(0359) Dark out there. (0504) Gorgeous red and black sky …. ominous, like some horror movie unfolding. (0546)

 

3. Steve at 1051

• Trump DOJ Agrees to $5 Million Settlement to Family of Ashli Babbitt *
• Dilbert Creator Scott Adams Announces He Has Aggressive Prostate Cancer
• Telegram Founder: Macron Regime Interfered in Romanian Election
• Leftist British PM Keir Starmer Betrays Brexit
• President Trump Announces “Russia and Ukraine Start Negotiations **
• House Budget Committee Passes Trump’s Budget Reconciliation Package ***
• Military Situation In [The] Ukraine On May 19, 2025
• UK Covid Inquiry: My Dad was put on end-of-life via a syringe driver ****
• Much more.

……

*And Michael Byrd?
**In DJT’s dreams.
***Ah, wondered.
****Steer clear of doctors and hospitals if you value your life.

2. Never lived in this place

… even though I support the team. Our family of expats decided to settle there, I though came later … have visited sleepy hollow a few times …so, interesting seeing this headline in its local rag:

You wot? Same as over here … Leninist playbook … decimate the intellectuals and farmers first, be good Bolshies like Cokehead Keir and the Rent Boys.

1. Enforced bonhomie

Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have contemplated running this as the opening item … must get Longrider over to discuss it, ha ha. At first I wasn’t sure what he was on about, the young Scot, I’m 0:44 through and think I might have the idea.

Last time I was in any sort of Church building for an official service with the priest in regalia was in Chester cathedral and I went to two services, maybe not on the same day. One was the official, ground floor service involving this “meet and greet” thing, woman priest, not even a nice person … the other was out of the door, down a long corridor, out into a yard, up some steps and into a hidden room no one would know about … that was a formalised communion with bread and wine … yet a friendly service, in good mood, with some mixing and banter afterwards.

I’m thinking this might be what TYS is referring to, must watch it … meaning I must watch it, not you, unless you want to.

In other words, not enforced by me upon you. Yet at the same time, this item cannot be unseen by “generalists” who drop in for some daily politics and even short features.

Which is why I’m running it as a YT, not as a s’shot … the thumbnail is TYS himself, a nice enough young chap, almost like a young vicar. But it does remind me of the horror of that service DJT endured, with family and entourage, where a Wokeleft Priestess harangued him from the pulpit … how to turn people off a faith, eh? Before they even start.

And it also reminds me of recent shots of new Orthodox visitors who actually must step down into a vat of malmsey of some kind, fully clothed … three or four burly men forcing the poor sod under water … whaaaa?

No way, Jose … I’d insta-scarper and run a mile, coming back later at a non service time, as I did in Sicily, in quite a few Catholic churches … it was nice inside those, peaceful, could sit and reflect. Some beautiful architecture too.

Which brings me to enforced “meets and greets” anywhere, for any reason. Yuk. Don’t get me wrong, I’m gregarious at a slight distance. One of the things yesterday was our new tenant downstairs … no one had spoken to him, I did and it was obvious he’d met no one, we all keep well out of the way and quiet in this place. Still friendly enough, as he said … local lad … but not desperate for “meets and greets” … it’s more works, eats, sleeps.

We both enjoyed the guided tour I gave him of our vast complex, I’d had similar earlier with a longtime neighbour in the yard … it was good vibes … but hardly “community atmosphere”. I assured the new chap of that, he was relieved … friendly but largely keeping ourselves to ourselves, that’s our way. And the older chap’s bird garden downstairs … makes me feel like a young whippersnapper, comparatively … we generally leave him to it, it’s idyllic, not for us to blunder in on.

Which reminds me of this thing in Australia of enforced govt Welcome speeches … st**f that, I do not need a formal ceremony. Hmmmm, wonder if I’ll even turn up to my own funeral … might give it a miss.

I’m thinking that Toodles in Bama might be horrified by my attitude … oh dear, have I erred?