Inverting The Asserting

There Is A Danger -

That BOOJUM! might become the 'How Much I Loathe Droopy' blog, which would probably deter those interested in tanks, atom bombs and zombies from reading it, unless <thinks> Donold dies, reanimates and leads an army of the undead driving seized armoured vehicles on New York City.  If The Asylum ever film that, I want royalties.  

     ANYWAY Art!

     Say hello to a caricature of Matt Gaetz, a ****bag in human shape, whom we have covered in the past but not for ages.  He is one reason I got a subscription to 'The Daily Beast' when they were covering the trial of his 'wingman', who subsequently got a 10-year prison sentence.  Congressman Matt got off scot-free, as his daddy is a wealthy and influential Wizard Lizard Gizzard party grandee who is probably tired of pulling strings to keep his idiot scion out of prison.  Art!

     George Santos, another moral vacuum, who actually served prison time until Droopy got him released.  The relevant detail here is that House Ethics Committee, a body you as a corrupt politician absolutely do not want taking an interest in you, took an interest in Santos.  They got him expelled in 2023.

     Gaetz could feel the breath of the HEC on his collar.  He had already married his girlfriend so she couldn't testify against him, probably since he was worried about the allegations of conjugal relations with a minor.  He then decided that his House career was perhaps a little too risky and resigned in 2024, thwarting the HEC, dammit!

     However - O that word again - he didn't go away into quiet obscurity.  Art!

     It did not set the network alight.  OANN is a very niche right-wing channel with a fraction of the audience of major networks like Fox or CNN, but hey if it pays Matt will do his one-trick pony act.  One hour per week.

     So, this is an example of a politician moving to television.  Actually it's worse than that, Eddie Munster Junior was appointed to an executive position on a quango board in June.  Watch him try and sleaze and slime his way back into politics.
     Whom do we know who moved from television into politics? - thus underlining today's title?  Why, none other than Donold Judas Trump!  Art?

When he was simply stupid, not senile

     Now, if you follow this blog with any regularity, you know that DJ Tango likes to insult other people with rather what the South Canadians call 'sophomoric' humour, or a person displaying the intellect of a 7-year old.  However - ah that word again! - HE CANNOT TAKE IT.  Zeppelin ego, you see: huge but fragile.  

     So, he consequently had the news channels CNN and MS NOW banned from the White House, since they were reporting on things he didn't like, such as the Trump-Iran war and escalating petrol* prices.  You know: news, not pandering and boot-licking like the White House staff.  The reasons for this ban have rapidly evolved over time as the said WH staff try to give the ban a veneer of rationality.  To begin with, it was because they were 'fake news', which has mutated to being about 'security' and then again to 'professionalism'.  Art!

The Donold has anger.  

     The networks all rallied round, NBC, ABC, CBS and even Fox News retaliating by removing media pool coverage, resulting in Pumpkinhead making a speech to no microphones where only the lip-readers knew what was going on.  A judge promptly overturned the ban but Donnie Dorko is going to dig his heels in on this and have a mantrum, which only increases his likelihood of a rage-induced stroke or myocardial infarction.

     O I should acknowledge that he has started his '35 district' political campaigning.  We'll see how long that lasts.

     What did Trump come up with as a solution to ensure he is adored and loved via the television?

     TRUMP TV!

     I kid you not.  This, I swear, is further evidence that his brain is now made of mashed potato.  Unsure if Maris Piper or Rooster.  Art!

     It's just looped old videos and certainly not the 'Essential Station' it claims to be.  

     Initially, thanks to novelty and the South Canadian ethos about sackcloth and ashes, it launched to 8,500 viewers.  A few hours later it was down to -

     <drum roll cymbal clash>

     91.
     I don't think I need to explain that this is Not Good.  Conrad notes that the White House staff number over 400, so obviously none of them are viewing the video equivalent of pylon-watching.  Why would you?  If you spend your day trying to damage-control Fat Caligula, why on Earth, Mars, Venus and Jupiter would you want any further association with him?  Art!

     Here's a screenshot from earlier this afternoon.  109 watching.  I suspect that the White House command structure has broken down, otherwise Suzie Wiles would have all of the staff - plus their significant others, friends, associates and randomly-encountered people on the sidewalk - dialling in.  Art!

The Donold has pensiveness.

     Apparently vlog loops of a box fan or people having a pedicure are far, far outpacing 'Trump TV'.  Since the metrics for this channel are so open, Conrad suspects it will be quietly retired with no fanfare to avoid acknowledging that Droopy is not, at all, popular.

A Beautiful Sunset

Although, I have to say, beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder.  Allow me -  Art!

     What you see before you is the sea offshore of Sochi, the tourist resort in Mordorvia, and the flame-bar at bottom is a Ruffian oil tanker on fire.  Note that the fire has apparently spread across the whole length of the tanker, meaning that their fire-extinguishing technique has made things worse instead of better.  Say goodbye to an estimated $5 million in liquid assets, and another $10 million in dead tanker, but a splendid sunset is priceless.

Killer Pelikan Is At Hand

Following on from the item above, the Ukrainians are now deploying their short-range ballistic missile, the Firepoint Seven, which has recently been tested on a Ruffian target.  Art!

     We're not told what the target was, or how many pieces it ended up in, just that Prez Zed has approved mass production of this missile, which is possibly called the 'Pelikan'.  The metrics are that it has a range of 250 kilometres, travels at 1 PROUD IMPERIAL MILE per second and has a payload of 200 kilograms of high explosive.

     So what? says Bunker Grandad.

     Welllll since you asked.  As it's Ukrainian, they don't need to ask South Canadian permission about where to launch and target it as with the ATACMS that the Biden administration begrudgingly sent to Ukraine and which Agent Krasnov has completely cut off.  What was that about cards?  This means that a zone 200 kilometres wide inside Mordorvia is now vulnerable to Ukrainian ballistic missile attack, as these missiles travelling at Mach 12 on a parabolic arc are verrrrry hard to intercept.  Another point is that the Kozaky have managed to develop their own effective ballistic missile in 2 years rather than the usual 10.  Art!

     That map was with ATACMS.  Imagine that with the gloves off.

More Along The Lines Of 'Greybeard'

In case you need reminding, 'Greybeard' is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel by Brian Aldiss, he whom criticised John Wyndham for writing 'cosy catastrophes'.  Conrad cannot help thinking of the mother who gassed herself and her two children in 'The Day Of The Triffids' before her husband got himself so drunk that he joined them, and wond

     ANYWAY we have a novella here that is so bleak and dismal that it makes Brian's most anti-CCC work look like the epitomy of CCC work.  Art!

     No I have not read the novella, but I have seen the film.  A touching tribute to the bond between Hom. Sap. and Doggo Domesticus at the end of the world.  Featuring a young Don Johnson and a denouement that would have Brian quivering in horror.

I think we're done here!

*  Note correct term.

Jack The Giant Sayer

No!  We Are Not Going To Either Criticise Nor Praise Leo

Leo Sayer, that is, who was extremely successful here in the UK during the Seventies as a pop singer.  Lightweight by Conrad's standards, but I also acknowledge that Barry, the force of nature behind 'Classic Album Reviews' and a curmudgeon cut from the same cloth as myself, also admitted/boasted/confessed <delete where applicable> that one of the first 10 albums he bought was Leo's 'Endless Flight'.  Art!

Leo's flight looks about to end, and very precipitately at that

     Leo and Baz.  Or Baz and Leo.  It's been a while and there's a lot of gin under the bridge.

     I salute Baz for his candid explanation.

     ANYWAY we are here to take a Schmitt on Eric, a bafune of epic proportions whom is also a South Canadian politician and avowed worshipper of the Big Orange Oaf Himself.  Art!

BOOH!

     We are now going to travel back in time to 1857, when Ruffia lost the Crimean War to a coalition involving Great Britain, France and Sardinia -  O no, wait, we're not I'm not sure how that popped up.  

     No, we're travelling back to the period before the second Trump administration, where a Special Counsel had been appointed to carry out an investigation of Donold stealing official documents and the January 6th insurrection.  Art!

Eeeek!

     Enter Special Counsel Jack Smith.  Jack, when he is clean-shaven, looks remarkably human and approachable.  Hirsute, he looks as if he's going to laser-beam you into ash with his Death Ray Vision.  Word is, when he and DJ Tango were in the same New York courtroom, Fat Caligula would look anywhere but at Jack, lest his Pumpkinhead explode.

     So, King Piggy, as he has the intellect and mindset of a spiteful, petty 7-year old (on a good day!) felt somewhat antagonistic towards Jack.  Meaning all his loyal boot-licking minions did so, too.

      We now have to abruptly skid tracks over to Georgia.  Art!

Hearts in Atlanta

     This might sound like soap opera yet it's 110% true.  The lady to port is Fani Willis, a Democratic prosecuting attorney working against Droopy in that state.  SHE HAD AN AFFAIR with Nathan Wade, the chromedome chap to starboard whom was one of her subordinates. Conrad has a weakness for clever women but even I would have jibbed at this <ahem> relationship.

     It created a - Art!

     Yeah, that bit in 'Mad Max Fury Road' during the storm transit.

     Enter Eric Schmitt, Republican goon from Missouri, whom is desperately determined to restore the reputation of his obese orange god at a Senate hearing.  When Smith is on the witness stand, Schmitt thinks he's got an opportunity to either perjure or crush Smith.  Art!

All will be revealed

     Schmitt, who appears smugly confident that he's got the upper hand, bangs on about Smith perjuring himself, and brings up a huge board with Willis and Wade on it, since this kind of approach is what Cankles Von Wizzleteats likes - a lot of pictures without any nasty hard-to-read text.  What text is present is in 326 point Arial.  Art!

      It's shown for all of 0.5 seconds before it gets moved away, and Jack's response is of complete bafflement - which Eric mistakes for guilt.  Art!

Say-  int ain't so

     THE THING IS that Eric has shot himself in the foot here.

    Jack was at a 'Hawks' game - the IOWA HAWKEYES whom the locals all call 'Hawks', he mentions that the Marshall's service - providing escorts to politicians and VIPs - were present in the Iowa stadium as proof of whom was where what and when.  THEY WERE NOWHERE NEAR GEORGIA.

     Oooops.

     Even if you have to have GIGANTIC ASSUMED CONSEQUENCES if they were in Georgia.  Which they were not.  THEY WERE NOWHERE NEAR GEORGIA
         I realise may I may be over-emphasising that  THEY WERE NOWHERE NEAR GEORGIA but I think it repays mention.  After all, THEY WERE NOWHERE NEAR GEORGIA.

     Did I mention this enough?  Because T - okay, okay, we have mentioned it enough.  Art!

     Schmitt before he got his bottom handed to him on a silver platter.

     Say what?

     Conrad is minded that Schmitt-Wit will not have done the background to this presentation himself and will instead have directed it to his political drones and minions, whilst taking claim for it himself.   This implies that his serfs were quite aware of of <ahem> THEY WERE NOWHERE NEAR GEORGIA and left him to deal with the consequences, since they had been dealing with a bottomhole candidate.  Okay okay this might be speculation.  Prove me wrong.  Art!

     Schmitt's blunder here is so egregious that, for days later, his compatriots are busy removing him from their accounts and maintaining that 'We have never heard of this loser' and 'LOOK A FLYING SAUCER!'.  Art!

     Here we have the kinetic Chris Cilliza, whom points out that Schmitt could have merely admitted being wrong, but who doubled-down, as with the COVFEFE nonsense with Donold, and whom has now utterly tanked themselves.  So badly we may have to use his surname as an euphemism from now on.

     I think that's enough South Canadian clownshow for the moment.  Initially I didn't think we'd have enough for an Intro and proved myself wrong.  Just wait until we get onto 'Trump TV'!

Czech It Out

The Czechs are notable for their native satirical bent, possibly encapsulated in the author Jaroslav Hacek, creator of the idiot-or-genius soldier Svejk.  It was they whom created the papier-mache Putin sitting on a gold toilet, probably putting them on an FSB hit-list when Bunker Grandad found out.

     ANYWAY they have come up with another stroke of mild genius.  Art!

     For considerate dog owners in Prague.  I shall not risk our SFW credentials by going any further, just to say that whomever posted it, THEY WERE NOWHERE NEAR GEORGIA

     

Back To Brucie

Yes, we are still covering the slideshow from 'Sci-Fi Art's Youtube vlog and have over a minute left to go.  Not bad progress considering each slide is onscreen for perhaps as long as five seconds.  Nor do they annotate anything, so Your Humble Scribe has to do all the digging.  Art!

     I'm a bit torn about this one.  I know all you fearsome perverts will be concentrating on the buttocks rather than the colour palette, but just take a second or two to examine the use of PAY ATTENTION! less buttocks more artistic appreciation.  As I was saying, an interesting use of yellow and green.

     What's more, this is definitely a cover picture.  'Whipping Star' by Frank Herbert, which I have read and vaguely recall the plot.  Art!

     There you go, proof positive.  You're welcome.  Art!

     We have now reached the 6-minute mark, how exciting!  And this, I guarantee, is a book cover thanks to the very obvious 'Title Gap'.  Which the vlog does not detail <heavy sigh>, so let me see if digging uncovers aught.

     Hmmmm I didn't realise how many skulls Ol Brucie has painted in his career.  One hit did mention 'Ghostwriter' but I cannot find any corroborating artwork.  O well.

Duxford Redux

Or, more of 'I hope you like planes', because once again there are lots to show you.  Art!

     Here we have the ex-Hungarian Air Force Mig-21, from the front this time.  NATO reporting name 'Fishbed', and no, I have no idea why it's called that.  Ah.  Allegedly, because the name was chosen at random as beginning with 'F' and having two syllables.  Perhaps also being a bit insulting?  Art!

     This is the British army's Saxon APC, designed to be as cheap as possible thanks to being based on a Bedford truck.  What you're seeing here is added slat armour to counter RPGs, as this was used in Afghanistan long before drone attacks were a thing - note the absence of any slats on the roof.

     And we're at Count!

From Van To Ram

I Want To Continue The Saga Of Chad Wannabe And His Younger Brother

No-Chrysler-4-Me.  At the conclusion of the second part of this story, CW had dropped the asking price for his money-pit Dodge Ram, and sold it for $1,500 to someone who was probably going to break it up and use it for parts.  He blamed NC4M for not stopping him from purchasing the Ram - which his younger brother had indeed warned him about, except there was no denying a man desperate for a MAN TRUCK.  Art!

MAN TRUCK!

     CW's ex had donated him her old Ford minivan out of pity, but CW hated it as it was a CHICK CAR.  It had 200,000 miles on the clock, was covered in dents, had a poor paint scheme and the rear window had been replaced with a bit of plastic.  

     As before, CW went to his parents to beg for money; he got rejected and they rang NC4M to warn him that CW was going to approach with hand outstretched, having got the idea in their head that they were going to convert the minivan into a MAN TRUCK.  Art!

     Despite still owing NC4M $400, CW wants to scrounge money off him for this conversion, having done a bit of Googling into doing the work.  NC4M gives him money - Art!

     There was $30 worth of change in it, which CW took despite glaring swords, axes and daggers at his brother.  

     What followed was related to NC4M by other people as he wanted nothing to do with his demented sibling or his conversion project.  Using an electric saw - Art!

     - I like to keep you informed - he cut the back off the minivan from behind the front seats.  The ex was not impressed since getting rid of the back seats meant their daughter wouldn't be able to be carried in her booster seat; it's illegal to transport a minor in the front seats, just so we're clear.  CW then wanted to cut the minivan exhaust and 'straight pipe it into stacks', which metalhead argot needs translating:

A straight-piped exhaust system into stacks means removing all the factory sound-deadening and emission restrictions (like mufflers and catalytic converters) and routing the open exhaust tubing vertically up behind the cab of a truck
 Art!

     This plan was stopped before it started when CW was told it was illegal and the cops would pull him over the instant they spotted him.

     Nevertheless he set to with a will, using junkyard parts, recycled wood, scrap metal, spray paint, hot glue and spray foam.  Art!

     Displaying considerable technical skill, CW built a sub-frame behind the front seats, then welded the rear doors shut to retain structural integrity, added in a wooden truck bed and - more argot - 'lifted it with twist studs in the coil springs'.  Art!

Coil springs

     He also added a tube frame behind the front seats, hung a lot of ratty LEDs off it, and the totality of all these changes and conversions implies that CW could have done-up his Ram and camper absent the help of NC4M.  The camper makes a reappearance here since CW was able to tow it with what he dubbed the 'Mini-Ram', having added a Ram emblem to the front grill.  It was now a MAN TRUCK! or not, as, NC4M fell about laughing when CW proudly drove it to a family dinner.  Their father, a tow-truck driver of 30 years, cautioned that he ought to be careful not to crack an axle or blow a gasket, at which his idiot elder son sneered.  Unwisely.  Art!

MAN CAR!

     Not satisfied with being mocked by his entire family, CW then got hold of two huge 18-wheeler wing mirrors and added them to his frankentruck with self-tapping screws and hot glue.  Next he wanted a drag race with NC4M, whom refused point-blank. Wisely - the drag race in his Ram blew the head gasket. 

     That's the saga of CW and his 'Mini-Ram' done.  There is a lot more to this story, but the car conversions are complete.  Don't forget, CW hated hated hated his brother to upstage him in any way, especially in front of witnesses, and both of them had campers.

Happy Chilling People

By which I mean the 'Flavour Trips' duo.  Art!

     Since Amii is wearing more than her usual wisp of chiffon, Conrad suspects it's a bit nippy here, even if it is bright.  They are in Greece, inside the walls of a fortification of some description.  Aha!  Apparently it's Larissa Castle, on the island of Argos.  Now we know and you're welcome.

Flight, Fright Or Fight

Continuing with more shots of the collections at Duxford.  Last time we had been travelling in the belly of the Concorde.  Art!

     That's Sal and Tom exiting Concorde, and an elevated look at the Vulcan, Harrier and Lightning.  Art!

     A brace of aircraft cannons, 20 mm by the look of them.  If you look at the wings of any Spitfire IV onwards, you'll see a streamlined fairing on the upper part, which is there to accommodate the ammunition drum of the cannons they mounted.  20 mm cannon shells were large enough to add interesting things to them, such as high explosive, an armour-piercing core or incendiary filling.  Art!

     No, they are not super bedside lamps, they are photograph processing units.  They took the film from cameras in Photographic Reconnaissance Unit Spitfires or Mosquitoes and processed it as rapidly as possible, to enable timely use to be made of them.  Art!

     Or, as in this case, the camera pod from a Tornado or similar.  Art!

     One of the bad guys.  This is a Mig-21, Cold War vintage fighter.  I think some are still in use in nations that don't have much of a defence budget.  They were pretty slick in the Sixties and Seventies but are old and tired now.  I think this one was generously donated by Hungary after they joined NATO.

Droopy Is Loopy

And, of course - obviously! - poopy.  There has been a lot of speculation about the senile old orange-face, especially about his peculiar stance as of late.  Art!

     Then another Tweet on the hell-platform Twitter put up a rather telling explanation and picture.  Art!

Suzie rizzio

@Suzierizzo1

·

Oct 3

It’s become obvious that Trump is using a Functional Electric Stimulation (Neuroprosthetics) device on his right leg after a stroke last year. They help lift the foot & improve walking. These devices have a sensor you can tap on your leg to make it lift your foot & move.

     DJ Tango will never admit to having used one of these as it makes him seem feeble and unmanly, but he's going to need two of them if he intends to hold true to his claim about campaigning in 35 districts before the mid-terms.  Plus he'll have to be taking Adderall by the fistful in order to not, you know, keel over dead.

     O and I have another awful photo of King Piggy for you.  Art!

     From neck-vajayjay to neck-rectum.  Plus you can totally see underneath his Hair Helmet and how bald he is.

     Sorry if you can't unsee this*.

South Canadian Circus In Full Swing

I can skirt our avoidance of Politics by claiming that it's entertainment over there, as they spend enormous sums of money on pushing their particular point of view, often lambasting their opponents rather than promoting themselves, and yes this applies to the Ice Cream Bandits and the Wizard Lizard Gizzard parties equally.

     Take the race for the Senate seat in Texas as an example.  Normally Texas would be a safe Red seat.  Not this year.  Art!

     The incumbent, Ken Paxton, who is dirtier than a herd of pigs running amok in a sewage site.  His polling figures have gotten worse, despite his party spending $100 million on his campaign, and they have now stopped spending anything on him, deeming the race to be lost.  One wonders if impeachments will follow November 3rd.  I need to lay in a lot of popcorn.

     and we're done!

*  Not sorry in reality.

As You Should Surely Know -

Conrad Is A Jaded Cynical Empiricist

'Trust but verify' is my default.  So, I had 'Save To Watch Later' a Youtube from 'Daily Dose Of Reddit', concerning the poster 'RK93' and their tale of 'Slumlord Lost His Business Over A $300 Security Deposit'.  When I went over it and annotated, various questionable things caught my eye.  Art!

This comes into play later

     I shall deal with these Questionable Things in due course.  How long will this Intro be?  I have no idea; it took up a good page-and-a-half of A4 notes, so we'll see.  As usual, RK omitted any mention of placenames or dates or even which South Canadian state he was in, nor could I find any supporting or detracting statements on teh Interwebz.

     SO! RK, wife and new-born moved into a small, dirty and badly-maintained house that was rented out by PAinting Business Litigious Owner, hereafter PABLO.  Given the state of it, the security deposit was only $300.  The HVAC did not work, nor did the fridge or dishwasher.  RK and fam didn't have much money, hence the move.  He paints a picture of PABLO's personality, and it's safe to say it is verrrry unpleasant; when asked to make repairs he would swear or leave threatening voicemails, as well as turning up at random and letting himself in.  This is illegal; a landlord has to give at least 24 hours notice before entering a renter's property.  Art!

     On one of these intrusive visits RK pointed to the flooded crawlspace, which bred mosquitoes and cockroaches by the thousand, that then infested the house above.  Typically, PABLO blamed RK for the flooding when it was actually from piping that had rusted through.  His response was for them to move out because 'You can't pay for a bargain and expect to live in the Ritz'.  Art!

     Other facets of PABLO's charming personality were not paying someone who spent all day felling trees, punching a neighbour in the face and renting squalid properties to illegals, since they didn't dare complain.  A peach of a person.

     Taking his advice, they moved out and PABLO said he would mail them the security deposit.  Plot twist: he didn't.  He dodged RK's phone calls and eventually responded 'You aren't getting it back.  You broke the contract when you left early, so go <swear> yourself.'

     Here Conrad would like to add that this is nonsense.  RK could have gotten the deposit back by sending a formal letter to PABLO, and if it wasn't returned, could have taken him to the small claims court.  There is no mention of him reporting PABLO to the city's enforcement authority, who would have come down on him and his 15 properties like an anvil from a mile up.  Conrad, being a vindictive soul, would also have informed the Internal Revenue Service via their whistle-blower hotline that PABLO was fiddling his taxes, since a bottomhole like him most definitely would be.  Art!

The marque that evildoers fear

     In the follow-up to this, RK was attempting to post a negative review of PABLO when he noticed that his business's website domain had lapsed.  We can presume RK had a certain degree of familiarity with web domains and design, since he immediately bought the domain.

     Aha!  Here he drops the information that the platform was GoDaddy and the year was 2013.  No surprise I couldn't find information about a cold case 13 years old.

     ANYWAY AGAIN RK added a homepage to the website, with contact details - 

     For PABLO's principal competitor.  He then e-mailed PABLO, asking if he wanted to buy his old domain back for $320 - that security deposit and the cost of acquiring the website.  Predictably the bottomhole exhibited prime bottomhole behaviour, ringing to threaten RK, then his parents, then his employer, then sending threats via voicemail.

     He refused to pay.

     Consequently, the website's contact details didn't get updated, continuing to divert customers to the competitor.

     Let Conrad The Jaded Cynic pronounce judgement here.  What happened up to this point is credible.  What follows is considerably less so.  Art!

'Bottomhole painting business' courtesy AI Art Generator

     RK got e-mails from people interesting in contracting with PABLO, sending one to his ex-landlord to prove that he's getting potential customers.

     Here the question must be why PABLO didn't just get another website?  There's no explanation in the narrative, unless pride and stupidity and the intellect of a house-brick explain it away.

     ANYWAY ANYWAY the ex-landlord rang, threatening to take RK to court, to the retort that the ex-tenant had recorded the threatening phone calls and retained the threatening texts and voicemails, and would countersue to press charges.

     This is very much an empty threat.  RK had done nothing illegal in buying the domain; it was his and he could do what he liked with it.  Also, if PABLO was stupid enough to go to court - a process that would involve more like $3,000 than $300 - there would be discovery, where RK would be able to demand access to his business accounts, which PABLO could absolutely not allow to happen.  Once again Conrad asks why he didn't just create a new website?  Except that's not a satisfying revenge, is it?  Art!

     A Remote Nuclear Tormentor, as no blog is complete without one.

     ANYWAY AGAIN AGAIN of course - obviously! - PABLO rang RK in gradually increasing stages of panic and rage, with RK hanging up on him.  After 6 months PABLO rings and begs for the website back as he's not had any custom for said 6 months.  RK acidly comments 'You need to create a website to find business'.

     WELL WHY DIDN'T HE!

     After another alleged 6 months - a year without bothering to create a new website is a timeline I find impossible to believe - PABLO calls back only to find that the cost is now $350 as a 'bottomhole tax' was being added.

     After another 6 months PABLO calls to beg for the site back, only to be told the cost is now $380 - see above for reasons.

     Eventually PABLO texts RK to inform that the painting business has now gone out of business and he hopes he's happy about that.   RK's response it to once again offer the domain name - for $380.  Art!

     So, we are asked to believe that PABLO sat and twiddled his thumbs for a year and a half, bleeding money all the time and refused to pay RK $380 to avoid bankruptcy?  I think that strains credibility to it's breaking point.

     That was the last contact PABLO ever had with RK, whom maintained the domain name for another 2 years just to be certain that PABLO had, indeed, gone out of business.  When he checked 'major business listing sites' there was no mention of his ex-landlord's business, presumably backing up the 'gone out of business' narrative.  Note that at no point in this story are we told what the domain or business name is, since that would allow it's veracity to be checked.

     Finally, RK took care to drive by 'the office', presumably where PABLO had worked from, to find it closed with a 'For Rent' sign up.  Art!

     In Conrad's humble opinion, which, given that this is my blog and my opinion matters more than yours, RK did indeed purchase the domain name and divert a lot of customers away from PABLO, who then got a new website and domain, having suffered a lot more than $320 in losses; but they didn't go out of business.

     Thus the moral of the tale is more 'Cannot confirm' rather than 'Trust but verify'.

     And with that, we are done!