Crook Bond!
I apologise for finding that hilarious, because only residents of This Sceptred Isle will understand my joke, thanks to long exposure to tea.
Yes, tea. Art!
The subject of this Intro might well be called a "tea-leaf", which is Cockney rhyming slang for "thief", and with this hint and the mention of 'Bond' you may be getting a sense of where this blog is heading.
HOWEVER - I don't think I've used this word for a day or two - before then we have more "T". More specifically "ST-1", which is another referral back to the hardware on the table at Crisis Point 2024, and my "Cold War Commander" game. You see, at the end of the Second Unpleasantness, the nation of Czechoslovakia was liberated from the Nazi yoke, and they promptly set about re-creating an independent army by any means necessary. Art!
TANK
It may come as a surprise to you to know that Czechoslovakia was one of the arsenals of Europe between the First and Second Unpleasantnesses, and they came up with an excellent tank, the Śkoda LT vz. 38. When the Teutons invaded and occupied in 1938, they took up the now-renamed Pz. 38T and kept it in production. By 1942 it was completely outgunned on the battlefield, so they used the chassis for umpteen other vehicle designs, including what became known as the "Hetzer". Art!
As you can see, it has a low profile, making it harder to spot and to hit. The gun was fixed in the front hull, so it was more an ambush predator than anything else. It was also horribly un-ergonomic, with the crew being crammed into place and sitting split apart thanks to the internal layout.
So, when the dust settled across Europe in May of 1945, the Czechs carried right on using and producing this vehicle, re-naming it the "Stìhač Tanku 1", or "Chaser Tank 1".
ANYWAY back from TANK to that ever-reliable creator of content for the blog, Donald Judas Trump, and the ongoing saga about his civil fraud trial, and the bond placed for it, which - really, you wouldn't believe this if it was done as a soap opera. Art!
This is the criminal trial, which Pumpkinhead has been wriggling like a worm on a hook to avoid or delay, having been smacked down at appeal twice, and now he's trying to sue the judge involved.
Okay, you may remember that DJ Tango posted a bond for $175 million, having got it from a surety company because he simply hasn't got that kind of money himself. Conrad admits to a sense of disappointment that the flabby fraudster got off at the last minute -
Except not. You see, "The Daily Beast" got a bat in it's belfry and pointed Jose Pagliery at the issue of just whom and what is posting that bond, and O my! he dug up a wheelbarrow's worth of dirt. Art!
Behold the marque of the Knight Specialty Insurance Company. Jose discovered that this business enterprise is based in California and is not licenced or vetted or audited to operate in the State Of New York.
Strike One, as the South Canadians say. Art!
Guess the locale
Interestingly, when the actual wording of the contract is parsed, KSIC have reneged on any liability to actually pay the $469 million judgement when Trump loses his case.
"Knight Specialty Insurance Company… does hereby… undertake that if the judgment… is dismissed… Donald J. Trump… shall pay… the sum directed"
Which, as experts pointed out, is highly unusual, and seems to be placed in the contract to limit the surety agency's exposure; in layman's language, they ain't gonna pay no how no way. It also make a mockery of the bond being posted in the first place, because it takes Toxic Tangerine Toad back to the position he was in before the bond was posted.
But hist! there is more! Art?
"Donald was not a reflective man. But he realised he was neck-deep in it."
You see, the New York Department of Financial Services oversees bond and surety organisations, which, as per the law in NY, CANNOT put up more than 10% of their company's surplus. Go on, go on - ask me!
KSIC have only (!) $138 millions on hand, which means they have over-bid by 127% on the $175 million bond. The verrrry sketchy financials provided by KSIC in fact demonstrate that their total assets are only (!!) $525 million, so they are putting one-third of their total, not merely their operating surplus, up here.
Except they're not, remember? because Donald Buck will be paying it all. Art!
This has realllly annoyed the normally placid and undemonstrative Judge Engoron, who is calling all parties together for a meeting on 29th April to thrash out exactly what's what and who's got not or wot.
So, what DJT thought was a done deal is in fact a very long way from being so. He seems to be in rather hot water. Which would be made more palatable if you add one of these -
Tee hee!
Point And Laugh
We have mentioned 'Suchomimus' on this blog before, him being a British expatriate working in Taiwan, accompanied by his giant rabbit, Muffin. I don't think he's ever said what he does in Taiwan, and I'm not sure what the Taiwanese make of his Nottingham sense of Anglo-Saxon humour; the South Canadians who comment on his vlogs love it, mind, because it's an education in British slang and vulgarisms.
Recently Sucho took up the issue of those Ukrainian very-long range drones, which are essentially an ultra-light aircraft stuffed with HE and GPS systems. Art!
With puny humans for scale
Sucho then went on an extended flight of fantasy - do you see wh - O you do - about how far these UAVs can travel, and what juicy military targets are now vulnerable, shortly before the Ruffian corvette Serpukhov mysteriously caught fire in their Königsberg exclave.
HOWEVER! - twice in one blog, how excessive of me - what he also posted was an hilarious picture I shall prod Art into replicating. Art!
This shoddy junker is the former pride of the Ruffian navy, their aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov", which seems to have been constructed under a curse engineered by the Royal Navy, so bad has it's fortune been over the decades. It anchored in 2018. Yes, six years ago.
If I recall mockingly, it was supposed to get a complete refit from top to bottom and bow to stern, which hasn't happened for a couple of reasons. One is that all the repair and renovation money was embezzled and stolen, and for the second one see the first one. There were stories in the press in 2023 that it was going to return to service in 2024; does that above look ready to take to the high seas (or even the low seas)? It cannot move under it's own power because the propellors were removed, and has to be towed by tugs in order to get anywhere. As you can see, it now performs the function of being a camp for Displaced Persons and the flooded-out population of Orsk will end up here in a few weeks.
In (slightly) better days
More Of Marmolada
We left Ol' Bruno atop the Marmolada yesteryon, having made it there minutes after sunset, with the temperature dropping as fast as the sun. Art!
This is the hut he stayed in overnight, with Carlo, the chap who mans it all summer long. Whatever Ol' Brew was eating out of that bowl, I bet it tasted like nectar, just served hot. One wonders how Carlo gets supplied with all his staples - helicopter? Art!
An early morning drone shot of the Capanna Punta Penia; you can judge how early it is by how long the shadows are. No sign of a heli-pad. Art!
Carlo points out every mountain and mountain range over a 360º span, proving that he knows his landscapes. One supposes that there's not a lot else to do up there when there aren't any visiting mountaineers. Art!
Then Ol' Brew has to bite the bullet and reverse his trek upwards, heading down to the valley. Well, yes, matey, if you put yourself in peril on the peaks to get up There, then you have to reciprocate to get Down. Art!
 |
| Safely Down |
"City In The Sky"
People are beginning to grasp the idea that they may be able to de-orbit the Bernal Sphere they live within, and not die in the process.
This time there were no
sounds; the listeners were too surprised to express surprise. The Doctor carried on.
‘With Pangolin out of
commission I suppose we’ll have to plead our case to the Americans and see if
we can use M3 or their spare shuttle.
Tut! That’s a bit of a nuisance.’
Davy spoke up.
‘We’re the American’s
favourite people at present, Doctor Smith.
You too. Thanks to our warnings
they tracked down the saboteur at
‘Oh good!’ beamed the
Doctor. ‘Now, how good are you at
knitting?’
Happily for the Doctor, Arc One and indeed the entire human race, M3 had been put into mothballs for the foreseeable future as there didn’t seem to be any great use for the skyscraper-sized rocket and towed environment.
Hmmmm no mention of Elong Tusk in this particular future?
O Boy!
<rubs hands in glee> What do my glazzies espy? Art!
This means there's a Commentary. I cannot wait.
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