OneGuyFromBarlick

Talking about Cuba and politics on Point of View: "Wherever you stand there is always someone to your right and someone to your left".

Is it a case of.."Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, Here I am, stuck in the middle with you."

Each week's page in my diary has a quotation and this week it is by Arnold Bennett (1867-1931):
`My mother is far too clever to understand anything she does not like'

That takes a bit of working out Tiz!

Although it was Arnold Bennett I can hear Alan Bennett's voice saying it.

Just as I can hear him saying: `At the weekend we would take a bus out to the town's boundary for a walk on the moor. Father would wear his Mackintosh with a flask of tea in one pocket and sandwiches in the other'.

I was sent this Irish saying that I haven't seen before. Trite but accurate....

Death leaves an ache that no one can heal but love leaves memories that no one can steal.

"Labour is not wedded to freedom of movement for EU citizens as a point of principle, but I don't want that to be misinterpreted, nor do we rule it out."

Jeremy Corbyn a few days ago. I've pondered it since then - for or against? -still not sure.

"We have nothing to fear except fear itself" FDR Inauguration speech in 1933.

I've just bought a small camcorder on ebay. I like it. One of the instructions is a bit puzzling though -

"The Pre-record function allows the camcorder to begin recording
one second before the Record button is pressed."

Now that is clever!

Reported that in the early days of the Socialist -Labour movements some of the newspapers accused them of promoting ' compulsory free sex' . Was this wishful thinking on behalf of the rightwing press or just an old fashioned oxymoron?

Stock criticism of any cult or religious movement that you wish to damage.....Centuries old....

...accused them of promoting ' compulsory free sex' ...
That reminds me of the question asked when people talk about intellectual property rights: `Does it mean free of charge or free of restrictions?'

In discussion on the radio this morning about Trump meeting the Canadian PM I heard: "In Canada they say being next door to the US is like sleeping with an elephant: you feel every grunt, every restless movement".

Also, about living in Trump world: "You're one tweet away from a crisis".

Senator Baker in 1973 during the Watergate hearings....... “My primary thesis is still, what did the president know, and when did he know it?”

From the Guardian -

"Trump said he wasn’t “ranting and raving” during his press conference, and that was correct. The president was confidently unhinged as he spent more than an hour berating the press and boasting without any real basis that “there has never been a presidency that’s done so much in such a short period of time”.

This surely cannot go on for the next four years - and surely won't end well.

Tripps wrote:
This surely cannot go on for the next four years - and surely won't end well.

I get very much the same feeling Tripps, I can't for the life in me see any section of the accepted normal support institutions that he hasn't offended. Even his own party doesn't like him very much. Apart from all his other faults he has a habit of repeating himself in the same sentence, it's really annoying but smacks of a personality used to talking down or belittling others. They say that how a President will be measured can usually be determined within the first 100 days. Trump hasn't had the job for a month yet and he has already managed to alienate the majority of services that under normal circumstances protect and guard the Presidency. This is not normal circumstance though is it?

I agree......

`...and boasting without any real basis that “there has never been a presidency that’s done so much in such a short period of time”.'
To be fair, that claim is probably correct but would benefit from being more precise by adding the word `bad' after `much'.

But what about Trump's popular support - who probably lap it all up?

They will change their tune David when, eventually, they realise that he is the Wizard of Oz.......
Problem is the damage that will be done until that day arrives..... (And even then the Rednecks will have a conspiracy theory that he was nobbled!)

I've got two quotes today. The first is a serious one from Labour MP Graham Stringer sitting on the transport select committee interviewing Paul Willis, the managing director of Volkswagen UK, about the emissions scandal. Willis denied that VW had deceived its customers. Stringer said: "I have sat on select committees for 20 years and I have never seen someone come along and blatantly lie to a committee". Transport minister John Hayes said that VW's position was "little short of ridiculous". Another example of `alternative facts', I suppose?

The second quote is more fun. Someone on the radio quoted Quentin Letts as saying that Mrs May "sat in the Lord's, swishing her tail occasionally". I love that image. It's exactly what cats do in our garden when they're watching a bird or mouse. You can see them thinking "I could have you now. One swipe of the paw, one bite from my razor sharp teeth and you're my lunch". It goes with the leopard spotted shoes too.

I heard that description of May as well and agree with you Tiz, lovely!

George Monbiot writing about Scotland and independence in the Guardian says Scotland is right to "cut the rope":
"Britain is politically dead from the neck down, while Scotland's politics is charged with hope, and a fierce desire for change."