The dead had something to say if the living did not… (519)

 On March 5th this year I posted that The Ghosts of Gaza will be waiting... in the coming elections. At the time Biden had still not accepted his frailty and stepped down.

Turns out, the British public really weren't that bothered about what the ICC view as potential genocide and the party of the illegal invasion of Iraq got in on a landslide. Starmer is still happily selling weapons to kill Palestinian children (2% of the entire population to date). 

Though we’re not without our gurning fascist in the UK with Farage and his cohorts staining Parliament with their presence.

However, there seems to have been a more cataclysmic effect in America.

As the sickness lingers for decent folk, many are now contemplating, among other things, the influence of those just too disgusted at Biden's horrible mishandling of Gaza, 'Bibi' and his "most moral army in the world".

Gaza, the suffering civilians and hostages, got barely a mention during Harris’s otherwise apparently well-run campaign. 

And, as documentary film maker Michael Moore pointed out - many US Muslim voters live in swing states.

So, here we go, with four years of chaos and cruelty for the US which, if you look at the proposed line up of the Trump team of nut jobs, sex offenders and racists, seems set to make the last Trump stint in the WH seem almost benign.

You have to wonder if there is some very harsh poetic justice buried under the political rubble…

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Do check out my Other Stuff

When Putin pays Western leaders play… dead.

WE may have had our suspicions prior to the Musk/MAGA win in the US but if the mists have not lifted, the penny well and truly dropped - now is the time.

WE know Trump, apart from being a Farting, lying, racist, racist, orange, cretinous, faithless, weak, unstable, conman, is a Putin stooge who invited Putin’s henchmen into the Oval office when he was president the first time around and he has been recipient of Russian money via over-payments for properties dating back years. That’s before you consider the efficacy or not of the pee tapes.

Here in the UK Putin’s first poisoning of a Russian dissident – Alexander Litvinenko went unchallenged and largely unremarked because the UK Tory Party was so awash with Oligarch money. It was only after the second botched event against Sergei Skripal and his daughter near Salisbury that the UK took notice.

It was Boris Johnson who – despite being warned that Russian tanks would soon cross the Ukraine border laughed at his military advisors – though he subsequently took every chance he could get for a photo op with President Zelenskyy – but that would be the same Johnson who appointed a Russian Oligarch to The house of Lords against firm political and security advice.

Kim Jong Un had his brother killed in THE RUSSSIAN STYLE and is now of course contributing thousands of troops to the invasion and destruction of Ukraine.

Even here in Scotland I’d note that Alex Salmond got his RTE licence in 2017. During the Pandemic I was relieved that Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson wore makeup because apart from the physical similarities between her and Salmond – they both spent the entire pandemic attacking the Frist minister of Scotland. How either of them thought that helpful to a country in crisis is anyone’s business but they each had their pay masters. For Davidson it was – oh yes – again – Boris Johnson who also rewarded her with a seat in the lords. Salmond was finally prised away from RTE after the invasion of Ukraine.

Even the side men are out. Is anyone surprised that Peter Mandelson – he of Russian oligarch Deripasca Yacht scandal – is out soft pedalling for Trump and Putin?

Remember, Putin is KGB through and through. As well as the Le Carre type, there is soft espionage that involves using – for example – those weakened by unstable egos. It’s not that they are Russian operatives but they sure know who buttered their bread.

My point is that anyone surprised at the US result should not be. Both Trump and Musk are the exact types of egos Putin colonises and makes use of to destabilise and undermine his enemies. HE rots them from within.

The current backbiting in the US is pointless. Putin has a 24 year head start on them and they need to get real.

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And – you know I used to doodle. Here’s an old one from 2016 about choices…

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…