Post Brexit Brexit?

Will we have a Brexit at all?

Who knows?

Bonking Boris is currently touring France and Germany hoping Macron or Merkel will throw him a life line or at least a crumb of comfort.  Upon returning he didn’t actually achieve much - not in terms of concrete proposals.

Parliament are revolting. Corbin is flexing his very puny muscles. The Lib-Dems sense real opportunities. In a dark place where we hate to look, lies Nigel Farage.  Behind him lline Nicola Sturgeon and Arlene Foster. Canons to the right of him, canons to the left of him volley and thunder. Into the valley of death rides Boris.

Oddly, throughout it all Boris remains cheerfully optimistic.  Those around him, like Mchael Gove (supposedly in charge of Brexit preparations), James Cleverly (supposedly in charge of organising the Conservative party) and an odd assortment of others (including Home Secretary Priti Patel - (was there ever a more mis-aptly named politician?) mouth the Brexit platitudes.

Duckspeak.  May I suggest, dear reader, that you dig out your well-thumbed copy of Orwell’s 1984 and bone up on Duckspeak.  I suspect it will become more and more accurate in describing the reactions of our current crop of politicians the closer we get to the proverbial cliff-edge.

(I only left this piece for four days and, guess what?  It’s all gone belly-up - again.)

Boris has now decided to prorogue Parliament in an effort to stop MP’s from interfering with his plans.  This was probably in response to many of the opposition parties meeting just the other day to play how they can prevent the “no-deal” Brexit -  which is the central plank in his government. The Speaker is outraged. Jeremy Corbin is outraged. Boris is amiably suggesting this is just a plan to get more legislation through.  He fools no-one. He is scared S***less that MP’s will flex their collective muscles and insist that he does a Brexit deal with the EU. That, he knows, would be the end of his exit strategy and the end of his Premiership.  Unfortunately, so do the EU negotiators. Therefore they do nothing. They are certainly not going to ride to Boris’ rescue. The Queen has now become involved. Will she, should she, must she grant Boris the prorogation he asks for?  No-one knows for sure, but it is very likely she will have to do as her PM asks. Any way it is sliced it smells and smells rank.

What is to be done?  No-one actually knows.  There are as many plausible options as fleas on a dog’s back.  Perhaps in another four days I will be back with an addendum which will update the options and choices available.  Perhaps not.

Confusing, but interesting, times, though I expect the public (whose fault this mess really is) may be so annoyed as to echo Brenda from Bristol’s lament, of oh no not another election!  Difficult to see any other way out?  

Except for the large spanner thrown into the clashing gears by Nigel Farage’s Brexit party. If Boris manages to get a deal that isn’t a “no-deal”, they promise to fight every seat in a General Election.  In those circumstances it seems impossible for Boris to win.

Happy Days.

Chiefs Prospects 2019

Sharpen the tomahawks!

Let’s start with last season, which ended spectacularly with an agonising loss to the Pats.

From last year:

Mahomes will make mistakes – all rookies do. How many and of what sort will decide the season.

(I got this one spectacularly wrong! No-one expected St Patrick to be quite as good as he was. He carried the team to spectacular heights with some truly memorable plays. He did make a few mistakes but hardly anyone remembers them!.

Offence

The wide-outs are: Tyreek Hill (speed to burn who scares the pants off defenders), Demarcus Robinson (don’t like him, never did, hope I’m wrong), De’Anthony Thomas (again speed to burn), Sammy Watkins (brought in specially to be the number one target – did little in pre-season to justify the huge contract), Chris Conley (always liked him – hoping for a break-out year), and Marcus Kemp (unknown quantity). There should be enough weapons here for Mahomes to score touchdowns. Running backs: Kareem Hunt (spectacular rookie season, can he keep it up?, Spencer Ware (returning now fully fit – we’ll see), Damien Williams (unknown quantity – probably a special teamer), and Darrel Williams (ditto) Don’t forget RB’s are the QB’s best friend. If a run offence can be generated to help Mahomes – great. If not he just becomes cannon fodder. Anthony Sherman is the fullback and has been for years, Dependable and great on Special Teams.

(What a difference a year makes. Hunt is gone – courtesy of his own inability to either tell the truth or behave himself. Personally I think the Chiefs were too hasty to throw him to the wolves. Yes, he was the author of his own demise but was there not a way to rehabilitate him? We will never know. He’s now at the Browns. I hope he does not come back to haunt us. The result is that we will now see a running back by committee type offence. I did say that a quality back is the QB’s best friend. For Mahomes’ sake I hope whoever is on the field produces. Still, don’t like Robinson. Never did. Full stop. Sherman remains. Excellent. Damien Williams is the running back – ish. Carlos Hyde is a proven if unspectacular performer. Tremon Smith is in the mix. So is Darwin Thompson. I am not impressed. What was our strength now seems to be ordinary at best. The good news is the O-line is intact and may even be improved. A healthy Sammy Watkins is joined by Tyreek – fresh from his brush with the law – and rookie Mercole Hardman. Mahomes may throw 60 touch down passes to this bunch!)

Defence

The real weakness of the team last season. Therefore an overhaul was needed and was duly undertaken.

In come Spagnolo and a 4-3. Out goes the 3-4. Chris Jones is joined by Frank Clark (big bucks and he may well be worth it) Alex Okafor also joins this revamped group. The linebackers were very poor last year. I predict they will move up to at least poor this season. Great. The secondary looks thin and lacking in talent across the board. I better be wrong or it could be a long season – a very long season. The pundits are thinking that the Chiefs over-achieved last year thanks to Mahomes. They may be right – but we were an off-side penalty away from a Super Bowl appearance! Good things are coming out of the training camp about Kpassagnon (a puzzle wrapped up in an enigma). If we get four good down linemen who can stop the run and provide some kind of pass rush, the skies the limit.)

I’m loving the morons who are insisting the Chargers are the team to beat in the West. I bet Andy Reid is as well. We own the Chargers. Philip Rivers is mostly past it. We will win the AFC West again. Pundits again think the schedule is tough. So it should be we were so close to the big prize last year.

From last year:

Prediction time: the pundits are all over the place. Some even see a Super Bowl season. I all goes well they win 10 games. Super well – 11 and the Division Champs. Super bad – 8-8 and no-where.

My money is on 10-6 but I have no real faith in it.

We find out a lot tonight as they take on the Charger (many folks favourites for the division in game one). Ask me after this one! (we won!)

2019 prediction: We win the AFC West again we get to the Super Bowl and we may even well win it.

Presidential Hubris

One More Time – or You’re Fired

David Owen – one of the original Gang of Four - writes on 28 October that “Trump floats above us all on a double bubble of narcissism and hubris.”

Nothing like a bit of understatement!

David examines the President’s fitness for office. Speculation was that Trump suffers from NPD (narcissistic personality disorder). He quotes Allen Francis, emeritus professor of psychiatry at Duke University who commented that the President “May be a world class narcissist, but this doesn’t make him mentally ill.”

It is for the voters, of course, to make the distinction – which to me seems like saying “this guy ain’t wrapped too tight, but he’s not exactly nuts!” A great comfort. One wonders what you have to do to become unable to discharge the office?

What should be a strength for the President, Owen sees as a difficulty. He maintains that Trump the President has set out to fulfil the promises that Trump the candidate made. He goes on, “most Presidents deliberately change in office. Trump has not (I suspect the voters may see this as a strength). Could this be akin to Mein Kampf? Hitler told the world what he was going to do, but no-one was taking him seriously or even listening!

David muses: “he has no intention of losing touch with the frustration, anger and feelings of those people in the Rust Belt who voted him into office.” Sound familiar? It should, it’s straight out of Mein Kampf. Don’t forget, a large proportion of the German people voted for Hitler because he: blamed all their problems on foreigners (Jews) – sound familiar?: appealed to their sense of national pride and unity (build the wall) – it’s them against us!: and whipped up the crowds with simplistic, reckless and nationalistic rhetoric (never was a term more descriptive or inappropriate!). Does this mean that Trump is a fascist and undemocratic? No – he’s just close to it.

David analyses: Trump want s controversy – thrives on it – and is not a team player. ( I did read a fascinating article about how he cheats at golf – regularly and obviously. Apparently the Secret Service are complicit in kicking his ball back on to the fairway!)

The President is a deal-maker. That’s what he does. His stance on Korea is a good example. He’s looking for a deal and using all the tools he learned on The Apprentice to get one.

David is genuinely perplexed that Trump generally escaped scrutiny and comment on his business dealings. He attributes this to his reputation as a businessman being artificially boosted by The Apprentice and a troubling tendency for the voters to assume a successful businessman (by what ever measure you care to put forward – don’t forget as President he foregoes his salary!) might do a better job than the Obama/Clinton professional politicians. The voters may well be right.

A word on the voters. It has always struck me as the most difficult job in politics is to say to the voters: sorry, you idiots, you got it wrong. You are just too stupid to vote! (a far cry is our modern democracy which is very different from the ancient Athenians' democracy. All citizens in Athens could participate directly in the government. ... In Athens, citizens gathered together to discuss issues and vote on them. Each person's vote counted, and the majority ruled. Therefore, try telling millions of voters that they are too stupid to know what they were doing! Not a vote winner! (Same goes for Brexit on this side of the pond. Everyone knows that the Brexit vote was won by the ill-mannered, unwashed, ill-tempered, gormless, smelly masses in the same ill-judged, nationalistic, ill-favoured constituencies that Trump appealed to in the Rust Belt – but you cannot go on TV and tell the voters they are stupid – makes no difference if the facts bear you out.)

David’s peroration: “the history of besieged presidencies is, in the end, the history of hubris, of blindness to one’s faults, of deafness to warnings.”

Perhaps Trump is not Hitler in disguise but another comic book character:

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows. The Shadow is a fictional character created by Walter B. Gibson, one of the most famous of the pulp heroes of the 1930s and 1940s. Born Kent Allard he assumed various identities for his crime fighting work, most notably that of Lamont Cranston.

Trump’s shadow looms over all and may not end with the next election for his hubris knows no bounds.