DUFF & NONSENSE!

In which I have been nudged - firmly!

Yes, indeed, and from a fairly hefty 'fella', too!  I have just received an e-mail from Lord knows where sent by 'JK' who is on a mission - or a piss-up - or something somewhere!  In it, he reminds me that today is the 6th June and therefor an anniversary of the D-Day landings.  Normally, I do not take kindly to 'punters' telling me what I should write but as it's 'JK', possibly my longest serving reader who is also, I fear, very much larger than me, then I must take the hint.

Even so, what can one add to the mountain of words that already exist on the subject of perhaps the greatest military operation ever undertaken?  Even now, having read countless books on the subject I remain 'gobsmacked' at the sheer, unbelievable complexity of that operation.  The fact that it was run by two separate and proud nations with all that that entails, adds to my incredulity that not only did it occur but that it was a magnificent success!

Even I, a non-stop 'scribbler', cannot find the words to express my admiration and gratitude to the men - and women - who contributed to it.

 

 

 

It's not lookin' good, Don baby!

According to The Daily Telegraph, sundry polls 'over there', including their own, are showing Biden comfortably ahead of Trump:

The latest CNN Poll of Polls represent a shift in Biden's favor since April, when it found support for him averaging 48%, with Mr Trump averaging 43% support.

Thus, it is beginning to look like our American friends are about to learn the answer to a tricky question: Is it better to have your country led into a 'yuuuuuuuuuge' and existential confrontation with a massive and formidable enemy determined to bring you to your knees, by an excitable, erratic and eccentric leader; or, by an elderly and occasionally confused, old gent whose political base has the constant motto in its heart: Peace 'n' love, Man!

"Interesting times" hardly covers it!

 

 

 

For God's sake, America, get a grip!

I know I am repeating myself and I apologise but truly I am becoming seriously - and I do mean seriously! - worried about the state of America.  For some time now I have noticed the beginnings of some deep schisms in their society, not just the usual Republican vs. Democrat 'bish-bash-bosh' but something much deeper and likely to be very much more traumatic.

As I see it there is a determined, even planned, move to bring an end to democracy in the USA.  It is helped enormously by a President of such ludicrously childish ignorance that he has become, inadvertently, their favourite weapon in their war against democracy.  Their only mistake so far was to allow Joe Biden to become their runner for the Presidency in the Autumn.  Do not be surprised if, in the next few weeks, 'good ol' Joe' is dumped overboard and replaced by a younger, probably female, candidate of irreproachably Left-wing views but not so fiery as to 'frighten the horses'!

If the Republicans had more than three brain cells to share amongst themselves, they would, er, 'retire' Trump and replace him with someone like Sen. Tom Cotton who would appeal to the conservative and traditional voters.  It is not that Trump is wrong about everything, he is often right but his persona is ludicrous and an embarrassment!

I am truly nervous at the prospect of an extreme Left-wing President whose strings will be pulled by the likes of George Soros.  Especially so as the menace from China grows ever larger.  Remember that under such a Presidency, all the organs of State will be flooded with Left-wing apparatchiks who will have to-hand a well thought-out plan of action which will change America forever!

Don't do it, America!

 

 

 

Bad news concerning the Battle of Midway

I rank the battle of Midway which was fought on the 4th - 7th June 1942 as one of the most crucial battles of WWII.  I have written about it here, many a time and oft'.  As a result of it, Japanese sea-borne air power was crippled and America now, in effect, 'ruled the Pacific waves' which allowed them to choose their eventual approach to Japan.  

I was distressed, therefore, reading an article at The American Thinker which describes one particular 'cock-up' by the USN which resulted in the loss of virtually an entire squadron of aircraft:

Perhaps the most consequential of the failures is alleged, by many who have studied the battle, to have been brought about by Commander Stanhope Ring, leader of the USS Hornet’s Air Group. Here are some of those allegations.

Ring rejected the advice of Lieutenant Commander John Waldron, the leader of Hornet’s torpedo-bomber Squadron 8. Waldron accurately predicted the location of the enemy fleet, and disobeying the orders of Ring, turned off course, and led his flight to it. The pilots who instead followed Ring, flew to the wrong location, found empty ocean, and therefore played no further role in the actions of that day. Two of them died when they ran out of fuel and ditched in the water. Waldron’s entire squadron, attacking alone, without support from Ring, was annihilated, but for one survivor. [My emphasis]

What can one say except possibly "O Iago, the pity of it, Iago!"?  Once again, all too human failings and weaknesses inflicted a disaster - thus is it ever in warfare.  Even so, the strategic result was an immense victory for America and the world and I for one salute the memory of those men.

 

 

 

Time for for a long, hard and detailed look at George Soros

I make no accusations against Mr. Soros for the simple reason that I have no evidence of wrong-doing.  Even so, the eye-watering amount of money he possesses, some of which he shifts hither and thither via the offices of his so-called Open Society Foundations, needs to be looked at - in detail!  If, like Bill Gates' distribution of funds, Soros' 'zillions' go to charities then three cheers and give that man a Knighthood.  If, however, 'yuuuuuuuge' amounts are being pumped into political organisations then we need to know which ones - and why?

Jes' sayin'!

 

 

Pity poor America

Of course, most will not because they have sawdust for brains!  For those of us who recognise the immense potential power of America and who, although we recognise that from time to time it is misused, weep to see it torn to shreds by the usual mixture of the 'stoopid' and the malign, we can only hope that sooner rather than later common-sense will re-assert itself and the howling mobs become quiescent.  Well, we can hope, can't we?

As y'all do know if you have been reading this blog for some time, I have remarked before on the increasingly and dangerously heated level of political disagreement seen - and heard!- even from 'over here'.  There is only one culprit - the multi-organs of the extreme Left who have virtually commandeered the non-Republican half of the American population.  Their non-stop hysterical screeching has finally blanketed out any common-sense that is left in the vox populi.  Now the multi-headed mobs rule the streets.  Governors cringe in their State palaces and State politicians are busy learning the slogans!

Only one man dares to stand up to the braying mob, not a man I totally admire but at least a man who understands the essence of American democracy and who is prepared to stand up to this attempted coup d'etat.  The Democrat(!) party should be ashamed of themselves.  And as for all those blacks who are leading the street mobs, when did they ever riot when a black man shot and killed a white man?

In the meantime, of course, Chairman Xi 'Ping-a-ling' smiles!

 

 

 

You can almost hear the world straining at its bonds

It isn't just the crazy weather we are experiencing here in the UK which, I suspect, makes southern Spain feel like Iceland.  No, there are tremors reverberating around the globe and they do not augur well.  This wretched pandemic has 'upped the ante', not so much for its medical effects which, from where I am sitting, do not appear to be anything like as severe as the 'meeja' warned us!

No, there are other moves afoot around the world which make me exceedingly uneasy.  By far the biggest is the Chinese behemoth which is swaggering round the globe barging into areas likely to erupt very easily.  For example, now they are threatening India at some point on their mutual frontier, not because they have a strong case but simply to pile on the pressure.  Alas, we are no longer the power we used to be but even so we must support India in this struggle with China just as they supported us in WWII.

Similarly, we must back America to the hilt in their confrontation with China.  Yes, I do not have total confidence in Donald Trump as a President but that is not the point.  If America is threatened then we are threatened - end of!  Alas, there is not much we can do to support Africa whose crooked states are being bought and paid for by the Chinese.  However, there is one thing we can do about another critical problem - the Chinese in our country!  I do not refer to the myriad Chinese restaurants that exist in all parts of the UK and have done for over 50 years.  But I do mean the host of incoming Chinese 'students' who bought and paid for their entrance into innumerable British Universities where sections of them have taken over student unions. And, of course, there are the numerous number of universities - which we pay for! -  who have accepted enormous bribes investments from Chinese sources.  The heads of those universities should lose their heads! 

However, above and beyond all that, the critical point is that we must absolutely ally ourselves to America in facing down this menace

 

 

!

It seems awfully quiet 'over there'

Not that I'm complaining because when things become seriously noisy 'over there' I begin to worry!  Now it may be that this lock-down has become a sort of 'damp down' because even the 'Ginja Ninja' is relatively quiescent.  Or, of course, it could be that his non-stop 'twittering' has resulted in a blister on his 'twitter finger' and given us all a respite.  More likely is the fact that his main opponent, good ol' Joe Biden, is now so elderly and so utterly boring that he has virtually disappeared as a target!  I almost - nah! not really! - feel sorry for all those 'anti-Trump-Trump-Trump haters' who lack a credible and energetic leader to take the fight to the White House.

Perhaps - just perhaps - it might be time to dump boring Biden and - dare I suggest it? - bring back 'HillBilly'.  Now that would liven things up more than just a tad!

 

 

The New York Yimes is lavatory paper in disguise!

Well, to be fair, which I am not inclined to be, it is arse-wipe material in its coverage 0f this country!  Of course, there is no expectation on my part for it always and forever to praise Britain but when it stoops to criticism it should at least be accurate.  As Douglas Murray points out in The Spectator:

The [anti-British] trend has been going on since 2016, when the NYT seemed to have decided that the Brexit vote led the way for the election of Donald Trump. Since then the paper’s desire to attack Britain has appeared insatiable. A fact that leads the paper’s readers to be woefully ill-informed about this country.

Mr. Murray's article points out that the NYT appears to rely heavily on scribblers from The Guardian and The Times for its reports on Britain.  Need one say more?  The only time those papers will praise HMG is when the Labour party is running the show.  Happily for us, that is way off in the future!

 

 

 

Oh, come on, Dov, just say what you mean!

Regular readers will have picked up on the  'irony ahead' warning in my title!  In it, I refer, of course, to Mr. Dov Fischer, of The American Spectator who has, shall we say, some choice opinions concerning the previous tenant of The White House.  For example and with my emphases:

I accepted Obama. I never articulated his first name, and I never called him “president,” but I accepted the results and accepted that this Pretender was our country’s lawfully elected chief executive. I watched his arrogance, the unctuous way he carried himself literally with his nose up, the way he never held a railing while walking a stairway because he was too cool, the kinds of human dreck he regularly invited as his White House guests, and I accepted it all with the soft whisper, “This, too, shall pass.” I watched the Corrupt Journalist Corps idolize him, crown him a king, admire him as a messiah and a deity, and I accepted the milieu. This, too, in time would pass. It meant living through eight years of the deepest public corruption. Lois Lerner stealing an election by leveraging the awesome power of the Internal Revenue Service to close down legitimate conservative political groups. Eric Holder — the nobleman who urged people to kick enemies — bringing lawlessness and corruption into the Justice Department, even approving the “Fast and Furious” idea of releasing lethal weapons to Mexican drug lords in the cockamamie scheme to find out how they access and move their weapons. Glenn Beck exposed Obama’s Maoist communications director, Anita Dunn, who walked children through the White House.

Riiiiiiight, Mr. Fischer, so not a fan then, I take it!

The waters did not stop rising on Obama’s watch. The Earth was not healed. On his watch, a country that finally had healed itself from the shame and scourge of imposing slavery on human beings more than a century earlier, a country that had atoned and that had created and institutionalized a new social infrastructure by which people no longer were denied because of their skin color or religion — a country that reflected that healing by electing a Black man president despite his manifest lack of personal achievement, close ties with an organized-crime felon, and questionable biography — suddenly erupted into a new era of racial bitterness. Michael Brown and Ferguson aflame amid the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” lie promoted by Obama and by Eric Holder but shot down by a Missouri grand jury. Freddie Gray and Baltimore aflame followed by a series of outright judicial exonerations handed down by a Black judge who saw that every accused cop had acted properly and lawfully. A lowlife killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, a thug whom Obama told us would have been the likes of his own son if he had had a son. Eight years of racial divide, social division aimed at tearing us up as a color-blind and religion-blind American People, just to promote electoral successes.

Weeeell, yes, actually, it's all coming back to me now!

When the Mets finally took it all in 1969, the other teams accepted the results. They lost gracefully. Now it was the Mets’ turn, and they had won it fair and square. But these past three years have been something different. Trump and Pence won fair and square. But there was no grace. Rather, there was instant character assassination, instant war, instant denial. Advertisements urging electors to violate their Electoral College oaths. Fabrications of collusion with Putin. Investigations that hamstrung a presidency. Lies and innuendoes leaked and published by the unindicted co-conspirators we call the “mainstream media.” A never-ending hunt to find scandals and Trump accusers: a bimbo who pole-danced at bars, her lawyer who now dances behind bars, another crooked lawyer who tape-recorded his own clients and now is locked up, disbarred from the Bar. One cartoon character after another.

Certainly that's what it looks like from 'over here'.  Rabbi Fischer, for that is what he is and has been for 40 years, is loath to hate but, alas, can no longer resist:

I have come deeply to hate. I hate that Donald Trump never was given a chance to be president of the United States for even one day’s honeymoon. I hate that, long before he won the presidency — fair and square — corrupt crooks and criminals in the United States Department of Justice, its Federal Bureau of Investigation, were actively plotting to take him down. I hate that there are so few outlets in the media that give voice to condemn the criminality and corruption that broke every accepted societal norm by which we play the game. I hate that Obama was in on it, yet continues to pontificate on what is just and on what threatens freedom.

In addition, Rabbi Fischer is outraged at the deliberate and vile destruction of General Flynn, a soldier who served his country compared to the smooth outcomes for so many corrupted crooks including,  especially, the utterly despicable Hillary Rodham Clinton.

There is something so evil in a society that tolerates a dual standard of justice, dual standards of everything. On the one hand, we political conservatives harbor profoundly deep feelings, but we do not destroy people’s lives based on abstract politics. Yes, we oppose them and expose them, and we hope that contemporary society and history judge them for the evil they represent. But we do not destroy them in their lives. They get away with everything. Hillary Clinton spoliated 33,000 emails amid a federal probe, a federal crime that always ends up with prison time — but not for her. It is a federal crime to lie under oath to Congress. Comey, Clapper, Brennan — how have they all avoided prison time? Strzok, Page, the whole bunch of them? Adam Schiff. The outliers on the Mueller team. Not one single slime among them in the swamp has been brought to justice.

Rabbi Fisher closes his passionate, outpouring of rage with a single deadly line:

There is a time to love and a time to hate. This is a time to hate.

 

 

 

 

'Something rotten in the State of America'

I lack the energy these days to dive into the intricate details of the current 'mess of pottage' that is the political condition of the (dis)United States of America. The essence of the matter appears to be that the, er, 'sainted' former President 'Obamarama' was, in fact, "a dirty rat" of the very worst kind who led a cabal of crooks in a highly organised campaign of spying and subversion against the Republican party and their Presidential candidate at the time, Donald Trump.  Please read the long and detailed report on these nefarious activities over at Zero Hedge.  Suffice to say that whilst there is little doubt that the Republican party has its fair share of scallywags, the Democrat party is corrupt and criminal to its very core.  Former President 'Obamarama' must be running his finger round his collar as the heat mounts and he is in danger of wearing out the knees of his trousers as he prays ten times a day that Biden beats Trump in November. If Trump wins, and launches a judicial enquiry into those 2015/16 "events, dear boy, events", it could be the American equivalent of the 'Old Bill' feeling 'Obamarama's' collar!

Too delicious, simply too, too delicious!

 

 

 

My late - again! - Sunday Rumble: 03.05.20

Sorry, sorry, sorry!   But the fact is that I felt a tad 'under the weather' this morning - no, no, I haven't got the dreaded 'lurgi', just a slight increase in my usual fatigue syndrome!  Or, to put it another way, I couldn't be arsed to climb the stairs to the top of the house!

 

Medical stats are bad for your health:   So, best not read this from 'The Speccie' on the subject of incubator use, or non-use, if you catch the dreaded 'lurgi':

Data from the UK is hard to come by. However, on 27 March, 78 per cent of Covid patients who had gone to NHS ICUs were intubated and ventilated within 24 hours of arriving. By April 24, that number had gone down to 67 per cent. The cumulative mortality rate for NHS ICU Covid patients decreased from 52.1 per cent to 50.7 per cent over that same period. 

What do I make of that?  Nothing and my advice remains the same if you end up in hospital, just say, "Yes, Nursie!" and do as you're told!

 

Will Covid-19 lose Donald the presidency?   Certain reports indicate that it will but mostly they emanate from the US 'meeja' which is about as reliable as 'The Beijing Times'!  I can't see that Donald has been any more useless than most national leaders everywhere and anyway, what else could he have done?  'Still 'n' all', as they are wont to say 'over there', the 'dreaded Peeps' are an unforgiving lot!

 

A soldier's tale:   As we approach the 75th VE Day anniversary I thought it right to mark the occasion and can do it no better than direct your attention to the late Guardsman Edward Colquhoun CHARLTON VC.  He was killed on 21st April 1945 after defending his platoon single-handed against a German attack.  His courage was so exemplary that even his German opponents praised him after the fight,

We shall, and should, remember them!  You can read the details in The Sunday Mail.

 

No more Rumbles 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 26.4.20

Mr. President - just 'shaddup'!    I gather that I may be a tad too late with my advice to Mr. President because I read that he has now given up his ad hoc press briefings.  It is, and has been for years, obvious that Donald Trump is not good at 'off the cuff' speechifying.  Alas, in the battle between his ego and his ability to express coherent thoughts, his ego has won - until now.  From now on, I gather - I hope! - he will confine his speechifying to words written for him by his advisors.  Were he to continue in his old vein he would need to wear a red nose and allow his pants to fall down regularly!

 

Think twice before moaning!   As an ex-soldier I can claim to be a fully-trained 'moaner 'n' groaner'!  Of course, given this bloody-bloody lockdown situation there is plenty about which to 'moan 'n' groan'.  However, this morning I happened upon one of those episodes from the superb series "The World at War".  This one featured the siege of Leningrad and suffice to say I will never 'moan 'n' groan' again - ever!

 

In which Oliver Kamm lives up to my high estimation of him:   I will not attempt to paraphrase his excellent essay over at the CAPX site lest I inadvertently make an error and his 'razor-laser-mind' catches it and he admonishes me - well, it used to happen 'back in the day'! Just do yourselves a favour and give him a read!

 

Tragic but interesting stats!   From the 'Hefferlump's' superb history, "Staring at God". By mid-1915 -

"It was estimated one officer in ten in the land forces thus far killed was an Old Etonian.  At an opposite extreme, 19,648 boys who had been through reformatories had served by late June 1915, almost 600 of whom had died: but three had won the Victoria Cross, twenty-five the Distinguished Conduct Medal and twenty were Mentioned in Dispatches.  Perhaps most remarkably, eight of those former miscreants had been commissioned."

 

No more Rumbles

 

 

The Chinese never let a disaster get in the way of a strategic advance

An interesting article in The Telegraph today reports that the Chinese are taking advantage of international consternation over the Covid-pandemic to carry out some strategic moves in the South China Sea area.  This has caused the Australian navy to join forces with the American navy to form a warning bulwark against Chinese moves.  Both Malaysia and Vietnam have offered loud complaints against this Chinese adventurism.

Further north, the Japanese, too, have been moved to complain loudly against Chinese moves on some uninhabited Islands that Japan considers to be under their control.  Needless to say, both these uninhabited Island complexes are believed to have large oil deposits.

Strong nerves and cool heads may be needed!

 

In which I surrender . . .

This blog is not mine, it is yours!  I realised, reluctantly, some time ago that my commentary was merely the foundation on which 'y'all' could construct a splendid and interesting edifice and with certain rare exceptions - mostly from years back when I attracted the attention of the 'Bolshie Brigade' - you have fulfilled my hopes and expectations.  I should emphasise that it was not the 'Bolshie' message to which I objected, merely the tone in which it was often expressed.  Nor, I must emphasise even more strongly, do I ever wish to ban contrary views to my own.  This blog would be poorer without them which is why, for example, my regular contributor, Bob, a 'born-again' contrarian, is so essential, not just for his views which are always well expressed but for the re-action he provokes.  A perfect example of which occurred yesterday when I was being lazy - again!  It was a response from Malcolm Pollack to Bob and in impeccable English - oh alright then, American! - he encapsulates his considerable knowledge.  I am, of course, sympathetic to his views but that is not the reason I re-publish his comment here.  It is merely to ensure that such a well-written exposition reaches as wide a readership as possible:

 

"Such a fetish for this "democracy"! Look at your response to JK: "Should I believe from your closing statement that you're anti-democratic?" We can almost hear the basso profundo of Darth Vader: "I find your lack of faith ... disturbing."

Lord Vader would quickly have had his gauntlet on the throats of the Framers themselves, for they feared nothing more than this "democracy" you seem to regard as the summum bonum of American civic life. They had read their Polybius (most of them, in the original Greek), and they had learnt the chastening lesson of the classical world: that simple majoritarian democracy -- which Franklin is said to have described as "two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner" -- is a buttered slide to mob rule, anarchy, and then, inevitably, tyranny.
In the movie business there's something called "retconning", defined as follows:
        revising (an aspect of a fictional work) retrospectively, typically by     introducing a piece of new information that imposes a different interpretation on previously described events.

Here you are, then, retconning the Constitution with this breathtaking comment:
       "It could be argued that the electoral college is democratic by virtue of its being part of the Constitution, but that's diminishing the meaning of the word to a specific mechanism."

If this could be argued, I'd like to know how. The word "democracy", for the excellent reasons mentioned above, appears nowhere in the Constitution, and the Electoral College was devised specifically as a way to temper and dilute democracy while avoiding the separation-of-powers difficulties raised by the idea of having Congress select the President.

As for Donald Trump as an "aberration": he is the duly elected president of the United States, elevated to office by that half of the traditional American nation who rightly have felt despised and marginalized for a long time now by their globalist and "progressive" overlords, a scornful and condescending secular priesthood who occupy, by opprobrium, intimidation, and whatever means are necessary, the commanding heights of media, academia, popular culture, and the hulking edifice of the unelected administrative state. Donald Trump was rightly seen by these millions of American "Deplorables" as their last hope against a leftist juggernaut that sought to trample into dust all of the founding norms and traditions of the American nation, to throw open the borders, to distend and distort the Constitution into gelatinous goo, and to crush all resistance by a combination of judicial activism, executive fiat and suffocating social ostracism. Trump's legions of supporters understood that the First and Second Amendments, those great bulwarks of liberty, were under increasingly withering assault; they had to look no further than Canada, Britain, and Europe, where the people are forcibly disarmed and criticism of government policy is now enough to land you in jail, to see what lay ahead if the eight-year catastrophe of the Obama administration were to be extended by re-installing those despicable grifters the Clintons.

"Democratic norms", you say? For daring to take on this mighty Cathedral, and -- shockingly! -- capturing the White House, the upstart Trump has been the subject of a continuous conspiracy of what can fairly be called regicide, beginning with the former administration's bringing to bear the power of the FBI, the intelligence agencies, and the FISA courts (on a fraudulent basis) to spy on his campaign and to entrap members of his team. Following on that was the years-long charade of the Mueller investigation, followed by a ridiculous (and obviously doomed) attempt at impeachment, while the media throughout did everything they could to whip up a hateful frenzy. Even now, in a national crisis that would in any other era have made America put aside its squabbles and unite against a common foe, it is clear from the press briefings, media coverage, and the remark of his opponents in Congress that the real enemy is not the Wuhan Red Death, but that orange man in the White House.

It is to Trump's credit that he has not cracked or crumbled under this relentless personal assault, and this cataract of false charges spanning years; I'm sure nearly anyone else would have. But to suggest that it is Donald Trump who is "Orwellian", and not the former administration and its fawning Blue media who set all of this in motion -- now that is the sort of thing that we might expect from the Ministry of Truth."

Thanks, Malcolm, you are hereby awarded the 'Freedom of D&N'!

 

 

The enigma that is Donald Trump

Alas, it is going to be at least 25 years before a shrewd and balanced analytical history of Donald Trump's Presidency is produced.  The ones that appear almost within 10 seconds of his departure from office will not be worth reading because most of them will be stuffed full of malice!  He truly is an exceptional man, and I do not apply that word as meaning that he is near to genius.  He is, like most world leaders, a man full of virtues and faults.  In fact, I would suggest that in that respect he is almost Churchillian - now, there was a man of incredible genius - and unbelievable stupidity!

Churchill's main genius lay in his ability to discern, well ahead of the game, who were his country's enemies and who were the friends.  He saw Hitler coming years before anyone else and he also understood Stalin and the Soviet Union and did his best to warn Roosevelt.  Trump's warning concerning China and its malevolence was in the same vein. Yes, 'many a time and oft' he opens his mouth without consulting his brain but in the truly 'yuuuuuuuuuge' things he is spot on. 

China is a menacing enemy - end of!

 

 

Your Easter Rumble: 2020

That God-bloke's 'avin' a larf!   Well, really, we've had three months of non-stop drizzle, rain, drizzle, rain until we (alright then, me!) nearly went mad and then the most gloriously warm and sunny Easter arrives just as that bloody virus goes mad and keeps us all locked up indoors!

Meanwhile, 'over there' the Dems have gone mad!   It is difficult for an Englishman to discuss President Trump.  To us, he appears to be from Mars!  Not, mind you, that he appears to have done anything 'yuuuuuugely' wrong, indeed, just the opposite, no wars have been declared and, prior to this 'virus-thingie', the American economy seemed to be doing rather well.  Also, we Brits need to remind our insular selves that Trump's eccentricities are considered not in the least eccentric 'over there'.  In fact, just the opposite, they are much admired by zillions of his "fellow Americans" which means that the Democrats have an exceedingly tough job in trying to remove him from office next Autumn.  What do they do?  They pick a very decent, old 'codger' to whom you would offer your seat in a crowded train.  A 'good ol' boy' who shuffles along but has difficulty remembering what happened an hour ago - oh boy, do I know that feeling!  He has zero appeal to the zillions of young 'Lefties' to whom he should appeal if he is to stand any chance.  All he can rely on is Trump putting his (in)famous words into practice and 'grabbing some lady by the pussy'.  I think - I hope! - he knows not to do that!

The 'Hefferlump' on Hitler's biography:   Of course, I am referring to Simon Heffer who has a review of "Hitler Vol II: Downfall 1939-45" by Volker Ullrich about which I wrote with some enthusiasm a week or two back.  It is, of course, a total irony that I have paused in my reading of Herr Ullrich's book in order to read the 'Hefferlump's' superb history of the opening of WWI.  Even so, Herr Ullrich should not despair because despite my nausea in reading anything about that dolt and madman, I will return to it eventually. 

Pity the poor politician - oh go on, try!   One of them, either Boris or Raab, will have to take the decision as to when the 'lockdown' is to be lifted. The economic shambles that will follow this gross interruption to normal life will be 'yuuuuuuge' and the government will be blamed.  Equally, if the lifted lockdown results in a second outbreak of 'lurgi' then - guess what! - the government will be blamed!  Do I feel sorry for them?  Not in the slightest - they fought tooth and nail for the job so let them take the consequences!

For my e-pal, 'Whiters', a tale from Tom Stoppard:   'Whiters', as I am sure my regular readers will know, is a keen fanatical angler so I thought Stoppard's essay in The Spectator might amuse him:

The trout season opened on 1 April. I was given my first fly rod 70 years ago. Since moving to Dorset, my fishing has been on a chalk stream so small and so tricky that the only way to fish it is to walk up the middle in chest-waders with a seven-foot rod. The last time I was on the water I slipped and went under, since when I haven’t been sure whether I’m still fishing. Lockdown shelves the question for the time being. I wait for further instructions from the government.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Your Easter Sunday Rumble

 

Americans really are nuts!   Or, to translate that into English English, 'Americans really are eccentric'!  This morning, idly flicking through the TV stations to avoid any mention of the dreaded 'c'-word, I came across a programme devoted to American cowboys indulging in bare-back riding on bulls!  And, I should add, these bulls had enormous, terrifying and exceedingly sharp horns!  The 'rides' only lasted on average approximately 5-secs but it surely must have been the longest and most uncomfortable 'ride' for any of the nutters brave young men who undertook it.  Apart from the dangers of a maddened, 20-ton bull leaping around like a Dervish, consider for a moment that there are no saddles!  Yeeeeees, quite!  As I said, they're all nuts - or perhaps, thinking about it, they lack any 'nuts' at all!

Sorry, JK, I can only give you "E for Effort":  I read somewhere this morning, although I'm blessed if I can remember where, that Arkansas only finished 4th in the gun ownership tables amongst the States of America!  Whatever, you do, JK, don't move to another State because your absence, along with your armoury, would drop Arkansas to 18th!

The 'chequered flag' falls on Sir Stirling Moss:  Truly one of the greats of motor racing. Alas, I never saw him race but his reputation will live on and on  . . .

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Your Easter Monday Rumble

 

What happens next?   I am tempted to reply "Who knows and his brother 'Fuck'!" but that, of course, would be crude and rude and unsuitable for a distinguished blog such as this - and I heard that!  Even so, attempting to work out how the world will be after this cataclysm is exceedingly tricky.  Obviously, there are going to be 'yuuuuuuuge' financial ramifications both on a national and personal level and the largest of them will be debt.  Happily, we can rely, to a certain extent, on 'greedy' capitalism re-asserting itself to the benefit of most of us in the long-term.  However, national and international debt, as always, will act as a dampener and when you throw in the priority of perceived national political interest as a priority over all else, then the difficulties of reaching recovery increase enormously.  What will be required from the international political leadership is wisdom and patience - 'yeeeeeeeeeeeeees', quite!

 

Non, Monsieur, do not pull that handle!    Amidst the 'doom 'n' gloom' this will provide a chuckle.  According to The Telegraph, a 64-year old, French pensioner was given a surprise flight in a French fighter plane.  It was arranged, secretly, by his, er, 'bon amis' and he felt impelled to accept it.  The Air Force pilot put the aircraft through some tight manouvres and the old man in the back reached for something to hang on to.  Alas, it was the trigger for the ejector seat which promptly blasted him out of the aircraft.  Quelle surprise!

 

Spare a thought for the 'luvvies':  Oh, go on, try!  I refer, of course, to all those actors and actresses who are now out of work and with absolutely minimal chances of employment in the near future.  Mind you, it's all happened before.  Poor old Will was forced to forsake London and retreat to Stratford during the plague.  Mind you, it gave him some respite and time to dream up some more inventions - so not all bad, then!

 

More Rumbles over the Easter period . . .

 

 

Good news from Baltimore

I like to think of Baltimore as 'my city'!  No, no, not because I have any links to the place, heaven forfend, no, it's just that ever since I first started watching "Homicide: Life on the Street" and the numerous follow-on TV police series, I have always had a sot spot for the dump, oops, sorry, I mean city!  Alas, as far as I can tell, as the years have gone on, the 'dump' has slid further and further into decrepitude.  Mostly, of course, this is due entirely to the never-ending Democrat 'mafia' that has run the place for decades.  Like Chicago, it says much about the low intelligence of the mainly black citizens who year after year continue to vote these political crooks into office.

However, today there is good news in the fact that a previous mayoress of the city has just been 'banged up' for 3-years for fraud and corruption.  She is Ms. Catherine Pugh and I am happy to report, courtesy of Zero Hedge, that further "state perjury charges" are pending.  

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 5.4.20

Bye-bye Jezza (yawn) hello Keir:  If what passes for the Labour Party thinks a posh, 'smoothie-chops' lawyer steeped in the 'woke' sentiments of metropolitan London is going to change the political sentiments of the country, they are dafter than a truly daft thing!  Keir Starmer has all the magnetism of a dummy in an M&S window!  However, before he attempts to win over the country, he needs to win over his own party.  The dribbling Reds who 'luuuuurved' 'Jezza will despise Starmer and the 'ay oop' working class will remain under-whelmed.  Good luck with that one, Keir, me old comrade!

D&N gains distinguished support:   I call in support of my post below, Sir John Jenkins, Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange and former UK Ambassador to Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.  In an excellent article for The Spectator - natch! - he finishes with these wise words:

Don’t trust China. Ever. This doesn’t mean not doing stuff that’s in our mutual interest. But we need to make damn sure it really is. Meanwhile distrust and verify.

Couldn't have put it better myself, er, well, I didn't but the sentiment is the same!

If you are short of things to read:   Then Mr. Douglas Murray, he of The Spectator, of course, offers four articles which stand out in his memory and urges us to read, or re-read, them.  You might as well give them a try, there's bugger all else to do!

The best café in the internet world!   I refer, of course, to Cafe Hayek and its distinguished owner, Don Boudreaux.  Here's an example of the excellent 'dishes' he serves up so regularly:

As best as I can judge, a Pres. Clinton (H. or B.) or Pres. Obama or Pres. Biden or Sanders or Warren or Klobuchar in this moment would likely have done some things better than Trump, but also would likely have done some things worse. The social-engineering itch of modern-day Democrats would have prevented any of them from easing some of the regulations that Trump justifiably eased, and would perhaps have, in addition, moved them to impose restraints and restrictions that Trump never dreamed of and which – although surely these would have been greeted with “Oooohs” and “Ahhhs” from the intellectual and entertainment-world elite – would perhaps have inflicted even graver damage on the economy than that which we are enduring now.

As matters stand, however, Trump is the excuse. It’s lazy. It’s largely mistaken. And, as such, it’s dangerous. But it’s oh-so convenient and cool.

It has been too long, far too long, since I last visited Mr. Boudreaux's excellent site.  That will be corrected!

Do buck up, Boris!   Just heard that Boris has been taken into hospital.  Given his 'crack on' personality that is definitely not good news!  I wish him well - soonest! - we need him.

 

No more rumbles tonight

 

 

Perhaps John Maynard Keynes should have been promoted to General!

I may have mentioned before that a kindly neighbour passes me his old copies of The Times Saturday Review in exchange for my old copy of The Spectator - and yes, he is definitely getting the better of the deal!  Even so, I am always keen to peruse the book reviews and there was a particularly interesting one in my latest copy.  It deals with the latest book by Victor Davis Hanson entitled: The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict was Fought and Won.

According to Mr. Hanson, 'it woz the fact'ries wot won it!'  According to the review:

Victor Davis Hanson is a brutally pragmatic historian who cuts through myth and hype. Stripped of emotion, his war is reduced to simple equation: "Victory … was a morality tale of production besting killing: those who made more stuff beat those who killed more people".  Stated simply, 60 million people died "to confirm that the United States, the Soviet Union and Great Britain were far stronger … than Germany, Japan and Italy … a fact that should have been self evident".

Well, I am sure that Mr. Davis Hanson will be relieved to know that I agree with him entirely!  As I remarked a few days ago when I began reading Hitler's biography, it is extra-ordinary that none of the German 'intelligentsia', military or civilian, raised the economic weakness of Germany versus Great Britain (and its empire), America and Russia.  

What a bunch of 'Dummkopfs'!

And what is the Japanese for a 'Dummkopf'? 

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble 29.1.20

Life's an itch!   And no, that is not a mis-spelling!  I haven't, as yet, caught that impertinent bug so I have nothing serious to complain about but even so, being a grouchy, old 'geezer', complaining is my default mode!  It is the increasing list of minor irritations that are getting under my skin.  For example, today 'they' buggered about with the clocks which has thrown me into total confusion!  Not, mind you, that my life is exactly run to a tight time schedule!

 

Frankly, I'm delighted not to be in charge:   For a start, it leaves me free to 'grump 'n' grouch' which, as you may have n0ticed, is my default mode.  Secondly, I am uneasily aware that I would not be able to take decisions with a constant influx of changing advice based on changing information.  So good luck with all that, Don and Boris, just do your best!

 

In case you're worried about me:   And I heard that!  Down 'ere, in 'zunny Zummerzet' I am assured by 'Her Majesty's Daily Telegraph' that I live in one of the lowest infection rates in the country, only 31 confirmed cases in a population of 5.5 million.  That, of course, is only right, fitting and proper!

 

But is it all 'blx', anyway?   According to Peter Hitchens it is!  Read his article and judge for yourselves!

 

Even by British standards the weather is bonkers!   For the first two months of the year it did nothing but rain, rain, rain and then rain some more!  In recent days we have 'enjoyed' some brilliant sunshine but our smiles froze on our faces as we had to put up with non-stop freezing winds straight off the arctic circle.  Dammit, enough is enough!

 

This sums up the European, er, 'Union:   From the Daily Telegraph:

When Italy invoked the EU’s formal disaster procedure with desperate calls for protective gear and ventilators, no country responded. Germany and France instead imposed export bans. The EU’s single market did not exist when push came to shove.

 

Vomit-inducing, why do I read it?   I refer to the biography of the late and utterly useless Adolph Hitler which I purchased a few weeks ago.  I take occasional dips into it and each time it leaves me grinding my teeth in fury and disgust.  Not, mind you, entirely at his maniacal stupidity but also that of his Generals and political advisors who, without doubt, were the biggest collection of 'toadies', cowards and dimwits the world has ever seen.  Pass the sick-bag!

 

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

On leadership

Perhaps one of the minute 'good things' about this 'virus-thingie' is that it provides something of a test for our, er, glorious leaders.  So far, my impression is that Boris is doing OK, particularly as the various measures he has been forced to adopt are, in a normal world, absolute anathema to his liberal outlook on life.  The fact that he hesitated before slamming down all those edicts is something in his favour.  Lest you doubt me - you wouldn't dare! - just imagine the orgasms that would have rippled through the ranks of Corbyn's Marxists if they had been given such a chance, and it would take them decades before they gradually and reluctantly cut back on their own powers.

I am not qualified to comment on how 'The Donald' is doing 'over there' but the signs are that he is in the 'Boris spirit' and he can't wait to lift all those bloody edicts!  It says everything you need to know that the Dems attempted to use this emergency to force through some of their favourite bossy and entirely politically motivated schemes, until at the last moment they were shamed into dropping them. 

Just imagine if 'HillBilly' had been President!

 

 

OI! AMERICA! That Will Shakespeare fella' is ours, not yours!

Well, of course, he belongs to everyone, or at least, to those who can be bothered to read him or better still take the risk of watching him performed!  Even so, James Shapiro, an American writer and Shakespearean scholar of great repute, has written another book on his 'hero', this time reminding Americans that in many ways 'old Will' is important to America;

Mark Twain devotes several chapters of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to mocking the sham pretentions of the antebellum South in the form of a pair of Arkansas swindlers claiming to be European aristocrats. Posing as the Shakespearean actors David Garrick and Edmund Kean, the duke and dauphin decide to put on a performance for local edification and their enrichment, to include not only the sword fight in Richard III and the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, but also Hamlet’s soliloquy, with the duke promising he will “piece it out from memory”. The speech he gives is pieced out indeed: “To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin/That makes calamity of so long life;/For who would fardels bear, till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane/But that the fear of something after death/Murders the innocent sleep…” Twelve people attend the show, laughing heartily at the absurdity. “So the duke said these Arkansaw lunkheads couldn’t come up to Shakespeare,” Huck reports: “what they wanted was low comedy.” And the duke and dauphin provide it, offering next a silent naked farce.

I am an enormous admirer of James Shapiro and having read a couple of his earlier books on Shakespeare I can vouch that he knows where-of he writes!  Of course, the very first English settlers, being of Puritan stock, were rabidly anti-theatre so it took some time for 'Old Will's' works to be studied and performed 'over there' but once it happened there was no stopping!  Not the least of the encouragement his plays received was due to those damned "events, dear boy, events" which mirrored so many that occured in American history,

Please read Sarah Churchwell's excellent essay at The New Statesman - yes, I know, I know, but just don your 'HazMat' gear and you will be safe!

 

 

 

Do pay attention, Donald, or this virus could bite you in the bum!

I have a strong suspicion that the President's knowledge of bacterial science is very near to my own which is, of course, miniscule - in fact tinier than one of those damned, pesky 'bugaboos' that bite you - or do something! - and then kill you!  I cannot think of a quicker way to nod off to sleep than attending a lecture on the subject!  Even so, Mr. President - and the same thing applies to you Boris! - it is absolutely crucial that you seek and follow advice from the best 'brainiacs' in the bacterial world.  

If the response to this threat is mishandled the results might be devastating, not just for the 'Peeps' who catch it but even more so for you, Mr. President, and the remainder of your single-term presidency!  Of course, 'as any fule do no', the likely cretins to replace you as President in November are even dimmer than you and likely to make an even bigger hash of it than you could manage but that will not deter the 'Peeps' from exacting their revenge!  Of course, for some time there will be no means of stopping the infection spread dead in its tracks but even so you must be seen to be active and intelligent in the way you lead your country in dealing with it.

Cut back on the 'honkin' 'n' hootin'' and the golf and demonstrate that you are applying a firm and reasoned grip!

 

 

The 'Dems' are as 'doolally' as their candidate for the Presidency

The Dems are dim, dumb and daft!  They have left themselves with two old codgers who probably have difficulty dressing themselves in the morning as their preferred candidates to run against 'The Donald'.  He, of course, has his eccentricities but at least he gives the appearance of possessing some vim and vigour - especially with that gorgeous wife on his arm!  Nobody knows where this world-wide viral attack will take us but it will certainly be into troubled waters.  Were I forced at a time of real danger to choose - which "thank the Lord I'm not, Sir!" - the man to lead my country it would not be those two, old geriatrics both of whom have exceedingly dodgy histories of political incompetence.  One is a  true Red communist and the other has used his influence to steer 'loadsa' money in the direction of his family!

Mind you, to be fair, the 'Dim Dems' deserve great credit for seeing off that mega-zillionaire, Bloomberg, who, in his colossal egotism, thought he could just step in and buy the Presidency - and I thought most Jews were intelligent!  Also, they had the exemplary good taste to show that lying liar, 'Fauxcahontas' Warren, the door and let her slink off back to her constituency with her 'war feathers' up her arse!  What can one say, except "God Bless America!"

 

 

 

Not all American judges are useless

The other day, in a fit of the grumps, I fired a salvo at the American judicial system so I want to make it clear that there are many honourable exceptions.  For example, Judge Royce C. Lamberth who is over-seeing the case between Judicial Watch and the State Department - or to be precise, 'HillBilly's role and actions when she was the boss during the Benghazi fiasco.  According to Zero Hedge, Judge Lamberth has ordered 'HillBilly' to provide sworn testimony in response to Judicial Watch's specific questions regarding her actions during the murderous action at the American consulate, in particular they are focusing on her use of a private and totally insecure e-mail system.

The net is tightening, let us all hope that soon it will be a noose!

 

 

 

For God's sake, America, get a grip of your (non)judicial courts!

I have, many a time and oft', taken a swipe at what is laughingly known as the American 'justice' system - and yes, I know ours isn't that terrific but, by and large, bit by bit, it gets on with it and comes to a decision.  Not so 'over there'!  

It is now nearly ten years - TEN YEARS! - since that global warming fraudster, Michael E. Mann began legal proceedings against the National Review [NR] magazine (and Mark Steyn) when they published criticism of his so-called 'scientific proof' that the world was warming. 'Prof.' Mann instantly re-acted with a legal attack against both which, interestingly, both recipients eagerly awaited their day in court.  It's a good job they didn't hold their breath waiting because, as the NR makes clear, nothing, absolutley nothing, has moved on in the glutinous swamp that is the American court system.  As the NR puts it:

A few days before launching his lawsuit against what he called “this filthy organization,” Michael Mann wrote that there “is a possibility that I can ruin National Review.” Nearly a decade later, we are still fighting his attempt to do precisely that.

[…]

We’ve said we’d use every tool and argument at our disposal to defeat Mann, and that’s what we’ve done. Mark Steyn posted the blog item in dispute in July of 2012. Mann sued in October of that year, and we filed our first motion to dismiss in December of 2012.

When that was denied by the trial court, we filed a motion to reconsider. When that, too, was denied, we appealed to the D.C. Court of Appeals — twice. This brings us to 2014. After oral arguments, the Court of Appeals sat on the case for two years. Then, the court denied our appeal. This was in December of 2016. Because the opinion had myriad obvious flaws, we petitioned for a rehearing. Incredibly enough, the court then delayed for yet another two years. When the court finally issued an amended opinion, all it did was add one footnote and amend another.

In some desperation - and who can blame them? - the NR reaches for a Churchillian quotation to express its rage at the utter uselessness of the American courts:

So far, the courts have, to quote Churchill, elected to “go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.” They brushed past the anti-SLAPP statute that was designed to prevent this from happening. Our hope is that the same won’t happen with Section 230, which is also meant to protect the free-speech rights of online publishers.

It is a matter of considerable irony that the only “malice” that the discovery process has uncovered is that exhibited by Michael Mann. When planning his suit, Mann described National Review as a “threat to our children,” beholden to “greedy fat cat corporate masters.” His stated intention was to bring us “down for good.” Needless to say, this is not how a country with a First Amendment or a culture of free speech is supposed to work. It’s past time that this suit is dismissed as incompatible with both, and a failure on the facts and the law.

For Gods sake America, get a grip, I'm losing faith in you!  This might happen in Russia but . . . !  And I bet Atticus Finch didn't have to put up with that sort of terminal sloth in his court!

 

 

 

 

The trial seems to say much about him but just as much about them

I refer, of course, to the trial of the exceedingly ugly and deeply unpleasant Mr. Harvey Weinstein which, I hasten to add, I have not followed in detail.  Of course, the 'villain of the show' has been exposed as an exceedingly creepy, sexual-psycho predator who used his enormous wealth and power to forcefully engage in obscene sexual activities with various women.  He deserves to rot in jail for the rest of his miserable existence.

Even so, as old 'Bill' Shakespeare would have noted, although in wittier terms than I can manage, 'it takes two to tango' or, if you prefer, engage in mutual sexual activity.  And that brings me to the parts played by the ladies!  If, to quote the old saying of the sadly missed 'Screws News of the World', the ladies concerned had "made their excuses and left", none of this would have arisen.  Yes, I understand that women are the weaker sex, not least because they never stop telling me so, but I can't help suspecting that some of those ladies involved might have had the teeniest, tiny awareness of what might ensue from a 'one on one' private interview with Mr. Weinstein!  Holly wood is, so I am informed, a hotbed (no pun intended!) of rumour and whispers.

That said, none of it detracts from the sub-human beastliness of Weinstein who, I hope but do not trust given his wealth, will suffer the remainder of his life under exceedingly harsh conditions.

And yes, I am standing by for heavy incoming from the ladies!

 

 

 

Your Monday Funnies: 24.2.20

For a change this Monday I am providing y'all with some American political cartoons - well, they made me chuckle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 23.2.20

Crikey! Tyson must have been in a fury!   (Yes, yes, I know, NOT 'very witty, Wilde', but I haven't been up long!)  Anyway, I was stunned to hear the result of last night's fight.  Whilst I am not a keen boxing fan I do admire the men (but NOT the women!) who take up the sport.  In Mr. Tyson's case, I also admire his eccentricity.  I gather that at the end of last night's fight he regaled the audience with a solo song performance.  Time for a sword tap on the shoulders, Ma'am!

 

Harry vs. Her Maj!   Well, there was only ever going to be one winner in that fight!  Now Harry and Meghan will have to remain swimming, increasingly desperately, I fear, in the shark-pool that is 'Celeb-Central'.  Good luck with that one!

 

Not much love for the BBC these days:   I have been slightly surprised at the lack of support for the BBC as it faces a hatchet-job from the 'DomBo' duo.  Personally, I went off the BBC years ago as it gradually dumped its hitherto very neutral stance on current affairs.  The only programme worth listening to these days is the World Service, particularly its excellent "From Our Own Correspondent".  The sight and sound of David Dimbleby squeaking in outrage as 'DomBo' approach with the financial scissors in hand is music to my ears!

 

The Dems are truly and monumentally dumb!   Faced with a weirdly eccentric Republican President whose oddities should have been easy target, the Dems have succeeded in shooting themselves in the foot!  In one caucus they managed to propel the American equivalent of Jeremy Corbyn into top place!

 

Gregory Doran shouldn't be allowed to run a Punch and Judy Show!   However, as it is, he runs the Royal Shakespeare Company which is sufficient reason for me never to set foot in the place again - I doubt he will miss me!  He is one of those silly, 'woke' people who likes to cast women in major masculine roles and black men as historical Kings of England.  Need I say more?  Well, yes, actually because I would like to tell him that when I go to see a Shakespeare play I want to see Shakespeare's play, not Mr. Doran's!

 

Daniel Hannan eviscerates the Brussels 'cherry-pickers'.   And no-one does it better:

Now who is cherry picking? For three years, EU negotiators refused to countenance British proposals for a bespoke deal, however much such a deal was in their own interest. Their rules were paramount (yes, they kept saying that with straight faces) and Britain must choose an off-the-peg model. Michel Barnier was forever brandishing a chart with a staircase on it to show that, if Britain didn’t want to keep free movement or stay in the customs union, its only option was a free-trade agreement like that signed with Canada.

“Fine then,” said Boris Johnson when he took over from Theresa May. “Canada it is.” At which point, suddenly and shamelessly, Eurocrats began to backtrack. Actually, no, not Canada. When they said “Canada”, what they meant was: “Canada plus an obligation to let Brussels set some of your rules in perpetuity.”

As I have said, many a time and oft', the Brussels apparatchiks will never, ever cut a trade deal with us Brits until we have been punished!  So let us not bother, 'DomBo', just pull out and go on WTO terms.  'See how they like them apples'!

 

 

No more Rumbles

 

 

 

"Bloomberg has been a Republican, an independent and a Democrat"

'Still 'n' all', as they say 'over there', so has Trump!  Not that it matters in this day and age because nobody, least of all the top ranking, political participants gives a flying fig for political principles.  'Once upon a time', as they say in every fairy story, American politicians at least pretended to believe in something.  Today they don't bother and if you don't believe me, check out the latest political con-artist to enter the race for the Presidency, the man with a thousand different cloaks pretending to be, well, whatever you want him to be!

Mr. Freddy Gray of The Spectator understands the nature of the beast as represented by Mr. Mike Bloomberg (Dem., or Ind., or maybe Repub.) depending on the circs!

Bloomberg has taken to calling himself the ‘un-Trump’ — the sort of clunky political branding that only the most expensive consultants can create. But Bannon calls him a ‘Republican oligarch’ — and you don’t have to be a national populist to see his point. Like Trump, Bloomberg has been a Republican, an independent and a Democrat — depending on what was expedient to him at the time. More than Trump, perhaps, he fits the traditional left-wing caricature of a right-wing villain: a plutocratic media-finance baron with terrifying levels of access to private information. He’s never been recorded saying ‘grab ’em by the pussy’, but he has reportedly made all manner of similarly lewd remarks — and been taken to court by a number of female employees.

I gather from different sources that the Democrat, er, 'debate' yesterday was a shambles and that Bloomberg came out of it 'bottom of the class'.  If you can't win a debate against a collection of third-raters like that, what can you do?  Well, I suppose 'Bloomers' will do what he does best, throw shed-loads of money at the problem until they all go away!

Dammit, I feel genuinely sorry for my American friends.  What a collection of deadbeat nincompoops they have at the top of their political trees!

 

 

 

 

But the shrewdest political analyst of them all backs Bloomer!

Well, of course, here at D&N you will only ever be offered the opinions of the very best informed and most highly qualified of commentators on political matters, particularly American politics!  Thus, today I offer you the shrewd insights of 'Taki' Theodoracopulos, the weekly commentator at 'The Speccie'.  To be honest, most of the time Taki confines himself to his views on the high-class 'crumpet' to be seen lurking round the high-class, international hot-spots that he frequents.  For example, from his latest column in 'The Speccie':

Actually, I plan to tell them about the goings-on at The Spectator. As the lunch is on the same day as the magazine goes to press, I might as well spill part of the beans: I have been sexually harassed by ladies who work at Old Queen Street and have done nothing about it because I have been too ashamed to come clean. The culprits are two ladies called Mary and Lara. My lawyers are advising me not to go into detail while they ascertain the wealth of the harassers before they file for damages. So, I shall take their advice and say nothing more than that this has gone on for a very long time, and without the help of Doctor Klinghoffer of Zurich I don’t know how I would have survived.

You see, this man really suffers in order to bring the latest news to 'Speccie' readers!  In addition - and no extra cost! -  he provides a summary of Mr. Bloomberg's chances in the forthcoming Presidential punch-up:

But money has a way of softening unacceptable behaviour. Bloomberg, who has more than 60 billion big ones, certainly knows what to do in order to win the presidency he seeks. That amount of money, one billion smackers, has never before been spent to buy the White House for four years. As everyone knows, Americans do not read magazines or newspapers, nor, God forbid, books, but they do look at screens all day. Bloomberg has inundated TV, YouTube and Facebook with non-stop ads. He has hired thousands to tweet non-stop pro-Bloomberg slogans, and has removed the human element from campaigning altogether. His hundreds of millions are blanketing the airwaves and he spends one million smackers per day on Facebook.

Trump spent $66 million of his own fortune in 2016, but the cynical Bloomberg laughs at the puny Trump wealth. He calls the Donald a non-billionaire. I think that mini-Mike will go all the way, however disheartening that is. Back in the good old days one could not win with moolah alone. Now, because of the internet, shameless social climbers such as Bloomberg can go all the way. I think it was Andrew Roberts who first suggested to Bloomie that he run for president. Mini-Mike replied that short Jewish billionaires don’t stand a chance. Well, Andrew was right: I see the short one living in the big house soon.

What can I say except, 'we shall see what we shall see'!

 

 

 

Dammit, why do my American friends get all the fun?

There is a new TV sports show on American TV called, I think, "Snuff the 'Bloomer'!"  Well, that's what it looks like from reports of yesterday's TV debate between the Democratic 'wannabe Presidents'.  The blood flowed bountifully - and most of it belonged to former New York City mayor, and multi-zillionaire, Mike Bloomberg - ohdearwhatapitynevermind!  He charged into the competition flashing his cash in the most disproportionate manner even by American standards!  Last night, apparently, he was unable to hide in his bank vaults and that collection of old-age pensioners, lady liars and young, er, 'thrusters' ripped him apart.

Dammit, why can't we have massacres like that on our TV?

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 16.02.20

Normal service is restored, well, what passes for normal service! And NO, I did not enjoy a long lay in this morning!  It was all the fault of that Bill Gates because Microsoft decided they wanted to, er, up-date my computer.  Fair enough - but it took all bloody morning!  Do get a grip, Gates!  

 

Dammit! Hitchens keeps telling uncomfortable truths:   Today he shines a light on the, er, 'lady', Mary Lou McDonald, who (allegedly) leads the Sinn Fein party which to most people's horror and disgust did exceptionally well in the recent Irish elections.  Lest we be fooled - again! - he reminds of some of her history:

In August 2003, Ms McDonald stood willingly beside the grisly apostle of violence and convicted IRA bomber Brian Keenan. But that wasn't all. Both were there to 'pay respect' at the statue of one of the nastiest people who ever lived.

The memorial to Sean Russell in Dublin's Fairview Park is, as far as I know, the only monument to a Nazi collaborator still standing in democratic Europe.
Russell, the IRA's Chief of Staff in 1939, travelled on the eve of the Second World War to Nazi Germany to offer his services to Hitler. They gave him the use of a villa in Berlin, and provided him with a car and chauffeur.

What can one say except 'pass the sick-bag'!  In the meantime, of course, there is a good chance that Sinn Fein, a 'party' run by and for murderous gangsters will form part of the government of an EU country.

 

It's decision time, 'DomBo':  That's the big difference between 'wannabe' political leaders and those actually up to their elbows (if not higher!) in political leadership.  The ever-stern Jeremy Warner in The Telegraph puts the difficulty this way:

Is this a tax-cutting or big-spending administration? Is it economic competitiveness that most exercises the prime minister as we head towards the challenges of Brexit – in which case he would slash taxes to attract investment and talent – or is it “levelling up” the regions, which requires big spending on education, training, the underprivileged and the agglomeration of uneconomic towns and cities into more viable wholes.

Gotta choose, 'DomBo', but please don't choose both!

 

The death of the BBC is about to be announced - drinks on me!   Not that part of me is not sad.  Since wartime childhood, the BBC has been part of my life.  It is only in recent years that gradually I have noticed the changes.  It is no longer fair and balanced, or even truthful but has gradually morphed into a 'woke', Leftist, Greenie broadcaster for the purposes of pumping out it's own 'agitprop'.  The fact that I am forced by law to pay for this garbage plus the 'yuuuuuuuge' salaries of the smug, 'Leftie' broadcasters is making me feel ill, so the quicker 'DomBo' pull the trigger, the better!

 

Oh my 'Gaard', not George Washington!    Is no-one safe from those prying historians?  Let me begin by confessing my almost total ignorance of George Washington.  As far as I am concerned he was a damned traitor who took arms against His Majesty and, compounding his treachery, he won, dammit!  Anyway, according to The Mail, he really was a bit of a rotter who ill-treated his slaves, stole their teeth for his own use and used every dodge in the book to avoid setting them free!  Finally:

Perhaps the most hard-hitting revelation in the disproved myths about Washington is that his famous 'I cannot tell a lie' line to his father when felling the family's cherry tree is completely fictitious.
The tale was made up by Mason Locke Weems, a broke itinerant parson and bookseller, for the 19th century for the book 'The Life of Washington'. 

Shockin', shockin'!  I'm sure today's American politicians would not stoop to such falsehood!

 

And talking of America:   Can anyone tell me who Michael Bloomberg is?  I gather that he is eye-wateringly wealthy and is intent on buying the Democrat party!  Is this "A Good Thing" or "A Bad Thing"?

 

Keep your eyes on Germany!   I keep reading bits and pieces about the state of the State of Germany.  Matters are in a state of flux as 'Mutti' Merkel prepares to hang up her handbag and not all of them sound too good!

 

 

No more Rumbles 

 

 

Sorry, Don baby, but 'you are an 'A1 crasher' of the first order'!

I watched President Trump's press conference monologue and it was truly 'yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge'!  He went on and on and on and then on again and probably on ever longer but I switched off because I could feel the life forces draining from me!  Yes, I know those, er, 'dirty rat Dems' tried to do him down but, hey, Mr. President, that's politics!  If you don't like it go back to buying and selling office blocks.

In any activity you can usually spot the 'pros' from the 'ams' very quickly and today's effort showed Trump to be the absolute amateur that he is in politics. Perhaps all that 'cry-baby' stuff about the cruel, merciless Dems trying to take his new toy, the Presidency, away from him melted some hearts amongst older, lady voters but for the majority, especially Republicans, it must have been an excruciating embarrassment.

The fact is that so far, much to everyone's surprise, his has been a successful Presidency.  The country is, by and large, in good shape and if there are tensions building beneath the surface then the fault lies with the agitating Left, not with him.  So calm down, Mr. President, it seems to me from way 'over here' that you are a 'slam dunk' for election later this year provided, that is, you do not try to speak impromptu again and thereby send America into a deep slumber!

 

 

We can only hope that the reshuffle delivers a strong hand!

The cabinet reshuffle due in the next few days will be rather more important than usual.  For a start, it will clarify 'DomBo's general direction.  By the way, I continue to use the expression "DomBo" in order to indicate the duality of today's government.  Only time will tell whether 'Dominic' or 'Boris' are actually sharing the controls or fighting over them!  In the meantime we must simply fasten our seatbelts and hope for the best. 

On the whole, the outlook seems to be set fair.  'The Donald' has utterly squidged the Democrat party who have been reduced to looking like those old circus clowns who ran around pouring buckets of water over each other.  So  matters 'over there' should remain fairly quiet and with a bit of luck and a fair wind we should be able to strike a mutually advantageous trade deal with 'Uncle Sam', ooops, I meant 'Uncle Don'!

Meanwhile, 'just over there' the European Union - who sniggered? - might huff 'n' puff but with Germany sailing into stormy economic times and the East Europeans  using their elbows to make room for themselves, it may be gradually dawning in what passes for the collective mind of the EU that they may need us as a trading partner rather more than we need them!  Cold shower time, mes amis!

So, cautious optimism is permitted but keep your provisions safe and your ammo dry!

 

 

 

Trump's and Pelosi's grandmothers would not have approved!

I have told y'all before about my peculiar habits in bed - NO, not those! - I mean the fact that I stick a radio earpiece into my ear so that during the night I can listen in to Radio5 Live, or the World Service or 'TooorkSpooort'!  Last night I went to sleep with the mellifluous sounds of President Trump delivering his State of the Union address to Congress.  I fell asleep quite rapidly as I realised it was mearly a litany of brags and boasts but reading the reports today I would judge that the, er, 'State of the Union' is actually abysmal!  The two main antagonists, Trump and Pelosi, behaved like spoilt brats!  He refused to shake her hand and she made a point of tearing up the copy of his speech.  The equivalent of 'yah-boo-sucks, 'nah-na-na-nada'  and "I'll tell my Mum of you!"  

For 'Chrissake', America, get a grip!

I sense that 'over there' the temperature is rising rapidly and that far from blowing the embers in the fire into full-on flames, the leaders should turn on the shower and cool down!  America is, I judge from way 'over here', a very much more volatile society than our boring-snoring, sleep-walking equivalent.  I could be wrong - I frequently am as you, my readers, can testify - but I really do fear that 'over there' someone, somewhere, will strike a match soon and calamity will ensue!

 

 

 

'Big Sis' is the best!

I should explain that the "Big Sis" in my title refers 'Sister Wolf', a ferocious and very funny blogger I came across years ago.  Hitherto, I would have described her just as an 'e-pal' but actually, a couple of years ago I met her in London when she was on a trip 'over here' so that allows me to drop the "e" from e-pal.  She, and her sister, were very far from ferocious, both being charming and friendly.  Anyway, today she has a blog post which, as so often, left me chortling.  Below, I reproduce a photo that she used to illustrate her post - the elderly gentlemen amongst my readers should try to contain their excitement!

Apparently, the two ladies above, about who, regrettably, I know nothing, provided the dance and musical background to some 'yuuuuuuuuge' sporting event 'over there'.  Subsequently, a dispute has arisen as to whether or not their dance routine helped 'empower' women or not.  'Sister Wolf', needless to say, has an opinion:

PLEASE tell me that you agree with me, that the show was as disempowering to women as if they’d been scrubbing dishes on their hands and knees.

What is empowering about women having to wear stripper outfits and shake their asses? What is empowering about the hours spent getting hair extensions and spray tans and investing in personal trainers? I see it’s empowering for the people who provide the services and for the cosmetic surgery industry but for women?? Bitch please.

It’s not empowering to feel you must look like you’re in your twenties when you’re fifty. It seems sad to me. Even Brad Pitt is allowed to look weathered. It seems like oppression. Maybe in the age of Trump, oppression is empowering?

Shakira is gorgeous and I have to say she’s a really good dancer. She looks like a fit 43 year old. Not a miracle of make-up and hair professionals, but a genuine babe, you know? Good for her.

But most of the accolades are going to Jennifer Lopez, who makes it look SO HARD, with every step and ass-wiggle seeming to visibly cause her anxiety. When is desperation empowering? When she sang something about “I’m still Jenny from the block” my husband and I both laughed out loud.

Jesus Christ, empowering my flat ass.

Whatever you say, 'Big Sis', but if you could see your way clear to printing a moving picture of the dance routine, I would be very grateful.  Er, just so I could offer an informed opinion, of course!

 

 

 

This is one book I haven't the courage to read

I'm not talking about physical courage but moral courage!  One word is enough to disclose the cause of my unease - Dresden!  I have just read a review of the book "Dresden: The Fire and the Darkness" by Sinclair MacKay.  It is reviewed, carefully, by Christopher Priest in this week's Spectator.  It is, I suppose, 'the bombing raid that dare not speak its name'!  I have known about it for around 60-odd years but steered clear of digging into it too deeply.  I understand, and to a certain extent I sympathise with the perpetrators, even the ghastly Air Marshall 'Bomber' Harris, but it should not have happened.

 

Dresden after the Allied bombing raids of 13 to 15 February 1945: an estimated 25,000 civilians were killed

 

It was, in effect, a war crime.  There was nothing of military or strategic value in the city which was, in fact, crammed with refugees from the many other bombed cities of Germany plus countless others fleeing from the Russian advance from the East.  It was a war crime executed with military precision in that low-flying Mosquitoes were used to plant flares to mark out the City centre for the fleets of heavy bombers which followed.  The next day, the American Air Force took over and completed the utter destruction of the ancient city and of several more thousands of civilians and refugees.

 

Nothing I have written is intended to blight the reputations of the unbelievably courageous air crews involved who were, to quote a phrase, simply obeying orders.  And, as anyone with a modicum of common-sense will know, "war is hell!" and should be avoided as much as is possible.  There is no way that WWII could be avoided but I do believe that the raid on Dresden should have been.

 

 

 

 

 

Good to see you again, Mr. Fumento!

A pleasant surprise for me today to come across Mr. Michael Fumento again after many years.  Described in The American Thinker today as a "master debunker", I will never forget his lonely tirade against the massed ranks of the 'PC brigade' back in the days of AIDS.  Desperate to avoid pointing fingers at homosexuals the mainstream 'meeja' twisted themselves in knots to emphasise that AIDS was as much a heterosexual disease as a homosexual one in order to avoid accusing careless and promiscuous homosexuals.

Virtually alone, it was Fumento who 'stated the bleedin' obvious', that if you make a regular habit of inserting your penis, without protection, into the anal passages of numerous men on a regular basis, you are likely, eventually, to catch a very nasty disease!  Cue an avalanche of hostile, or perhaps 'hysterical' is a better word, attacks against him from the 'PC brigade'.  In the end, particularly in medical/scientific matters, 'Truth will out" and he was right and the homosexual lobby was wrong!

Apparently, he is now commenting on this new virus attack emanating from China and is attempting to insert some facts into the hysterical garbage that is already mounting.  Well done, Mr. Fumento!

 

 

Now look here, America, you must, nay, you WILL watch this film!

After all, you owe her!  I mean, dammit, it was her turn and she deserved it but you let her lose!  You are all absolute scoundrels and so the least you can do to make amends is to spend four hours - oh come on, it's only FOUR hours! - watching this film which bears, alas, the unforgettable title of "HILLARY"!  Yes, it's about her, well everything, everywhere, all the time is about her. 

Alas, Mr. Kyle Smith of The National Review is definitely not a Hillary fan but don't let him put you off even if he does suggest that:

At some point in recent years, one or more of Hillary Clinton’s many handlers, advisers, or consultants told her, “You should laugh more. People like laughter.” Except she is sour, dour, and without a humorous molecule in her body. Her laughter is always feigned, hence always a non sequitur. When she reminds herself it’s laughing time, it comes across as a tic. It’s as bizarre as sudden-onset tap dancing.

Mr. Smith is obviously not a fan:

Her role today is that of a good-natured and not-at-all-bitter role model for tomorrow’s women. But her words betray her aggrievement and entitlement. She is not good at this. She was never good at this. She simply lacks the personality of a public-facing figure and should never have embarrassed herself trying to be one. If it hadn’t been for her proximity to William Jefferson Clinton, a man who genuinely did have a genius for connecting with people and lit up every room he was in for many years, the idea of trying to win elected office never would have infected her mind. There’s no shame in lacking political gifts. What is shameful is that she continues to blame her personal failings on the rest of us. [My emphasis]

And, of course, she is right!  It is all your fault, you very naughty 'Yankee-doodle-dandies', that you failed to recognise and reward a brave woman who merely sought to gain what was hers by right!  OK, OK, so she has a really irritating laugh habit - as Mr. Smith reminds us:

In more than a quarter of a century as a public figure she has never, as far as I know, said anything funny that wasn’t written for her. Yet in a fresh new batch of interviews taken for Hillary, the title figure becomes the second major movie anti-hero of recent months to exhibit a problem with bursting into unexplained, mirthless, and (hence) deeply disquieting laughter. Recalling the much-delayed concession speech she famously withheld until the morning after her 2016 defeat, Clinton says that afterwards, “I just collapsed in the back of the van. [Pause for hearty laughs.] I was like: What. Just. Happened.” According to her, “all the forces [Donald Trump] had unleashed had been rewarded. It made me sick to my stomach.” So, er, why the laughs? She’s Arthur Fleck in a pantsuit.

                        

                  Hillary Clinton                                                           Arthur Fleck      

Needless to say, her loss against the most unlikely Presidential candidate - ever! - was not her fault - it was yours, you naughty citizens!

“People still believe weird, wacky things about me because they’ve been told [laughs in spasmodic, Arthur Fleck mode] that, you know, I kill people, I rob people, I mean who knows what the heck they’ve been told?” Well, we’ve been told that it’s a felony to remove classified information from secure channels but also told that it was okay when you did it, Madame Secretary. But do go on about how the system is rigged against you.

Well, apparently, in this four hour marathon she does go on - and on - and on some more - all totally fascinating, of course, and I shall expect a full report from my 'Yankee-doodle-dandy' friends.

The Sunday Rumble: 26.01.20

A cheerful start - for a change!   Until this morning I had never heard of 'The Windermere Children' but apparently it is the subject of a programme on BBC2 tomorrow night.  It tells the story of 300 or so Jewish children rescued from German concentration camps at the end of the war and relocated to a new camp near Windermere in the Lake District.  Gradually they were rehabilitated mentally and physically following the unspeakable horrors through which they had - just! - managed to survive.  You can read about it here:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/the-true-story-of-the-ww2-holocaust-survivors-who-became-the-windermere-children/ar-BBZkPGS?ocid=spartanntp

 

Go, Rupe, baby, go!   Excellent news this morning  to the effect that my 'ex-Best Friend Rupe' Murdoch is planning to open a new radio station to compete with the BBC's Radio4.  Yes, I know the ads will be irritating but I would rather put up with them than listen to the tendentious, 'woke' crap that emanates from Radio4.  Incidentally, 'Rupe' is my best ex-best friend because years ago he ramped up the price of his TV news channel forcing me to leave.

 

The 'Heffalump' in praise of John Profumo:   He, of course, was the naughty boy caught out in the early '60s for his dalliance with the equally naughty Christine Keeler.  I always remember him because, before his fall from grace, I actually met him - for about 3.5 seconds!  I was in a bed in the RAF hospital in Bahrein - no, no, not sick, just skiving and making the most of the most minor of injuries - and as Minister for War he was inspecting the base.  Anyway, he shook hands and wished me well.  I mention all this because the 'Heffalump' has a kindly and forgiving article about the man in The Telegraph today.  Profumo,  was blessed with a superb and wise wife in the form of the film actress Valerie Hobson.  Whatever else, you have to say that he had good taste in women!

 

Oh dear, when 'allies' fall out!   I am a regular follower of both The American Thinker site and The National Revue site.  Between them they give me a Conservative overview of the American political scene.  The Thinker from a very pro-Trump point of view and the NR from a much more doubting and critical standpoint.  Today, The Thinker takes a swipe at The Revue and thus neatly summarises the divide in the conservative view of President Trump.

 

I told you they were 'psycho-babblers'!    For years now I have sneered at what I always refer to as "psycho-babblers".  I am not suggesting that everything they say is tripe, for example, there are, I believe, broad categories of mental states that can - with care! -  be grouped together to aid recognition and to allow some serious scientific enquiry and even treatment.  However, much of what is spouted on the subject is self-serving crap!  Take for example the late David Rosenhan, a 'psycho-babbler' of the first order, as detailed in a book review in this week's Spectator.  Read it and weep!  That phoney Freud has much to answer for.

 

'Theodore Dalrymple' gives Prince Harry a slap:   The volume of words spewed forth in recent weeks since the birth of Harry's and Meghan's son is monumental.  As you would expect, most of it was piffle but thanks to 'TakiMag' the shrewd and highly intelligent 'Dr. Dalrymple' has published his take, not on the birth itself but on the name chosen by his parents for the new 'nipper' - Archie.  Even I, resolutely uninterested as I am in the doings of this, er, particular family, raised an eyebrow when it was announced.  As per usual, Dr. Dalrymple puts what pass for my thoughts into clear, straightforward words.  Give it a read!

 

No more rumbles today

 

 

 

 

 

Pearl Harbour - 'hoonoo?' Kilsoo Haan and Pres. Roosevelt did!

That's the problem for spies, no-one quite believes them!  Thus it was for the late Kilsoo Kenneth Haan (1900-1976).  I must confess I had never heard of him before I read a review in The Spectator of his biography, "Action Likely in Pacific: Secret Agent Kilsoo Haan, Pearl Harbor and the Creation of North Korea" by John Koster.  Kilsoo Haan was an American of mixed Japanese and Korean stock who possessed a network of informants throughout South East Asia during the '30s which allowed him to build up a clear and concise forecast of Japanese actions up to an including the attack on Pearl Harbour.  He passed this on to the highest echelons of the American government including Pres. Roosevelt himself.  The President chose to ignore it!  

I apologise to my American friends but I really do think a complete review of Roosevelt's presidency is long overdue!

 

 

 

Grim reading!

But don't blame me!  What follows is a reprint of a comment to a post down below left by my e-pal, Malcolm Pollack, on the subject of the possible/probable likelihood of an American civil war.  It is a thoughtful contribution and I decided to reprint it as a post in it's own right.

Blue and Red have, at this point, wholly incommensurable belief and value systems. They disagree fundamentally and axiomatically about human nature, morality, sexuality, the role of government, respect for family, heritage and tradition, and our duty as stewards of the American nation and culture. As I wrote here back in October:
As the historian Michael Vlahos has been explaining to John Batchelor these past months: you don’t know, except in hindsight, when civil wars have begun. (It strikes me as being much the same as falling into a black hole: once you’ve passed the event horizon, all possible pathways lead through the singularity — even though, to the person falling in, there’s nothing noticeable about the event horizon itself.)

To put that another way: looking at the current chasm in American politics, the fundamentally incompatible visions of America the two sides hold, the degree of dehumanizing hatred they show for each other, the bloody damage already done, and the implacable fury with which they grapple for every atom of power, can any of you imagine some way forward in which the Right and Left just "bury the hatchet" and "hug it out"?

Of course not. This fight continues, and intensifies, until either one side is destroyed, or we work out some kind of divorce.

I don't see any sign of either side giving in or walking away, and there isn't anything like enough commonality left to restore any kind of comity. It goes without saying that this civil war -- which in hindsight we may, in future, understand already to have gotten underway by now -- won't look like the last two American civil wars, with regular armies deployed in military array. It will more likely proceed on a far more granular scale, with constant low-grade violence and disorder, and the occasional regional secession, as the horizontal ligatures that have bound the Republic together all these years gradually break down. Perhaps there will be some geographical sorting as Red folks leave the great Blue urban islands.
I honestly can't see, at this point, how things will get better before they get much worse. (Can any of you?) And I really don't see how America as presently constituted continues for much longer.

Should this occur, it truly will qualify as "Apocalypse Now"!  Lest you think I am being overly dramatic, just think who the winners will be if America dissolves!

 

 

If there is a civil war 'over there' it seems to be INSIDE the Dems!

Incredible news which, I regret to say, caused me to giggle!  Apparently, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D), a contender for the Democratic nomination for President, has issued legal proceedings against 'HillBilly' claiming the 'wannabe First Lady' accused her of "being a Russian asset".  I have no idea who Tulsi Gabbard is but she is far, far more attractive than 'HillBilly' - so who isn't? - and thus I wish her well in her court action and I hope that it costs 'HillBilly' a packet!  Read all about it here.  Sometimes, just sometimes, I begin to think that there really is a God!

 

 

Seriously, is America edging towards another civil war?

I will be enormously grateful if my American friends tell me I'm an idiot and that there is absolutely no chance of America dissolving into a civil war.  Even so, and in the meantime, I view with increasing anxiety the sight and sound of mounting political hysteria 'over there'.  Needless to say, most of it arises from the political Left but it has to be said that President Trump's, er, 'eccentricity' also contributes to the rise in temperature.  

As seen from 'over here', this farcical impeachment trial is yet another can of fuel to be added to the fire.  We all know it will be 'squidged' in the end but what will that do to the enraged Lefties who rate Trump somewhere south of Al Capone - or even Adolph Hitler?  As the hysteria mounts, some idiot somewhere will be tempted, literally or figuratively, to 'pull the trigger'.  How will the current American political 'elites' cope with that?  I doubt that 'throwing toys out of the pram' will be sufficient!  Nor, I suspect, can the normal legal and political bureaucracies be depended on to enforce stability given that most of them are anything but politically neutral!

I know, I know, I live a 'zillion' miles away and my 'knowledge' is superficial but, dammit, I fear, I fear!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 15.01.20

Hey, schmuks, don't mess with Her Maj!   I haven't read the details - life is short and getting shorter! - but from the commentary it looks as though H&M have been handed their arses on silver salver!  Meghan will not care, she is, after all, a grovelling subject of the Hollywood dynasty - good luck with that one!  Harry will probably feel the self-inflicted wounds as time goes on.  My totally clueless guess is that Meghan's mini-career prospects will gradually wither along with her relationship with Harry and the pair of them will shuffle off into the twilight of obscurity.  I hope I'm wrong, I usually am!

 

With apologies to Matt and the DT:

 

Make Meghan's dad a Duke!   Thomas Markle appears to have more common-sense in the finger he uses to yank open a can of beer than his dippy daughter has in her entire body!  Give him a seat in the House of Lords! 

 

Lord Bercow? Pass the sick bag - quick!   According to reports, 'Jezza' Corbyn, as leader of the opposition, is considering offering Bercow a seat in the Lords.  Presumably he will sit as a Labour peer thus reducing even further the opinion of the dreaded 'Peeps' as to the worthiness of the Labour party.  'Good thinking', Jezza, that should improve your chances at the next election - NOT!

 

Off out for lunch:   Er, with the Memsahib, of course, at The White Post restaurant.  Good grub and superb views across 'Zummerzet'.  Back later . .

 

Sent to me by a friend:  Whose head will surely be chopped off in the Tower!

I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!

 

A question I asked some time ago:

Asked again by The American Thinker - when and why did "Global Warming" become "Climate Change":

When the accelerated warming trend that began in the 1980s ran out of steam in 1997, what would become an extended levelling-off period set in. Instead of acknowledging their dire predictions of unstoppable rising temperatures were embarrassingly wrong, climate doomsayers came up with a new tag for the alleged threat. What was once referred to almost exclusively as “global warming” was quietly given an alter ego: “climate change.” Since global temperatures were in a virtual flatline, claims of cataclysmic warming were no longer believable. Rather than admitting they were wrong and looking for another way to destroy capitalism, the doomsayers simply switched gears, and invented a clever new trick to frighten voters with terrifying scenarios of imminent environmental calamity. Since runaway warming wasn’t happening, they concocted the specious narrative that extreme weather events, every one of them, are caused by, you guessed it: climate change. Almost overnight, climate change was made the scapegoat for every severe hurricane, drought, flood, heat wave and blizzard that appeared, as if such unpleasant things had never before occurred. 

Couldn't have put it better myself!

 

 

No more rumbles 

 

 

 

Oh no, 'my darling Jane', say it ain't so

For the first time in what seems like an aeon, the rain stopped and the sun shone so I started the day with a light step.  Well, that didn't last long before it turned into a miserable trudge!  For a start, one of our local pubs has started serving cooked breakfast fry-ups on a Saturday morning. I just 'luuuurve' what I call a 'cookie' made up of fried bread, two eggs, sunny side up, grilled bacon, a tomato and some mushrooms.  So, against all my principles I actually dragged my self out of bed and up to the pub for 9.30 - yes, actually 9.30!  It was awful!  Instead of cooking to order it was all displayed in heated pans and it reminded me of the, er, good ol' days queuing up for grub in the army!

So, not the best of starts but on returning I settled down to read The Mail.  Guess what, more and more and yet more about bloody Meghan Markle and her 'Prince Ginger'!  I thought that once they had buggered off to Canada that would be the end of it. No chance!  So I turned to The Telegraph and my favourite opinion writer MDJ - My Darling Janet (Daley).  She proceeded to, in effect, nut me, kick me in the kneecaps and then stomp on my face with a vicious, withering onslaught against President Trump!

Now, as regular reader will know, I am far from being an ardent fan but then I am rarely an ardent fan of any US President.  Alas, for them, they are under minute, searchlight observation 24/7 and being mere men, of course, their blemishes are soon spotted and with an army of opponents waiting eagerly, they are publicised even faster!  Trump's fault lines are all too apparent but they seem to me to be fairly harmless stemming as they do from his 'yuuuuuuuge' conceit, his inability (or indifference) to understanding how others might view his eccentricities and his constant desire to be always and forever at the centre of attention.  Ms. Daley thinks otherwise!

She maintains that his greatest fault is his wanton, almost childlike, destruction of the 'religion' which guides America - the Declaration of Independence, the words of the founding Fathers and the Constitution.  Alas, The Telegraph will not allow me to 'cut and paste' (or steal, if you prefer!) from Ms. Daley's onslaught, so you need to read it for yourself.  Coming from her, it is well worth it!

ADDITIONAL:

Via Zero Hedge I have just read an opinion by Alan Dershowitz, a man worth listening to especially on legal matters.  In essence, he writes that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) doesn't know the law from the hole in its collective arse and nor, by implication, does MDJ (My Darling Jane) I am sorry to say.  Read the link!

 

 

 

 

 

How dare Bernie Sanders tell the truth?

According to reports of the Democrat TV hustings yesterday, Bernie Sanders accused 'Fauxcahontas' Warren of being liar.  This was shockin', I tell you, shockin' because nobody expects truths to be told at political hustings!  Of course, 'Fauxcahontas' is a liar, indeed, a serial liar, as Ms. Andrea Widburg points out at The American Thinker listing the following examples:

She lied about being a Native American.
She lied about the circumstances surrounding her parents’ marriage.
She stole a New York Times recipe as her own for a cookbook put out by Native Americans.
She lied about being fired because she was pregnant.
She lies about her father having been a janitor.
She lied that her children never attended private schools.

No doubt in Bernie's long political history he has told a few 'porkies' because, of course, he is a practicing politician.  Even so, 'Fauxcahontas's efforts are 'yuuuuuugely' egregious given that respect to different races is, so to speak, a totem pole before which the Democratic party worships!  The Dems are not up to much these days so I can only hope that in the candidate selection they humiliate that ghastly 'lying-liar' of a woman!

 

 

The Sunday Rumble 12.1.20

In which Peter Hitchens agrees - with me!   Well, obviously, that is a whopping great misdirection - or lie, if you prefer! - but I can with accuracy say that in his column today he repeats sentiments expressed by me a few days ago.  I expressed my hope that Labour would succeed in ridding itself of the ignorant loonies who infiltrated it and then took it over completely.  It is critically important because, like every other democracy, we need a functioning opposition, never more so than now when we have a government run by the, er, eccentric 'Boris & Dom' team.  Get a grip Labour and get your act back together!

 

Poor Harry, the Prince who chose exile:   Or, to be more accurate, perhaps, the Prince who was nagged into exile!  Alas, I fear an Edward/Wallis Simpson future for him.  On the surface, no doubt, it will be very exotic as he and Meghan 'cruise' the 'sleb' circuit, well, to begin with, anyway. But "that old common arbitrator Time/ Will one day end it".  Looks and youth will fade, money will shrink, invitations will wither; new, fresher, younger 'slebs' will capture the headlines and then the dread question will be asked - "Meghan who?"

 

More Hitchens!    And no, I am not apologising because he is a writer I much admire.  Today, in The Mail, he demands to know what has happened to the film "An Officer And A Spy" based on the superb novel by Robert Harris which detailed the disgusting campaign which eventually brought down Alfred Dreyfus, a totally innocent French army officer who just happened to be Jewish.  The film won 'yuuuuuge' plaudits when released but then more or less disappeared.  Mr. Hitchens suggests that the fact that it was directed by Roman Polanski, a self-confessed paedophile, is the main reason for its banishment from our screens but he also points out that if we are to be denied access to artistic creations simply on the basis of the artists' disgusting behaviour then we will lose a lot;

If so, what should the BBC do about the sculptures by Eric Gill, which adorn its London HQ? Gill’s sexual crimes were so horrible that I will only say they included incest.

As for the much admired surrealist painter Salvador Dali, his private life (by his own account) was cruel and disgusting beyond belief. Should his pictures be removed from the world’s galleries?

Whilst we wait for commonsense to apply, read Harris's book - it is superb!

 

Taki is still a very naughty boy!   As I keep telling you every time I mention his name.  To be fair, this time it is one of the writers at his magazine who is the naughty one.  I refer to Mr. Jim Goad (No, me neither!) who has provided us all with his choice of the 19 most annoying people of 2019.  To give you the flavour, this is his view of #1: Pete Buttigieg, a 'wannabe' Presidential candidate:

1. PETE BUTTIGIEG
Hey, it’s “Mayor Pete”! He’s the first millennial homosexual mayor ever to make a serious bid for a major party’s nomination. He has never had an original idea in his life, and the only reason he’s gained any traction is because he’s an anus-nuzzling bone-polisher. Blacks don’t like him, Hispanics don’t like him, and radical homos think he’s too boring. Whenever this smarmy little vole starts pontificating about some policy issue or another, all the entire world can think about is that later tonight, he’ll be batting around his husband’s testicles as if they were ping-pong balls and his tongue was a paddle.

Er, well, yes, if you say so Mr. Goad!

 

Look but don't touch!   There is a very 'swotty' article in The Telegraph which suggests that just looking at something alters its state of being.  This might help to explain it for y'all.  

 

Oh, come along, do buck up, it's all very simple really. If you are not sure whether something is a particle or a wave, just look at it!  See?  That quantum physics is dead easy, really!

 

Sound the trumpets, beat the drums!   It looks as though ex-Cpl. Duff might be re-joining the Colours.  Apparently, our (so-called) Ministry of Defence has let it be known that they wish to attract old soldiers back to military service.  They are desperately short of recruits, mainly, I guess, because the delicate youngsters of today are failing to volunteer.  Anyway, I stand ready to return, er, just so long as someone can give me a hand with my back-pack, allow me time for a nap in the afternoon and bring me a hot cocoa at bedtime.

 

No more rumbles