"Every family has a joke teller, and he is usually bad news. That's right, bad news." This is the beginning of chapter XVIII "Uncle Ben and the Side-Splitting Knee-Slapper OR Some Words Are Loaded" in Jean Shepherd's "IN GOD WE TRUST *** ALL OTHERS PAY CASH ***"

 

Donald Trump has been compared to a "crazy Uncle" and Biden endeared to a “scrappy kid from Scranton” by Obama, now on the trail for the "No More Trump" campaign... By strange coincidence, one of my bedside books at the moment is the one mentioned above. It's an old-fashioned kind of read : "And so the bartender says to the guy...."

 

 

See:  https://nypost.com/2020/10/22/hunter-biz-partner-confirms-e-mail-details-joe-bidens-push-to-make-millions-from-china/

The Morrison government insists coronavirus is behind delays in establishing an anti-corruption commission, despite receiving a draft bill in December 2019.

USA wants to finally kill Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas project

The US will expand sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. The sanctions will now affect companies that provide services or funding to install equipment on board the vessels that take part in the project. Such a move may permanently halt the construction of the pipeline.

By Dmitry Sudakov

The news to expand the sanctions was reported on the website of the US Department of State. Similar restrictions are to be imposed on the participants of the Turkish Stream and other similar projects.

The Ten Commandments of diplomacy: In war and peace the importance of each may vary.

Joe Biden is the most cosseted presidential candidate in memory.

He has run a minimalist campaign that has avoided the press as much as possible, while the press hasn’t been braying for more access and answers, but eager to avoid anything that could be discomfiting to the campaign.

The most remarkable thing about the revelation of Gladys Berejiklian’s love life was that it was remarkable at all.

et tu

Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News and an associate of President Donald Trump, has told people close to him that he thinks Democrat Joe Biden will easily win the election.

The New York Times has published its opinion: the Case Against Donald Trump

BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD — a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise,

research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.

 

"The second omission in the sanitized version, that of references to ULTRA, are rather more understandable; they were made at the request of the Security Service, as examination of Masterman’s original makes clear, in an attempt to conceal the magnitude of the Allied cryptographic success."

In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beasts, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and the moon should man learn.... All things tell of Tirawa.

 

                          Eagle Chief Pawnee.

 

 

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern has been rewarded by voters with a landslide win — delivering her power in her own right, and an absolute drubbing to the National Party.

I guess the following article in the New York Times was written in praise of Joe Biden, but to say the least it frightens the pants off me...