the Bolshevik revolution!  For what it is worth, my grateful thanks to all of them.

 

Incoming 'SoD':   Posting might be a tad erratic today because I have it on high authority that 'SoD' might be visiting.  NOTE TO SELF: Don't mention the 'Br' word!

 

That Peter Hitchens is tossing grenades again!   This time his target is Winston Churchill as war leader who is, of course, a 'yuuuuuge' target and therefor fairly easy to hit!  Even so, Hitchens is in receipt of some fairly heavy counter-battery fire from some distinguished historians.  I will not attempt to summarise the arguments but I will provide you with the links so that you WWII buffs can study them at your leisure.  This is his opening salvo in today's Mail:

700 people came to see this talk about my book 'The Phoney Victory' in Edinburgh . Now you can share the experience

At last! The recording of my appearance last August at the Edinburgh Book Festival to discuss my widely-ignored book ‘The Phoney Victory’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb8A4AGKGkg&feature=youtu.be

The interviewer is Ruth Wishart, to whom I offer my thanks . Likewise to the Edinburgh Book Festival, the only major book festival which showed any interest in this book .

I think the unfairness and idiocy of the boycott of silence to which the book has been subjected by festivals and reviewers was well-illustrated by the fact that 700 people attended this event, and I missed my train home because so many people wanted me to sign books afterwards.

I have addressed two other private events about this book and on both occasions received an enormous amount of interest. It is not because this book is a commercial flop that it is being ignored, but perhaps because it might be a success if it were given normal levels of publicity.

These are two responses.  The first is from Daniel Johnson at Standpoint.   The second from Richard Evans, a history swot from Cambridge.  I am unqualified to adjudicate so I will leave it to you WWII students to take your own decisions.

 

I never thought I would write these words!   However, I really think I will miss Phil Hammond, the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer.  Yes, he looked like a gormless twit and over Brexit he demonstrated it!  However, he kept a canny eye on the nation's finances which are looking remarkably healthy despite the squealings of the 'Remainers'.  Alas, both Boris and 'Jezza' are throwing money - er, our money, I would remind you! - in all directions in their desperation to win the election.  There will be tears - or even blood!

 

More war - sorry!   But this is just a Hollywood film of a particular battle and I am sorry to say that it is based on one of the most crucial, subtle and sophisticated battles of WWII.  I refer to the Battle of Midway which involved not just the courageous sailors and airmen involved but also the highly secret skills of the American code-breakers.  Somehow, don't ask me how, I just cannot believe Hollywood will do it justice.  Read a bbook on the subject and be amazed!

 

Another tricky question for my American friends:   I keep coming across hints and whispers and the occasional nudge here and there in the 'meeja', to the effect that California is headed towards a financial collapse of Argentinian proportions!  Tell me it ain't so!

 

Too, too delicious!   I am referring to the plight of Michael E. Mann, the, er, 'inventor' of the 'Hockey Stick' graph which purports to show an up-tick in global temperatures.  He sued one of his critics, a Dr. Tim Ball, in the Canadian courts - and lost - BIGTIME!  Ordered to pay costs to Dr. Bell, he has so far refused.  The similar case against Mark Stein which Mann started some seven years ago has still not been judged in court because Mann keeps dodging.  How much faith do you have in global warming prophets?  That much, eh?   Sucker!

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

 

 

D-day and all that

I suppose with Remembrance Day approaching there have been numerous items on the news which feature the action at D-Day - and the consequent loss of life.  Watching some old newsreel footage the other day, I could not help ruminating on what a truly extraordinary operation it was.  The sheer volume of planning required for the overall strategy adopted which, and this was a 'minefield' all of its own, had to be agreed between three major, allied participants.  Then there was the planning for the logistics which were mammoth.  Yes it takes brave and skilled soldiers to fight battles but it also takes intelligent and detailed thinkers to ensure that they actually have the right 'bullets' in the right place at the right time in order for the soldiers to operate.

Of course, there were the usual silly spats between high-ranking officers each wishing to ensure that when the result, for good or ill, was clear, they and their country would come out of it with maximum credit and minimum crap!  In retrospect, it is worth remembering that they, in their different ways, represented democratic countries and democratic systems with all the inbuilt messiness that such liberal systems entail.   Unlike their opponents, they were not ruled over by a murderous mono-maniac who truly believed he was 'the ruler of the universe'.  It is clear now that, in fact, Hitler was the Allies best weapon!

Even so, in the end everything, absolutely everything, depended on the tens of thousands of individual soldiers who had to gulp their breath and step out from a landing craft into a ferocious hail of red-hot metal, and then keep on advancing even as their comrades fell beside them.  That, truly, was courage - and we all salute them.

 

 

 

Do black people blush?

Well, I don't know the answer to that question but what I can state with absolute certainty is that the Obamas do NOT blush!  Not, I hasten to add, because they are black but because they are politicians!  Take this, for an example, from Taki's Mag:

At the Obama Foundation Summit—yeah, apparently that’s a thing—she decried white flight in Chicago, which apparently started around the time she and her parents moved into a mostly white neighborhood and people started vamoosing in alarm because they didn’t want to become sacrificial lambs that the elites had offered up to appease black people’s resentment for crimes that were almost exclusively perpetrated by the elites:

"There were no gang fights; there were no territorial battles. Yet one by one, they packed their bags, and they ran from us. And they left communities in shambles….Y’all were running from us, and you’re still running, because we’re no different than the immigrant families that are moving in, the families in Pilsen, the families that are coming from other places to try to do better."

So what you’re trying to say is that the gang fights only started after the white people left, but somehow this is white people’s fault?

Taki, who is a very naughty boy! (or perhaps his editor) goes on:

Both Barack and Michelle Obama have spent most of their lives in Chicago—specifically, the South Side. In early September, it was announced that they were buying a $15-million dollar estate on Martha’s Vineyard.

Chicago’s South Side is 93% black. Martha’s Vineyard is 3.7% black and 88.1% white.

No further questions, Your Honor.

There's nothing like the sweet smell stench of humbug in the morning!

 

 

 

A fascinating question for my 'Yankee-doodle' friends

Needless to say, it is one of those irritating 'ifs, buts and maybes' questions which could keep us all arguing for hours.  However, don't blame me, instead blame Mr. Rich Lowry at the National Review and the question rests in the title to his piece, "Would America Be the Same If It Had Been Settled by Russians or Spaniards?"

He answers it later in his article with this rather witty sentence with my emphasis:

At the beginning, this was a country not necessarily for Englishmen but by Englishmen, including their notions of liberty, which defined the American experience from the outset.

Spot on, methinks, and it leads to the greatest attribute we have donated, unthinkingly, to our American 'cousins' - the English language.  With it, of course, came instant access to a wholly different set of political and philosophical thoughts far removed from the European style.  He continues:

Tocqueville famously wrote that the American was the Englishman left alone. If the eastern seaboard had been settled by Spaniards, you could have “left them alone” for a very long time and marinated them in all the Enlightenment philosophers, and they still never would have come up with the American founding.

Of course, I am not suggesting that we Brits 'built the house', so to speak, but I think we laid out the American foundations and for that alone we can claim some mitigation for our ghastly and bloody history!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 3.11.19

Feeling cheerful this Sunday morning, are you?   Well, I'll soon put a stop to that!  Or to be precise, Mr. Peter Hitchens, will!  He has a terrific article in The Mail today in which he looks back over his political travails during the numerous general elections  from the early '70s until today in which he was either a participant or just another voter.  All the old names resurface, Michael Foot, Harold MacMillan, Ted Heath, Jeremy Thorpe and so on and on, ad nauseum, although, oddly, he never mentions "that woman"!  It has obviously been a long and painful journey for poor Peter because he looks back on it, and into the future, with undoubted anguish.  But of course, his real problem is that he is now and has been since his early teen-age years, an idealist which is why he began his political journey with the Labour party.  Alas, idealists of all persuasions are doomed to disappointment because this messy world just doesn't behave like that!  Even so, it is a superb and in some ways moving essay and well worth reading.

 

Do get a grip, Mr. President!   Alas, after reading Mr. John R. Bradley's piece in this week's 'Speccie', I fear that the 'Ginger Ninjah' has adopted an odd anthem to lead his Middle East policy - "In-out, in-out, wave it all about!"  A few days ago we - er, well, me, at any rate - were breathing a sigh of relief following 'The Donald's' decision to withdraw American ground troops from the Middle East.  Since then, the American Generals have ordered their Military Police to give him a whacking with their 'yuuuuuuuge' truncheons and in this they have been aided and abetted by the Evangelical vote which will be crucial at the next election.  Then there are the neo-cons led by the likes of Sen. Lindsey Graham whose support will be critical if this fatuous impeachment goes much further.  The result is that now 'the GIs ain't goin' nowhere no how'.  Please, pretty please, Mr. President do try and engage the brain before opening your mouth - and in the meantime have your twitter finger amputated!

 

Dammit, that Max Hastings is good!   Yes, I have finally begun his book "Chastise", his history of the famous dam-busters raid in 1944.  I was somewhat surprised to learn that it took place on the night of the 16th of May and the early morning of the 17th which, of course, as y'all do know, do you not?, was my 4th birthday!  I am only into it in a small way but already Sir Max has dropped some 500lb bombs on that bumptious fool, Air Marshal 'Bomber' Harris, which is excellent.  Even based on the opening chapters I can thoroughly recommend it.

 

Good News and Dribbling Idiocy:   Thanks to today's Mail I learn two things.  First, the police are to be given the power to arrest (so-called) gypsies if they set up their squalid camps illegally on private or public land.  Second, audiences at theatres will no longer hear the phrase "Ladies and Gentlemen" which has been banned for the usual eye-ball rolling idiocy perpetrated by the 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz' pressure group. (Note: I have put all the letters into their title to ensure that I don't leave one out!

 

When it comes to the horror of black slavery, check out Arab-Islam!   A fascinating, 'MUST READ' article at The American Thinker site in which the little known, or at least, the little mentioned, facts of Arabic slavery in Africa, which far exceeds anything we wicked, Western Whites ever did, is exposed.  Nowadays, of course, much of black Africa has converted to Islam so we are unlikely to see any recriminations from there!

 

No more rumbles  . . .

 

 

Kanye West, er, well, what can one say . . .

You must forgive my hesitation and confusion but I have only just 'met' Mr. Kanye West, a black man who is, so I am informed by Wiki, "an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and fashion designer".  You will understand my hesitation because of my almost total ignorance of all those occupations.  Mr. West is married to Ms. Kim Kardashian, again, not a lady I am familiar with although I understand she is exceptionally beautiful and very, er,  voluptuous.  They have been married for five years and have produced four children.

Already in that potted history you can begin to see some, er, well, eccentricities, shall we call them?  Two mega-rich members of the 'show business' fraternity, both black, both moving constantly in a star-blazed firmament never far from constant publicity and yet … and yet … he is a self-proclaimed and practicing Christian!  Mr. Andrew T. Walker informs us via the excellent offices of The National Review that:

[T]he news of the release of Kanye West’s newest album, Jesus Is King. It comes after months of news stories about West’s very public conversion to Christianity, a Christianity that bears no resemblance to the vague spiritualism of Moral Therapeutic Deism that is often associated with celebrity conversions.

The lyrics to each song in Jesus Is King are shockingly Christian. It is not an album of feel-good Christian spirituality aimed primarily as a message of uplift. West co-wrote and sang the hit “Jesus Walks” on his debut album The College Dropout (2004), but Jesus Is King is different. Throughout the whole of the new album, West is in many respects deeply critical of modernity and cultural progressivism. There are calls for a focus more on the family than on individual glory. He seems to applaud Chick-fil-A, which in our age is tantamount to endorsing bigotry. Social-media obsession should be exchanged for family prayer. Fatherhood is characterized as a virtue. Materialism is pilloried. Calls for worshiping Christ redound to such effect that West’s first Christian album is arguably more Christian than what most contemporary Christian artists could similarly muster.

Well, 'HOODATHUNKIT'? 

Obviously, Mr. West is a man capable of thinking for himself and thinking outside the glitzy box in which he spends so much of his life.  I wish him well along with his gorgeous wife and children.  He will be sorely tested but, hey, that's the fate of all true Christians.  In the meantime, I, too, can only pray that I get through the rest of my life without hearing his music because I fear I would not enjoy it!

 

 

Will she? Won't she?

An interesting - er, well, only if politics is your 'thang' - article by the indefatigable Mr. Thomas Lifson at The American Thinker in which he discusses the 'Will she? Won't she?' riddle of whether 'HillBilly' will launch a try for the Presidency.  At present she is playing coy, she won't say yes and she won't say no!  Given the paucity of talent amongst the crowd of not so much 'has beens' as more, the 'never wases' and the 'never will bes', she must be straining at the leash, after all, dammit, she is entitled to the job!  According to Mr. Lifson, she is simply waiting for 'good ol' Joe' to admit that he's past it and and that, really 'n' truly he'd prefer his old rocking chair!

As y'all do know, I make no pretence of understanding American politics but the current crop of no-hopers, nut-cases, juveniles and infants lining up to, er, tempt the American public is the worst, most ignorant and useless collection of political ignoramuses that I can recall.  True, Donald Trump isn't exactly 'Brain of America' but at least he is ultra-patriotic in that "Make America Great Again!" way of his and my gut feeling is that most Americans are also intensely patriotic.  'HillBilly', of course, comes with a train-load of faults and weaknesses and errors of judgment, some of them perilously close to propelling her into a Federal court.  And hanging over her disreputable head is the memory of her infamous words after four American diplomats were murdered on her watch, "At this point what does it matter?"

If there is any justice 'over there', those words should eventually be carved onto her grave stone!

 

Calm down, Mr. President, there's plenty more where Baghdadi came from!

No-one who isn't a member of ISIS would begrudge 'The Donald' his moment of triumph even if it was earned on the backs of some exceedingly brave and skilful soldiers.  However, too much triumphalism, too early, could bite back because there are probably a score of 'Nasty Hairies' already plotting their way to replace the late Mr. Baghdadi and a chance to 'earn' their own reputations - and their revenge!  Even so, this is the very best way to fight this particular campaign.  No need for Divisions of troops spread across a hostile land and providing endless targets for the 'Hairies' to aim at.  Instead, use the very best intelligence-gathering devices and specialist troops to seek out the individual targets - and then make it deadly and personal!

Well done, Mr. President!  I'm not sure how much input you had in this tricky operation but if it had gone 'tits up' you would certainly have been in receipt of several tons of brown stuff!  So, enjoy your moment of triumph - but don't over-do it.  Your enemies in the Democrat party and the 'meeja' will be quietly sharpening their knives and waiting their chance- a bit like the 'Hairies', really!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 27.10.19

CANCELLED - Sorry, sorry, sorry but I tried to copy and paste something and it completely buggered up my screen and now I am in such a 'grump mood' that I can't be bothered to scribble anything more!

See you tomorrow!

 

Will American civil war help us through the coming long Winter evenings

There is now absolutely no doubt that Donald Trump is, er, well, Donald Trump!  Sorry, sorry for not being more specific but really, when you think on't, the words 'Donald Trump' do not merely signify a particular man but a 'yuuuuuuge' conglomeration of characteristics, many, or even most, of which contradict each other.  He is, I suspect, not a man much in touch with himself, let alone reality.  Rather, what he 'sees' as himself is simply a galaxy of constantly changing images which are 'clicked up' to suit any given situation.

Now, due entirely to his own error of judgment, he finds himself toe to toe with another bumptious know-it-all who, alas, appears not to know very much.  I refer to 'Bristly' Bolton, 'el presidente's' former National Security Advisor.  To be honest, I cannot recall exactly how long 'Bristly' held the job but blink and you'd miss him!  Both men 'knew' each other, or at least, like everyone else with an interest in world affairs, they must have known, or at least guessed, each other's characteristics.  A failure on either man's part to do this indicates that neither is suitable for their roles at the highest level of their nation's affairs.

If the 'romance' between them was disastrous, then the 'divorce' was, is and will be, catastrophic.  'Bristly' Bolton is determined on revenge and has now thrown in his lot with the Democratic 'Witchfinder Generals' and my guess is that he will have several tons of offal to tip on 'el Presidente's' head to assist in his intended impeachment.  What else can one say of President Donald Trump other than 'sucker!'

 

 

 

You think Brexit is complicated? Try impeachment!

So, in, er, "the Land of the Free" the dreaded 'Peeps' voted in a Republican eccentric rather than a Democratic crook.  So far, so normal!  However, the losers, not content to heal their wounds and build their strength in order to fight a better contest with a better candidate (not too difficult given the nature of the last one!), they have wasted 'yuuuuuuuge' amounts of time and energy and such miniscule amounts of intelligence that they possess, in trying every damn trick in the book to undo an election, including, SECRET hearings to plot the impeachment of the sitting President despite the fact that he is due to face the 'Peeps' again in a year!

Secret hearings - how very, er, Russian!  Yesterday, the cabal was invaded by Republican Congressmen determined to find out what the Democrats were plotting.  Who can blame them, after all this is supposed to be the home of democracy where leaders are changed by due process.  I am not too sure about the common-sense, let alone the intellectual ability, of President Trump but it seems to me that the Democratic party has fallen to a clique of screechy, stupid 'wimmin', er, some of whom are men! We can go bonkers 'over here' because it doesn't actually matter all that much but you are the leader of the free world!

Get a grip, America!  

 

 

Sorry to make you vomit your breakfast

Hillary Clinton (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Yes, I suppose that photo should have been accompanied by a 'Health Hazard' warning but, 'Man up, people', slowly but inexorably the noose is tightening around the plump neck of that disgusting woman.  Mostly this is due to the excellent 'Judicial Watch' organisation which is relentless in pursuit of her and her gross dereliction of duty in using a totally insecure and private e-mail system to conduct the business of the United States.  By the slow but steady application of judicial pressure on the State Department, whose employees, you will remember, crowded outside their offices to cheer her into office, the so far hidden documents are being dragged into daylight.

You may be tempted to repeat her infamous phrase in connection to the slaughter of four diplomats under her care and protection, "What difference at this point does it make?"  You may, indeed, be prepared to repeat the (in)famous phrase beloved of the London police, "Nothing to see here, move along!" but I hope, and get as near to praying as an old agnostic like me can, that eventually that ghastly woman is charged with serious dereliction of duty.

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 20.10.19

Yes, you're right, I have been a tad lackadaisical on this, er, distinguished blog since I snuck off for a three-day break.  It's a funny thing, this writing lark, you really do have to be in the mood for it.  Anyway, after a good night's sleep, my first for a while, I am firing on all of my 2.5 cylinders!

Who is Ms. Tulsi Gabbard?   And why do I want her to have my babies?  Well, I'm not too sure about that but anyone who can describe 'HillBilly' as "the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long" certainly deserves consideration as a bearer of my precious hereditary 'jewels'!  Also, as a female member of the American army, the first Samoan to stand for high political office and as a practicing Hindu she is certainly worth watching.  Alas, she seems imbued with all the usual Left-wing twaddle but even so she may be worth watching.

 

This gives me a warm feeling:   I might even give myself a self-congratulatory hug!  According to the Charity Aid Foundation - no, me neither! - who have conducted a survey of every nation in the world in order to find out which is the most charitable in its giving, the UK came in second!  I point this out to remind y'all that contributions to DPCBF will be gratefuly received.  (Er, that's Duff's Poor Children's Beer Fund, of course!)

 

Dear Meghan, six weeks isn't long enough:   Apparently, poor little Meghan is in desperate need of a six week holiday after the stresses and strains of jetting hither an thither to various places ranging from American high society spots to South Africa.  I can only suggest, your Royal Highness, that you make it six months, nay, better still, take the next six years off and give us all a break.  At my age I will probably be dead by the time you return to constantly clutter up the front pages where you are rapidly becoming even more boring than Brexit!

 

Hey! You 'Noo Yawkers', get down to the Morgan Library!   According to the National Review, an exhibition of John Singer Sargent's later charcoal drawings has just opened.  Absolutely and definitely worth a look.  The man was a truly brilliant artist.  Who could ever forget, "Madame X":

 

That Max Hastings better be on his game!    Next Wednesday, as part of the internationally acclaimed Sherborne Literary Festival - waddya mean, ya never heard of it? - Mr. Hastings is giving a talk on his latest book covering the (in)famous Dam-busters raid in 1943.  Actually, he has nothing to fear from me because I have been an admirer of it since I first read about it as a nipper.  However, that did not stop mounting suspicions in my mind that perhaps it was not quite the triumph it was proclaimed to be.  Anyway, I am looking forward to it immensely and, of course, I will report in here for a debriefing!

 

'I'm black 'n' fat cos you is white 'n' ginger'!   Thus sayeth, sort of, Professor Britney Cooper who "sports a PhD from Emory University and who currently is an associate professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University".

In her own inimitable words which, I suppose, indicate the er, value of a PhD from Emory University, she says:

"I hate when people talk about black women being obese.  I hate it because it becomes a way to blame us for a set of conditions that we didn't create."

Do you get that, 'Whitey'?  Those grossly fat, black ladies are not that way because of the extra doughnuts they stuff down their throats at every coffee break but because of your racism in general and your 'gingerism' in the last three years!

 

Let's hear it for good old Albert!   There is an excellent review of A. N. Wilson's new biography of Prince Albert in this week's Spectator.  Poor, old Albert must qualify as one of the most under-rated men in recent British history.  Alas, poor fellow, he never won any great battles and all of his many great achievements were in the field of civic advancement, you know, 'boring-snoring'!  If I didn't have so many other books waiting for my attention I would snap it up immediately.

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

Harold Bloom, 1930-2019, R.I.P.

I am always somewhat careful when approaching someone who is generally described as 'a colossal character' but that is the inescapable summary of Harold Bloom who died a few days ago.  He dominated the stage, or perhaps that should be, 'the boxing ring', of English and American literature for decades.  Never short of an opinion and never short of the energy and ultra-detailed knowledge required to back up his assertions.

Bloom: consumed books "at a rate of 1,000 pages an hour" Credit: TED THAI /TIMEPIX/REX

Alas, I am totally unqualified to take a view on his opinions on literature apart from remarking that the various modernist scribblers who succumbed to mouth-dribbling fury when he dismissed them, in effect, as talentless phonies provided me with endless giggles when I read about them.

However, one thing is certain, the late, great Mr. Bloom will remain on a plinth with certain other Shakespearean scholars for his magnificent book: "Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human".  I had a copy - somewhere - at sometime - but now I cannot find it!  I tried to order a copy for my Kindle but - dammit - the morons do not list it!  Anyway, thank you, Mr. Bloom, I doubt I could have played Falstaff to any standard without your superb book.

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 13.10.19

"The horror, oh, the horror"

Image by The Earl of Taint

Another corker from The American Thinker site.  You will recall that 'Fauxcahontas' contributed to "The Pow Wow" cookery book but, alas, to no one's surprise, her recipes were nicked from some French cook-book!

 

'Très bien', "Spiral" is back!   Alors, mes amis, I was doing celebratory somersaults last night because, totally unexpectedly, I saw that the French 'policier' series, "Spiral" was back on BBC4.  Most of the 'old gang' were there including my darling, darling, Audrey Fleurot playing the part of Joséphine Karlsson.  I really must try to improve my written French because, merde alors, she has failed to respond to my numerous letters!

 

A Brexit deal?   "You're 'avin' a laugh!"  There will be NO Brexit deal!  The reason is 'simples', the European 'apparatchiks' do not want a deal, they have never wanted a deal, all they want is total surrender and a victory parade down Whitehall.  If Boris is dumb enough to surrender then he will take the prize as the shortest term Prime Minister in our history! 

 

That Max Hasting better be on his toes!   The week after next he is giving a talk to the Sherborne Literary Society and that expert on any and all matters military will be present - er, that's me, actually, ex-Cpl. Duff!  Bet he's shaking in his boots!

 

Bucket & Spade time - again!  Yes, you will all be delighted to know that on Monday this distinguished blog is going on its holidays! No, no, I'm not jetting off to the south  of France, just chugging gently down to south Devon where the Memsahib and I will enjoy three nights in a very nice hotel on the seafront.

 

Exciting, it is not!  But, what the hell, who needs excitement at our age?  Just give me hot 'n' cold running housemaids and a decent chef!  Should be back on Thursday.

 

"The Quintet of the Hot Club of France":   I just came across that title of, arguably, one of the very greatest jazz combos of all time.  Started by that jazz genius, Django Reinhardt, and later given la crème de la crème when they were joined by the incomparable Stéphane Grappelli, they constituted 'jazz genius' of the very highest order.  I am grateful to 'Commentary' magazine for giving me a kick in the 'memory bank' and I will now start to search for my precious CDs.

 

No more rumbles

 

 

Oh no, a civil war - inside the National Review!

Now look here, JK, you are the D&N archivist but you are also supposed to possess the skills required to read what passes for my mind and, er, 'intuit' what I am about to write.  This morning I read the NR article you linked to in your last comment and began to write a post on the subject but then, dammit, those bloody-bloody "events, dear boy, events" intervened and I had no chance to finish it.  Eventually, I return to find that you have given the game away and thus ruined my reputation for being a really, really deep, serious thinker - sorry, did you say something?

Well, what the hell, it's not the first time I have nicked the thoughts of The National Review in general, and the excellent Mr. Andrew C. McCarthy in particular.  What is particularly fascinating about this article is that it shows Mr. McCarthy in resolute opposition to the views of the NR Editorial team.  I trust no paper coffee cups were hurled!  Actually, it increases my approval of the NR that they can air their differences - you don't see much of that sort of thing in 'The Graun'!

In essence, Mr. McCarthy explains 'the bleedin' obvious' that the Middle East is a first-class 'festerpot' of the very worst kind and that President Trump's decision to get out was, so to speak, 'cruel but kind', particularly in regard to the Kurds, although it must be said, and he says it, that the Kurds have much to answer for themselves!  As I pointed out in my recent post on the subject, it's not so much what the President does as the way that he does it!

The next question is, when and how will he walk/flounce (delete as necessary) out of NATO?  Given that apart from us Brits, no other NATO member pays their full dues towards the cost of American protection, who could blame him?

ADDITIONAL:    Oooops!  Just read a brief post at Zero Hedge reporting that America is rushing 3,000 more troops to help defend that bastion of democracy and liberalism, Saudi Arabia!  Please, Mr. President, do get a grip!

 

 

You will read this now - that's an order!

"The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from  a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural tonalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power."

Got that?

No, I will not be asking you questions to test your knowledge because, frankly, I can't understand a bloody word of it!

That passage, according to Wiki: "was awarded first prize in its fourth annual "Bad Writing Competition", which set out to "celebrate bad writing from the most stylistically lamentable passages found in scholarly books and articles."

It was written by Ms. Judith Butler, a well known leader in the micro-puddle of feminist/lesbian studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

No, not exactly my idea of a hot, Californian 'chick', either, but then she has absolutely no desire to be one.  However, what I can say with some conviction is that she is as "thick as six short Ghurkhas".*  Anyone who can with malice afore-thought deliberately write such incomprehensible garbage is in dire need of, er, 're-education'.

*NB: Gurkhas are anything but 'thick' in the sense of lacking intelligence but being frequently nearly as wide as they are tall it has led some, er, 'poet' to invent that witty phrase.

 

'Watch my lyin' lips!'

Well, we all tell the occasional fib but there are some people who simply lie, lie and then lie some more!  Let me introduce you to Mrs. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).  I'm not quite sure what "MA" stands for but whichever district of America it is, then it is peopled by beings who look unaturally similar to each other and who have difficulty reading and writing because they keep re-electing perhaps one of the greatest lying-liars ever to enter the Halls of Congress - 'Big Chief' Elizabeth 'Fauxcahontas' Warren!

As they obviously say in 'MA', "You can fool me once or you can fool me constantly and repetitively" which 'Faucahontas' does, over and over.

After using for decades a totally false background claiming Red Indian heritage in order to take personal advantage in University places and job advancements, she was finally forced to admit that she was indeed a 'lying liar' of epic proportions.  So it is no surprise, except possibly to the brain dead of 'MA', that she can still tell effortless 'porkies'*.  This time it is her claim to have been more or less fired from an early teaching job because she fell pregnant.  It now transpires that far from being fired, the board of the school at which she worked actually wanted to extend her contract!  Read the sordid details over at Zero Hedge.  

 

*For my foreign readers, a 'porkie', ie, a porkie-pie, is cockney rhyming slang for a lie.

 

ADDITIONAL:   Dammit!  I have only just spotted today's 'cartoon' over The American Thinker:

 

 

It ain't what you do, Mr. President, but the way that you do it!

Let me begin by setting out my credentials.  I have a First Class Honours Degree in Middle East Politics from that illustrious Hall of Learning, er, 'Blogdom University'!  Oh yes, when it comes to the differences between a Sunni and a 'Cloudy' or a Turk and a, well, you know, one of those turban-wearing scallywags, I have all the facts and figures at my fingertips.  By which I mean that given a couple of years of non-stop tapping on my keyboard I could find all the answers via Google - an impeccable source, I am assured!

All of which brings me to that splendid twit in the White House who, with a quick stab at his Twitter-machine, dumps his erstwhile allies deep in the 'doo-doo' by flouncing out of a military/strategic conflict which he has hitherto supported!  Of course, in the short-term he has saved a few 'zillion' dollars and perhaps some servicemen's lives but in the long-term he has reduced trust in America to zero.  Not, of course, that any sensible political leader would ever place too much trust in any other political leader but there are ways of 'ratting out' your erstwhile allies with some sophistication and guile.  Simply announcing out of the blue that "I'm outta here!" is not quite the way to do it especially if in doing so you leave other allies, who had hitherto supported you, holding a suitcase which is ticking ominously.

Trust in America just dropped close to zero.  No 'probs' today perhaps but, Mr. President, think about tomorrow!

 

It's all about oil, innit?

Like you, I'm sure, I can't help noticing that the Arabian sands are shifting!  For a start, ever since the handsome but definitely dodgy, 'MbH' (Mohammad bin Salman) took over as de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, matters have been on the move, not I hasten to add, just because of him but because of those damned "events, dear boy, events!"  Perhaps the greatest and most unexpected 'event' is the fact that that America, God bless its fracking, oily feet, has become a major energy producer which has 'yuuuugely' reduced its reliance on Middle East oil.  Thus, even in the heat of the Arabian desert, 'MbH' is feeling a cold chill!

Timing, as in sex and drumming and grand strategy, is everything, so it is unfortunate for Saudi Arabia that the dawning realisation of its slide in the ranks of power and influence comes just as their nutty neighbour, Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran, who is himself feeling the pressure from an increasingly unhappy population, decides to follow the example of most dictators in that situation by inventing an enemy.  Needless to say, the spurious differences in Islamic beliefs between Shia and Sunni is an 'ace in hand' to help him keep his 'peeps' fully behind him.

Then, to add that final touch of, er, ginger spice to the bubbling brew, way 'over there' we have President Trump - yeeeeeees, quite!  As usual, he surprises by not, so far, rising to either Saudi appeals for support, or to Iranian provocations.  Let us hope that he remains that way.  Shia or Sunni, they are all fanatical loonies and best kept at arms length whilst simultaneously applying maximum economic pressures on both of them.

Well done, Mr. President, keep it up - no, no, not that, I mean your cool, calm policy!

My thanks to Mr. Victor Davis Hansen at The National Review for an excellent - and expert! -  summary of the situation.

 

 

 

 

 

Please, please, let 'Fauxcahontas' Warren face off against the 'Ginjah Ninjah'

At my age there is not that much to look forward to but the thought of two all-time, great, American 'lying-liars' slugging it out for most of next year will be "a consummation devoutly to be wished"!  To be fair, when it comes to full on, non-stop lying, 'Fauxcahontas' takes the prize.  Yes, I'm sure 'The Donald' probably told his first 'porkie' (that's Cockney rhyming slang for 'Porkie Pie' = lie!) way before the time he first promised his #1 wife that he would "love, honour and obey" but, hey, waddya mean, lotsa guys do that!

'Fauxcahontas", on the other hand, has lived and breathed and prospered with her very own whopping great LIE uttered and endlessly repeated with malice aforethought to the point where even her supporters:

. . . have had to admit that the crucial leaps in her academic career — her landing a job at the University of Pennsylvania and then moving on to Harvard — occurred after she began listing herself as a racial minority. The year before Harvard Law School hired her — and trumpeted her as the first woman of color so hired — it had been subject to major, headline-grabbing protests for giving tenure to four white men. [My emphasis]

Of course, I realise that in these increasingly 'woke' years, Penn University and Harvard absolutely must remain 'colour blind' but I can't help wondering whether they are actually, just blind!

And it's not as though there were no clues to be found earlier in her life.  There was her famous foray into helping 'cook' (I use the word deliberately) the famous "Pow Wow Cook Book" with her sister in 1984, when it transpired later that three of her five recipes were nicked from a famous French chef!

To quote the favourite phrase of Richard Littlejohn, "You couldn't make it up!" - but 'Fauxcahontas' could!

 

 

They have TDS 'over there' and we have BDS 'over here'

Well, you don't need to be a qualified psycho-babbler to analyse Trump Derangement Syndrome which is spiralling out of control 'over there', any more than you need it 'over here' as Brexit Derangement Syndrome floats ever upwards inflated by the volumes of hot air emanating from Parliament.  The only good thing to be said about both examples of mouth-dribbling lunacy is that it now confirms without doubt that on the whole, by and large and with only rare exceptions, our politicians are stupid beyond belief!

Well, we all knew it, of course, but now, both here and there, we have the ghastly truth not just before our eyes in print and TV but also in our ears as the cacophony of gibberish broadcasts out out at full volume.  Increasingly, Parliament and Congress look and sound like the chimpanzee compound at Chester Zoo* in which the animals constantly leap up and down, screeching at each other as they simultaneously sniff each other's private parts before exchanging blows.  Alas, my inventiveness in describing politicians is severely limited because of my memories of the late, great Auberon Waugh who could eviscerate a politician at twenty paces with a stroke of his pen.  Here are some examples:

The urge to pass new laws must be seen as an illness, not much different from the urge to bite old women. Anyone suspected of suffering from it should either be treated with the appropriate pills or, if it is too late for that, elected to parliament [or congress, as the case may be] and paid a huge salary with endless holidays, to do nothing whatever.

…………………………………………………...

Politics, as I never tire of saying, is for social and emotional misfits, handicapped folk, those with a grudge. The purpose of politics is to help them overcome these feelings of inferiority and compensate for their personal inadequacies in the pursuit of power.

…………………………………………………..

Generally speaking, the best people nowadays go into journalism, the second best into business, the rubbish into politics and the shits into law

…………………………………………………...

Anyone in England who puts himself forward to be elected to a position of political power is almost bound to be socially or emotionally insecure, or criminally motivated, or mad.

…………………………………………………..

It is my settled opinion, after some years as a political correspondent, that no one is attracted to a political career in the first place unless he is socially or emotionally crippled.

Oh, how I miss that man!

 

*https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-secret-life-of-the-zoo

 

 

In which I am about to state 'the bleedin' obvious'!

So no change there then, I suppose!  Even so, I do just want to say that the late, great Bob Fosse was a theatrical/cinematic genius.  Last night, entirely by accident, I happened upon his film "Chicago".  How did I ever manage to miss it until now?  I have raved, many a time and oft', on this blog about his superb film, "Cabaret", but somehow I missed "Chicago" although the 'Memsahib' told me that we once saw a stage version with Liza Minnelli - how could I have forgotten that?

Actually, I rate "Cabaret" higher than "Chicago" mostly because the storyline is deeper.  Even so, the sheer inventiveness of Fosse's choreography in "Chicago" is totally brilliant, and his cinematography in the way in which he shoots the dance sequences is beyond brilliant.  Mind you, this was no 'one-man show', I almost giggled at the credit listings at the end of the film which were nearly as long as the text of  "War and Peace"!

In the unlikey event that you have not seen it yet - go buy a video - NOW!

 

 

You lucky, 'Folgers'!

Well, at least the patrons of the Folger Theatre in Washington are offered an excellent programme of plays for the Autumn, ooops, sorry, I mean 'Fall', of course!  Not only will they have the chance to see Henry IV, part 1 but also part 2.  If possible I would urge them to see both, preferably one after the other!  In addition, they have The Merry Wives of Windsor and or Amadeus.  They will be relieved to know that unlike the 'High Priests' - ooops, sorry, that should be 'High Priestesses' -  of Stratford and/or The Globe Theatre in London, the greatest role invented by 'old Bill', Falstaff, will be played by a man - I know, shockin', shockin'!  Alas, I do not know 'The Merry Wives of Windsor" so well despite having worked there for several years - the 'Memsahib' kept me on a tight rein!  However, I did once play a small role in a production of "Amadeus" and that is an excellent play.  So, your cups 'over-floweth' in Washington!

As I may have mentioned once or twice - OK, OK, perhaps a dozen times before - I once had the enormous privilege of playing fat 'Jack' Falstaff and I remain convinced that he is the greatest character creation Shakespeare ever made, er, well, of course, there's Lear, I suppose, and Hamlet and not forgetting . . . oh never mind!  Alas, Mr. Nic Rowan of The American Spectator is not fulsome in his praise of the production but he has great fun speculating as to who, in the current crop of 'actors' performing their antics in Congress, would make a natural Falstaff.  None of them quite fit, according to Mr. Rowan, not least because there is already an absolute cinch for the role living in Pennsylvania Avenue!  Who could he mean?

 

 

To bomb or not to bomb, that is the question?

In history there are always a host of exquisitely painful moral dilemmas.  To be honest, I usually rush past them because I find that my mind, or what passes for it, usually seizes up if I attempt to answer them.  One of the most hideously difficult ones is the question as to whether or not we should have bombed Auschwitz during the war.

The Daily Mail has an excellent summary of the problem.  

A Professor of Jewish Studies has claimed that the Allied forces should have gone ahead with plans to bomb Auschwitz during World War II, as a symbol of moral outrage.

Speaking in the BBC Two documentary 1944: Should we Bomb Auschwitz? Professor Michael Berenbaum of The American Jewish University in LA, said that a strike should have gone ahead despite the inevitable death toll, arguing: 'Moral protest in the wake of genocide is much better than nothing. Much, much better than nothing.'

As far as I understand it, due to the range, the technical problem was that the Air Force would have to use traditional heavy/medium bombers whose accuracy was hopeless.  Unfortunately, the Mosquito which would have been able to slot a bomb down the chimney of the gas-chambers (not really, but you take my point!) lacked the ability to fly that far.

A raid by traditional bombers would have slaughtered thousands of prisoners.  Of course, in the chaos perhaps thousands might have made their escape but to where?  And would it have put a brake on the mass slaughter when the Germans realised that we knew exactly what they were doing?  'No answer' came the mournful reply!

An agonising decision and I thank God I was not one of those forced to answer it!

 

 

Yet more common thievery!

Yes, I have been at it again, and I cringe, m'Lud, I cringe, not only to you but even more so to the very witty, Mr. Robert Arvay, but also to the ever-excellent American Thinker site which published this superb 'chortle 'n' chuckle' essay.  Alas, I lack both the wit and the skill to summarise it so I will just republish it in its entirety.  Enjoy!

After years of secret shame, I must finally go public with the truth, or something resembling the truth — maybe. Here are the sordid details. Thirty years ago, if my memory is correct, I suspect that I may have possibly been sexually offended by someone who I suspect may possibly have been someone like Christine Blasey Ford. Maybe.

There were no witnesses, and I cannot remember the date or place, because I was unconscious the entire time. But immediately after the alleged possible incident, I went directly to the press and reported the matter — by the press, I mean a newspaper boy, or somebody resembling a newspaper boy. Maybe it wasn't immediately.

The next day, I was accosted by two men in black suits and fedora hats, who warned me that if I pursued the matter, my reputation would be ruined forever, and my family would be in personal danger. I asked them, is Christine really this important to the government? They seemed confused. Christine? Who is she? Oh! You're not the guy we're looking for. But just to be on the safe side, if you ever see a UFO, keep quiet about it.

This, by the way, explains my loss of memory over the alleged incidents. I have a vague recollection that, as someone who might possibly have been someone who looked something like Christine Blasey Ford stepped away from my ravaged, naked body strapped to the hood of her car in the middle of Rodeo Drive during rush hour, she held up a flashy thing, after which my memory went blank.

Maybe it wasn't during rush hour, but during the movie Rush Hour. And maybe it was at an actual rodeo. But the details do not matter. The seriousness of the allegations is what should drive the investigation and subsequent conviction, impeachment, and imprisonment of somebody resembling Justice Kavanaugh. After all, he may have something to do with all this.

It should not matter that my memory of these possible events is hazy. Nor should it matter that I have no evidence of them. Nor should it matter that I am making the entire thing up — the technical term for which is lying.

I should be believed. Period. End of story. (Well, not yet. There may be more.)

Robert Arvay

 

 

Why would anyone buy a copy of the New York Times?

I suppose if you were wrapping your crockery prior to a house-move, or perhaps rough-sleeping in Central Park, or best of all, if you had suddenly run out of toilet paper it might, just might, be worth the price.  The one thing it would not be worth paying for is the latest news!  The reason is straightforward, there is, apparently, very little news in it, and if by chance there is, then it is probably fabricated news.

As reported just about everywhere 'over there', the NYT published yet another - yes, another! - story - I use that word in the sense of a 'fairy story! - concerning 'Hizzoner' Bret Kavanaugh - yes him again, and again, and again!  Two utterly useless and incompetent and politically corrupt 'reporters' alleged that yet another woman had been sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh.  And yet again, it transpires that the woman concerned cannot remember the incident and refuses to corroborate the story.  Now tell me, where have I heard that before.  I need to know because I have that funny ‘déjà vu’ feeling all over again!

How long will the American Left go on flogging this dead horse?  It is beginning to resemble Monty Python's dead parrot:

This Kavanaugh horse is no more!

This Kavanaugh horse is dead!

This is an extinct Kavanaugh horse!

What is also dead is even an iota of decency and probity in the Democratic party whose very name is an even bigger joke than Monty Python could invent!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 15.9.19

I just don't get it!   I am referring to this 'religion thing'!  Every Sunday morning the bells peal from the Church outside my front door and in ones and twos but rarely more, the worshippers stroll past on their way to the service.  And every Sunday morning I wonder why?  Well, of course, it's because they believe but, alas and alack, I do not.  Even worse (I suppose), neither do I want to believe!  I should hasten to add that even so, I am, on the whole, exceedingly grateful to the moral code laid down by Jesus Christ (allegedly) which I think is as fine a guide to life as anyone could wish for but beyond that, I cannot go.

 

I want a sort of "Beam me up, Scotty" device:   Not that I wish to go anywhere - although a flash trip to the 'Arkie' mountains would be good! - no, what I want is a sort of 'Fast Forward' button that will whizz me past all this hideously shameful (and 'sham full') Parliamentary pantomime.  Actually, it would be even better if it could whizz forward twenty years so that the true nature of the European monster will began to show its hideous nature even to the dim, dumb Troglodytes who worship at its feet!

 

Why do I 'lurve' Victoria Beckham?   No, no, it's not because she is a mega-rich, attractive lady, at least, not entirely!  I think it is because, above and beyond all else, she generally keeps a low profile and (so far!) has avoided the sewers of depravity which swirl past all 'slebs'.  She appears to be a hard-working Mum who runs her own business and, by and large, minds her own business!  Yes, I wish that she would smile a little more often, particularly when she receives yet another proposal from me, but even so, I do still 'lurve' her!

 

 

At least there's a laugh on the 'telly' tonight:   On one of the film Channels they are re-running that 'Jack Reacher' film with that well-known midget, Mr. Tom Cruise, playing the lead!  How he ever got the part I do not know because 'Jack Reacher' he was not!  Mind you, writing that reminds me of an exceedingly tough guy called 'Tony' Fleming' I met years ago in the army who was born and raised in an exceedingly rough part of Liverpool.  When it came to street/pub fighting he knew where-of he spoke having been at it since he was 14 years old!  When I once asked him if he was scared of anyone, he replied in the negative but added the warning that you always had to be careful of the little guys!

 

So what happened to the Trump mega-disaster?   I remember being warned by sundry media sources, well, most media sources, actually, that the inauguration of Donald Trump as President inevitably meant the end of the world.  To be fair, even without the, er, assistance of those wailers 'n' moaners, I must confess that 'back in the day' I was fairly nervous of the prospect.  Even so, here we are nearly three years on and I'm still waiting!  The only outstanding question is, if 'HillBilly' had won would I have had to wait so long?  Don't bother replying, I think I know the answer.

 

Damn right!   There is a story - alright, a 'flyer' - in The Sunday Mail today indicating that there are moves afoot to earmark the hitherto empty plinth in Trafalgar Square for a statue of Prince Phillip.  Actually, they rather wittily describe him as "Plinth Phillip"!  Off hand, I cannot think of anyone more deserving of the honour.

 

 

No more Rumbles

 

It's the little things that give them away!

Take for example the Democratic party 'over there'.  As Patricia McCarthy points out at The American Thinker site, there have been three Democrat national debates between the herd of 'wannabe' candidates scrapping for the chance to take down 'The Donald' and yet . . . and yet . . . at none of them was there a single 'Stars and Stripes' flag on display!  Perhaps I should alter my title to this post and head it with:

By their non-deeds, shall you know them!

Of course, there is a tendency amongst politicians to wrap themselves in a flag at every opportunity.  Not always the national flag, alas, for example, 'Chairman Jezza' prefers a red flag with a hammer and sickle in the corner, I believe!  But, dammit - or should that be 'Goddammit'? - this is America where 'Stars and Stripes' in their multitude flutter at virtually any public occasion, er, except a Democratic party function, apparently.  I wonder why . . . ?

 

 

 

Why, oh why, did he die so young?

I refer to the late, and absolutely and positively great, George Gershwin, who probably more than anyone cemented my affection for America which is odd given that he was of Ukrainian and Lithuanian Jewish descent - but, hey, that's America!

It is not often that you will see the 'WaPo' quoted in these august columns but I came across a review by Laurence Maslon of a biography of George Gershwin - not, mind you, that he praises the book fulsomely!  Even so, you 'just gotta lurve' a man who produced so much brilliant and moving music - his Rhapsody in Blue is superb and his 1st Piano Concerto even better.  Of course, it was his popular music that first caught me, especially the score for the film "An American in Paris" and the opera 'Porgy and Bess'.  An absolute genius and, dear God, why did have to die so young?

 

 

Well, well, the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case re-appears!

Standby, take cover, the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case is about to resurrect!  According to the American Thinker site, someone called Joel Gilbert is poised to unveil a TV/film documentary on the subject.  Don't ask me why but that case back in 2012 utterly fascinated me.  It sort of encapsulated the essence of American society riven as it was, and still is, with racial differences.  Also, and more to the point, it showed up the American Left for the utter set of lying liars they were - and probably still are. Happily, in this case, an American jury of 'jes' ordinary folks', saw through the machinations of the prosecution trickery and found Zimmerman 'Not Guilty'.  

Now I am waiting for another book and Hollywood film along the lines of "To Kill a Mocking Bird", er, but given the hopelessly 'woke' rot that permeates the film industry I will definitely not be holding my breath!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 8.9.19

One for 'SoD' and Jimmy:  There is a review in this week's 'Speccie' of a biography of the late General Sir Thomas Graham who fought with distinction in the Peninsular war and ended up as Wellington's second-in-command.  He founded the Perthshire Volunteers, later the 90th Foot which eventually amalgamated with the 26th Foot to form the Cameronians.  The reviewer makes a somewhat obscure reference to more modern times when the Cameronians were stationed in Germany and referred to by the locals as "giftzwerge — ‘poison dwarfs’, the Cameronians being tough if generally diminutive men of Glasgow and Lanarkshire."  Surely not, such a calumny!

 

And now one for my American pals:   The name rang a very distant bell but for the life of me I could not recall anything concerning the life and (well deserved) death of Huey P. Long who was, according to Ellen Carmichael at the National Review quoting the historian Arthur Schlesinger, "the closest thing to a dictator the U.S. has ever seen." 

 

Huey P. Long in 1935 (Harris & Ewing/Library of Congress)

Long was the utterly corrupt governor of Louisiana and a US senator and was shot dead, almost certainly by his bodyguards who, er, 'defended' him when he was punched by a young doctor, Carl Weiss for remarks Long had made about his parents.  I cannot precis the story so go read Ms. Carmichael's article which is fascinating.  It was prompted by the very recent death of the son of the man who punched Huey P. Long.

 

'Downton Abbey' - hoodathunkit?   If, in these proletarian times, 1o years ago someone had asked you to invest money into a TV series based on the lives, the triumphs, the vicissitudes, the loves and the disputes of a frightfully posh and wealthy family in Yorkshire and their 'below stairs' servants, would the second word of your reply been "off"?  If so, you would have missed a goldmine!  Now the film is due out shortly and even more 'dosh' will roll in.  The team deserve every bit of it.  It is superbly written, filmed and acted.

 

Snort/snigger of the year:  'MM', I refuse to spell out her full name lest I lose even more readers, dumps her new baby Archie on 'Harry the Hubby' and dashes over to 'Noo Yawk' to, er, support her best friend, Serena Williams, in the tennis championship final - who promptly loses to some unknown teen-ager!  Simply too, too delicious!

 

Those damned Aussie ruffians!   They should jolly well give us back our 'Ashes' because, er, well, you know, we, sort of, deserve it, don't we?  Oh, take that as a 'NO' shall I?

 

Two women sharing the steering wheel:   A frightening prospect in any situation but absolutely terrifying when the vehicle concerned is the US of A and the women concerned are 'Fauxcahontas' Warren and her 'lyin' liar' friend (allegedly), Hillary Clinton.  Actually, it is reported that they both detest each other but, hey, when it comes to a Presidential election anything is possible.  As Ms. Monica Showalter puts it at the American Thinker site:

"Warren may still not be able to stand Clinton, but Clinton is useful to Warren for rigging the Democratic nomination"

'Over here' and 'over there', politics sure is a dirty business. 

 

"The king is dead, long live the King!"   I refer, of course, to the King of the F1 racing circuits, (Sir) Lewis Hamilton who ran second to young Charles Leclerc for most of the race but due to tyre problems finished third.  Snidey spoilsports, er, like me, might complain about some of the stewards' decisions on one or two of Leclerc's driving 'manoeuvres', including his driving straight over the chicane and thus, technically going 'off circuit'.  However, this was Monza and he was driving a Ferrari so what else would you expect?  Even so, it is now very clear that Leclerc is a superb driver and destined to win several world championships.  Alas, poor Vettel, he is heading for the 'knacker's yard' and I wonder if he will drive again next year.  In the meantime, (Sir) Lewis has a fight on his hands but there are many more races to be run.

And so to bed . . .

 

No more rumbles

 

 

Patrick J. Buchanan is a total tit!

I have just read an article by this leading Republican politician on the subject of WWII that is so stupid as to worry me that this buffoon has any influence on American foreign policy!  Using the perfect vision binoculars of hindsight, this less than great historian condemns the British for their decision to go to war over Poland in 1939.  Pointing to the end result in which Poland, along with most of Eastern Europe, was swallowed whole by the Soviet Union he accuses the Brits of rank stupidity and, by implication, the Americans of strategic genius when they twiddled their thumbs doing nothing whilst the Japs sneaked in and came within a whisker of sinking the entire US fleet in Hawaii.

Britain decided to go to war because they realised that war with Germany was inevitable.  It was only a matter of 'when', not 'if'!  Chamberlain fudged our chance when Germany attacked Czechoslovakia but at least it sealed the belief that it was only a matter of time - and a useful excuse - before we would be forced to go to war. No-one at the time could have foreseen how events would develop - what a pity we did not have the services of that great American prophet, Patrick J. Buchanan!  The British government knew, and Churchill knew more than most, that we were almost totally unprepared for war and it came as something of a surprise to us, and the Germans, that we actually won the Battle of Britain!  In those circs, the British decision to go to war anyway was not without some courage as well as acknowledging the inevitable.

But Buchanan will not have it so!  According to him it was all our fault that the Soviets over-ran Eastern Europe!  This anti-Semitic buffoon made numerous efforts to run for the Presidency but happily the American public rejected him over and over again.  God bless America!