The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

At the beginning of the year I made a few attempts at New Year's Resolutions. I am not really into doing the NY resolution thing since I prefer to be a slow and steady plodder relying on habit rather than motivation to get stuff done. But I did think that a clean slate would be the perfect opportunity to develop some better bed time habits. So basically I set out to be curled up in the serpent sack by 11pm each evening. Now I have to cackle evilly. Be careful what you wish for. I did slowly and steadily drag myself away from the Big Mac, Twitter and an assortment of online distractions but before long I would not even have to try.

( The Slack Serpent )

Normally I love to adorn my Dreamwidth posts with David Rowe art works, especially now that he has just won a well deserved Walkley Award.

But I do not want to be responsible for any vomit covered computers, sudden conversions to veganism or an assortment of post traumatic stress reactions.

So I am hiding the beast behind a cut


( Lame Quack is getting ROASTED )

I did post this old political advert on Twitter at midnight Washington DC time but poor old Dreamwidth got neglected simply because it is a nightmare trying to post anything when using a tiny tweet stone

In Oz we had the usual horse race but there was not the fuss that is usually made over it for a week or so beforehand. Partly because Melbourne has just come out of lockdown and therefore the event was broadcast on assorted sports channels but the usual crowds were nowhere to be seen

So while the drunk and disorderly crowds were nowhere to be seen, unfortuantely one other sad tradition from the race that stops a nation did continue. Yet another horse stumbled and was put down

This seems to be an annual event. They squeeze the horses till the pips squeak and are happy to haul in the stash of cash, but when a horse does not deliver the goods or gets injured in the line of duty, they have no problem sending the poor thing off to the knacker's yard


As for the American horse race, I am guessing (but not betting) that Biden will get 60% of the popular vote.
No idea how that will translate into Electoral College seats because that is where the assorted sneakiness, trickery, hacking and other shenanigans come into their own

It is just possible that the Dodgy Don may scrape over the line with the necessary 270 but a president who wins the Electoral College with less than 40% of the popular vote is going to need to build himself a much bigger wall

I wonder how much US taxpayers are having to shell out to make The White House look like The Reichstag in 1988

I also wonder how long it will take for the deluded loser to declare victory
I am sure he will contest everything and try to hold up results in the courts. Spent his life doing that to shaft assorted employees, suppliers and subcontractors


Even if he does get the numbers for the Electoral College, it will still be a YUUUGE humiliation when he loses the popular vote in a landslide

It would be easier to list the people that he hasn't pissed off than those he has. But calling into question the integrity of doctors and other front line health care workers days out from the election is really like dancing on a grave.

I have been listening to the very last episode of "America, if you're listening" about how the trump government handled the Coronavirus or rather how it didn't

That creature and his sycophantic minions really do need to be dragged before the International Criminal Court for genocide

But George W Bush, Cheney and Rumsfield and co got away with a much higher body count so I guess this time will be no different

Move over Daisy. Covita is coming




I have seen a lot of political adverts in my life but this one just blows the rest of them out of the field
Even better than their first big hit Mourning in America

I just wonder what people will make of it 50 years from now

It is now exactly 3 months until Christmas which will also be on a Friday. First one since 2015. This time it will be Grinch free.

It’s been a busy time in the courts lately. Last week was the death of US Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg and any day now - likely right in the middle of her funeral in order to get the torchlight back on to himself again, trump will announce his list of Aunt Lydias to be rammed through the senate just in time for an election quid pro quo

( Heart of Darkness )

What!
No BIRDIES!




So the lights are down in the HATE HOUSE

Meanwhile, Meidas have come up with their best advert yet


Sarah Kendzior has been a voice in the wilderness for the last 5 years.
For all that time, she has been posting a quote from a Fox 'news' interview from February 2014
(It's FUX so he can't claim it's FAKE)

“You know what solves it? When the economy crashes, when the country goes to total hell and everything is a disaster. Then you’ll have a .... you know, you’ll have riots to go back to where we used to be when we were great.”

Australia is usually first in the queue to condemn the likes of ISIS or the Taliban for blowing up statues, monuments and museums etc but are always quick to look the other way when the mining company goblins blatantly disregard land rights and destroy Aboriginal cultural heritage just because it got in the way of yet another mine

Years ago, the Western Australian government gave permission to a business to build a giant fertilizer plant on the Burrup Pensinsula which is a place with an enormous collection of ancient rock art. Much older than any of the cave paintings in Europe.
That plant could have been built in any number of places and the rock art was in only one. But that did not matter to the goblins who are all about making life as profitable as possible for their mining mates

And now in the last few days or so yet another mining company has come along and blown up caves with archeologically and culturally significant Aboriginal rock and cave artifacts in the Pilbara. Artifacts that are estimated to be 46,000 years old! But none of that matters in the pursuit of profit.

The fact that there are people living in the area who still have a personal cultural connection to that site and the goblins have been grovelling to them to even be able to mine there in the first place and then go stab them in the back is bad enough

But even if those links were lost long ago, such a site surely must be priceless from the point of view of international heritage and archeology?

Once it is gone, it is gone forever. The fistful of dollars saved by such cultural vandalism may end up being spent on some board room art works, or a share buy back on the stock market that gets wiped out within weeks with nothing to show for it

In spite of Aboriginal land rights being increasingly recognized in the 200 and something year old courts of this country, the mining companies always still find loop holes to do what they want anyway and they never face the consequences.


The state government gets 25 cents a ton 'lease rental' from Iron ore which is the same price they were getting back in the 1960s. They have rarely bothered to index this ridiculous rate for inflation over the last 50 years and any party who tries faces the wrath of the mining lobby. So instead of standing up to these goblins to get a fair price for these non renewable resources, it is easier to kick the can down the road and let the miners trash the joint to get more ore and so pay more royalties
(I just googled and it seems the state government also gets a royalty of 7/5% of the value of the ore but it's still a pathetic pittance)

I have just been pottering over at the Nanowrimo website to update my daily word count
It is still just as nasty as last November. They still have not fixed the word count to make it mobile phone friendly. In fact, last night the spinning beach balls on the Big Mac were so bad that it took more than ten minutes just to even get to the Nanowrimo home page and that was with it already open in a tab.
No matter how many times I clicked on the stupid new + button (where a field used to be) I could not get it to do anything. In the end, with only 3 minutes left until midnight, I resorted to using the phone and hoped that I would not end up with a word count of 666 million or something

And now those nano goblins have got the nerve to send begging letters asking for a monthly donation to support struggling writers
Funny. I used to donate between $10 or $25 almost every year but since last November’s Clusterfuck, I no longer bother. I made a point of telling them so in the annual survey too

If the annual writing ritual every April, July and November had not become such an ingrained habit, I would have long abandoned the whole thing by now.

( Notes from Nanoland )

FAKE NEWS is the Enemy of the People!

So declares Racket Man at every opportunity he can get.

Contrary creature that I am, this was just the excuse I needed to go in search for my own fix of the stuff. So when the Washington Post were offering a whole year’s worth of Corruption and Lies for a mere $19 and further subscriptions at that bargain basement price, it was shall we say “an offer to good to refuse”
So here was a chance to get in at the ground floor and get the best seats in the house for the final season of Apprentice President

So I would usually find a bunch of tantalising emails in my inbox with links to assorted stories and since my tweet stone phone is my main Portkey to Cyberia, I very rarely bothered to visit the old fashioned full page version of the paper online

Life went on as usual. A year came and went and the subscription got renewed at the same low price but this time newbies were paying more than $100 for the same service with the odd half price flash sale here and there

I kept reading the stories delivered to my inbox including the dirty deeds of Dodgy Jared Kushner and the public relations charm offensive launched by a certain crown prince.
Then one day a big blank space appeared where the journalist Jamal’s regular column should have been. That was Thursday 4th October. This was followed every day by the question “Where is Jamal Khashoggi?" because apparently it was very unusual for him not to submit his regular column without an explanation.

Where is Jamal Khashoggi?

Jamal Kashoggi had been last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to sort out some paperwork. The ambassador claimed that JK had left the building shortly after arrival but the Turkish government had a different version of events helped in no small part by the fact that they had bugged the consulate.

By the weekend the truth was out in all its ghastliness


Time Line of Terror

But what followed was just as appalling. The current occupant of the White House refused to condemn this murder most foul for the usual pecuniary reasons

“Speaking of whether the crown prince knew about or ordered the killing by Saudi agents last month in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Trump said “maybe he did or maybe he didn’t!” But the president indicated that U.S. interests in Saudi oil production, weapons purchases and support for administration policies in the Middle East were more important than holding an ally to account, and he stressed the importance of staying in the kingdom’s good graces.


“They have been a great ally,” he said of the Saudis, and “the United States intends to remain a steadfast partner.” Speaking later to reporters as he left the White House for his Florida resort, Trump said, “I’m not going to destroy our economy by being foolish with Saudi Arabia,” he said.

Source

A missing voice


I am keeping my fingers crossed that there is a whistleblower out there who will leak the transcripts of creepy Kushner’s calls with Mr Marauding Bone Saw.
We all know that the whole freaky family have blood on their hands. The problem is proving it.

It is strange the sorts of creatures lurking in the woodwork over at Twitterville

A seemingly normal conversation turned very surreal very quickly

TrumPets have such very fragile egos or sense of reality and see conspiracies lurking around every corner


So the story starts with one of the more boring trump tweets. Now he has taken to whining about Fox news. I guess they are getting a bit less generous with the brown nosing and blow jobs



Donald J. Trump
‏
Jul 7

Impossible to believe that foxnews has hired donnabrazile, the person fired by cnn (after they tried to hide the bad facts, & failed) for giving Crooked Hillary Clinton the questions to a debate, something unimaginable. Now she is all over Fox, including Shep Smith, by far....


....their lowest rated show. Watch the foxnews weekend daytime anchors, who are terrible, go after her big time. That’s what they want - but it sure is not what the audience wants!




Gary shepherd
‏ shep3676
Jul 7


Are there any constitutional law experts out there? These tweets just feel illegal. Why is iui t ok for him to keep threatening businesses he's upset with, even if it is Fox?




The Emerald Serpent

Racket Man was in breach of the law the moment he was sworn in (Washington GPO and emoluments)
still got away with it

Kids in cages and 'very fine people' in white pointy hats also on the rap sheet

Even threatening nuclear war will not get the Greedy Old Perverts to stop him




Jones'Heart
‏jonesysheart
Jul 7

Lying much? That serpent's tongue will be blistered after your obvious lies!




The Emerald Serpent
‏izmeina666

So says a worshipper of president Pinnochio
10,000 blatant lies and still counting


Jones'Heart
‏jonesysheart

I'm well aware of God's attitude toward serpent's. Funny you chose the snake as your persona! Just another snake who thinks treason is policy. #GoPlayInHell




The Emerald Serpent
‏izmeina666

I'm well aware of your attitude toward English grammar, especially apostrophes.

Funny you chose a pathetic pedophile Pinnochio as your personal lord and saviour
Just another trumpet who thinks treason is policy and perfectly fine so long as it's your side that's doing it



Now I've just gone nuclear with this little number




The Emerald Serpent

Tearing up alliances while grovelling to mass murdering tin pot dictators
Shafting staff and contractors
Kids in cages
Associating with pedophiles
Plenty of plausible rape allegations

At last - here's a job for which trump is overqualified





Meanwhile, I'm a bit miffed to hear that the UK ambassador to USA has resigned over the leaked cables. But having read his letter of resignation, it is clear why he did it. His concern was all about the ability of the ambassador to be able to do the job properly in the current situation and not all about him and his ego. Sometimes you just have to take a bullet for the team

A lesson that the useless loser in the White House would do well to learn.


"Since the leak of official documents from this Embassy there has been a great deal of speculation surrounding my position and the duration of my remaining term as ambassador. I want to put an end to that speculation. The current situation is making it impossible for me to carry out my role as I would like.

Although my posting is not due to end until the end of this year, I believe in the current circumstances the responsible course is to allow the appointment of a new ambassador....."