Category: The Dark Side

Where’s the beef?

Please pardon  my use of an ’80s catchphrase from Madison Avenue but I’m struggling to understand why so many Yanks, non-Yanks and (allegedly) Mexicans object to the promised Trump wall. I suspect the Mexican gubmint’s objection is based on Trump’s high-handed assumption that the border is his to control rather than shared; and his demand that Mexico must pay for it.

There can be no comparison with the Berlin wall, which divided a single country. There is no comparison with Shengen, based on agreed principles of trade and movement. The USA needs to deal with illegal immigration and the drug trade. How else but by erecting a physical barrier capable of being defended?

Suggestions, please, on plastic fivers……

Meg’s mate

This is your Court correspondent, reporting on the life and work of Snowdon, just call him Tony.

Of course those society snappers faced awful temptations. Some resisted, I’m sure; others, like Tony, indulged. But (again of course, given the the tempora and the mores) the extent of the indulgence was never revealed.

After Meg succumbed to the curse of her cigs, Tony continued to bat for both sides, taking his latest handsome squeezes to be entertained to dinner by ‘friends’.

A full-colour fella, eh? RIP.

 

C’est la vie, n’est-ce pas?

Hacking, bugging, snooping, leaking, infiltrating, etc., etc., seem to be the daily agenda for governments, as they have, I guess, since Adam were a lad. So let’s save our concern that Russia showed interest in the US election. Do we imagine the US is idle in Moscow or Beijing or Delhi or London or…..?

No doubt the meeja will be reporting Trump’s first decisions as President almost before he has made them; and the Brexit negotiations will be about as secret as a fart in a bathtub.

It’s interesting that Trump chooses to herald his activities by using social media, which can hardly be pre-empted by data thieves! Not a bad idea, perhaps.

 

Elementary?

I realise that during the holidays (Am.) all discerning trend-setters among screen addicts will have been on Netflix (or similar) but back among the plebs a milestone was reached.

I recall that from my earliest years it was mandatory at home to be silent at 3 pm on Xmas day to listen/watch HM the Queen making her annual speech to her subjects, on pain of Grandpa’s awful displeasure: Shut up! So it was.

But in 2016, for the first time, more tv sets were tuned to less regal matters: the first episode of a new series of Sherlock, promising fiendishly new twists and subtle references to the old characters and events. Obviously the average Brit isn’t quite so addicted to the monarch’s words. Or maybe only the pensioners tune in these days. Like Donald J Trump, the twat generation have little time for broadcast speeches of more than 140 characters.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

Fools rush in

I was foolish enough to mention Israel in my non-Yank post and Boa intimated she might comment at a later date. Probably a wise idea, judging by the current mayhem.

There is the Sec of State erecting a road-block before 20th January; the Pres Elect promising to sort it all out in no time; and Ms May (should I say ‘dismay’?) somehow managing to vote with the UN but oppose Kerry. Netanyahu meanwhile is white-hot with rage at it all.

Far be it from me to suggest anything by way of a road forward. Russia could annex The Crimea. Is the West Bank, occupied for almost 50 years, so dissimilar? Should the former occupants not be allowed to reclaim it? Or is such a comparison somehow inapposite? What are the rules?

Since the whole world (except Israel itself and its American cheerleaders) accepts a 2-state solution, what next?

 

Top marks to Anne

Not known for sycophantic reportage, I celebrate ‘young’ Anne for her diligence: 179 days’ duty in 2016. The PoW has put in 139, also highly creditable.

So what? I hear. Well, by sad contrast, the totally dependent Crown Prince of DK has managed to get out of bed barely 50 times and unlike Prince William, has no day job.

By ‘dependent’ I mean the local royals have no family wealth at all. They receive state funds every year to conduct their lazy lives and sponge on ‘friends’ who include them in their luxurious life-styles, here and abroad.

A view from a non-Yank

While CT and CO are recovering from their culinary delights of yesterday, I’m asking myself why right-leaning US folk have such a dislike of Obama.

To many folk on this side of the Pond, he has shown a humanity sadly lacking among Presidents. He has tried to introduce affordable healthcare for all; he has refused to be sucked into the pro-Israel nonsense peddled throughout the Big Money clan; and he  refuses to accept the pathetic excuses for fire-arm ownership.

But I suspect there is a simpler reason: he is black, a proud family man of significant if not stellar education and he is sincere. Qualities hated by the red-neck tendency.

He will now be blamed for everything Trump disapproves of. And the gullible meeja will be delighted to give Trump credit where it is not deserved.

I’m sure I’m in for heavy incoming fire before the end of Boxing Day. But hey! That’s what Xmas is for, innit?

 

Seasonal cheer please, everybody!

xmas-cartoon

If only ! I hear you say! To witness the bad-tempered shoppers and manic motorists, one would never guess the intended mood of the winter holidays. Danes are always spacially unaware in crowds; the only space of interest is their own, as of right. And now their rudeness is compounded by a desire to grab the very items other foragers are examining. But soft! Here in the backwoods the deer are still keeping their distance, blissfully ignorant of the seasonal fun the hunters will soon be sharing with them.

So despite everything, friends, my close companion Backside joins me in wishing you and yours whatever respite you seek for yourselves these dark days. I’ve told him there’s so much to be positive about. (No reply.)