UNMENTIONABLE

 Regular readers - well, regular reader now that Robert's blog has gone again - will have noticed that over the years comments on blog posts have become bizarre and othen disconnected from the topic of the post.

I won't get into cognitive decline here as that will be the topic of a future post. What I'll do is select one comment and try to find out what the hell it meant.

On the comment section of Richard's most recent post he wrote this:

IT HAS NO CONNECTION TO THE BLOG POST THEME OR TITLE WHICH IS THIS:

It's a while since my last gig

It had no connection to the comments thread either which followed the usual pattern of abuse, slander and insult.

What does it mean? Are my underpants broken? Do I need to get something to fix them?

I have a good selection of quality underpants in different colours (all tartan pattern) see:   A BRIEF POST 

... and, at last count have about 16 pairs - more than enough for daily changing and they are all in good condition which is a far cry from the state of a pair of my favourite skants from years gone by:

If it was these he's referring to then yes, some repairs would be necessary but The Old Girl tossed them into the rubbish bin a long time ago.

I'm confused. What's the old codger on about?

ACCOLADES

 

It's time to update the accolades in the 'ACCOLADES' section in the right hand column of the blog.

Thanks to the supporters who provided the current ones that have been there for some time now. Have a look at the blog home page or, for your reading pleasure I've copied and pasted them for you here:

***********************************

ACCOLADES

"Alert, conversant, speaking full sentences"

- From hospital doctor's report.


This just to hand - an accolade from one of this blog's followers:

"Reading The Curmudgeon's blog has opened my eyes and mind to the silliness of religion and the stupidity of catholicism in particular. I now see myself as a modernist even if I don't really understand what the term means. Well done that man for giving us the low down.
That's why most readers reference Curmudgeon first."

- Robert the apoplectic sinner

And another one:

"What I like about The Curmudgeon is that he's fair. When he posts comments on my blog they are positive and always contain a hint as to how I could improve my own blog. As an older person I find this to be helpful."

Richard (of Richard's Bass Bag).

An updated accolade from Richard:

Hello all. I really like this blog. The quality, humour and professionalism gives me something to strive for in my own blog. Recently I've run out of ideas and have reverted to writing long and boring posts on violin playing. I wish that I could create blog posts as fresh and interesting as The Curmudgeon's.

- Richard of Richard's Bass Bag

"This is the first tantalizing (sic) surprise of many as The Curmudgeon introduces us to ...."
- an excerpt from devoted follower Richard of Richards Bass Bag.

****************************************

These glowing acknowledgements are as fresh today as when they were first written and published but I'm sure that there are many more to be added.

Please feel free to add some in your comments readers if you want to see your names 'up in lights'.

Here's an example:

No need to thank me.

CHACUN À SON GOÛT

We all have our own particular tastes and, while we share a lot of things with friends, family members and partners we don't agree all the time.

The Old Girl uses the TV in the other lounge when she wants to watch 'her' programmes. These are different to the TV series and films I prefer, hers being romantic comedies, Formula One type documentaries and dramas, Marvel-type superhero films- you know - crap.

When we had just one television and one lounge set up for watching I used to watch her 'crap' under duress (with the odd huffing and sighing). She would do the same for my 'good stuff'. The current situation works well and she combines her evening TV-watching with working out on the rowing machine, exercycle and stepper. I use the exercise machines in the mid to late afternoon while watching game shows like The Chase and Tipping Point. In the evening I have the TV in the main lounge to watch the films and series I like. It works out well.

On a related topic I hate it when people lend or foist a book on to you to read because "it's a great book - you'll love it". I prefer to make my own reading selections and recently prefer to read a book on my iPad rather than a regular book. It's a habit I've gotten into.

Friend Rod foisted a book on me at tennis on Thursday. It's 'Hunting the Nazi Bomb' by Damien Lewis. "You'll like this" he said "It's topical given the Iranian nuclear situation".

I didn't really want to read this but he was insistent. I know that he will pester me each time I see him now to check that I've read it and what my thoughts on it are. Really! It's like me pestering asking Robert what his opinion is of posts I've written. Sheesh!

I'll have to read the damned thing.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

Saturday night is coming up. 

I don't think I'll be fighting no matter what Elton John suggested.

I think that I'll be following Sam Cooke's advice and staying in for a quiet night.

Another Saturday night and I ain't got nobody
I've got some money cause I just got paid
Now how I wish I had someone to talk to
I'm in an awful way ...

... sounds a lot more believable than:

Don't give us none of your aggravation
We had it with your discipline
Saturday night's alright for fighting
Get a little action in ...

... sung by this guy:

"You lookin' at me?"

Perhaps, for the casual visitor to this blog I should explain that:

• While I am on my own this evening I do actually have somebody (The Old Girl) who is in Christchurch at present.
• I didn't just get paid because I don't work but The Old Girl told me today that she'd just had a pay rise.
• While I can't talk to her face to face at the moment we do converse daily via FaceTime and we've communicated twice today.
• I'm not in an awful way... yet. I'm preparing a nice dinner for myself - meatloaf, roasted potatoes, pumpkin and kumara with a vegetable bake accompanied by a couple of glasses of Central Otago pinot noir. If I have more than two glasses of the red wine I might be "in an awful way" tomorrow morning.

Elton: "What do you think of it so far Sam?"

Sam: " Ruggish (don't hit me big man)."

 

ROUND UP

Yes, it's Saturday morning and time for the weekly blogs round up*.

To start with I'll provide you with some statistics.

Posting

Robert's blog isn't set up like normal people's blogs and there's no blog archive to access. To compound things the silly fellow deletes his posts and sometimes the entire blog which he did again earlier in the week. What we have now under his new blog Bob's boring bantering is just a post titled Wednesday and another titled Thursday.

Richard has been busy, well for him anyway and managed 10 posts over 8 days from last Saturday. In this case quantity certainly exceeded quality. Well done that man.

The Curmudgeon (me) posted 22 posts in the same period. Mea Culpa - I've been busy with other things and the rate of posting was down. Most however were of excellent quality which more than makes up for the drop in quantity.

Themes

The thread running through Robert's posts was of an old man sitting on his own in his living room scratching his belly, drinking instant coffee and listening to the world go by outside his window.

I hesitate to recommend this to you as you'd be better off re-reading Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu or, if you've donated this to The Friendless Society, find some wet paint to watch drying.

The thread running through Richard's posts, like a woolen jumper unravelling is, unsurprisingly, recounts of his violin and bass (less so) practising. He breaks this up a couple of times to complain about Robert, witter on about his fallen tree and to bemoan the fact that he's not receiving enough comments to his posts. It's a bit like Stalin and Hitler wondering why they never received the Nobel Peace Prize.

On my blogs Donald Trump's idiocy and hubris dominated the themes but, to break things up I wrote a couple of posts on, well, nothing so as to make the readers feel at home. I also recounted how I nearly fell out of the attic and updated everyone on what meals were cooked and consumed on some days. It was all good. Feel free to re-read the posts if you want.

That's it for now. I'm off for a short walk.

* This is not yet a tradition but it could very well be.

ÇÜŞ

The regular reader (and sometimes his plus one) is aware that I write the exclamation "sheesh" when something annoys me.

This is a neat little word that encapsulates frustration, annoyance, anger, disappointment, disgruntlement and lots of other emotions succinctly without the need for a lot of writing.

Sheesh!

Try it out - be my guest.

It's important to know that this wasn't one of Sean Connery's sayings. He didn't to my knowledge go about saying:

"She shells sheashells by the sheashore"

"So" I hear you asking "what's the origin of the word 'sheesh'?

While I don't like the encroachment of Ai into everyday language, media and communication it's becoming inevitable. Google search now defaults to it so that often, when a search question is entered the first answer that comes up is from AI Overview.

I just hope that people 'take this with a grain of salt' and don't accept the first response as being the definitive one. Everyone's not a Catholic though so maybe the majority will take the time to do deeper research and ask more questions.

In the case of the word 'sheesh' though most of the answers favour AI Overview's explanation. This is hardly surprising as AI simply takes in all or most published information and condenses it down so that  a majority opinion results.

A couple of the online dictionaries prove this:

.

But we can balance that out with a couple of other opinions (that I don't agree with):

.

So now you know ... anyway, it's getting late in the morning and I'm still in my pajamas. It's time to get dressed.

THURSDAY MORNING

 I'm back from tennis and, going by the post headings I've been away for a while.

It was very windy at tennis but we had a good turnout.

Lunch now - ham, cheese and tomato sandwich made from a freshly baked loaf. Yum!

TUESDAY MORNING

 I'm off to tennis soon even though the weather looks a bit menacing.

Talk to you later.

FOR RICHARD

     .

IT JUST GETS WORSE

I have to face the facts and accept that the bloggers in this blogging community are getting older and, lets face it, past it.

I mean - just look at the posts from the other two this morning.

Robert has returned with a new blog named Rob's boring bantering (don't ask) and decided that his first post should live up to the blog title.

I won't bore you with all that he wrote but here' are some outtakes:

He reclines on his leather 'club' couch, feet up on the glass covered coffee table ...  He scratches his hair and neck and sniffs ...  He thinks of last night's dinner. Two battered hot dogs with chips ... Over the years one side had sunk into the alluvial soil and nothing was level. A bit like life. Everything tended to anarchy. Chaos. It was a wonder that there was so much order amongst atrophy ...  He scratches his ear and looks at the clock. It's time.

Sheesh!

Over on Richard's blog his post today is all about getting up and driving to work.

Well that'd be OK, boring but OK except that he disclosed that he talks to himself, in the car, in Japanese. WTF?

Should we be worried?

Huh? Should we be ... um ... Oh, I forgot what I was saying ... why did I come into the kitchen? Lynn!

NO, THIS IS NOT A JOKE

I know that at least half of our readers are aware of the geopolitical events that are putting the world on alert and that will have serious consequences for our social, political and economical welfare and most likely negatively impact the lives of our children, grandchildren and generations to come.

The other half, well, Robert, has his head literally in the clouds looking for Jesus and his mother the 'virgin' Mary. Unfortunately he's missing what's happening around his feet.

I know, I know, I bang on, copy and paste, insert videos and images and make observations about how Donald Trump is the biggest and most dangerous idiot we've seen since Adolf Hitler but please - don't just take my word for it, watch one of the best US news channels, MSNBC where super-intelligent and reasonable people like Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Stephanie Ruhle,  Alex Witt and Chris Hayes  nightly expose the stupidity, graft and dangerous actions that the current US presidency is undertaking.

Just to hand is this. It's worth a listening to and, if Robert ever comes back to earth is a short and easily digestible 'essay'.

MADDOW ON TRUMP'S LATEST IDIOCY

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO

 Robert's blog's gone again. His normal 'page' has been replaced with this ...

... whatever that means.

Maybe he'll come back, after all, he's been fading in and out for a while now - only coming through in waves which reminds me of this excellent Pink Floyd song:

"There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying."

I don't know where Robert's blog and all its posts go to. They tend to stay away for a few days and then reappear. Maybe he sends them to Jesus or to Mary who vett them before sending them back. If so then I'm surprised that they don't do a bit of proofreading and editing while they're about it. Maybe grammar wasn't a feature of Aramaic.

TITLE PENDING

Wainuiomata temperature dropped down to 1 degree overnight.

Richard was cold in bed - but that's a topic for a future post he will write of his sexual adventures. He just has to finalise the post title and is testing options like "Gone With The Wind", "From Rushing With Love", "Eat, Pray, Fart, Love and Oops", "My Grope Year", "The Story of Oh, Sorry" and the likeliest most favourite "I Don't Know What Came Over Me".

Rushing toddling to the wardrobe he dragged out and donned all of the clothes he could grab and cover these with his favourite dressing gown.

"You can't wear that - it's mine" said Shelley so he put back the pink silk robe and replaced it with the old beige woolen one that used to belong to his grandfather.

"I'm off to do some blogging" he told Shelley.

"Don't forget to flush and wash your hands" she replied.

"Shoosh" he thought to himself and made his way to his 'office' turning on all of the heaters that he'd recently bought, on the way.

In his 'office' he faced the daily (sometimes thrice-daily) conundrum of which toilet paper to use. This was kind of like his difficulty in choosing a blog post topic. Too soft and it had no impact. Too strong and it would only bring tears to the eyes. He chose middle of the road but discovered that as he most often used this option there was only the cardboard roll left with a scrap of crumpled paper still attached. He eyed the selection of blog bog rolls beside the toilet bowl and thought of the successes and failures that these had brought. "I measure my life in toilet rolls" he thought to himself, paraphrasing T.S. Eliot knowing that TC if he'd been there would be pleased. In actual fact TC would not have been pleased to be there.

Richard decided, after his 'first of the day' and after his first coffee of the day took him back to his 'office' that a bit of colour was needed (not that). He found the fancy toilet seat that Robert had given him for some long-ago birthday and installed it. Standing back to admire his handiwork in the well-worn spot on the bathroom floor he was caught short again so took off his dressing gown and quickly sat, knowing that this would be a long period of introspection.

After the 'introspection' Richard realised that he was still uninspired and that those other bloggers would soon be hassling him for a new post to be published. He wasn't quite ready to publish his memoir post so grabbed his favourite reading material, the 1926 edition of 'The Bass and Violin Players' Almanac which always excited him. Unsticking a couple of pages towards the back of the voluminous volume he discovered a section that he hadn't read before. 

It was an article giving advice on easily swapping between tunes, chords and arpeggios. The advice was that, even though it takes a bit of practice and the necessity to know the tune and chord progression thoroughly, it was possible to do.

"This will be handy for applying to my four unaccompanied tunes" he mused before being brought to the necessity of some more immediate handiwork.

"The job isn't finished until the paperwork is done" he said to himself smirking at his 'Nui wit.

It was getting colder despite the blast from his 9kw Heat Boss Industrial Electric Fan Heater he'd bought from Bunnings that was taking up all the space in the bath so he put his dressing gown back on even though he'd have rather had the pink silk one one on. "I'll just have to wait until Shelley is out again"" he thought.

Picking up another of his favourite reading material - "The Life of the Saints" that Robert had also given to him for a birthday or for Christmas yeras ago, Richard quickly found the well-thumbed page relating to Maria Faustyna Kowalska or Saint Faustina as she is commonly known "Cor!" he thought "I'd ......"

Image and caption courtesy of Robert's The spirited diary of a sinner

His impure thoughts (as Robert would likely say) were interrupted by a banging on his 'office' door.

"Richard! Richard! What on earth are you doing in there? I need to go." 

It was Shelley. He needed to go - well, he'd already been a couple of times but he needed to vacate ... no he had to leave his office so he tucked his 'second' favourite book behind the cistern making sure that his 'first' favourite book - 'The Bass and Violin Players' Almanac' was on prominent display and shuffled out. he felt that he had some ideas now for a blog post and started to run through it in his head:

"3 degrees in Wainuiomata. I was cold in bed. Now I'm up and wearing lots of clothes. Fortunately, we have the new heater."

He still didn't have a title for this post though - maybe it would come to him later. He headed off to his other 'office' turning on the 2-in-1 3000W Portable Electric Industrial Fan Heater and Free Standing Carpet Dryer on to get rid of the icicles hanging from the bookcase.

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING ON THE BLOGS?

Not a lot quantity-wise from those other bloggers and the quality hasn't improved but they do continue to add in weirdness which makes their blog posts worth a quick look at.

Robert is still in love although, as Richard suggests, it's a bit of a threesome with Jesus stuck in the middle. He's burning the candle at both ends working long hours and then doing a lot of driving to go to see other Masses. Each to their own I guess.

In his latest post which was about being in love, visiting Jesus, praying to the Virgin Mary, driving a lot and checking out other Masses he threw in this:

"There are no rest areas from Palmy to Wellington and once I was on the expressway it was just grin and bare."

        -  Robert of The spirited diary of a sinner 

Maybe those kisses on the cheek are not enough for him and he's taken to satisfying his needs in other ways:

Over on the other side (both sides are dark) Richard is still banging on about music practice and continues to obsess about bodily functions and toilets.

Richard: "I'm just going to check the blogs and write a new post"

It's just as well that you have The Curmudgeon and the many manifestations to keep you informed.

DEATH OF A CLOWN

 This song was running through my head yesterday. I remember first hearing it on the radio when I was in the fourth form at school. It struck a note with me then and still does although I haven't heard it on the radio for decades.

Why it came to mind was when taking with The Old Girl on FaceTime yesterday she said that one of the reasons that she calls me every day when she's away is because she worries about me having an accident or a 'medical event' and she won't be there to fix me. 

I then told her that, funny as it may seem, only that morning I'd gone up into the attic and, when coming down for some reason, instead of backing toward the attic steps (14 foot high ceiling) I approached them head on.

As I got to the edge I put my knee through the insulation Batts instead of on a joist and lost my balance. I was heading head first down the steps but managed to grab one of the hinges and, precariously, turn around to get my feet on the ladder. Jeez! It was close. If I'd headed down headfirst I might have broken my neck or worse, broken one of The Old Girl's ornaments that she has placed on just about every surface in the house.

"The old fortune teller lies dead on the floor
Nobody needs fortunes told anymore"

She was silent for a moment and then just said "See!"

OH NO! MORE DONALD TRUMP STUFF

It will come as no surprise to reader(s) to learn that Donald Trump is a big bag of wind.

He likes to talk big but is in reality a weak and ineffective man. He's a bully and likes to try to dominate people with a mixture of bluff and bluster and schoolyard-type name calling but, when challenged invariably backs down.

During his several careers - real estate salesman, casino operator, shyster, showman and reality television performer he developed his 'skills' in convincing people that he's strong (he had a book ghost-written for him purporting that he's a great deal maker) but in recent times, particularly in the public spotlight of politics the cracks are showing.

From an early age his cowardice was showing, from dodging the draft for Vietnam to assaulting and abusing women. He attacks from positions of strength and uses his lawyers and many, many lawsuits to get his way. He does this while  having an infatuation with world 'strongmen' like Putin, Xi Jinping, Orban, Maduro, Kim Jong Un, Erdogan and Bin Salman to name a few. He also often refers to past leaders like Hitler and Mussolini in a favourable light. What a tosser.

It's interesting to see him when face to face with these leaders as he tends to cow down to them and builds up a fantasy that they 'love each other'. Really, he sounds like one of Robert's Christian mates. To date we haven't seen him facing up to those other bullies and instead he turns on America's allies to try and show strength and he tends to do this from the safety of his Oval office and from behind the 'Resolution' desk he likes so much.

Trump is a liar but that's not news. In regards to being a convincing leader he pretends that he knows best, will be strong and that America's enemies are quaking in their boots. He once pretended that he'd been against the Iraq War (after the event) to try and show that only he knew best. In fact he had made no such pronouncements before his run for the presidency in 2016. It was just another of his popiulist ploys as MAGA voters and supporters were upset that USA didn't achieve what was promised and were looking to get out of the Middle East.

When Trump made it to the presidency he was way out of his depth and didn't know what decisions to make other than to overturn everything Obama had done from health care to international deals. This is why the Paris Climate Accord and the Iran nuclear deal were scrapped - a legacy that everyone is now suffering from.

Trump's silly cabinet in his first term quickly learned how incapable he was and they tried to teach him what to do but his arrogance got in the way. He ignored advice on everything including, disastrously, advice on COVID.

His naivety when it came to foreign policy was breathtaking as he aligned himself with traditional enemies like Russia and North Korea, turned his back on traditional allies like Europe and treaties like NATO and made a mess of building a relationship with China. As bad as this first term was however it was nothing compared to what he's been doing in the second term with an even sillier and more underqualified cabinet.  His Russian love has been damaging to the Ukraine situation. His China baiting is likely to set USA back economically for decades. His attacks on Canada and Mexico mean that any strong North American treaties, deals and alliances have also been set back for decades and Europe has been sent reeling from his stupid tariffs, further attacks on NATO and other alliances and agreements. The guy is a fucking idiot ... or, as many have suggested, a Russian stooge.

What Trump has done in his second term already is to seriously damage the economy, directly through the imposition of new tariffs and indirectly through the immigrant expulsion programmes. Both of these have caused civil unrest with anti-Trump protests superseding in numbers and outreach those of the 1960s and 1970s racial equality and anti Vietnam movements. The platform, while peaceful now has the likelihood of becoming full-blown civil unrest, riots or revolution. Maybe this is what Donald the stooge wants.

While this is going on three major wars are raging: Russia vs Ukraine which Trump foolishly said he could sort out in a day; Israel vs Gaza which is only getting worse since his election as President; and now the Israel vs Iran potential all-out war where Netanyahu is playing Trump for a fool and, to use another metaphor, leading him by the nose.

Trump is looking ineffective and stupid over this. He is wheeling out his silly and overused "In two weeks we will have a decision" promise while waiting for other people to get something done. He's dithering and only comes out strong if he sees an advantage to him personally - not necessarily for the good of the USA or the rest of the world. If Israel's missile attacks on Iran had been a complete failure Trump would have already turned his back on Israel but as there have been some successes he's hedging his bets - waiting for a result that he didn't have to risk looking bad in making a wrong decision. Of course if he does nothing and everything works out fine he will take  credit for it. 

The guy is a big bag of wind but, like most balloons will likely deflate sooner than later.

HE'S AT IT AGAIN

 The pedantic old ex-school teacher who obviously doesn't have enough things to do to fill in his days now is taking to making silly little criticisms of other people's blog posts.

Sheesh!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

... wrote Richard in a comment on his blog in response to a comment I made that I had woken early on the chance of seeing Matariki in the dawn sky but cloud obscured it. I said that I wasn't really bothered as there are plenty of other constellations to see on a clearer night.

I wasn't being 'anti-Maori' and Richard wasn't being censurious in these comments but it did get me thinking.

I'm a centrist in my beliefs whether they be political, social, cultural or religious*. Some people might consider this being a fence sitter and it being something to be ashamed of but I see it as a way of getting a better view of the world without being mired in ractionary biases.

In politics I do lean to the left a bit but make sure that I read at least some of the 'right' news in order to balance my beliefs. Unfortunately not enough people do this and so we are forever in a 'he said ... she said' type of situation where conflict results and no resolution can be had. Look at Israel/Gaza and Iran/ rest of world  to see how current biases will never resolve these.

In religion which, no real surprise there, politics are bound up in differing beliefs, as long as closed-mindedness dominates free thinking then nothing will change for the better. Even within religious faiths there are scisms. Islam has 73 different sects with the major ones - Sunni, Shi'a, Ibadi, Ahmadiyya, and Sufism being at ideological and political odds with each other. Our own Robert - a Catholic, in his blog posts constantly renounces not only other religions but other Christian ones as well. It's no wonder then that historically right up to today we have had violent suppressions and massacres within Christianity as seen in 'The Troubles' in Ireland and Catholic vs Protestant wars in Europe. I think I'm a pluralist when it comes to religion and believe that religion can be a glue that connects people but that  cultural and religious diversity can be a positive thing that can create a common society. Oh, I'm also a dreamer...

.. but fortunately "I'm not the only one."

Getting back to Matariki, I'm glad that Maori cultural and religious traditions are being respected and that we have a public holiday highlighting this. I'm not going to become all Maori about it though just like I don't do all the nutty church-going stuff that Robert does at Christmas and Easter. I like the holidays and respect that some people have more invested in it but It doesn't mean that I have to become involved. Sheesh!

*I see religion in a positive light when it's being a guiding force for people who need ethical and moral direction but in a negative light when it force-feeds claptrap and division to naive and anxious followers

IRAN *

 * So far away?

"And I ran, I ran so far away

I just ran, I ran all night and day

I couldn't get away

A cloud appears above your head

A beam of light comes shining down on you

Shining down on you

The cloud is moving nearer still"

Maybe there's more to that Flock of Seagulls song than I realised.

Iran has never been far from the news and certainly not out of mind in my lifetime. Now it's "moving nearer still" thanks to that idiot Donald Trump's 'leadership' and Israel's megalomania.

Trump's way out of his depth as he's stuck between Israel's demands for a strike against Iran and the MAGA- American isolationist preferences.

“We believe that the United States of America and the president of the United States have an obligation to make sure that the region is going to a positive way and that the world is free from Iran that possesses (a) nuclear weapon.

        - Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant 

"I don’t want the US enmeshed in another Middle East war that doesn’t serve our interests."

        - MAGA spokesperson Tucker Carlson

 

The left wing movements in USA also prefer keeping out of the conflict

"The US must not get dragged into another of Netanyahu’s wars.”

       - Democrat Senator Bernie Sanders

In recent times the Iraq and Afghan wars and America's pathetic performance in them strengthened the opposition to US involvement in overseas wars and helped Trump come to power, twice. But, America being the confused and contradictory nation it is also has Trump-supporting ultra conservatives (hawks) who want to convince Trump to attack an Iran that has been weakened by Israeli forces and to once and for all deliver Iran a death blow and end its nuclear programme. Trump, being Trump, a weak and unconvincing leader procrastinates and or vacillates hoping that someone else will make the hard calls.

"I may go in. I may not go in. Nobody knows what I'm going to do."

        - Donald Trump ...

 ... including himself I guess.

Let's not forget that it was the orange idiot who set up the current inflammatory situation by walking away from Obama's previous US nuclear deal with Iran in his first term which both delighted Israel and emboldened Iran. Great work Donald.

As A Flock of Seagulls sang: "The cloud is moving nearer still."

GOOD MOANING

 That old complainer from Wainuiomoaner was on the blogs this morning having a whinge about Robert and his fellow cleaners taking no interest in his wittering writing.

See: THE BLOG THAT'S NOT POPULAR WITH CLEANERS

He's been moaning recently about not having any posting topics but here I think he's cracked it.

A series on 'THE BLOG THAT'S NOT POPULAR WITH ... (put category here)' could go on ad finitum which would keep the old fellow moaning and happy.

MISTY

I woke up to a whiteout this morning:

 

There's supposed to be a mountain in the background here - Mount Aubrey

Ditto here - Mount Manaia

No bay to be seen

There's been no sound of the incoming planes to our local airport which suggests that Auckland and further afield are fogbound as well. I'm glad that I'm not trying to fly anywhere today.

I'm flabbergasted to see cars going along without using headlights. WTF?

I was planning to drive into town this morning but will now wait until the mist clears - probably by the afternoon. Not only is it unsafe to drive in these conditions because of the narrow and windy roads but it will be near impossible to see some goose coming the other way who hasn't got his headlights on. Sheesh!

"SOMETIMES YOU WILL NEVER KNOW THE VALUE OF A MOMENT, UNTIL IT BECOMES A MEMORY" - (DR SEUSS)

 Richard seems a bit testy today.

No doubt the protests in the USA have been bringing back bad memories for him...

... where the Victoria University Students' Union came out in protest against his role in The White Sport Coat and Pink Carnation Society.

It's not surprising really as it must have been a blow for the old fellow at the time - the dissolution of a vehicle he saw as an opportunity of 'getting the sex'*

Maybe Shelley can give him a smooch or something.

* A sentiment shared by the other members of the society who however left it to 'The King' to take the rap.