Category Archives: Hypocrisy

The USA in South America, Once More. Nothing New, Except The President

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The USA physically intervenes in a South American state. At the risk of upsetting some at what may seem a cynically laid back view:
Nothing New There.

Quite the heritage in fact. To name a few with varied resources and results
ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Panama
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contras
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Grenada
There were of course others not in the USA backyard. 

Again all this is nothing new. It’s what imperial powers, or those who like to call ‘the actions’ something else, do. In the Age of Empires: Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Russia, Ottoman Empires, and China were all busy invading or replacing one smaller nation’s rulers with one they liked. You could say it all boils down to International Relations (Even going back to the Classic Greek era- it’s there).

So on the face of it how does the latest USA in this case into Venezuela differ? Threats, intrusions, the abduction or assassination of the leader, well that’s all part of the playbook. Some might say that regime had it coming. The Maduro regime has been tracked by Amnesty International  for a number of years:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/americas/south-america/venezuela/report-venezuela/ 
 Taking into account all those aforementioned events we might even say ‘Business As Usual’.
However…..
For there is always an ‘However‘

Regime Change (Or Dice Rolling Politics)
Unless you are a brutal authoritarian outfit with a fixation that you need to physically extend your borders going about Regime Change is a process that is always going to have problems that will bedevil your initial decision. To begin with not everyone is going to wave  flags at you as liberators, secondly unpleasant opportunists who have motives venal or political will rise to the surface, and no one native is going to thank you for telling them how to run their nation, and those are just the simple ones which would tax a mature experienced mind. What an emotional, egotistical, unfocused fellow such as Trump would do…you have experience of the treatment of his fellow citizens. You would have thought after Iraq at the start of this decade a lesson might have been learnt….. think again.
So to date officially No American Was Harmed in  the making of this venture and a large number locals are glad to see the back of their own president. You will note though that only the ex-pats felt safe and confident enough to go out on the streets to celebrate. Well so far, so good….right?….. But there’s that Iraq question again….no local liked Sadam Hussain, did they? 
Sorry folk but unlike in the movies we don’t have a final frame and then roll the credits. History doesn’t work like that…..anyway in that movie scenario don’t forget that extra piece at the end in which it shows the ‘villainy’ still hasn’t really gone away…… Should I mention Iraq again, or Afghanistan even? 
Read on…

In The Aftermath (And what comes out in the Aftermath)
Whenever there are major events, the details do not rush out in one blaze of clarity, official statements, journalistic questioning and the occasional verifiable independent witness, they all play their part. Along with the International Reactions.
Now this was not just a case of a US president saying ‘I’ve had enough! Go get that S.O.B’ and everyone dutifully scrambles to one of those Hollywood pre-action planning montages. The latest information indicates this had been a long planned for operation, which maybe with some important internal help went smoothly for America, that is. Please read.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp37yr2xq7no  
This indicates the plan was long in the making, which in turn suggests it was also long in the policy formulation, and likely long in the discussion. If this has its conception back in the previous presidency or even in the Obama tenure I would not be shocked. (don’t forget under whose watch Osama bin Laden was taken out). There is an old saying attributed to several sources, which goes along the lines of ‘There are two things you do not want to see being made. Sausages and International Policy’ (or the other way around). So, did the current president just pick up a loose ball and run with it? I guess historians will clarify.  

Meanwhile we have this piece of good news concerning the release of political prisoners
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0mkwl2g499o
So are my words in the previous Regime Change paragraph unduly pessimistic? Am I just serving up sour grapes because all this is happening with the ‘Wrong’ president, the one of whom the very act giving credit for anything is an anathema?  
Read on

Hubris Plays The Very Long Game
A brief look back to the International Tenure of Tony Blair as UK PM. A seemingly sunny sort of fellow; obviously, annoyingly, very self-confident. His early ventures into the international scene. Kosovo (1999)- Blair was a major advocate for a ground offensive against Slobodan Milošević’s forces. Sierra Leone (2000): A limited but highly successful military intervention that swung the tide against a most vile rebel force in the Sierra Leone Civil War….So far so good. So much so that some sources suggest President George Bush jnr would not have gone into Iraq without Tony Blair’s approval. And then, yes Iraq. And a hero of the vulnerable and fighter against brutality was then labelled as a war criminal.
And now we have Donald Trump as president on whose authority the operation in Venezuela took place….

(Forewarning I have been sort of balanced and restrained thus far, but a guy can only give so much restraint …. Justifiable Rant Warning – Level 12 and rising)
The same fellow who now wants to grab Greenland by any means. Bear in mind this is not some guy shouting out on a phone call-in or rattling out (as we do) on our laptops prior to pressing an ill-advised  ‘Send’.
This is the president of the U-S-A. Who is claiming he wants to have Greenland for the ‘Security’ of because of….
Russia?… Wait a smidge – Doesn’t he understand Russia’s point of view (well some of the time). Or is he changing political socks?
China?…. Now let’s look at the map there. You might recall that China is more focused on the Pacific region, a South-East bit of the world. Beijing at not indicated it is building any artificial islands up in the arctic, a North-West bit of the world. Currently, in China’s play book it is as usual all trade which can be fragile, and the only way China would get boots on the ground would be if Greenland and Denmark backed by a seriously pissed-off Europe did so just to spite the Arch-Brat in Washington
AND Aside from that…
Back to those For Security Purposes. A landgrab off of a NATO partner. How in the name of Sweet Reason is that supposed to aid unified western security?? What happened to the old school? Soft nagging of the government in Copenhagen and waving dollars under their noses, all in the name of security from big, bad Russia. Jeeeeez Loooeezzz back before 2016 you could have given that to a Whitehouse intern to do the initial spade work, before the big names grabbed the credit.
In this case the current Whitehouse gest a big F on their paper (that’s F as in ‘failed’ by the way – I know, I know another word occurred to you too…but let’s keep this family friendly, people?)
Thus….‘Security’ ….Oh yeah…..Big laugh…A bitter one.

And thus I sign off with this final thought.
It is not the SUV that is USA foreign policy that worries me, it is the driver careering around, one foot on the gas and the other one nowhere near the brake, while he is constantly looking over his shoulder at the passengers and yelling ‘Hey lookit me! Some stones…huh??’

Take care of yourselves and everyone close to you. Keep steady.

History Taps Us On The Shoulder. In Our Embarrassment We Hurry For Justifications

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In advance and nothing to do with the subject matter. Sorry about the ragged look on this post and odd gaps…You guessed it WP is up to its quirks again. I lost the post once trying to fix it- thank goodness I had created my own back-up.

The chances are you are not going to like this post. You may be affronted. You may be angered. And I will be repeating a few themes from earlier posts. In my defence I am merely citing History and Consequences. There are always consequences. They sometimes arise from well-meaning intentions but usually from Ignorance, a quality Humanity is rich in.

Historical Overview
So where do we start? Take a place in history for your starting point on a subject matter and there will always be a ‘before’ which gave rise to it. In this case a starting point could be the oft misquoted Matthew 27:25 “So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” .And thence forth an entire people take the blame for a mob hyped up for political reasons by local power players. Blame all the Jews. Blame all the Americans for slavery? Blame all the British, every single one for The Empire- including the most devoted socialist radical? Blood curse. Every nation can sign up for that one.

Anyway fast forward through European history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Massacres_of_Jews
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Anti-Jewish_pogroms
This doesn’t include the day to day discriminations, slights, jibes, harassments, expulsions and so forth or the appropriations of wealth, nor the cynical ploy by kings / nobles to get out of the loans they owed Jewish financiers.

Roughly speaking Europe can rack up a thousand years of persecution of Jews. Mind you Europeans over the same period racked up other persecutions at an alarming rate, and there were responses which were allowed through applications of historical PR  to morph into ‘Fights / Struggles for Freedom’ and gain a certain romantic aura. What those folk did when they got their freedom and their patch of land was of course their own business, that would be skirted over, unless you happened to be in a minority there.

In some part; moving outside Europe two empires began to decline Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman and the double edged scythe of Nationalism began to take selective root. Our attention should focus on what we now term the Middle East and its various populations, alone they would have been turbulent enough but The Jewish Identity now sensed the time honoured words at the end of Passover “L’Shanah Haba’ah B’Yerushalayim” “Next year in Jerusalem,” might in this turbulent time of opportunity come to fruition. Within European Empires, Britain in particular sensing an advantage there grew a certain level of support, some political, some sentimental and some complicated contradictory religious. ‘Jews were almost acceptable, quite civilised and hardworking’. ‘They could have land, after all there were only a few Arabs there and what did they count for’. European Empire did a lot of that in those days, making sweeping generalisations ‘adopt’ one folk to suit their purposes and the rest would have to put up with it. At the onset there were Jews who were quite aware of there were not just Arabs but Palestinians and hoped as optimists do that the land could be fairly shared and both communities could live in harmony. It would have been a First in Human History. In the meantime the Jewish ‘re-settlement’ of ‘their’ land began, as if the previous two thousand years of later occupations didn’t count. Well this was their land, and as far as they could tell after all those centuries  Europe and also the growing USA had made it obvious they would rather Jews be somewhere else. In the meantime The Palestinians had found their identity

There came to turbulences of two World Wars. Britain and France having already made a paper parcel up of the Middle East  under Sykes Picot agreement were granted ‘mandates’ and proceeded for approximately thirty years use heavy-handed insensitive methods. Britain in particular unable to make up its mend whether to allow Jews in or not. World War One and the aftermath was deadly enough, then came the greater upheavals and atrocities of World War Two. In the event of that one it was obvious to many a surviving Jew there was only one place to go and if the locals didn’t like it, well the Jewish folk had been taught by their European overlords just how to settle that sort of problem.
Quite out of their depth and exhausted by the recent wars Britain managed to anger both Palestinians and now Israelis. Recently independent Arab nations found temporary on and off common cause with Palestinians, The Cold War found another place to have its conflicts without the danger of nuclear weaponry and the USA and USSR chose sides. What had been inter-communal violence had now grown into conventional and insurgent warfare. Roughly speaking there has been at least one hundred years of conflict.

An Assessment
Firstly it has to be accepted that there are very few, if any Human races, nations, regions and communities who have clean histories, Deep History, Recent Past or Current Day. A brief survey of Historical, Human Rights, UN and yes even CIA yearbook internet sites will give you enough enlightenment, reasons for cynicisms or cause for depression on that score. No one people. No one nation. No one history gets away with it. Accept it. When it comes to Races and Nations there are no Romantic and Noble Histories.
There are only degrees, qualities, quantities and consistencies of bad behaviour. Action. Reaction. Payback. Victory. Suppression. Subjugation, all the ugly, polluted stuff massaged later on, into justifications or if that doesn’t work just written out.

Warning: You may find some part hereon in particularly offensive. In my own defence I am passing commentary of the whole of The Human Race by citing examples. Those who read my posts regularly will be used to this.   

To repeat by the 20th Century sections of the Jewish people had learnt the lessons from their European rulers, hard and well. True, like the rest of us, they had not come into this world innocent and unconditionally tolerant, The Old Testament has a certain historical foundation to indicate that. What had been revealed to them that even existence was conditional. At any random time, be it by policy, just plain bigotry or random, rabid ignorance there could be assault, destruction of community or worse wholescale death. For a section of the Jewish communities  the lesson was simple. you battle to survive, and that is best done on what was and is again your ancestorial home ground. The whole world was against you -1939 to 1945 was the final grand example in centuries worth of selective violence. For the hardliners and for those who, well just wanted the persecution to stop, the answer was ‘Here We Are. Here We Stay. Back Where We Started. Never mind these protestations of justice, the ethics, the historical changes, the rights of others. No. no they don’t count. Europeans taught us that’. 

Did the Palestinians becoming a punching bag for centuries of pent up anger? Or was it just the old story of  a case of hard luck on the natives when the colonists arrive ? Maybe a mix of the two adding a few local undercurrents that Americans and Europeans just don’t get.

One thing is noticeable. Normally folk or nations get weary of prolonged wars. Populations run out along with resources. Political Castes get fed up with the whole business because they are unpopular and something approach a peace or very, very long truce evolves. This one if different. One hundred plus years and no end in sight. Worse, even harder liners have taken centre stage. By all the conventions and examples this one should have run down. Of course it is only one of a whole mix of wars running the length and breadth

from Turkish regions down the Middle East, North Africa, into the Sahel, along through Sudan and Yemen, then across into Iran. And meanwhile Ukraine. Maybe there is just no appetite for Peace Talks anymore, you and your sponsors try and batter down the other side, and the World Community which has its own problems will just have to accept it. Another old story, only these days it gets played out on the Media. ‘Why should one war matter more than ours?’ ask the innocents trying to survive wherever they are.

A Judgement ( ‘A’ – not ‘The’. Chose ) 
One overview is the current Israeli government has to concern itself with only two major support groups. The diaspora of the world-wide Jewish Community and the American  coalition of Fundamentalist Christians, Islamaphobes and ‘Israel is the Only True Friend We Have’ lobbies. Israel’s security service Mossad may well chuckle at that simplistic view. In our innocence we remain ignorant of who else while lamenting publicly would not secretly worry too much if the Palestinians were broken as a state (that will put an end to Hamas…right?). ‘No one people. No one nation.’ ‘We are Flawed’     

Honest to Badness it is so easy to write copy to support the Israeli Government to assuage to hardliners and the traumatised Israeli populations

It works like this:
‘Where was World Opinion and the unofficial Human Rights activists, when
The Rohingya were being massacred in Myanmar?
The Turkic Uyghur being culturally wiped out in China?
The innocents of Sudan and South Sudan being slaughtered or mass raped?
Iranian Women were being beaten, imprisoned and dying for wanting to wear clothes other than for proscribed by the state. Like wise in Afghanistan?
Does anyone care about the Muslims or Christians in India?
Why were there not demonstrations en mass on the streets of major cities in the world every week. Were there cases of natives or communities of expats of those nations being harassed by demonstrators masking as protests?
No that sort of thing only happens when the Jewish State of Israel is involved. It’s always the Jews which are the target. ‘

That only took the time to play three songs of average length on my cd player to write that. So easy. Why was it so easy? Because the Western campaigners make it damn easy to do so. That’s why. Best friends the current Israeli government ever had. And of course makes Antisemitism respectable too. ‘No I am not Antisemitic I am just Anti-Israel’ (Quit saying that, it’s getting old and only helps Netanyahu and his cabinet). There was a petition on Facebook asking for condemnation of Israel attacking Iran. Well I am sorry and weep for the innocents on both sides of the missile exchange but pardon my frankness. I do not fret over the fate of a regime or its active members also complicit in the spreading wars through the Middle East nor with a history of bloody suppression of its own Arab and other ethnic minorities or the treatment of its women. As I write this the news is out and about that The USA has come in and bombed Iranian nuclear sites. My initial reaction was ‘Gee. I wonder where this will go now?’ and ‘Hmm. Who was last in Trump’s Office before he took that decision?’ . Horror and condemnation of Israel….No. They’re all locked into together in a labyrinthian dance. It happens. Again History is littered with this. Spare me the outrage against Israel taking a swipe at Iran. And while I’m in this snarky mood. Those who didn’t vote for Biden /Harris because of their stance over Israel, how is that working out for you these days?

An aside: Actually my ire is not wholly directed at Americans who have been horrified at the IDF action meted out on the Palestinians. You in general are relatively new to this ‘world’. Of course you have been aware of the issues. But traditionally in the European Left’s lexicon you were all to blame for the Middle East by all of you being pro-Israel. I say this as you may not have been aware it, But since the same Left was only too swift to have excuses for Russia for invading Ukraine because it had no choice; the whole fault was due to the USA ‘s Imperialism, honestly I wouldn’t pay attention to that judgement, not since MAGA was doing the same thing. Selective, biased thinking just doesn’t cover it.

Let me just dial back over the history of these ‘Campaigns Against Israel’ or ‘For A Free Palestine’ . If folk had cared so very much why had they not made common cause with those groups of Israelis who had been working to this end. Why had they not affiliated or supported, them. There were enough examples

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meretz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da%27am_Workers_Party

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brit_Olam

And lest any campaigner out there has forgotten 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian_Silver

Once I was on a Facebook site where everyone was piling in with Who Can Be The Most Outraged Against Israel game and I mentioned support for Meretz and there was a silence, like I veered off onto Quantum Physics. Nothing. I gave up on them.
It’s very hard not to feel a substantial number of folks particularly in Europe are more concerned about Israel being a Jewish state with links to the USA than actual Palestinians. Yes, there we are The Old Game…..(Those Jews y’know).  

History points at us in The West and holds us in large guilty for Israel being Israel as it is today. A thousand years of hard lessons, decades of turning a blind eye to the excesses of those who are against Israel, little or no co-operations with those Israelis who had worked tirelessly to formulate some sort of accord. Sanctimonious commentaries about banning this and boycotting that. Wearing their I am NOT antisemitic badges on their sleeves but only, only protesting about Israel and no other regime. You will have to pardon my bluntness here. USELESS. ABSOLUTELY USELESS. All they did was cause the wagons to be circled.

Final Words     

‘Fine words Roger.’ You say. ‘You’ve torn apart the West and shredded the Protest movements. Anyone can pull down things. What solutions have you to offer?’

Well I don’t have quick fixes. It will be a very long, hard road because so much damage has been done. It starts will small steps. For a beginner have nothing to do with anyone targeting Synagogues like they had a direct line to the Israeli government. If anyone supports them on Social Media, you get back at them. Condemn them. You reach out to both Muslim and Jewish folk in equal measure. If you can find any groups within Israel still working for reconciliation, support them.

https://www.allmep.org/

If you come across anyone setting up another protest against Israel asking them what action they took against other abusive bloody-handed regimes?  If they are of the sort who make excuses simply reply ‘Sorry I do not do Selective’ . By all means donate to causes intending to give aid to the ordinary Palestinian, just makes sure Hamas and Iran do not have their hook in there. And for Pity Sake- Hamas is not a group of noble freedom fighters. Amnesty International has had them on the radar for years.    

Compassion. Respect. Tolerance for People, By People. That is how you measure things.

Final sign off. You know the really sick irony? The big dirty joke by and on Western Humanity?

Who are the groups most likely to be subject to random judgements, abuse and violence.
Jews and Muslims- that who. Some joke huh? Laugh?……I never even started, just used a great deal of bad words.

OK, I’m done here.  

Say That Again III? ( An Occasional Series)

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Of course it is difficult to select one particular comment out of the mouth of the current occupant of the Whitehouse. I mean…..Where does one start? It bears repeating if he was to say the Earth was round, I would at least do the various Flat Earth proponents the common courtesy of reading their arguments.

Anyway this week…..
My wife and myself like many millions of fellow Catholics were shaken (though not surprised) by the sudden death of Pope Francis. The passing of such a figure of renown would naturally bring world leaders to the funeral, a quite sparse one by papal standards.
Of course Trump will be there and no doubt unhappy that he has to sit behind, firstly catholic royalty and then other royalty. (Sorry kiddo…them’s the breaks)
Even on this solemn occasion (bear in mind even a representative of the Iranian government sent its sympathies) Trump of course demonstrated a lack of style, class and of course taste.   Quote:
“Melania and I will be going to the funeral of Pope Francis, in Rome. We look forward to being there,”
We look forward to being there…..??????????????
I repeat: We look forward to being there,
The fellow is looking forward to attending a funeral??? A funeral a solemn occasion in which someone who is dead is as the term goes ‘laid to rest’. Yes we know there are some folk who have made it known they do not want sorrow at their funeral, and there are some cultures who do have an element of celebration. Fine. But a for someone who represents a nation on this very solemn world stage event to say he is looking forward to it?????

I did hear the comment a few days ago, but held off to make sure it was not just some items misquoted or misheard and denied…..but having check this morning….Nope!…There it is. He posted up those very words. Vanity Fair that journal of fashion, latest trends and taste picked up on this and revealed in addition to other displays of crassness he never lets a little thing like the solemnity of a funeral get in the way of his mouth and moods,
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/donald-trump-trots-out-his-worst-manners-for-funerals-what-can-we-expect-at-the-popes?srsltid=AfmBOorQS3z4Gxu1rEmCKgNsPDnJxxugUw9QwbJuBbqOpk9TacUiyDqI.

Giving him the due that he got the city right, I was wondering just what was behind the phrase ‘looking forward’. Was it his signature sheer inane stupidity? Or was he looking forward to another photo op, another ‘hit’ of publicity, not quite aware in that ego filled brain it is not about him?  Or maybe he is looking forward to a tourist junket where he and Melania can buy lotsa swell souvenirs?
Who knows? One thing though….Trump’s antics are not funny. They are the displays of a person born of white privilege who learnt at an early stage in this position he does not have to account for his actions or learn humility much less dignity and maturity. Please, do not laugh at Trump, he does not deserve that level of civility. Even mocking laughter suggests you can see something positive in the object of the laughter.

In conclusion, yes I was a bit slow off of the mark in writing this post. I even thought ‘Why bother. It will be covered by others’. There again, should we remain silent in the wake of such a monstrous action as one large nation actually voting this creature of appetites, ego and vindictiveness back into the Whitehouse. Is it not our duty, each of us to voice their disapproval of his actions, whenever, wherever we can?

Maybe, just maybe one of his followers might read this. They might simply trot one a one word insult, since they are generally short on eloquence. They might even reply (normally that’s a tirade not a case for).
If you happen to be one of those. Message:
Sorry folks, some of us here have read our histories. We know how the script goes when a character like Trump gets into the driving seat. It’s all happened before. The second word in ‘Storm’, and a lot of you poor folk are going to receive it right in the face. And the ones who did not vote. You’ll suffer to.
Sad to say…There is something very, very unpleasant in the United States of America.

A Few Words On Folly Of The Monumental Proportions.

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I resolved sometime back I would not pollute any of my posts with a picture in any shape or form of that fellow who currently occupies the Whitehouse. It is a sad fact of history that all too often individuals who have no true qualifications or worth to be in positions of authority do by numerous acts not of their own making arrive there. That this talentless, spoilt child of privilege, possessed of mean vindictiveness and irresponsibly simplistic views, concerned only with his own image, malleable to the adulation of a movement who dreamed of such a figure and found it so he thus willing to embrace anything to keep them happy should be elected into that position will be something for historians to debate. Suffice it to say he has not earned the right to have his image on my posts.

It would appear that just when you think the fellow has made the most petty or inane statement he manages to find even deeper depths of ignorance or misjudgement.
He has dug even deeper.
He has called Zelensky a dictator. And yet sits down with Putin and how is Putin viewed? Is Putin a bastion of Free Speech and Tolerance? Double Standards, the act of complete folly. The US president by the way is also going down the path of the 1938 Munich talks by not including the nation in question in the talks. Please tell me I do not have to explain to you dear reader where the 1938 Munich talks led? Of course if I had to explain it to the current US President I would use 3-5 year age group book, and then speak very slowly, maybe using crayons as well; moving up the age groups I would rather explain to a teenager why they should tidy their room.  And while we are on the topic, who was the person who howled ‘Unfair’ as the results of the 2020 presidential election came in? Democracy only when it suits him, a word with no value when he uses it.

There is no more to be said on this subject. Those two acts are all we need to know to illustrate than once again this fellow has no mature sense of proportion or capacity of knowledge to be allowed on the International Stage.

Just other one piece of commentary. Netflix have this new thriller series out called ‘Zero Day’. One of the techno-thriller-disaster themed sort. Someone hacks the USA computer systems and disasters take place. Robert Niro plays a retired President who is asked to find out who is behind it.

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81598435

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/zero-day-netflix-comment/

Aside from the fact that it’s nothing new as a basic plot, my first thought was. Why bother with this distraction? This little fright-thriller? That’s not the current real-life America. Because the first thing the current president would do is blame the previous president. Then his court would pile in blaming everything they call ‘woke’. Evangelicals would start quoting the Book of Revelation. Quite frankly there is no point is watching any political fiction about the USA, what is actually taking place is far worse and frightening. (An aside: critics didn’t seem to care for the series either…..imagine me agreeing with critics…well, well)

I will take no more of your time, nor mine. You have enough evidence of your own. And you the poor 70,000,000 who knew what would happen I am so sorry for you.

Just Some Reflections On The Week Passed

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Featured Image -- 1316

As usual over the past week there has been a great deal of news and depending where you live in this world, some events will appear more important than others, and the three I will write about might not understandably matter a jot to you, those closer, literally to your home being of far more importance. Just look upon this then as one person reflecting upon examples of Human reactions, motivations and of course follies. It’s another of those long ruminations though, and a bit convoluted. Bear with me here.

Brian Thompson CEO of United Healthcare
To be honest, chillingly honest maybe, I did not pay much attention to the initial headline, I was skipping quickly to another site, and this just registered as another killing in the USA, a commentary all of it own; the post could have stopped there couldn’t it? A reader could have drawn their own conclusions. Anyway on returning a couple days later the narrative became clearer. The CEO of a controversial but very large USA Healthcare Insurance and ‘provider’. It appears the company has a reputation for finding a way of rejecting or stalling claims.
What was not surprising but worrying nonetheless were the types of reactions. Very little obvious sympathy, much visceral grim humour in messages and one or two cartoons. A great deal of resentment had been building up and in one swift violent act a dam broke. The public reaction garnering its own media attention.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/what-the-murder-of-the-unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-means-to-america 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2eeeep0npo

The president to be Trump once boasting about his popularity said he could shoot a person on 5th Avenue and not loose votes. It seems the shooter of Brian Thompson proved that could actually be a case. Yes, and the shooter.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly2zwqqr1ro

An Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland family. Those are the facts to date. And why we are not surprised by this link?

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/global-trends/why-thousands-are-supporting-luigi-mangione-the-suspect-in-unitedhealthcare-ceos-murder-and-fundraising-for-him/articleshow/116155704.cms?from=mdr
Those on the Right and outraged by the killing of a CEO should not be horrified, after all Daniel Perry was crowdfunded.
And here is the stark lesson. Just looking at those two examples in point, the USA. Hate and Prejudice those dire siblings are walking hand in hand. Kill someone who represents a subject of Hate and there will be support, approval, and in some corners encouragement for more of the same. What those supporters seem to miss is that they are encouraging the normalisation of such actions. You don’t like someone prominent or supporters of a movement you detest? Fine just take a gun, or household DIY implement or put together your own IED, you might get caught by The Law, but you’ll have a support base out there. You will not be alone. Even become a hero, no matter how unsettled and skewed your perceptions are. You might die and get martyr status. It’s all cool. Apparently. 

This is something that some of the extreme politicians and those thrice removed from the reality of ordinary life entrepreneurs have missed too. For years now, maybe since Obama’s election, the Anger has been building, and blindness to Rationality growing. The first warning eruption was of course in 2016, then 2021 and now in 2024. Anger fed on frustration, anger fed on triumphalism, anger fed on fear, anger feeding itself. On and on. Trump was nearly a casualty, thankfully not, he does not deserve to be mourned like some hero to the cause. Of course he did not learn the lesson, he continues to make inflammatory statements, adding fuel to the fire and there was Vivek Ramaswamy demonstrating a complete lack of understand how a nation works. Thus in the light of Thompson’s death it has to be asked ‘Who’s Next? Right, Liberal or Activist or Someone briefly in the media highlight?’. A shocking comment I know. Yet in a polarised nation with ‘that many’ guns, is it not valid one to worry about, fear. I do not believe the death of Brian Thompson was any good to anyone. Just spare a thought for his family. This time of year will never be the same for them again. Consequences? There are always consequences.

Anger, pent up, building up. So much rage, it would stifle any Christmas Truce.
You’d have to witnessed it close up, or been reading the runes to truly grasp the potential. 

Syria
(How it links to the above)
Only those who have been following the immensely complicated situation could have given a suggestion that the fall of the Assad regime was close at hand. For most of us the fall of Aleppo was the biggest news and one that would have raised an eyebrow. Thus when I read the newsfeeds on Sunday morning 7.30am UK time it was a shock.  
Now here is the qualified guilty secret. My first reaction was delight at how ridiculous some sections of the UK Left would be held up to account in the light of their previous history of a stance to be against any Western criticism of Assad and that included the courageous White Helmets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Helmets_(Syrian_civil_war)

If you have been following my blogs you will know of my extreme dislike (putting in mildly) of those sections of the UK Left who come out immediately ‘The West’ (and Israel) does anything, but are or have been at best very muted about other outrages around the world. Even explaining how folk like Putin are justified. I will spare you any further of my outrage at this selective protesting, except to say it devalues any protests they do indulge it.

My problem on Sunday and Monday was containing that emotion. I knew somewhere it was wrong, because there were debates within the UK Left over that ‘selective’ approach in 2011-2015. It was necessary to keep on going over and over the number of militias, para-militaries and even small conventional armies which have growing up, and how just because one was claiming it had the bidding rights for government that was not the end of it. Damascus was not actually seized by the main runner, the Islamist HTS, taken advantage of their advances, the SNA (Syrian National Army) backed by Turkey, these days came up from its stronghold in the south and did a land-grab. Although both sides are now in a tentative slender alliance for the moment. It was necessary to remind myself that Libya and Iraq caste off brutal dictators, the former is still in a civil war and the latter still unsettled. No real cause to cheer.
And yet, and yet, for two days I was mentally mocking the most vocal of the history of the UK Left wing protests movements because I had deemed them to be at best simplistic and naïve and at worse prejudiced and willing saps for the more professionals. Talk about ‘Hate’ and losing perspective I had my own version of the debate on the killing of CEO Brian Thompson going on here. 
Thankfully there was the BBC World Service on hand to supply information from those who had worked on the various front lines, had been faced to face with the horrors and had risked their own lives…..Mind you that strategy had its own problems, because another bunch I have no time for are those who blindly criticise the BBC news outlets because it generally supplies the world news as it is and not how they would like it (It has it’s failings on UK national news, can be a bit tabloid at times), so I was muttering about them.

Summary- Thus Far
It is so easy isn’t it to fall into the reactive approach, to see the other side as blinkered, narrow minded, downright prejudiced and with no perception of Reality, particularly when in their own passions they act just as you expect (or is that…want?) them to. Well of course you are right to feel that way, just look at the way they carry on. 
There’s something wrong there, but there’s no satisfaction in admitting it, if they are opposition, then they deserve all you are saying about them, every single one of them.
I think? 
But I can say that because I am very broad minded in my condemnation, be they Right or Left. Or Cancel Culture, or Objecting to Cancel Culture. Or whatever.

Hate. Intolerance. Sneaky little blighters are they not?

There’s most certainly something wrong these days. Less tolerance. More polarisation. So easy to just hit the old keyboard, rattle away and press ‘send’ Just where is the dividing line between Honest Opposition or Justifiable Outrage and the simply urge to give way to the delicious thrill of ‘venting’ blind anger (Who me? Prejudiced? Most certainly not. It’s just that Some people….)

Oh yes there are those feeding off it all the time, growing rich and famous. Trouble is, they had better watch their back… Those who live by the sword, as it were

A Footnote, and a Warning To Some
We’ve all heard of trolls of course. Onerous, pathetic folk mostly. And yet in this frenetic social media world, high-profile world, some have figured out a way to make use of  Troll-anger by deliberately prodding them through triggering their intense dislike of anyone with a high and arguably self-congratulatory profile. Or if not Trolls, selecting the triggers which upset people. Check this, it’s called Rage-Baiting.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gp555xy5ro

Yes, I know, worrying isn’t it? There is one thing these trigger-merchants might have overlooked. They have high profiles, they are well-known to internet users and they are upsetting a lot of folk. They might want to pause as we come around in a very wide circle and they might wish to consider the fate of Brian Thompson. And the social reaction.

Conclusion

By now we should be in the season of Cheer, Goodwill and smiling a lot at strangers….At leastways that was how we felt it should have been. And yet now we are facing the consistently ugly side of Humanity (as advertised on TV and The Internet) how do we put the blood red genie back in the bottle?

Pro-Life. Let’s Think That Through. Shall We?… Part II. The Case Against USA Legislation. A Walk Down Harsh Reality Lane

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Dream Scape (2)

Forewarning: Since we will dealing with topics which are linked directly to sexual activity there will naturally be comments with adult themes, do not think any of them were made humorously. I am serious here. Additionally this post is directed in the main to the current situation in the USA. Because of the potential complexities and dangers inheritant in the subject this will be a long post, maybe 2,000+ words.

Introduction
Part I’s narrative arguably didn’t run in a truly linear fashion, it had to cover linked issues and might have seem to some a bit jagged.
Pro-Life. Let’s Think That Through. Shall We?… Part I- The Happy Bunny World of A Pro-Life Solution and a Handful of Hypocrisies Along The Way.
The intention of this post is to challenge the attempt to legislate Abortion out of The USA and the ramifications of such a policy. I will endeavour to minimise the emotional aspects of the issue while taking a three-themed approach. These will be from an administrative perspective, the perspective of moral consistency and finally the question of hypocrisy.

Overview
Once more let us be adult about this fact. Down our history a great deal human endeavour has been directed to the subject of Sexual Activity, and whereas this in itself has shown to be a topic with many variations, the one act which can lead to Conception seems to have the majority. Therefore allied to the fact that despite wars, plagues and the prices of living on a dynamic planet the population has grown and grown we must therefore consider Conception and the path to birth, or the avoidance of both as very major issues. And like many other Human practical issues such as War, Poverty, Co-Operation, Economics, Environmental Responsibility, Human Rights, Famine and Intolerance -to name but a few of the major ones, can not be one which can be addressed by a simple legalistic snap of the fingers. For the very simple reason which has frustrated, even foiled law-makers down the ages; the variable intransigences of Human Nature. To paraphrase Lincoln ‘You can’t control all of the people, all of the time,’. On that basis, legislation which does not have the common ethical consent of the far greater percentage of the population will not only fail in its intentions but will have adverse reactions leading to other societal problems.

Legislation and Implications

Theory
Whereas it can be argued that the US constitution does not guarantee a woman’s right to an abortion neither does it expressly forbid abortion. Since the Supreme Court overturning of the Roe vs Wade decision, this has been left to the various states to form their own legislative policies.
Legislation: One definition –A law or set of laws suggested by a government and made official.
All laws have elements of acceptance and support living side by side with controversy and unpopularity. In the case of the latter, the degrees of which vary between ‘tutting’ about them to outright opposition either of a political, social or criminal response. Humanity does not fall into complete step just because one person or group says so; in Kim Jung Un’s extremely autocratic North Korea there are dark corners of crime, and elsewhere very quiet opposition. Ninety Eighty Four is a fiction, no matter how hard O’Brien and The Thought Police try.

Legislation and The USA
From the very conception (deliberate irony) of the nation. The USA, a term adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, in the Declaration of Independence as the first official document to use the title, has not been a truly united all in one step nation. This is not unique, but the populations of the USA down the few brief centuries of its life have shown a tendency to question, if not downright defy central authority; from Senate and Congress down to a few folk on a street in a small town. No president can ever claim to have the same, albeit transitory authority, as say a British Prime Minister. A president’s tenure on the internal stage is at best one of constant negotiation with a layer of infuriation at stubborn movements who will cite parts of the constitution or take to arm-twisting representatives on Capitol Hill, and of course the various layers of courts through states upwards. Also it has to be said, from an outsider’s perspective, in some last resort cases the matters are still settled through the use of firearms; a facet which it could be said with some weight of evidence being the USA’s common religion- bear that in mind for latter.

It follows therefore that in a federation of states with folk who see independence as a natural right, when a piece of legislation is based only on the efforts of one motivated group and contains an elements of imposition of the will of the State upon the whole population, there will not be a wholly passive response. There will be agitation, hostility and resistance; in various forms.

Resistance and Circumventions
The first one which springs to mind in this instance is The Criminal, for it is another fact of Humanity, if an authority bans or proscribes something then you can be be certain that somewhere along the way those of a Criminal Mind will seek to make coin out of it. Need you have to been reminded on the era of Prohibition, the rise of Organised Crime, the institutionalised breaking of law because suddenly a majority of folk became law-breakers? Crime is a very inventive and restless entity always looking for new opportunities, particularly in the supplying of ‘services’ to ‘the consumer’ restricted by the State. In this case the Desperation of an individual or a couple makes ‘the consumer’ a very easy ‘mark’. The unregulated services supplied would be very variable in quality. In such a situation the very illegality of Abortion leaves those who use the Criminal Network no recourse to litigation if anything goes wrong, nor even a willingness to seek hospital care. As a conclusion to this, the larger cartels ever ready to branch out would seek those with experience, irrespective of their true capabilities and the possibility of ‘underground clinics’ with the veneer of care could be arranged for a ‘small’ initial investment. The final word, is that once Crime has its hooks into someone it can be difficult to walk away. Extortion, blackmail, even ‘recruitment’ into their networks become dangers for those who use their services. And as is often the case violence between suppliers is very likely, unhappy the user caught up in that side.

Running parallel with criminal enterprises would of course be those motivated by political and allied beliefs. Aside from the underlying profit and exploitative motives the ‘underground’ aspect would be similar, as to the variability of services. Since the motivation here be argued as ethical there may be some level of aftercare and concern for the woman; however without the safety of legality for both provider and user they both tread on difficult ground. Not only do they run the risk of discovery by the State, but also by aggressive pro-life groups and criminal organisations who do not care for ‘do-gooders’ stepping on their turf. A dangerous business for all, for unlike the Criminal side they cannot resort to violence or corruption to ease the process along.

As another aspect to the ‘underground’ would be the revival of the ‘underground railroad’ of the Slavery Era  in this case with sundered networks engaged in aiding women to travel to locations where abortion is still legal. A great deal of subterfuge would be required and most likely be available only to women in the earliest stages of pregnancy when physical evidence is not there. Nonetheless the fear of suspicion, discovery and unfounded accusations would permeate society and inject another layer of unease in an already polarised society.

Amongst these would also run the market for various morning-after concoctions, ranging from smuggling in drugs from areas where their use is legal to those manufactured without regulation. Again without the projection of legality the user is very much at risk. You need only scroll through the internet for tragedies resulting from the use of  slimming drugs purchased on line to see where the danger could arise.

Finally this would be another burden to the already greatly pressured law enforcement agencies, distracting their efforts from drug and human trafficking, and the myriad of other unarguably vile crimes being enacted. Overall then the lessons of Prohibition have been forgotten.

The Question of Moral Consistency

The most glaring inconsistency would be the current controlling faction of the Republican Party’s twin stances on Gun Control and Abortion; an aspect which has been commented many times but bears repeating. If they are so concerned about The Child, then why do they allow easy access to devices which kill? The idea that abortion is murder is somewhat devalued by their allowing mechanical devices of murder to proliferate. One standard response to mass killings is ‘Now Is Not The Time To Have This Debate’, presumably this means everyone is too emotional to be objective. And yet Abortion which is a very emotional issue does not have this ‘treatment’. They can play the numbers game by citing abortions were running at between 800,000 to 900,000 per year, as opposed to homicide deaths of only 20,000+ a year. This however falls down at the ethical level when suggesting that 20,000 involuntary killings by firearms is an acceptable figure for their ‘freedom’.  
Dwelling on that topic of 800,000 to 900,000. Forgive me for sounding chillingly bureaucratic on this matter, but do the Pro-Life organisations have plans to ensure that this extra number of children will be born into a society which provides sufficient health care, housing and educational needs? It is no use them saying this is up to the parents when they limit a couples choice on the subject of the birth of children.
And there is the matter of a  grouping which goes on at great length about a person’s choice being limited by government while being willing to install very strict laws on a person’s choice whether to continue with a pregnancy. 

Let the record show, by the way I am personally unhappy that there have had to have been 800,000 to 900,000 abortions per year in the USA, a matter I covered in the previous post.

Hypocrisy and Agendas
I have in some measure dwelt on the question of Hypocrisy through the Gun Control Debate, thus there is no need to repeat the point. Therefore for brevity’s sake I will turn to agendas.

The perceived driving force of the current dominating grouping with The Republican Party and its allied associations is essentially revisionist.  The current picture it presents to the public is one of unconditional rolling back of all changes made in social development without any room for debate on the challenges. In this it targets the liberals or as it inaccurately refers to as Socialists (the ignorance of socialism on the American Right might be laughable in other eras). Aside from minorities, another group it aims to put in ‘its place’ are Women. It is a complex approach, because there are many women in its ranks, but basically Women can be Women as much as they like but on Male and Fundamentalist terms. Hence those women who are pro-choice are to be vilified and essentially caged. Whereas those who are Pro-Life can indulge in the most ludicrous Conspiracy Junk, carry around firearms and dismantle the social support systems built by previous governments to their hearts’ content.

Pro-Life therefore is merely one part of a drive to seek out some Past which has never been. Where everyone will be apparently wholesome, heterosexual, go to church and contribute unequivocally to the community, in which everyone of all races will know their place. The idea being very much like those cosy TV shows of the 1950s and early 1960s. To achieve this there would limiting choice, imposition of a surveillance state with powers of censorship and travel control aided by a wide spread of new laws stating what was now illegal. In short ‘Liberty’ for one group and not all of society. As we can see with the legislation passed in some states on Abortion, pressure on the education system, societal pressure on families outside of the norm, questionable changes in the voting boundaries and arrangements this is already in place. All under the guise of protecting the ‘liberties’ , but only of certain groups.

Call it an attempted soft coup if you like.

Amongst all of this drive to limitation you can depend on one factor of Human Weakness. No doubt there are Pro-Life campaigners who have had some degree of experience of Abortion and have had a change of heart, nothing new there, just so long as they are open about it. However there will be the other side, those who are Pro-Life, but at some stage will decide in their particular case, involvement with Abortion was necessary, but not to be made public and they will continue as publicly Pro-Life. ‘In our case there are particular circumstances’ a common recourse down the ages on many subjects. And predictable.

Conclusion

Whereas this drive to the making of Abortion illegal across a nation is possible, of course possible given the way voting patterns go. Whether this law would be wholesomely workable and lead to a better and enriched society is very doubtful. To be very generous in my conclusion I will fall back on the old adage:

The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions

Pro-Life. Let’s Think That Through. Shall We?… Part I- The Happy Bunny World of A Pro-Life Solution and a Handful of Hypocrisies Along The Way.

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Woman's Choice

Foreword: When I started thinking about this post it was obvious the whole writing was going to be long and difficult not to sway from one aspect to another, also trying to avoid putting my male-assumption foot into it. So this will take two parts. First one. here now, a general overview as I see it about Abortion and Contraception. The next post, the likelihood of what will happen if there was a federal ban on abortion.

On with the first then, I will try and keep a straight line in the narrative, but since this is a very complex subject there might be some drift because we must consider a certain theme of subjugation of women (Oh yeah. Oh yeah – read on)

A couple in consensual intimacy. Conception of a new life, starting at the unimaginably small, in mammalian terms designed to grow inside of the mother until the time of birth. In the ideal world of How We Would Wish, a beautiful notion.

But Reality in its myriad forms does not subscribe to How We Would Wish. We can craft perfection in our imaginations and in our arts.  Or we can lament at the harshness of Reality until we are worn out, angry or despairing that even the most deserving of cases do not always have the ever elusive Happy Ending or Perfect Solution. Thus it should be evident that the acts of Conception, Pregnancy, Birth and Post-Natal, Child upbringing all have their own set of dangers and tragedies. Like everything else in Life – not simple – not unconditionally joyous – not carefree. And above all- not solvable by legislation based on one side of one theistic culture.

Personally I am unsettled by Abortion. Let the record show I am not unconditionally supportive of Abortion. Nor am I supportive of unconditional Free Speech or Liberty to Protest. There is a big difference though. In the former case it is an individual and personal matter, in the latter two cases I can think of several good reasons for legal restrictions. (I don’t mess around with my idea of Socialism! ) But let us return to the issue of Abortion and pick apart my Male Ideal World notions.
In my M.I.W, women who find themselves pregnant not by design would be giving full and compassionate support through the pregnancy and after the birth work with trained and fully staffed professional agencies and couples seeking to adopt all to find the baby a lovely home. Great, Yeah?. Except in Reality not all pregnancies go smoothly, some families have an inherited genetic problem, some women have underlying conditions which make full term pregnancies a risk. And we have the issue of a woman going full term, bonding with that child and the possible unforeseen psychologically painful aftermath of parting with the child. AND of course since men don’t have to go through the labour process with its inherent risks….easy for me, a man, to come up with a Sunshine and Lollipops solution. Yes, there are women who have made this choice and there are surrogate mothers. However to restrict a woman’s right to abortion just because this suggestion seems a ‘nicer, happier, Hallmark Film ending’ does not mean every pregnancy and birth will seamlessly navigate thus. File this solution away in the very Grey Area of Personal Ideal Ideas.

Now with a slight deviation off of the subject of Abortion I am going to sound off and if male readers don’t like what I am about to write…gee …too bad guys, think of this world from the women’s side.

Why is it that women are expected to jump through hoops when it comes to Contraception  and Birth Control (I can recall a time when Abortion was filed under BC as an option)? Mess with a woman’s hormonal cycle (Pill), shove bits of plastic or ‘stuff’ up their delicate parts (Barrier Methods), induce early miscarriage (Morning After Pills)…Then back to Abortion (in this case the male ‘Get Rid of It’ response). No trouble, all quick and clean guys. Not your problems. Not your problems?? We got condoms (if we remembered where they were, had time to fit them, had a good brand) – what more should we do? ‘Oh not that Vasectomy…Too permanent, and anyway I’ve heard…blah-blah…..Natural methods? Wassat? That’s a Catholic Thing isn’t it? They have big families, so it don’t work anyhow.’ No leave it all up to the woman to bear all the heavy loads, all the messing about with their bodies. Heavens forefend that our most precious parts should be meddled with.
So basically women have to go through all the invasive issues, because they have been told that there are no other options, and gosh, it doesn’t seem there is a truly marketable male contraceptive, although I believe the polite excuse is workable. Now call me a grumpy old geezer who doesn’t know anything about this scientific implications or processes; not that I’ll listen. The reason being, all the aforementioned efforts have been gone into being invasive with women’s bodies but not much on men’s. In these days of ‘advances’ in medical science? Seriously? Do I just detect an underlying sub-text of reluctance to put more effort into the subject.

Respect women guys. Their lives are filled with issues which would put you off your mid-day snack? (Don’t worry I’m not going to mention ‘that’ subject) . And I’m just dealing with ‘The Western World’.

Western World? Of course one of the problems in the USA would be a most singular alliance. Aside from The Catholic Church’s teaching on the basis of the most tenuous of thin alleged biblical instruction opposition and cruel refusal to administer Communion to those not in step, (Catholic writing here by the way) we have some loud and agressive Funde-mental-ist Right section of conservative thought and goodness knows what they’ve selected out of context from Genesis, Leviticus and St Paul to suit their patrimonial fantasies. Never mind male contraception… NO contraception.

But back to the ‘A’ word. Aside from some casual commentaries back in the 1970s, do the prohibitionists to Abortion think for one moment that your average woman is going to approach an abortion with the casual approach of some minor cosmetic surgery to say a earlobe? Do they honestly think…. well I doubt if the male section do anyway….that a woman who has an abortion just walks away from that, without any memories, any wonderings, any ‘IF’s. Look ladies I am a mere male, I know, but being married to the same gal for fifty years and having two daughters and thus learning a few things, it seems that Abortion is to be a heavy decision to take and that the whole process from thinking about, deciding, going through and aftermath are heavy loads. And yet there are a whole bunch of folk out there witlessly, hysterically, cruelly, screaming about murder, BUT yet dare we suggest those of them who support laxer gun control are complicit in the mass killing of school children? The liberty to carry guns that KILL and not the liberty to make a painful decision to have terminate a pregnancy. How do you interface those beliefs ….Excuse me while I step outside into the night’s cold autumn rain and clear my head of the stink of hypocrisy, and ease down the urge not to use ‘certain’ words in this post.

To conclude by a repeat. Life is not simple. We do not get an easy road. What works for one person is not going to work exactly the same way for another. Forget perfection. Accept there will be Hard Choices. Just a final note that ‘my personal choice’ I keep that under lock and key, my personal opinions should not be part of the narrative, mistaken by a reader as some sort of judgement, some sort of ‘what is right’. Oh no. It’s possible to have one private opinion and one public judgement. I think it comes under the wider part of ‘Compassion’.

In Part Two I put my administrative glasses on and look at what will go wrong in under what will be hypocritically termed nation-wide pro-Life legislation….

No, I an’t done yet…..Not by a long stretch.

Get On Down to Apalachee

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NRA Leadership

Foreword warning: Bitter and sardonic words carry the best weight when you hear them in all their raw anger. That said, there are times when they will insist on having their place in the written version. Let us proceed.

To those pictured above. Some of you. One of you. Are any of you, willing, right now, sometime in the next few days ready to go down to Winder, Georgia to speak to the students, and their families, the teachers, in particular those related to the die and injured of Apalachee School and explain just how you stance on guns has made the USA a safer and a better place? Never mind about your ‘thoughts and prayers’, a phrase thanks to you which has been so devalued that as to be suitable only in satirical and ironic use.

Now True Gun Believers let me push home a point for you, well maybe not for you, perhaps you are numb to this sort of figure, but for those friends out there who are not buying your lines, (by the way like lines of coke they  will corrode and will kill)

Here’s facts for you, between 1900 and 2014 there were in the UK 111 mass shootings. Got that number there folks ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN? OK they Gun Folk will say, but you have a smaller population. So let’s be fair and up the ratio then, if we have the same population we might have 520 over that period. Now then according to stats the USA managed 604 in 2023 alone. An’t that something? Here’s another one. In 2021 48,830 folk died in the USA from gun deaths. We only exceed that in the Ulster Civil War and that took 28 years and only if we include the injured as well 50,000 approximately. Back to the NRA, you’ve got ‘civil war’ figures in deaths out there. Of course you will be looking through the stats and point out that maybe 50% were suicides. Is that a facet of your American dream, 20,000+ people a year shooting themselves to death?

We can play with figures all day and all night, and you can and will fall back on the constitution and if I push hard enough one of you will get hot and flustered and start straying into Deep State territory. The fact is though, in a not unusual case for the USA a school was going about its business and some of the students and teachers were coming out dead. Dead. Right? Dead. No come backs. No miracle cues. No false information. Dead. Dead. Dead.

So as I said earlier. If you feel so sure and so secure about your faith in your firearms, get on down to Winder, Georgia and convince everyone that you have the best argument. You can even suggest over those coffins that this is a price worth paying for your freedom, while those in the coffins, well….news for you…..THEY HAVE LOST THEIR FREEDOM, and here’s the kicker for you. Did they die willingly for YOU.

The hell they did.

Blood-On-Hands

Look at this picture and own it.

When You Can See From The Side You Hate

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Left SideRight Side

Riots in the UK. The first of the volumes are being written, of course the political ones, then the social ones and the analytical ones. While there are the excruciatingly narrow-minded blatherings or one liners on social media.

And everyone seems to have forgotten that there are families in a town called Southport who are experiencing unimaginable grief, and there are children whose once young, joyous lives are now permanently engraved with the image of a knife-wielding man stabbing, slashing, stabbing; blood, blood, screams. Yes, let’s not dwell on that. Far better to scream, rage, hate, simmer or slump into a corner as the fog despair seeps in under doors, through cracks in on the air.  At some stage we might pay attention to the twisted motivation or cause of that attack.

Currently the riots are the thing. So maybe the people of Southport can grieve in some sort of privacy from a media swarm whose attentions are elsewhere.

So what about the mindset of those mobs? What were those motivations? What was racing through them? Can you comprehend even beginning to answer those questions? Does you disgust at the actions simply have you justifiably recoil?

WARNING: The expression of very strong views will follow. You may be upset, you may recoil. You may encounter triggers. You may even be upset with yourself for agreeing. It is not my intention to win over coverts. The intention is to take those chose to follow into a Mindset. A lesson? A warning? A sharing? There won’t be any answers here. Just illustrations. Sorry about that.  

The anger is a constant. I cannot abide the extremism birthed out of ignorance, prejudice, nor because someone read something on social media and straightways took it to heart. I care not the political affiliation, nor the cause. I despise in equal measure the bigot on the Right and the single subject protestor on the Left. Though for the latter it is an analytical contempt for choosing only one subject for one reason and not for embracing others in equal suffering.

When it comes to the Right and their violent physical bullying foul mothed degenerate hate. Well, all reason goes out of the window and my urge is to respond in equal measure. To pay like with like. Orders to the police ‘Arrest and contain with extreme prejudice’. Recall parliament. Announce a state of emergency could be declared. Warning to any newspaper on the Right or legal politicians that unless you support the authorities you are against them and we will shut you down. More arrests. Those arrested paced in currently empty military camps under military guard. Announcement to the public to report any hate speech or support of hate speech or anything sympathetic seen on social media to be reported to The authorities (text, Whats App, phone number, Gov.UK web site supplied). Aggressive social media response to the Right. Message to Elon Musk or anyone outside of the UK to keep out. If Russia or Iran were involved in mis-information set up units to reply in kind on their own doorsteps. Bring any UK right wing activists home by all means available. Let the world know whoever they are the UK govt is playing by the Big Boys and Girls rules.

It’s all very bizarre actually. Thinking like Putin or Lukashenko of Belarus when it comes to domestic policy on any disruption, agreeing with their methods when not their reasons. But then I have always been inclined to respond that way when nudged. Irrational, visceral, extreme response to any perceived threat to my way of life, to my set of ‘values’. Response and not consequences. As long as there is the chance to lash out at the foe. As long they can be seen being crushed under foot and so battered they can’t rise again…… There must be something wrong there somewhere. Talking and reasoning one way, preaching about seeking the middle, rational ground, while knowing that down, just below the surface simmers, crouching The Beast. Ready to spring on anyone of a very long list of potential ‘threats’ (to me anyway). But as I have argued, I am very broadminded when it comes to who or what qualifies as a threat, political, social or religious. If they are intolerant, bigoted, ignorant of the facts, a threat to the stability of the whole community; they go on the list. Never negotiate with diseases. That’s what I say. Say. Say.

Actually when it comes down to it. When you consider the folk of Southport’s own response, the Mosque where they came out to talk and give food to protestors

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c84jjv7kp1wo

When thousands came out across the UK to stifle another round of Right-Wing protests:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cy8497l7dx8t

When the authorities are going about the business in a lawful, administrative way :

See above.

Well then, look at me. Poster-Boy for the emotional motivation of those Right-Wing thugs. Just the sort to react to the media and inflame the situation. The guy who every time he has put up a political post there has been a sometimes subtle, sometime not, sub-textual slap in the face for an extremist. For I am very extreme in my hate of extremists. Yes, beneath the emotional skin I am not so different. Beware folks, beware. The extremists come in all shapes and sizes, tones and means of argument. Hypocrisy?……Me?……Gosh. I can’t stand it! Nothing worse than folk who say one thing and think another….Err…whoops?

Yes…definitely Mea Culpa time. Or to be sardonically humorous about it, taking a leaf out of my Far Left wing inclinations and having a dose of ‘self-criticism’ (which was actually a communist regime’s process of getting scapegoats to take the blame for something to state had done wrong).

And there you are a look inside the sort of convoluted mindset that was going on in those riots. Nothing pretty, nothing reasonable, nothing noble, nothing justifiable, nothing constructive. Just a Nothing. That’s how I know. I visit there. Far too often.

And sorry to everyone for not replying much to your tireless posts, it takes a lot of effort to keep The Beast chained up and to heel. Once it was loose I’d never really know where it was going to lash out, or how.

But let’s end on a lighter note:

My daughter Meg who is a Matron Midwife in Barnet, within the general region of London offered to her Muslim staff the chance to go home early if they wanted to. To a woman they said they would stay.

‘Hi Meg. Mum was showing me your txt msgs
Manager to manager – Dad to daughter let me say how proud of you I am for offering your Muslim Staff the opportunity to leave work early. Now that is management. Well done.
Also if you feel it is correct to do so let those staff know from me they displayed true courage, true devotion and true care to this country. Each one of them is worth fifty of that rioting trash. Bless you. Bless them’ 

Maybe it makes up for a week spent internally raging.

Now a deep breath, and get back to writing, reading and reviewing fiction. I said a while back I was going to do a lot more of that. I should be, I really should be.

Of Perceptions, Explanations and more than a few Accusations (On My Faith Part II)

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Faith

Foreword: In addition to being a continuation from Part I
There’s Nothing Simple Out There (One Christian’s Declarations Concerning Their Faith and the Subject of Evidence. Part I)
The two together are also an expansion on a post from past August, which some might say. ‘OK that’s all we need to know. Give it a rest already’. That is your choice:
Religion. Another Viewpoint (With Some Assistance From Quantum Mechanics & Cosmology)
The intention of the two parts together is to seek to go deeper, and wider.

This post moves from the questions Physical (both Scientific and Historical) and into the more intangible concepts of the basics of Faith, Belief both in the Religious/Theological  and also in the Social…. and also gives more space to a few polemics,

Therefore:
The Theological Perspective
The Social Perspective
Finally a Summary

In this I will mostly restrict my commentary to the Christian Faith. If I do refer to other Faiths, brevity will be utilised and sweeping generalisations avoided in areas which require a more detailed knowledge.

Theology / Religiosity / Faith. All from Within

 Retrospect

In Part I I contended that when set against the backdrop of the Scientific Perspective with all the unexplored areas, by the same perspective there was therefore no reason to say a person cannot hold to a belief in a Deity. The non-existence of a Deity cannot be physically proven.

Folk will of course put forth their own arguments for that non-existence but will always come up against the problem that they cannot offer physical proof to support their case. And likewise neither can I point to the place where God is, as one would say a mountain. It all comes down to Belief, or which has equal importance Doubt. Some might argue that in a world which shows so many tragedies and harm upon the Innocent, Doubt is the most honest approach of the Three stances. And others would contend that in my last post I inadvertently produced a case for Agnosticism.

We seek out ways to perceive the Vastness in Space, Time and Reason. A journey we may never complete. Let that be so. However such knowledge should never stop us doing so.

On Some Assertions Concerning Religions / Faiths Etc.

Before proceeding I need to address two commonly made statements which appear to attribute to Theisms certain properties:

Religion Is The Cause of War

And so is Economics, so is Politics, so are Resources, so are Cultural Differences, so is The Desire for Independence, so is the Willingness to Be Led, and so is, so is, so is.
Claiming one cause is an unconscious attempt to let ourselves, that is Humanity off of the hook, the flaw in our natures in which we embrace War and its lesser relative Conflict.
Once more for Brevity’s sake, and using European thinking, of which they may like it or not Russia and the USA have embraced; yes there have been wars in which religion was a foundation. Looking at the European side of history.
Crusades (quickly to turning into a land grab, as well as alliances with Muslim states and wars with other ‘Christian’ states)
The French 16th Century Wars of Religion (nobles changes sides and beliefs like socks- And Henry of Navarre Huguenot / Protestant turned Catholic – ‘Paris is Worth A Mass’)
30 Years War. One of the more obvious ones. (Except for the fact that Catholic France was in conflict with Catholic Spain and supporting Protestant Sweden)

So whereas it can be argued religion started the ones mentioned above, politics soon became involved and in various forms eased into the driving seat.
There is a line of arguments within professional Historians circles that the term is actually a Western perspective, and is just one facet of a myriad causes.
Basically Humanity is the cause of War, to assume if there were no religions there would be no wars is to assume something very peculiar about the conflicts between 1900 and 1950, to cite glaring example.

Religion Is The Opium of The People  

There may have been a time somewhere between The Enlightenment and The Birth of Socialism / Communism that arose the argument for religion being something that the ‘Ruling Classes’ use to keep the population in line and to feel that all would be well if they believed.

Firstly as it will be seen from the experiences under authoritarian and atheistic regimes which entered the lexicon in the 20th Century, Religion was replaced by Party Doctrine as the ‘Opium’. Once more it can be pointed out that Humanity is very inventive in producing its ‘Opiums’. In Post WWII, in the West, Europe in particular religious observance went into a decline whereas materialism and consumerism went upwards ever upwards. In latter years the worship of Celebrity has become a factor, with a new schism of Influencer each bringing forth their adherents and of course nasty disputes between the various ‘belief’ systems.

Another facet of the argument that religion kept the population in check tends to fall apart when matters are exanimated under the microscope of History. Over the centuries there have been a constant list of uprising from the ground level, often targeting the established religious set-up. Far from keeping folk in check once the system is seen to be with its abuses ‘rebellion’ be it in another form of religion or in a secular approach will arise. Reformation. Rise of Communism; just two.

Be honest folks. The problem is People. Always People. It is no use blaming one system or another, WE are the ones who run them.

Religion In General. And Faith. Which Can Be Quite Separate 

OK, having tried to get Religion off the hook and shift the blame where it belongs onto People, and with that theme in mind, let us consider that issue.

World Population 8 billion
Christianity 2.4 billion
Islam 1.9 billion
Hinduism 1.2 billion
Buddhism 520 million (0.52 billion)
Judaism 15.2 million (0.152 billion )
Also some estimated other religions 10,000 (mostly local) – exact numbers not available.

We could spend a great deal of time and effort  separating those figures by differing approaches, gender, age groups, geographical locations and cultural implications. This would still leave us with a large portion of the population of the planet having a theistic belief. There one question which itself sub-divides and that is.

How much Faith is there in The Religion? When I use the term Faith I am referring not to a confidence in the beliefs I am asking of dedication to those core beliefs which transcend the Social Norms, The Customs, The Ethnicity, and The Political aspects ever present in Life and which also have an influence upon us. Religion contains a dual purpose: To Explain and to Codify behaviour. At the very root, foundation, call it what you will lies essentially a path to embrace community and seek out that ever evasive Better Way.

Now it would be naïve of me to write the above words without knowing full well that there will be a substantial number of folk who would at least shake their heads in disagreement, and possibly howl in outrage, when ‘everyone’ can cite numerous instances or bits of religious works which argue the opposite. And yet imagine if the majority of those believing in a deity took to violence. The world is tragic enough with minorities using religion as their excuse taking up arms. Of course that does attract news commentary, which is only natural. Yet there are folk of Faith, quietly working away to try to make Life Better. Relying on their Faith

I will offer you this, based on my Faith, and on reflection as to the numbers of people with a religious based Faith. I believe that there is room enough for all Faiths. I believe it matters not to me whether a person’s religiously bound Faith is different to mine. If they hold to Compassion, Respect and Tolerance as part of their Faith that is fine. The rest is just not important. We choose different paths, which evolved from myriad reasons. As long as we meet on those three principals. What does it matter? And how does that square you ask? Are there lots of gods then? Well I would say no, just many ways to receive a message.

Yes, I would get into a bit of trouble with the hierarchy. Being Christian and Catholic I am quite aware that ‘The Church’ does not like the concept of Relativism. Yeah, well I square that with God at some stage. That’s where the final say on the matter will be. Though I’m still working out my own personal theological notions. Kind of Quantum? Yes?

The Impact and Reaction to Religion in Society. (Inside Looking Out)

There is a lot that annoys me and saddens me about the divides which are going on. In this case I’m sticking back with Christianity as this is my home turf as it were’. That said I am not allowing this come between me and my good atheistic friends here on WP.

Firstly, I repeat have no time for these quasi-fundamentalists who are only using religion as a convenience to fit their prejudices, their privileges, their hypocrisies, hates, fears and hysterias.

Secondly I would make a general appeal to a section of the atheist Community.
Will you please stop packaging all of us with that aforementioned group. You don’t do that with races, do you? And it does not occur to some that the remarks they make are downright offensive to us as well? I am sure these are mostly directed at the quasi-fundamentalists? But stop to think for a moment? Are you not profiling us all? Mock the hypocrites sure. But lay off basic beliefs will you? Just ask questions. Don’t make accusations or offensive remarks, or mock. That hurts. And by the way says more about you that it does about a moderate believer. Some of the throw away lines I have encountered are mere mirror images of the MAGA style self-identifying ‘believers’ ‘Religious BS’ is a common one? Seriously? Has the accuser ever spoken to a Christian who also embraces scientific teaching, the whole of Cosmology (well as much as we know)?
Sadly this is another fracture line. Society is filled with them.

Currently there seems to be three types of religion. There’s the uncomplicated Faith based one which is down to personal choice. There’s the Community one, in which folk of similar beliefs meet up and share. Those two overlap. And there is, as is usual in Human History the one which is used for Political Purposes and is soaked in Hypocrisy and Self-Service.
The latter has it’s partner in crime in Politics itself, where the political beliefs are twisted through the same processes of suiting the purposes of a party or grouping. Places where Sincerity is a variable commodity. Truth is that which is convenient to the group. And only the Opposition is guilty of Hypocrisy.

Therefore I have to say, all those charges which are placed at the doors of Religion will be equally fitted into Politics, Social Movements, Social Interactions and so on. In short Humanity is Guilty as Charged.

Summary

So, where do we draw the line between types of Belief? A person has a secular belief, be it, say, Social, Scientific  or Political. They hold to that belief. They hold to it strongly. They will demonstrate an opinion which others strongly object to, some will say their belief is illusory, and a threat. In the broad scheme, where is the difference therefore between faith in The Religious or The Secular. In the scheme of Human dynamics is there a difference? People hold fast to something.

Think on this one.
Many will say they hold true to Democracy. A laudable ideal.
However….In the disaster that was WWII Two Democracies (well for White folk that is) with colonial mentalities signed up with a violent totalitarian system to defeat two other like-minded totalitarian systems and in doing so allowed their ally to reap unjust rewards and while doing so caused the deaths of millions of civilians. Both those democracies along with other democracies also subjugated and caused large numbers of deaths amongst the populations of nations within their ‘spheres’ of influence. One Democracy had built into laws racial discrimination. Recently through its arcane flummery the same democracy allowed the minority vote holder into its position of president. A fellow of questionable qualities, opening the doors to new waves of  Intolerance.

Do just these few examples mean that you hold Democracy to be something to be held as false and even to be despised?

You would prefer one of the other systems? Seriously?

If you set out to target Religion in general along ethical grounds then you had better be ready to target that which you hold close too. Are you ready to condemn it as false?

Finally. This I will assert, repeat to be precise.

You do not criticise a person for having a religious belief without endangering yourself of profiling and with it having a limited perspective. If a person believes in the equality of others irrespective of race, belief and gender; if that person cares about the state of the environment; if that person holds that scientific knowledge to date is to be respected, even celebrated; if that person sees flaws in all systems and ‘We’ could and must do better, while having a belief in a Deity; then why is the latter a ‘mark’ against them? Careful how you answer that; your answer may say more about you than you care to admit.

If you are unqualified targeting Religion as a concept, you are looking in the wrong place. Look around you. Look inwards too. Theists have to do that, everyday, if they do have Faith, that is.