The King-Maker Is Dead!

Long Live The Ki - O He Can't He's Dead

This one may be a little obscure for anyone not hailing from the shores of South Canada, so let me explain that "The King is dead - long live the King" refers to Kingy Number One expiring, often at the end of a long sharp pointy object, and the new Kingy Number Two stepping into his place.  Or, more probably, sitting on his uncomfortable metal throne.  Art!

CAUTION!  Requires cushion

     At a tangent - our favourite direction - 'Kingmaker' refers to a power behind the throne who exerts themselves to get one of their royal faction crowned.  The term applies <I checked my Brewer's> principally to Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, because whilst he backed Henry VI, Hen stayed in power.  When Nev transferred his allegiance to Edward IV, Eddie got to be crowned.  Art!

Nev

     Bear in mind that Nev's salad days were in the late Fifteenth century, yet Your Humble Scribe is talking about news hot off the press, if the scintilla of electrons on a monitor screen can be so described.  Art!

     Meet Tucker.  He came to fame on Fox News, whose lawyers claimed (successfully!) that what he said on air was so utterly ludicrous that nobody could take it or him seriously, thus it was entertainment not news, you can't sue us, nyah nyah nyah.

     He was immensely influential and powerful, pandering to his adoring audience with a diet of extreme right-wing bilge and nonsense, as even he admitted in private communications.  Aspiring politicians of the Ice Cream Bandit party (or was it the Wizard Lizard Gizzard party?) would grovel and clamour to be interviewed by him, because DJ Satsuma was a biiiiiig fan of Tucker and thus they would be seen by His Royal Marmalade.  Tucker's favour or criticism could make or break a politician, he really was that able.

     Yeah, well, that 'You can't sue us' rang rather hollow as of last week, when Fox News caved and paid $787 million to settle Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit.  Art!

     You might think that bad enough.  Well, hold onto that tabletop as if you were the Wrestling Midget In Elevator Shoes himself! because here comes Smartmatic, also alleging defamation and seeking $2.7 BILLION in damages.  Even if they settle for half, between them and DVS that's $2 billion Fox will be paying out.

     When he signed off on Friday, Tucker's last words were "See you Monday".

     Er - no.  "FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways," the company said in a short news release. "Mr. Carlson's last program was Friday April 21st." 

     O I say, that's a bit savage!  So he got sacked over the weekend with no clue about what was going to happen.

     This is breaking news, as I said, so there's no official announcement from Fox about why they fired Ol' Tuck.  Conrad is willing to bet that his contract has a Non-Disclosure Agreement so he's not going to be able to put his side of the story anytime soon.  Art!

Channelling the spirit of the cat that ate the canary

Onto Sweeter Matters

Not that such an action would be difficult.

     Conrad found another webpage from the BBC that was celebrating global photographic responses to the theme "On The Edge", so here's one of them.  Art!

Courtesy Vic Cotton

     There's no indication of where this shot was taken, just that it's next to a huge waterfall and was shot in the depths of winter.  Matey is taking somewhat of a risk here, given that snow and ice is slippery, and it's a long way down.

"Things Fall Apart, The Centre Cannot Hold*"

In Ruffia the outskirts aren't doing any too well either. The Pest In A Bulletproof Vest is desperately trying to keep the impact of his Special Idiotic Operation as low as possible on the metropolitan areas of Saint Petersburg and Moscow, because if the people there suffer, so will he.  I have a snippet from Quora about this very subject.  

But not only the federal budget struggles. In the 4th quarter of 2022, tax revenues dropped in regions as well:

·        Tyumen region: minus 48.9%

·        Krasnoyarsk Territory: -39%

·        Murmansk Region: -33%

·        Khakassia: -32%

·        Kemerovo Region: -30%

     Art!

Tyumen oblast

Krasnoyarsk krai

Murmansk oblast

     You get the picture, all provincial territories way out in the boonies, where there aren't any pavements, indoor toilets or washing machines.  Now their tax income has collapsed, so say goodbye to things like beds in hospitals, blackboards in schools and live pensioners.  That's some plan that Peter The Average is executing there!

"The Sea Of Sand"

Our gallant band of human survivors are having a bit of a discussion, which amounts to Sarah telling them what to do.

Because it’s not! raged Sarah silently.  That’s not how it is and it’s not how it’s going to be if I can help it!

          ‘Of course!  You’re both quite correct!’ she merely said, smiling sweetly and in a quiet conversational tone. 

Roger took this reply at face value.  Dominione, more experienced in the ways of womanhood, looked at her sceptically.  Sarah responded with an expression of utter innocence that made the Italian even more sceptical.

‘I would suggest that since the bio-vore’s attack on the depot has been thwarted, we could move back there,’ said Sarah.  ‘Torrevechio’s giant blow-torch could do with refuelling, and we might also consider our friends approaching  from the west.’

Her veiled reference to the predicted arrival of the Afrika Korps, and the Regio Esercito in close company, made Roger uneasy.  Pretty obviously the depot could not be defended from an attack, not when the garrison amounted to himself alone.  He was outnumbered three-to-one by the Italians, even if they were still observing the informal truce.  Preparing Mersa Martuba for demolition – well, that was a possibility, perhaps if they pretended it needed to be kept out of bio-vore hands –

- aha! he realised, pleased with his own cleverness, fondling the key in his pocket.

     She's up to something.

Back In The Saddle

Conrad is doing training this week for the job he got via Adecco, working with PIP claimants etcetera etcetera.  I don't think I'll identify the actual employer, just in case, as this was my policy since about 12 years ago.  You don't want to wind up an employer who is large enough to have professional web trawlers looking for people dissing them.

     ANYWAY I now have to contend with First Bus and their service in Manchester, which was as execrable as ever.  During the span of 20 minutes none of four buses bothered to turn up, so I got the inconvenient 182.  Bah!

Upper Deck tickets half-price!

We Can't Be Right All The Time

Some of us are only partially-human after all, I'll have you know.  Conrad was attempting to do a Codeword this morning, for the first time in a couple of weeks, and not only was I a bit rusty, I was also somewhat thrown off by the fact of being at work after three months of creative idleness.  Art!

Stop whining and crane your neck

The false trail when I reasoned that the word at extreme starboard had to be RUPEES, since PUTEES didn't fit.  And that has to be JUSTIFY.

     Except not.  It was TUREEN and CUSTODY.

     Bah!

*  It's from a poem by Yeats, if you must know.