Category: The Dark Side

And the winner is…….

oscar

 

 

 

It’s an annual occasion tailored out of extravagance, excessive emotion, self-congratulation and self-deception; strangely appropriate to the state of the nation itself, if its new President is a bellwether. Perhaps unsurprisingly the man himself is reputed to abhor the whole business, owing to Hollywood’s leftish leanings, or perhaps in reality because he is a luvvie himself but can never win the coveted statue. The winners will speak as if with authority – just like him and spare no tears for anyone, if it makes good copy.

The fourth and fifth estates

Whether Thomas Carlyle or Edmund Burke should have the credit for the original use of the expression , the fourth estate, it is now used Stateside to refer to the ‘regular’ meeja, alongside the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. The fifth estate, which began life in the ’60s, is the new meeja: special interests, social media and of course you and me – the bloggers.

carlyle

Carlyle

Isn’t it interesting that President Trump seems to ignore the (no doubt already blurred) boundaries between the fourth and fifth, to the extent that this happened yesterday at a press meeting, as reported by the Grauniad?

‘Outlets seeking to gain entry whose requests were denied included the Guardian, the New York Times, Politico, CNN, BuzzFeed, the BBC, the Daily Mail and others. Conservative publications such as Breitbart News, the One America News Network and the Washington Times were allowed into the meeting, as well as TV networks CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC. The Associated Press and Time were invited but boycotted the briefing.’

Does that infringe the First Amendment? Or does Trump’s idea of ‘fake news’ justify his actions?

Who’s going to pay the piper?

nato gdp 1

President Trump has declared that NATO members must pay their whack. Apparently members ‘should’ be paying 2% of GDP p.a. but very few do, notably Canada, France, Germany and Italy, whose annual subs fall well short. Only Greece, Estonia and Poland pay up alongside the US and UK.

Now, being a simple soul, I think Trump has a point. No doubt the defaulters have long lists of excuses to offer but (as Jazz has kindly observed) I’m a stickler for rules.

At a time when Russia seems intent on reigniting the cold war and reasserting its control of its borders with the EU, are the less enthusiastic NATO countries expressing their apathy, their poverty or wha’?

Answers please on anything saleable.

The so-called President

donald-duck-trump

His VP says we are getting used to him ‘speaking his mind’. Well, yes, but there is a clear line between expressing an opinion based on facts and expressing an objection in derogatory terms (ad hominem). His latest jibe – the ‘so-called judge’ crosses that line.

This portrait catches admirably his other Donald Duck-like features.

Whose darling is Charlie?

prince_of_wales_during_a_pre_dinner_reception_of_the_people_-m-7_1485611506585

It gives me no pleasure to report that the PoW is gradually disqualifying himself from kingship. Why? How?

Well, loyal monarchists, you already know that the Monarch is revered for her studied neutrality (despite a lovable slip of the tongue on Brexit!) while her heir is building for himself a reputation as a meddler. He probably convinces himself that comment on climate change and religious persecution is not political, failing to recognise that all serious issues become political as soon as a head of state (in waiting) comments. His latest (alleged) statement is that people are now too obsessed by Brexit (to care about his priorities).

Can’t he just nurture his thespian talents or fall off a few more polo ponies? Luckily his sons have both feet on the ground.