Deadlines? What Deadlines?

Not remotely what I said and you know it. And there are other forms of abuse beyond just physical. He has nothing but good things to say about his paternal grandparents. And why is it cognitive dissonance? It is not paradoxical to separate criticism of a dysfunctional system and feelings for the people in that system. And what the fuck does his affection for his grandmother have to do with "royal aides"? is it a package deal. If he loves his granny he has to kiss their asses too? Some family. Was QE2 "at the top" of that system, "calling the shots" as you say or was she trapped in it the way they all seem to be? Maybe she does as she's advised, maybe by people who may have their own agendas. That's not entirely clear to me. It's worth noting that, in times past, Royal courtiers were almost exclusively military men, not the marketing or media personalities they are today. And "the deal he wanted" as I understand it sounded perfectly reasonable to me.

Oh, you mean there were occasions where they were acting like, "A family"? Gold star for them. And I'm sorry, this whole, "they weren't alway shitty to him" transactional bullshit doesn't fly either. I guarantee you there isn't an abusive parent anywhere in the world that can't say they were, on balance, good their kids. "Yeah I used to beat him with a lead pipe, your Honor, but what about the 99% of the time I wasn't beating him with a lead pipe? What about all the meals I prepared for him or the clothes I bought him? I'm actually a fucking great parent when you think about it!" I'm speaking from some experience on this. My extended family is dealing with their own drama. Fuck his family.

The people who should have had his back and instead sat back and did nothing while he was being served up? Who were themselves disclosing private conversations? Fuck his family.

Well remembered.

Good grief. Samantha Grant herself and her followers are going after this journalist for live tweeting the hearing.

I do find them somewhat sympathetic but that's not it for me. I wasn't a particular admirer of Lady Di back in the day (I thought the coverage and outpouring of emotion for her was excessive; but far be it from me to tell people what to feel), and I'm definitely not an admirer of Charles. That said, what the press put them through back in the day was pretty vile. Same goes for Camilla. The paparazzi behave like bullies and the UK tabloids are just beyond the pale. Their entire business model is based on exploitation. This is well documented. And I hate bullies.

Or it's just ignorance. Anyone with even a superficial knowledge of this story knows she's an American who worked in Canada for a few years. I once worked with a Texan at an office in Oklahoma. We used to joke that we were both foreigners. Nice guy.

Samantha Markle is a MAGA chud. Apparently her lawyers once represented Trump.

Yawn. "Words". Two paragraphs is overlong? I'll use smaller words next time.

I'm listening to the part in Spare about Harry's time in the military. He was originally going to be deployed to Iraq but that was scuttled after it came out in the press. His first tour in Afghanistan was cut short after an Aussie publication reported he was there, which was picked up by an American website and then went worldwide in a matter of days. He found out because he was working a radio that night and he heard all this chatter about "Red Fox". He eventually pieced together that Red Fox was a person and that person was him. "Red Fox" was the American's code name for him. The Taliban were looking for him. They got him on a plane immediately. On his second tour, (when he was flying Apache helicopters), similar reporting actually contributed to getting a couple of guys killed in an attack that was chosen because he was on that base and it was supposedly his birthday. He was there. This is so fucked up. "War" apparently isn't a good enough reason to leave him alone.

That was the straw that broke the camels back but it wasn't the only one. He wrote a previous article where he mentioned something about wanting see photos of Meghan on a millionaires yacht and in front of the Taj Mahal; an obvious reference to Lady Di. Then he wishes her a "long life" and "She should know this" (wink, wink) and then he spends two short paragraphs fantasizing about what her funeral will be like. The whole thing was creepy as shit.

p.s. Those same toxic brits who are cheering South Park for this episode are going to be spitting blood if they do an episode mocking the coronation, which you know is coming. p.p.s. ...and I'm going to laugh my fucking ass off.

Did you read Jeremy Clarkson's apology letter? Written only after the backlash threatened to fuck with his money? That was embarassing. Twelve paragraphs of, "Oh poor me". and "Yeah, yeah, yeah, its all messed up" before he got around to something sort of resembling, "I'm sorry." Did you see Nigel Farage and Piers Morgan gallantly leap to his defense after he got a fraction of the treatment they've been getting for years? Pussies. He deserves a second chance I guess. Or is that a third chance? I've lost track. When he slapped around a Top Gear flunky for not having a hot meal for him after a hard day being a millionaire driving sports cars for a living; what chance was that? Speaking of Piers Morgan, how about that, "I'd love to an interview with them", after a month of saying "Shut up and go away." How about GB News and various other UK outlets running "Where's Meghan" stories after doing likewise or just flat out making shit up? The obvious point, that the South Park guys totally missed is that they are in it. They have no choice not to be in it. If they escaped to Antarctica and lived a mile below the ice it'd only be a matter of weeks before the Daily Mail sent an army of guys with cameras to harass them. That's what happened in Canada; That's what happened when hey went to L.A. But never mind all that. Why does Meghan have a flappy head in that show? Don't they know she's American?

Hmm. South Park is often capable of nuance but they seem to be awfully superficial here. how do I know? Meghan isn't Canadian. Also, it's ironic that, after Meghan not making any public statements for about 2 months and Harry being likewise low-profile for almost a month, they are now trending on twitter... because of an episode complaining they are overexposed. Do they include anything in the episode about Tabloids tapping their phones or planting tracking devices on their cars? Only asking.

There was a hearing today regarding Markle Grant v. Markle. Some highlights: Though Samantha is suing (in part) because of comments made in the Oprah interview, her lawyers did not include a transcript of the interview with their filing. This is a point of some discussion because Meghan doesn't actually say some of the things they claim. Something tells me Sam's layers didn't graduate at the top of their class. "...but with discovery". Tell me this isn't a fishing expedition to generate more clickbait. The Judge will deliver a written decision on whether or not to dismiss.

Warning, this will piss you off. These people are sadists. ETA: Regarding what you said about the court case, these guys should be terrified. If it turns out they lied to the Levinson Inquiry, they could be facing jail time, not just monetary damages. And Elton John is one of the most successful recording artists of all time. His net worth is estimated to be around $300-$500 million. Do you think he cares about court costs?

Holy shit.

F1 would be cool but I think it's too big. MotoGP would be better I think, and probably more affordable. I'd be down for that. Maybe Rugby or Aussie rules football. Who knows, maybe they'll announce they just got the rights to air cricket.

Yup. Wasn't there talk of Netflix streaming sports a while ago? I think they were talking about football.

Lots of car launches today. https://twitter.com/ScarbsTech

Yeah, it was spring of '97. I knew it was around there because we had two of the worst winters on record followed by record spring flooding. They actually printed up charity T-shirts for the concert with proceeds going to flood relief. Class act.

Speaking of support acts, I saw Kiss back in '98 (I think) on their reunion tour. Amazing. One of the best concerts I've ever seen. The place was packed. The opening act was a Canadian band called Econoline Crush. They had a limited amount of success back in the day and I think they had a few singles that charted in the US. I have never seen a band take the kind of verbal abuse those guys took that night. 16,000 odd people in that arena and not one of them was there to see Econoline Crush. Maybe the Kiss Army thought if they could boo these guys off the stage Kiss would come on sooner (?). I dunno. I don't think it works that way. I give them credit though; they powered through it and put on a pretty good show.