Category Archives: Warning

Orem, Utah, 10th September 2025

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If you live outside of the USA and until today have not heard of Charlie Kirk, then chances are you will by now. A far right activist favoured by Trump and on the 10th September 2025 slain by a currently unknown gunman. In the eyes of The Right now elevated from a favoured son into a Martyr and a Hero. And unless you are someone devoted to the MAGA and Trump, where do you start?

There is a mirrored synchronicity of 9/11 unfolding. Firstly, because what would normally be a day of solemn reflection and for many recollections of where they were has now turned into another media event which will have effects on America. Although this one could have far greater repercussion, 9/11 tore at America’s heart and soul, this assassination has the capacity to shake a foundations already weakening by a series of other quakes. So where do you start?

Are you saddened at another loss of life through violence and worried for the future?
Are you angered and in mourning from a bright young man taken from you?
Are you fearful for you and yours at the random backlash by an extreme Right Wing has a propensity for violence, encouraged by a volatile president?
Are you just satisfied, taking a ‘Game On Stance’; even if it is only secured away in a small place in your being and will only be let out in some long coded way?
Are you detached with a ‘Those Who Live By The Sword Die By The Sword’ outlook?
Or are you far enough gone to just rejoice?

In writing this being British but essentially ‘intolerant of Intolerance’ I am detached. There are qualifiers though. Spare at least a thought.
For his wife Erika who was watching the event and his children, one old enough to possibly perceive some of what is happening. There is a pain none of us should ever wish upon anyone.
For those youngsters witnessing a close up killing who will have that image branded on their minds. Their innocence ripped away from them and Reality ground into their souls.
For those of his family and true friends, who have lost someone close.

As I write this, the breaking news on BBC is that the FBI have a weapon, possible forensic evidence and now they have an image of the Person of Interest. Whether this will result in a rapid detention remains to be seen. Sudden assumptions would have been made along the ‘Grassy Knoll’ line and the Conspiracy Industry would have gone into overdrive. We could have been forgiven for thinking the assassin was one with professional experience, the accuracy of that shot?  Along comes The Action Film scene through a scope, the shot and then camera to the face of a hardened veteran looking grim and stealing away. Instead, we might have to consider a young loner with an agenda, who was aiming for the head but hit the throat.

Motivations? One volunteer of an extremist group?  One truly lone gunman? Just looking to kill one particular target? Or seeking the chance to throw one final match on a forest of folk tinder-dry through polarisation and start the urban war the shooter yearns? Or maybe some disenchanted MAGA member? Or maybe just someone looking to make a play for infamy? Or someone so far out anyone with a profile would do?

Whoever and whatever. In a year with so far 150+ acts deemed as political violence this one comes perilously close to setting off a whole sequence of events, the parallel of which sits back in 1914 in a town with its named etched into history, Sarajevo and a previously inconsequential fellow Gavrilo Princip. Would that I might be just one person writing alarmist rhetoric. But I am not am I? A fear which has been simmering amongst Americans since Trump first got into the Whitehouse will have been notched up.

And I worry for you all.
For those who do not want violence at all; the innocents are always the first, last and most to suffer.
For those who dally with the idea of violence, because unless you have been in a place riven by communal violence you seriously do not know what you are dealing with.
For those who dream about violence, are you ready to live as people did in Northern Ireland for thirty plus years, never who is at your door, checking underneath and all over your car?

There is one person who I have no sympathy for and that is your president. He has dallied with violence, he has made NO appeal to those who did not vote for him, he has poured forth irrational invective. If he had cared so much for Charlie Kirk then why did he not use his presidential power to ensure the man had some more efficient security? Somebody else has died for you Trump. Because of your ego, your vanity, your stupidity. And I fear they will not be the last.

For my friends in the USA
For those I exchange views with,
For those I do not know, but just want a quiet life,
For those who will loose their innocence.
For those who will see their dreams turn to nightmares
I worry and fear for you          

The War Posts – Part I .An Introduction to War

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Foreword: The dates of the 6th and 8th of August hold particularly vivid images in the historical narrative. Most readers will be aware of their relevance. The days Nuclear Weaponry was added to the catalogue of weaponry. Thus, arguably these events became the starkest, most fearful indication to a number of people as to the horrors of War. Those who lived in times and places in which they did not personally experience the events and consequences of War. And to everyone how very efficient and finalistic War was now becoming.

Overview
As long as there has been Humanity there has been conflict, as it is with other species. Although as Humanity developed and started its path to civilisation War became more than just one group throwing things at another group. As did everything else War developed too, the logic being weapons had to improve to keep up with everything else; you could hardly conquer in walled city with a host of men armed with sharp pointed stick charging at it and valiantly poking away. Missiles, sieges, mining, poisoning of water courses, throwing in of dead diseased bodies and of course laying waste the land around depriving the foes of resources. Pitched battles could be quite rare at times. There was also the arts of marching and countermarching like chess, and maybe the foe would see no advantage to combat, give up and go home or seek terms. The latter practice carried on into the early 18th century; then with industrialisation war became more focused about destroying armies.

Throughout all this one thing was a constant. That being the suffering of the civilians and the ruination of their livelihoods. The idea of an army marching in good disciplined order with stony faces set of the horizon and their tryst with Fate might make good image on film. Only in the old style propaganda films or political slanted works will you see soldiers treating enemy civilians in sanitised bad ways, you will have to read about the true pillage, multiple gang rapes, random killing, casual cruelty and destruction. You would have to bypass the recent wars quasi-colonial style wars of the latter part of the 20th and thus far in the 21st Century to face the fact that the liberating armies of the Allies moving west through France and into Germany in WWII were not comprised entirely of firm but fair, tough fighting decent lads.

Armies are at best hard, brutal machines trained to expect danger; at worse they are ill-disciplined armed gangs with a smidge of training. And there are the majority, the in-between. Ill-clothed, ill-ed, ill-paid only there because there was no other option.
Civilians are the fodder, either swept up to be part of the violence or to be treated with no more concern than their houses. Either a resource to be used, or one to be destroyed thus depriving the enemy and sapping the general will, another resource.

Reasoning
I can understand that having digested this, the reader would conclude ‘I can see where he is going with this. He is trying to dilute the effects on the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by a sweeping generalisation, that they were nothing special’
It would be a reasonable assumption.
From the perspective of repulsion and the sudden, swift, frightening devastation. A fearful power unleashed, a vision as to how War could now be.
Yes they were special. None of us were now safe. Anywhere. Anyhow. We were all subject to the Dread Logic of War.

War?
Suffering. Terrible, Raw, Suffering. Dealt out with a Logic more terrible than the weapons themselves.

The next part covers The Logic of War

Say That Again?

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The Guy who will occupy the Whitehouse in 2025 offered his own solution on the Israeli Hamas hostage situation

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62757dd55no

I would draw your attention to this little bit of the statement…..

“Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied history of the United States of America.”

‘Hit harder’……??????????

Haughty response 4

Like he is going to out-do the USA 1945 air campaign against Japan??????

perplexed-baffled-man-scratch-head-look-owlishly-perplexed-baffled-confused-man-scratching-head-looking-owlishly-smth-120224839

That does include weapons larger than the A-bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, right? 

JosephNWelch

I know his supporters go on about ‘Well that’s just Donnie’….Yeah I agree with them…That’s just Donnie……

If there’s one thing worse than an IDIOT, it’s an IDIOT with a big mouth and proportionality smaller brains. Particularly when they are on The World Stage.

I have said it before and I say it again (even louder and longer this time):

JEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZ   LOOOOEEEEEZZZZ!!!!!!!

USA. Your Time is Running Out.

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ITALY-FRANCE-WEATHER-FEATURE

Yes USA. You as many a nation before you are being called to account. You stand at a crossroads. You may have been told this is all about Liberty. You will have been warned that there is a risk Democracy could be taken away from you. You will have been told that Intolerance and Bigotry will be rife.

Indeed, all possibilities, and then things could get worse. Much worse. Worse than you may have imagined. Or maybe dreaded.

Exaggeration you say?

OK. Look at it this way. This winter, there will be weather warnings about heavy snowfalls. I take it you will take precautions to try to minimise the effect. I expect you will not ignore them, unless you are suffering from conspiracitis. (A terminal disease). You will pay attention.
So why do you not pay attention to the warning of what can happen if the Right once more win this presidential election? Or if they lose have another spoiled brat tantrum?

Think you worst possibility, then think worse again.

Ah dear reader I am done writing mild(ish) balanced posts. This is an updated version of another post, from another blog

https://politicsandhistory359465094.wordpress.com/2022/05/08/a-spectre-to-be-exorcised-communal-violence/↗

I very much doubt if this will be read by the numbers of folk my words are intended for, it is probably too late and I have written this theme over and over again down the past few years.

So why bother?

It’s not about my nation, the UK. It appears to be a self-inflicted folly by a portion of a nation who gave up thinking of Implications and Consequences and either switched off or dreamed out the jagged cutting parts of the ideas fed them.

Why bother?

Because it is my duty to bother. Because in this world of instance communication, complex interlockings and interactions, where after two Global Wars and a series large enough conflicts with attendant social eruptions, whatever happens ‘There’ will be implications ‘Here’. Because if I claim to embrace a set of values which generally aims for Compassion, Tolerance and Respect, it is not acceptable to sit back,  shrug and do something pleasantly diverting.
Because the forces which are set out in the Broadness of History constantly roiling are at a stage at which they threaten to erupt. History you say, is always written by the victor…..Nonsense. History has a long, long reach and victors of one time do not stay thus.

It can be argued that no two nations histories go along the same lines. However there are tides and there are commonalities, particularly in the areas of discord. If one grouping feels another grouping is imposing upon it, in a heavy and unjust way, then there will be a reaction. The group of course doing the imposition will feel that it is justified to do so. Lines will be drawn, discourse will be closed down, each will turn unto themselves. And when the side imposing the will does not have the unconditional support  of all the security or defence forces personnel having made personal attacks upon them, it is then that unpleasant and unthinkable possibilities arise.
And in the USA this is being drawn in a very ever thickening line. For neither side has the will or ability to reach over to the other; despite the efforts of some very brave folk, there is no general consensus for this polarisation to stop. Thus from here the chances of physical conflict are raised upwards, to volatile states as one ‘But they can’t / wouldn’t do that’ gets swept away by the next newsfeed.

Some foolish folk will welcome it, thinking of a replay of the Civil War, or some sort of boardgame set up (yes they are out there, rather naïve ideas of the opposing forces) and there’s a very, very politically unsatisfactory unrealistic film going the rounds too.
It would not be like that. Look not to Syria of the past decade as an example, turn instead to Northern Ireland of the late 20th century, and maybe with an edge of mutiny within some of those charged with order.

Writing this it is difficult not to have the ageless Dylan song ‘Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ in my head. Listen to its lyrics and fit them into this time and place in the USA.

One final thought. Of course, there will be other nations seeking to take advantage of this. The motives are inscribed in the International Relations playbooks. If I was living in and devoted to that nation and fearful of the USA I would be expecting my government to do something to benefit ‘our nation’

A handful days of deciding and one day of voting to go. I personally only have Hope left in my resources. Hope for my friends in the USA, Hope for the folk of Ukraine, Hope for Hope’s sake.

Hope that the 6th of November will be decked in an allegorical sunrise.

And Hope that over the course of the next year, this post will be made to look ridiculously overblown and alarmist. A small price to pay.

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.

Standing Your Ground With Your Eyes Shut Tight?

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Greg_Abbott_official_portrait_2024Daniel Perry

There are times when anger or outrage does not suit the intention. Maybe the writer gets lucky and is standing far enough back to be able to feel just enough ‘Detached’ (ironically that is) to write with simply a large cloud of Sigh hovering above them. With mass slaughters making place across the world, what does one governor being political over one killing matter? After all this is the USA in an election year where polarisation carries on at a High Summer pace. Bound to happen somewhere, somewhen.

And it’s not as if Governor Abbot has not been open and straight forward in the past about his views. He defended the right for the Ten Commandments to be displayed on a public monument. He opposes gun control. He has stood his ground in court against same-sex marriage. As Governor he has supported Trump. Now although I personally have to give him his due for 2016 action which banned aborted foetus from being disposed on a sanitary landfill and required burial or cremation, he, nonetheless, has worked hard to limit abortion rights and thereby putting women’s lives at risk, whether he will limit pregnant women’s rights to travel we shall see . He stated that guns are not the problem it’s ‘Hearts Without God’ or mental health; how he proposed to police these factors he did not say. He also seemed to favour the Jade Helm 15 conspiracy theories. There’s more but you get the general idea.

Well, so far, so clear. What you see is what you get. An unashamed. unapologetic Governor with Right Wing, Strong Fundamentalism Christian Views, and Guns. So we should not be surprised at all he was quick to pardon Daniel Perry, because “Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defence” That’s what Governor Greg Abott said. You can’t argue with that stance can you know? Right up there, in Texas you have the right to defend yourself when threatened, you can shoot someone down, if you feel your life is threatened.

OK, let’s back up just a bit.  We have ‘The Letter of the Law’ and ‘The Spirit of The Law’. Now just think about that one, because it is a place filled with trip-ups and unintended consequences. Along with leaving the person making the decision open to all sorts of problems down the road.

Firstly let’s consider the next part of the Governor’s quote……“that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” . So firstly does that mean that a jury’s verdict can be overturned by a Governor’s say-so…well ‘Yes’- I mean that is what ‘Pardon’ is about. But ‘progressive District Attorney’. Now that does sound like an open political biased statement attacking a official…. which may be fair game in the US since folk run for the office. However I’m not done yet . I wish to look at the case of the person being pardoned.

Daniel Perry felt threatened. OK. But Daniel Perry had:

Begun searching for the locations of Black Lives Matter protests weeks before the shooting and messaged friends on social media, comparing protesters to “a bunch of monkeys flinging [expletive] at a zoo”. 

In May 2020, shortly after George Floyd’s death, he sent a text message saying: “I might go to Dallas to shoot looters.”  

He also sent messages about “hunting Muslims” and about killing a daughter if she had a crush on “a little negro boy”.

Therefore it can be argued we did not have one hapless driver who took the wrong turning, blundered into the wrong crowd and panicked, We had a man who reacted out of anger? Deep seated rage? Letting loose? 

And the Governor  act out of pity for the hapless frightened man who panicked, or did he pardon him out of sympathy for his stance of standing his ground as a matter of principal, in defence of his home, not his house, but his turf, his own cultural home. The Governor is versed in the law, politics and the laws of politics and I bet could comfortably get out of those questions. A professional and a very astute one too. Me? I’m just some guy who might be standing my own ground? Well, yes I am in the UK. But hear me out now.  

The Governor has established support for ‘Stand Your Ground’, firmly. Will he be comfortable when a liberal activist when in their home and being harassed by a group of right-wing opponents hammering on their door and yelling abuse, comes to the door with their own gun, and opens fire? Suppose there is this fellow taking his pregnant partner or spouse to the airport on one last visit pre-birth to a relative out of state and has been followed by a car of pro-life extremists who have been keeping a watch on this suspected pair, force the car to the halt, but to protect his pregnant partner or spouse the driver comes out with his gun and seeing weaponry in the cars, opens fire first? 

I can give worse troubles than that. Within Texas state someone ‘Without God’ or with ‘Mental Issues’ decides that the whole state is their Home and goes out into the night, just happening to be wearing a Biden T-Shirt in the hope they might, by chance come across a group of Opposition and left that group make the first move, but that person makes the first shot.

Then there may be the LGBT+ couples who meet at their usual social gathering. Only thing is now they are armed, openly, which is bound to attract opposition, armed. And the next thing you have is two lots of folks ‘Standing Their Ground’

I am afraid  it can start with one incident, one relatively small incident and then can spread. It is not necessarily bound to happen. There is always the risk. Because you do not know who ‘is packing’ and on Defcon 4 (Above normal readiness)

I might not be able take Governor Abott on in court, I daresay he would shred me. He would Stand His Ground. But I can sure raise the flag of warning, because he has no more idea of what the future might bring than I do. On that we are equal

These Days The World War Comes In Many Sizes.

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Crocus City Hall

Crocus City Hall, Moscow 22nd March 2024 .It was 14, then 30, then 60 then 93. Dead. Injured? It was many, then a 100. How many escaped? Not known, but they will carry scars. Maybe they will be fearful of being in a crowd, never to go to any event again, fearing they may hear screams and gun shots. Will they ever sleep naturally again. Then multiply by numbers by relatives, friends, associates.

They were going to a concert. To have a good time. Enjoy themselves. Forget the troubles of the World. Maybe ease the pain of the loss of someone sent to Ukraine. Parallels to many Israelis back in October 2023. They were going about their ordinary lives. Just like Americans who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in 83 mass shootings in 2024 (Up until February that is).

They weren’t in combat. They not were fitted out for fighting. They weren’t even living in dread. Not like folk in Port au Prince. Folk in Gaza. Folk in the Sudan. Folk across the Sahel (look on a map for yourself). In Congo. In Nigeria. In Pakistan. In India. In Philippines. In Malyaia. In Myanmar. In Mexico. In Ukraine. In Yemen. And that list goes on and on and on. World War. Not neat. Not one side vs another. That’s out-dated, washed away amongst the mudslide of agendas and causes, and the debris of alliances; mostly based on Hypocrisy. 

Somewhere there is at least one record tallying up the estimates of non-combatants being killed. And someone will be parsing those numbers up into those unfortunately killed in cross-fires. those who were living near strategic targets, those slaughtered in some frenzy of hate and those who starve or sicken untreated because of a lack of resources. As if there is some comfort in pointing out that portions of those deaths were ‘unfortunate’. Like the police chief in To Have and Have Not says laconically about the death of the American tourist caught in cross-fire ‘It is unfortunate’ .But it’s war. What can you do?… Don’t start one? Or is that just a painfully innocent a suggestion.

Nothing worthwhile is easy to solve.

Crocus City Hall, Moscow 22nd March 2024. Dead, dying, injured, traumatised  by being there, traumatised by association. Multiply that by the number of wars, rebellions, militias, gangs, mercenaries, authoritarian states, hate-groups. Some calculation. Like one of those massive boards that physicists and mathematicians have to use.  

There will be the usual dash to social media to pump out the agenda. Blame this group. Blame that nation. ‘I hate…. I’m gonna blame them’….. ‘Yeah me too’. The keyboards must have been hammered over the last 12 hours.

And there will be those who will justify, or glorify those who walked into Crocus City Hall on Moscow 22nd March 2024 and killed ‘in the name of’. Like the killing of non-combatant folk of a nation is going to make any state think ‘Oh gosh. We were wrong. Sorry,’ Russia, Israel, USA, China. Four classic examples of what happens when you tread on their toes, their majorities. No, they default to ‘Someone has to pay,’ Like any group, any region, any nation with a grudge or agenda really, deep down, worries about the loss of non-combatant life. Like any of those listens to any protest across the world.

Crocus City Hall, Moscow 22nd March 2024. It’s 115 dead now. Four suspects held. Flowers being left at the site, people donating blood. It’s what ordinary folk do. Do something. Meanwhile as expected both the Ukrainian and Russian governments or security services make claim, counter claim and ridiculous assertions abut the other side. At least the ordinary folk are doing something constructive.

World War. As in a world beset by wars in all shapes and sizes, many so deep, convoluted and old that the original reasons were lost somewhere and there’s only The War. You could claim Political Expediency, Culture, Religion, Poverty, Corruption, Old Enmities, New Ones, Suspicion, Communal Hysteria; take your pick; add another, there’s no shortage.

But what to do? No use saying ‘It’s Not my Problem’. USA.Back in the 1990s what was going in The Middle East, Saudi Arabia, ‘The Gulf’ Lebanon was not ‘Your Problem’. Sure the government sent armies and folk got killed, which was a shame. But nothing to do with you. Then came 9/11- direct Cause and Effect and the USA went into several sorts of hysteria which is still plaguing you today. 

And why do European nations and the USA wonder why folk from other nations are flooding into their lands. War. Famine through War. Why else should folk be so desperate? 

In these days of hyper-travel, hyper-trade and hyper-communication what happens somewhere will eventually find its way in some way to your door, even if it is but an increase the cost of your favourite…..

Crocus City Hall, Moscow 22nd March 2024. It’s our problem. It’s our tragedy. It’s our concern. And that nagging one, deep down inside. The one place where you get into the tangle of Cause & Effect, of Apathy and its distant cousin Selective Outrage, of Disassociation, of Assumptions Without Thought, and the rest. The one where we have to ask ‘Was That Something To Do With Me?’ Hopefully not. Hopefully you started out as innocent bystander who tried to do something constructive, even in a small, small, hardly noticed way, a ripple. Me? Involved in a war? You’d be surprised how far the reach is. 

Still, bear this in mind. It takes a lot of folk a long time to make a World War. And there are never simple answers.

One thing though. Those who beat the drums loud, and long. Folk who give you one liners as solutions. People who claim that killing their neighbours is the only solution. Mobs that blame an entire people for the crimes of a government. Ones who claim they have a direct line to a deity who says its OK to kill. 

They are liars, wretched creatures. And irrespective of the differences in their politics, religions, races and locations, they are all the same. Hate mongers. Blights. Bloodied hands by deed or association.  

Crocus City Hall, Moscow 22nd March 2024. Take some time out today to think of the victims. 

It’s a regular event in some parts of the world.

Songs For Our Times ?

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Foreword:

I should put this on my political site but since WP appears to have lost it for the present, or is in a sulk and won’t let me have access……

Anyway, as we all know it is a ‘thing’ for political parties when campaigning to poach a song without the writers and performers’ permission and by using a selective piece, mis-representing the message of the song to suit their purposes. The American Republican Party seemed to make a habit out of this.

Therefore I thought it best to redress the balance by posting up songs which actually represent their current messages.

To begin…..Because I wanted to introduce the subject in a more low-key manner, for those who do not think there is any need to worry. If you check you will see that there are quite a number of folk with extreme views encouraging Trump on. Now folk with extreme views are not content to just hold onto their views, they have an urge to spread them. OK, so you might not be in their initial sights but once they get their hooks in, you might know folk, who know folk who are suffering, and you might have friends and relations who get targeted, and you might feel very sad about that, and wish it would go away, but it won’t and there will be even more distressing news and one day they will come for you or the way you live and you will start to feel ‘Gloomy’

Gloomy

Some people laugh in the dark
Some people cry alone
Some people talk without sayin’ a thing
And ev’rything turns out gloomy

Some people count your money
Someone is countin’ your days
And somebody got to keep track of your mind
When ev’rything turns out gloomy

Brothers’ll make you look sideways
Fathers’ll make you look back
And when you’re done talkin’, you still got to shoot
‘Cause ev’rything turns out gloomy

Now another thing the forces pushing Trump on with and something which comes naturally to him is telling untruths. Big ones. Like there was nothing wrong with what happened in January 2021. Like everything accusation against him is Fake. 

Hitler pointed out that if you told a very Big Lie people would simply believe you because they could not cope with the fact that it was wrong. Conspiracy Junkies and MAGA embraced this concept (Qanon anyone?). The following song is ideal for the current mindset (in which more guns is also an good answer to all the problems)

It’s a good time for anyone  whose is a professional Liar, the Trump Campaign can use you. As for those of you of who are outraged and aghast at such affrontery to intelligence, if you have not already to responded do so….. because the cult of Trump is built on ‘Lies’ You Liar

Liar liar, pants on fire
See you squirm, see you perspire
Not a word you say is true
There’s never been one out of you

Smoke & mirrors, bait and switch
You and your friends are getting rich
Picking pockets, pulling strings
And other more despicable things

Liar Liar, pants on fire
Preaching only to the choir
Photo op in front of the steeple
How did you manage to fool these people?

Talk the lingo, dress the part
Even put your hand on your heart
Bomber jacket, emperor’s clothes
You can’t even reach the end of your nose

Liar liar, pants on fire
Chain of command doesn’t get any higher
Orders come down from the top
Punish the guy who pushes the mop

Throw away the key and forget about bail
The likes of you ought to rot in jail
Guilty! Guilty of the highest crimes
And the lowest ones at the very same time

Liar liar, pants on fire
Teleprompter, hidden wire
Who’s this G-d that speaks to you
Who would authorize the things you do?

Bend the rules, twist the facts
Make excuses, cover your tracks
Why won’t you let anybody see
The flag-draped coffins on tv?

Liar liar, been found out
Whistleblowers talked about
How you classify & cook the books
For the benefit of a bunch of crooks

Liar lair pants on fire (repeat)

Of course being the sorts they are they would try and steal this and turn it around for their rallies but remember….you heard it here folks!

Now if this has not yet stirred you, then you should consider the divisiveness that has gripped the USA since MAGA, Intolerant Evangelicals (as opposed to the more quiet reflective sorts) and The White Supremacists were allowed to be tolerated. This is not to be tolerated and to repeat do not think it will not come to you. Here is one ideally suited to The Trouble they cause. It was written in the wake of the 1965 Watts riots, and sadly as it does the wheel turns full circle.

Well, I’m about to get sickFrom watchin’ my TVBeen checkin’ out the news until my eyeballs fail to seeI mean to say that every day is just another rotten messAnd when it’s gonna change, my friends, is anybody’s guess
 
So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’Hopin’ for the bestEven think I’ll go to prayin’Every time I hear ’em sayin’That there’s no way to delay that trouble comin’ every dayNo way to delay that trouble comin’ every day
 
Wednesday I watched the riot, I seen the cops out on the streetWatched ’em throwin’ rocks and stuff and chokin’ in the heatListened to reports about the whisky passin’ ’roundSeen the smoke and fire and the market burnin’ downWatched while everybody on his street would take a turnTo stomp and smash and bash and crash and slash and bust and burn
 
And I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’Hopin’ for the bestEven think I’ll go to prayin’Every time I hear ’em sayin’That there’s no way to delay that trouble comin’ every dayNo way to delay that trouble comin’ every day
 
Well, you can cool it you can heat it‘Cause, baby, I don’t need itTake your TV tube and eat itAnd all that phony stuff on sports and all the unconfirmed reportsYou know I watched that rotten box until my head began to hurtFrom checkin’ out the way the newsmen say they get the dirtBefore the guys on channel so-and-so, further they assertThat any show they’ll interruptTo bring you news if it comes upThey say that if the place blows upThey’ll be the first to tellBecause the boys they got downtown are workin’ hard and doin’ swellAnd if anybody gets the newsBefore it hits the street they say that no one blabs it fasterTheir coverage can’t be beatAnd if another woman driverGets machine-gunned from her seatThey’ll send some joker with a brownie and you’ll see it all complete
 
So I’m watchin’ and I’m waitin’Hopin’ for the bestEven think I’ll go to prayin’Every time I hear ’em sayin’That there’s no way to delay that trouble comin’ every dayNo way to delay that trouble comin’ every day
 
Hey, you know something people?I’m not black but there’s a whole lots a times I wish I could say I’m not white
 
Well, I seen the fires burnin’ and the local people turnin’On the merchants and the shops who used to sell their brooms and mopsAnd every other household itemWatched the mob just turn and bite ’emAnd they say it served ’em rightBecause a few of them are whiteAnd it’s the same across the nation, black and white discriminationYellin’ “you can’t understand me!”And all that other jazz they hand meIn the papers and TV and all that mass stupidityThat seems to grow more every dayEach time you hear some nitwit sayHe wants to go and do you in‘Cause the color of your skinJust don’t appeal to himNo matter if it’s black or white because he’s out for blood tonight
 
You know we gotta sit around at home and watch this thing beginBut I bet there won’t be many left to see it really end‘Cause the fire in the street ain’t like the fire in the heartAnd in the eyes of all these people don’t you know that this could start?On any street, in any town, in any state if any clownDecides that now’s the time to fightFor some ideal he thinks is rightAnd if a million more agree, there ain’t no great societyAs it applies to you and meOur country isn’t freeAnd the law refuse to see if all that you can ever beIs just a lousy janitorUnless your uncle owns a storeYou know that five in every fourJust won’t amount to nothin’ moreThan watchin’ rats go across the floorAnd make up songs about being poorBlow your harmonica, son!
 
And basically I feel sorry for the regular Old School Republicans those who hang on hoping or those who gave up and either went Independent or crossed the line. I have a smidge of sympathy and sorrow for those who with some concern and doubts are  still buying into Trump as being a choice one has to take…because they feel threatened as a result of the propaganda they have been given. 
As for the howlers, the threateners, those who disgrace the flag and spit on the constitution, I won’t bother, they have bought into The Nightmare.
 
For the rest; The Complacent, those who display irresponsibility by thinking Not Voting for Biden will help any Palestinian and the ones who still think it is cool to be detached. Wake up. MAGA will be coming for you. 
 
 

Jill’s Horror Story. Which is not so Fictional.

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Filosofa Tries Something Different …

Our Jill has taken the plunge into writing fiction. But is it?

Take a read and think back to factual accounts you may have come across in reliable newsfeeds. You know that normally in Horror stories the reader can be chilled but also take comfort in the idea, ‘This could never happen to me. S’only a fiction,’ . Well this one narratives a series of events which may come tapping at your door. Be prepared to be chilled and warned.

Well done Jill