The October finale has started, 3 days left, then on to another month of pandemic restrictions and political ‘BS’. Speaking of political ‘BS’, let’s take a look at what happened overnight, shall we?
As the presidential candidate’s amp up there campaigning to win undecided states, two very different scenes can be seen. Trump is holding mass rallies which could maybe kill more people due to speeding the spread of the coronavirus while Biden pushes the safety aspect and has drive-in style gatherings. Trump is urging his supporters to defy lockdown restrictions while Biden talks about getting the pandemic under control by any means possible. Trump attacks and insults anyone that opposes his ideology while Biden smooths the ground and looks at how everyone’s opinion can be heard. Trump ego boosts himself with lies and untruths while Biden tries to use factual evidence to tell the story of the last four years. Both men are well past their sell by date and should be considered as the bearers for the two Vice presidential candidates who have a better chance come 2024, but in my opinion no one should elect the bible bashing lapdog Trump has on a leash, pence is no way a good candidate for President while Kamala Harris is everything the US needs in a president. What’s more Trump is totally going insane, showing the effects of dementia daily while Biden in his heart knows he will be a one term President paving the way for Harris, maybe even stepping down to install her as the first female president at some point.
Trump has pulled some very idiotic moves in the five years since he announced he would be running for President, but yesterday saw one of his most idiotic yet. While Philadelphia went in to curfew mode after the slaying of Walter Wallace Jr whose family has stated was suffering a mental health crisis when he was shot by officers who say he had refused to drop a knife, Trump introduces the most racist man in Europe to his supporters at a rally in Arizona as “one of the most powerful men in Europe”, which is highly in doubt because all people in the UK see is a small minded corrupt racist. Nigel Farage, the once leader of UKIP which is a racist political party and now the leader of the Brexit party [which believes standing alone is best for the UK, complete ‘BS’] was called up on to the stage where he heaped praise on Trump like the brown nosing fascist he is. During the to and froing the two men, bigged up each other’s egos as Farage stated Trump was solely responsible for “bringing Israel together with Arab nations in a way that nobody ever believed was possible” adding that “Four years ago I was honoured to come to America to bring the Brexit message, the message that you can beat the establishment and that is what Donald Trump did, he beat the pollsters. He beat the media. He beat all the predictions. And here's the worst bit, they've never forgiven him for it”. Farage went on to say of Trump: “This is the single most resilient and brave person I have ever met in my life. You are voting for the only current leader in the free world who has the guts to stand up for the nation state, to fight for patriotism, to fight against globalism”. Basically Farage said everything Trump is not!
What should be questioned though, is why Farage was allowed to firstly leave the UK to fly to America and secondly, how is he of "national interest” to America [other than Trump’s Euro lapdog], the reason given for his exemption from the US travel ban to appear at Trump's events. As a UK citizen I am appalled at such hypocrisy while the UK and US populous are suffering and dying from a global pandemic which still has no answer to how it is transmitted Farage was allowed to travel. What should happen now is for the UK government to ban Farage from re-entering the United Kingdom on the grounds that he has been in an environment that is conducive to the spread of the COVID-19 virus and in close contact with a known carrier of the virus.
America you are under threat from the fascist leadership style of a man on the edge of insanity and to fly someone in from another country is pure egotistical melodrama, especially someone who been proven to be as much of a corrupt racist as Trump is. Trump is pushing his fascism down the American people’s throats while using the position of President as his own family business profiteering off the Office of the President which is totally disgusting. He uses lies and subterfuge to hoodwink the moronic idiots that worship at the altar of Trump to pilfer and abuse. I am still dumbfounded that he even got the chance of the last four years as president, let alone, he may get another four especially after the evidence of his corruption before and after becoming president. Come on America prove the rest of the world right and remove the most undemocratic president in the history of the United States of America before more blood is shed within the borders of your land by a man who sees himself as ‘KING’. November 3rd approaches quickly, six days left to choose! Equality or Fascism?
On that plea, I will change shores and check out dear old Blighty. So comes the news that more areas face tier 3 restrictions as Birmingham and West Midlands are added to the list of possible tier 3 areas under review by the authoritarian cabinet we are now ruled by. Why is it we are hearing about places in the north and central regions of England, but not the south? Has the south got some kind of invisible force field around it, to prevent the virus spreading? The North and Midlands have always been the parts of the country to suffer and are keeping history right as they again feel the North/South divide that has lasted for centuries. If you don’t live south of the Watford Gap, you are deemed unimportant by Parliament, yet 90% of all manufacturing and a good percentage of most industries can be found outside the southern belt of the country while the south is predominantly the hub of the financial industry which is why the south get better support from the government, they don’t want to upset the money controllers, do they? I know everything I have just written is probably highly exaggerated or untrue, but as a Northerner, this how I see it. Growing up in the North Eats of England during the Thatcher years can put a real damper on how you view a Conservative led government, especially one led by Johnson, and his money and power hungry lackey’s, only concerned for themselves!
So anyway let’s get back to the facts. As we head in to the final two months of our ‘Year of Plight’ which is now known as 2020, the newly elected government of one year has faced its fair share of issues from Brexit to the pandemic, both of which are still effecting daily life in the country. Yet Johnson has in one year of being the top dog in politics has been laid bare as incompetent and foolhardy as he installs a decision he says is finite, only to take a U-turn when put under pressure from within his own party, the opposing parties and even the public time and time again. Johnson is no leader and cannot steady his sinking ship as the barrage of discontentment keeps shelling the bunker in which he cowers. The latest of these barrages is the legal action taken against him over his refusal to investigate the Kremlin meddling in the EU referendum back in 2016 which set the country on course for Brexit. A Cross-party group of MP’s and peers in the House of Lords have filed a claim to force an inquiry into Russia’s interference in UK elections which could have influenced both the EU referendum of 2016 and Johnson winning the General election back in December 2019. It seems that both the leader of the US and the UK were helped in to office by the Russians through their close ties with rich prominent people close to the Russian President Vladimir Putin. The cold war is well and truly back in business! Are Trump and Johnson secretly working for Russia? Ask yourself, who stands to gain? By the fascist politics Trump and Johnson continually show in the decisions they make which undermine democracy. Russia is no longer a socialist republic and squarely sits in the lane of dictatorship like China and North Korea where Trump and Johnson would like to see their respective countries futures fall.
All this subterfuge and the UK is more split now, than it has ever been before. The four nations of the United Kingdom are fracturing under the rule of devolution powers as each nation takes its own stance on how they will fight the pandemic. England under Johnson has opted for a 3 tier system, Scotland under Sturgeon has opted for a 5 tier system, Wales under Drakeford has opted for a circuit breaker system and Northern Ireland under Foster has also opted for circuit breaker system. These four differing attitudes to the way the nations are fighting the pandemic is just another example of how devolution can and will kill the Union that is stronger together than it ever will be separated. The more there is of, in fighting the worse the UK is going to be when it comes to competing on the international stages whatever that stage maybe. The politicians of this glorious land need to come together rather than apart to make a combined plan for the four nations to implement together. This is even more prevalent as both Spain and France look to institute a second lockdown due to their rising cases of the virus. The more common the rules are between the four separate nations, the better the likelihood we create the plateau of reported cases of COVID-19 fooled by a rapid decrease, but if we carry on the way we are, with four differing lists of protocols the worst the final outcome will be causing more deaths that could have been prevented like the untimely death of actor and comedian Bobby Ball who has passed away from complications due to coronavirus yesterday [Wednesday 29th October, R.I.P Bobby].
As a global community in the last nine months we have witnessed over a million deaths from COVID-19, not only in the poor, but also in the rich and famous. This disease is not restricted to nationality, creed, colour, sexual orientation or financial status, granted the rich can get better health care in some countries, but it is a global killer and should be investigated and tested by a global team of experts rather than each country working on their own. The World Health Organisation or something similar should be getting global funding to build a team of experts from every field to fight these growing pandemic deaths before it becomes an extinction event or mutates out of control worse than it is now. A member of each nation of the world should be sitting around a virtual table talking about creating a team from each country to liaise with each other on the findings and it should not be developed by multi-conglomerate companies so they can profiteer of the suffering of humankind like is happening right now. Come on where has the common sense gone? Are we really that stubborn that we can’t work together for the betterment of the human race? On that I will call it a day,
Rant you tomorrow!
Thursday 29 October 2020
Wednesday 28 October 2020
28/10/2020
It’s midweek again, only days away from the end of October, less than a week away from the American election, yet nothing in the world is right as governments squander chances in the fight against coronavirus. Let’s see what has been said and done since yesterday.
As both presidential candidates head in to the final week of campaigning neither one is guaranteed of success which was proven in 2016 when Trump beat Hilary Clinton whose polls said she was a shoe in for the lands top job. But this time round Americans are angry at its leader running for re-election. While Trump sits high on the hill in safety the rest of America is in the midst of a deadly pandemic which has killed 230,000 people and multiple cities nationwide are under civil unrest, clearly aimed at Trump’s backing of police impunity laws after multiple cases of racial tension between law enforcement and the black community resulting in highly publicised police brutality and civilian deaths this year alone. Trump is up against not only the Democrats, but the Black communities, the Hispanic communities, the immigrant communities, the LGBTQ+ community and those communities just sick of his ‘BS’ and lies. The biggest problem with America though and what actually benefits Trump’s campaign for re-election are those individuals which includes some very well-known celebrities who for some reason believe in his ideology. Trump still has a strong following of gun nuts, racists, misogamists, bible bashers, far right militias and the one percenters who benefit from the tax cuts implemented for big business. So the race to Whitehouse is far from cut and dry. In the last week it has been seen that long serving Republican politicians are the driving force behind Trump because he gives them what they want a puppet who says the words they dare not say in case they lose their house or senate seat.
Just two days ago, yet another far right conservative judge was sworn in to the Supreme Court giving the Republican party a six to three majority on the bench of the highest court in the land which Senate majority leader McConnell said was a political ally for the Republican party breaching the impartiality of the court for decades to come which was a victory for Trump. But on the flipside which goes against Trump is the fresh batch of civil unrest protests that have happened. Another death and another city has exploded in to violence as protesters took to the streets of Philadelphia two nights in a row, in response to yet another senseless black person’s unnecessary death at the hands of overzealous police who are getting away with murder. The murder of people on the streets of America is nothing new, what is new though is the number of times these incidents are now being captured digitally by bystanders and uploaded to social media. What goes against Trump is the way he continues to stand behind the police calling any protests an attack on democracy and blaming ANTIFA, when in fact the right to protest is a fundamental civil right and a key part of a democratic society. What Trump would do if allowed is mobilise the armed forces to take back the streets which is how a dictator runs a country, not a democratically elected leader, but that is exactly what Trump wants to be! A dictator who rules for life.
So as America enters the countdown to the end of election fever, they do need to be ready for a war whether it be in the courts or on the streets. If there is no big landslide to ‘BLUE’ and Biden wins by a slim margin Trump will try and win it in the courts which he now controls and if Trump wins in the courts there is the likelihood of an all-out civil war as America implodes under the cult leadership of Trump. Speaking of cult leaders, as one sits in the Whitehouse and is revered by millions, another is now set to languish in a jail cell for 120 years. Trump has been linked to the likes of Epstein and Maxwell, but still walks free, while the notorious ‘Nxivm’ leader Keith Raniere has been sentenced to 120 years in prison for racketeering, sex trafficking, child pornography possession and other crimes. Are they so different? You the people ask yourself that question!
On a much lighter note the Trump campaign website was hacked and the hacker left an amusing message which read ‘the world has had enough’. Trump may be surrounded by highly visible bodyguards, but if someone wants to get to you they will. If Trump wanted to stay liked by the idiots who watched his misogynistic reality TV show or the idiots that saw him as a successful business man, he should have stayed out of politics because the world now knows he is a flailing old age pensioner not fit to be admired. If he wanted his affairs to be hidden from public view and his finances not to become public knowledge he should have stayed a business man cocooned and surrendered by his ‘YES’ people and not looked for notoriety in the public domain. Privacy is no longer an option in this day and age, and corruption will be found even when hidden by the best.
On that note I will skip over to dear old Blighty to see what midweek has brought us poor souls downtrodden by the Tory led government. So as we enter the festive season month’s people are been told what they can or can’t do regarding parties and social gatherings by an authoritarian government set to look at further restrictions due to their ineptitude to control the spread of the pandemic. Even during the two world wars people where never told they couldn’t socialise with friends and family, yet this government sees itself above commoners and nobles alike dictating to us how we can celebrate Halloween, Guy Fawkes Night, Armistice, Christmas and the New Year. I understand the need for compromise in difficult times, but this Tory cabinet under the leadership of Johnson is too authoritarian, non-diplomatic and non-democratic forcing new laws through without consultation. The worrying facts are that the virus is showing no likelihood of disappearing anytime soon and the government has no solid answer to how we as a combined nation will defeat it as the Coronavirus vaccine taskforce chair has stated that the first COVID vaccines are “likely to be imperfect” and “might not prevent infection”. So where does that leave us?
As a single person without family to see during the Christmas period, such trivialities don’t really concern me, but I do feel for those people with big extended families who get together to celebrate the festive season and will no doubt suffer mentally if their usual plans are scuppered by a government who will more than likely break their own rules as has been witnessed countless times over the past nine months. I have said it over and over, what is needed is a coalition of parties to bring together different thinking and troubleshooting on actions required rather than being controlled by one dictatorial madman and his acolytes. Also the present cabinet is too far removed from reality on the streets of the United Kingdom and we need more parliamentary ministers who have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps giving them a better insight to the stresses and impoverished strains of living hand to mouth rather than fed by a silver spoon.
The issue of governments of the past was stated quite eloquently by an actor recently who state his one rant about lockdown is that “we must learn now that the people who went to Eton can't run this country. They've done it, they've tried to do it and this little small group who all went to the same school in the same class, it doesn't work. So I feel we need some working-class people, people who have lived a real life, people that are in touch with what's going on in reality, to maybe come to the front now and start to get involved in how this country is run”. I agree, we need more professionals and celebrities to speak out against the way political leaders are chosen. We are finding more and more of our politicians are young upstarts fresh in to life who know nothing but what they were taught in a classroom without the life skills and experience to be Ministers of Parliament, let alone cabinet ministers or party leaders. These individuals jump straight from school to university to internships to political aides then decide they want to run for a political seat in parliament without even stepping foot in to the world of reality and life that they need to gain the experience, unlike someone who has worked in a non-political profession first and has gained experience before taking the decision to seek political office. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t do a good job someday, but how can a person in their twenties even think they are qualified to be in the shark pool of politics. Don’t get me started on the old boy’s network that currently inhabits the halls of Westminster and Government house, jobs gained through family nepotism or bribes.
The nepotism isn’t just in dear old Blighty, it is globally as families use their wealth and power to insert their off spring in to well-paid powerful positions that will benefit themselves and their friends, but I can only speak for what I read and watch going on in my own country and the United states where nepotism is so well publicised from the Whitehouse down through government and on in to big conglomerate business nationwide. I ask these questions of the world!
- How long are we the people going to allow money linked to power rule our lives?
- When are we going to take back our rights from the rich?
- When are we going to stop the incestuous nepotism of big business and politics?
Rant you tomorrow!
Tuesday 27 October 2020
27/10/2020
November looms and the faces doom from politicians and virus the parasites of our age. One oppresses and the other kills, but they both do the same job which is to control people’s lives and livelihoods. The virus kills indiscriminately while politicians just subvert people’s rights illegally. We are now in a world heading towards totalitarianism where every move is watched, categorised and stored for big brother’s malicious subjugation of civil liberties controlled by those in power of this burgeoning fascist authoritarian movement quickly rising across the globe. Okay let’s check out what has been illegally done in the past twenty four hours by our so-called leaders of a so-called free world of illusion and subterfuge.
Well the Republicans went and did it in the American land of the not so free. They have illegally installed Justice Barrett to the Supreme Court to do their bidding by insinuating politics in to the judicial system. The handmaiden has been sworn in and is already to help re-elect Trump in to office illegally. So the big outcry across America is over Barrett confirmation just days before an election meaning that America is set to regress back to the dark ages of bible thumping oppression. Her appointment seals for the foreseeable future a 6-3 conservative majority on the top US judicial body which has condemned by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as a move rushed and unprecedented while Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer stated that by going ahead with the vote so close to the election the Republican majority was “lighting its credibility on fire”. All Democrats fear that Judge Barrett's confirmation to the lifelong post will favour Republicans in politically sensitive cases that reach America's top court for potentially decades to come which means every racial, sexual and civil case brought before the far right Justice system will be viewed through the eyes of bible bashing hypocrites reverting all progressive laws back in time. Barrett is a woman controlled by men with in her own religious circle, brainwashed and indoctrinated in to a world where women are still supposed to obey their spouses and conform to a religious belief devised by a man and could seal the deal for abortion to criminalised and has openly spoke of her belief in segregation. This appointment is a dark chapter in an American history where Trump, the white supremacist and self-proclaimed misogamist has been allowed to subvert Justice to amplify his own greed.
Anyway on the flipside this may create a surge of blue as we head towards the November 3rd deadline for America to decide whether it will be the misogynistic racist or the gentle old grandpa who takes up residency in the Whitehouse come January. But don’t be fooled the fight is far from over no matter what the poles say. And don’t forget Trump still believe he has a god given right to be where he is. This is a man who hates to lose and will do anything, even corruption to win. America you have a problem and that problem is corruption in the halls of power and it just got worse, so use your vote and create a landslide for Biden/Harris.
I would like to rant on more about Trump and Pence, but I have said it all before and I don’t want to bore you. So on that I will check in on dear old Blighty where more than 50 Tory MPs have written to the prime minister calling for a “clear road map” out of lockdown restrictions in northern England, warning that the region risks being “left behind”, also calling for an economic recovery plan for the region, arguing it had been hardest hit by the virus. And all No 10 can reply is by saying it is “committed to levelling up across the country”. What is unbelievable is that nowhere below the Midlands is in the tier 3 category, which calls for a closer look in to those regions exempt and is there a political reason? Johnson is England south and England south only. The other nations of the UK have their own ministers, but anywhere ‘North of the old Watford Gap’ scenario is still in force in Westminster where every Northern region is left out in the cold and classed as unnecessary until election time, then the politicians will promise the earth and deliver nothing year after year. I have lived in the North East, the Midlands and even North and South London, but I have never witnessed a bigger divide than the northern regions of England. What could benefit these regions is their own First Minister and a division of nation similar to the rest of the UK nations making the Northumbria, Tyne and Wear, Cleveland, Cumbria, North and South Yorkshire, Lancashire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester a nation of their own governed from a central parliament. This way we as Northerners would know our voices were been heard.
Another issue still seems to be over school meals during holidays for those that are classed as impoverished and how Johnson is still refusing to understand the need to help starving children which is unbelievable in this day and age. Johnson is claiming that the £20 a week increase in Universal Credit should be enough to feed the children of the poorest workers or the unemployed parents, which is just disgusting as at some point he will decide to remove that money dropping the unemployed even more in to poverty than they are already. There should be a serious look at benefits in this country where people either go cold or starve because 90% of their benefit goes on paying extortionate overheads which increase as benefits remain stagnant. The benefits payment should be geared to increase as the cost of living increases the same as the minimum wage paid to the employed. I am not saying the unemployed should receive the same as workers on minimum wage, but the benefits should at least not fall below the poverty threshold which creates more debt as people turn to unscrupulous loan sharks or money lenders to get by on payday loans which have unrealistic payback rates. Not one Member of Parliament is classed as impoverished, yet they still allow their constituents to go hungry. Whilst still ranting about unemployment, here’s another hidden fact for those that may be looking to rent due to not been able to pay your mortgage. The government will remove 14% of the housing benefits you are entitled to if the property you live in has a bedroom that lies vacant. This means for a single person trying to find somewhere to live if you want to rent a two bedroom property, you need to be aware that your rent will be reduced meaning you will be stiffed by yet another Tory money maker.
Today I am finding it a little hard to remain upbeat or positive with the world we live in due to the politics globally. All I see is more and more money hungry individuals using public service as an excuse to line their own pockets rather than serve the needs of their constituents. On that I will call it a day,
Rant you tomorrow!
Well the Republicans went and did it in the American land of the not so free. They have illegally installed Justice Barrett to the Supreme Court to do their bidding by insinuating politics in to the judicial system. The handmaiden has been sworn in and is already to help re-elect Trump in to office illegally. So the big outcry across America is over Barrett confirmation just days before an election meaning that America is set to regress back to the dark ages of bible thumping oppression. Her appointment seals for the foreseeable future a 6-3 conservative majority on the top US judicial body which has condemned by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as a move rushed and unprecedented while Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer stated that by going ahead with the vote so close to the election the Republican majority was “lighting its credibility on fire”. All Democrats fear that Judge Barrett's confirmation to the lifelong post will favour Republicans in politically sensitive cases that reach America's top court for potentially decades to come which means every racial, sexual and civil case brought before the far right Justice system will be viewed through the eyes of bible bashing hypocrites reverting all progressive laws back in time. Barrett is a woman controlled by men with in her own religious circle, brainwashed and indoctrinated in to a world where women are still supposed to obey their spouses and conform to a religious belief devised by a man and could seal the deal for abortion to criminalised and has openly spoke of her belief in segregation. This appointment is a dark chapter in an American history where Trump, the white supremacist and self-proclaimed misogamist has been allowed to subvert Justice to amplify his own greed.
Anyway on the flipside this may create a surge of blue as we head towards the November 3rd deadline for America to decide whether it will be the misogynistic racist or the gentle old grandpa who takes up residency in the Whitehouse come January. But don’t be fooled the fight is far from over no matter what the poles say. And don’t forget Trump still believe he has a god given right to be where he is. This is a man who hates to lose and will do anything, even corruption to win. America you have a problem and that problem is corruption in the halls of power and it just got worse, so use your vote and create a landslide for Biden/Harris.
I would like to rant on more about Trump and Pence, but I have said it all before and I don’t want to bore you. So on that I will check in on dear old Blighty where more than 50 Tory MPs have written to the prime minister calling for a “clear road map” out of lockdown restrictions in northern England, warning that the region risks being “left behind”, also calling for an economic recovery plan for the region, arguing it had been hardest hit by the virus. And all No 10 can reply is by saying it is “committed to levelling up across the country”. What is unbelievable is that nowhere below the Midlands is in the tier 3 category, which calls for a closer look in to those regions exempt and is there a political reason? Johnson is England south and England south only. The other nations of the UK have their own ministers, but anywhere ‘North of the old Watford Gap’ scenario is still in force in Westminster where every Northern region is left out in the cold and classed as unnecessary until election time, then the politicians will promise the earth and deliver nothing year after year. I have lived in the North East, the Midlands and even North and South London, but I have never witnessed a bigger divide than the northern regions of England. What could benefit these regions is their own First Minister and a division of nation similar to the rest of the UK nations making the Northumbria, Tyne and Wear, Cleveland, Cumbria, North and South Yorkshire, Lancashire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester a nation of their own governed from a central parliament. This way we as Northerners would know our voices were been heard.
Another issue still seems to be over school meals during holidays for those that are classed as impoverished and how Johnson is still refusing to understand the need to help starving children which is unbelievable in this day and age. Johnson is claiming that the £20 a week increase in Universal Credit should be enough to feed the children of the poorest workers or the unemployed parents, which is just disgusting as at some point he will decide to remove that money dropping the unemployed even more in to poverty than they are already. There should be a serious look at benefits in this country where people either go cold or starve because 90% of their benefit goes on paying extortionate overheads which increase as benefits remain stagnant. The benefits payment should be geared to increase as the cost of living increases the same as the minimum wage paid to the employed. I am not saying the unemployed should receive the same as workers on minimum wage, but the benefits should at least not fall below the poverty threshold which creates more debt as people turn to unscrupulous loan sharks or money lenders to get by on payday loans which have unrealistic payback rates. Not one Member of Parliament is classed as impoverished, yet they still allow their constituents to go hungry. Whilst still ranting about unemployment, here’s another hidden fact for those that may be looking to rent due to not been able to pay your mortgage. The government will remove 14% of the housing benefits you are entitled to if the property you live in has a bedroom that lies vacant. This means for a single person trying to find somewhere to live if you want to rent a two bedroom property, you need to be aware that your rent will be reduced meaning you will be stiffed by yet another Tory money maker.
Today I am finding it a little hard to remain upbeat or positive with the world we live in due to the politics globally. All I see is more and more money hungry individuals using public service as an excuse to line their own pockets rather than serve the needs of their constituents. On that I will call it a day,
Rant you tomorrow!
Monday 26 October 2020
26/10/2020
Welcome to the final week of October, Halloween is on its final march and so is the US election. But the march of COVID-19 is not stopping, neither is the incompetence and ignorance of the political leaders of the world. Let’s have a look at what’s happened over the weekend.
In America as I said the election is in to its last sprint for the line as news networks countdown each day predicting the outcome which may not be known for month’s because if Trump loses he will try and win in the courts. As the end is nigh both Trump and Pence are on the election wagon jumping from state to state trying to convince American voters they are the best bet for America’s future, all while spreading the coronavirus. Just days after been released from Hospital Trump was back at without any regard for the people in close proximity to him and Pence is now doing the same. Just days after Pence’s chief of staff was diagnosed positive for the virus, instead of self-isolating, Pence was seen on the election trail ignoring CDC guidelines claiming himself as an essential worker. How can the country still feel these men are suitable for public office when they have no concern for the people of America beyond the fact they require them to vote them back in to office come November 3rd. They have broken promise after promise when it comes to COVID19, COVID relief, law and order, the Supreme Court, climate and many more that could fill a book of ineptitude.
Trump is clearly showing the stress of been president and the strain the campaign trail is taking on his already fragile psyche. Time and time again Trump keeps insisting that the United States is “rounding the turn” in its battle against the coronavirus, yet the country recorded its highest number of new infections so far over the weekend, reporting more than 84,000 cases on Friday and 79,000 on Saturday which is illustrating Trump blinkered view of the virus especially since he now believes he is immune to it. Another example of a fractured psyche was his interview with CBS show 60 Minutes which was finally aired on Sunday night, where Trump was seen claiming his administration has done “maybe a great job” in fighting back against Covid-19 and losing his temper with presenter Lesley Stahl when she confronted him with his own past comments on decrying “fake news” as a tactic to discredit unfavourable press coverage. This prompted him to storm out of the interview like a scalded little schoolboy refusing to return. More and more slip ups are occurring during his super spreader campaign speeches also, like his miraculous announcement that he was the recipient of not one, but possible three Nobel prizes provoking confusion during his rally speech in Londonderry, New Hampshire just yesterday.
Then on the back of all these lies and misguided fluffs Trump is making, you have a senior aide to Trump conceding to the fact that the US is “not going to control the pandemic”, instead Whitehouse Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Covid-19 could only be defeated by “mitigation areas” like vaccines and therapeutics. While on the other side of the isle Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden said the Whitehouse was waving “the white flag of defeat” adding that Mr Meadows’ comments showed that the Trump administration had “given up on their basic duty to protect the American people” in response to Meadows statement in the interview with CNN where he said control of the virus was not a realistic goal because “it is a contagious virus just like the flu”. Basically the whole world is in the grip of this virus, yet America’s stubbornness to be told what to do is the ultimate cost of the now approximate 225,000 deaths in America which is almost 100,000 more than the next country on the world list which is Brazil at 157,000. Nothing will change in America until January when a new president is inaugurated and will never change if Trump is that person been inaugurated, so America it is up to you.
All this is just dumbfounding to me as an outsider, that so much ‘BS’ can be allowed to go unchecked especially by a group of biased politicians who have shown what they are made of by rushing through the nomination of a racist, white woman who continually goes against her own sex to support misogynistic views. When this woman is added to the Supreme Court the civil rights of all Americans will be lost and she could even be the deciding factor on the election as Trump is set to take the result to court should it go against him, which would mean democracy is well and truly dead in America as the administration and the senate will enact a cleansing of people’s right to vote. This will happen should the Supreme Court become the deciding factor of future elections taking away the democratic rights of all to a free unbiased election. Instead of the number of Judges been increased on the Supreme Court to create equality of sentencing, there should be a bill raised to remove the life time standing of each justice to a set term which would create an honesty factor on the bench. No Judge should be allowed to be paid extortionate salaries for life, they should be subject to election every four years and be not chosen by the senate or the sitting president, but the people themselves in a national election just like Sheriff’s, District Attorneys, Governor’s, Senators, Vice Presidents and Presidents are. A true democracy is chosen by the people for the people not a president who can commit injustices by installing unworthy individuals to further his or her own agenda.
On that I will shut up about America for today and return to see how much of a shit show has gone on in dear old Blighty since Friday. Well there is no movement on the virus lockdown situation or the people it affects as South Yorkshire joined the Tier 3 areas on Sunday. The main ongoing issue of the pandemic seems to be the ineptitude of the government to take free school meals seriously for those children of poorer families forced to go starving during school holidays or closures. The government who sit pretty in their well-furnished warm houses chomping away on the most expensive of gourmet meals while the rest of the country is suffering and expected to be able to survive on £10 worth of food a week. £10 pound is what the government and housing associations class as the weekly food bill for a single person which is not taking in to account inflation and the cost of food rising. So basically we the downtrodden who struggle to find work are classed as the dregs of society not worth any equality or a second thought by those in the government. They say the minimum wage is £8.52 an hour yet fail to understand that even those unemployed need a suitable impoverished benefit, instead choosing that £75.00 a week is enough to feed, pay bills and buy other essentials while even those earning that stipulated £8.52 are struggling also. We are governed by people of privilege, who yes may come from a working class background, but do not understand what it is like to try and survive on £75.00 a week when the basics of food is on the rise, energy costs are extortionately overpriced and been able to save for such things that are classed as luxuries is never going to happen, so starts the cycle of debt most unemployed find themselves in. On top of this most companies have gone in to a recruitment freeze due to the virus or are laying people off which is making finding a job even harder for the unemployed already on benefits. But what the hell as long as Johnson still gets his £150,000 each year and the members of parliament get their £75,000 each year, the rest of us can just whistle.
Then you have the unnecessary moves the Welsh parliament have taken by telling people what they can and can’t buy. As Wales entered their circuit breaker lockdown the Welsh government took the unprecedented move to tell shops to cease the sales of non-essential products. This has seen shops erect barriers preventing shoppers from buying household items, literature, entertainment and believe it or not ladies sanitary products, soap, toothpaste, etc. which I myself would consider essential items. We are seeing throughout the four nations of the UK a different style used, but all have the same outcome which is the governments using authoritarian rules to eradicate a virus while they still have no idea of how it is been spread. All in all we are living in a time where morons are telling more morons what to do. The only way to kill this virus is by doing the basics of clean hands, wear masks and keep your distance until there is a vaccine to slow the diseases affects. But jumping from one extreme to another like the governments are doing is never going to be the answer. Yes people need to earn a living, but when those better off than others can profiteer then that is when steps need to be taken to rectify the outcomes. An instance is the profiteering firms close to those in power, like the firms profiteering of PPE or the failing test and trace app. These are the people who need dealing with, not the innocents who have neglected the rule of six or social distancing protocols.
I know my head is all over the place today, my apologises for that, but the isolation is getting to me a little and been in the category that is downtrodden it just gets to me when I hearing about Johnson and his lackey’s total ineptitude in their chosen profession earning so much money and appearing to do nothing to earn it, then there’s the fact that such men like Trump, Pence, McConnell, Graham and Cruz are allowed to milk America for years while doing nothing to help the poorest of the nation. To me the way these men and women globally can get away with such blatant profiteering off of the people they promised to protect and serve is just disgusting. I know not all politicians are profiteers, but a good 90% are, using the office they were sworn in to, to perform corrupt acts of abuse. The populous will always be the ones to suffer until they take back the reigns and hold their own members of parliament, councillors, mayors, governors, senators, primeministers, vice presidents and presidents to task over the decisions made. On that I will call it a day,
Rant you tomorrow!
Friday 23 October 2020
23/10/2020
It’s the end of the week and nearly the end of the month, so October so far has been typical Autumnal weather in the UK. Wet, windy and cold, pretty much like the political arena where politicians have dampened down help for people, blew more smoke up the publics asses and received the proverbial cold shoulder from the populous about their efforts. Basically the climate is about right for the time of year. Anyway let’s see what has been happening.
So in America everyone is talking about the final presidential election debate where Biden and Trump went head to head trying to convince people to vote for them. How did it end? Was it as explosive as the first? Who won? These are the questions people are asking. What I have noticed on Twitter is that people are strongly expressing their own opinions on the battle of the grandads, but what disturbs me is the different celebrities that feel it is their place to give an opinion. I have seen celebrities who I have thought to be very intelligent individuals turn stupid over their political beliefs especially those that seem to want to combine politics with religion. It has always been stated, maybe only in the UK, that I don’t know, but as I grew up I was always told never to mix religion with politics, keep god and country separate. Over the last few decades in America I have witnessed how much the church influences the thinking of politicians which is wrong. The word of which ever religious book you follow cannot be used to conduct politics in this modern day and age, yet America is truly controlled by the money from people who wish to inject their own religious beliefs upon the masses through politics.
Anyway I am getting off the subject, which was the presidential debate. The two men faced off in Nashville, Tennessee clashing over COVID and race while trading corruption charges, in their final live TV debate.
On the pandemic, Trump still thinks it will just fizzle out even after catching it himself and says people should just carry on and ignore it, openly stating that he believed it was wrong to inflict further damage on the economy because of an infection from which most people recover. The death count in America currently stands at 223,000 plus, is that most people recovering? Trump does not care about individual lives, just is own bottom line and attacked Biden for staying at home. On the flipside Biden was quick to state there could be more lockdowns in America’s future countering Trumps statement of “We're learning to live with it.” With “Come on. We're dying with it”. The statistics don’t lie.
On race nothing but mindless ‘BS’ was heard as Trump stated "I am the least racist person in this room” bringing up the 1994 crime bill that Biden helped draft and which Black Lives Matter blames for the mass incarceration of African Americans. To which Biden countered stating that Trump was “one of the most racist presidents we've had in modern history. He pours fuel on every single racist fire” adding “This guy is a [racial] dog whistle about as big as a fog horn”, referencing the debacle of the first debate where Trump told ‘The Proud Boys’ to stand back and stand by accidently calling them ‘The Poor Boys’ or was it a slip, you decide.
Then they sparred off over corruption. That is each other’s corruption. Trump brought up purported leaked emails from Mr Biden's son, Hunter, about his business dealings in Ukraine and China, telling Biden “I think you owe an explanation to the American people,” to which Biden denied the president's unfounded insinuation that he somehow had a stake in the ventures stating “I have not taken a single penny from any country whatsoever. Ever”. Then in retaliation Biden brought up the New York Times recent report that questioned Trump having a bank account in China where taxes were paid in the amount of $188,561 from 2013-15 to the country, compared with $750 in US federal taxes that the newspaper reported Trump had paid in 2016-17 when he became president. This prompted Trump to say “I have many bank accounts and they're all listed and they're all over the place,” adding “I mean, I was a businessman doing business”. No he was a conman performing international cons!
What was most amusing during the debate was when Trump was asked about the climate where he instantly went on the attack insulting New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [Known as AOC to her friends and constituents] and her three progressive Democratic colleagues, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who are otherwise collectively known as The Squad by openly stating on camera “you know who developed it (the Green New Deal)? AOC plus three. They know nothing about the climate. I mean she's got a good line of stuff, but she knows nothing about the climate, and they're all hopping through hoops for AOC plus three. Not a real plan, it costs $100 trillion”, which prompted Ms Ocasio-Cortez to immediately take to Twitter to correct the president where she wrote “It's actually AOC plus 115 because that's how many House and Senate members have cosponsored the most ambitious climate legislation in American history”. Ms Ocasio-Cortez also shared a photo of her and three other members of the so-called Squad, writing: “Sisterhood is everything”. In another tweet, she wrote “if someone told me 3 years ago, while I was waitressing to help my family stay afloat, that in a few short years an unhinged President of the United States would be repeatedly saying my name at the 2020 debate, I would’ve brought them some water and told them to sober up”. Whilst on the subject of climate Trump in reference to wind power claimed that he knows “more about the wind” than his challenger does, stating that “It’s extremely expensive. Kills all the birds. It is very intermittent”, which shows Trump is either going a little crazy or he values the lives of birds more than the American people and of course its intermittent its wind. This attack on Ms Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow congresswomen wasn’t Trump’s only misogynistic remark of the night because he also was condescending of the debate’s female monitor, Kristen Welker. Trump in the past few days has attacked Ms Welker’s character as a journalist, yet tried to butter her up during the debate using a smarmy tone when he looked at her and stated live on air “By the way so far I respect very much the way you’re handling this, I have to say”, How much more condescending could he have put it?
All in all, I am glad I don’t live in America, because the way politics is run is unethical, immoral and just down right illegal. How can any democracy allow a politicians vote to be influenced by lobbyists who offer incentives for votes. The oil industry, the arms industry and even the religion industry have a say in how politicians run not only their own states, but the country. A simple promise of a company moving to a state will influence how that governor or senator will cast their vote in a bill that is proposed. I know politics is a game of averages on how a vote is cast, but how can that vote be fair when money or contracts are metaphorically or even physically been used as an influencer. In my humble opinion until America removes lobbyists from the equation no law, bill or act can be truly fair. As the Election stumbles towards the finish line, the polls are showing a hefty swing to the side of the Democrats, but winning the most votes does not always win the election, and the margin is narrower in a handful of states that could decide the race either way. What is really needed is a final decisive push to guarantee Trump is surgically removed from the big chair and is not allowed to stand down installing Pence in to the seat for two months so he can be pardoned of all crimes enacted before and during his presidency. So America the time is nigh, do the right thing and remove Trump from office, cast him in to a prison cell and let the world see the ‘EAGLE’ soar once more.
I could have gone about the debate for pages, but I think I need to check in on dear old Blighty and see how we are ending the week. So as Friday rolls on towards the weekend, stricter coronavirus rules are coming into force for nearly six million Britons. Greater Manchester's population of 2.8 million joined Liverpool City Region and Lancashire in England's highest tier of restrictions [Tier Guidelines] and from 18:00 BST today, 3.1 million people in Wales will have to stay at home as a 17-day lockdown begins. That number will also include South Yorkshire as its populous is moved into tier three restrictions from 00:01 on Saturday, bringing the total number of people living under England's tightest rules to more than seven million as of Sunday. This comes as a minister stated there was a “common purpose here to get the virus down” so people could enjoy Christmas, adding “I think few people expect it to be exactly as it would normally” said Chief Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Barclay, but “the ability of families to spend Christmas together” was “something we all hope to be in a position to do”. Meanwhile, Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething stated the lockdown in Wales was happening now so “we can have a much more normal Christmas season for businesses”. In the last twenty four hours the UK recorded another 189 deaths and 21,242 new confirmed cases. While England uses a 3 tier system and Wales opts for a 17 day ‘circuit breaker’, the Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon is set to announce Scotland’s own 5 tier system to combat the coronavirus. While Scotland and Wales put on a good show to their constituents, Johnson was once again seen to be inept as he faced the nation in yet another useless TV briefing where he confessed to “frustrations” at the Test and Trace system and admitted there is a need to “improve” it. The latest figures show that less than 60% of close contacts of people who tested positive for coronavirus in England are being reached, the lowest weekly percentage since the scheme began and just 15% of people tested for COVID-19 in England at an in-person site are receiving their result within 24 hours. This is a scheme the cabinet saw fit to source outside expertise to develop to the tune of 12 billion pounds which could have gone elsewhere in the fight against the coronavirus, but instead private companies are the winners while the voters are the losers.
Once again it just dumbfounds me how we, as the United Kingdom have suddenly fractured in to four separate governments that do not communicate on a multi-lateral basis to combat this pandemic. We are in unprecedented times of unrest in both lives and livelihoods, yet the four nations under one flag appear to be at an impasse and cannot be seen to be openly uniting to fight off this economic and mortality sapping virus as one nation. What is been seen is each nation going it alone. What will be next checkpoints set up at the borders between England/Scotland and England/Wales to prevent cross border contamination. It is becoming the thing of nightmarish movies about an apocalypse.
Until Johnson, Sturgeon, Drakeford and Foster come together as one coalition of ministers on how the United Kingdom will combat this pandemic we will never be free of the virus and how it spreads. A nation cannot run as four separate entities and expect to win in the end. I have said it before and I will say it again what the United Kingdom requires is one political figure head who oversees the English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish first ministers while representing the United Kingdom on the International stage. This person will not have a voting role, but will only be used as a tie break vote if the first ministers can’t come to a satisfactory three to one majority on anything to do with the nation as a whole and would be the one person who represents parliament in conference to the Royal figure head. This type of hierarchy would bring a multi-lateral nationwide scenario while each individual minister dealt with the day to day running of their own nation.
So what we have deemed from the last twenty four hours is that both Trump and Biden are unsuitable as an American President, but at least one of them has a possible Vice President who will be seen to be fighting for the whole populous [Harris] rather than just the god fearing ones [Pence]. Again I will repeat myself I do not understand the influence the ‘GOD SQUAD’ has on the way America is run as a modern day nation where religion is thought better than science. Are American’s regressing to the middle ages of fantasy over reality, where the words of a book controls the minds of the people? I am a semi religious person, but please if we all adhered to the book(s) of religion we would never evolve beyond a middle ages mentality. So America come back to the 21st century.
While the last few months have shown how inept Johnson and his cabinet are at solving life threatening scenarios which have come to pass in to reality as their little sortie in to lockdown easing fails on a national scale and it is us the voters who have to suffer. Unfortunately we in the UK have three more years of our buffoons, while America hopefully only has 13 more days of their incompetent duo. So America while we the UK look on in anticipation and jealousy, you have the vote to start the ball rolling on removing fascism and authoritarianism from your Whitehouse which could start the decline of those ideologies globally. Please make the right decision come November 3rd. With that I will call it a week,
Rant you tomorrow!
So in America everyone is talking about the final presidential election debate where Biden and Trump went head to head trying to convince people to vote for them. How did it end? Was it as explosive as the first? Who won? These are the questions people are asking. What I have noticed on Twitter is that people are strongly expressing their own opinions on the battle of the grandads, but what disturbs me is the different celebrities that feel it is their place to give an opinion. I have seen celebrities who I have thought to be very intelligent individuals turn stupid over their political beliefs especially those that seem to want to combine politics with religion. It has always been stated, maybe only in the UK, that I don’t know, but as I grew up I was always told never to mix religion with politics, keep god and country separate. Over the last few decades in America I have witnessed how much the church influences the thinking of politicians which is wrong. The word of which ever religious book you follow cannot be used to conduct politics in this modern day and age, yet America is truly controlled by the money from people who wish to inject their own religious beliefs upon the masses through politics.
Anyway I am getting off the subject, which was the presidential debate. The two men faced off in Nashville, Tennessee clashing over COVID and race while trading corruption charges, in their final live TV debate.
On the pandemic, Trump still thinks it will just fizzle out even after catching it himself and says people should just carry on and ignore it, openly stating that he believed it was wrong to inflict further damage on the economy because of an infection from which most people recover. The death count in America currently stands at 223,000 plus, is that most people recovering? Trump does not care about individual lives, just is own bottom line and attacked Biden for staying at home. On the flipside Biden was quick to state there could be more lockdowns in America’s future countering Trumps statement of “We're learning to live with it.” With “Come on. We're dying with it”. The statistics don’t lie.
On race nothing but mindless ‘BS’ was heard as Trump stated "I am the least racist person in this room” bringing up the 1994 crime bill that Biden helped draft and which Black Lives Matter blames for the mass incarceration of African Americans. To which Biden countered stating that Trump was “one of the most racist presidents we've had in modern history. He pours fuel on every single racist fire” adding “This guy is a [racial] dog whistle about as big as a fog horn”, referencing the debacle of the first debate where Trump told ‘The Proud Boys’ to stand back and stand by accidently calling them ‘The Poor Boys’ or was it a slip, you decide.
Then they sparred off over corruption. That is each other’s corruption. Trump brought up purported leaked emails from Mr Biden's son, Hunter, about his business dealings in Ukraine and China, telling Biden “I think you owe an explanation to the American people,” to which Biden denied the president's unfounded insinuation that he somehow had a stake in the ventures stating “I have not taken a single penny from any country whatsoever. Ever”. Then in retaliation Biden brought up the New York Times recent report that questioned Trump having a bank account in China where taxes were paid in the amount of $188,561 from 2013-15 to the country, compared with $750 in US federal taxes that the newspaper reported Trump had paid in 2016-17 when he became president. This prompted Trump to say “I have many bank accounts and they're all listed and they're all over the place,” adding “I mean, I was a businessman doing business”. No he was a conman performing international cons!
What was most amusing during the debate was when Trump was asked about the climate where he instantly went on the attack insulting New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [Known as AOC to her friends and constituents] and her three progressive Democratic colleagues, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who are otherwise collectively known as The Squad by openly stating on camera “you know who developed it (the Green New Deal)? AOC plus three. They know nothing about the climate. I mean she's got a good line of stuff, but she knows nothing about the climate, and they're all hopping through hoops for AOC plus three. Not a real plan, it costs $100 trillion”, which prompted Ms Ocasio-Cortez to immediately take to Twitter to correct the president where she wrote “It's actually AOC plus 115 because that's how many House and Senate members have cosponsored the most ambitious climate legislation in American history”. Ms Ocasio-Cortez also shared a photo of her and three other members of the so-called Squad, writing: “Sisterhood is everything”. In another tweet, she wrote “if someone told me 3 years ago, while I was waitressing to help my family stay afloat, that in a few short years an unhinged President of the United States would be repeatedly saying my name at the 2020 debate, I would’ve brought them some water and told them to sober up”. Whilst on the subject of climate Trump in reference to wind power claimed that he knows “more about the wind” than his challenger does, stating that “It’s extremely expensive. Kills all the birds. It is very intermittent”, which shows Trump is either going a little crazy or he values the lives of birds more than the American people and of course its intermittent its wind. This attack on Ms Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow congresswomen wasn’t Trump’s only misogynistic remark of the night because he also was condescending of the debate’s female monitor, Kristen Welker. Trump in the past few days has attacked Ms Welker’s character as a journalist, yet tried to butter her up during the debate using a smarmy tone when he looked at her and stated live on air “By the way so far I respect very much the way you’re handling this, I have to say”, How much more condescending could he have put it?
All in all, I am glad I don’t live in America, because the way politics is run is unethical, immoral and just down right illegal. How can any democracy allow a politicians vote to be influenced by lobbyists who offer incentives for votes. The oil industry, the arms industry and even the religion industry have a say in how politicians run not only their own states, but the country. A simple promise of a company moving to a state will influence how that governor or senator will cast their vote in a bill that is proposed. I know politics is a game of averages on how a vote is cast, but how can that vote be fair when money or contracts are metaphorically or even physically been used as an influencer. In my humble opinion until America removes lobbyists from the equation no law, bill or act can be truly fair. As the Election stumbles towards the finish line, the polls are showing a hefty swing to the side of the Democrats, but winning the most votes does not always win the election, and the margin is narrower in a handful of states that could decide the race either way. What is really needed is a final decisive push to guarantee Trump is surgically removed from the big chair and is not allowed to stand down installing Pence in to the seat for two months so he can be pardoned of all crimes enacted before and during his presidency. So America the time is nigh, do the right thing and remove Trump from office, cast him in to a prison cell and let the world see the ‘EAGLE’ soar once more.
I could have gone about the debate for pages, but I think I need to check in on dear old Blighty and see how we are ending the week. So as Friday rolls on towards the weekend, stricter coronavirus rules are coming into force for nearly six million Britons. Greater Manchester's population of 2.8 million joined Liverpool City Region and Lancashire in England's highest tier of restrictions [Tier Guidelines] and from 18:00 BST today, 3.1 million people in Wales will have to stay at home as a 17-day lockdown begins. That number will also include South Yorkshire as its populous is moved into tier three restrictions from 00:01 on Saturday, bringing the total number of people living under England's tightest rules to more than seven million as of Sunday. This comes as a minister stated there was a “common purpose here to get the virus down” so people could enjoy Christmas, adding “I think few people expect it to be exactly as it would normally” said Chief Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Barclay, but “the ability of families to spend Christmas together” was “something we all hope to be in a position to do”. Meanwhile, Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething stated the lockdown in Wales was happening now so “we can have a much more normal Christmas season for businesses”. In the last twenty four hours the UK recorded another 189 deaths and 21,242 new confirmed cases. While England uses a 3 tier system and Wales opts for a 17 day ‘circuit breaker’, the Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon is set to announce Scotland’s own 5 tier system to combat the coronavirus. While Scotland and Wales put on a good show to their constituents, Johnson was once again seen to be inept as he faced the nation in yet another useless TV briefing where he confessed to “frustrations” at the Test and Trace system and admitted there is a need to “improve” it. The latest figures show that less than 60% of close contacts of people who tested positive for coronavirus in England are being reached, the lowest weekly percentage since the scheme began and just 15% of people tested for COVID-19 in England at an in-person site are receiving their result within 24 hours. This is a scheme the cabinet saw fit to source outside expertise to develop to the tune of 12 billion pounds which could have gone elsewhere in the fight against the coronavirus, but instead private companies are the winners while the voters are the losers.
Once again it just dumbfounds me how we, as the United Kingdom have suddenly fractured in to four separate governments that do not communicate on a multi-lateral basis to combat this pandemic. We are in unprecedented times of unrest in both lives and livelihoods, yet the four nations under one flag appear to be at an impasse and cannot be seen to be openly uniting to fight off this economic and mortality sapping virus as one nation. What is been seen is each nation going it alone. What will be next checkpoints set up at the borders between England/Scotland and England/Wales to prevent cross border contamination. It is becoming the thing of nightmarish movies about an apocalypse.
Until Johnson, Sturgeon, Drakeford and Foster come together as one coalition of ministers on how the United Kingdom will combat this pandemic we will never be free of the virus and how it spreads. A nation cannot run as four separate entities and expect to win in the end. I have said it before and I will say it again what the United Kingdom requires is one political figure head who oversees the English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish first ministers while representing the United Kingdom on the International stage. This person will not have a voting role, but will only be used as a tie break vote if the first ministers can’t come to a satisfactory three to one majority on anything to do with the nation as a whole and would be the one person who represents parliament in conference to the Royal figure head. This type of hierarchy would bring a multi-lateral nationwide scenario while each individual minister dealt with the day to day running of their own nation.
So what we have deemed from the last twenty four hours is that both Trump and Biden are unsuitable as an American President, but at least one of them has a possible Vice President who will be seen to be fighting for the whole populous [Harris] rather than just the god fearing ones [Pence]. Again I will repeat myself I do not understand the influence the ‘GOD SQUAD’ has on the way America is run as a modern day nation where religion is thought better than science. Are American’s regressing to the middle ages of fantasy over reality, where the words of a book controls the minds of the people? I am a semi religious person, but please if we all adhered to the book(s) of religion we would never evolve beyond a middle ages mentality. So America come back to the 21st century.
While the last few months have shown how inept Johnson and his cabinet are at solving life threatening scenarios which have come to pass in to reality as their little sortie in to lockdown easing fails on a national scale and it is us the voters who have to suffer. Unfortunately we in the UK have three more years of our buffoons, while America hopefully only has 13 more days of their incompetent duo. So America while we the UK look on in anticipation and jealousy, you have the vote to start the ball rolling on removing fascism and authoritarianism from your Whitehouse which could start the decline of those ideologies globally. Please make the right decision come November 3rd. With that I will call it a week,
Rant you tomorrow!
Back Monday.
Thursday 22 October 2020
22/10/2020
The week trundles on with nothing been really achieved, I sit and contemplate how we as people say we are compassionate, yet do little to show compassion to those who really need it. All I see is more and more selfishness where there is no equality or forgiveness in people’s hearts. It’s a world of ‘Thank [whatever your religion] that is not me’ instead of ‘what can I do to help’ mentality. So let’s take a look at what’s been happening overnight.
In America there has been a mixed bag of incidents rather than just one or two that have become news. The biggest of those was the Trump/Obama attacks at each other during rival rallies. Whilst campaigning for Democratic White House nominee Joe Biden in Pennsylvania, Obama likened Trump to a "crazy uncle" and said he emboldened racists, while in North Carolina Trump mocked Obama for being wrong about the 2016 election outcome. The political insults just keep coming and with only 13 days left there is likely to be more surprises like the Attorney General forcing the Justice Department to publicly investigate the Biden’s or attempts to rig an election by claiming voter irregularities like the latest announcement by the US national security officials stating Iran was responsible for sending threatening emails to Democratic voters ahead of next month's presidential election. The National Intelligence Director John Radcliffe yesterday stated that the emails appeared to come from a far-right pro-Trump group and were meant to "incite unrest” and that it had been discovered that Iran and Russia had obtained "some voter registration information". Even though the supposed Iranian email attack was against Democrats threatening them to vote for Trump, Radcliffe worded it as if it was an effort to ‘Damage Trump’. Will the people under Trump stop at nothing to spread false information to the American public which suppresses the fact from the fiction Trump wants people to believe?
On a separate note the way the rallies are been held says a lot about the characters of the candidates. While Trump holds these big cattle market style rallies where everyone is packed in like cattle at a slaughter house with no social distancing and are rarely seen wearing masks, Biden chooses to have drive-in style rallies where people are distanced from each other and if worried can sit in their vehicles to listen to Biden, Obama or Harris speak. What Biden’s style tells everyone is we want to see you, but let’s be safe while Trump’s style says ‘I don’t give a flying F*** about you’. That is my opinion and I couldn’t give a **** if you don’t like it.
Meanwhile in Michigan, questions are been asked over the conduct and ethical practices of local sheriffs and law enforcement officers who have been seen to condone the plot to kidnap the State governor. In an interview after the first men were charged, two of whom he knows personally, the sheriff of Barr County, Michigan Dar Leaf stated that “It’s just a charge, and they say, a ‘plot to kidnap,’ and you got to remember that. Are they trying to kidnap? Because a lot of people are angry with the governor, and they want her arrested,” Leaf explained. “So are they trying to arrest, or was it a kidnap attempt? Because you can still, in Michigan, if it’s a felony, make a felony arrest”. These words coming from a duly elected Sheriff are disgusting and incite vigilantism. What is more concerning from an outsiders point of view is the fact that it shows him as one who would join in an attack on a government he did not agree with. Sheriff Leaf also belongs to a group that calls themselves the ‘Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association’, who believe that county sheriffs retain ‘supreme authority within their jurisdictions to interpret the law’. Two significant issues the organization focuses on is protecting the Second Amendment and U.S. immigration policies. So you have a sheriff that refuses to condone the alleged kidnap plot, who is a member of a group of Law Enforcement that believe in the same values as Trump which is authoritarian dominance over others they deem inferior and is clearly willing to use his own version of justice rather than obey the laws of the land. This guy is the type of Law Enforcement official the country needs to remove because he is a fossil of the old west where the sheriff was in the pocket of the local land owners. What is been seen throughout America at the moment is groups in support of Trump who could form a national militia should Trump lose in 13 days and seek their own style of justice. Also should Trump lose with immediate effect the Attorney General, Post Master General and the Directors of FBI, CIA, DHS, ICE and Border patrol should be stripped of their jobs because they are complicit in everything Trump has done over the past four years. Speaking of law enforcement the recent revelations over Trump’s nomination to the Supreme Court is truly worrying. Barrett used to be a trustee at a school that bans LBGTQ+ students and faculty which is just outrageous in this day and age, How can this type of person be morally unbiased when it comes to decisions that affect the LBGTQ+ society when passing laws. She in my opinion is unsuitable as a person, a lawyer, a judge and especially as Supreme Court Justice, so should never be allowed to take a seat in such a bastion of law and order [again just my opinion, the Republicans have already decided she will get it, another travesty of civil rights].
Well I think I have said enough about America for today, so let’s take a look at dear old Blighty. So as we see more and more areas being placed in tier 3 lockdown the more authoritarian the present government is becoming. Yet the issues continue as people do not understand the rules properly within the specific tiers. For instance in the Greater Manchester area which is now in tier 3 there is confusion over gyms, whether they can stay open or must close and even the chief constables for the area isn’t really sure on that point of fact, which is rather dumbfounding because he is supposed to be one of the people who does know the rules. While in Nottingham area which is in tier 2, but is currently been considered for placement in tier 3, residents in a street where students held a party have been disgusted at the fact they have been fined. The four students who threw the party were fined a total of £40,000 for throwing a house party where 30 students attended. One neighbour stated they “just want to have fun” and shouldn't be fined while another stated “I don't think they should be fined, they've just left home, they want to have fun, they're teenagers, not kids, they think they're grown up they just made a mistake, imagine how their parents feel? It's dreadful, the fine should be cancelled, and their career hasn't even started”. So while people are suffering financially the government sees it necessary to fine the poorest of people for a first offence of the ‘Rule of six’ law while they sit pretty in their plush houses enjoying the extortionate salaries they get. How do they expect four students to find £40000? The cabinet is forcibly putting areas in to highest level of the tiering system while the financial packages for those areas decreases and the authoritarian style of fines and rules are increasing and are totally disgusting.
Speaking of financial travesties by the government, it can’t be forgot that as many struggle to not only survive in this present climate due to either been furloughed or are unemployed the present financial welfare scheme is really inadequate for purpose. Rents and mortgages aren’t been met unless people have savings they are using up up quickly. Yesterday another statement was released by the chancellor unveiling increased support for jobs and workers hit by COVID restrictions after growing clamour from firms in tier two areas. Rishi Sunak announced big changes to the Job Support Scheme (JSS) which is set to replace furlough in November. Under the revised scheme, employers will pay less and staff can work fewer hours before they qualify and taxpayer subsidy has been doubled. What is been noted is that businesses in tier two areas, particularly in the hospitality sector, have complained that they would be better off if they were under tier 3 restrictions because even though they would be forced to close, they would benefit from greater government support. What is seen is a government chopping and changing with no eye on the ball of how the people of the nation are affected. It is okay to deal with issues as they arise, but this government is playing defensively rather than offensively. They decide one thing then subsequently change their minds just weeks later. Since the pandemic hit our shores the cabinet has been off footed and chasing the curve daily.
The Chancellor himself has backtracked on major decisions, one of them been the furlough incentives which are set to be chopped from 80% to 66% under the new Job Support Scheme (JSS), but nothing is coming forth to help people who find themselves unemployed right now. I am 50+ year old man who was a fulltime carer for an elderly father for seven years. Prior to that I had three years of unemployment. Now since my father’s death which is just over a year ago, I have endeavoured to find work, but with such a long period of unemployment I am struggling to get back in to the workplace with very little assistance from the jobcentre. On top of that any inheritance I have from my father is slowly dwindling away as I pay over the odds for rent in a property we shared the cost for. I am currently searching for somewhere to move to, where I pay less rent, but another one of the government’s stupid taxes is preventing me from finding affordable accommodation. That tax is the aptly named ‘Bedroom Tax’ which taxes unemployed people living in property with more than one bedroom 14% off the housing benefit they are entitled to. This means if you’re rent is £400 per month and you live in two bedroom property, you are only entitled to £344 towards covering your rent, so to cover your rent you will have to reduce your living expenses from your job seekers allowance or income support by £56 per month. On top of that finding someone who rents to someone on Universal Credit is even harder, then add to that the amount of one bedroom properties available and things for single unemployed people with no family to help support them, you see a country in dire straits with a rising homelessness issue as well as a rising death toll problems. But so what the MP’s and local councillors are sitting pretty with their £6250 monthly salary. We the long term unemployed are the dregs of society with no hope of bettering ourselves especially with the current style of regime in power.
You know I never like to bring my personal circumstances in to my rants, but these days I am finding that I can’t stop as we watch the world turn in to a totalitarian and fascist controlled place. Not only in America and Britain, but elsewhere around the globe the governments take less and less notice of the underdogs they step over to get their fifteen minutes of fame while suppressing the will of the people through force and laws that benefit themselves before the electorate who stupidly placed them in power initiating an era of abusive dictatorship like oppression while trying to withhold facts of misdeeds. We need to take a real hard look at how the rights of humankind have been stripped away in the last twenty plus years by the illegal deeds of the politicians. On that I will call it a day,
Rant you tomorrow!
In America there has been a mixed bag of incidents rather than just one or two that have become news. The biggest of those was the Trump/Obama attacks at each other during rival rallies. Whilst campaigning for Democratic White House nominee Joe Biden in Pennsylvania, Obama likened Trump to a "crazy uncle" and said he emboldened racists, while in North Carolina Trump mocked Obama for being wrong about the 2016 election outcome. The political insults just keep coming and with only 13 days left there is likely to be more surprises like the Attorney General forcing the Justice Department to publicly investigate the Biden’s or attempts to rig an election by claiming voter irregularities like the latest announcement by the US national security officials stating Iran was responsible for sending threatening emails to Democratic voters ahead of next month's presidential election. The National Intelligence Director John Radcliffe yesterday stated that the emails appeared to come from a far-right pro-Trump group and were meant to "incite unrest” and that it had been discovered that Iran and Russia had obtained "some voter registration information". Even though the supposed Iranian email attack was against Democrats threatening them to vote for Trump, Radcliffe worded it as if it was an effort to ‘Damage Trump’. Will the people under Trump stop at nothing to spread false information to the American public which suppresses the fact from the fiction Trump wants people to believe?
On a separate note the way the rallies are been held says a lot about the characters of the candidates. While Trump holds these big cattle market style rallies where everyone is packed in like cattle at a slaughter house with no social distancing and are rarely seen wearing masks, Biden chooses to have drive-in style rallies where people are distanced from each other and if worried can sit in their vehicles to listen to Biden, Obama or Harris speak. What Biden’s style tells everyone is we want to see you, but let’s be safe while Trump’s style says ‘I don’t give a flying F*** about you’. That is my opinion and I couldn’t give a **** if you don’t like it.
Meanwhile in Michigan, questions are been asked over the conduct and ethical practices of local sheriffs and law enforcement officers who have been seen to condone the plot to kidnap the State governor. In an interview after the first men were charged, two of whom he knows personally, the sheriff of Barr County, Michigan Dar Leaf stated that “It’s just a charge, and they say, a ‘plot to kidnap,’ and you got to remember that. Are they trying to kidnap? Because a lot of people are angry with the governor, and they want her arrested,” Leaf explained. “So are they trying to arrest, or was it a kidnap attempt? Because you can still, in Michigan, if it’s a felony, make a felony arrest”. These words coming from a duly elected Sheriff are disgusting and incite vigilantism. What is more concerning from an outsiders point of view is the fact that it shows him as one who would join in an attack on a government he did not agree with. Sheriff Leaf also belongs to a group that calls themselves the ‘Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association’, who believe that county sheriffs retain ‘supreme authority within their jurisdictions to interpret the law’. Two significant issues the organization focuses on is protecting the Second Amendment and U.S. immigration policies. So you have a sheriff that refuses to condone the alleged kidnap plot, who is a member of a group of Law Enforcement that believe in the same values as Trump which is authoritarian dominance over others they deem inferior and is clearly willing to use his own version of justice rather than obey the laws of the land. This guy is the type of Law Enforcement official the country needs to remove because he is a fossil of the old west where the sheriff was in the pocket of the local land owners. What is been seen throughout America at the moment is groups in support of Trump who could form a national militia should Trump lose in 13 days and seek their own style of justice. Also should Trump lose with immediate effect the Attorney General, Post Master General and the Directors of FBI, CIA, DHS, ICE and Border patrol should be stripped of their jobs because they are complicit in everything Trump has done over the past four years. Speaking of law enforcement the recent revelations over Trump’s nomination to the Supreme Court is truly worrying. Barrett used to be a trustee at a school that bans LBGTQ+ students and faculty which is just outrageous in this day and age, How can this type of person be morally unbiased when it comes to decisions that affect the LBGTQ+ society when passing laws. She in my opinion is unsuitable as a person, a lawyer, a judge and especially as Supreme Court Justice, so should never be allowed to take a seat in such a bastion of law and order [again just my opinion, the Republicans have already decided she will get it, another travesty of civil rights].
Well I think I have said enough about America for today, so let’s take a look at dear old Blighty. So as we see more and more areas being placed in tier 3 lockdown the more authoritarian the present government is becoming. Yet the issues continue as people do not understand the rules properly within the specific tiers. For instance in the Greater Manchester area which is now in tier 3 there is confusion over gyms, whether they can stay open or must close and even the chief constables for the area isn’t really sure on that point of fact, which is rather dumbfounding because he is supposed to be one of the people who does know the rules. While in Nottingham area which is in tier 2, but is currently been considered for placement in tier 3, residents in a street where students held a party have been disgusted at the fact they have been fined. The four students who threw the party were fined a total of £40,000 for throwing a house party where 30 students attended. One neighbour stated they “just want to have fun” and shouldn't be fined while another stated “I don't think they should be fined, they've just left home, they want to have fun, they're teenagers, not kids, they think they're grown up they just made a mistake, imagine how their parents feel? It's dreadful, the fine should be cancelled, and their career hasn't even started”. So while people are suffering financially the government sees it necessary to fine the poorest of people for a first offence of the ‘Rule of six’ law while they sit pretty in their plush houses enjoying the extortionate salaries they get. How do they expect four students to find £40000? The cabinet is forcibly putting areas in to highest level of the tiering system while the financial packages for those areas decreases and the authoritarian style of fines and rules are increasing and are totally disgusting.
Speaking of financial travesties by the government, it can’t be forgot that as many struggle to not only survive in this present climate due to either been furloughed or are unemployed the present financial welfare scheme is really inadequate for purpose. Rents and mortgages aren’t been met unless people have savings they are using up up quickly. Yesterday another statement was released by the chancellor unveiling increased support for jobs and workers hit by COVID restrictions after growing clamour from firms in tier two areas. Rishi Sunak announced big changes to the Job Support Scheme (JSS) which is set to replace furlough in November. Under the revised scheme, employers will pay less and staff can work fewer hours before they qualify and taxpayer subsidy has been doubled. What is been noted is that businesses in tier two areas, particularly in the hospitality sector, have complained that they would be better off if they were under tier 3 restrictions because even though they would be forced to close, they would benefit from greater government support. What is seen is a government chopping and changing with no eye on the ball of how the people of the nation are affected. It is okay to deal with issues as they arise, but this government is playing defensively rather than offensively. They decide one thing then subsequently change their minds just weeks later. Since the pandemic hit our shores the cabinet has been off footed and chasing the curve daily.
The Chancellor himself has backtracked on major decisions, one of them been the furlough incentives which are set to be chopped from 80% to 66% under the new Job Support Scheme (JSS), but nothing is coming forth to help people who find themselves unemployed right now. I am 50+ year old man who was a fulltime carer for an elderly father for seven years. Prior to that I had three years of unemployment. Now since my father’s death which is just over a year ago, I have endeavoured to find work, but with such a long period of unemployment I am struggling to get back in to the workplace with very little assistance from the jobcentre. On top of that any inheritance I have from my father is slowly dwindling away as I pay over the odds for rent in a property we shared the cost for. I am currently searching for somewhere to move to, where I pay less rent, but another one of the government’s stupid taxes is preventing me from finding affordable accommodation. That tax is the aptly named ‘Bedroom Tax’ which taxes unemployed people living in property with more than one bedroom 14% off the housing benefit they are entitled to. This means if you’re rent is £400 per month and you live in two bedroom property, you are only entitled to £344 towards covering your rent, so to cover your rent you will have to reduce your living expenses from your job seekers allowance or income support by £56 per month. On top of that finding someone who rents to someone on Universal Credit is even harder, then add to that the amount of one bedroom properties available and things for single unemployed people with no family to help support them, you see a country in dire straits with a rising homelessness issue as well as a rising death toll problems. But so what the MP’s and local councillors are sitting pretty with their £6250 monthly salary. We the long term unemployed are the dregs of society with no hope of bettering ourselves especially with the current style of regime in power.
You know I never like to bring my personal circumstances in to my rants, but these days I am finding that I can’t stop as we watch the world turn in to a totalitarian and fascist controlled place. Not only in America and Britain, but elsewhere around the globe the governments take less and less notice of the underdogs they step over to get their fifteen minutes of fame while suppressing the will of the people through force and laws that benefit themselves before the electorate who stupidly placed them in power initiating an era of abusive dictatorship like oppression while trying to withhold facts of misdeeds. We need to take a real hard look at how the rights of humankind have been stripped away in the last twenty plus years by the illegal deeds of the politicians. On that I will call it a day,
Rant you tomorrow!
Wednesday 21 October 2020
21/10/2020
Midweek again! Restrictions in the UK are getting stricter as more areas face tier 3 lockdown rules and America heads in to the final 14 days of election ‘BS’. Shall we see what happened over night?
So America as the campaign draws to a close, the unlikely 2020 candidate is profiting from letting Trump do most of the talking. Biden has run a campaign from his home for most of the time while over the past few month’s selectively hitting the campaign trail, only to hunker down again in recent days readying himself for the final debate. He regards big showy rallies as unsafe to his supporters and himself citing safety as very important to him while hoping voters would recognise and reward his prudence. Or was it all a strategy employed to let Trump do all the talking and make the mistakes, so he didn't have to. Trump enjoys the ego boosting rallies and the hustle and bustle of crowds who can pat him on the back and would probably describe life in the Biden’s hometown of Wilmington as suitably sleepy right now. And yes, it is about as humble as you can get for a possible political coronation when you think of the glass-covered colossus Hillary Clinton fatefully chose in New York, but Biden is a candidate who's railed against big rallies and showy moments, a man pitching to restore civility and normalcy to American political life. So as Biden strategizes and plays the long con on Trump, Trump himself is opting to state hop using up more of that fossil fuel he so loves to endorse.
Trump has been pulling at least two super spreader rallies each day since his failed town hall showdown with NBC’s Savana Guthrie six days ago in the hope he can claw back some of the deficit in poll numbers he is currently seeing, but what you have to ask is what illegal, unjust and devious plan is he hiding, ready to throw at Biden a couple of days before the election as reports are circulating that Trump has urged corrupt Attorney General Barr to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Biden’s. So as Trump heads to eerie, Pennsylvania for yet another slanderess speech calling everyone that speaks out against him useless and stupid, the first lady has decided not to accompany her husband. Her chief of staff has stated that the first lady continues to feel better every day after having coronavirus, “but with a lingering cough, and out of an abundance of caution, she will not be travelling today”. Pennsylvania would have been the first ladies first public campaign appearance in more than a year, which should tell you there is something severely wrong in Trump paradise. Could there be a divorce in POTUS’s near future? I have a question, if FLOTUS still has a cough due to the coronavirus, how can Trump’s physicians blatantly lie about him been clear of the virus? This message from the first lady indicates the true story that Trump is ignoring the doctors and carrying on like he is immortal.
What is more bizarre than FLOTUS in hiding, is the sudden appearance of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, the president's youngest and lesser-known daughter who is not usually thought to be close to her father attended a Trump campaign Pride event and is now being ridiculed online after a video of her speaking where she stated “I know what my father believes in, prior to politics he [Meaning Trump] supported gays, lesbians, the LGBQI... IA+ community”. That statement where Tiffany forgot to include the "T" in the acronym, which stands for trans has been used by critics to point to the rollback of LGBT protections by Trump’s administration who during his time in office has restricted transgender people from serving in the military, opposed the Equality Act, a bill that would have ensured federal protections for LGBTQ+ people and revoked protections for transgender students in schools.
In another knife twisting event, it has been revealed by the New York Post that Trump has a bank account registered in China, the country he has been critical of US firms doing business with and has sparked a trade war between the two countries. The hypocrisy Trump shows is just dumbfounding! This is a man who wants everything, but gives nothing back. He was exposed recently as paying as little as $750 in Us federal taxes while the documents obtained by the New York post show his bank account in China has paid out $188,561 in local taxes, so for a man who detests China he sure has paid them a lot of money, not to mention the patents held by eldest daughter Ivanka in China. Come on America, you have one vote, so make it count and remove the corrupt first family from the Whitehouse on November 3rd and start the healing process which brings America back in to the world of sanity. All I can say is I have never liked Trump and regard him as a leech on society who has no morals, no dignity and definitely no patriotism, yet some moronic individuals believe he is the second coming. If he is the second coming, then please give him the same treatment afforded to the first coming, but this time just imprison him, there’s no need to physically crucify him.
On that note I will change shores and check in on dear old Blighty. Well as South Yorkshire has been ordered to roll out tier 3 rules as of Saturday the questions are been asked where is next? Would it not be quicker to just implement a nationwide tire 3 lockdown and work backwards stepping down to tier 2 and then tier 1 as less cases are reported in an area or is it purely a financial house of cards, so the government can restrict who gets aid and who doesn’t. It is now clear Johnson has no plan on how we will survive this pandemic as his three-year spending master plan for the length of the present parliament have been abandoned, in favour of a one-year review because of the economic chaos caused by Covid-19. I thought governments were meant to be fiscally prudent not fiscally inept! Johnson and his prime ministerial predecessors have done nothing to safeguard the UK against the possibility of such an event as we are in the grip of right now. Their disaster planning has been woefully neglected which is why we find ourselves as a nation in such a ‘SHITE’ predicament. We were put in to lockdown too late, we were eased out of lockdown too soon and the current ideology of a 3 tier lockdown is inadequate as hospitality venues close one by one and schools struggle to curb infections. What will be seen when looking back at 2020 in the UK will be a year of hell, a year where the economy crashed, a year where a generation’s education suffered and a year where the most inept Primeminister in history floundered and crashed on the rocks of politics due to indecision, U-turns and incompetence within himself and the people he chose to run the country in the highest offices of the land.
Meanwhile local authorities are been forcibly told to adhere to an authoritarian governmental mandate which has seen areas such as Liverpool last week, Lancashire on Monday, Greater Manchester yesterday and South Yorkshire starting from Saturday, put in to tier 3 lockdown. What this, at the present time is showing is an alarming north, south divide happening as nowhere south has been ordered in to tier 3 lockdown yet. The lockdown protocols are not working, Johnson cabinet is not working, and we need a dramatic shake up in government. How can we allow such authoritarian displays as we are seeing right now as the government uses bully boy tactics to send local area’s in to forced closure, surely there is an easier way where neither the economy nor the populous suffer? I don’t see members of parliament giving up their luxurious life styles and refusing to accept their extortionate monthly salaries, do you?
It is nearly nine months to the day since we heard about the first cases of COVID-19 on the shores of dear old Blighty back in January and over seven months since the lockdown in March, but while the commoners amongst us who couldn’t work from home have suffered with none or very little income the MP’s we elected to represent us have still been receiving their £6000 a month salaries. While most people struggled on as little as £94 pounds a week or are forced to use savings to survive, our so called political leaders have been languishing on £1400 a week, where is the justice in that? And now they are set to get a £3000 a year increase! I am sorry, but I believe there is some inequality going on in the nation today.
What the world is in the grip of is self-aggrandising and corruption in political heads of state who are profiteering off their positions to feather their own nest. It doesn’t matter which country you are in, there is someone profiting of your suffering whether it be at local, national or international levels. Until there is a purge of the illegal activities of world, national and local authorities, there will never be equality within many generations to come. We need to start at the top and bring down the corruption, going level by level implementing new safeguards until everyone is treated the same, no matter colour, creed, religious belief or sexual orientation. On that I will call it a day.
Rant you tomorrow!
So America as the campaign draws to a close, the unlikely 2020 candidate is profiting from letting Trump do most of the talking. Biden has run a campaign from his home for most of the time while over the past few month’s selectively hitting the campaign trail, only to hunker down again in recent days readying himself for the final debate. He regards big showy rallies as unsafe to his supporters and himself citing safety as very important to him while hoping voters would recognise and reward his prudence. Or was it all a strategy employed to let Trump do all the talking and make the mistakes, so he didn't have to. Trump enjoys the ego boosting rallies and the hustle and bustle of crowds who can pat him on the back and would probably describe life in the Biden’s hometown of Wilmington as suitably sleepy right now. And yes, it is about as humble as you can get for a possible political coronation when you think of the glass-covered colossus Hillary Clinton fatefully chose in New York, but Biden is a candidate who's railed against big rallies and showy moments, a man pitching to restore civility and normalcy to American political life. So as Biden strategizes and plays the long con on Trump, Trump himself is opting to state hop using up more of that fossil fuel he so loves to endorse.
Trump has been pulling at least two super spreader rallies each day since his failed town hall showdown with NBC’s Savana Guthrie six days ago in the hope he can claw back some of the deficit in poll numbers he is currently seeing, but what you have to ask is what illegal, unjust and devious plan is he hiding, ready to throw at Biden a couple of days before the election as reports are circulating that Trump has urged corrupt Attorney General Barr to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Biden’s. So as Trump heads to eerie, Pennsylvania for yet another slanderess speech calling everyone that speaks out against him useless and stupid, the first lady has decided not to accompany her husband. Her chief of staff has stated that the first lady continues to feel better every day after having coronavirus, “but with a lingering cough, and out of an abundance of caution, she will not be travelling today”. Pennsylvania would have been the first ladies first public campaign appearance in more than a year, which should tell you there is something severely wrong in Trump paradise. Could there be a divorce in POTUS’s near future? I have a question, if FLOTUS still has a cough due to the coronavirus, how can Trump’s physicians blatantly lie about him been clear of the virus? This message from the first lady indicates the true story that Trump is ignoring the doctors and carrying on like he is immortal.
What is more bizarre than FLOTUS in hiding, is the sudden appearance of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, the president's youngest and lesser-known daughter who is not usually thought to be close to her father attended a Trump campaign Pride event and is now being ridiculed online after a video of her speaking where she stated “I know what my father believes in, prior to politics he [Meaning Trump] supported gays, lesbians, the LGBQI... IA+ community”. That statement where Tiffany forgot to include the "T" in the acronym, which stands for trans has been used by critics to point to the rollback of LGBT protections by Trump’s administration who during his time in office has restricted transgender people from serving in the military, opposed the Equality Act, a bill that would have ensured federal protections for LGBTQ+ people and revoked protections for transgender students in schools.
In another knife twisting event, it has been revealed by the New York Post that Trump has a bank account registered in China, the country he has been critical of US firms doing business with and has sparked a trade war between the two countries. The hypocrisy Trump shows is just dumbfounding! This is a man who wants everything, but gives nothing back. He was exposed recently as paying as little as $750 in Us federal taxes while the documents obtained by the New York post show his bank account in China has paid out $188,561 in local taxes, so for a man who detests China he sure has paid them a lot of money, not to mention the patents held by eldest daughter Ivanka in China. Come on America, you have one vote, so make it count and remove the corrupt first family from the Whitehouse on November 3rd and start the healing process which brings America back in to the world of sanity. All I can say is I have never liked Trump and regard him as a leech on society who has no morals, no dignity and definitely no patriotism, yet some moronic individuals believe he is the second coming. If he is the second coming, then please give him the same treatment afforded to the first coming, but this time just imprison him, there’s no need to physically crucify him.
On that note I will change shores and check in on dear old Blighty. Well as South Yorkshire has been ordered to roll out tier 3 rules as of Saturday the questions are been asked where is next? Would it not be quicker to just implement a nationwide tire 3 lockdown and work backwards stepping down to tier 2 and then tier 1 as less cases are reported in an area or is it purely a financial house of cards, so the government can restrict who gets aid and who doesn’t. It is now clear Johnson has no plan on how we will survive this pandemic as his three-year spending master plan for the length of the present parliament have been abandoned, in favour of a one-year review because of the economic chaos caused by Covid-19. I thought governments were meant to be fiscally prudent not fiscally inept! Johnson and his prime ministerial predecessors have done nothing to safeguard the UK against the possibility of such an event as we are in the grip of right now. Their disaster planning has been woefully neglected which is why we find ourselves as a nation in such a ‘SHITE’ predicament. We were put in to lockdown too late, we were eased out of lockdown too soon and the current ideology of a 3 tier lockdown is inadequate as hospitality venues close one by one and schools struggle to curb infections. What will be seen when looking back at 2020 in the UK will be a year of hell, a year where the economy crashed, a year where a generation’s education suffered and a year where the most inept Primeminister in history floundered and crashed on the rocks of politics due to indecision, U-turns and incompetence within himself and the people he chose to run the country in the highest offices of the land.
Meanwhile local authorities are been forcibly told to adhere to an authoritarian governmental mandate which has seen areas such as Liverpool last week, Lancashire on Monday, Greater Manchester yesterday and South Yorkshire starting from Saturday, put in to tier 3 lockdown. What this, at the present time is showing is an alarming north, south divide happening as nowhere south has been ordered in to tier 3 lockdown yet. The lockdown protocols are not working, Johnson cabinet is not working, and we need a dramatic shake up in government. How can we allow such authoritarian displays as we are seeing right now as the government uses bully boy tactics to send local area’s in to forced closure, surely there is an easier way where neither the economy nor the populous suffer? I don’t see members of parliament giving up their luxurious life styles and refusing to accept their extortionate monthly salaries, do you?
It is nearly nine months to the day since we heard about the first cases of COVID-19 on the shores of dear old Blighty back in January and over seven months since the lockdown in March, but while the commoners amongst us who couldn’t work from home have suffered with none or very little income the MP’s we elected to represent us have still been receiving their £6000 a month salaries. While most people struggled on as little as £94 pounds a week or are forced to use savings to survive, our so called political leaders have been languishing on £1400 a week, where is the justice in that? And now they are set to get a £3000 a year increase! I am sorry, but I believe there is some inequality going on in the nation today.
What the world is in the grip of is self-aggrandising and corruption in political heads of state who are profiteering off their positions to feather their own nest. It doesn’t matter which country you are in, there is someone profiting of your suffering whether it be at local, national or international levels. Until there is a purge of the illegal activities of world, national and local authorities, there will never be equality within many generations to come. We need to start at the top and bring down the corruption, going level by level implementing new safeguards until everyone is treated the same, no matter colour, creed, religious belief or sexual orientation. On that I will call it a day.
Rant you tomorrow!
Tuesday 20 October 2020
20/10/2020
As Britain faces lockdown again and America heads in to a daily countdown towards election, both countries figure high on the scale of ineptitude in leadership. Whereas America can make changes come November 3rd, the UK have to put up with their idiot in charge for 3 more years unless the Tory backbenches pull their heads out of their asses and call for a vote of no confidence in the current leadership. Let’s see what has been going on overnight shall we?
In America as the last debate showdown looms up in two days, Trump’s campaign is trying to switch the talking points chosen by the debate commission accusing the organisers of Thursday's showdown of helping the Democrats by leaving out foreign policy as a topic, to which the Biden camp shot back claiming that Trump was trying to avoid questions about his response to the coronavirus pandemic. The topics were announced by moderator and NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker last week as American families, race in America, climate change, national security, and leadership. This prompted Trump during a campaign rally on Monday afternoon in Prescott, Arizona to describe Ms Welker as a “radical Democrat” openly stating she would be “no good”. Trump really doesn’t like powerful women asking him direct question does he? On top of that slanderess remark from Trump his campaign manager Stepien accused Biden of being “desperate to avoid conversations about his own foreign policy record” and the commission of trying to “insulate Biden from his own history”. Stepien also stated that “The Commission's pro-Biden antics have turned the entire debate season into a fiasco and it is little wonder why the public has lost faith in its objectivity”, while also attacking Biden of trying to avoid questions over reports about purported emails from his son, Hunter, and alleged conflicts of interest. Funny how we are seeing yet another Trump attack at a Trump opposition through emails just like they did back in 2016 curiously created the FBI investigation of Hilary Clinton on October 28th, 2016, just days before the election, which is still rolling on four years later with Trump’s lackey of a Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stating he would release unspecified Clinton emails. Will the FBI suddenly announce another email investigation in to the Biden family just days ahead of the election? What really amuses me with the Trump campaign is that for every incorrect statement, blatant lie or poor polling, they always have someone other than Trump to blame. For instance, Stepien accused the moderator of the first debate, Fox News' Chris Wallace, of having acted as “a third combatant” against Trump which the world saw as one arrogant narcissistic man bringing the office of president in to disrepute by constantly interrupting many more times than his challenger which created a war of insults from both parties.
On the good news front for people wishing to hear an uninterrupted debate, organisers have confirmed the decision that microphones will be muted during the final US presidential debate to avoid Donald Trump and Joe Biden interrupting one another which means under the new rules Trump and Biden will get two minutes to answer each question uninterrupted. The moderators were already considering changing debate protocol after chaotic exchanges in the first TV debate saw Biden shout at Trump: “Will you shut up, man!” Yet as expected the Trump campaign has stated the “last minute rule changes” had been made by a “biased commission in their latest attempt to provide advantage to their favoured candidate”. You know what, it just dumbfounds me how Trump, his administration and now his campaign team can continually find some reason to call the media, the voting public, the Democrats or the world biased against Big Daddy Trump when It is clearly observed that Trump is corrupt, racist, xenophobic, manipulative and each and every day getting more and more unbalanced mentally, but the moronic “Yes” people still pander to his every whim no matter how absurd or delusional they may. Come on America wake up and smell the roses, your president is totally cuckoo. Get out there and turn the country ‘BLUE’ before the ‘RED’ peril sells you in to slavery once again.
On that I will check out the insanity going on in dear old Blighty. So while Tory cabinet ministers argue over Brexit and its impact on the UK economy and security which saw ex-primeminister and Tory backbencher Theresa may questions Michael Gove [who appears to have new distinctive role in the cabinet other than Johnson arse wiper] about the countries security under a ‘NO BREXIT’ deal clearly aimed at the fact the country will lose access to vital information sources such as controlled by the EU courts. Yet while this debate goes on and on and on the weekly deaths linked to coronavirus have risen to their highest level in England and Wales since the beginning of July which is recorded as a total of 438 deaths registered in the week ending 9th October with COVID-19 mentioned on the death certificate which is up from 321 deaths in the week to 2nd October marking a 36% rise in deaths from the previous week. Of the 438 deaths, the majority occurred in hospitals (342), with 63 taking place in care homes, 28 at home, three in hospices and two elsewhere.
While people die, people suffer with unemployment and people don’t understand the complexities of the damn 3 tier system, the government fannies on with an explosive debate over Brexit which is a failed experiment of stupidity trying to revert a country back in time to the sixties when travelling to and from Europe or even the rest of the world was more complicated and Blighty still ruled the waves. Johnson is the problem, he changes his allegiances as quick as he changes his underwear [which I hope is at least daily – referring to underwear]. This is a leader who has no clue to what he is doing and relies on a corrupt aid to steer him which inevitably is in the wrong direction. Johnson wanted to be the puppet master of the United Kingdom, but is actually the puppet been controlled by big money, big business and corrupt influencers especially in Dominic Cummings who has been proven to be less than honest when it comes to how government money is allocated. In the last year it has been seen that his personal contact with certain individuals and firms which has led to them receiving multi-million pound deals in government business. And yet there is more, the latest scandal to hit Cummings is the fact that the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) of the government is responsible for dismissing a Council Tax debt of £50000 owed to Durham County Council. Since the story broke Durham Council has announced it will look in to possibilities to appeal the VOA’s decision which was made not to backdate the Council Tax bill for Cummings property in the North East of England which is a ‘Band A’ categorised cottage that he had built on the farm his father owns in 2002. This is just proving more and more how corrupt and immoral the present government actually is, especially the leader who has the morals of a stray dog on heat.
So getting back to Johnson who is managing to keep out of the spotlight opting to serve up his cabinet ministers as interview fodder, it has being noticed that he just keeps racking up losses likened to gambling where he keeps on placing larger stakes, convinced they will turn his misfortune around. In gambling, this plan might only hurt his wallet and his pride, but in a pandemic wrapped around the shock of Brexit, such a strategy could cost, unnecessarily, lives and livelihoods. Faced with a political opponent like the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who at this present time is able to call upon Johnson’s own Conservative backbenchers to rebel against him, Johnson has opted to double down on his plan to test his way out of the coronavirus crisis which is a real risky bet. Johnson’s problems all lie in his ‘Test and Trace’ protocols which is currently failing due to how long it takes to get results from tests been taken which delays contacting possible carriers from infecting others. Johnson is now pinning his hopes on a new saliva-based test which is supposed to tell whether a person is COVID-positive within 15 minutes on the spot. A lot of ‘Ifs and buts’ which is reliant on unproven science. Yet what is been forgotten is the nearly 45,000 deaths related to coronavirus that were preventable.
Again the most common issue is the man of many masks façade Johnson wears as circumstances require. His scruples have been tossed aside as Johnson failed to keep his promise to meet families bereaved by COVID, then talked about levelling up and helping, but is not prepared to stump up the cash to keep businesses running and people in work in poorer regions that he has forced into lockdown. As it stands nationwide the public [polls suggest] has become distrustful of Johnson’s leadership and there is a sense that his duplicity has been heightened by Brexit machinations. Johnson broke his word to European leaders, reneging on a deal he agreed on, only to then to suggest he is more ideologically malleable than his hard Brexit MPs. What is really needed is for Johnson to rebuild a political consensus for his pandemic strategy. Johnson is in freefall as backbench’s mutiny possibly morphing in to into a revolt where Johnson will need Labour support to pass new measures and his own scientists who are sceptical of his tiered approach need reassurance that there is a plan B. On top of all that going on in London, Johnson should also be prepared to woo local council leaders whose vocal assent would encourage the public to comply with a lockdown regime. What is really needed with the Covid-19 death numbers exponentially climbing though, is not another ‘pie in the sky’ fix for the second wave of the pandemic, but a competent government that Johnson’s team is far from providing and my personal opinion is they should all be sacked, with a coalition cabinet installed to work on the pandemic and Brexit.
Day in day out we as the global populous are the ones at the most risk to the pandemic whether it be from the lack of safeguarding, the lack of verifiable data, the lack of adequate protection, the lack of viable healthcare, the lack governmental competency or the lack of public common sense to social distance and wear masks. Until there is a global recognition of a multi-lateral body to oversee the fight of the pandemic, there will always be a rise in deaths while governments pander to big business before the small individuals and put economy before people’s lives. In too many countries there is a distinct lack of leaders willing to take the extreme measures required to eradicate this illness using false hopes and promises to excuse away their incompetence to govern successfully under the extremist of circumstances. On that I will call it a day,
Rant you tomorrow!
In America as the last debate showdown looms up in two days, Trump’s campaign is trying to switch the talking points chosen by the debate commission accusing the organisers of Thursday's showdown of helping the Democrats by leaving out foreign policy as a topic, to which the Biden camp shot back claiming that Trump was trying to avoid questions about his response to the coronavirus pandemic. The topics were announced by moderator and NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker last week as American families, race in America, climate change, national security, and leadership. This prompted Trump during a campaign rally on Monday afternoon in Prescott, Arizona to describe Ms Welker as a “radical Democrat” openly stating she would be “no good”. Trump really doesn’t like powerful women asking him direct question does he? On top of that slanderess remark from Trump his campaign manager Stepien accused Biden of being “desperate to avoid conversations about his own foreign policy record” and the commission of trying to “insulate Biden from his own history”. Stepien also stated that “The Commission's pro-Biden antics have turned the entire debate season into a fiasco and it is little wonder why the public has lost faith in its objectivity”, while also attacking Biden of trying to avoid questions over reports about purported emails from his son, Hunter, and alleged conflicts of interest. Funny how we are seeing yet another Trump attack at a Trump opposition through emails just like they did back in 2016 curiously created the FBI investigation of Hilary Clinton on October 28th, 2016, just days before the election, which is still rolling on four years later with Trump’s lackey of a Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stating he would release unspecified Clinton emails. Will the FBI suddenly announce another email investigation in to the Biden family just days ahead of the election? What really amuses me with the Trump campaign is that for every incorrect statement, blatant lie or poor polling, they always have someone other than Trump to blame. For instance, Stepien accused the moderator of the first debate, Fox News' Chris Wallace, of having acted as “a third combatant” against Trump which the world saw as one arrogant narcissistic man bringing the office of president in to disrepute by constantly interrupting many more times than his challenger which created a war of insults from both parties.
On the good news front for people wishing to hear an uninterrupted debate, organisers have confirmed the decision that microphones will be muted during the final US presidential debate to avoid Donald Trump and Joe Biden interrupting one another which means under the new rules Trump and Biden will get two minutes to answer each question uninterrupted. The moderators were already considering changing debate protocol after chaotic exchanges in the first TV debate saw Biden shout at Trump: “Will you shut up, man!” Yet as expected the Trump campaign has stated the “last minute rule changes” had been made by a “biased commission in their latest attempt to provide advantage to their favoured candidate”. You know what, it just dumbfounds me how Trump, his administration and now his campaign team can continually find some reason to call the media, the voting public, the Democrats or the world biased against Big Daddy Trump when It is clearly observed that Trump is corrupt, racist, xenophobic, manipulative and each and every day getting more and more unbalanced mentally, but the moronic “Yes” people still pander to his every whim no matter how absurd or delusional they may. Come on America wake up and smell the roses, your president is totally cuckoo. Get out there and turn the country ‘BLUE’ before the ‘RED’ peril sells you in to slavery once again.
On that I will check out the insanity going on in dear old Blighty. So while Tory cabinet ministers argue over Brexit and its impact on the UK economy and security which saw ex-primeminister and Tory backbencher Theresa may questions Michael Gove [who appears to have new distinctive role in the cabinet other than Johnson arse wiper] about the countries security under a ‘NO BREXIT’ deal clearly aimed at the fact the country will lose access to vital information sources such as controlled by the EU courts. Yet while this debate goes on and on and on the weekly deaths linked to coronavirus have risen to their highest level in England and Wales since the beginning of July which is recorded as a total of 438 deaths registered in the week ending 9th October with COVID-19 mentioned on the death certificate which is up from 321 deaths in the week to 2nd October marking a 36% rise in deaths from the previous week. Of the 438 deaths, the majority occurred in hospitals (342), with 63 taking place in care homes, 28 at home, three in hospices and two elsewhere.
While people die, people suffer with unemployment and people don’t understand the complexities of the damn 3 tier system, the government fannies on with an explosive debate over Brexit which is a failed experiment of stupidity trying to revert a country back in time to the sixties when travelling to and from Europe or even the rest of the world was more complicated and Blighty still ruled the waves. Johnson is the problem, he changes his allegiances as quick as he changes his underwear [which I hope is at least daily – referring to underwear]. This is a leader who has no clue to what he is doing and relies on a corrupt aid to steer him which inevitably is in the wrong direction. Johnson wanted to be the puppet master of the United Kingdom, but is actually the puppet been controlled by big money, big business and corrupt influencers especially in Dominic Cummings who has been proven to be less than honest when it comes to how government money is allocated. In the last year it has been seen that his personal contact with certain individuals and firms which has led to them receiving multi-million pound deals in government business. And yet there is more, the latest scandal to hit Cummings is the fact that the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) of the government is responsible for dismissing a Council Tax debt of £50000 owed to Durham County Council. Since the story broke Durham Council has announced it will look in to possibilities to appeal the VOA’s decision which was made not to backdate the Council Tax bill for Cummings property in the North East of England which is a ‘Band A’ categorised cottage that he had built on the farm his father owns in 2002. This is just proving more and more how corrupt and immoral the present government actually is, especially the leader who has the morals of a stray dog on heat.
So getting back to Johnson who is managing to keep out of the spotlight opting to serve up his cabinet ministers as interview fodder, it has being noticed that he just keeps racking up losses likened to gambling where he keeps on placing larger stakes, convinced they will turn his misfortune around. In gambling, this plan might only hurt his wallet and his pride, but in a pandemic wrapped around the shock of Brexit, such a strategy could cost, unnecessarily, lives and livelihoods. Faced with a political opponent like the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who at this present time is able to call upon Johnson’s own Conservative backbenchers to rebel against him, Johnson has opted to double down on his plan to test his way out of the coronavirus crisis which is a real risky bet. Johnson’s problems all lie in his ‘Test and Trace’ protocols which is currently failing due to how long it takes to get results from tests been taken which delays contacting possible carriers from infecting others. Johnson is now pinning his hopes on a new saliva-based test which is supposed to tell whether a person is COVID-positive within 15 minutes on the spot. A lot of ‘Ifs and buts’ which is reliant on unproven science. Yet what is been forgotten is the nearly 45,000 deaths related to coronavirus that were preventable.
Again the most common issue is the man of many masks façade Johnson wears as circumstances require. His scruples have been tossed aside as Johnson failed to keep his promise to meet families bereaved by COVID, then talked about levelling up and helping, but is not prepared to stump up the cash to keep businesses running and people in work in poorer regions that he has forced into lockdown. As it stands nationwide the public [polls suggest] has become distrustful of Johnson’s leadership and there is a sense that his duplicity has been heightened by Brexit machinations. Johnson broke his word to European leaders, reneging on a deal he agreed on, only to then to suggest he is more ideologically malleable than his hard Brexit MPs. What is really needed is for Johnson to rebuild a political consensus for his pandemic strategy. Johnson is in freefall as backbench’s mutiny possibly morphing in to into a revolt where Johnson will need Labour support to pass new measures and his own scientists who are sceptical of his tiered approach need reassurance that there is a plan B. On top of all that going on in London, Johnson should also be prepared to woo local council leaders whose vocal assent would encourage the public to comply with a lockdown regime. What is really needed with the Covid-19 death numbers exponentially climbing though, is not another ‘pie in the sky’ fix for the second wave of the pandemic, but a competent government that Johnson’s team is far from providing and my personal opinion is they should all be sacked, with a coalition cabinet installed to work on the pandemic and Brexit.
Day in day out we as the global populous are the ones at the most risk to the pandemic whether it be from the lack of safeguarding, the lack of verifiable data, the lack of adequate protection, the lack of viable healthcare, the lack governmental competency or the lack of public common sense to social distance and wear masks. Until there is a global recognition of a multi-lateral body to oversee the fight of the pandemic, there will always be a rise in deaths while governments pander to big business before the small individuals and put economy before people’s lives. In too many countries there is a distinct lack of leaders willing to take the extreme measures required to eradicate this illness using false hopes and promises to excuse away their incompetence to govern successfully under the extremist of circumstances. On that I will call it a day,
Rant you tomorrow!
Monday 19 October 2020
19/10/2020
Well here we go, its Monday again. Same old shit, just a brand new dawn where politicians go head to head over the small things rather than face the big picture of a world in dire straits with a rising death toll due to incompetence and ineptitude without an end in sight. We are quickly approaching the season of joy where everyone looks forward to their own types of celebrations dependant on their upbringing. Most Christians will celebrate Christmas, the Jewish among us will celebrate Hanukkah while lots of other people will celebrate it as a holiday because a diverse planet means diverse outlooks where all religious or non-religious beliefs are understood and greeted with the same enthusiasm year round. Christmas is not the point of this little deviation, the point is as the world suffers through death, authoritarian restrictions, job losses and people have to look at tightening the belt on spending, the politicians will be living it up and partying as if everything is right in the world all because they are still getting paid their extortionate salaries while the rest of us will be having a less than joyous holiday season locked in our homes with finances not covering what is been spent. Anyway let’s take a look at what type of shitstorms have been brewing over the weekend shall we?
In America the same old shit is happening at Trump rallies while the moronic idiots who turn up to listen to the narcissistic power hungry rantings are simply blinkered to the possibility he is the devil incarnate. In Michigan he once again threw out verbal attacks at the state governor Gretchen Whitmer, despite warnings about the effect his words can have. During a rally in the state, Trump called on Ms Whitmer, a Democrat, to axe the remaining restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus calling her “dishonest” and openly joked about an extremist plot recently uncovered by the FBI to kidnap her, saying: “Hopefully you'll be sending her packing pretty soon” which prompted the crowd to chant: “Lock her up!”. It is this kind of blatant verbalisation which prompted the plot to kidnap and hold hostage the governor and her staffers by extremists in the state. When will America understand Trump no longer wants to just be president, he wants to be the countries very first dictator whose rhetoric is a call to the militia’s, the Neo-Nazis and the White Supremacists to rise up against their own fellow Americans whilst forgetting they are also the descendants of immigrants. Trump’s ideology is to raise an army of right wing Anarchists who will attempt to over throw any presidential administration other than his own which was proven during the speech when he once again stoked fears that, even if he does lose November's election, he might not leave the White House gracefully, saying in Michigan that he “better damn well be president” in January. Clearly this is a man pushing a call for Civil War and believes himself to be the reincarnate of Jefferson Finis Davis, the only President of the Confederate States of America.
On the other side of the coin you have Biden who is trying to unify all Americans to legally bring back some sanity to the Whitehouse. In North Carolina he showed he isn't taking any chances, hammering home how much is hanging on the election. In his speech he stated that “I'm running as a proud Democrat but I will govern as an American president. No red states, no blue states, just the United States and the very soul of our nation is at stake. Folks, as my coach used to say in college, its go time. It's the most important election in our lifetimes”. This is a man who shows dignity even down to travelling with his granddaughter and taking an unscheduled stop to get take out while his opponent travels without any support of his family or grandchildren. One question I have is, why is Melania not at Trump’s side like Jill is with Joe? Is there another divorce in Trump’s future?
So once again America all I can say is that whom sits in the oval office come January is up to you. Will it be the man of the confederacy or the man of all the United States? Will it be the arrogant ‘Oompa Loompa’ or the calm grey haired grandpa? Will it be the unhinged narcissist president or the sane former Vice President? Will it be the unreligious prodigal son, who uses the church as a publicity stunt or the man of faith, who is devout and visits his church and son’s grave weekly? Will it be the nomadic most hated man in the world or the Delaware man of the people? America it is up to you! But remember if you don’t vote, you have no right to complain when the wrong man is elected.
On that note I will hop the pond back to dear old Blighty and check out how much of a shitstorm is brewing in the halls of parliament. In England there is an ongoing battle between local authorities and the government over tiering structure the people are expected to obey. In the Greater Manchester area there is a delay in accepting the tier 3 recommendations of the government due to the argument of financial aid for the area. It is all well and good for the government who are still receiving their extortionate salaries to tell a whole region to close down, but what about the people who will lose their incomes when it happens? The people sitting in judgement should forgo their salaries for a couple of months so they can see how it feels to live on Universal Credit which is still below accepted poverty levels. The housing Minister stated he hoped he could reach an agreement with the Greater Manchester MPs "in the next day or two". My question is, why is the housing minister doing the interviews instead of Johnson or his deputy? Meanwhile local leaders want better financial support before agreeing to a move to the top tier of rules, which would force some businesses to close. It’s not only Greater Manchester looking at an enforced tier 3 categorisation, There are other areas being considered while Scotland has already acted upon their own criteria’s and Wales is poised on a "short, sharp" national lockdown which First Minister Mark Drakeford is set to make an announcement about around midday detailing a two or three-week "firebreak".
So once again we are seeing a union divided as all four nations make their own decisions on how their constituents should live their lives, basically we are in the grip of de-unionisation as a splintered United Kingdom falls apart over not only the CIVID-19 pandemic, but almost all the policies coming out of Downing Street which is supposed to be the seat of power for the Great British isle’s. All I personally see is a man and his lackeys who can’t fight their way out of a paper bag instead of a group of politicians with a unified nation’s interest at the heart of their decision making. To me we are on the final slippery slope to the abolishment of the United Kingdom and the start of the rise of the Scottish and Welsh governments split from England. Boris Johnson is simply the straw that will break the camel’s back leaving the Queen the figure head of yet another four separate commonwealth nations.
Well America still heads towards civil war and the United Kingdom towards devolution of government while the rest of the world faces a pandemic only a handful of countries are managing to hold at bay. Yet what we don’t see is a unified global effort to counteract the effects of such a plague and instead see countless unilateral decisions been made which has a knock on conclusion of global solitude for all rather than an envisioned global coming together of minds to not only combat the pandemic, but also climate, poverty and many other increasing issue’s we as a global community face. On that I will call it a day,
Rant you tomorrow!
In America the same old shit is happening at Trump rallies while the moronic idiots who turn up to listen to the narcissistic power hungry rantings are simply blinkered to the possibility he is the devil incarnate. In Michigan he once again threw out verbal attacks at the state governor Gretchen Whitmer, despite warnings about the effect his words can have. During a rally in the state, Trump called on Ms Whitmer, a Democrat, to axe the remaining restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus calling her “dishonest” and openly joked about an extremist plot recently uncovered by the FBI to kidnap her, saying: “Hopefully you'll be sending her packing pretty soon” which prompted the crowd to chant: “Lock her up!”. It is this kind of blatant verbalisation which prompted the plot to kidnap and hold hostage the governor and her staffers by extremists in the state. When will America understand Trump no longer wants to just be president, he wants to be the countries very first dictator whose rhetoric is a call to the militia’s, the Neo-Nazis and the White Supremacists to rise up against their own fellow Americans whilst forgetting they are also the descendants of immigrants. Trump’s ideology is to raise an army of right wing Anarchists who will attempt to over throw any presidential administration other than his own which was proven during the speech when he once again stoked fears that, even if he does lose November's election, he might not leave the White House gracefully, saying in Michigan that he “better damn well be president” in January. Clearly this is a man pushing a call for Civil War and believes himself to be the reincarnate of Jefferson Finis Davis, the only President of the Confederate States of America.
On the other side of the coin you have Biden who is trying to unify all Americans to legally bring back some sanity to the Whitehouse. In North Carolina he showed he isn't taking any chances, hammering home how much is hanging on the election. In his speech he stated that “I'm running as a proud Democrat but I will govern as an American president. No red states, no blue states, just the United States and the very soul of our nation is at stake. Folks, as my coach used to say in college, its go time. It's the most important election in our lifetimes”. This is a man who shows dignity even down to travelling with his granddaughter and taking an unscheduled stop to get take out while his opponent travels without any support of his family or grandchildren. One question I have is, why is Melania not at Trump’s side like Jill is with Joe? Is there another divorce in Trump’s future?
So once again America all I can say is that whom sits in the oval office come January is up to you. Will it be the man of the confederacy or the man of all the United States? Will it be the arrogant ‘Oompa Loompa’ or the calm grey haired grandpa? Will it be the unhinged narcissist president or the sane former Vice President? Will it be the unreligious prodigal son, who uses the church as a publicity stunt or the man of faith, who is devout and visits his church and son’s grave weekly? Will it be the nomadic most hated man in the world or the Delaware man of the people? America it is up to you! But remember if you don’t vote, you have no right to complain when the wrong man is elected.
On that note I will hop the pond back to dear old Blighty and check out how much of a shitstorm is brewing in the halls of parliament. In England there is an ongoing battle between local authorities and the government over tiering structure the people are expected to obey. In the Greater Manchester area there is a delay in accepting the tier 3 recommendations of the government due to the argument of financial aid for the area. It is all well and good for the government who are still receiving their extortionate salaries to tell a whole region to close down, but what about the people who will lose their incomes when it happens? The people sitting in judgement should forgo their salaries for a couple of months so they can see how it feels to live on Universal Credit which is still below accepted poverty levels. The housing Minister stated he hoped he could reach an agreement with the Greater Manchester MPs "in the next day or two". My question is, why is the housing minister doing the interviews instead of Johnson or his deputy? Meanwhile local leaders want better financial support before agreeing to a move to the top tier of rules, which would force some businesses to close. It’s not only Greater Manchester looking at an enforced tier 3 categorisation, There are other areas being considered while Scotland has already acted upon their own criteria’s and Wales is poised on a "short, sharp" national lockdown which First Minister Mark Drakeford is set to make an announcement about around midday detailing a two or three-week "firebreak".
So once again we are seeing a union divided as all four nations make their own decisions on how their constituents should live their lives, basically we are in the grip of de-unionisation as a splintered United Kingdom falls apart over not only the CIVID-19 pandemic, but almost all the policies coming out of Downing Street which is supposed to be the seat of power for the Great British isle’s. All I personally see is a man and his lackeys who can’t fight their way out of a paper bag instead of a group of politicians with a unified nation’s interest at the heart of their decision making. To me we are on the final slippery slope to the abolishment of the United Kingdom and the start of the rise of the Scottish and Welsh governments split from England. Boris Johnson is simply the straw that will break the camel’s back leaving the Queen the figure head of yet another four separate commonwealth nations.
Well America still heads towards civil war and the United Kingdom towards devolution of government while the rest of the world faces a pandemic only a handful of countries are managing to hold at bay. Yet what we don’t see is a unified global effort to counteract the effects of such a plague and instead see countless unilateral decisions been made which has a knock on conclusion of global solitude for all rather than an envisioned global coming together of minds to not only combat the pandemic, but also climate, poverty and many other increasing issue’s we as a global community face. On that I will call it a day,
Rant you tomorrow!
Friday 16 October 2020
16/10/2020
Hey Ho, it’s Friday once again! Is it just me or are these weeks rolling through damn quick? I feel like this year has flown by and nothing has been accomplished especially considering it is the worst year on record since the second world war started in Europe and guess what that was due to a fascist power hungry leader as well. Speaking of fascist leaders let’s take a look at what has been happening overnight shall we?
So in America it was the big night of the cancelled debate where both candidates chose to do their own town hall style question and answer sessions televised by rival organisations at the same time. But I have to say in Trump’s case it was more of a question, deflect and argue session while Biden was calm and composed throughout. Biden wasn’t squeaky clean though as he would not divulge plans for the Supreme Court while Trump, a Republican, declined to disavow a bizarre online conspiracy. Both candidates were on the defensive at times on their records, Trump for a range of issues and Biden on race. One of the biggest talking points came from Trump’s Town hall where he was asked about and declined to denounce the QAnon group's false conspiracy theory that Democrats are part of a global paedophile ring. Trump at first appeared to praise QAnon followers for opposing paedophilia, but then changed tact stating he knew nothing about the movement. Funny how the most powerful man in America knows nothing about groups spreading slanderess materials about his opponents, especially when he has been accused of, but not proved in fact of such crimes himself.
Another plus from the separate town hall Q&A’s was that Biden wasn’t harassed and interrupted by Trump’s aggressive style which Trump once again showed by arguing with Savannah Guthrie, a co-host of NBC’s Today morning show, but never got the better of her. Trump was at times clearly uncomfortable with Guthrie as the question master, and his campaign attacked Guthrie less than an hour after the event finished, suggesting Guthrie had filled the role of “Joe Biden surrogate” which only served to prove that this was a nightmare scenario for the president, who has restricted himself to right-wing media outlets in recent weeks. What was seen in Guthrie was a journalist not scared to fact-check Trump in real time and at times even pushing back at Trump’s usually unchallenged rhetoric. The tone was set by Guthrie early on, when Trump claimed that the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had found that “85% of people who wear a mask catch the coronavirus” which Guthrie instantly corrected explaining that the survey actually stated that it had been found that of a group of 150 Covid-19 patients, 85% had said they had worn a mask. One of Guthrie’s most laughable remarks [or was it a dig at Trump, who knows except Guthrie] was in response to Trump claiming one of his retweets regarding a post from a QAnon Twitter account which claimed, baselessly, that Joe Biden had had a navy Seal team killed. Guthrie asked Trump why he had retweeted the conspiracy theory tweet and he replied “That was a retweet! People can decide for themselves!” to which Guthrie responded: “I don’t get that. You’re the president, not someone’s crazy uncle”.
It was Trump who made the most headlines on the night, not for good reasons. He was erratic, argumentative and basically himself, at one point even saying “how cute”, which could be taken the wrong way depending on how you heard or read the context. Biden on the other hand actually ran out of time to answer all the audiences’ questions, so while the TV crew was packing up he stayed and answered those remaining questions, which shows his leadership potential. Either way it isn’t up to me, it isn’t up to the candidates, it all lies in the hands of the voters who have a chance to reverse their current predicament of an inept 74 year old narcissistic egotistical misogynistic fool and vote for a less inept 77 year old former VP whose values seem to align with the American public’s views at the moment. It’s up to you America! But I will say one more thing, which is I think it is unconscionable for the Trump administration to reject pleas for disaster relief funds made by California to aid in the clean-up of the damage created by the recent six weeks of wildfires that ripped through the state which has been hidden by the events of last night’s town halls, so again America I state, only you can make a change!
I could go on and on about the two white privileged men running for office in America, but that would consist of pages and pages of boring stuff, so instead I will return to dear old Blighty where we find more and more areas been considered for tier 3 COVID restrictions. Liverpool’s Mayor where they are already in tier 3 has hit back at the government stating that the government saying ‘they worked with the area’s leaders before putting them in to the very high risk category’ is a blatant lie and that the rules were imposed unilaterally on them. The Greater Manchester area which is under consideration for tier 3 has been told by the secretary of state [Dominic Rabb] that if no agreement can be reached the government has the power to go ahead with the restrictions anyway, while the North east of England have stated they would oppose the plans to do the same to that area. Elsewhere Lancashire have agreed to go in to tier 3 lockdown, which begs the question are the government going to just keep putting area after area in to localised lockdown when their own scientists have recommended a small scale ‘circuit breaker’ national lockdown to prevent further spreading of the virus which would be more of an advantage than the present method. What is been seen is an authoritarian style government imposing their will on the people without any type of debate or compromise. As a nation England is been disrespected by its government while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland leaders at least take consultations and hear from concerned parties. On the back of this authoritarian style of governing, senior Tories have warned Johnson that he is facing a growing rebellion on his own backbenches, as some politicians are claiming that the financial support being offered to hospitality venues is inadequate, given the significant impact that England's restrictions will have on their ability to operate.
This revolt is because the government in its wisdom has decided that pubs, restaurants and hotels in Tier 2 areas can only accept groups from the same household limiting the style of groups they can accept, while pubs and bars in Tier 3 will be forced to close unless they prove they can operate as a restaurant. These new restrictions are putting a lot more businesses at risk of bankruptcy as those business will not be eligible for government support unless they are forced to close entirely by the strictest Tier 3 measures. This government is not working ethically or sensibly when it comes to the livelihoods of millions of people nationwide, dumping the United Kingdom in to what could be the worst economic recession or even depression since the 1920’s as the nations climbed out of the deadly costs of a World War and the ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic which followed it.
Another thing coming from the Tories is the way they show boat while forgetting certain factual evidence. Johnson promised more police on the streets which is contradictive to the actual facts that English police force sizes have been reduced by 21000 officers, 23000 support staff, and 600 actual police stations while budgets have been slashed. The worst of the actions taken by this and previous Tory cabinets whilst in power is the fact that law enforcement resources are now been stretched due to the government requiring police officers to act as babysitters making sure the general public and businesses adhere to the COVID lockdown restriction they have implemented since March of this year and what do the Tories do? They send the Home Secretary [Priti Patel] out on to the streets unmasked to accompany police as they patrolled the streets of Ealing as a publicity stunt trying to push the fact that they have suddenly found sixty million pounds to fund more ‘Bobbies on the Beat’ which would not have been needed if the before mentioned cuts had not been made in the first place. Yet more ‘BS’ from a failing primeminister and his cabinet.
You know as a race of people the world has become a smaller place due to faster travel and technology, but it is still the same when it comes to the mentality of change which includes equality, liberty and freedom as well as climate. There are those for and those against. Yet it always comes across as the people in power are the ones who back away from change the most, as proven in Trump’s fascist outlook wanting to run a country like a business right out of the eighteenth century or Johnson’s arrogance to think the UK can survive without the EU harking back to pre-first world war times when men in top hats and tails controlled the power and suffragettes fought for women’s rights or the authoritarianism of the communist blocks which has kept its peoples downtrodden for over century. As a global community nothing will change unless we the people orchestrate change through our votes for a less fascist, dictatorial regimes of the future. On that I will call it a day,
Rant you tomorrow!
Back Monday.
So in America it was the big night of the cancelled debate where both candidates chose to do their own town hall style question and answer sessions televised by rival organisations at the same time. But I have to say in Trump’s case it was more of a question, deflect and argue session while Biden was calm and composed throughout. Biden wasn’t squeaky clean though as he would not divulge plans for the Supreme Court while Trump, a Republican, declined to disavow a bizarre online conspiracy. Both candidates were on the defensive at times on their records, Trump for a range of issues and Biden on race. One of the biggest talking points came from Trump’s Town hall where he was asked about and declined to denounce the QAnon group's false conspiracy theory that Democrats are part of a global paedophile ring. Trump at first appeared to praise QAnon followers for opposing paedophilia, but then changed tact stating he knew nothing about the movement. Funny how the most powerful man in America knows nothing about groups spreading slanderess materials about his opponents, especially when he has been accused of, but not proved in fact of such crimes himself.
Another plus from the separate town hall Q&A’s was that Biden wasn’t harassed and interrupted by Trump’s aggressive style which Trump once again showed by arguing with Savannah Guthrie, a co-host of NBC’s Today morning show, but never got the better of her. Trump was at times clearly uncomfortable with Guthrie as the question master, and his campaign attacked Guthrie less than an hour after the event finished, suggesting Guthrie had filled the role of “Joe Biden surrogate” which only served to prove that this was a nightmare scenario for the president, who has restricted himself to right-wing media outlets in recent weeks. What was seen in Guthrie was a journalist not scared to fact-check Trump in real time and at times even pushing back at Trump’s usually unchallenged rhetoric. The tone was set by Guthrie early on, when Trump claimed that the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had found that “85% of people who wear a mask catch the coronavirus” which Guthrie instantly corrected explaining that the survey actually stated that it had been found that of a group of 150 Covid-19 patients, 85% had said they had worn a mask. One of Guthrie’s most laughable remarks [or was it a dig at Trump, who knows except Guthrie] was in response to Trump claiming one of his retweets regarding a post from a QAnon Twitter account which claimed, baselessly, that Joe Biden had had a navy Seal team killed. Guthrie asked Trump why he had retweeted the conspiracy theory tweet and he replied “That was a retweet! People can decide for themselves!” to which Guthrie responded: “I don’t get that. You’re the president, not someone’s crazy uncle”.
It was Trump who made the most headlines on the night, not for good reasons. He was erratic, argumentative and basically himself, at one point even saying “how cute”, which could be taken the wrong way depending on how you heard or read the context. Biden on the other hand actually ran out of time to answer all the audiences’ questions, so while the TV crew was packing up he stayed and answered those remaining questions, which shows his leadership potential. Either way it isn’t up to me, it isn’t up to the candidates, it all lies in the hands of the voters who have a chance to reverse their current predicament of an inept 74 year old narcissistic egotistical misogynistic fool and vote for a less inept 77 year old former VP whose values seem to align with the American public’s views at the moment. It’s up to you America! But I will say one more thing, which is I think it is unconscionable for the Trump administration to reject pleas for disaster relief funds made by California to aid in the clean-up of the damage created by the recent six weeks of wildfires that ripped through the state which has been hidden by the events of last night’s town halls, so again America I state, only you can make a change!
I could go on and on about the two white privileged men running for office in America, but that would consist of pages and pages of boring stuff, so instead I will return to dear old Blighty where we find more and more areas been considered for tier 3 COVID restrictions. Liverpool’s Mayor where they are already in tier 3 has hit back at the government stating that the government saying ‘they worked with the area’s leaders before putting them in to the very high risk category’ is a blatant lie and that the rules were imposed unilaterally on them. The Greater Manchester area which is under consideration for tier 3 has been told by the secretary of state [Dominic Rabb] that if no agreement can be reached the government has the power to go ahead with the restrictions anyway, while the North east of England have stated they would oppose the plans to do the same to that area. Elsewhere Lancashire have agreed to go in to tier 3 lockdown, which begs the question are the government going to just keep putting area after area in to localised lockdown when their own scientists have recommended a small scale ‘circuit breaker’ national lockdown to prevent further spreading of the virus which would be more of an advantage than the present method. What is been seen is an authoritarian style government imposing their will on the people without any type of debate or compromise. As a nation England is been disrespected by its government while Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland leaders at least take consultations and hear from concerned parties. On the back of this authoritarian style of governing, senior Tories have warned Johnson that he is facing a growing rebellion on his own backbenches, as some politicians are claiming that the financial support being offered to hospitality venues is inadequate, given the significant impact that England's restrictions will have on their ability to operate.
This revolt is because the government in its wisdom has decided that pubs, restaurants and hotels in Tier 2 areas can only accept groups from the same household limiting the style of groups they can accept, while pubs and bars in Tier 3 will be forced to close unless they prove they can operate as a restaurant. These new restrictions are putting a lot more businesses at risk of bankruptcy as those business will not be eligible for government support unless they are forced to close entirely by the strictest Tier 3 measures. This government is not working ethically or sensibly when it comes to the livelihoods of millions of people nationwide, dumping the United Kingdom in to what could be the worst economic recession or even depression since the 1920’s as the nations climbed out of the deadly costs of a World War and the ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic which followed it.
Another thing coming from the Tories is the way they show boat while forgetting certain factual evidence. Johnson promised more police on the streets which is contradictive to the actual facts that English police force sizes have been reduced by 21000 officers, 23000 support staff, and 600 actual police stations while budgets have been slashed. The worst of the actions taken by this and previous Tory cabinets whilst in power is the fact that law enforcement resources are now been stretched due to the government requiring police officers to act as babysitters making sure the general public and businesses adhere to the COVID lockdown restriction they have implemented since March of this year and what do the Tories do? They send the Home Secretary [Priti Patel] out on to the streets unmasked to accompany police as they patrolled the streets of Ealing as a publicity stunt trying to push the fact that they have suddenly found sixty million pounds to fund more ‘Bobbies on the Beat’ which would not have been needed if the before mentioned cuts had not been made in the first place. Yet more ‘BS’ from a failing primeminister and his cabinet.
You know as a race of people the world has become a smaller place due to faster travel and technology, but it is still the same when it comes to the mentality of change which includes equality, liberty and freedom as well as climate. There are those for and those against. Yet it always comes across as the people in power are the ones who back away from change the most, as proven in Trump’s fascist outlook wanting to run a country like a business right out of the eighteenth century or Johnson’s arrogance to think the UK can survive without the EU harking back to pre-first world war times when men in top hats and tails controlled the power and suffragettes fought for women’s rights or the authoritarianism of the communist blocks which has kept its peoples downtrodden for over century. As a global community nothing will change unless we the people orchestrate change through our votes for a less fascist, dictatorial regimes of the future. On that I will call it a day,
Rant you tomorrow!
Back Monday.
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