You know what you can do

Music today is from the King of Weird Rock ‘n’ Horror, Alice Cooper, the track which closed their second album, Easy Action. Copyright is owned by Warner/Straight/Alice Cooper and video is from YouTube with the usual apologies if it doesn’t play where you are. If it does and you don’t like it, remember you are the only censor. If you do not like what I am saying you can turn me off.

This post was inspired by those workers who asked their company to stop selling beds to ICE for use in the concentration camps recently set up at the southern border of the USA. Today they walked out because the company refused to stop.

In part we need to decide what is right for us and then do it. The workers walked out en masse because they didn’t like the fact that their products were being bought up for the wrong reasons. Children should not be ripped from their parents just for looking for safety. The reason there are so many criminals getting away with their crimes in the USA is down to the fact that they see their POTUS getting away with worse.

Of course here in the UK there are a lot of criminals getting away with crimes because of the lack of officers on the street due to austerity cuts from the Tories since 2010. Why is it that the bankers destroyed the economy in 2008 and since 2010 the poorest in society have been hit the hardest with austerity? Cameron said we were all in the same boat while allowing bankers to receive unlimited bonuses for destroying the economy, cutting back on public services and benefits for those who need them.

There is a new leader about to be unveiled, an elected politician who will be the next Prime Minister. Depending on who wins will decide when and how we leave the EU, neither of them is committed to a second LEGAL referendum on whether we should leave without a deal or withdraw Article 50 and remain within the EU so it is unlikely that the majority will have a say in whether we leave without a deal or can, at the eleventh hour, produce an acceptable deal out of the hat.

Those who have been following my blog for a while will know already where I stand on this issue. If the 2016 referendum had been run fairly then I would have accepted the result, because leave cheated and didn’t win by a landslide no-one should take this as the will of the people. After all Remain obeyed the rules for a referendum while Leave spent almost double the amount allowed, lied and told half truths all the way through. Now they are claiming they warned about job losses, however, when Remain said there would be job losses the Leave campaign accused them of over reacting since there would be no job losses.

Of course that lie has been proven to be false since jobs have gone to France, Belgium, Germany and the Republic of Ireland already and other firms are cutting back on staffing levels ahead of moving to countries not leaving the EU. Once Brexit has occurred then we will see more jobs being lost, companies who are here to get a foothold in Europe won’t stay when we are no longer part of the biggest club in the Northern Hemisphere.

Those who pushed hardest for Brexit, Farage and Johnson among them, will be only too happy to see the Welfare State reduced to ashes and no one being allowed a safety net. No Pension, no dole, no free health care. What we need to remember today is that there are 3 parties who will be capable of forming a government, Tories or Labour if they get a large enough majority on their own, if not a coalition with the Lib-Dems who were the originators of the austerity measures following the crash of 2008.

What we need in this country is for people to recognise that a vote for an independent candidate or the Lib-Dems will not stop austerity. Only a vote for Labour can halt the rot. Of course Labour are committed through their manifesto to go back to the country for a second referendum ahead of Brexit. However, Jeremy Corbyn was silent during the referendum when Labour were supposed to be campaigning for Remain. The reason is that he has always been against the EU. Will he support a second referendum or take the UK out anyway?

Anyone who doesn’t know what they want out of a General Election will probably vote for someone who promises to deliver whatever is important to them that day. However, the choice is much clearer than that, Labour will end austerity and start taxing those avoiding tax under Tory mismanagement while under the Tories it will be more of the same, higher taxation for those who are taxed heavily with less tax for those better able to afford more.

Like the USA British politics are dominated by the two main parties who are the only ones able to form a majority Government. Who we end up depends largely on how we view the politics of them. There are many other parties but since none of them put people up in every constituency they are not going to be able to form a Government. The Brexit and UKIP parties both want to see the UK as a three tier state, poor people with nothing left to die on their own, the working class who are kept down by having too few jobs to chase and the ruling class which is where they see themselves. These people are dangerous because they will blame anyone for the ills of the country in order to divide and conquer.

Can we have a change to the power structure in the country? Not while we have the first past the post elections with the party leader of the majority party becoming the Prime Minister. However, any other form of electing our MP’s will take time to put in place and neither of the two major parties want proportional representation since that would reduce their influence and numbers of MP’s. If we continue with the current format then we have to accept that there are only two options for Government in this country and the lesser of the two evils is Labour for the masses and Tories for the 1%.

Who we really are

Music today is a religious(ish) song from the Dark Horse Album by Georgie Wonderful. Copyright is owned by EMI/Harrisongs/George Harrison and video is courtesy YouTube, as always apologies if it doesn’t play where you are.

The weekend weather was dry and sunny so I thought the grass would have dried out enough to cut today but, surprise surprise, it’s torrential rain today again. Typical when the sideshows are in town we get torrential rain turning the field into mud for anyone foolish enough to go there.

The Hoppings comes here every year for the last week in June and, not quite every year but more often than not, that’s the wettest week of the year so far. When is the weather more predictable here than this week? Even this week it isn’t predictable, sometimes it’s wet, sometimes it’s torrential and flooded, other times it is dry for the entire week. Weather is never predictable anywhere except California, Egypt and other desert regions.

If we could really predict the weather successfully, would we really want to? I think that some unknown factors are beneficial because it keeps us on our toes. However, there are some matters that we can see which leave us cold and destroys our faith in the humanity of our leaders. If we have no faith left in those who lead our countries to destruction and war what can we do to retain our humanity?

That is a rhetorical question because we are all faced with the same threats, there are those who were underground and afraid to walk openly yet now are coming out of the woodwork because they no longer fear being locked up because they know they are represented in Government by those at the top. What we have to ask is who is behind this sudden return to the values of the 20th century racist and sexist politics? The Russians are funding it but are they also racist and sexist? Of course they are aware that those sexist and racist elements in the West are divisive and less coherent than the stronger humanitarian’s among us.

What can we do as individuals when life serves us up lemons? If we can we make lemonade, if we can’t we eat them up and absorb their goodness. In the end we are all getting by the best we can, there are a lot of good people in the world today, their voices are quiet, but getting louder, and when we shout our voices will drown out the disquiet and hateful voices all around us. Today we are facing a growing global threat from those who want to return to Fascism and Nazism which were global phenomena in 1920’s Europe with supporters in Asia and America. In the wake of the Bolshevik uprising in Russia and the beginning of the USSR communism began to spread with the downfall of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. China, North Korea and the rest of South East Asia fell soon enough to the communists. Even after the fall of the USSR in 1990 Communism is still flourishing among those Asian countries which fell to the Communists. Of course they hide their communism today.

Still the life flowed on and on

I was listening to several tracks the other day while sitting and contemplating life, love and the universe. While I couldn’t find any solutions to the problems we all face today I did hear this particular track and smiled when I truly listened to the lyrics. As always copyright is owned by the family of George Harrison and Dark Horse Records, not me. Video is courtesy of YouTube so apologies if it doesn’t play where you are.

As I said in the introduction, this video is not the reason for putting this song here, the lyrics are and they are truly funny, if you listen to them. George had a way of giving it to you straight. If he was annoyed he would let you know he was annoyed. Reminds me of an anecdote I heard a few decades ago from Billy Connolly. He was sitting in a restaurant with Pamela, George and Olivia Harrison when a fan came up and asked Billy if he could interrupt their meal for just two seconds to get an autograph.

Billy being Billy said of course and signed the book the fan gave him, before disappearing though he turned round and said to Billy, “Thank you, but can you help me out again?”

Billy said “If I can”.

The fan then said “Are there any other famous people here who I could ask for an autograph?”

Billy replied “Well I’m sure I saw Sean Connery and Griff Rhys Jones over in that corner when we came in”.

When the gent walked away Billy turned round and said to George “Sorry about that but I don’t think he realised there was a Beatle at this table.”

George said “That’s okay, my food didn’t get cold!”

Typical Harrison, if asked he would have signed the book as well but not being asked meant he could continue to enjoy his food. The thing about that is that Billy Connolly may have been better known in L.A. than Pamela (his wife) but most people (even millenials) know who the Beatles were.

I have been having conversations on here for some time now and they are all very pleasant the people I talk to. We are all here doing the same journey every day (travelling around the sun) and yet there are so many of us who seem to have lost our humanity since 2016. That was the year when tRump was elected President of the USA and the British referendum went to a bunch of cheating scum proving that money really can buy anything.

We have seen hate crimes in both countries escalating since 2016, the majority of judges will still hand down severe sentences following a guilty verdict. But then, at least in some instances, justice is not served when the guilty party is kept of the very prison they were sentenced to. I suppose it pays to have friends sitting in the highest positions imaginable.

I know there are trolls everywhere but, since I blocked those trolling me on here, I have had only good people getting in touch with me. People I would gladly sit and chat to over a coffee or bourbon. Sometimes though I do find that talking about my pet peeves even to those very nice people on here I can feel my hackles rise and my urine starts boiling because the idiots out there in plain view again since 2016 have ruined the planet for everyone. I don’t do it to have a go at the people I am talking to and I will cut my conversation short before I get too riled up by the idiots, but if we were sitting down face to face chatting looking across the table to them would probably calm me down again and I would find it easier to keep my cool.

Maybe it’s my age, I don’t know, but I have even less time for fools than I did previously. I want to apologise on here if I have caused offence to anyone by my comments in response to theirs (I am sure you don’t want me to mention you by name since that could prompt people to look at what I may have said). I am truly sorry if I have caused you any concern since I would never knowingly do anything to hurt anyone unless they hurt me or my family first.

Getting off the topic of my comments, someone said the other day that if you are only appreciative of women you find attractive then you are still a sexist and I agree with that. It may be easy to appreciate those we are attracted to but every woman I have ever met (friends and lovers together) are worth more than any man I have ever met. I prefer to hang out with women than men because they make light of conversations about sports (I don’t watch many sports, only snooker really) and also make more sense than men, at least the ones I have met. Yes there are some complete liars out there who don’t have a clue what they are worth to themselves and serve men at an exorbitant price.

Any man who can see a woman without immediately thinking about taking her to bed is someone I would call a friend. Sure I look at some women and think that she is attractive, but the first thing that will always grab my attention is not her looks but the way she walks. Is her head held high? Is her back straight? I’d be lying if I didn’t say I pay attention to whether or not she is wearing a dress or trousers, but that is not important to me. It is to some of my gender but not to me. Of course, if I were single then I might be looking for someone to take to bed, eventually, not straight away.

What I am getting at, I can look at men and women in the same way, people watching to see who is likely to start trouble and who is just out for a good time. I also look at black people the same way I look at white people, I don’t judge anyone because they have skin a different colour to me, or they wear different clothes. I couldn’t care less whether you dress in a suit and tie, suit and shirt no tie, skirt and blouse, denim or lace. If you are on this planet then you are doing the same journey around the sun as I am. As a fellow passenger I am concerned about a lot of global issues and feel that only by working together, every single one of us on here and on this planet, can we resolve the issues we all face together.

Please comment on this post, positive or negative, as it is only by having discourse that we can grow as human beings and our humanity is strengthened in the process.

You saw her bathing on the roof

Today’s song is from Leonard Cohen, a man not to listen to when you feel as low as a worm. However, there are almost as many versions of this track as there are of Yesterday or Michelle. Music is not owned by me, video is linked from YouTube so as always apologies if it doesn’t play where you are.

Every day on tv’s across the UK there are charities asking for money every month from those without jobs, all to prevent catastrophe in the poorest countries of the planet. For animals and endangered species, people and refugees struggling to find clean water and food. Makes me wonder why these ads are on tv during the day when the only ones likely to be watching are those without work, probably without any spare cash since they will be on benefits and that now means Universal Credit so they will get paid every 4 weeks with less than they need to survive.

Now, being as that is the case, why do they arrive on our screens as regular as clockwork at meal times? The solution to clean water for everyone, enough food to go around everyone is the end of every conflict, war or battle on this planet. We need politicians in charge who can force a lasting peace on the planet. Forget about securing your borders, we have to join together, men; women and everyone else, in order to end poverty and disease. The problems we are facing today are global problems and working alone with closed borders isn’t going to cut it any longer.

If we don’t work together what will happen to the human race? Look around and see how many people are calling the climate emergency a spoof by the scientific community. This isn’t helping to control the effects by tackling the problem head on. If you think Greta Thunberg is crazy then I feel that you are part of the problem and not the solution. Some of us know how to fix things but if we don’t work together then the situation will only get worse.

If we want to ensure the planet is able to sustain life then we have to act NOW, twenty years ago we could have done less and made a difference but because of deniers time is running out rapidly. The deniers are still there advocating for the Status Quo, that won’t resolve anything and the weather is only going to get worse while the planet tries to heal itself. The planet knows we are the problem so in order to correct it we will become extinct, if you doubt that have a look at the sea levels now, if it doesn’t scare you you’re already dead.

On a better note there is always something going on which threatens the lives of everyone in an area on this small planet revolving around the sun. Looking back through history you can see that since the dawn of time human beings have been mistreating other human beings. Nothing new there but you’d think we’d have learned by now that if we continue the way we are going then there will be nothing left for any future generation.

Anyhoo, today here in the UK it is Father’s Day, I had a visit from my eldest step-daughter with a card from her and her family, my youngest step-daughter wished me a happy Fathers Day by text message but nothing at all from my own children. I know my daughter still hasn’t forgiven me for leaving her without saying goodbye, in 1997, but I have done nothing to my son. I text him and get nothing back, I email him and get ignored more. If it wasn’t for the fact he posts rubbish on FaceBook, which my wife sees, I wouldn’t know if he was dead or alive.

Troubled by the lack of contact with my children I often feel that if it wasn’t for my wife and step-children I would have nothing to live for. That doesn’t mean I will give in to morbid thoughts and take my own life. It does mean I have to be super careful though.

Whatever you are doing this week, take care, have fun and love one another. Until the next time I have something to say I will sign off for now and wish you all love and peace forever.

Could’ve sworn it was judgment day

Music to accompany this post is from the wonderful Prince, his first single with the Revolution and the title track of his first album with them. Copyright is owned by Paisley Park, The Prince Estate and Warner Brothers Records/Time Warner. Apologies if the video doesn’t play where you are but it is courtesy of YouTube and they are the ones who decide where videos can be watched.

I know what I was going to put in this post, however, that was yesterday and I had a really bad night last night, the first in a long time so I’ll start as I was going to and then we’ll have to see where it goes from there.

It seems that the lunatics have taken over the asylum that used to be the United Kingdom, since last week’s initial vote it looks as though Boris Johnson is set to become the next Prime Minister here, he is determined to push for a no deal Brexit at any cost to the economy, country and the inhabitants. Since he is a great friend of tRump we can only assume he is also guilty of taking money from Russians for decades. We know he is a racist, islamophobe, homophobe and a misogynist just like his biggest backer.

I know it may not seem like much to the rest of the world but the UK leaving the EU (even though it has not happened and we may yet stop it happening at all) is having a toll already on jobs, companies and the economy. I have been watching the exchange rates very closely for the last few months and, if I’d had the money to buy when I first looked I could have had $3,000 for just slightly over the cost of $2,000 today. The less I start with the less I will be able to do when I get to NOLA.

Of course this is peanuts to Boris and his chums since they have billions tucked away in offshore accounts. Some people are hailing him as “The man of the people” not realising that he would never dream of visiting the areas where most of us live, will never travel less than private jet, no economy flights for him. He pays more for his car than most of us will have in a lifetime and his friends ensure he is kept away from the public.

None of this matters a fig to me since I will never vote for any Tory candidate at any time. Same goes for Lib Dems because after all the two people who sat down together to draft an austerity plan for the UK were David Cameron (Con) and Nick Clegg (Lib Dem). Cleggy is now living it up in the USA with a job paying him several millions of dollars a year, he has free health care as part of his job, and the job? It is to dismantle the profitable parts of the NHS here in the UK and ensure they are bought by his employer.

If I was in their shoes being told to fuck off by the losers who believed the lies told by Leave, that Remain were talking bullshit when they said jobs would be lost by Brexit and the economy would crash following a no deal Brexit. Of course now we know the truth but some of them are still believing the lies even though the evidence that they were lies is beginning to mount up.

We have been told that a no deal Brexit will mean we trade every country on WTO rules (the worst rules for trade imaginable). Now tRump is saying that he didn’t mean to give the impression that we could keep our sovereignty AND get a great trade deal with the USA. What he meant was we can negotiate a trade deal and if we give up our Welfare State in favour of the American model, give up our monarchy (including the Prince of Whales) then he will look to accept us into the USA as the 51st State.

Of course Leave said they wanted to reclaim our sovereignty (we never lost it) take back our borders (we controlled them anyway since we could refuse to allow people from the EU to come here without a job waiting). They also promised that our NHS would be given the money going into the EU coffers but that was another huge lie since they have been selling off the profitable parts, taking doctors with them, since the early 1980’s. They want to sell off the rest and force the British people to accept the USA health insurance model, knowing fine well that too many people won’t be able to get health insurance and will therefore never be seen by a GP, ER or any health professional until it is too late. Of course the more poor people who die as a result of this policy the better for the wealthy since there will be less people to point out what they are doing.

If we allow ourselves to be duped by criminals and fraudulent behaviour in 2016 and pulled out of the EU as a direct result of foreign intervention then we deserve everything we get. However, since the 2016 result is contaminated, there has to be another referendum overseen more closely to ensure the rules are obeyed and this time everyone will have to accept the result. Whether the end result is to Remain or Leave.

Just need a little brain salad surgery (Part 2)

This is part 2 of yesterday’s post to celebrate the life of Dr. John todays music is from Right Place, Wrong Time. This was the first song I heard by Dr. John so I think it is as good a place to start this post as any. Copyright is not owned by me and the video is courtesy of YouTube, apologies if it doesn’t play where you are.

Listening to music can lift the spirits of even the darkest soul, if you don’t get enjoyment from music then you must already be dead. I don’t know who said that but I would like to think it was Mac Rebennack since he was the second famous pianist from New Orleans.

Music has the power to end war, bring peace, lift your spirits high, or destroy lives. It is known as the Universal Language because even if you don’t understand the vocal you can still feel the beat. The beat and the music over this is what makes for enjoyment. Music can bypass the senses and go straight to the soul.

If we all liked the same music how boring life would be, so some of my dear readers may not like the music I add to my posts, however, you are the only censor, if you do not like what I am saying you can turn me off (Alice Cooper 1969).

Yes, my friends I posted part one yesterday and said part two would be in celebration of Dr. John and so here we are back again so soon. I don’t write a daily blog, this is not a diary, it is a blog where I come on when I have something to say and not just to get my creative juices flowing, although maybe that is good for others.

If Dr. John teaches anything it is that human rights are not earned, they are a natural right to be given to everyone. It’s not pie, so giving someone the rights they deserve by being alive doesn’t mean there’s less for someone else. Everyone has the right to live without fear or oppression, that is a basic human right. I don’t care if you’re the biggest bigot alive you still deserve to live without persecution, just as those you persecute deserve that same right.

After the dust settles I hope we can all live freely wherever we are, doesn’t matter what colour your skin, your gender (rightly or wrongly it doesn’t define you) who you love or how you identify. EVERYONE deserves the freedom to express themselves however they want to, you can put me down for saying things you don’t agree with. That says more about you than it does about me.

I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to say it, just as I have the right to contradict you openly. It is a two way street, if you disagree with me you have the right to attack my words using your own. You do not have the right to use your fists against me, no matter who I am, black, white, gay, straight, male or female. I reserve the right to defend myself and call on others to help me out if I am overwhelmed. This again is my right as it is yours.

Human rights apply to us all or they apply to none. If you break the law then I have the right to see you tried in a court of law, and if found guilty, sentenced to jail time commensurate with the crime. That is the way we keep the majority safe from the minority who seek to harm them. For too long the majority have been told how to behave by the minority who control the wealth. It’s time we stood up to them and said no more getting away with paying the minimum pay what you should!

In the European elections last month I backed a Remain party since they fought fairly in 2016, in a General Election I will not back them since they will not have a hope of forming a government. I will not back the Tory party who want to make the poor suffer while giving tax relief to the wealthiest in the country to stop them leaving. The biggest supporters of Brexit have already left these shores and are safe in their Tax Havens – or living it up in Europe, apart from Putin who just wants to undermine democracy in the West.

When will the British public wake up to the lies being spoon fed to them? When a Brexiteer tells them that the job losses caused by Brexit were warned about during the referendum they forgot to add that these were from Remain, and the Brexiteers said they were Panic Spreading Rumours, however, Brexit hasn’t happened and still companies are leaving these shores to move to Europe proving they were only here to get a foothold into Europe and the European markets. How many job losses will be acceptable to the idiots backing a no deal Brexit? Will the company have to be bankrupted by them before the country seeks to rejoin the EU? That should only take a couple of years after Brexit.

Sovereignty was never lost but leaving and then realising it was a mistake will cost our sovereignty IF we are accepted again for membership of the biggest winners enclosure in modern times. What has the European Union achieved since the 1950’s when the original treaty was signed in Rome? There has been no conflict on European soil by Europeans, there has been concord and agreement by member states on how best to tackle world problems.

Leaving and burying our heads in the sand is going backwards without realising the world has moved on since 1973. Thinking we beat Germany twice in the twentieth century doesn’t mean a damn thing in the twenty-first century. If we have not learned from the mistakes made in the past we will make them again and again. Do you know what they say madness is defined as? It is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. No individual country can last in this day and age, we should be seeking to improve our lot by making Europe bigger and better not shouting from the sidelines at how great it is becoming.

What do Brexiteers look for in a separate Britain? They won’t get it, they will get isolationism, America which said it was going to back us after Brexit is now saying that any trade deal will mean the end of our NHS, welfare state and destruction of what makes us British, in other words the END OF OUR SOVEREIGNTY!

It’s time to wake up and smell the roses people, alone we will lose everything the Brexiteers told us would be regained, which we still have today. Sovereignty was never lost by membership of the biggest club in Europe, leaving will cost us everything we worked for since 1945. Jobs will only be the first cost to us of leaving the club we should have joined from the beginning.

I got a stamp on my skin

Music for this post was decided on before I got the news of the death of the midnight crawler, Dr. John so here is the first post, second to follow in part 2. As always I don’t own the copyright in this music and the video is attached courtesy of YouTube so apologies if it doesn’t play where you are.

It’s no surprise that musicians are leaving us almost every day, especially those who inspired my heroes. I’m just surprised that there are still 4 original members of the Rolling Stones still around. Especially with the excesses of the 60’s which took so many talented people from us too soon.

Anyhoo, this post isn’t about Dr. John or those who have recently left us for the after life. I watched a meme where Stephen Colbert put Keanu Reeves on the spot by asking him what he thinks happens to us after we die. The response was that those who love us are sad after our departure. Truer words were never spoken.

You may have to try and keep up with my train of thoughts today, because I am not sure what I want to say in this post since it was going to be about one thing, then another idea cropped up and I was away. I know my mind can flit like a butterfly from topic to topic so please bear with me since there are not going to be any tirades, no nastiness as I refuse to lower myself today to the level of the haters in control.

On Tuesday in London, two women were attacked by a group of thugs aged 15-18, males all, for refusing to kiss in front of them. The ladies in question are lesbians and a couple but don’t “perform” when ordered to. That was no excuse for them to be attacked and beaten by these thugs who have all been caught. My only hope is that they are given punitive sentences for their crime of hatred against these women.

Why is it that all those who said afterwards “How did this happen here?” are the same ones who say time and time again they don’t want LGBT+ taught in schools to their children. That’s why it happened here because LGBTQIA+ people are still seen as freaks by the majority of children brought up in “straight” households. Hate is taught by example, we should therefore look at the parents of these children and, maybe, punish them as well with registration on a hate register? After all sex offenders are added to the Sex Offenders Register and have to advise police where they are living to ensure the surrounding area is kept aware of the dangers they pose.

The same should happen for those who hate and spread malicious stories, inciting others to do the crimes they are afraid will get them into trouble with the authorities. The biggest threat is not those who carry out acts of violence, but those who incite them to commit these acts.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Farage has given a letter to 10 Downing Street stating that his Brexit thugs should be given a place at the table during the negotiations for Brexit. This following the resignation of the Prime Minister, months after the negotiations have ended, and without a single MP in Westminster.

If he gets a place at the negotiating table following the election of a new Prime Minister then I should also be given a seat at those same negotiations to try and stop a no deal Brexit ever happening since the majority of his very slender majority in 2016 didn’t vote for, and will not accept, a no deal Brexit.

In order for democracy to work, the politicians have to listen to the majority of the population, ahead of the referendum in 2016 there should have been a stipulation that anyone not voting would be voting to maintain the status quo. After all that was the way the 1973 referendum was run, where there was a massive majority in favour of joining the Common Market as it was then known. Those who didn’t vote had their votes counted as against joining, yet there was still a massive victory to go ahead and join to preserve peace in Europe.

The only reason people are still following the likes of Farage blindly is because they can’t see that the majority of foreign businesses in the UK were relocated here because our National language is English, the international language of business. Those companies came here to get a foothold in Europe so once we leave they WILL close their doors. Anyone who tells you differently is lying. Ford, Nissan, Steel companies from Japan, Technology companies from the USA and all the others, will close up shop here and move to Ireland. The Republic speak English as well as Gaelic so that gives them an advantage over France or Germany.

If America won’t impeach tRump today, they won’t do it next year since it will increase his standing in the polls. This will mean the 2020 election will again return him to the White House for a second term, since the Russians will continue to hack the American election process and results. As long as he gets away with his crimes he will get more and more bold until he has so huge a hold on America he will declare it is no longer a Republic but an Empire and himself as Emperor for life.

If we follow the path down the rabbit hole to it’s natural conclusion then we are all to blame in some small part for allowing the West to become an occupied Russian State. The cold war failed to spread Communism to the rest of the World, however, since the fall of Communist Russia and the disintegration of the USSR Putin has been successful at causing dissention and spreading hate throughout the English speaking countries on the planet.

If we don’t stop this soon it will become too late as his supporters are becoming more and more belligerent sensing that their lies are about to be discovered by the masses supporting the liars.

Have a great weekend dear reader and remember that Love is much more powerful than hate, so let the haters hate just love each other and we can catch up again soon.

Money doesn’t talk… It swears

Today’s tune is an oldie from the beat poet of my generation who said much in this song that is still true today, if you listen then you may hear. Copyright is owned by CBS/Sony Music, video is courtesy of YouTube and apologies if it doesn’t play where you are.

Even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked. Well, the second visit of the puppet of Moscow has gone off with his usual tantrums when people stand up to him and tell him how wrong he is. Somehow I don’t think he likes the treatment he doles out to others. While we don’t go as far as he does in calling for them to be killed by his followers, he knows we are watching while America is being torn apart by his politics of hate and division.

That is all I’m saying about his latest visit to these fair shores. On a much lighter note, I’ve been listening to a lot of “old” songs recently, John Holt, Clint Eastwood, Ini Kamoze, Desmond Dekker and The Upsetters. It is very easy to remember why I started listening to Reggae Music in the late 1960’s because it is music with a beat (like Rock and Roll) tells a story (like Rock and Roll) and is very moving (you guessed it, like Rock and Roll). John Lennon wanted The Beatles recording of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to have a Reggae beat but they didn’t understand how it was done, however, a year later the group had come to grips with Reggae and Ska and this was borne out by Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da as it has a ska back beat.

It didn’t matter what you were into at any point in the 1960’s (whether you were a fan of The Beatles or not), pop music was part of the Beatles experience, Rock and Roll was a big part of the Beatles sound in the early days before the touring stopped. Rock, Heavy Metal, Reggae, Musak, trippy electronic sounds or even bass and drums they did with ease. At least on record it was done to sound easy. They gave an awful lot of groups reasons to go for music rather than working 9 to 5. As Ozzy Osborne has said on the record he owes his entire career to John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ritchie Starkey.

Thanks to the Beatles taking the US by storm in 1963/4 other acts were able to ride the wave into the US taking black music to the white masses. Groups like the Rolling Stones, the Kinks (at least before they were banned), the Who, The Animals, The Merseybeats and all the others, were able to make fortunes by being huge in the States. Of course, without breaking the US the Beatles would have still been the biggest band in Europe (thanks to the amount of time they spent in Hamburg) Australia and other points of the compass but breaking the US speeded up the process.

Of course they made more money from touring and merchandise than they did from records, so when they were in danger and stopped touring they stopped making so much money. The same was probably true for the Rolling Stones which would explain why both groups were desperate to play live again by 1969. The Beatles played on their office roof in January and the Rolling Stones played Hyde Park in July which they turned into a tribute for Brian Jones and was the last time they had anything good to say about their founder member.

Those of us old enough to remember the announcement in early 1970 when Paul McCartney said the Beatles were no longer going to perform together, thought it was the end of rock forever. Then George, Paul and John brought out solo records which Rocked, Ringo released an album of old standards but it sold reasonably well. Since then we all know that John took 5 years out to raise Sean, Paul and George were touring and making albums in the 1970’s, Paul with Wings, Ringo was acting in movies and releasing the occasional rock album, the Rolling Stones released albums with two new guitarists in the 1970’s (first Mick Taylor who left before he died from drugs, then Ron Wood who is still with them today).

Paul is getting old but is still touring, as are the Stones, there are a lot of musicians who started in the 1970’s still making records today but those from the 1960’s still recording new music are not as prolific as they were in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Music changes and anyone who refuses to change with it gets lost in the shuffle, take a look at David Bowie, he kept reinventing himself and kept having hit albums through the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s and then after the beginning of the new millennium his output slowed down to a stop in 2003, until 2013, 2015 and 2016. His best album may not have been released as he was talking about touring Black Star when he died.

Rock and Roll is littered with bodies since 1959 the stars seem to have risen, shone brightly and then died. Of course some of them had members who continued on after the group split up, others were not so lucky (the Big Bopper was a solo artist who didn’t have any other members to keep his name going). Buddy Holly was on a solo tour when he died but The Crickets kept going for several years after his death and he was still having hits in the early 1960’s with songs he had “in the can” when he died.

Music is the one thing which can tame the darkness inside me, make me smile, dance, sing (ok not very well but hey, neither does Ringo) or just close my eyes and listen to the music wash over me when it’s late at night. I still enjoy the music of my youth (the Beatles, the Stones, the Kinks, the Animals, the Who etc) and music I discovered in the 1970’s (Alice Cooper, T. Rex, David Bowie and Thin Lizzy) there were a few 1980’s acts which I loved (OMD, Curiosity Killed the Cat and others). For me the Golden Age was the 1960’s and 1970’s because that was the first global explosion of rock and roll music. I listen to all kinds of music from Ambient (Brian Eno and others), Rock (Tesla, Thin Lizzy, Guns and Roses among others), Reggae (the aforementioned groups and solo artists are my favourites), Rock Opera (the Who, Meat Loaf, Jim Steinman and others), Synthesiser sounds (OMD, Bronski Beat, Yazoo, Erasure and others).

Music is the one constant in my life from a very early age and I think without it I would be a much lesser person than I currently am.

June is Pride month, even if you aren’t LGBTQI+ please try and support those taking part, after all united we stand divided we fall. We are all human beings no matter how we identify or who we love. We all have the same basic rights and if we deny this to others we also deny it to ourselves.

what i am is what i am

Today, music is provided by Alice Cooper and copyright is owned by Universal Music. video is courtesy of YouTube and apologies if it doesn’t play where you are.

I wonder if anyone else feels the same way as I do about the world we currently live in. It seems to be run by idiots and haters at the moment with fools and idiots trying to take over everywhere. Then you get tRump calling our latest Royal “nasty” and his supporters saying he didn’t while showing the video where he clearly does just that.

Next week he is visiting this once great nation for the second time, the first visit he was so ignorant of protocol he walked in front of our Queen, was disrespectful to her and her position. This time, he hasn’t even arrived and has called our Prince Harry’s wife “nasty” for calling him out as a misogynist, proving that is exactly what he is. If he can’t do protocol then we should not be having him back for any further visits.

His ambassador has said that, following Brexit, tRump will be looking to extend our once great nation the opportunity to be the 51st State but only if we scrap our NHS, Monarchy and the remaining Welfare State. In other words everything the Brexiteers warned the EU were going to do the US will do or leave us to go bankrupt and starve.

I know not everyone is capable of believing the state of the world around us is completely our fault, but we have almost destroyed this planet so much that it is having to fight back in order to survive. There are going to be a lot of animals facing extinction in order to provide a safe planet for life of any kind and humans are at the top of that list.

Unless we do something to correct our mistakes then we will all be destroying not only the planet but also our species.

In any event, today I was going to write about the latest in a long line of great programmes which have been dropped by their networks, picked up by either Netflix or Amazon and ruined in giving them a final season. Lucifer was dropped after season 3, picked up by Netflix for a final season and given a make over for the worse to try and tie everything up in a bow for the final episode ever. The final season had everything the other seasons had, same cast, same crew, but the stories made no sense of the back plot. Then Lucifer in the final scene to be shown was back in Hell after saying he would never go back.

I have not watched all of Game of Thrones yet, but a lot of people have said the 8th and final season was a let down, with plot twists galore, the good guys going bad and the bad guys going good. I just hope the final film in the Star Wars series doesn’t fall foul of this form of script writing. The time has come to see what befalls the last vestige of decency left in the Galaxy. Will Luke Skywalker put in an appearance in Episode IX?

Anyhoo, I think I have blethered on a tad too much today so will leave it here for now. Hopefully things will work themselves out and we will finally see justice done in Britain and America to jail those traitors who have been laundering money for the Russian Oligarchs.

I didn’t mean to take up all your sweet time

This post features music from the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jimi’s first and only UK number 1 single. Copyright is owned by Polydor and Jimi Hendrix Estate. Video is courtesy of YouTube and apologies (as always) if it doesn’t play where you are.

I chose this track from the final album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, not just because it was the only single Jimi ever had at number 1 in the UK, it was also the first posthumous single released in the UK. It also fits in quite well with the topic of today’s post. The topic being hatred and racism which Jimi experienced during his life both in the USA and here in the UK.

I haven’t met any musician who didn’t recognise the talented black people behind jazz and rock and roll music, just because I haven’t met any musician who was racist doesn’t mean there are no white musicians who aren’t also racists. Racism is wrong on so many levels, all hatred is wrong on so many levels. When you look beneath the surface at any human being we are all basically the same. Yes there are differences between the genders but we all have muscles, skeletons, arteries and veins in common. Our genders give us sexual organs which are different between men and women, everyone knows that. Human beings are capable of empathy, love and fear. Empathy and love give us our humanity, fear leads to hatred which removes our humanity.

I feel very strongly that hate is wrong because it is a wasted emotion. If we hate then we are not able to move past a difference between us and the object of our hate. This removes our ability to empathise with the person we hate. In turn this removes our humanity one piece at a time. Without our humanity we cannot call ourselves humans, our humanity is what makes us human in the first place.

If we focus on hatred and greed then we are blinded to the special person we hate. Everyone of us is entitled to the same human rights, regardless of how we identify, colour of our skin or anything else which makes us unique. Yes, we are all different, we have different likes, loves and beliefs. That doesn’t mean anyone has the right to hate me because I’m white, or black, man or woman, transgender, gay, straight or even queer.

In the America of the 1950’s and 1960’s there was segregation and everybody with any decency could see that was wrong and divisive. Inclusion is stronger than separation, we are all the better for inclusion and diversity in all walks of life, school, work and play.

If you don’t believe me then just take a look around you, when there is inclusion and diversity everyone is working together to make life better for everyone. Where there is division and hatred the minority control the majority. Look at 2019 America, the 1% are happy to spread hatred against those seeking a better life, calling them murderers and rapists to turn the majority against them and making it easier for the minority to keep control over the masses. The same was true in Germany in the 1930’s and early 1940’s. By blaming one section of society the National Socialists were able to keep the masses under control. This was using Jews as a scapegoat, now it’s Mexicans and South Americans who flee persecution in their home country to go to America where they feel they will have a much better life only to find the situation there is worse than the one they have left behind.

Instead of being welcomed with open arms, they are separated from their children and turned away. This is to allow the paedophiles blocking their entry to abuse their children (killing too many of them in the process). If we don’t stand up against this behaviour then we are as guilty as the paedophiles who are taking advantage of the children being kept caged at the border.

There is a reason why children should be protected and that is not being done at the moment in a country divided by hate, fuelled by greed and kept down from doing what is right by a crazed lunatic who is only there because of Russian involvement. Mueller couldn’t indict a sitting President because the rules wouldn’t allow him to. He found evidence of crimes against the American people, which is treason no matter what the President calls it, or lies he is telling to cover up his guilt.

When the Attorney General is also covering up crimes committed by the President and lying on his behalf to the American people then he should also be impeached and, when he is removed from office, charged with treason and face trial for all of his crimes. It’s time for America to act in order to bring itself back to the forefront of the world stage. The first African American President did everything he could to make America Great, this President has done everything in his power to get away with treason and increase his wealth while committing crimes against humanity since he was elected President by the Russians.

It’s time we also realised here in the UK that there was Russian involvement and money spent on the Leave Campaign in 2016 and they only won a minor victory then by lying, cheating and promising to deliver things which could not be delivered. Farage is on record saying that anything less than 55% of the vote could not be taken as a win (before the referendum), that following Brexit the NHS would no longer suffer for funding as they would receive the billions of pounds taken by the EU. Now he is advocating for an end to the NHS and everyone having to have private medical insurance in order to be seen by a GP, just as the Americans have to. Of course Private Medical Insurance will not cover pre-existing conditions without charging an excess premium, so the poorest in society will not have access to life saving health care.

He doesn’t care about the likes of you and me, he was waiting for Brexit to be delivered in March 2019 so he could swan off to the USA and take up a job offer there. He gets his millions from the Russians, that’s why, like tRump, he refuses to disclose his finances. The man is a fraud and couldn’t tell the truth if his life depended on it, just like his masters in the White House in Washington and the Kremlin in Moscow. There is strong evidence of money laundering by both tRump’s crime family and Farage for the Russian President and Russian oligarchs. It’s time they were all brought up on charges and forced to face the music for their crimes. Ending their run of hate fuelled campaigns and overturning their successes in the polls in both our countries.

The issues we currently face are global, there is no way to resolve them by isolationism, we have to be part of a global community and tackle the issues head on while there is still time. Tomorrow will be too late and instead of breaking up the EU we should be trying to make it stronger and keep things working for the good of everyone not just the top 1%.