Twelve Years After

No!  I Have Not Done A Typo

 - and mis-typed the name of that band, you know, Ten Years After, whom are still around a good fifty years after they started.  Might be time to think about retiring, chaps, rockers on stage at eighty are not a good look.

     ANYWAY I'm going to be my usual perverse self and not put up a picture of them, and instead we'll use an early iteration of Pink Floyd.  Art!

     Featuring the debonair, dashing and demented Syd Barrett at starboard.  This was the band's first single and it did comparatively well, reaching Number 20 in the UK charts in May of 1967.

     Mark that date.

     Dave Gilmour joined the band, Syd left and they became a very different kind of beast, gradually moving from psychedelia to prog, and only releasing another 4 singles in the late Sixties.

     Then, in December 1979 - Art!

12 years later

     It was top of the charts for 5 weeks, including Christmas of 1979, yet you will listen in vain for it in the run-up to Xmas as it's not exactly sweet or bland, doesn't mention 'holly' or have bells a-ringing.  Hence today's blog title.  Art!

Gerald Scarfe's nightmarish vision.  I wonder what the inside of his head is like.

     So, this Intro, for as long as I feel entertained by it, is going to look at the rest of the chart for December 1979, see what I approve of, what I disapprove of and which will get the Remote Nuclear Detonator.  Art!

     
     REMOTE NUCLEAR DETONATOR!  Conrad loathes ABBA and always has, it's a constant in his life he's happy to maintain, and that's all the girning quartet deserve.  Art!

     A very strong debut from this band, and an album I used to have on vinyl.  The song got played to death but I still like it.  Chrissie's bandmates guitarist and bassist were sadly over-fond of WICKED ILLEGAL DRUGS, the kind that come in powdered form and which killed 'em dead.

     For those who are unfortunate enough to not hail from the shores of This Sceptred Isle, 'Brass' here refers to cash coins, meaning the narrator of the song has money, possibly due to copper coinage being the colour of brass.  My 'Brewer's' didn't help any, the piker.  Art!

     The very definition of a novelty one-hit wonder.  They were a folk band who never troubled the charts again BUT they did allow Lurpak to nick the music and recite a song praising Danish butter above all things, which is surreal enough to be mentioned here.  I Don't Approve.  In case you were wondering.  Art!

     Their cover of the old Dusty Springfield classic, and a rather anodyne song it is too, which doesn't hint at the much darker direction they took later on, instead of cranking out commercially-successful covers as their label wanted them to.  I Approve.  Art!

     Please note that this band is 'THE Beat', the definite article you might say, and another cover, this being a version of the old Smokey Robinson and the Miracles classic, which - shock horror! - I Approve of, especially the instrumentation.  The Beat were one of the more successful ska bands that suddenly sprouted up in the late Seventies for no good reason.  I Approve.  Art!

Very small people or very big champagne bottle

REMOTE NUCLEAR DETONATOR!  Conrad hates this song, which is a concatenation of all that is mawkish, tawdry and gimcrack.  You want sunshine?  I'll give you a supernova!  Art!

     I don't recall anything about this song, but it has 'Rap-' in the title so I hate it already.  Yes that's how shallow I am.  Do Not Approve.  Art!

     One wonders how much it cost to fly to South Canada and film at the Kennedy Space Centre, for that's where this cover and video were shot.  The Police played a king of bastardised-reggae and were howlingly popular for a while.  Sir John Peel was quite appreciative of their live performances, which he said were much, much harder than the commercial sound of their records.  I Approve.  Come on, a video featuring a Saturn V?  How can I not?  Art!

     I Do Not Approve.  Pablum for the ears, even if I cannot remember anything about the song.  It's my proud boast that I have never owned a song by The Three Degrees, and if I ever admit to buying one, it's time for a rubber room and blunt knives.

     Okay, at ten entries I think it's time to pause there and reflect.  We shall come back to this and I bet you can hardly wait.

Another 'You What?' Moment On The Newsfeed

Readers with long memories might remember when Your Modest Artisan had a subscription to 'The Daily Beast' and would feature mysterious objects their 'Temu' sidebar was trying to flog.  The 'Golf Divot Replacement Tool' is one of my favourite obscure artefacts.

     ANYWAY the newsfeed has partially filled this role.  Art!

     What the actual blue flying flip is this?  What is a '2" LOC' or a '5" OAL'?  Or a Milling Square End Mill?  I shall dig a little.  Aha!

A square end mill is a rotary cutting tool used in milling machines and CNC routers that features a flat, perpendicular cutting edge with sharp 90-degree corners. Unlike drill bits, which cut primarily along their tip, an end mill is designed for both radial (side) and axial (end) cutting, allowing it to carve shapes laterally across a workpiece

     Thus, a piece of cutting gear that I have no interest in, have not used and will only start using on the day I purchase The Three Degrees Greatest Hits.

A Man Thinking After My Own Thoughts

No idea whom this chap is, but I like the cut of his jib.  Art!

     My assertion is that it's made up of mashed potatoes, although I can well believe that it's 50% Eton Mess.

Bringing Back Brucie

More of the slideshow that 'Sci-fi Art' put up on Youtube.  I hope you like Bruce Pennington artworks.  If you don't then be reassured we're getting towards the end.  Art!

     Now, I know what the artwork is depicting here: the descent of explorers from Earth into the bowels of the gigantic spaceship dubbed 'Rama', from Arthur C* Clarke's 'Rendezvous With Rama'.  Yes, I have read it, several times, and am somewhat surprised nobody's optioned it for a film.

     Called it.  Art!

     I like Bruce's elegant way of conveying the sheer size of Rama's interior, with the astronauts descending a ladder that dwindles to nothing at the bottom, proving that those aren't smoke trails, they are clouds.  Art!

     Aha, all the Ol' Brucie elements present; coral architecture, a line of flying things receding to the horizon, and a purple palette.  That costume looks wildly elaborate; I bet the dry-cleaning bill is colossal.  Conrad is quite sure this is a book cover thanks to the 'Title Gap'.  Shovel work commences.  Art!

     I found this on a blog but the creator has failed to include the title.  O well.

     O!  Unusually, they include the novel cover.  Allow me - Art!

     So now we all know and are better off for it.

The Circus Continues!

This just gets more entertaining as the days go on.  I refer to the hilariously amusing South Canadian mid-term elections, all the more amusing as they are on the other side of The Pond and I don't get directly affected by them.  Art!

     This is James Talarico, the Ice Cream Bandit party candidate campaigning for a Senate seat in Texas.  He is so squeaky clean he makes squeaky clean look sleazy, and he is up against incumbent Ken Paxton, who is so sleazy he makes sleazy look squeaky clean.  The Wizard Lizard Gizzard party have spent $115 million in advertising and publicity attacks on Talarico, and his lead over Paxton has increased.  In one specific instance, Tallyho's spending in Dallas amounted to $950,000 to put out 10 political adverts, whilst Taxpon's party shelled out $4.65 million for 13 adverts; 33% more adverts for 500% more in expenditure.  This is how you run out of money well before your campaign ends.

     Bring on the wheelie-bins of popcorn!

*  To distinguish him from all the other Arthur C. Clarke's in the sci-fi world.

Life Imitating Art

Not In A Good Way!

Bear with me, this one takes quite a bit of recollection, since old age, gin and spiced rum have ravaged the memory somewhat.

     Okay, back in 1975 the BBC showed a series called 'Survivors', which kicked off with a first episode called 'The Fourth Horseman', written by the talented Cymbrian Terry Nation, yes yes yes 'The Dalek's Dad'.  For those of you not up on your apocalyptic terminology, this refers to the Fourth Horseman Of The Apocalypse: The Pale Rider, Death, who has the power to kill off one-fourth of the Earth.  Lightweight.  Art!

     In the first episode, a mystery flu-like virus had erupted out of Asia, allegedly killing millions in China, and had been spread across the globe via air travel, meaning that no continent remained free of the pestilence.  The title sequence, in a montage of clips, implied this since it was much, much cheaper than actually filming a background.  Typical cheap-bottom BBC.  Art!

     This is the ham-fisted klutz who dooms humanity.  Art!

     So the hungover bafune drops a flask containing Something Extremely Bad, and presumably tries to cover this ghastly failure up until he drops dead.  In the meantime the virus has been spreading amok, thanks to the Populous Dictatorship not knowing what's happened in their biological warfare lab.  SORRY!  'Anti-plague research lab' is what I meant to say.  Art!

     Here you see a diplomat from The Populous Dictatorship, visiting their good dictatorial friends:  'CCCP' is the Cyrillic acronym for 'Soyuz Soviet Socialisticheskikh Respublika' or 'Union of Soviet Socialist Republics' and 'MOCKBA' is the Cyrillic for 'Moskva', or 'Barad-Duh' - 'Moscow' if we're being formal.  The point I am labouring here is that air travel spreads the disease worldwide, as the next title montage shows passport stamps from Spain, France, South Canada and This Sceptred Isle.  Art!

     Yes, that's Stephen King.  His own plague opus, 'The Stand', has a much, much darker take on the global pandemic, which in his instance was caused by sloppy health and safety protocols and Lucifer fiddling with lab procedure in South Canada.  Once the government realises that the biblical plague is loose and cannot be stopped or even mitigated, they canvass for volunteers who are willing to be infected -

     And then travel abroad to Ruffia and The Populous Dictatorship to ensure they are utterly compromised.  Believe me, there's a whole television series there if Stevo ever gives permission.

     ANYWAY that is why Stephen is a multi-billionaire and I am living in a shoe-box under a sewage culvert.  Art!

     TFH shows us British society breaking down under the impact of what is called 'The Death', where only 1 person in 5,000 proves to be naturally immune to the virus, and where there cannot be any rescue mission mounted by the outside world is it has gone to excrement, too.  The series later completely destroyed this loss ratio since no more than 11,000 people across the whole of This Sceptred Isle would have survived, when one character in Series 3 claims 150,000 Scots have survived.  Whisky and porridge, one presumes.

     ANYWAY AGAIN here's an interesting historical footnote.  Art!

     That there is Brian Clemens, who was responsible for creating 'The Avengers' and 'The Professionals' and whom maintained for years that he had given Terry the idea about 'Survivors' and who wanted money and kudos as a result.  Tez would not capitulate and both pursued a legal redress, which resulted in barristers getting richer whilst their clients got poorer.  Mutual lack of money stiffed the case and it never got resolved; Conrad can only observe that the bleak existentialism of 'Survivors' does not reflect on Clemens' considerably less hopeless-we're-all-going-to-die-in-short-order.

     ANYWAY ANYWAY Your Humble Scribe also remembers reading Terry's novelisation of 'Survivors', which referred to the first season, and which I never actually finished it for reasons unexplained but which probably have the words 'Gin' and 'Rum' in there somewhere.  Art!

     Here we indulge in an aside.  You see, Terry rationalised that Hom. Sap. in the UK were far too reliant on the weather to be able to sustain a post-industrial society and would need to move south onto the Continent to survive.  Overlooking that we did not do this at any time in our island past and that we have had refugee populations from the Continent arrive here and survive, the Cotê D'Azur is always going to trump Morecambe.

     SO!  Terry fell out with the BBC producer Terence Dudley, whom he felt was 'trying to get the trains running' in order to restore order.  Conrad recalls one of the characters going on a looooong reconnaissance sweep and reporting back that one scattered group is in possession of a tank.  Wowsers!

     In the later seasons there is an attempt at hot-air balloon activity with -

     Norway.  Yeah, you need to access the resources of Norgeland to become a burgeoning post-apocalyptic society.  Or did the Norks maintain a logistics connection with their North Sea oil rigs?

     We may come back to this, it has legs.

Why Are We Here?

O I thought you'd never ask!  

     Because there is currently an outbreak of pneumatic plague in the far eastern regions of Ruffia.

    Yes you read that correctly.  Art!

     Thanks to 'Anton Geranshcheno' we now know that the local television channel 'People Of Baikal' has conducted an investigation into events into the far east of Ruffia, in Irkustsk and Shelekhov.  Employee Daria Shipilova, an employee at the totally-not-alarming-title 'Research Anti-Plague Institute', dropped a test-tube containing 'Anti-Plague' research cultures and was dead in a couple of days, covered it up and here we are today.  As happens daily in Mordorvia.

     Or not.

     200 people that she came into contact with are now in isolation.  Five hospitals have activated quarantines.  The Kremlin is now loudly insisting that nothing has happened, that it is all happening to plan, that everyone needs to understand that nothing is happening and if it is then it is all occurring as per plan, that the orcs needed to listen to only Kremlin garbola and not 'rumours'.

     Yeah right.

"I, Nicholas II, will rule Ruffia forever."

     Of course - obviously! - Ruffian state media deny that anything has happened, since this might be an indirect admission that Ruffia carries out biological warfare experiments.  Not very carelessly, either.

Thank You Prof

My wallet squeaks in anguish.  Art!

     In case you can't read the blurb, this is Professor Peter Caddick-Adams, recommending a murder-mystery, which is two things more likely to empty my wallet than anything else and I shall have to go check Abebooks after posting this blog.  I understand that there was the 'Titanic', 'Olympic' and 'Britannic', and that the latter two -

 

It Is Reckoned

That the ancient Greeks, insular in their linguistic congruency, used to describe those who were not Greek and whom did not speak Greek, as 'barbarians' who could only speak in 'Bar-bar-bar'.  Art!

     Once again, here we have an item that has come from out of nowhere with no boundaries.  If you have an explanation of whatever this is, please let us know in the Comments.  Conrad will continue to believe that it concerns LITHIUM WAER BATTERY DESIGN!

More Of Duxford

Note I do do not automatically lead with 'RAF' or otherworldy non-terrestrial aspects since a lot of the exhibits at the IWM are not aircraft.  Art!

     Absolutely no idea what this is.  Sorry, but there is a disconnect between the museum floor and some of the exhibits we saw. thanks to having to use two different cameras in different locations. Art!

     What The Bloody Heck!

     Conrad had COMPLETELY MISSED this aircraft that had been poised above the whole hangar whilst he was bimbling beneath it.  Please do not belabour Your Humble Scribe, as we can excuse thanks to Gordons and Captain Morgan.

AND WITH THAT WE ARE DONE!

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!