DUFF & NONSENSE!

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

 

 

There are liars, lying-liars and then Iranian liars!

So, finally, the Iranians own up and admit the truth that it was them who shot a civilian passenger aircraft out of the sky thus murdering 176 innocent people.  They claim is was done accidentally, so not only murderous liars but incompetent, too!  How 'The Donald' must be smiling to himself inside the White House as his assassination of an Iranian killer is buried at the bottom of the news pages whilst an Iranian atrocity combined with their pathetic and blatant dishonesty takes over the headlines.

'Over here', we, too, are smiling because only yesterday the ultra-smoothie-chops who is the Iranian ambassador to London, was on our TV channels absolutely and definitely assuring us that his government had nothing to do with the destruction of the civilian airliner.  He became the perfect example of that old saying that 'diplomats are sent abroad to lie for their country'!  Also, it  is worth dwelling on what the families of those 50-odd demonstrators who were killed by crushing in Tehran as, er, 'spontaneous' demonstrations broke out in protest at the original American action.  Surely some of them must be asking themselves if this gang of dishonest, mouth-dribbling idiots who rule Iran are really worth dying for?

 

 

Here's some good news - for a change!

The young man in the photo, Master Nicholas Sandmann, was a pupil at a Catholic High School in 1918 when some sort of demo-rally kicked off featuring some old Red Indian 'scrote' called Nathan Phillips, a well known activist on behalf of 'native Americans'.  Master Sandmann did nothing but be a spectator but was caught in a photo opposite Phillips and subsequently the photo was, er, 'adjusted' and the story put about by the 'meeja', mainly the WaPo and CNN, that Sandmann had mocked 'Big Chief' Phillips.  Screeching demands were broadcast that Sandmann should be punished.

The fact is that Sandmann did nothing other than smile politely and - SCHLOCK-HORROR! - wear a Trump-style 'MAGA' hat.  That was enough for the dimwit fanatics at CNN et al to launch their vicious campaign against Master Sandmann.  Yesterday, CNN settled a $275 million lawsuit brought against them by Master Sandmann.  OUCH!  Those useless, lying-liar, Leftie-journos must cost their employers a fortune - I'm delighted to say.  The WaPo and NBC Universal are next up in the dock. 

What can one say except 'ohdearwhatapitynevermind'!

 

 

The problem with Ricky Gervais is that he wasn't nearly rude enough!

As we all do know now, Ricky Gervais was 'yuuuugely' rude to the gathered Hollywood scum stars and starlets gathered for their annual prize-giving.  Alas, he was no-where near rude enough!  Take for example, Ms. Michelle Williams - and no, I have never heard of her before today - who won a bauble at the Globe Awards.  As Ms. Jeannie DeAngelis informs us at The American Thinker, it was probably a good thing that the entry carpet to the ceremony was red because it is possible that Ms. Williams might have left a trail of blood behind her!

Once inside, and despite Gervais's advice to avoid political acceptance speeches, the nominee for best actress in a limited series or television film, Michelle Williams, came prepared to confess that a "woman's right" to kill her unborn children is what gained her access to a carpet stained with both [literally] sewage [there had been a plumbing accident earlier] and [metaphorically] blood.

Ms. DeAngelis continues:

Embracing her prize, Michelle shared that she wouldn't be where she is today if she hadn't aborted a baby or two. The award-winner implied that had she not relegated one of her many lover's children to a red biohazard bag, she wouldn't be as welcome to sit among those in attendance, many of whom likely sold their souls to the Devil for the opportunity to become a star.

Kind of like an unborn child with no control over a fame-hungry mother headed toward an abortion clinic, Michelle explained: "As women and as girls, things can happen to our bodies that are not our choice." Apparently, as one half of the twosome needed to conceive a child, Michelle excuses herself from the process. Furthermore, if she wasn't raped, based on those remarks, Michelle seems unaware she had a "choice" before "things ... happened to her body" that resulted in life. After that, Michelle commended herself by stating, "I've tried my best to live a life of my own making and not just a series of events that happened to me."

Apparently, as I write she is carrying the embryo of a child produced with her current lover.  Ms. DeAngelis advises him strongly to keep an eye on it because you never know when Ms. Williams will be offered another starry role!

 

 

 

“TALLYHO X LET’S GET THE BASTARD.”

You might think at first glance, given the current 'shlock-horror' in 'woke' circles, that my title is taken from radio exchanges between American rocket operators as they guided their missiles into the back seat of the car driving the late, unlamented (except by fellow murderous nutters) Qassim Soleimani.  You would be wrong but understandably so because those words were actually uttered back in 1943 as some very naughty and politically incorrect American P38 pilots swooped in and ambushed Admiral Yamamoto, sending him to his death in the sea which was, I suppose given his naval career, entirely appropriate!  The fact that he had also carefully plotted, planned and executed the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour which resulted in 2,335 deaths is justification enough, one feels.  One can only surmise as to the number of deaths Soleimani would have executed had he lived longer but his sudden termination can be nothing but good news especially if his successors remember that there is a man in the White House just as ruthless as they are! 

My thanks to Mr. Rich Lowry at The National Review for nudging me!

 

 

 

Your Monday *Funny" - note the singular!

I am a tad pushed for time this morning so instead of searching desperately for 'Funnies' to amuse y'all, I decided to copy and print the speech made by Ricky Gervais at the totally ridiculous "Golden Balls Globe Awards" ceremony yesterday.  What, you may ask, are his chances of being invited back to host next year's ceremony?  Somewhere between zero and -100, I would say.

Hello and welcome to the 77th annual Golden Globe Awards, live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel here in Los Angeles. I’m Ricky Gervais. Thank you.

You’ll be pleased to know this is the last time I’m hosting these awards, so I don’t care anymore. I’m joking: I never did. NBC clearly don’t care either – fifth time. I mean, Kevin Hart was fired from the Oscars because of some offensive tweets. Hello [pointing at himself].

Lucky for me, the Hollywood foreign press can barely speak English and they have no idea what Twitter is. I got offered this gig by fax. So let’s go out with a bang. Let’s have a laugh at your expense, shall we? Remember, they’re just jokes. We’re all gonna die soon and there’s no sequel, so remember that. But you all look lovely, all dolled up. You came in your limos. I came here in a limo tonight and the license plate was made by Felicity Huffman. It’s her daughter I feel sorry for – that must be the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to her. And her dad was in Wild Hogs.

So lots of big celebrities here tonight. I mean legends, icons. Look at this table alone. Al Pacino. Robert De Niro. Baby Yoda. Oh no, that’s Joe Pesci, sorry. I love you man, don’t have me whacked.

But tonight isn’t just about the people in front of the camera. In this room are some of the most important TV and film executives in the world. People from every background. But they all have one thing in common. They’re all terrified of Ronan Farrow. He’s coming for you. Look, talking of all you perverts. It was a big year for paedophile movies: Surviving R Kelly, Leaving Neverland… The Two Popes.
Many talented people of colour were snubbed in major categories. Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about that. The Hollywood foreign press are all very, very racist. So fifth time. We were going to do an in memoriam this year, but when I saw the list of people that died, it wasn’t diverse enough. It was mostly white people and I thought, nah, not on my watch.

Maybe next year, let’s see what happens. No one cares about movies anymore. No one goes to the cinema. No one really watches network TV. Everyone’s watching Netflix. This show should just be me coming out going ‘well done Netflix, you win everything. Goodnight.’ But no, no, we’ve got to drag it out for three hours. You could binge watch the entire first season of After Life instead of watching this show. That’s a show about a man who wants to kill himself because his wife dies of cancer. And it’s still more fun than this. Okay, spoiler alert, season two is on the way. So in the end, he obviously didn’t kill himself – just like Jeffrey Epstein. Shut up. I know he’s your friend, but I don’t care. You had to make your own way here on your own plane didn’t you?

But seriously, most films are awful, lazy remakes and sequels. I’ve heard a rumour that there might be a sequel to Sophie’s Choice. I mean, that would just be Meryl Streep going, ‘Well it’s got to be this one then.’

All the best actors have jumped to Netflix and HBO, and the actors who just do Hollywood movies now do fantasy adventure nonsense. They wear masks and capes and really tight costumes. Their job isn’t acting anymore, it’s going to the gym twice a day and taking steroids. Have we got an award for most ripped junkie? No, no point.

Martin Scorsese, the greatest living director, made the news for his controversial comments about the Marvel franchise. He said they’re not real cinema and they remind him of theme parks. I agree, although I don’t know what he’s doing hanging around theme parks. He’s not big enough to go on the rides. He’s tiny. The Irishman was amazing. It was amazing. Long, but amazing. It wasn’t the only epic movie. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, nearly three hours long. Leonardo DiCaprio attended the premiere and by the end, his date was too old for him. Even Prince Andrew’s like, ‘Come on Leo mate, you know, you’re nearly 50 son.’

The world got to see James Corden as a fat pussy. He was also in the movie Cats, but no one saw that. And the reviews were shocking. I saw one that said this is the worst thing to happen to cats since dogs. But Dame Judi Dench defended the film, saying it was the role she was born to play because she – I can’t do this next joke. Because she loves nothing better than plonking herself down on the carpet, lifting her leg and licking her arse hole. She’s old school. It’s the last time, who cares.

Apple roared into the TV game with The Morning Show, a superb drama. A superb drama about the importance of dignity and doing the right thing, made by a company that runs sweatshops in China. So, well, you say you’re woke, but the companies you work for. I mean, unbelievable: Apple, Amazon, Disney. If Isis started a streaming service, you’d call your agent, wouldn’t you? So if you do win an award tonight, please don’t use it as a platform to make a political speech. You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg. So if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent and your God and fuck off.

Oh God, I would have paid good money to be there!

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 5.1.20

Both here and 'over there' the Left is loony:   I have been struck by the Left-wing re-action to Trump's decision to assassinate a man whose entire career has been dedicated to ferocious and murderous campaigns against America's allies and who was planning to extend this ferocity on to Americans as well.  The plan was, er, 'executed' immaculately!  Cue: the Democratic party dissolving into mass wailing and gnashing of teeth.  How odd that when the previous President did more or less exactly the same, it was 'all hail, Obama'!  It is obviously an example of the new colour problem evolving 'over there'; Black Good/Ginger Bad!

 

Meanwhile, 'over here' we can enjoy our Labour loonies:   This morning my TV screen has been filled with 'wannabe' hopefuls desperate to be the new leader of the LMP - the Labour Marxist Party.  I almost yearned for 'Jezza' to come back because this lot were the dimmest, dumbest collection of dimwits I have seen and listened to since, er, well, the election, actually, in which the MLP were as close to annihilation as you can be in a general election.  We all make mistakes but to keep on repeating the same mistakes defies definition.

 

'Anything Republicans do, Democrats do worser'!   Yes, America has its problems and according to the Democrat party it is all the fault of the Republicans in general and Trump in particular.  And yet … and yet … even a quick glance at those 'yuuuuuuuuge' cities that have been completely controlled by the Dems for decades, like 'Noo Yawk' or Chicago or Baltimore will show utter corruption, filth, poverty and conditions which are more fourth, or fifth world than third world!  Which would you rather live in - Calcutta or Baltimore?

 

I hope Boris has plenty of axes:   Well, first of all there is the BBC who need to be decapitated immediately, or at least, have the tax-payers' teat ripped from its greedy mouth!  Then there is this ludicrous HS2 rail system which, allegedly, will get you from London to Manchester eight minutes quicker even if it cost zillions of tax-payers' money.  Apart from the obvious question in this 'whizzy-do' electronic world we live in - who the hell wants to go to Manchester in the first place? - we all know for a dead cert that whatever the budget is today, it will be a fraction of the total cost in the end.  Get chopping, Boris!

 

Aussie news is lost in the smoke and flames!   The Australian, continent-wide fire is a colossal disaster quite beyond my British imagination!  I simply can't get my head around it!  And today I hear that it is likely to go on for months!  Of course, eventually it will end and then, I hope, a full scientific enquiry needs to take place because I suspect that management of the countryside has been a major factor.  Don't let the 'Greenies' and the 'Warmers' influence matters because they will ignore the science and simply chant out their 'religious' beliefs.  In the meantime, if any of my Aussie pals know of any proper fund-raising schemes to help support the distressed and the fire-fighters please let me know.  I want to contribute something and I guess many of my readers feel the same.

 

No more Rumbles 

 

 

 

Don't mess with 'The Donald'!

My only surprise at the news that President Trump had, in effect, just assassinated the Deputy 'President' of Iran was how long it took him to act!  For the last three years we have been under an endless stream of 'meeja agit-prop' to the effect that Trump was a trigger-happy looney who would start WWIII.  During those three years America has been the target for endless direct or indirect attacks of various kinds from Iran and its Islamic fanatical leadership.  The assault on the American embassy in Iraq was the final straw.

One immediate effect will be to concentrate what passes for the minds of those Iranian 'loonies' who 'strut their hour upon the stage' seemingly in the belief that they are invulnerable.  Not, of course, that that will change their ambitions but in future they will be wise to pick their targets more carefully - US embassies are best avoided!  Of course, what they are likely to do is switch their venom from America to friends of America.  Israel, of course, is well able to look after itself and the Iranians have never had any doubts as to the sort of response they can expect from that direction.  I just hope Boris and his acolytes are able to grip what passes these days for the British military(!) and ensure a suitably swift and murderous response to any future Iranian excesses.

In the meantime, I will congratulate 'The Donald' on an immaculate action which would have reduced his predecessor to tears and trembles had he - God forfend! - been in command!  Yes, there will be troubles ahead - so no change there then!

 

 

The Democrats are suffering with galluping Corbynitis

I try to tread carefully when commenting on American affairs because I am all too well aware of my ignorance.  Even so, the behaviour of the Democratic Party 'over there' strikes me as hysterical madness.  The behaviour and demeanour of the Dems reminds me of the worst sort of lunatic lynch mob who go on the rampage and having cornered their prey then realise they forgot to bring a rope! 

There is no way that the Senate is going to allow Trump to be impeached so the entire exercise is one of futile, cheap agit-prop.  Yes, they will thereby impress their followers as to how big and bold they are but at the same time they will convince the 'Trumpeters' that their man has been wronged. In other (foreign) words, "plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose!"  However, what these trans-Atlantic 'Corbynistas' forget is the stodgy middle of the political pudding.  Many of them may raise their eyebrows at Trump's ineffable crassness but they will view the screaming hysteria of the attacks on an American President, whom they elected, with alarm and dislike.  After all, it is the, er, 'duty' of the 'Peeps' to form a mob, not members of Congress!

As y'all do know, I try never to offer political forecasts but my guess is that 'The Donald' will romp home at the next Presidential election!

 

 

Right, Left and Centre, in war they all lie and lie and lie again!

By "they", in my title above, I don't just mean the politicians, I also include the 'Top Brass' who are supposed to have the care and welfare of their warriors in their hearts.  Yes, in mitigation they can plead that they are honour bound to execute the orders of their political masters but surely there comes a time in all long-running campaigns which are evidently failing in their purposes and resulting in the needless slaughter of their troops, for them to stand tall and tell truth to power.

I raise this subject because of the release yesterday of US government documents showing that the US army command hierarchy lied through their teeth during the Afghanistan campaign at the behest of their political masters.  No doubt they were well rewarded with promotions and medals for their deceit and their abandonment of the soldiers for whom they were responsible.  No surprise, really, given they had done exactly the same during the Vietnam campaign.

My only question is how do they manage to shave every morning given the necessity of looking at their faces in a mirror?

 

 

Never trust those damned, smoothie Brits!

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

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

So, let's hear it for 'Fake News'! 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 8.12.19

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

From The Telegraph

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

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

Need I say more?

 

No more Rumbles

 

 

 

A 'yuuuuuuuuuge' 'THANK YOU' to JK

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

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

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

Sorry to bore on but  . . .

 

 

 

The day my latent homosexuality received a tweek!

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

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

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

 

 

 

'Midway' - refought for the third time!

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

Cartoon Corner #1

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

 

Pheeeew, so far, so good!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

A new Queen of the Carnival?

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

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

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

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

The Poles are mad but we all knew that!

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

The Sunday Rumble: 24.11.19

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

 

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

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

 

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

'Shurely shome mishtake here!"

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

 

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

 

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

Lighthouse at Two Lights by Edward Hopper

 

Hotel Lobby by Edward Hopper

 

Automat by Edward Hopper

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

 

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

 

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

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

What was that remark concerning "interesting times"?

 

No more rumbles

 

 

An interesting American politician - no, really!

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

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

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

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

He spells it out:

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

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

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

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

Sen. Hawley supports his case with some depressing statistics:

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

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

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

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

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