Monthly Archives: December 2024

Unherdables Advent Twenty-One

 

Always scheduled on the winter solstice, this carol … said solstice was on:


As it’s precisely 0930 GMT as I write, it has passed … and I am sad. More as to why below the carol …

In the carol, there’s a mournful or melancholy tone to the earth and nature resting but I for one beg to differ … there is no season so restful, so hushed, so without stress, bar that which humans bring to it … whilst a “proper” perspective, not just in my eyes, might be:


There’s a song I sometimes run at this time, by Richard Thompson, sung by Fairport Convention:

The album was about Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, and ultimate defeat, but the lyrics do add to the feel of a wintry Britain just as well … requiring of us hearts of oak.

This is my time now, ladies and gentlemen … possibly yours too … a time of intimacy with nature, with our Maker … of reflection … of hush, except for a roaring fire, good cheer, good fayre, bonhomie … I’d vaguely date it from the solstice to maybe January 8 to 10, somewhere there.

Saturday [1 to 4]

(0842) Only just surfacing now, overslept second time. (0924)

 

4. From Capitalists at Work

http://www.cityunslicker.co.uk/2024/12/polly-toynbee-true-believer-hope.html

“The public career of Polly Toynbee is a continuous source of mirth.  How many socialist saviours has she hitched her wagon to, only to have her hopes crushed.  Owen, Blair, Brown, Patricia Hewitt (sic), … and now Starmer/Reeves.  Always bearing the imprint of the last person to sit upon her / brief her confidentially over lunch.

But before the worm turns & the Great Disappointment strikes, whilst her wagon still hitched there’s nothing she won’t do by way of providing what she thinks of as helpful outrider support.  Here’s the latest – in the Graun, as usual: 

The Waspi women suffered outrageous misogyny, but in poverty-stricken Britain they’re not the top priority. The government is right in its decision not to pay the women up to £10.5bn in compensation … a government [does not] have a financial duty to repair historical sexism.

Polly: calm down!  Starmer & Reeves – just like your former beau Brown – don’t mind lying & brazening these things out.  It just doesn’t bother them!  They don’t need your sophistry.”

3. Andy hisself has delivered a Chrissy present to Unherdable Cats

… Burns’s Ode to a Mouse (915)

I wish Andy a speedy recovery too from feline tooth and claw.

2. DAD is not a well cat this morning

… so he’s taking care of bod biz. I join Andy in wishing him a quick recovery (915).

1. Politicised judges and the politics of envy

HERE

“HOW RICH is too rich? According to judge Kathaleen McCormick, Chancellor of the Delaware Chancery Court, in her ruling on Musk v Tornetta in January this year, the 2018 remuneration package given to Elon Musk for growing Tesla into a 1.2 trillion-dollar company was way too generous. At the same time she appeared to mock his aim to colonise Mars.

McCormack ordered a rescission of Musk’s options package. He was thereby deprived of all compensation for his work of the previous five years. Two weeks ago, despite an overwhelming and larger second vote by shareholders in June in favour of Musk’s remuneration, judge McCormick, a politicised Democrat, stuck to her ruling that Musk should get nothing.”

Friday [14 till close of play]

(1636) Evening all.

 

17. It’s down to last minute in the States

I’ve written at OoL about what happened:

https://orphansofliberty.blogspot.com/2024/12/just-give-me-one-page-summary.html


Listen up! Lemme give y’all the skinny on what is really happening: It’s all about the “debt ceiling.”

The debt ceiling was suspended in June 2023 (See https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/us-debt-ceiling-senate-vote-06-01-23/index.html). There is no debt ceiling right now, per that bill, until January 1, 2025. This, as you might imagine, is important.

The debt ceiling effective January 1st will be whatever it was back in June 2023 plus whatever spending since then. That opens a little room, but likely means that the debt ceiling will be hit no later than June 2025. This is also important.

The Continuing Resolution (which we’ve all been told to hate cuz it is festooned with pork) would have pushed the debt ceiling back for 2 years. This is something that President-Elect Trump most definitely wants.

Why? Cuz Pres. Trump intends to implement massive tax cuts (no tax on tips, no tax on social security, no tax on overtime, 15% tax max for companies manufacturing here), and those cuts, in the topsy-turvy world of federal budgets, are counted as “spending.” Cutting taxes by $2 trillion? That is $2 trillion in spending. Or so they say.

But, as of now, President-Elect Trump is NOT going to get that extension to the debt ceiling return. This is a problem cuz then his administration will need to figure out how to fit trillions in tax cuts into a timeframe of less than 6 months. Not possible, tbh.

The tax cuts will spur the American economy like putting nitro into a monster truck. But receipts generated from all that wealth production will not arrive in time to prevent American default on debt come June.

If you want to know what the Uniparty/Democrats are holding hostage, it is deciding whether to delay or implement the debt ceiling’s return.

Yik-yak about A.I.-generated Cancer Kidz 

 all you want. Decry pork. Decry redefining criminals as “Justice Involved.” None of that is the real issue.

The issue is whether President Trump and his administration will be given the runway to Make America Great Again. It’s a real pickle.

And almost no one understands it.

https://punchbowl.news/wp-content/uploads/ARA-12.20.pdf

2241 GMT: The bill already has 11 Republican ‘NAY’ votes. 6 Democrats ‘YES’ already…

16. Unconscionable the way it’s still being pushed


15. Nancy gives herself away a bit

Posobiec clearly has it in for Mace but on the other hand, as he points out … the internet remembers things and they’re easily retrieved from archives. If she were sensible, she’d say right, that was so back then, is no one allowed to learn along the way?

But she didn’t do that … she doubled down and started counterattacking. Not a good look. She might be right on the current issues or not … point is … not a good look.


14. Steve has a few things up

… an item at 913:2 on dishonest pollies, another at 913:3 with war room:

a. Mike Davis: Fani Willis’ Case Of Arrogance, Corruption And Greed. Nathan Wade Billed Time With Biden Whitehouse Council 16 Hours At $250/hr.

b. Brian Glenn: The Base Couldn’t Care Less If This Tyrannical Government Stays Funded.

c. Natalie Winters: “We Are Fully In Support Of Shutting Down This Illegitimate Weaponized Regime”.

d. Mike Benz: Reuters Received Tens Of Millions Of Dollars From The Government To Lie.

Plus: “Elon spreads the word.”

Try these

 

  1. Who rides in a $190m Aurus Senat?
  2. What stopped in 1784 in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket?
  3. The out of control eyepatcher in US politics?
  4. What’s track tamping?
  5. Which party is offering £10 memberships to U25s?
  6. Nearly all domestic ducks are derived from which ancestors?

Friday [8 to 13]

(1311) Afternoon all. This is the new “fast asleep but occasionally waking for a minute” blogging. Hopes ya like it. (1412)

 

13. Moosh corner


12. They’re calling out Mace and Roy too


11. Integrity


10. Inevitable


9. An oldy but a goody


8. Kathy’s a cutie

HERE