..and the second prize is two weeks in Moscow.

If anyone has been watching anything apart from the news of the American Election, in which a complete outsider, a billionaire nut-job (to use one of the favourite phrases of his many detractors) beat the living daylights out of all the usual suspects, and is due to enter the White House on January 20th: lots of other things have been happening. The OPEC cartel, who used to state ‘that’s our oil price….take it or leave it’ has once more attempted to set a limit on production: hoping that anyone will take any notice. On this side of the pond, the Bremoaners are searching for any way to get Great Britain into reverse gear; but when the loudest shouts come from Tony Blair and his arsehole-buddy Mandelson; they don’t even sound like winners, never mind look like finishing the course. Lots of movement in the shipping industry, with the world’s largest bankruptcy slicing down Hanjin Shipping, who expanded too far, too fast; until their debts just caught up with them; lots more Lines are either approaching bankruptcy, or evading the state, because once again they’ve over-borrowed and under-resourced their ships.

But at least one bunch (Chinese, obviously) are setting the keel plates down on a ship, but it will not be just any ship, it will be a full-size replica of the Titanic. Seven Star Investment Group’s plans for a tourist resort along the Qijiang River in Sichuan’s Daying County will feature the doomed ship, together with a simulation of the iceberg which holed and sank the White Star liner, which went down along with the 1,500-odd passengers who did not escape in the lifeboats. Facing criticism of the proposed resort, which shall play heavily on the fact that the original Titanic is still one of this worlds’ largest cemeteries; the spokesman stated everything would be done in a ‘respectful and tasteful’ way. How much ‘taste’ you can squeeze out of a mass grave, was not explained.

Hollywood and Disneyworld denied categorically that they were searching for funding to build a life-like replica of the Massacre of Nanking, where 275,000 Chinese died at the hands of the Imperial Japanese Army: and the Russian Federation also denied that they were laying plans to build a life-size replica of Auschwitz Concentration and Death Camp; complete with working gas chambers and crematoria, ; but did confirm that the infamous sign over the entrance to the place where around eight million people had perished had already been fabricated; just in case!

“Armed Police: Drop your weapon, or we fire!”

So, there was this bloke, either inclined towards allah; or mentally unbalanced or both; swinging an axe in a Hull shopping centre street.

The Fuzz ‘heavy mob’ roll up, and attempt to speak / reason with / talk down / ask him to surrender.

Presumably, he either makes threatening moves, complete with double-edged axe swinging, or refuses to respond; so the Fuzz, not normally known for their patience and warm comradely approach to fruit-and-nut cases; fire their weaponry, and down he goes.

The average statement would be simply along the lines of ‘he was armed, he refused to surrender, we are not in the business of placing ourselves in harm’s way, so we fired: and there’s an end to it.’

But the Guardian, of course, comes out with a ‘witness’ who stated:- “There was blood everywhere. His jeans were slightly down and you could see his boxer shorts were covered in blood. It’s sad. At the end of the day whatever he’s done he’s got a mum somewhere, hasn’t he?”

(edit)

Cheers; the old bastard is dead!

A blood-stained dictator died this morning, head of a dictatorial regime which allowed no opposition, no discussion to its bloody plans for totalitarian domination of an island and its eleven-odd million inhabitants. The MSM, now bereft of one of its all time heroes, dignifies him with the title ‘Revolutionary Leader’, as well as The Man who defied the United States’. They laud his ‘leadership’, they attempt to dignify his decades of tyranny by stating and praising the Cuban Health Service; and praise the Education reforms put in place by this ‘Charismatic Leader’. They also salute the attempts by Barry Obama to help ‘normalise’ relations between USA and Cuba, but since that time, all that has happened is the exchange of Ambassadors, a few cruise liners visiting Havana, and very little else. Jeffery DeLaurentiis has been nominated for the Ambassadorship, but hell will freeze over before a Republican Congress will approve that fact.

As Senator Marco Rubio, himself of Cuban origin, stated :- “This nomination should go nowhere until the Castro regime makes significant and irreversible progress in the areas of human rights and political freedom for the Cuban people, and until longstanding concerns about the Cuban regime’s theft of property and crimes against American citizens are addressed,”

But even that statement bears little evidence of the truth regarding the multitude of death and devastation wrought by the Castro Revolution in the decades since they grabbed power from Batista. The long-time defenders of Castro’s Cuba, such as Ken Livingstone, cannot divorce themselves from their love affair with this blood-soaked tyrant, and admit that he was nothing else than a bloodthirsty megalomaniac. Instead we had Livingstone stating that he would rather live in Cuba than in a Brazilian dictatorship; and then goes waffling on about the great Education, and about the frigging Health Service in that demoralised and broken country.

No mention, from the broadcasters, the tv and radio, of the ‘Firing Squad Wall’ and of the estimated 25,000 victims of the speedy Revolutionary Justice Courts; which consisted of some soldier stating ‘These are his crimes, I demand the Death Penalty’. Since the only ones carrying the rifles were Castro’s goons, the jury, if there was one; rubber stamped the ‘verdict’; and the only difference between Soviet Russia and Cuba is that the Cuban’s family wasn’t usually billed for the bullet that killed the ‘Anti-Revolutionary’! No mention of the Concentration Camps, the Re-Education Camps, and the forced labour camps. No mention of the 40,000-odd ‘Cuban Volunteers’ sent to fight alongside the Communists against the Unita uprising in Angola. NO mention of the blood removed from those about to be executed, and then sold abroad at $50.00 a pint.

They have their heroes, and now he is dead!

Black Friday blues.

There is a longish piece in this morning’s Mail about the lack of enthusiasm (queuing; getting up really early) to join in the race for alleged bargains and ‘super discounts’ during the early stages of ‘Black Friday’. Most of us must remember that famous photo, reproduced below, of last year’s punters searching, (grappling, fighting, desperately struggling) for a chance to buy, presumably at some discount; a 40” flatscreen tv.

But this year’s prime pix features a lady walking sedately through the doors with no less than FIVE large televisions on two trolleys; and we must try and imagine the reasons, the purpose behind this electronic feast.

Answers, on both sides of the postcard, to No 11, Downing Street.

…and unto dust we shall return.

The lead item on the BBC news, at 6.00 a.m., 6.30 a.m., 7.00 a.m., 7.30 a.m., and so on, and so forth, was about the very strange decision by a Family court judge; which allowed a dying teenager’s wish that her body be cryogenically frozen, transported to the U.S.A., and stored there for, possibly, hundreds of years.

Now, firstly, let me assure my readers that I have nothing but sympathy for the parents of this fourteen-year-old girl. To lose a family member is bad enough, but at such a tender age? I have been through that process with a sister who died at the age of sixteen; but her death literally broke my Dad, and my Mother was grief-stricken for months. I have no position, for or against, the theory or process of cryogenics; excepting to state that it always seemed, to me; to be the last resort of egomaniacs and disturbed or mentally-unstable individuals who have a great deal of cash which they preferred to spend upon yet another loopy-loo’s idea of pretend-immortality.

We are all human, we come into this world naked, we grow, or at least most of us grow, to maturity; and from then, we embark upon the slow but inexorable slide towards decay and death. This Judge has taken the opinions of a young woman who cannot possibly have reached a mature judgement, in her sadly-foreshortened life, and allowed her mother to make the arrangements for the alleged preservation of her remains, and storage of those remains in vastly-expensive tanks of liquid nitrogen somewhere in America. Was this decision right or wrong? Myself, I would plump firmly for ‘wrong’; but, there again; thats just me.

But there remains only one question which really needs to be asked and answered. Who has been stuck with the costs of this little exercise in the ultimate vanity? Who pays? It has been reported that the family funded the £37,000 for the process; but the rent costs go on, and on. I do hope that it is not down to the British taxpayer!

Remember, remember; the 8th of November

Some who read and peruse many news and blog sites for a ‘balanced’ viewpoint should maybe view the entire contents of this video, stitched as it has been from over ten-odd hours of actual broadcasting, (For those of a nervous or snowflake disposition, strong language is used by one or more of the commentators.) When the news actually hit them about the amazing truth that Hillary’s lies had come home to roost; the change is absolutely fascinating to watch. With this effect on so-called sophisticated and presumably politically-aware people, is it any wonder that the proles and the plebs are rioting?

The video heading is totally accurate:- Best Of The Young Turks Election Day Meltdown 2016: From smug to utterly devastated!

…and at the Setting of the Sun….

My Remembrance Days are a little different to the many; but then I have never been one to follow the crowd. My father signed up the day after War was declared, despite the fact that he was GUARANTEED an automatic deferment because of his birth in Northern Ireland: and he served for the full six-odd years. My uncle Pete signed up at virtually the same time as my dad, joining the Artillery; but he died some twenty-odd miles inland from the Normandy beaches, and is buried in the churchyard of a small Normandy village named Bonnebosq. Hundreds of thousands of men such as my Dad and my uncle Pete answered the grave, cadenced call-to-arms uttered by an honourable man who was one of two things. Neville Chamberlain either had actually believed that Hitler would keep his word: or he was as shrewd as some, such as I, believe him to be; in that he gave us the year before War was actually declared to ready ourselves for the onslaught.

Every Saturday, for a long time now, I sit and read the Daily Telegraph reprint archive from their First World War files. I scan the unbelievable statistics of the Somme, and of Mons, Chateau Thierry and of Vimy Ridge. It is a sobering thought that an estimate of some 15,000 British soldiers died in just fifteen minutes on the morning of the First Battle of the Somme, and modern views state that the totals were actually a great deal larger. The mindset of senior officers, which basically could not get past the idea that if enough men could get past the withering fire of German machine-guns which fired on set lines, they could and indeed should win through to the opposing defensive trenches; meaning that the British or French infantry, having avoided the massive barbed-wire entanglements, literally walked into the murderous hail of bullets, and died in almost straight lines.

We should remember, but not necessarily to the tones of a hymn. We should remember too that politicians are ‘pushed’ by so-called ‘public opinion’ to ‘do something’, and we can see, in the morass which is now Libya, the result of politicians reacting to a supposed ‘humanitarian crisis’ with the threatened city of Benghazi; and hence the overthrow of Ghaddafi, albeit from a distance, and by air-power alone. They wished to involve British Forces in Syria, and by the flukiest of votes, we stayed out of that deadly morass. True, we are ‘bombing’ ISIL, but hey: what can be accomplished with three Tornadoes, which is all they can patch together what with the complete absence of spares, spares which incidentally stopped being produced for that thirty-five year-old bomber ten years ago.

I reckon that we should continue, as a Nation, to honour those who both sacrificed and were sacrificed; to pay tribute to those who paid the ultimate price: but I would strongly suggest that all; repeat ALL bloody politicians be banned from coming closer than five miles of any Remembrance Day service. I would make an honourable exception for any politician who has actually worn the uniform, and saluted the Flag; but for none other. Politicians; there is the same stink of cant as pervades the once-honourable profession of journalists; and I would make the same exclusion for them. They have sold their souls, and write and speak as their masters demand; and with the press and tv: as with the political class, they dance to a different tune; indeed a different drum!

I’d plant them clean between the eyes!

Ever listened to any of the BBC’s ever-so-liberal ‘journalists’ as they plied their wares and words across America, in the months, weeks and finally days before the election? Ever listened, as I did, to the thinly-veiled questioning of voters across that huge land? Every question, every statement asked the same unspoken question: ‘How come you are even contemplating voting for this moronic dullard; this billionaire fool; this racist, misogynistic clown who defies the normal courteous norm of politicians by stating, bluntly, that ‘this’ is what he believes in; that ‘these’ are his policies; and that he will not, ever, S.T.F.U., and stop hogging the limelight and the headlines?

The Today reporter, just this morning echoed those insulting comments  (05.48) in his quest to allegedly find why people had voted for Trump. He spoke to a Republican voting guy, saying, ‘you are an immigrant; you are a rich man; you are part of the Republican Establishment: you are someone who should be stating that this vote is a tragedy!’ And the worst part is that this American did not throw this upstart liberal commentator off his property; or at least bring out his legally-licensed shotgun and threaten him with instant defenestration if he insulted his President-elect for one more second.

But the real problem is that these so-called ‘journalists’ believe in what they peddle! They honestly believe that anyone with the slightest interest in Right-wing ideas or policies is a clone of Hitler, and as such should be placed firmly in the slammer, because they do not accept the Will of the Liberal as ‘effing gospel.

Probably from a Swing State

When you read and hear the hate spewed out by the pro-Clinton media, one can maybe both deprecate the sentiment; but perhaps understand the deep strains of antagonism towards many of the pro-Clinton supporters, including such as Simon Schama, and Anne Applebaum.

‘Nuff said!!!!

OLIVER’S ARMY….

From an ex-blogging colleague:-

17.4m of us. His words echo across the centuries today. Cromwell speaking to  Parliament in April 1653.

“It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice. Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government. Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth? Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?

Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance. Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God’s help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do. I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place.

Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Lock up the doors. In the name of God, go!”

Amen.

 

Major error by the Beeb

Normally, the only item Beeb-wise which I turn to is the BBC Today programme. I have learned to filter the bullshit and garbage out, so that essential facts come through; and because even the BBC has to broadcast the essentials of any story before the BEEBOIDS get to string the cobwebs of their filthy propaganda around their favourite subjects, it remains enough. So it is perhaps fitting that I was doing some ‘extreme ironing’ when I switched the tv on, and found that; in a blinding change of broadcast strategy which has continued for over forty years, the BBC actually broadcast a substantial section of a DONALD TRUMP campaign speech, and the only irritating thing about the whole deal was this hyperactive clown kept waving some sign in front of the camera.

Now whether the BBC has in fact broadcast sections of any campaign speech from the Trump campaign previously, I do not know, but two things happened during the perhaps fifteen minutes of ‘The Donald’s’ speech which I watched in full before the BBC cut away to concentrate on their brand of politics. Firstly, I was able to get a good look at the live broadcast words and comportment of a man whom the BBC has routinely denigrated and ridiculed; and secondly, to make my own considered judgement of a man who came from nowhere, in political terms; to end as the Republican Candidate for the Presidency. He has fought through the considerable disadvantage of being denied the backing of his own Party, he has been vilified from all sides and sections; he also has had to fight against the crooked and criminal conspiracies of the Democratic Party, along with their Nominee; who should in reality be occupying a prison cell: and he comes across as a man whom you can maybe trust to keep his word. He is not; definitely not, of the Republican elite; he an outsider of the worst kind; but if sufficient Americans wake up and actually listen to the themes he has spoken of, and then vote for the ‘man who can’: America will indeed be a greater place!

Savage animal on the loose

My eldest son made me almost cry last night, but the tears were those of laughter. We were talking on the phone of family matters, of people and of happenings. He then announced that ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ was in good health, which is when I started laughing. The ‘Hound’ is pictured below. The only possibility of damage to life and limb from this particularly fierce creature would probably be being licked into a coma.