The week is rolling on and so is the BS the political leaders are serving up as truth’s. Let’s see what is rantable today.
So America sat through the first Vice Presidential debate between Harris and Pence listening to structured questions been answered or not answered as at times Pence would ignore the question and blather on about anything he wanted. Kamala Harris stayed calm, collected and controlled throughout the debate while the stress of been Trump’s VP clearly showed in Pence’s face with pale skin and blood shot eyes or was that the coronavirus quietly attacking away. Due to The Trump diagnosis of COVID-19 last week the candidates were separated by not one, but two pieces of plexi-glass and sat twelve feet apart to prevent infection. The subjects discussed ranged from COVID-19 vaccines, the respective ages of the Presidential candidates, health care and the Women’s Choice question which Harris used to push back at the present administration’s failure on all counts, but also held back on, what some see as the line she should have taken. Pence rarely interrupted Harris, but when he did was calming told by Harris that she was speaking. What did come from this debate was pence’s need to ignore the questions asked and return to previous topics sometimes avoiding the present question altogether.
This was a showdown of a possible future presidential fight which could possibly happen in 2024 because as the moderator tried to point out with one question both presidential candidates are the oldest in history to run for office, both now in there seventies. While both Vice Presidential candidates defended their own running partners, this was a less than stellar debate even if it was more civil than the Biden/Trump showdown last week. Yet this was expected to be a catalyst to the forthcoming election, but fizzled in to nothingness in some cases been over shadowed by Trump in nearly every news outlet worldwide. Those outlets ran stories on Trump’s statement on Wednesday that he feels great after his Covid-19 illness, describing it as "a blessing from God". Trump returned to the Oval Office on Wednesday, less than a week after testing positive which should raise questions whether he actually has COVID-19 or whether the doctors are putting more lives at risk by lying about how ill Trump really is. Following those statements by himself and his doctor who claimed Trump had no COVID-19 symptoms for more than 24 hours and has been fever-free for more than four days trump appeared in a video message on Wednesday saying all Americans should have access to the treatments he was given promising to provide the drugs produced by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals free of charge which is an experimental antibody cocktail which he was given last week claiming it was a cure rather than a therapeutic measure, adding that hundreds of thousands of doses were nearly ready, but Regeneron's drugs have not been approved by federal regulators yet. Trump further went on to say that “This was a blessing in disguise - I caught it, I heard about this drug, I said let me take it and it was incredible” adding that he would seek emergency use authorisations for the drugs. Trump ended the message once again attacking China, telling Americans: “You're not going to pay for it. It wasn't your fault that this happened. It was China's fault. And China is going to pay a big price. This was China's fault”. So it’s not the wall that the Mexicans were supposedly going to pay for and still has not happened, but now a drug that Trump reckons the Chinese will pay for which he is hoping will change the outcome in November in his favour. What’s next in the Trump fantasy world, an imaginary force field encasing the American borders beamed down from space by his ‘Space Force’? Come on America if you didn’t see the hypocrisy in Pence during last night’s debate, you have to see the lunacy infecting your so called presidents mentality. Not only American’s, but the world need you to depose this retched man with his drug addled finger poised to press the big red button of doom and annihilate humanity as we know it.
On that rather dubious remark I will turn to dear old Blighty to see what this chilly October Thursday brings us. Well we keep hearing that we will not go back in to full lockdown, yet it certainly feels like we are heading that way as Johnson dithers on making decisions that will ultimately cost people their jobs, close many more businesses and affect larger businesses which will be the catalyst to the afore mentioned job losses. One of those decisions been dithered over is the expected guideline where Johnson will order tough new COVID curbs next week on pubs, cafes and restaurants in northern England, which could include closing them altogether in Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle. In an announcement that could come within days, Johnson is expected to unveil a clampdown in response to alarming rises in coronavirus cases in the worst hit areas due to the latest figures revealed that show 14,162 people across the UK were newly diagnosed with COVID-19 yesterday. What I find more terrifying than the inept response this current Tory cabinet has made is the fact that since they eased lockdown nationwide the cases of COVID-19 have slowly risen, but are now rising exponentially daily and the government doesn’t appear to have any answers. The latest figures furnished by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that Coronavirus has caused three times more deaths than pneumonia and flu combined in the first eight months of this year. There were 48,168 deaths due to COVID-19, 13,619 due to pneumonia and 394 deaths due to influenza in England and Wales between January and August and out of all deaths during this period, COVID-19 accounted for 12.4%, whereas 0.1% were due to flu and 3.5% caused by pneumonia. These are horrifying statistics which could have been much lower if Johnson and his cronies had acted quicker and held lockdown in place longer. The issues of this current government were further highlighted during Wednesday’s primeministers question time as the Labour leader picked away at the already decaying corpse that is Johnson’s cabinet’s ineptitude and inability to react to the changing face of this virus on the British people. As Johnson responded to the questions over the failing ‘Test and Trace’ scheme he could hardly lift his eyes to make contact with his opponent mumbling his answers and was quickly growing less like a primeminister and more like the naughty schoolboy been chastised by his headmaster. Keir Starmer relentlessly fought back with facts and figures catching Johnson off guard time and time again. Once Johnson had no more answers he returned to his old ploy of attack asking Keir Starmer if the labour party support the ‘rule of six’ policy, to which a response of “Yes, we do support the rule of six,” said Starmer. Following that answer up by stating that the only reason Labour had abstained on the vote the day before was because they had known it was going to pass anyway, “Now if the prime minister would just listen to the questions, we might get on a little better”, further stating that what was really at stake here was that there was no consistency in any of the rules and that Johnson’s own constituency of Hillingdon had a greater incidence of the virus than some other areas that had been put under local lockdown.
As we the people suffer under the authoritarianism of a Johnson government all we see broadcast is the ever weakening of a man who appears to no longer want the position he fought tooth and nail to win over year ago, now appearing as a dejected shell of a human being, while the newly invigorated Labour party rises daily under the leadership of Keir Starmer. We as a country [not me personally] chose Johnson and his party to lead the country on through a Brexit debacle that has rolled on for years without any headway, but instead we have a government incapable of reaching the half way point of the race, let alone the finish line. Yes, when elected little was known about COVID-19 or how dramatic the now highly publicised pandemic would be, but isn’t that why we elect individuals in to a position of power, so they can steer the ship to calmer waters. But all we seem to be seeing from Johnson and his cabinet is the pending doom of the Titanic all over again, but this time instead of an iceberg it is a downward spiralling funnel dragging us down inch by drowning inch towards if not a global, at least a national disaster of death and destruction.
The news and the future get bleaker by the day worldwide, but some countries such as the US and the UK are fairy far worse than many others with death tolls rising and governing styles turning authoritarian and dystopian the longer we remain in the headlights of the vehicle that will run us over known as COVID-19. Until we have leaders capable of putting their respective populations first instead of themselves then we will never be free of this pandemic or the inept political practises. At the moment all I see is a world heading towards a stylised George Orwell type of ‘1984’ by ‘2024’ if something is not done about Johnson and Trump very soon. The world is already over run by a ‘Big Brother’ mentality of over watch with spy satellites, computer hacking, governmental corruption and men presuming themselves to be ‘GODS’. We need less over watch and more collaboration where every human being is treated equally, no matter the colour, creed, religion or sexual persuasion within a global coalition to fight poverty, disease, homelessness, racism, xenophobia, sexism and fascism. But, until that time comes to fruition it is down to us the voters to keep the liars and the cheats out of politics, no matter how genuine they may appear at first. On that note I will call it a day,
Rant you tomorrow!
