Only disaster can save us !

President Biden’s melodramatic speech in Philadelphia was an amped-up reprise of Hillary Clinton’s in Reno back in 2016: a combination of bogeyman politics with a promise to do something for the people.

It’s hard to tear our gaze away from the dirty tricks both sides are playing now, but really it’s the plans for the country’s reconstruction we should be considering. The question is, do they go far enough, or are they merely intended to get the Democratic Party safely through this November’s mid-term elections?

For example, there’s the Student Loan Relief scheme announced on 24 August. The $10k-$20k for qualifying applicants will be some help, yet not really solve the problem of the big debts and high interest charges. At an estimated cost to the taxpayers of half a trillion dollars (or even double that) it’s a very expensive token gesture. (It may also be technically illegal, if Biden has really declared the end of the pandemic.)

A more significant move would be to rescind the 2005 law - which Biden himself supported - that made it impossible for students to cancel their debt by declaring bankruptcy; that would make banks much more careful in assessing whether the chosen academic course was likely to boost the graduate’s earnings sufficiently to justify the lender’s risk.

Then there’s the ‘we beat Big Pharma!’ crowing over reducing the cost of prescription drugs, which on closer inspection won’t take effect before 2025, applies to a limited number of medications and won’t seriously impact that industry’s profits.

The recently released Biden-⁠Harris Economic Blueprint has much more in it and it remains to be seen how much of that is also subject to the death of a thousand provisos. The New York Post called it ‘58 pages of malarkey’ and ‘ financially illiterate’ and Fortune said it was ‘a love letter to the unions’; well, they would say that, wouldn’t they?

At Philadelphia Biden boasted ‘the largest economic recovery package since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’, yet the comparison is more like a contrast. One doesn’t feel there’s a real challenge to what Bernie Sanders has termed America’s oligarchs. Maybe it’s because the Democrats just don’t sense they are strong enough.

In 1933 the nation was in a five-star disaster; goodness knows how many Americans died of starvation, disease exacerbated by malnutrition, deaths of despair. Some who didn’t know what things were really like in Russia were beginning to think Communism looked a better option. In came FDR and warned in his inaugural address that if necessary he would use ‘broad Executive power’ to deal with the emergency. Among many other measures, he swiftly allowed some banks to fail and regulated others, in particular passing the ‘Glass-Steagall’ Act to keep depositors’ money separate from speculative investment banking.

In 1999, President Clinton - a Democrat - declared that the Act was ‘no longer appropriate’ and signed off its repeal, a step that some see as a major contributory factor in the Global Financial Crisis a few years afterward.

When, a decade later, another Democrat - President Obama - came to power, many people, myself included, had great hope that he would use the crisis and the deep support of the people to cleanse the Augean stables of high finance; but no.

I still can’t work out whether these two suffered a failure of nerve or were simply colluding with enormously powerful forces, ones that have kept down the workers and sucked up the economic growth of decades for themselves, and are even now buying up farmland and residential property wholesale so that they will control the nation’s food and turn its people into perma-renters.

The young are burdened with inescapable college debts, cannot afford to buy a house and have children, cannot support a family on one income… the cheerful, stand-on-your-own-two-feet Fred and Wilma Flintstone lifestyle is receding beyond their grasp. The growing demographic imbalance may make mass worker-age immigration necessary even as it magnifies the scale of America’s systemic difficulties.

The dysfunctional economy is in some ways as bad as back in 1933, but disguised by ‘magic money’ and terrifying levels of debt, otherwise surely something really big would have to be done now.

‘Getting’ Trump and the MAGA louts will only tackle the symptoms. The longer effective treatment is deferred, the greater will be the crisis. Better, perhaps, to desist from party politicking and admit that major catastrophe is upon us.

Remembering the Queen

 

Pietro Annigoni painted this in 1955, when the Queen was in her late twenties. I remember seeing it on the wall of the Sergeants’ Mess where we, the wife and children of an officer, had the rare honour to be invited to join their whist drive. The sergeants are known as the backbone of the Army and their privileges are jealously guarded.

Now according to Wikipedia the depiction was ‘criticised for its romantic treatment and for prioritising Elizabeth's role as the monarch over insights into her inner life.’ It is difficult to respond politely to such an insensitive perception.

It is not a picture of a woman but of a royal monarch. Queen Elizabeth is wearing the Order of the Garter, which dates back to 1348 and ‘is dedicated to the image and arms of Saint George, England's patron saint.’ The sober cloak and the Queen’s mien speak of her solemn and steely dedication to the service of her people. No wonder the sergeants - and the public generally - loved it.

The muted colours of the sky and surrounding landscape also suggest the challenges facing the country, great ones in those first years after a war that had bankrupted us in the fight to preserve civilisation, and yet made us pull together and look after one another as we had not done before. It was to be a new and better world for us all.

On her twenty-first birthday eight years earlier, the then Princess vowed:

I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.

The Empire was on its way out, but the Commonwealth of Nations grew to fifty-six member states during her reign and her diplomacy will have been part of the reason why many of them thought fit to join.

The Queen kept her word and symbolised the unity and mutual commitment of our people. That is why many thousands have queued day after day, even overnight, to pay their respects in Westminster Hall.

COLOUR SUPPLEMENT: Pacific sunset, by JD

Sunset over the southern Pacific: three views across the bay of Valparaiso, Chile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valpara%C3%ADso#History

WEEKENDER: Overkill, the Media Circus, by Wiggia

Like the majority of the population I will be watching the pageantry surrounding the death and burial of Queen Elizabeth 11. Not only was she a remarkable woman in the role she played for seventy years, but in many ways her going is a final break with the past glories of this nation, it will not be and cannot be repeated.

Her funeral will be an event we do better than any other nation on this earth. Previous ones such as Churchill’s, still just within living memory, are examples of that, as was the Queen's coronation which as a child I witnessed; historic events that stay in the mind of those who witness them for the rest of their lives, I have no doubt that next Monday will be no different.

In many ways considering the appalling state we and the west are now in, it is as if a full stop has been imposed on an era that not only had the Queen reigning over us as a figurehead reminding us of past greatness but also her passing signifies the end of a nation of Empire and our standing in the world. Much of that had already gone yet the presence of the Queen softened the decline that we  see all around us. I am sure she was aware of the fact but at least she will not have to see the end product.

All that for those that care is common knowledge.

What we are witnessing at this moment in time is the total overkill by the media in the endless blanket coverage of all items to do with the death of our monarch. Past similar events did not have social media or umpteen TV channels to record everything or relay endless interviews with people of no interest and little consequence, but I write this with a week to go and already TV channels are repeating items that have already been flogged to death.

The initial silence, promoted straight away by David Starkey, over the status and more of the Harry and Megan saga that is a threat to the main focus of this funeral lasted hardly as long as his request. Analysis of one appearance in public and an impending book soon to be published gets more and more airtime when the whole issue should be parked till after the funeral.

GB news as an example, has abandoned everything unless there is a connection to the Queen's death. We are being reduced to examining the minutiae of items for the sake of it, simply to fill air time. The presenters will have been wearing black so long that afterwards we will be finding it difficult to imagine them dressed in any other way.

Even someone like the aforementioned David Starkey who I would in normal circumstances gladly watch and listen to even if he was reading the weather forecast, is being used to endlessly plug gaps in airtime to the point of being tedious.

The never ending interrogation of the Sussexes, and will the brothers ever speak to one another again, has reached the stage when 'body language experts', behavioural psychologists and others are being used to continue the examination of their behaviour, when the only obvious fact is Kate looks like she could kill Megan, and she may or may not have reason, but that is all.

In some ways all this should be expected. It is now the way of the world: tittle tattle. Social media has reduced events to endless sound bites. Fortunately despite all this the main event won’t (we hope) be diminished.

This type of presentation has been expanding for some years. The introduction has became a six part play: no longer do you get a half hour summary in the run up to the Cup Final, you get a whole morning where everyone from the managers to the beverage providers is asked for an opinion and then asked again.

The public can no longer be allowed to watch and form their own opinion. It is the media equivalent of the ‘nudge’ unit forever pushing other opinions in our direction to the exclusion of all else.

Sadly the public have assimilated all this and over time have become the putty in it all, never questioning whether this the way forward is the right way: it is almost as though they prefer the media and the government to determine the amount of emotion that should be displayed.

The Diana effect has become the norm and is used as a template.

And the media milk it and encourage it with another of those overused phrases that appear at times like this, ‘the outpouring of grief was self evident‘ said x reporter on the ground, despite no real evidence of it. Whatever happened to the stoic approach that was the norm? Today we are encouraged by those same TV experts on air to show one's emotions as if in a competition; we are as one commenter said, ‘in a world of emotional incontinence’.

Fortunately one doesn’t have to sit there for eighteen hours a day listening and viewing padded-out time-filling nonsense, all one has to do is view the main event as that is all you will remember; judicious use of the off button will do wonders for your sanity.

FRIDAY MUSIC: Commemoration for HM The Queen

On Monday I watched the service from St Giles' Cathedral, I watched the whole thing on BBC's red button which had no commentary. A blessed relief from the prattling on of 'commentators' who feel the need to fill in the silences. 

Don't know if you have walked along the Royal Mile in Edinburgh but it is quite steep so the slow march behind the hearse would have been hard work. It certainly looked it by the end. 

And a wonderful memorial service; I will admit to a tear or two when Karen Matheson was singing.

Which prompted me to find the video of it and to add a few more for this week's musical laments. 

The last video, Angels From The Ashes, was written as a tribute forNew York's fire fighters after 9/11.

================================================

Bays of Harris, Psalm 118, 

Karen Matheson St Giles Cathedral, HRH Queen Elizabeth II, 12th September

Gaelic psalms at Back Free Church, Isle Of Lewis- 20/21/oct/2003

Gaelic hymn - 'Mo Ghrá Thú' (by Aoife Ní Fhearraigh)

Margaret & Martyn Bennett - A Theàrlaich òig (Oh young Charles Stuart)

An Iolaire

Flowers of the Forest (Dark Isle Bagpiper)

Angels from the Ashes

The Covid Moron Home Testing Kit - re-post

 Monday, November 22, 2021

People who oppose, or even worry about, the 'vaccines' developed to combat Covid-19 are all lumped together in their critics' minds as 'anti-vaxxers'. This show a deplorable lack of discrimination and also calls for some objective means of verification.

We are glad to report that there is now a quick and easy self-test for Covid stupidity, and better still there is no need to stuff anything up yourself, unless that is your thing and if so there are already plenty of suitable materials in your house.

Simply respond Yes or No to each of the following statements and then score yourself according to the guidance given below.

1. The 'vaccines' are 100% safe. Nobody has been injured or killed as a result of one or more jabs. Any rumours to the contrary have probably been spread by the Russians.

2. The 'vaccines' are suitable for everyone, in every condition - young or old, pregnant or not, sick or well, fighting fit or immunocompromised by e.g. cancer drugs.

3. The 'vaccines' are 100% effective. Nobody who has been jabbed has been hospitalised or died as a result of catching Covid after immunisation.

4. The 'vaccines' not only protect you from catching Covid, they prevent you from passing it on to anyone else.

5. Unlike antibiotics, the indiscriminate and widespread use of the 'vaccines' will not, by eliminating competition, foster the development of new, medication-resistant strains of the disease.

6. The 'vaccines' will have no effect on genital organs or the pre- and post-birth development of unborn children.

7. The 'vaccines' will not reduce the effectiveness of your immune system, against Covid or any other infection, either temporarily or permanently.

8. The most rigorous longitudinal investigation into Covid will never show any positive correlation between immunisation and elevated likelihood of later serious illnesses or sudden deaths.

Scoring:

'Yes' to all: you are a sensible citizen. The world has always needed trusting people like you, often as infantry.

'No' to one or more, but not all, questions: you are a Common Moron. We can tell when your kind has learned to use a knife and fork from the scratch marks on your face.

'No' to all questions: you are that rare and beautiful thing, the Perfect Moron. Every government department and company board needs one of you, so they can consult you on all matters, listen attentively and do the exact opposite of what you recommend.

__________________

Test packs will be available to the general public as soon as supply line issues have been resolved.

START THE WEEK: Funny Old World, by Wiggia

 Macron says the days of abundance are over…………his Marie Antoinette moment…..

I doubt that he will along with our own, expenses paid energy bills elite, suffer from any lack of abundance.

Not that there is anything new in his statement……

Naturally ‘abundance in the eye of the beholder, it appears that Obama has dashed for gas before the winter arrives with the installation of a 2500 gallon propane gas tank that will if necessary see him through the winter at his pad in Martha’s Vineyard. It’s only fair that the proles should suffer for energy shortage while he pollutes the climate he is so passionate about.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-fossil-fuel-fan-obama-orders-2500-gallon-propane-storage-vacation-home

While we can all with hindsight write articles and make comments about current affairs, so much today has no need for hindsight as we have been saying certain things for years. This comment below has no hindsight involved, it is just about a departing PM who has turned out to be an almost total failure; even his much applauded 'got Brexit done' is a joke as we have subsequently discovered, leaving Northern Ireland in the clutches of the EU.

This was the comment about his last public speech after a pathetic ‘legacy’ tour? One of many on the same theme.

“Saving £10 per year would take 300 years to compensate for £3k increase in energy bills. BJ is so far removed from reality as to be considered insane. He can have no empathy with the working man, we are space aliens to him.”

Boris doesn’t obviously do maths, or much else come to that, as his £20 kettle has to be taken from the savings; and how long does a modern kettle last? Two years. Rresult: no gain at all. The Daily Star got it right for once with a front cover with 'Prat' on it.

No doubt Boris thinks this is a planet-saving piece of equipment as well…

 https://twitter.com/Nandospage/status/1565505096317796353

And before some clever Dick says the company site shows it can be charged in 2.5 hrs, that is with phase 3 electricity which a remote or new site will not have.

Another closet eco warrior is the unlikely Kevin MacCloud of Grand Designs fame. A, to me, strange article in the Times has him showing his credentials (ooh matron!) Despite years advocating, and rightly, the building of well insulated houses, he actually lives in a 500 year old farmhouse. Nothing wrong in that other than preaching about methods to save the planet with better insulation and renewables is a bit off the narrative if you live in a 500 year old farmhouse that is almost certainly listed and can’t be upgraded in any meaningful way. He then goes on to tell how he doesn’t shower, uses a basin of water and doesn’t flush his loo very often to save water; why?

He admits, despite prying into hundreds of properties in his TV program, that he won't let anyone look inside at his funny old world.

He has also installed a wood burner,  which for the greens is as near to a criminal act as one can admit to, only owning your own coal mine would top it. Living in the country is trotted out as an excuse for this; I have a wood burner and don’t feel any need to find excuses for it, even more so this winter coming.

And finally he is ‘incredibly envious of people who have built homes that export energy,' so why does he not follow his beliefs; or is he the same as all those Hollywood stars who preach about saving the planet but the restrictions they advocate do not apply to them?

As I say almost weekly, one could fill a book with the nonsense that is spouted on a daily basis now. The reverse ferret is in high demand as the ruling classes blame everyone else for the decades of wrong decisions, wrong thinking and downright incompetence.

An amusing finale is that annoying ex-MP Edwina Currie. Like a tic she can’t easily be got rid of, her belligerence is almost without parallel and here she has taken issue with Martin Lewis of Money Saving Expert fame for using the word 'catastrophe' about our current energy crisis.

Apart from making a mountain out of a molehill and being a prat whilst doing so, the superannuated ex-MP then tells people how to improve their comfort using foil backing for radiators. On her pension she will not be concerned about energy costs; and to think she was once considered to be important in political circles!