287. Should I get a television?

The attempted multiple assassinations of senior US democrats and the anti-Semitic murders in Pittsburgh following Trump’s relentless haranguing of the press and opposition and his increasingly bold support for neo-Nazis is both scary and depressing, underpinned as it is by global economic destabilisation caused by his ridiculous tariffs and corrupt government.

On this side of the pond we continue relentlessly with Brexit via a minority government kept in power by 10 DUP dinosaurs (see blog 241 http://browngirloutsidethering.blogspot.com/2017/06/241-tory-dup-magic-money-deal.html )  As a result, Ireland is at risk of being plunged back into pre-Good Friday Agreement chaos.

In other words, the two most politically significant Western powers of the 20^th century have squandered Democracy.

And today The House of Commons will debate Philip Hammond’s fiscal fantasy in the form of The Autumn Budget when everyone knows it is just so much crap on a dung heap and none of it will be relevant come March 2019 – just over 4 months.

Should I give in and get a TV and just spend my time lost in spangled, scented shit like everyone else? Maybe I’ll get a smart phone (I won’t – I have no money) so an app can tell me when to breathe, then I won’t have to notice all the stupid, unnecessary, stupid, stupid, stupid, (did  I mention unnecessary?) mess.

*

Well – dear bleader – I am in the midst of rehearsing the show I hinted at earlier in the year. Info will be on next week’s blog so if you like some politics with your comedy watch this space.

286. Nick Clegg - a Silly Con Artist heading to Silicon Valley thanks to Facebook

Nick Clegg is the latest in a long line of political scum bags to sail away into the sunset leaving behind the horrible mess they created for other people (Blair – Iraq, Cameron – Brexit, George Osborne – devastating cuts in welfare and so on and so forth).

Even with the distractions of the home-made Brexit disaster and the Trump catastrophe across the pond (including now – nuclear proliferation) and the more minor everyday diversions of celebrity shite and TV crap, social media anesthesia, what these bastards have got away with/profited from beggars belief.

I wonder, as Nick and Mrs Cojones head off to Silicon Valley to mop up the rewards for toadying to David Cameron so successfully after the 2015 general election, whether he and the Mrs will reflect on the different life chances their own children will enjoy compared the ones they left behind in massive life-crushing debt.

There’s lots of ruinous politics going on right now so in case memories are hazy or overloaded – Nick Clegg’s absolutely clear promise in the run-up to the 2015 UK election was that he – as leader of The Liberal party – would abolish student university tuition fees if elected. Following the indecisive results, Clegg took the Liberals into a coalition that supported a vile Tory administration that actually led to a huge hike in the fees he said he'd abolish. Clegg went along with it all. I still maintain that his decision to power grab at any cost broke the previous Liberal leader – Charles Kennedy’s heart. The popular and charismatic and principled Kennedy died of a heart attack shortly after the general election of that year.

Clegg was rewarded for his back stabbing with a knighthood. He is Sir Nick – just like that other f’ing shit Sir Philip Green who fleeced another demographic by asset stripping famous UK high street brand BHS before offloading what was left onto some moronic fall guy. Thousands were laid off and many lost pension rights and were thrust into poverty after decades of loyal service. Check out post 185 Does Sir Philip Green Kick Disabled Kittens in his spare time http://browngirloutsidethering.blogspot.com/2016/05/185-does-sir-philip-green-kick-disabled.html

Sir Nick served as an MEP before becoming an MP and leader of the Liberal Party. Presumably, Mark Zuckerberg, who offered Clegg the lucrative job as Head of Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook – thinks this is just the kind of oil slick in a suit he needs to get back into Europe’s good books. I wouldn’t hold your breath Mark. You should check out the Nick effect on young people – your main demographic - and even ask the good folk of Sheffield who ousted him from one of the few UK Liberal strongholds at their earliest opportunity.

Liberals have the credit of being the only prominent political party in the UK to staunchly oppose the madness of Brexit. They are morally hog-tied because they are also the party that sold young folk down the river. All the way.

Personally I hope that Mr and Mrs I’m Alright Jack fry in Silicon Valley as global temperatures both environmentally and politically soar.

Clegg is a silly con artist heading to Silicon Valley – students and their parents in the UK will be glad to see the back of him.

285. The Britain UKIP wanted is nearly here and it will harm the people they conned…

You could be forgiven for concluding that the emerging chaos, madness and random social destructiveness of Brexit is all a sly ruse by the well-off to simply re-deregulate Britain and make it – once more – a haven for the haves and a hell for the have-nots.

Yes, it appears to have been a muddle, with Britain unravelling alarmingly quickly since David Cameron sought to quell the right wing rats in his party and pander to the jingoists with an in-out referendum he’d not though through. But remember – as well as the underlying racism and xenophobia of the campaign there were decades of rabid ranting about regulations from Brussels. It’s true, you don’t hear so much bleating about EU Health and Safety Regulations since the Grenfell Tower disaster…

But two news stories over the last few days strengthen the ugly impression that there was an underlying, almost inevitable drive to the cliff top for very dark but clear reasons. One story relates to seismic instability of a geological nature and the other, seismic instability of a socio-political nature.

Fracking rules – we are told – may be relaxed. Apparently, they were too stringent when put in place following the earth tremors experienced in Lancashire 7 years ago after experimental fracking there. What wimps those Lancs folks are I hear you cry. Who wouldn’t want the experimental deep drilling on their doorstep which caused minor earthquakes last time it was allowed? 

With Brexit in their sights, Cuadrilla seem emboldened and determined to start the subterranean pounding that is – by the way – banned by their parent company’s country – France.

Then there is Universal Credit. UC is the over-arching welfare benefit being brought in to ‘streamline’ the benefits system. 

The new welfare benefit is, in fact – as is always the case with Tory administrations – euphemism for cutting benefits. In this case cutting dramatically. Some low income families will, reportedly, be £200 per month worse off – and they are already scraping by. One of the main targets is Tax Credits – one of the few things Gordon Brown can be given real credit for. Working Tax Credit and Family Tax Credit (I benefited from the latter) was brought in to alleviate the pounding the economy took from the unregulated fiscal sector that brought us the 2008 crash and wages so low families could not live on them. 

Although every informed commentator regards Universal Credit as a disaster – leading to horrible financial difficulties for those already struggling at the bottom of the income pile – just like Brexit – it is going ahead anyway. It is being rolled out further and faster by the very people who know it is not working. Complaints, from organisations such as the CAB and charities trying to help the needy, that it is causing untold misery to struggling families, fall on deaf ears.

It is increasingly difficult to drown out the howls of derisive laughter leaking from the gilded sanctuaries of the wealthy and powerful as they anticipate our newly de-regulated, austere, callous Britain. In my lifetime the UK went from a 1960's hopeful society that wanted to improve opportunities for ordinary people to one which greedily snatched those small concessions away. We will become again a haven for 1950's Rachman - style landlords in a world where young people cannot get on the property ladder and are crushed by personal debt. We will see again 1960s Cathy Come Home - style family break ups as the welfare system turns to concrete. And all in a socially and literally fractured land as profit trumps environmental concerns and humanity in the new backwards Britain.

So back to the good old bad old days – just what UKIP wanted and the Tories enabled.

*

Also check out blog 142. Fracking Fraud

http://browngirloutsidethering.blogspot.com/2015/06/blog-142-fracking-fraud.html

284. Does anything disqualify a privileged white man from high office and huge remuneration in the supposedly democratic West?

Accepting that there are individuals who revolt us who do not fall into the category above (e.g. Theresa May laying the ground for the racist Windrush scandal while Home Secretary – seeing it come to fruition during her premiership then leaving one of her cabinet ministers to resign on her behalf!!!) there is a pattern none the less.

As a rule of thumb - none of the misdemeanours below seem to bar privileged white men either from tax-payer funded salaries or positions of power. Some of these things would put the rest of us in jail…

I provide a handy contemporary example for each –

Proven dishonesty (Tony Blair, Trump, Kavanaugh)

Embarrassing personality flaws (too many to mention)

Incompetence (too many to mention)

Homophobia (Trump, Ex Liberal leader – Tim Farron)

Incarceration of infants (Trump)

Misogyny (too many to mention)

Mocking Muslim women (Boris Johnson)

War crimes (Tony Blair)

Fiddling expenses or fraud to the rest of us (too many UK MPs to list)

Mocking the disabled and war heroes (Trump)

Sexual assault (Trump, Kavanaugh)

Complete lack of judgement (too many to mention)

Sexual predation of girls (Judge Roy Moore)

Corruption (too many to mention)

Necrophiliac bestiality (Cameron)

Laziness/stupidity (Trump)

General Uselessness (Corbyn)

Racism / jingoism / xenophobia (Trump, Farage, Boris Johnson etc)

Lack of backbone (The entire GOP - Nick Clegg)

Venality (Trump)

Fraud / tax evasion (Trump)

Being generally revolting (Trump, Boris Johnson, Kavanaugh etc)

And then the list just descends in to depressing crap - MP's using time the public pay for to watch pornography or simply using their time in office to enrich their families and line up lucrative jobs afterwards etc.

In conclusion, the answer to my question of last week is – much lower…

283. Kavanaugh v Johnson - ‘How Low Can We Go’ ?

Where is the horse & the rider?

 “Where is the horse and the rider?” a line from the wonderfully scripted Helms Deep speech in the film version of Lord of the Rings. Théoden is asking where is the leader, the much needed hero. It came to mind as I considered whether the US and UK are in some sort of weird competition to see who can promote the vilest character to high office at this time of immense human need. Among the mind numbingly moronic slop that passes for television entertainment these days, maybe someone slipped in a new politics reality show called ‘How Low Can We Go?’

Trump trumps Theresa May because she is just stupid and stubborn whereas he is a sociopathic, racist, crass, child-caging, narcissistic, misogynistic idiot. But who would win if we pitched Brett the frat brat Kavanaugh against Boris the blond blob with the runaway gob me, me, me Johnson?

And this is all happening at a time when the film industry is obsessed with onscreen heroes. Studios are spewing out clean cut, moral-ish, muscular men and women with convenient super powers like a full stomach with norovirus.

IN the US, it seems, Trump only wanted to drain the swamp so he could get to a deeper sewer level. As the weeks and months and years go on we seem (here in the UK at least) to be reaching lower and lower. We have scrapped the bottom of the barrel in terms of ‘leaders’ and ‘commentators’ and those whose opinions we laud. Now we are through the bottom of the barrel, below the slimy stuff you find under the barrel, below the floor boards into the cold damp sun-deprived earth. Surely we’ll hit bedrock soon?

After decades of gutter press poison, the swivel eyed loons crawled out from under their rocks with their bleached xenophobia, the xenophobes begat the bigots the racists and the jingoists – they in turn released the lunatics who set free the howling, rabid Brexit-at-any-costers. Whipping the mindless mob into a fury is the hideous Boris beast with his flab and his loose morals and his slack principles and flabby personality and mix and match ideals.

On the other side of the Atlantic it seems that the only people Trump knows and promotes are the scum of the earth or just entirely unsuited for any job he wants them for. Having watched Kavanaugh’s faux outrage and gibberish at the Ford hearing you can only conclude that even if he is innocent of ALL the accusations, he is the most unsuitable person for any high office let alone a lifetime Supreme Court Judge.

Dear Lord!

Old aunty Theresa May us as wooden as a windmill and just as immoveable. Corbyn – our opposition hope - is in permanent allotment mode.

WHAT DID WE DO TO DESERVE THIS?

Where is our super hero, where are the leaders we need?

Where is Brain Man – with the wit to work out how to fix the mess?

Where is Charisma Woman to make us believe in the future again?

Where is Captain Common Sense to counter suicidal Brexitness, Anti-Batty-man to wake up those who are in fantasy 1950s, Irony man to make us see the crass stupidity? Can Hulk use his green bulk to break down the powerful invisible barrier growing exponentially and blocking our children’s birth right?

Why is it seemingly all slimy villains and no heroes?

To quote again from Théoden’s speech

“How did it come to this?”

282. Brexit, Cheqsit, Jexit - Wotaloadofshit & EVERYONE KNEW…

Ok – I know – after last week you will be wondering if this is my bad new habit of conflating words to make more madness – though in this case ‘Cheqsit (the exit of the Chequers non-starter deal) it could be argued that it is a conflation of three words as Brexit is already Britain’s exit – in case you’d lost the thread. I promise I won’t adopt this annoying habit (annabit?)

I mention Chequers in passing in a letter published in The Independent in early July.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/letters/donald-trump-uk-visit-tower-of-london-jeremy-corbyn-world-cup-2018-latest-a8437686.html

It concerns the general nonsense perpetrated on the UK and US by the current appalling rag tag of degenerate, half-baked, abysmal, incompetent, venal, blinkered ‘leaders’. In among my mini rant about the smoke and mirrors folk are being subjected to on both sides of the Atlantic, I allude to the Chequers deal brokered by our broken government. I say it is a deal the EU will not agree to. I said this as soon as the basic details were public because it was obvious, clear, apparent the EU would not cross its well-known red lines for a country that was trying to be the wrecking ball of 40 years of passably good relations, peace and substantial trade benefits. 

Here is a handy summary of the Chequers deal if it’s all spaghetti to you - https://www.ecnmy.org/engage/chequers-proposal-explained/

And yes – I know that Cameron left Theresa May holding as stinking pile of entrails when he existed stage left pursued by his own inadequacy but dear lord – why does she constantly keep trying to serve it up to us as if its best steak?

Why did the people supposedly ‘in the know’ the ones running the UK, the people who are steering this badly listing vessel we call Britain – have to wait until the arse end of September to be told, at Salzburg, that Chequers was entirely unworkable/unacceptable on any reading of the broadest understanding of the EU rules? It was so so so evident

In the past on this blog I’ve pointed out, in a rather depressed way, when things seemed patently predictable like that Ed Miliband would NOT win the 2015 general election.  Ed Miliband subsequently lost that General Election. That seemed to have come as a surprise to people with far more info at their fingertips than me – the UK media – the Westminster commentators blah blah blah.

And talking of that utterly depressing subject – the total failure of opposition which  we can call Jexit – Jeremy Corbyn’s exit from reality – why is Labour not light years ahead in the polls when the Tories are making such a monumental mess of absolutely everything? One simple answer there – Corbyn. But somehow that is not to be admitted either.

Everyone with a political pulse knew Chequers was a non-starter. The Chequers’ nag keeled over in the stable but the owners were still placing bets.

Everyone knew.

EVERYONE KNEW

Everyone

Knew

Help!

Au secours…

Hilfe

281. Racism / Sexism - why do many privileged white men not see it?

Alan Howe of The Australian – helped me see why they don’t see - new rexism.

What do you call that super toxic blend when racism is tangled with sexism and nestled in the wire wool cocoon of free expression, vigorously defended by privileged white men?  It ought to be called ‘Rexism’ but there was a fascist party in Belgium in the 1930s called Parti Rexiste. I’ll use it anyhow as the word works so well on so many levels.  Rexism – is so much more than the sum of its parts as the Serena Williams cartoon and the reactions to it attest.

In the UK privileged white men reliably roll out to support our racist ex foreign secretary Boris Johnson every time he is racist (see two posts back). Many (usually older) privileged white men don’t seem to get that their views may just be informed by never ever having experienced the sorts of vile behaviour which go with not being white or male or privileged (or in positions of privilege). And when you synthesise sexism and racism the results are diabolical.

I recently wrote a two line letter concerning that racist/sexist cartoon of Serena Williams. Very surprisingly there was a bounce-back personal email response from Alan Howe of The Australian broadly informing me that racism is in the eye of the beholder…

What struck me was that he seemed to have no idea that his own perspective might have something to do with being a white male in a privileged and relatively powerful position. And – as if that point needed underlining – The Jamaica Observer published the concise letter http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/letters/serena-cartoon-also-sexist_144108?profile=1326&template=MobileArticle

Their editor did not feel the need to contact me to tell me how/when to think.

This is all of our brief exchange -

Alan Howe - responding to the letter - 12th Sept 2018

It [the cartoon] is neither sexist nor racist. Only someone looking earnestly to be offended by something - anything - might come to such a conclusion. I am a migrant to Australia myself and like millions of others I have found it only to be a land of tolerance and acceptance. It's probably why so many people of so many colours and creeds - uncountable millions of them - wish to live here.

Me

Hi Alan,

Thanks for your interesting response.

I doubt the Aborigines would agree with your take but we are not talking about the whole of Australia but a cartoon aimed at someone who is a sports star at a very high level. It was clearly drawn because it would draw as much attention to the cartoonist as the subject and it makes clear play of both the female and black stereotype.

If you can find an equivalent of a white male sports star at equivalent level after one major bust up I'd like to see it.

Alan Howe

“One major bust up”? No, her bullying follows the pattern, perhaps of a lifetime. Her cheating is conceded. Her unpleasantness obvious. Her skills undeniable. The same cartoonist lethally dealt with Nick Kyrgios’s shortcomings days before, his exaggerated Greek features raising no offence anywhere on the planet. Think about it. 

Me

Dear Alan

I get that you are a white man and I am a black woman but I don't need to be told when to think about it...

My suggestion was a person of similar rank so - not NK and also - perhaps you could read around the subject of racism and misogyny - the weight of the problem depends on the history behind the bigotry. I'm not suggesting that some Greeks haven't had it rough (Odysseus) but come on...

Alan Howe

I founded Australia’s Immigration Museum. Next time you are in Australia you should visit it. Every country gets stuff wrong, very few get it so right. The museum is our evidence- and it is emphatic.

Me

ER - congrats - but I think you just descended into 'some of my best friends are black' territory.

AnyHOWE  this was fun but now I have to go downstairs and visit my 92 year old neighbour Betty for some good political debate.

G'day mate

Alan Howe

No one I know qualifies nor quantifies their friendships by colour or creed. It is not an Australian thing. Not that I am Australian. I wish Betty well. 

I’m sure Mr. Howe is a nice, if somewhat pompous sounding bloke – even if he is far from ‘woke’. However, even if you take a simple statement like ‘cheating accepted’ – the opposite is actually true. Serena Williams has been tested more than any other tennis star to the point where many regard that as racist.

The Serena Williams cartoon is absolutely rexist. I did email my own doodle (see above). Alan Howe did not respond or comment…

Q. Why do many privileged white men not see rexism?

A. Words 4, 5 and 6 of that last sentence.

*

Try – blog 165. The Penisic Era or 187. British Boarding Schools Breed Posh Psychopaths.

*

Remember to – check out my books; adult novels, dystopian sci fi novella, environmental poetry story, adventure trilogy for young readers, little reader’s picture story book and my sortofautobiography – here - https://plus.google.com/collection/UNSKRE