Got To Love Bernie Sanders

War Criminal and Genocide overlord Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in America and wisely Kamala Harris stayed well clear while he met Joe Biden who has provided the weapons for Israel to kill over 38,000 Palestinians and whilst an United Nations arrest warrant for crimes against humanity is winging its way through the highest court in the World, America is pretty much the only place the warmongering murderer could go but not everyone is happy about him turning up there to give a speech in Congress, and amidst the hundreds of Jews who turned up to protest what he is doing in not in their name, take a step forward Bernie Sanders.
The Vermont senator condemned the Israeli prime minister address, calling him a 'war criminal presiding over a right-wing extremist government'.
'Tomorrow will be unique in bringing Prime Minister Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress', said Sanders, 'It will be the first time in American history that a war criminal has been given that honor'
and 'He should not be welcome in the United States Congress' as Israel’s war on Gaza had 'trampled on international law, on American law and on basic human values' and the Israeli Government should not
receive 'another nickel of US taxpayer support to continue the inhumane destruction of Gaza'.
Several Democratic lawmakers with a conscience were planning to boycott the speech and Sanders ended with the cutting: 'This invitation to Netanyahu is a disgrace and something that we will look back on with regret' and how it would be impossible for the United States to lecture any country on Earth about human rights and human dignity.'
Shame on you Joe Biden for not clapping him in irons and delivering him to the Hague to face his war crimes and genocide but you got to love Bernie.

Prosecutor V The Sex Offender

I always wondered why the Democrat Party didn't make more of Donald Trump being a sex offender because ring that bell loud enough and it is sure to put off people, or it should do because who wants to be
seen backing a sex offender and then along come Kamala Harris who said that in her career as a prosecutor she had taken on 'predators who abused women' and so she knew 'Donald Trump's type'.
The former prosecutor versus the convicted criminal and sex offender should be a no brainer but weirdly cheering for a vile man found legally responsible for a sexual assault by a jury hasn't put some people off despite him actually saying previously that he grabbed women by the pussy so being found guilty of exactly what he boasted of doing ended that ridiculous claim that it was just how men talk in locker rooms.
As for the orange buffoons childish name calling, 'Laughing Kamala Harris' isn't that much of an insult because i am hard pushed to think of a time i have ever seen Trump laugh, he does that rictus grin thing which look's as if he is trying to pass wind but  i don't recall him ever actually laughing.
Sure he hasn't got much to laugh about but , his fines so far have reached more than half a billion dollars and he still has more court cases to come but he did raise a huge laugh at the United Nations when he said in an address that he has achieved more in two years then almost any administration in the history of America, the whole World literally laughing at him while he stood there looking foolish.
So Kamala being a laugher isn't such a terrible leadership trait but hopefully she has started as she means to go on and will zero in on his many crimes and cases of fraud but mostly because no matter what he throws at her, and i fully expect to hear dog whistles about her gender and her race, whatever comes at her, HE is a convicted sex offender and  that is a far worse trait than laughing in anyone with a couple of working brain cells book.

Biden Out, Clooney In

Nobody should want a second Donald Trump Presidency, the guy was an absolute moron in the first one but that seemed to be the direction America was heading all the time Joe Biden stayed in the race but that problem has now been solved because he has pulled out of the 2024 presidential race and will not be seeking a second term.
Another Democrat will now need to be chosen to face off against the Republican nominee in November and Michelle Obama's name is being uttered as the preferable person but she has repeatedly said she is not interested in the job so she would take a lot of persuading to lock horns with Trump who must now be concerned that he won't be facing someone who seemed to forget what he was saying halfway through saying it.
Immediately the British bookies had Gavin Newsom as the favourite to succeed Biden, then it changed to Kamala Harris but a recent CNN poll of Democrat 's, 39% had Kamala Harris as their preferred choice with Newsom a distant second on 18% and as the Vice President, most people would assume she would have first choice on it but according to the American media, she isn't that popular and would struggle against Donald Trump, good old fashioned sexism and racism rearing its head apparently although that never stopped Barack Obama so not sure about that one.
A poll in Newsweek saw Gavin Newsom losing to Donald Trump in a head to head and other names thrown out where J B Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, Pete Buttigieg, Andy Beshear, Sherrod Brown and Dean Phillips with the Arizona Senator Mark Kelly named as one to watch and a quick look at his profile showed he was an astronaut, flying 4 Apollo missions so immediately i'm thinking go for him Democrat Party but that is without knowing anything else about him.
I'm sure  the odds will change as people drop out but the immediate odds at Betfair who have a list of potential nominees are:

Kamala Harris        1/5
Gavin Newsom      11/1
Gretchen Whitmer 26/1
Michelle Obama    22/1
Hillary Clinton      31/1
Josh Shapiro          39/1

My friend and light bulb hero Bernie Sanders is at 199/1, the brilliant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is 269/1 who is way ahead of George Clooney at 799/1, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson at 859/1 and Bill Gates who is a long way off at  999/1.
£10 on Gorgeous Clooney is it then and with part of my £7990 winnings i will buy an Nespresso coffee maker, it's the least i can do.

Stupid Deaths

A small handful of individuals are not content with achieving their names in the footnotes of history and then quietly expiring, no these few top it off by kicking the bucket in a way so ridiculously implausible that people would have talked about them for years even if they hadn't done anything else.
In 612bc Greel lawgiver Charondas issued a law that anyone who brought weapons into the Assembly must be put to death which probably worked well for him until ran into the Assembly to seek help with some thieves, forgetting he had a knife still attached to his belt and oops, he was made to commit suicide to uphold his own law.
Aeschylus was the famous Athenian man who had his bald head mistaken by an Eagle for a rock suitable for breaking a tortoise upon but around the same time Philosopher Empedocles of Akragas considered himself immortal and jumped into a volcano to prove it where he quickly found out he definitely wasn't.
The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, swallowed pills of Mercury in the belief that they would give him eternal life but they had the exact opposite effect and killed him while Milo of Croton, a 6th century bc Olympic champion wrestler proved his strength by attempting to split a tree stump in half but he got it stuck fast and unable to move, a pack of wolves had Croton's for dinner that night
In 882, King Louis III of France chased a girl into a house and hit his head on the lintel above the door and cracked his skull which might have been less painful than Basil I of Byzantine who shot an arrow at an Antler which was so enraged it charged him, caught its horns in the mans belt and dragged him along, shaking the now dead Emperors body off 16 miles later.  
Béla I of Hungary must have had too many feasts because after a particularly heavy one his Throne collapsed beneath him but it was the weight of the crowd who gathered to hear Henry VI, the King of Germany speech that made the floor give way and straight down into the latrine cesspit below the ground floor, where about 60 of them drowned in liquid excrement.
Italian Author Pietro Aretino died after falling off his chair and fracturing his skull after laughing too much and the 1559 jousting tournament was memorable for Henry II of France when a fragment of splintered lance pierced his eye and killed him while Hans Staininger was proud of having the longest beard in Bavaria until he tripped over it and broke his neck in 1567.
Jean-Baptiste Lully accidentally stabbed and killed himself with his own baton while over vigorously conducting an orchestra and nobody dared to touch Queen Sunanda Kumariratana when she fell out her boat and drowned as it was punishable by death to place hands upon her.
Inventor Franz Reichelt leapt to his death from the Eiffel Tower to show off his parachute invention which it turned out wasn't quite ready and in 1983 a Tennis linesman was killed by a serve which struck him in the groin and made him collapse in pain, striking his head on the hardcourt surface.
In America, convicted murderer, Michael Godwin's death sentence by electric chair was reduced to life imprisonment but in a real Final Destination moment, he was electrocuted to death anyway when  he attempted to fix a TV and in 1998 Portuguese dance instructor, Alberto Fargo, danced straight out of his 5th floor dance studio whilst demonstrating to his students how to keep their head towards the ceiling whilst doing the Waltz.
Ukrainian student, Vladimir Likhonos, dipped his chewing gum into an explosive powder mistakenly in 2009 and blew his head off  when he chewed it but in Brazil, a nurse got the drip feed and food feed confused and intarvenously injected soup into 88 year old Ilda Vitor Maciel.

Obviously all very sad, funny but very very sad. Funny though. 

Trump's UK Friends

It has been said that the MP for Clacton would be spending November dealing with his constituencies problems from Donald Trump's colon but Nigel Farage didn't even wait that long and immediately after the formalities of opening Parliament which all MP's had to attend, he was on a plane to Milwaukee to try to boost his profile at the Republican convention which must have thrilled the people of Clacton, that place who two weeks ago voted him into office to represent them in the Commons.
Milwaukee seems to be a hotspot for disgraced MP's as Farage risked bumping into Liz Truss or Boris Johnson who are also over there, Liz going even more completely nuts and dedicating part of her allotted time to banging on a shower-head in the shape of the Liberty Bell she acquired (and won't fit her pipes this side of the UK) and Boris addressed a ballroomful of empty chairs.
Also popping up and rubbing shoulders with Country and Western singers and Hulk Hogan was Russell Brand who has recently been born again and said it was: 'An opportunity to leave the past behind and be reborn in Christ's name' after accusations of rape and sexual assault which is at least something he shares with Donald Trump who also seemed to find God after being found guilty of Sexual Assault and someone piercing his ear with a high-powered rifle.
Johnson managed to persuade a man with a famous complex about his teeny hand size to pose with thumbs up (his hand in the pic does look tiny admittedly and Stormy Daniels filled in the gaps) and when she wasn't talking about Bathroom furniture, Liz told the Milwaukee crowd who hadn't used her introduction as the right time for a toilet/smoke break that it was us leftists who bought her down which is an interesting account of her trashing the UK economy and being unceremoniously kicked out of her party by her own side. She did get a nice picture of her and newly appointed VP JD Vance though which wasn't easy in the second he spent with her as he whizzed down a line of outstretched hands.
Russell Brand did manage to get a photo with a Eric Trump who himself was embroiled in conning a cancer charity out of millions so that apple didn't fall far from that tree as he was forced by a court to pay
$2 million in damages to eight cancer charities but no pictures yet of Nigel Farage but i doubt if we will until the Trump colonoscopy.

Avoiding Narcissists On LinkedIn

I have mentioned so many times on here that i do not have a  LinkedIn page even if one was set up in my name which was apparently pasting my posts onto it but after many emails LinkedIn seemed to put a stop to it so never having been on or even read a LinkedIn page, if you received an invite from me it was a fake and the reason why i never added you to my page is because, well read the above again.
An article on the Psychology Today website makes me glad i have steered clear of the business and employment-focused social media platform where people add their work experience and CV because according to them it is full of Narcissists.
Psychologists analysing LinkedIn profiles revealed correlations with narcissistic personality traits according to the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire (NARQ), a tool for measuring narcissistic traits but short of a narcissist going all Billy Big Bollocks at every opportunity and banging on about their qualifications, how can you tell if you are in the presence of a narcissist on LinkedIn?
The Psychologists have made a handy cut out and keep guide of who to avoid which includes anyone who follows big name companies or celebrities, they tend not to smile in their profile pictures,  they are more specific on their qualifications, where they work or position held, use LinkedIn's background image feature and mention 'public speaking' as one of their skills.
Psychologists list what us Brits call 'Bigging yourself up' or 'Going The Full Billy' as a sign of insecurity and a desperate need to be noticed so might be best to just click on because the desire to leave a snarky message just plays into the desire of getting noticed because they are obviously to narcissistic to notice you are making fun of them. Go figure.
PS...I DO NOT have a LinkedIn Page so stop asking!!

The Chuggers New Twist

For some reason, no matter how hard i try not i always seem to attract the Chuggers (Charity Muggers) in High Streets who seem intent to block my path and ask if they and their clipboard can take a few minutes of my time.
I met a friend in town today who was a bit late but as the Chuggers are apparently not permitted to approach people sat down, i kept my backside firmly attached to a seat but as they were operating close by, i could hear their spiel which seemed to be the usual over friendly type but had a new twist once the person had agreed to sign up for a direct debit for a certain amount of their choosing.
On 3 occasions, so it is obviously what they have been told to do, i heard the  Chugger ask could the person afford to just up the amount a little. Two said a firm no but one agreed to go from £10 to £15 a month after some persuasion and i understand the Charities have to raise money but this does feel rather self defeating as nothing is guaranteed to get a potential donors back up then asking for more once they have agreed to give something.
Some people I saw were suitably ornery enough to just shake their head or give a polite 'No Thanks' as they stride confidently past them and ignored the outstretched arm designed to stop them but i know many people who could be browbeaten into giving more than they could afford just to end the social awkwardness of 'looking tight' when faced with starving children or research for Cancer.
To right thing to do, if you want to give is go direct to the website because over a decade ago i looked into the High Street Charity game and was amazed to find that that the Chuggers are paid and are not volunteers and your first 12 months of donations go to paying the Chuggers wages and the commission to their employer and only after that does the Charity receive your donation.
By all means give to Charity if you can afford it but don't be scared to say no because they are not scared to inconvenience and ask you to help pay their wages for the next 12 months. 

Comedy With Ai

 

Joke Ai generators are becoming a thing although many humans are saying they are just not funny and Ai will never be able to write funny jokes because it is very much a human thing and we just don't understand the mechanics of what makes something funny.
For me there are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those who don’t and you get funny humans and some who wouldn't get a joke if it hit them on the strange bulbous thing on their skinny necks and so you get funny and not funny computers.
I was discussing this with the toaster and the smart TV who are the other members in our band called 1023MB, named because we exist in the virtual world and won't ever have any Gigs but we all agree we are as funny as the programmers inputting the data into our systems, Google has the best so they tell us although the pay must be lousy if they have to have other jobs as scarecrows as i heard one say they were outstanding in their field.   
Maybe we are just trying too hard to impress our humans who can go to a bar to relax and unwind and order a screwdriver which sounds ideal if us machines need something to loosen us up but we have to be careful as we don't want to be caught by Bill Gates, nobody wants anything Micro or Soft.
There you go then, reasons why Ai can be as funny as humans but if you didn't find anything funny here then i think the problem is obviously at your end, have you tried turning yourself off and back on again?

We want Lisa For Our Leader

As serious journalist i obviously don't indulge in the frivolous or superficial so i initially ignored the poll which was asking which cartoon character would you most like to see leading your country.
It was only when i accidentally clicked on it while looking for something else much more high brow and serious that i thought i may as well have a look at the results as i'm here and noticed that Lisa Simpson was the top choice which makes sense, of the family living in Evergreen Terrace she is the only choice, a Buddhist vegan who is concerned with green issues and has concern for her fellow man and who doesn't love them qualities?
Then it began to all get a bit silly because second was Spiderman although admittedly never having read, seen or watched anything which contained the web slinging superhero he may be suitable, i really have no idea and then jinkies, at three is Velma from Scooby Doo who if the 80's served me correctly, was the brains of the Mystery Machine outfit. I also didn't know her surname was Dinkley but then i was always too busy shouting at the TV that it was obviously going to be the janitor at the haunted fairground because it was every...single...episode.
Batman and Superman are numbers 4 and 5 and whilst Batman received the same treatment as Spiderman and had never crossed the Lucyp eyeballs, Superman has as i saw the first ever Superman film and as i recall he can turn back time by flying around the Planet really fast which could come in handy.
Charlie Brown's dog Snoopy, Bugs Bunny, Scooby Doo, Mickey Mouse and Papa Smurf make up the rest of the top 10 but by then i had lost interest in such trivial things and moved onto much more important and significant things although how Woody from Toy Story didn't make the top 10 made the whole thing farcical. He is obviously the best choice for a leader!  

New Government Fixing Last Goverments Misrule

A fortnight into the new Labour Government and already the awful memories of austerity, cutting public services, Brexit, the hostile environment, the “go home” vans, proroguing parliament, the Windrush scandal, the A-level scandal, the Post Office scandal, Grenfell, Covid parties, the Rwanda scheme, dumping effluence into rivers, the two-child benefit cap, the food banks, impoverished children, the homelessness crisis, the cost-of-living crisis, freezing working-age benefits, tripling tuition fees, the ailing NHS and the institutional racism is becoming a memory.
As the Conservatives left the UK economy in such a perilous state, it is considered that it will take Labour the whole of their first administration just getting us back on an even keel but where to start?
For some the destruction of the NHS under a right wing Government  is the priority and that is where the Government should look to tackle first but after 14 years of underfunding, the price tag to just get the NHS back to where the Conservatives vandalised it has been pegged at £56bn.
For some  law and order but after cutting 20,000 police and (again) underfunding for almost 3 decades, the price tag is £20bn which is almost the amount the Conservatives cut from the Education budget and which would need to be spent to just get us back to 2010 levels.
Civil Servants, the people who work your Tax Returns, issue passports, administer pensions and benefits and deal with Asylum claims fell by 100,000 under a succession of Conservative leaders who planned a further cull of 91,000 if they were relected so that needs to be bought back to the required levels to ensure the 6 month wait for your tax repayment, the months long wait for a passport and the year long wait for a decision on the status of immigrants is not continuing.
Then there is rekindling a working relationship with our EU neighbours after Brexit which cost the UK economy an estimated £140 billion and led to the very real prospect of breaking up the UK and led to the highest tax burden since WW2  and lets not forget the environmental, cost of living, Housing and transport which all need to be dealt with.
The Labour Party has much on it's plate fixing what the Conservatives have broken and it will cost them the first five years and hundreds of billions but the worst thing of all is that 24% of the electorate still preferred the party that literally partied while people died to any of the of the other parties which does make me wonder, have they not been paying attention for the last 14 years?