Jackbooted Stormtroopers; UK Ed.

Quakers in Britain strongly condemned the violation of their place of worship which they say is a direct result of stricter protest laws removing virtually all routes to challenge the status quo.

Just before 7.15pm [on March 27th], more than 20 uniformed police, some equipped with tasers, forced their way into Westminster Meeting House.

No-one has been arrested in a Quaker meeting house in living memory.

The UK has been a leader in tromping down the road where the only permissible speech is that which the government approves of. But to be fair, they're not the only goverment that considered the peaceful Quakers to be national security threats.

Because It's Friday

Crazy Brits.

Guess You Can't Be Illegal If You're White, Eh?

A singer with a Swedish disco band who performed at this year’s Eurovision has told of the “dehumanising” and “distressing” consequences of Brexit after her British husband’s application to remain in Sweden was rejected.

Tess Merkel Solomons, a singer with the band Alcazar, said it felt as if her husband, Kenny Solomons, an actor and entrepreneur, was being “punished” because he was a British citizen in Sweden after Brexit.

Their ordeal began three years ago when Solomons, who had been living in the country since 2012, learned from one of his British employees that he should have applied to remain in Sweden by the end of 2021. He quickly applied but was this rejected in August this year on the grounds that he was late.

File this under "You; sucks to be". Britain leaving the EU meant pretty clearly that, as the kids say, time's up, rules change. British subjects elsewhere in the EU were going to fall into the same category as any other foreigner as a result of Brexit and the lack of personal notice cuts no ice.

Brain-Dead Politicians; UK Ed.

You'd think they'd have to work hard to find a PM who was more clueless than Liz Truss, but they did it!

The decision by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to leave D-Day commemorations in northern France early has caused a political storm that threatens to derail his Conservative Party’s general election campaign.

Though Sunak apologized for not attending Thursday’s final commemoration on Omaha Beach in Normandy, his critics said the decision showed disrespect to the veterans and diminished the U.K.'s international standing. Other world leaders including President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy were all present.

The Brits take the war seriously. They well remember that, between the fall of France and Hitler's suicidal moves to take on both the Soviet Union and the United States, that they were the only ones left opposing Nazi Germany. Commemorations of both World War I and World War II are almost secular religious ceremonies in the UK. Any halfway competent politician there recognizes that.

And then there's Sunak.

So what was so important to Sunak that he felt the need to show slight regard to his nations's veterans and play hooky on the D-Day commemoration, you might ask? He had to tape a TV interview that hasn't aired yet.

Chuck III’s Prostate, et al

What she said.

Because It's Friday

Brit steam on a heritage railway.

It seems that, on the British mainline railways, a safety engine is required on the other end of the train in case the steam locomotive shits the bed. On the heritage railways, they can run on their own.

There's No Grifter Like an Aristocrat

It's called bona vacantia. When a Brit dies intestate and there are no known relatives, the dead person's assets go to either the Duke or Cornwall or the Duke of Lancaster, if the dead person resides in those domains. The duke (King Chuck for Lancaster, Prince Billy for Cornwall) is supposed to hold it in trust for any future claimants, but the reality of it is that they are free to use it as a slush fund.

King Big Ears uses the money to refurbish properties he owns, so they can be rented out for more money, and the rental proceeds are part of his income. His predecessor, Eddie VIII, just outright took the money. Supposedly, when it came to light after the Second World War that the then-king was making bank from those dead servicemen who died intestate and without relatives, the royals promised that the proceeds would go to charity.

But that hasn't happened in reality. It's pretty hard to see how refurbishing Chickie's rental properties qualifies as a charitable use. The Brits spend more on their royal welfare clan than any other country, but that's not enough for them, it would seem. Whatever they manage to get from their various properties and investments and so forth apparently are tax-free, so their profits don't contribute a whit to the national purse.

Of the European countries that had royal heads at the end of the 19th Century, all of the others have managed to downgrade or eliminate their system of rule by inbred cousins. Only the Brits seem to be devoted to maintaining their system of highly expensive and otherwise useless tourist attractions.

H/T

Londongrad is Still Open for Business

Despite sanctions, the Brits have been pretty loose when it comes to allowing sanctioned Russian oligarchs to spend their dirty money in London.

Because, as we all know, money talks.

Coronation Day, or I Would Have Preferred the Farcical Aquatic Ceremony

It's up to the Brits (and the Scots, Welsh and N. Irish), as well as the Commonwealth nations, as to whether or not they continue on with the World's Wealthiest Welfare Familytm.

But ever so slowly, it does seem that this view is beginning to take hold outside of the UK:

Derby Day

This Saturday, full of horses, pomp and circumstance, a tradition partially based on slavery, with lots of mostly white people wearing fancy getups.

There is something similar to that going on in Bloodye Olde Englande on the same day, except for the racing. But, from my perspective, we fought two wars so that we don't have to put up with that shit.

The other day, I walked a forest preserve in southern New England. The land is somewhat hilly, with lots of rock coming through the ground. There are ancient stone walls there, from when the land was farmed. But it got me to thinking: The land was farmed, in part, because the previous inhabitants were all but exterminated in one of the bloodiest wars in American history (going by percentage of the populations killed). After that, those stone-laden fields were farmed by generations of farmers, who endured back-breaking labor to eke out a living from the land. They were as tough as woodpecker lips.

What overfed, sclerotic bureaucrats an ocean away thought that such people would be easily cowed?

Breaking News: Anti-Government Violence Erupts. Mass Casualty Event in Progress

Reports are flooding in that anti-government extremists using assault weapons to interfere with the lawful seizure of an arsenal has turned into a running gunbattle and has resulted in at least 300 Government casualties.

Crime scenes are scattered along a 14 mile stretch from Concord to Cambridge.

Crown officials vow a full investigation into the incident and arrest of all involved. Arrest warrants have been issued for Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and many more are sure to follow.

God save the King.

(Circa 1775)

Royals— DILLIGAF?

Prince Harry defended his decision to publish a memoir that lays bare rifts inside Britain’s royal family, saying it’s an attempt to “own my story” after 38 years of “spin and distortion” by others.

We fought two wars between 1775 and 1815 so that we would not have to live under the system where our head of state was from generations of inbred cousins. So no, I most assuredly don't get why so many people are shocked, shocked to find out that the British royal family is as dysfunctional as a lot of other families, if not soap-opera-worthy dysfunctional.

Get back to me if the Spare Kid renounces his titles (unlikely, because then who will care past two news cycles) or applies for American citizenship (ditto).

Until then, as to this topic: Six two and even, over and out!

Truss-Busting

Well, That Was a Fast Fall From Grace; UK Ed. (and other stuff from across the pond)

British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned Thursday — bowing to the inevitable after a tumultuous, short-lived term in which her policies triggered turmoil in financial markets and a rebellion in her party that obliterated her authority.

Making a hastily scheduled statement outside her 10 Downing Street office, Truss acknowledged that “I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.”

Truss becomes the winner of the Least Time Spent as British PM award by a large margin. (The previous record-holder died in office.)

Meanwhile, it has become necessary to warn Hungary which side it is on. Hungary is dependent on EU aid; which should have good cause to slow-walk. For why would you willingly aid a person who was intent on stabbing you in the back every chance they got?

One Long Line, er Queue

Currently 4.2 miles, nine hours, to walk by the Queen's bier:

Paddington

Snark about this subject will be deleted. Not today, people.

Now Commence Operation London Bridge

Queen Elizabeth II, the UK's longest-serving monarch, has died at Balmoral aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.

It Turns Out That When the TOFF Complains About a "Politicized Justice Department," He Knows What He's Talking About, Because That's Exactly What He Was Doing. Plus Other Shit.

A new book by the Trump appointee who served as the Federal prosecutor in NYC alleges that both the Asset and Bootlicking Bill pushed to prosecute Cadet Bone Spurs's political opponents and to let Michael Cohen off the hook. And when that prosecutor wouldn't do their bidding, Buttmonkey Bill shopped the cases around to find a more willing lackey. In the case of Gregory Craig, a Democrat, Disgusting Bill shopped the case to D.C., the Federal prosecutor tried Craig and the jury tossed the case after less than a day's worth of deliberations.

Is anyone surprised by any of this?

In other news, Operation Circling the Drain may be underway in the UK.

And some clown shot up Memphis while livestreaming his murderous spree. Since this Asswipe was a violent felon, he's eligible for a faster dirt nap. He's also eligible for the same from the Feds.

Jonathan Pie Does Not Disappoint

He doesn't care for PM Truss, A/K/A The Iron Weathervane:

Liz Truss will be Britain’s next prime minister — the nation’s fourth in seven years. And she’s inheriting a nation falling apart at the seams. https://t.co/sh1MtyauDs pic.twitter.com/ojNdeGfLlQ

— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) September 5, 2022

Government of the Rich, By the Rich, For the Rich

They're not even trying to hide it in the Country Formerly Known as Great Britain:

Your new Prime Minister ladies and gentleman…is a cunt of the higher order. pic.twitter.com/B3TPruRUi4

— Jonathan Pie (@JonathanPieNews) September 4, 2022

Truss seems to think that England is going to forge out on its own in global affairs. That's going to be a heavy lift, given the continual cutbacks to the RN. The British Navy is less than half the size of the French navy. Columbia, Egypt, india, and Thailand, among others, have larger navies than the Brits. They also have larger armies.

The British economy has fallen behind the rest of Europe. The British people seem to have been sold a bill of goods about Brexit. But there is no going back to the EU, not on the terms that the British once had. My guess is that if they did want to rejoin the EU, they would be required to adopt the Euro and rejoin the Schengen area. For they are not much more than California with nuclear weapons.

But yeah, I am waiting for Pie's video on Truss as PM.