How to assess this latest event is difficult. Russia has been firing drones and missiles into cities for months. Ukraine has it seems hit back big time. I think however am pissed off! This is not just an escalation between Russia and Ukraine- it threatens every one. UK government says it will up Defence spending to 3% , why should we need to is the question. Diplomacy has obviously failed and the primeval gruntings of populist dictators means that money has to be diverted to producing weapons of death rather than nuturing our children. What a fucked up world we live in.
I CAN’T SEE IT SO IT DOES NOT MATTER!
The childs view – or if we talk about ostriches – I bury my head in the sand and all you can see is my arse – oh, sorry that was about Farage and his mates.
The statistics are beyond frightening. Inevitable loss has risen from 20% to 39% – sea level rise predictions vary, as inevitable with the variety of scenarios and spread of glaciers across 6 continents. Of course the different geographic and climatic factors affecting each glacier is different. As is the impact on coastal regions. Sea level was both lower and higher in the past, and coastal erosion and deposition has changed coast lines significantly. I am sure that communities will take measures to resist the rising sea levels, but the combined effects of tides, winds, rainfall and temperature may cause huge disasters in the near future as we have 20% of the worlds population living at or near sea level. Could the Thames Barrier with stand similar conditions to 1953? Is the migration that so occupies the right wing wankers just a wavelet on the shore compared to what may follow?
I really, really, really do not understand why people are so dumb?
BLATTEN
A swiss village was devastated when a huge chunk of glacier nroke off causing a deluge of ice, mud and rock. One person was reported dead. Is this a start of a trend where melting ive and reduction in permafrost releases ice and rock? Already this year we have serious consequences of our warming climate. The Northern Hemisphere is affected more due to its greater land mass, but we are seeing an increase in temperatures in the Atlantic with resultant changes to marine life. But Farage and the Lunatic Party want to stop a move to net zero, Trump wants to decrease electric vehicles and drill for gas and cut down more forests for lumber. Absolute fucking madness!
Why should the UK pay for mitigating measures when China and the USA continue to pollute the atmosphere. Firstly China is developing a greener energy production market but it will take time. They are also leading manufacturers of EV’s and solar panels. The USA will catch up after Trump ‘s his clogs. Can we get a world lead. Martin told me of the Oxford University battery that had worked since 1840. A great deal of research is going on and I can be hopeful that a solution will be found. Burning fossil fuels is just plain stupid. London passed a Clean Air Act in 1956 after several thousand deaths caused by burning coal. there are about 34 million cars in UK, of which less than a million are EV’s. This has almost trebled since 1970 (13.5 million). No wonder our cities are polluted and breathing problems increasing.
It made me think about supermarket deliveries and air pollution. Firstly they should all have EV’s but even so a delivery van could have 10-15 deliveries and be I would guess at least 8X more efficient. Home delivery of food is probably no more efficient as they teand to be 1 x 1 although a moped/bike delivery will be cheaper. Which makes me realise that we all/most use cars too much.
Tate brothers will face rape and trafficing charges if they return to UK. This again made my poor brain think! Has the world become more misogynistic since I was young. Whist the macho male dominated society has changed in the work place (out of necessity?) and the man as the bread winner concept, al but disappeared. The attitude to woman per se seems to have deteriorated. The Tates have millions of followers who revel in their masochistic attitude to women. Pornography on the net is freely available, and is often not nice! In my childhood smut was finding the sexiest advert in the Economist magazine of the National Geographic. Institute never thought myself better than the girls I knew. I think ambitions for girls may have been lower – but no one I knew would mistreat them? I even remember going into a pub in Scarborough (under aged) and being told that women were not allowed in the Public Bar. Times have changed but I wonder whether for the better.
AT LAST
At last the Guardian had a front page spread on Yaqeen Hammad, aged 11, who was killed in an Israeli genocide mission. At last they are putting a face to the slaughter of the innocents rather than just reporting numbers. Other papers have been quick to report in detail about the hostages and Israeli deaths – but Palestinian deaths are reported as just numbers. The photo of Yaqeen and her lovely smile brought the horror of the slaughter home.
916 infants under one have been killed.
4365 aged 1-5 murdered.
6101 aged 6-12 slaughtered by Israel.
5124 aged 13-17 slain by the state of Israel.
And Trump is passing laws making it illegal to boycott Israeli goods. Ireland has moved to ban goods produced in Occupied Palestinian Territories, about time; The rest of Europe may follow their lead (well the western countries anyway). Netanyahu has surrounded himself with arse licking thugs who do not deserve to be treated as human! Basically FUCK ISRAEL.
CHILDREN
The neglected section of British society. Sure Start was abandoned by the last government despite returning £2 for every£1 invested in it. Britain also puts most money into university education, and less into pre-school and first years than other developed countries. Scandinavian countries tend to invest more in the early years – it makes sense that investment goes in when children are learning how to learn! University students should have those skills already – lectures should be like TED talks – 20 minutes and thought provoking. This is especially true with the internet and Google available for factual verification. Well taught children should need less financial input as they develop learning skills.
Ever been out and found children behaving without understanding the social rules of the situation? Children in many families are naturally taught this skill. Often this is because parents do not have the finance to eat out regularly enough, are too harassed by job demands to instil behavioural patterns in children. “Seen and not heard” is still a mantra for parents – as opposed to contintal children. Just sayin’!
I have lots more rants about children! But not now.
Trump has revealed that he may be able to conduct a good trade deal with threats of tariffs, but is useless as a negotiator in a conflict. Ukraine has seen more raids by Russian Drones recently; Israel continues to slaughter innocent Palestinian children; His threats and posturing mean jack shit to Putin and Netanyahu – they are confident in their nationalist bases and do not care about international condemnation – not that Trump would dream of such a thing!
INTERESTING
An elderly lady asked me yesterday what I thought about Starmer and the firesbat his properties. She said it was because he was having an affair with Lord Ali and the accused were rent boys who had not been paid. She said it ws all over the internet! Well not the bit I use. None of the RWP have approached the story – with the headlines being that the accused were set up by Russia. So what sites are the aged and deluded on?
EMBARRASSING OR WHAT!
Trump makes a fool of himself – again. Why is the buffoon still tolerated? This time he talked about white african genocide whilst holding up photos of a masacre in the Congo and a photo of crosses claiming them to be graves whaen they were not. How the fuck can he accuse the South African government of genocide whilst supporting the facist government in Israel? Then he has got his pawns to vote in a law that basically fucks any semblence that America had as a caring democracy. He is also threatening the EU with 50% tarrifs on all goods. I hope that anyone thinking of going to the states will cancel immediately. His comments about Biden are beyond disgraceful. I would wish hurtful things on him, but Vance is equally vile and there seems to be a succession of zombies who will make the nightmare worse!
KNEE JERK REACTION
Of course mandatory chemical castration of paedophiles should be introduced. On the face of it there seems to be little to warrant doubts. The potential future victims would be protected. I am not so sure. Maybe it is because I am a woke, wishy washy leftist liberal, or I would like to believe it is because I have a brain and am not swayed by populist crap spewing from the media. Firstly some paedophiles are driven not by sexual desire but by power and the joy at humiliating the victim. So there is a danger of reducing our vigilance in looking out for these monsters or believing that CC will be a deterrent. Secondly and most importantly – where do you draw the line? Is sex between a 14 year old and a 19 year old paedophilia? Is rape a case for CC? Rape cases are notoriously complicated, but once in law it would be easy to envisage a populist demand for cc to be applied to rape cases, to homosexuals (as in the past). Public outrage and the ease with which social media can spread rumours (Last summers riots caused by misinformation) could lead to serious miscarriages of justice.
So whilst I believe it is great to have the debate, government should not be hasty in its implication. The media will create it as a simple issue (I was going to say black and white – but that scenario is just too horrific!) but there is much to be debated. Would paedophiles get reduced sentences if CC’d? Could serious offeneders avoid long sentences by agreeing to CC, but then continue as the drive is power not sexuality.
As ever I do not know!
HOW I SEE IT!
Israel and Gaza. At last the British Government has spoken out against the atrocities commited on a daily basis by Israel, not only in Gaza, but the West Bank too. It is my belief that all Jews should speak out against the Israeli government. Should Palestinians do the same about Hamas? Here it is more nuanced. What Hamas did to innocent Israelies was indefensible. But understandable? Poked with sticks regularly, faced with state sponsored murders it was kind of inevitable that they would lash out eventually. The Israeli response has not been proportionate, focused or reasonable. Therefore the British Government should go further and like with Russia seize control of Israeli companies to fund for the reconstruction of Gaza once the plague of Israel has been vanquished.
Whilst in a vocal mood – the Conservative councillors wife given a 31 month prison sentence – did she deserve the sentence – HELL YES – should it be reduced? Given that she has shown contrition and is not a threat to society, yes perhaps along with ‘Just stop oil’ protestors. Both should realise that the time for extremism is not yet upon us! And the prisons are full, time for Timpson to step up and do something about it. I am tired of hearing radio saddo’s complaining about leniency – it costs a lot to imprison people and there are those who need to be locked up, but for many, they made wrong decisions, often horrific, but societies retribution could be more inventive and productive.
Climate crisis – durh! Puzzles. Boil a kettle please. Half fill it and it boils quicker than when full. 70.8% of earths surface and the oceans deepest point is much deeper than Everest is high. 230 million people live at less than 1m above sea level. 1 billion live below 10m all. A 20cm rise in sea level by 2050 as predicted would lead to flood damage of $1 trillion a year. With current policies we are looking at a 2.5C rise in temperatures. Melting Greenland and Antarctic Ice Caps would result in a 12m rise in sea level. Where do you live? Have you worked out the puzzle yet? I could go on but unless you are educationally subnormal you have got it. If you question this you can fuck off, then fuck off some more, until you are in a planet far away!
Feeling good today – it rained last night which means that the random plants I have planted out are doing ok. Making a lemon cheesecake later, have watered tomato plants and planted many out in random pots . Next big crop should be basil – love it.
EU
It must be a brilliant deal for the trash press to make such a fuss. Surrender and betrayal (DExpress), Surrender (Mail), bye bye to Brexit (Telegraph), Done up like a kipper (Sun). Other papers were more perceptive Reset (Times), win win (Mirror). When emotive language is used it usually means that they cannot dispute the facts. Telegraph is read by the over 70’s anyway. Brexit has been a disaster however you look at it. Maybe it could have been differently – but the only suggestion is to take us out of the ECJ and other institutions – can I ask which rulings of the ECJ have been so horrendous to warrant leaving an organisation we helped to form!