Democracy, Decency, Dedication V Degradation, Depravity, Disaster… (518)

…the ONLY question hereafter re the 2024 US election - Harris v Trump - is how did the very obvious choice between a potentially decent future and one of disaster and degradation end up on a knife edge?

Here’s hoping that Trump’s MSG Hitler tribute act brings America to its senses… (517)

As this Halloween approaches I just can’t look.

It’s far too frightening, upsetting, unsettling. I feel a little sick. Am I scared of the dark?

Sort of.

It’s not so much the impending result of the UK Conservative Party leadership contest which will crown either the unelectable, anaemic, dim-witted and anodyne non-entity Jenrick or the unelectable, hateful, bonkers, would pick a fight with her own shadow dim-witted Badenoch. No. It’s the impending Nov 5^th, bonfire-night bash in the US which could still turn into a colossal shit show for democracy despite the bizarre and gargantuan disparities between the candidates.

Those of you who read this (political therapy) blog regularly, know that I am a dedicated letter writer – being as I am – stuck in the old times. No tweeting or smartphone or Fb or any other forms of fast and loose communication pour moi. In fact, if I could afford the postage with the now privatised Post Office, I’d still type the letters on my old faithful clunking Remington TAVEL-RITER-DELUXE and send them by snail mail to editors around the globe.

In my they-printed-my-letters cache are all the decent newspapers in the UK – though I no longer bother with The Independent. Plus, papers in the Caribbean, the US, including The New York Times and more recently The Star in South Africa.

The letter I’m posting below went out last week and was published in Scotland’s The National. As a short-cut to my bemusement, it’s a handy inclusion here.

 

Dear Editor,

Have you ever wondered how come the CEO or Manager of this or that org is so breathtakingly, sometimes dangerously incompetent?

Maybe like me you’ve felt uncomfortable reading reports about the inexplicably more negative outcomes for people from minority ethnic backgrounds within the medical service.

Perhaps you struggle to understand how the world can look at one conflict, Ukraine, and be unquestioningly and rightly appalled at the civilian suffering and look at another, Gaza, and not only seem not to care (thus far – 2% of the child population has been killed)  but continue to supply weapons.

Wonder no more.

Just cast your eye momentarily at the US electoral race between a competent, decent, accomplished, articulate black/Asian woman and an old white male convicted felon, sexual abuser, allegedly incontinent, racist who refused to accept the results of the last election leading to the horrors of Jan 6^th. Really look at how close the election still is.

The Harris v Trump race literally explains all that is inexplicable in the modern world.

So despite Michelle Obama's fantastic closing speech in Michigan  lauded by many as distilling the real absurdities and realities of the American democratic crisis and despite the reassuring summary of long-time political sage and Lincoln Project snr adviser Stuart Stevens still -  I really, really just can’t look…

However, Trump decided to hold a rally reminiscent of Hitler’s 1939 Madison Square Garden event organised by the German American Bund. Hitler – sorry Trump’s invited speaker Tony Hinchcliffe, at this MSG rally did not hold back with a racist jibe++ at Puerto Rico. Problem is, one of the key US swing states – Pennsylvania - has around 300k PR residents. In 2020 Biden won it by just 80k votes and in 2016 Trump by about half that.

So – I’ still can’t look but maybe Trump's Hitler tribute act will  help bring enough folk to their senses.

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And of course do check out some of my Other Stuff

I’m uncomfortable that UK Labour is SO comfortable with the mass deaths, exploitation & abuse of brown people… (516)

As a very ex member of the UK Labour Party (I joined as a student before the Miners' Strike in the 1980s, became a labour councillor and left over the illegal invasion of Iraq++) I am not surprised to learn that No.10 have confirmed that current Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer does not want to ‘get into it’ re slavery at the Commonwealth Summit.

Starmer is not, apparently, going to be open to any discussion about either reparations or apologies.

Is this him trying to out-macho the last fellow? Call-Me-Tony never apologised for the slaughter of civilians in the horrid Iraq adventure and is still coining it around the globe. Also, popping up far too often to give advice no one asked for.

Starmer even has one of Tone’s right hand guys in this government. The little weasel Douglas Alexander who, having been well rewarded and promoted for unfailingly supporting the Iraq horror, showed up in my neck of the woods when Labour’s fortunes turned (or rather the Tory’s dipped) and is now Minister of State for Trade.

Unlike the First Minister of Scotland who was the first in the UK to call for a cease fire (back when it might have made a difference to civilians and hostages) – followed by Irish leader and the Welsh Parliament (without the support of labour), Sir Kier did not call for a ceasefire as opposition leader and has failed to stem the flow of weapons to IDF – Netanyahu’s “most moral army in the world” responsible for the total destruction of Gaza, the deaths of 42,000+ people including 21,000 children; more than 2% of the entire child population.

Most recently Starmer praised King Charles for his sangfroid when an Aboriginal Australian senator protested at Charlie Bags-of-Cash Australian visit . Why should she not protest? Why weren’t more people protesting?

Am I seeing a pattern here?

Is Labour just far too comfortable with the mass deaths/exploitation and abuse of brown people?

Jupiter – why bother? (515)

 Jupiter is about 11x larger than earth. This big gaseous monster lies between Mars and Saturn. It's the 5^th planet from the sun in our solar system. It’s out ‘big daddy’ planet with a gravitational pull that sucks in massive asteroids and space debris that would otherwise obliterate us. And yes – that is not to say it’s always successful. It missed, obviously, the one that got the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But on the whole we cannot complain.

Our very existence – and by that I mean – the inhabitability of planet Earth, is so much of a miracle even considering it could make your brain explode. Like a super-nova.

But, if I were Jupiter – I’d be seriously thinking (with my gassy, stripy brain) – why bother.

From endless warring to the horrors that humans can mete out to each other, the Spanish inquisition (lowest estimate for deaths 30,000) to the witch trials (scholars reckon that those murdered for witchcraft is between 40 – 60,000). And remember this at a time when the earth was not made up of 7bn souls, so those numbers represent a huge percentage of what was then the world's population.

World wars – x2; estimates range from 55m – 80m dead.

In short, humans are pretty good at killing other humans.

But in the 21^st century we are excelling.

Netanyahu has racked up 43,000 deaths in Gaza in just one year with his “most moral army in the world”.

But this is dwarfed by what we now manage from pollution alone.

In 2021, UNICEF estimated 8.1 million annual deaths globally from air pollution.

One of my very early posts on this blog (I link it here) was called Armageddon will not be televised.

What I said then is true today x 1000

So – for this week, instead of the usual general invitation to check out my other stuff I shall simply link you to Zero One Zero Two - we are all dead...

‘Stalingrad’ – coming to a country near you… (514)

Here is a film that deserves some modern day attention. No, I’m not turning film critic and I’m not going to do that thing where you suggest your current hobby horse ‘should be taught in schools’. Kids are far far too busy working out how to get their next vape session in.

The Film is ‘Stalingrad’ - the original 1993 German-made anti-war film, is rightly referred to by NME as ‘A Masterpiece’. It stands out as one to watch not because of the brutal war scenes but because of the scenes of casual human brutality that starkly portray how very quickly callousness becomes a dull, monotonous, dreary, unavoidable, wasteful reality and routine.

Unlike a lot of British war films there is no sentimentality and there is no bravado either unlike the Hollywood counterparts. In fact sentimentality is shown to be wildly misplaced and naive in the attempts at romantic letter-writing by one of the main characters, by the casual placement of women and children among the battle scenes in others and the juxtaposition of utter bland stupidity and horror when it comes to death and human carnage.

For those who have not experienced war up close – thankfully most of us in this country  - or for those without an imagination or those who prefer the intellect-wiping stupidity of intravenous reality TV – this is the film that could pinpoint the actual grimness of a Gaza or Ukraine or Syria.

Ignore the platitudes of Starmer and before him Sunak about Israel’s ‘right to defend’. And ignore that little voice inside that tells you Ukraine – etc. - is nothing to do with you because it's ‘over there’.

Wars spread. Putin may have been held by the constant sacrifice of the Ukrainian people but if Netanyahu is allowed to continue to escalate the bloodbath in Middle East and manoeuvre the US to engage in more than the proxy war it usually enjoys, the pressure will be off Putin.

And in this global world, even if not caught up in the actual butchery, we can never escape the effects of extreme disruption to the production and distribution of food and oil for example – ya know – that stuff we can’t live without. Especially when the countries that make things and those that mega-consume are now so far apart.

‘Stalingrad’ coming to a country near you…

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I’m linking you here to one of the earliest posts in this 12 yr long political therapy session – post no. 12 -  Armageddon Will Not Be Televised

Because what I said then is at least 23% truer today… 

Gargantuan Gambling Gremlins chew through society while we look the other way. (513)

A recent study by Gambling Aware revealed that gambling ads at sports events had trebled in just one year.

Anyone – like me – who has turned to commercial and or local radio to avoid the slush of BBC nonsense will not be at all surprise.

These stations rely not on the free government hand-out to the stale old stultified, out of date, out of touch, unreliable, sycophantic, London-centric BBC but ad revenue. In my experience it’s rare to get through an commercial break without something relate to gambling being pushed in that hysterically happy snappy ad voice.

There is the obvious stuff – bingo websites etc. but then there is the subtler stuff like the post-code lotteries – charity lotteries and you’re chance to win anything from a 5 star holiday to a brand new car to cash.

I’ve never hear it announced how many people enter or how tiny is your percentage chance of winning. I do remember when the National Lottery was introduced during the Thatcher years it was condemned as a. a tax on the poor and b. as a replacement for proper funding. And it did not start well as one of the first uses was to buy documents from Churchill’s descendants ‘for the nation’ when many people believed they belonged to the nation in the first place.

Since then the lottery has become a staple and extended to scratch cards and any number of have-a-go chance grifts. Go to any outlet the night before a big draw and you cannot fail to see the hunched figures bent over their purchases frantically (miserably) scraping away or checking figures. Often these are bought in many multiples not just one. And on a weekly basis.

But this is nothing compared to the huge increase in online gambling often very poorly regulated despite the hurried ‘be gamble aware’ statement crammed onto the end of glitzy, slick, expensively produced ads.

Personal debt in the UK reached nearly £2billion at the end of June 2023 and debt per household was running at 96.3% of average earnings (The Money Charity). And a now three-year-old report from the CAB put personal gambling debt at an average of £10k per household but of course Citizens Advice only has access to those seeking help and or acknowledging there is a problem.

There is a deep fault line running through society on this issue.

And we may question the effects of advertising but Science Direct has studied this and discovered – no surprise – gambling advertising IS effective against one very key demographic –young adults and teenagers. The same demographic that spend most time online.

Anecdotally, as I am not a car owner and spend a lot of time on public transport, I can attest to the casual gambling that happens daily and it seems such a regular and integrated pass-time that I find the figures quoted above surprisingly LOW.

I recall listening to one young man on the train with pals claiming he enjoyed gambling because he was sensible – limiting himself to £40. Now he did not say if this was per day or per week. But let’s go with the week. That is the price of a pair of kid’s shoes (or an entire school uniform if you buy sweat-shop products) EVERY seven days and I was not at all convinced by his statement as people almost always underestimate these things whether its drink or food or drugs.

Years ago under the Gordon Brown administration there was talk of limiting gambling outlets that always seemed to huddle and multiply in poor areas. A phenomenon that tells a tale in itself.  But little has changed in that respect and it has become almost immaterial anyhow with the exponential grown of online gambling; it’s a battle that has been lost.

Like a lot of shit that flowed out of the sewer of the Thatcher administration last century – privatisation – de-regulation – we are paying the social price this century - and how.

But I see no push back. For some reason – despite the documented negative effects on social well-being, family life, economic well-being, mental health etc. – there is little to no resistance against the behemoth that is the insatiable GARGANTUAN GAMBLING GREMLIN chewing its way unchecked through society.

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As always thanks for reading and do check out My BOOKS

King Bags-of-Cash & Queen Fag Ash – need an extra £45million? (512)

My main reaction when I read that the ‘Sovereign Grant’ is to rise by £45m this year from £86.3m to £132m was – huh – they’re still there…

And remember the sovereign grant is just the tax payer money they get given – pocket money so to speak - on top of a whole lot of everything else. The royals are rich from land ownership and inherited wealth and they cost the tax payer money in so many other ways not least policing for when they are out and about in their dressing-up clothes shaking hands with the great unwashed.

The King’s coronation cost (as UK papers estimate) between £50 - £100 million. Why there is not an exact figure is anyone’s guess – maybe its considered poor taste to calculate to the odd £50 million when dealing with anything Royal.

Despite all this, Charlie boy was reported to have accepted 3m euros in cash in shopping bags from a Qatari politician (2022). Clarence House trotted out the balm that the money was ‘immediately passed to one of Charlie’s charities’ – and that was that was sufficient explanation as the UK press was concerned - so that’s ok then. Nothing grungy at all about that. And yes – Charlie has a talking house as opposed to a talking horse.

There is absolutely nothing about this that makes any sense. And by this I’m talking about THE MONARCHY in what is supposedly a modern Western democracy.

And after a decade and a half of Tory austerity where a disgraceful number of children are now living in poverty and there is a scrap over whether pensioners should keep their winter fuel allowance. UK pensioners receive between £200 and £300 for the whole year  while others with titles are getting £333 per day in the House of Lords for doing fuck all. So clearly, in the UK, it’s something to do with wearing ermine that entitles you to free money!

Fag Ash Lil – who currently holds the title of queen consort – despite all we hear about tradition and continuity when the sycophants are drivelling on about royalty – was the ‘third person’ in the Diana / Charles marriage and has since been credited with some of the most abusive treatment of Meghan Markle who was hounded out of the UK by the racist royals and a gleeful press.

And yes – any royalist reading this will possibly trot out the tired old argument about what ‘they’ do for Britain – the income from tourism etc but no one ever puts a figure on that or weighs it against the cost and the stupidity of it all. No one points out that many countries without a Charlie and a Camilla – get far more tourism than we do.

So my question is not so much why the increase in free money to some of the richest folk in the world – my question is WHY still a monarchy at all??? 

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As always - do check out My OTHER STUFF