Talking to myself

Good afternoon dear reader, yes it is me again but today is a very special day here in the UK. It’s the day the Government bankrupts the UK and brings it to its knees. Music is from the much missed Georgie Wonderful from his (to date) only posthumous album (Brainwashed). Video is courtesy of YouTube so apologies as always if it doesn’t play where you are.

As I mentioned in the brief introduction today at 23:00 we officially leave the EU and BoJo has decided he will give them until 31 December 2020 to agree a trade agreement before he takes us out with no deal at all. He said today he wants the country united behind Brexit because it is “an excellent opportunity for the country to heal it’s division”. The person and the party which caused all this division is (drum roll here) Demonic Cummings and the Tory Party. The racists have taken over and they expect those of us who have lived lives of inclusion and acceptance of diversity to unite with these racists? I don’t think so.

On a lighter note, I’ve been listening to a music mix recently on Gold from Global Player (courtesy of Alexa) and the music mix in the mornings is really excellent, if you have the opportunity to listen then I advise you to do so, they play a mix of music from the 1950’s right up to the current day. I’m not saying every song meets the Dave Barclay test but there is more music I like than music I don’t like. Sometimes there is even my third musical category, music I haven’t heard. If we open our ears we can hear so much good and realise that as bad as things are today (whether we live in the UK, USA, Australia or Canada) there is a lot of people who don’t like the current state of Government in those countries and if we unite then we can change things for the better.

There was a saying when I was growing up, if you don’t like the weather in England wait an hour and see if it is then to your liking. A week is a long time in politics and it remains to be seen whether the Senate in the USA will continue their cover up or if they will vote for more witnesses to be called to get a better picture of the crimes committed by the tRumpster while he has been in office. He has been proudly tweeting of his crimes so the proof is out there for anyone who is looking for it to see.

Again, apologies for slipping back out of humourous mode into serious political mode, I’ve changed the soundtrack to Pink Floyd’s song for Syd Barrett (Shine on You Crazy Diamond) so this should help me to focus on the funnier things that have been happening in the world at large and the UK in particular. Not sure why I chose comedy for this post since these are very serious times? It’s because these are dangerous and serious times and we have to be careful or we will all end up under the control of Putin and the Russian State.

BoJo has refused to publish the Russia Report because “there is nothing damaging in there” but surely tRump said the same thing about the report into his involvement with Putin and Russian Oligarchs and we all know now that it was full of reasons why he should be impeached and, if he wasn’t POTUS he would have been arrested and held on remand to ensure he didn’t run before the trial for his crimes.

When any politician tells us there is nothing to see here we know they are covering up something huge, if you or me did half the things they do then we would have been arrested and jailed for our crimes before very long. They live in cloud cuckoo land most of the time and criticise us for having to cope with their policies, telling us it’s our own fault we’re poor, telling us we shouldn’t believe their lies when they tell us they are lying. Are they really so naive to believe that they will not be believed when they shout the lies louder than we shout the truth?

It’s all one big joke to them as long as they maintain in control of the country they can change the law so that crimes they committed before will be passed next time. This is criminal justice being written by the criminals. If we stop with the politicians then how long will it take to lose control of our lives completely? Peaceful demonstrations are no longer possible because the racists in control will have a counter march, not for peaceful opposition but in order to crack skulls of those who disagree with them.

When the laws are being written by those who hate women, LGBT+, society in general and those diverse people within it will the laws be just? Of course not they will be as bigotted as the people who wrote them. Will any of this go to heal the division in the country which was caused by the Russian involvement in a referendum and 2 General Elections in the UK? Forced the tRumpster on the GOP and then the American people? POTUS used to be the Leader of the Free World but that position has been a huge joke since 2017.

I can hear a lark somewhere

I’m back again and we have now got the dates for the work to be carried out, week commencing 2 March 2020, so we’ll be going to a cottage for that week with no laptop so no way to blog while there. However music today is a version of an American Standard from the Golden Age of Popular Music. Written by Cole Porter it has been widely covered over the years by artists as diverse as Simply Red, Annie Lennox and the version included here. Apologies as always if it doesn’t play but the video is courtesy of YouTube.

Why Ella Fitzgerald? I admire her talent and think she was one of the best vocalists from the jazz era, although not alone she is in the company of Billie Holliday, Etta James and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. That was truly a golden age for women vocalists in American music.

This post is about something dear to my heart, because I can see there is a backlash coming and it could escalate quite easily towards violence. Tomorrow (31 January 2020) is the day when the UK will leave the EU for an 11 month period to try and negotiate trading agreements between us and the other 27 EU countries. Of course our PM, BoJo the Clown has refused to predict the outcome of Brexit, to cost this effect or to give any indication as to how many jobs will be lost before it ceases to be cost effective. Since the referendum in 2016 more money has been spent on Brexit than we paid into the EU in 47 years of membership. Does anyone else think this is money well spent? I don’t, it could have been better spent ensuring the NHS is not put onto the table in order to negotiate trade agreements with the USA. Of course since the privatisation has been continuing apace since the election last month the thought now throughout the UK is we should never have listened to someone who has never told the truth, but when he lies constantly you would think no one would ever believe anything coming out of his mouth ever again.

If anyone was in any doubt about how disastrous Brexit is going to be for those parts of the UK which voted overwhelmingly to Remain they should recognise that Northern Ireland has been given a supreme deal to Remain within the EU in order to avoid starting the troubles again. One of the main ingredients of the Good Friday agreement from 1997 was for freedom of movement between Northern Ireland and the Republic so BoJo has agreed to ring fence Northern Ireland, leaving it within the EU and tariffs imposed on goods leaving NI bound for the rest of the UK. This has cost him the backing of the DUP but since he has a majority he isn’t worried about that. It could also lead to an Independence Referendum along the lines of Scotland to ensure that Northern Ireland can never be told to leave the EU by Westminster.

In relation to Scotland, the Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, was told that she was still going to have to pay for the Climate meetings of heads of state but would not be allowed to attend by BoJo. Not sure whether or not she did attend in the end because it seems he ordered a media black out of the event. He also promised the Russian Report would be released after the election in December now he is saying there is no need because it contains nothing whatsoever about any outside interference in the Referendum or the elections of 2017 and 2019. Everyone who knows him and the tRumpster know that this means the report was very damaging to him and his party of thugs, racists, misogynists and autocrats.

It’s about time both America and the UK woke up to the fact that you can never trust a liar to do anything other than feather their own nest, give them a role of power and they are so corrupted they will abuse that power for their own ends.

Sitting on a cornflake waiting for the van to come

Once again, dear reader, I apologise for the delay but I have had a hell of a lot going on in my personal life over the last few days. However, I’m back again and ready to entertain you with some real life adventure and wise cracks to make you laugh. Music to accompany this post is from the Fabs again and it is one of the 6 tracks from Paul McCartney’s film about magic, clouds, the Beatles, friends and relatives on a charabanc (if you’re not English that is a bus going somewhere unknown). Apologies if the video doesn’t play where you are but YouTube has different rules for different areas and they provided the video.

Ok, so where to start, I had a post all planned out for writing on Saturday but then on Friday night my brother told me my dad is unable to look after himself any longer and is in a hospice. They don’t know what is going to happen with him or his house at the moment and I have been waiting for an update but so far nothing.

The electricity needs to be rewired in the house (in December it tripped and wouldn’t go back on, after a week we had a temp job done). It is all working at the moment but not sure for how much longer as the fault still hasn’t been rectified. Electrician wants to come round and do a complete rewire, separating the lights into upstairs and downstairs and the ring main into up and down as well. In order to do this we need to move out for a week but the landlord has some availability in another house so we can move in there for the work to be done.

All of this and worrying about my dad sent my anxiety through the roof until Saturday when the landlord said about her other house being empty for a few weeks so we can move in temporarily while waiting for the work to be completed here. I thought we were going to have to pay for a hotel for a week when we are struggling to pay the bills until payday (tomorrow) for me. This has been a hell of a long month since there is always more to fork out for at Christmas and Easter than any other time of year. (That’s what happens when you have 10 grandkids (8 of whom we buy for and 2 we never see).

What is it with families? My son rarely gets in touch with me, my daughter never gets in touch with me. I’ve never met her sons and one of them is 20 this year the other is younger by 2 or 3 years. My son will text me when I text him, but only then. My 3 stepkids do keep in touch with their mam but not as often as she would like unless something goes wrong. My eldest step-daughter fell out with her bestie several months ago and they were working together making cakes with everything round at the friends house. Anyway things seemed to be settling down until Friday (that fateful day again) as my step-daughter was getting back into her sisters car the “friend” ran over and started punching and kicking her while she was half in and half out of the car. Her face has come up in bruises and the incident was caught on CCTV on the forecourt camera where my step-daughter had just finished blowing up her sisters tyres. The car door has also been damaged in the attack.

My step-daughter went into the shop and asked them if she could see the playback from the incident and was shown it, she then asked them to keep it as she would be reporting this to the police and she was told they keep the footage for 30 days before overwriting anything. The police have been informed and advised that there is CCTV footage showing the attack. Of course they can not respond urgently to this as they are under-staffed due to Tory cuts and broken election promises. However, when they do go round it will be an even bigger shock to the “friend” who must be thinking she has got away with the attack.

It’s time I went and fed myself since my stomach is now rumbling noisily telling me it wants something put in as soon as possible. More news on the incidents as soon as I hear anything.

Turn off your mind surrender to the void

This is a new juncture for me. I found an old Rolling Stone article concerning Revolver, the album I have long considered to be the best Beatles album ever (although that changes between Revolver and The Beatles they remain within my top 3 Beatles albums).

In light of this fact the article can be found here:

Beatles’ Acid Test: How LSD Opened the Door to ‘Revolver’

Add your comments to this post as I would be very interested to find out what you think of the writing.

Don’t tell the trees cos the trees don’t need to know

Watching a program yesterday I heard a new (to me) version of a song I had heard and loved from years ago. The song was Whispering Grass, the version I first heard way back in 1970 was by Ringo Starr on his album dedicated to his youth and his mum, Sentimental Journey. His very first solo album.

Ringo, as we all know, doesn’t like to be called Ringo he answers to his given name of Richard (although he prefers Rich). Makes me wonder why, during all the crap he was dished out between 1962-1970, he thinks Brexit is a wonderful thing given that he moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970’s and has lived there ever since. He keeps proclaiming that he is a man of peace and love yet he backs the racist and Nazi thugs pushing Brexit down our throats.

No doubt he also backs Israel in her attempts to wipe the Palestinians off the face of the planet. Fascism was stamped out in Europe several decades ago (75 years ago this year) and yet it is on the rise again with the Dumpster sitting in the White House and a clown in Downing Street. Both these men are firm believers in White Supremacy (a completely unsubstantiated claim and one without any basis). If racism and racists are going to be eliminated then we have to make a stand now, back the Democrats in the USA and the opposition in the UK.

Both the leaders were elected by minority vote to the positions they occupy because, as has happened so often in the past, the opposition was fragmented. We have to show a united front in order to get the racists out and create a more balanced and inclusive country, one which is fit to live in and belong to. The alternative is for another 2 decades of war in the Middle East which will spread to the far reaches of the planet and destroy us all.

There are places I remember in my life I love you more

If we can all join together then we can move mountains. A voice in the wilderness alone has no power, but a crowd shouting in the wilderness for the same thing can be heard for miles. What a state the world is in currently, the end of the cold war was, obviously, a good thing. No fear of imminent annihilation by nuclear fallout. Had we known what would come after then we would have been more afraid than ever.

Under Putin, a former head of the KGB, Russia has gone from strength to strength on the world stage until sanctions were imposed by the West due to the Russian Olympic team taking banned steroids, expansion into Ukrainian territory and acts of terror. Since 2016 they have been involved in computer fraud in the UK and the USA. Affecting the outcome of the Presidential Election, the UK referendum and the UK General Election in 2019. If any proof were needed then I would advise you to read the Mueller Report in the USA and the Russia Report (which has been buried by the UK Government).

If anyone still doubts the involvement of Russia in the landslide victories of tRump and BoJo think about it for a minute. Who had the most to lose if Hillary Clinton made it into the White House as President and if Jeremy Corbyn became the UK Prime Minister? The wealthy who were backing Bojo and tRump that’s who. Most of tRump’s money comes from Russian Oligarchs, as does BoJo’s. Further proof? It’s all contained in the two reports one in the US and the other in the UK.

Can we afford to allow democracy to be destroyed? Can we afford to allow further profits to be made at the expense of the people by those few who will benefit most? The answer seems to be yes as long as they continue to be believed when they consistently lie, and freely admit to lying.

The sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older

No video to accompany this post because of the world events unfolding in the USA, UK and the Middle East at the moment. In order to hide from his Impeachment the dumpster has decided to start a war in Iran (exactly what he announced in 2012 Obama was going to do). Of course the British Press can’t find BoJo so they go after the Leader of the Opposition to find out what he is going to do about the illegal assassination of Iran’s defence minister in Iraq.

Since when did a country as influential as the UK have an absent Prime Minister? Not until now, he has refused to attend the House of Commons today for PMQ’s, he is refusing to release the Russia Report, which can only mean it is more damaging to him and his cronies than the FBI report into Russian Involvement in Presidential Elections in 2016 was against tRump. Surely if it didn’t accuse him of accepting help illegally it would have been published ahead of the 12 December 2019 General Election.

On the topic of that General Election, if it really was a Brexit election then can we expect another General Election in February/March time once Brexit is “Done”? Of course not, he has a majority of 80 so he will be pushing through changes to the law so that he can continue to act illegally but will make it impossible for the courts to stop him next time.

The One Thing We Need to Improve in 2020

A different take on bullying in the work-place, a woman’s point of view, but it is still wrong and we have to fight for each other in order to stamp it out.

MiddleMe

We are in the 21st century however, we are still very much lacking in basic human decency to treat an employee in the workplace.

In Japan, people are suffering from Karoshi – overwork death in Japanese. All over the world, females are being paid significantly lesser than their male counterparts. In reality, many of us are still suffering from workplace abuse and harassment. Something that nobody wants to talk about. A sensitive topic that managers and HR want to shush it under the carpet.

It’s shocking, isn’t it?

Bullies are not just in school or in the playground. They are very much real in our workplace. A place where we suppose to feel safe where we put in many hours, sometimes more hours than we spent at home.

It isn’t just about the one-time careless sexist remark from your coworker.

It’s about fearing you will be fired anytime because you…

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There must be something wrong with the machinery

Music today is from the first movie I saw featuring Prince (and the Revolution) with Wendy and Lisa. Apologies if it doesn’t play where you are as the video was provided to YouTube by Rhino/Universal Music and should be universally available, however, YouTube has different ideas sometimes.

I have a few questions running through my head, we have seen throughout the latter half of the last decade (whatever you choose to call it the 10’s or the teens isn’t important) that lies seem to win elections. Scott Morrison in Australia, tRump in the USA, BoJo in the UK and let’s not forget Brexit. Since liars can only prosper for so long before everything starts to backfire on them, how much longer are the masses going to believe the lies before they wake up and start demanding truth from our politicians?

I would also like to know if anyone else out there has any idea of whether or not it is acceptable to comment on a woman’s physical appearance in this day and age? I used to make a comment about my mum, and several wives, after they had been to the hairdresser’s, is this still allowed? (Commenting on how nice their hair is after they spent a small fortune on it seemed like the right thing to do). Is it also okay to tell a woman how you find her appearance? After all I would not think twice of commenting on a male friend’s appearance if he was wearing a suit when usually attired in jeans and t-shirt.

In these times of political correctness it is not acceptable to wolf-whistle at a woman on the street, I never did think that was suitable behaviour anyway but never mind that. It has also never been okay to comment on a woman’s attributes, no matter how much they are pushed to the fore. However, can you tell a woman she looks amazing in that outfit? Her hat suits her face? Her skirt accentuates her femininity? Some of these I put out there knowing they are not acceptable to see what comments these will generate today.

Some women, especially those in the sex industry, welcome comments about their bodies in order to know they are appreciated, others don’t. While sex work is a job like any other it is also different to any other work undertaken by men and women. If we don’t have sex workers then how much more difficult would life be for those whose fetish is out of the ordinary to get some sexual relief? I will not look down on any woman regardless of how she makes her living, women are not there to be judged by men. Women are our companions and we should treat them with respect, with love and compassion. Would you treat a man the way you treat a woman? If not then why do you treat a woman that way?

Women are not the equals of men, they are in many ways, superior. If you see a friend you have not seen for a while will you greet him with a handshake or a hug? If a hug then why not greet a woman you have not seen for many years with a hug? As long as it is not sexually motivated, a hug can let someone know without words that you are happy to see them. Whether you greet a friend with a kiss on the cheek seems to depend on whether you consider yourself to be European or British. European’s, particularly the French, kiss both cheeks when meeting someone they have not seen for a while. They will also kiss on both cheeks someone they are being introduced to for the first time. A kiss on the lips is reserved for lovers.

I think we are beginning to see the backlash against the liars already, with Australia burning the people are taking out their frustrations on Scott Morrison (ScoMo) with his absence on holiday the British people are beginning to realise that Jeremy Corbyn is behaving more like the British PM than BoJo. In the USA, tRump is facing Impeachment and in an effort to remove attention from his past crimes he is committing new crimes and pushing the USA to the brink of war.