Pear Shaped in Dystopia 4

 

Trump Ends

 

As the final countdown counts down to Trump's term finally ending it's fun to see the Trump apologists out in force.  

Not just those who still believe in the disgraced leader but those warning us sternly of the dangers of prosecuting political leaders.  For the greatest fear of all politicians is that they and their mates should also end up in chokey.

"Donald Trump like a 'mob boss' but he shouldn't be prosecuted, says ex-FBI boss Comey" over at SKY.  After comforting us that "There's a menace to him in private that you don't pick up in public," Mr Comey goes on to cavet his comments that Trump should not be prosecuted because "prosecuting him would only give him the attention he craves".  If only we'd tried that tack with the Yorkshire Ripper ...maybe he'd have behaved himself.  Mind you I can't see direct quotation marks around what SKY says he said...

Meanwhile over at the Independent Blair apologist in Chief John Rentoul ponders that "If Trump does end up in jail it will be because the US courts will have put him there. The convention in the US is that former presidents are immune from prosecution, which is rather wonderful, because the country has a constitution that is supposed to do away with the muddled nonsense of the British way of doing things. As it happens, the American convention is a sensible one, precisely because it guards against the criminalisation of politics. It means that disagreements about a president’s policy while in office should not be relitigated in the courts afterwards. "  

To be fair this is a slightly more nuanced argument he makes than just "let him go" ...ultimately  impeachment at this point is silly.  Impeachment exists for sitting Presidents who are immune from prosecution.  It should be for the criminal courts.  But still you can smell the fear...  One wonders why sitting Presidents are immune from criminal prosecution.  One could make up arguments about separation of powers but ultimately it makes no real sense.  The advantages to immunity from prosecution were so obvious to Mr Trump that he actually said early on "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.". Well, he may have lost voters but... 

Elsewhere there is a lot of glee about the prospect of the orange one in orange...

Pear Shaped in Dystopia 3

 

Pam Ford found this photo from the 2000s...

 

 

Brian, Pam Ford, Krysstal, Jimbo, me & El Nino

 

 

WOW There's some tough competition for the title of Dumbest people on Facebook...

 

The only real question is should one block them or attempt communication?

Oh well he was never the sharpest tool in the box... 

Down Mike Pence's house...

 

Well, it seems Mike Pence has decided not to invole Article 25.  But then again maybe he can't get enough support in the Cabinet to do it.  A few Republican Senators have started to peel away from Trump and support impeachment.  Ivanka Trump has supposedly said that she wants to go to Joe Biden's inauguration to much ridicule.  But why not?  Donald will still love her ...just "not as much".  Meanwhile Melania Trump says that she is the victim of "unwarranted personal attacks" - a statement which has generated the greatest sympathy for a leader's consort since Eva Braun insisted that she did not need to bite on a cyanide tablet because she was "just a model".  Just listening to the impeachment hearing online and listened to the language of appeasement "we will just inflame the situation".  The ladies and gentlemen are each recognised for 30 seconds...

You learn something new every day...

 

They say you learn something new every day.  What they dont tell you is that what you learn may be completely useless information.  

Today I have been watching the 1987 BBC adaptation of Vanity Fair produced by Terrance Dicks and I discovered that David Swift (who plays bitter old has-been Mr Sedley) who also played bitter old has-been Henry Davenport in Drop the Dead Donkey (and died in 2016) was the brother of Clive Swift who played Mr Bucket in Keeping up Appearances (and died in 2019).   

 

Looking through the cast list for other people who are no longer with us like a character in an Alan Ayckbourn play I also noticed that James Saxon who played Joseph Sedley had died of a heart attack in 2003 at only 49. 

Oh well, Eve Matheson and Rebecca Saire are still with us.   Interesting piece of colourblind casting to have a very young Vicky Licorish (now a TV producer) as Mrs Pinkerton's wealthiest young lady.  Hadn't even noticed at the time.  

No, I haven't turned into Toby Hadoke - the NHS app told me that I've got to stay at home for 10 days so I'm watching this DVD that Ava Alexis got me for Christmas a bit earlier than I'd planned as a result...  

Dear Watrs

Dear Watrs,

 

Thames Water caused a massive sewage leak on the communal land which is the block of flats ... The Managing Agent complained. Thames denied they had the authority to complain. Residents complained but Thames refused to share their correspondence with us citing GDPR. I complained as a Director of *** to try and claim compensation. Thames stated that I did not have any authority to deal with them. I wrote to my MP Sarah Jones enclosing the company's articles of association to show I am elected to speak on behalf of the other residents. Thames eventually admitted that I had a right to speak to them about it. Thames then argued that incident did not take place. Eventually confronted with photographic evidence Thames admitted that the sewage leak did indeed take place. Thames then said that since *** only own the communal areas they are not entitled to compensation. They argued that only owners of individual dwellings can apply for compensation. I said that could they not give compensation to the leaseholders (who are all with Thames) individually. They said no because the leaseholders own the communal land through a company. But this doesn't absolve us from having to pay to clear up their human excrement. Following this logic no communal building demised into individual flats or leaseholds can get compensation from Thames water for a sewage leak so they have no responsibility to pay for the damage they do to the grounds of any blocks of flats. On finally admitting to the Consumer Council for Water that the event did indeed take place Thames refused to pay compensation on the grounds that the damage was not extensive enough. 

However, the guaranteed compensation scheme they are supposed to comply with according to Ofwat says that if they admit there was a sewage leak they must pay compensation for it. The values concerned are itemised in this document 

https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Guaranteed-Standards-Scheme-Recommended-changes-to-the-UK-Government.pdf

 Payment equal to 50% of annual sewerage
charges (Minimum payment of £75. Maximum of £500)
Note. According to this document BUSINESS customers are entitled to compensation just as much as individual residential customers and there is no minimum scale of damage required to qualify for this STATUTORY PAYMENT. All we have to prove is that the incident did occur (which Thames admit to) and then they should pay the company statutory compensation. Also the chart would seem to indicate that this compensation can be pecuniary where the company does not have an account.

I am tired of dealing with Thames. I am tired of their lies that the incident did not take place which they have now U-turned on. I am tired of their excuses that they are not responsible because the flats have individual accounts. I am quite happy for them to pay compensation either collectively to all leaseholders or to the company whose income stream they have damaged but they will do neither. Simply denying that any one person was particularly affected which is a specious argument. As I say the scale to which any individual was affected does not affect what are supposed to be our statutory rights. Ofwat's site says that if an incident took place then we are entitled to AUTOMATIC compensation. However, what we have got is a manual process of blame shifting, lies and continual attempts to avoid responsibility for the loss of their human excrement. Every conversation I have with Thames goes round and round in circles. When I attempt to close one of their objections (for instance that I do not have the authority to speak for the other leaseholders) they raise another separate objection (that the incident did not take place). When I establish the incident did take place they protest the impact was not large enough despite never having asked to see any of the bills they created. Their policy is one of continual and cynical denial of responsibility at ALL COSTS. The Consumer Council for Water have now decided to blindly agree with whatever statement Thames come out with despite verbally stating the contrary to me on the electric telephone and have suggested that I take the matter up with you - the Ombudsman beyond the Ombudsman. Well, I'm tired with Ombudsmen. If Thames won't play ball through the channels set up to avoid tedious Civil Litigation then I'm afraid I shall just have to enter into Civil Litigation against them...

Revolution of the Daleks...

 

Oh well, it's not all bad with the world... The Doctor Who New Year special was actually quite good.  Not perfect but it employed interesting ideas such as Chris Noth's Trumpesque character Jack Robertson returning after the episode with spiders which we won't dwell on to cause all sorts of trouble by buying an old Dalek case that had fallen off the back of a lorry (after the driver had been murdered).  The storyline of using the Dalek casings for various forms of riot control and policing was actually quite novel and strangely believeable.  I didn't see the point of Robertson on his first outing.  He seemed to be a sort of upmarket Arthur Daley ...but that, it seems, is exactly the point... and it makes for an interesting dynamic.  Sort of Sabalom Glitz but with more snobbery and less charm.  I kind of get where Mr Chibnall is going now with these stories.  It's all much less black and white.  It's nice to see the Doctor as a bit more vulnerable here than say in David Tennant's era when the Doctor could bring down a Prime Minister with a single word... Now she's got a human nemesis and it's interesting to see someone whose guile she cannot easily overcome.  Is there any truth to North's claim that he was just helping out all along ...or does the Doctor know it's a lie but not particularly care?  All the plot threads in this story tie up too and we didn't have to endure too much waffle about the Timeless Child and the Doctor now knowing who she is... Yes, we know you don't know ...it's the title of the show.  Ryan and Graham's exit seemed a bit weak but then it was nice to see some companions actually leave to have a life this time rather than have to be exiled to a parallel dimension, get shot, get shot and come back to life but as water, get shot die and then be turned into a posthumous cyberman, be sent back in time to die of old age in the 1920s or generally be written out in such a way as to say "Well, they're nothing without the Doctor, are they?".  For a change it wasn't too grim and was, well, quite fun.  Good to see different Dalek factions arguing about their DNA again....

Pear Shaped in Dystopia goes Pear Shaped

 

Pear Shaped in Dystopia's opening night went indeed very Pear Shaped.  Brian and I forgot to work out a running order (it's so long since we ran a gig) and Brian's greenscreen which worked fine during trials overloaded the computer so that he was neither visible to anyone else or able to press any of the requiste buttons while Krystall's intellectual abilities were unable to come up with a solution to the problem of her sandboxed ipad not working.

To add to the confusion Brian got the broadcast and joining links muddled up meaning the broadcast input was overwhelmed and he spent what time he could get online throwing out people who were not performers.  Sadly this included some people who were performers who never even got on.  

Still, armed with a new ethernet cable we will be trying again next week.  After all, what's the worst that can happen?  Well... I can end up filling all the dead air and boring everyone to death including myself...

Horns!

 

Once upon a time I had an idea that this blog might review political events but then I realised that watching politics for any length of time is so incredibly depressing I couldn’t force myself to do it.  The latest in a long line of predictable disappointments is Donald Trump’s farcical coup which if you haven’t seen it coming …Well, you must be in denial.  It seems however, that a lot of Republican Senators despite their workplace being stormed are still in pathetic denial.  Or perhaps they don’t want to admit their culpability in the whole situation.  Even as the “protestors” were banging on the doors of the Capitol building there were Republican Senators giving speeches behind them claiming falsely that the election had been somehow stolen?  What is wrong with these people …?  Do they really think that if the Secret Services hadn’t got them to safety they wouldn’t be hanging from lampposts or have their heads on spikes? 

Trump has been beating his drum for the mob from at least six months before the election if not a year threatening something like this, he’s been sacking people in the CIA and the military in order to reduce resistance to any armed insurrection.  10 former Defence Secretaries (that’s all of them living) wrote a letter saying Donald was trying a coup … "It was really our attempt to call out to the American people. We believe all of them are patriotic. They've been led down a path by President Trump, which is an unconstitutional path. And so we felt it was incumbent on us as having served in the Defence Department to say: Please all of you in the Defense Department, you've taken an oath to serve this country, this Constitution, not any given individual” - William Cohen.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/03/politics/trump-election-defense-secretaries-public-letter/index.html

Without direct military support the ragbag coalition of Qanon Conspiracy nuts, neo-Nazis and lost souls following In Dubious Battle who once they’d breached the defences had no greater strategy than to sit in Nancy Pelsoi’s chair and climb the building with grappling irons when they could have used the stairs were all Donald could muster.  According to one report he watched intently on television and moaned only that they were “low class”.  As soon as he realised his strategy had backfired – if you can call it a strategy – the President turned his overcoat on the plebs while still feeding them comforting fictions of “stolen” elections.

For years the right wing politicians and media have been feeding themselves a delusion that all this is a strategy and that the Presidents tweets are all part of a clever plan to manipulate the media but what you see with Trump is what you get.  A coward, a turncoat and a bully building up a rag tag band of Brownshirts for the intimidation of his opponents.  If Mike Pence had any self-respect he would invoke the 25^th Amendment but despite the fact he has been publically scapegoated by Trump for his election defeat and probably would have ended up hanging from a lamppost were it not for the CIA he has to hide in his office because, well, he’s in too deep.

If you think this statement is over the top here's a Picky from that left wing conspiracy hub The Daily Mail... 

Still the Republicans are talking about stalling the impeachment process which will start on Monday till after the 20^th.  Why?  Do they think that none of them will end up with their heads on spikes?  Fascism doesn’t work that way, baby…

Trump's defenders say things like - Well, he's kept the country out of wars... Well, yes, but so did American First the fascist sympathising isolationist movement of the 1940s and when I heard Trump saying "America First" this is who I think of.  This is a man whose father was arrested for resisting the police at a KKK rally in New York in the 20s...  When asked about the incident Trump's response was simply to deny it ever happened.  See ...the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Today I received this email from the miserable octogenarian who owns the shop below...

Anthony

I won't send you New Year greetings because I doubt you support such sentimentality.

Me neither, but I would like to know the position re tree maintenance and it's corresponding effect on the buildings insurance policy. 

Alfred

To which I replied 

Alfred

Happy New Year! 

I don't care

Best wishes 

Anthony

Misunderstanding

 

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us.

As this team does not manage appeals for disabled accounts or videos, we have forwarded your request internally to the appropriate team for their review.

If your YouTube channel and/or a particular video has been disabled and you no longer have access to it, please fill out this web-form and the appropriate YouTube team will evaluate your request accordingly. 

Regards,

Google

 

___

 

Google

You misunderstand.  This is not an appeal.  I don't give two hoots whether your website hosts my videos or not.  I want to know WHY they have been taken down.  This is a data access request.  I asked the UK Information Commissioner and they said you're responsible in Europe for coming up with an answer.  Since you refuse to restore the account you must have a reason.  All I'm asking is what is this reason?  This is not a difficult question to answer, surely?

Thank you

Anthony Miller

There was a young lady from deliveroo

There was a young courier from deliveroo

Who didn't know who to give this bag to

She shoved it in a corner

So that their computer

Would send a derisory fee through 

Piper Alpha Monopoly - Yes, it's a real thing.

 No this isn't a wind up. Someone in an oil company has genuinely decided that the best way to raise money for the Piper Alpha Blow Out Disaster Fund (30 years ago to the millenials born yesterday) is a commemorative game of monopoly 

 

Pear Shaped in Dystopia

Yes, it's true .... four and a half years after the final Pear Shaped gig at the Fitzroy Tavern (our old venue is now a toilet) Pear Shaped will be retuning as a live stream...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...at least until someone finds a vaccine.  The first gig will be on 6th of January 2021.