Wednesday, 20 March 2019

Trump Making Mexican Homes Safer Again

Donald Trump's wall may have turned into a wire fence but the Mexicans are very happy about that, mainly because as fast as the fence goes up they are nicking it. 
Far from Mexico paying for it, American tax dollars are funding the fence between San Diego and the Mexican Town of Tijuana but while designed to keep out the rampaging flood of Mexicans, it is attracting them because the barbed wire is exactly what they need for their own home security.
Such is the problem that the United States have asked for help from Mexican authorities to stop the locals from pinching the wire which goes missing as soon as it is replaced, but the request was greeted with a shrug of the shoulders by Mexico and an explanation that 'the wire is stronger, sharper, and of better quality than anything sold in Mexican stores'.
He may not exactly be making America Great again but Donald Trump is certainly making Mexican homes safer and decking them out in freshly-stolen barbed wire, all at his nations expense.
I imagine those on the Mexican side are hoping he returns to the idea of bricks and cement as they could do with some higher walls to place all that the shiny, new barbed wire on.

Tuesday, 19 March 2019

Perfect Response By Jacinda Ardern

Unfortunately we have far too many terrorist massacres and the nations react in different ways and almost all can learn from New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who has handled a devastating event which left 50 dead in the perfect way.
She immediately condemned the attack as terrorism, vowed to update New Zealand's gun laws and ban semi-automatic guns and reassured the Muslim community that they are valued members of the country.
She spent time and embraced the communities affected and said that New Zealand stands in solidarity with the Muslim community in NZ and around the world against terrorism and hate and refused to speak the terrorists names, claiming: 'He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless'.
She then promised to cover the funeral costs of all 50 victims and addressed social media and its part in hosting the offensive and dangerous content after thousands of people viewed the graphic video that had been uploaded by the shooter.
'They are the publisher not just the postman. There cannot be a case of all profit, no responsibility' she said.
Such a shame that it took such an awful tragedy to force Jacinda Ardern to the forefront but if more leaders acted like her then there will be less hate and more compassion which is what we so badly need.
Jacinda Ardern actions should be the template for every World leader whose response to any terror attack is to want to hit back hard at someone and continue the circle of violence.

Sunday, 17 March 2019

What America Will Get Under Socialism

Capitalism has traditionally ranked alongside apple pie, shooting guns at each other and chlorinated chicken in the hearts of Americans but the youth are casting an eye away from the dog eat dog world with a poll showing that 61% of Americans aged 18 to 24 have a favourable attitude towards Communism's younger brother, Socialism.
Battered by constant recessions, the rich getting richer and facing a trip to Mexico or Canada to receive affordable healthcare, 39% of Americans of all ages say that they are 'well-disposed toward socialism'.
Perhaps the real reason Trump wants to build a wall on the Mexican border is to keep Americans away from cheaper foreign medical treatment but it shows that the issue of Socialism in America being equated with Communism is no longer an issue so as a proud Socialist allow me to explain what America can expect as the newest Socialist nation.

You get a song and it's sung to the tune of the Christmas Carol 'O' Christmas Tree' and while it's not quite Sweet Child 'O Mine, it's catchy enough and that Star Spangled Banner thing about rockets and things is outdated now anyway.
Socialism comes in any colour you want as long as it's red because for some reason everything Socialist is red including the flag, the badges, the posters and for the gents, especially the neck wear.
For the 39% of your poor fellow yankees who argue that staying with the current failed system is the way to go you have a long list of Socialists to name check such as Albert Einstein and if the brainiest man who has ever lived decides that Socialism is the way to go you know you have backed the right horse, or German physicist.
Finally Socialism is already working in the United States so if someone assaults you a police officer arrives, and without payment, resolves the situation. If America is invaded the military won't show up and ask for your bank details, they will chase them away for free and the Fire Dept. won't stand and watch your house burn down as you can't afford to pay them to unroll their hose, they will put the fire out without charge and your child gets educated for free and the rubbish collectors will take away your eighteen bin liners full of rubbish for nothing and do it on the roads maintained for free.

It's a no brainer really, under Socialism you get a neat song, everything coloured red and it comes with the endorsement of the biggest brain ever so cast off the chains of oppression under Capitalism and join me and my chums in a Socialist paradise singing a song to the tune of a Christmas Carol. What's not to like?

Friday, 15 March 2019

Tackling Right Wing Hatred

While not all right wingers are racist, all the racists are on the right wing and today we saw the culmination of the steady drumbeat of right wing hatred in New Zealand with 49 dead Muslims, mowed down by a right wing fanatic whilst praying.
Right wing terrorism has been building for the past decade, through the gruesome events of Anders Behring Breivik who killed 77 people in Norway, the killing of 11 Jewish worshippers in Pittsburgh, the murder of the British MP Jo Cox, attacks on mosques and synagogues in London and Quebec and many more violent incidents motivated by people of a racist and far-right bent.
In the US, right wing activity was linked to at least 50 deaths in 2018, almost three quarters of all extremist-related fatalities but all around the World attackers motivated by right-wing political ideologies are on the increase.
In the UK we have had two years of negative attacks on non-whites, from Windrush to Theresa May's hostile environment for non-Brits and UKIP's and Conservative Party anti-immigration rhetoric.
Following the death of an anti-fascist protester in Charlottesville, Donald Trump refused to administer blame to the extremists, his base, declaring them 'good people' and within hours of the New Zealand massacre, Australian Senator, Fraser Anning, released a media statement criticising left-wing politicians for the bloodshed and claiming: 'The real cause of bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place'.
Brenton Tarrant's Twitter account posted links to a manifesto reeking of white supremacist conspiracy theories but the repugnant views of the far right which once festered in only the darkest nooks and crannies, has crept out into the daylight assisted by politicians who have created the swamp for such reptiles.
Emboldened, white supremacists believe that they have like minded fellows in places of power and have taken a cue from overt race-baiting from the likes of Trump, Farage, Boris Johnson and Tommy Robinson who whip up Islamophobia and anti-Semitism, a road which leads to irrational people like Tarrant and Breivik picking up weapons and pathetic scenes of more dead bodies, killed by right wing extremists who are ignorant or just too plain dumb to understand the dangerous propaganda that they are being brainwashed with.  
Social media has to crack down on allowing the safe spaces for the right wing extremists to spew their bile and extreme right wing commenter's should be treated the same as the Islamic fundamentalists as both are indoctrinating soft minds with their toxic, and murderous poison.

Thursday, 14 March 2019

Bloody Sunday Hypocrisy

Bloody Sunday was the day in 1972 that 13 unarmed protesters were shot dead by the British Army in Londonderry during a protest against a new law introduced to detain people without trial indefinitely.
A further 15 were injured and in 2010 an investigation concluded that the killings had been 'unjustified and unjustifiable' and dismissed suggestions by the soldiers who had opened fire with live rounds that those who had been killed had been armed with guns and nail bombs.
It was announced today that only one soldier, only identified as soldier F, will face prosecution for two murders and four attempted murders.
Last week the Northern Ireland Secretary, Karen Bradley, attempted to deflect any blame for the killings by saying that the 13 deaths could not be crimes because they were caused by British soldiers were: 'fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way'.
She was forced into a humbling apology when it was pointed out that there was nothing dignified or appropriate in shooting dead people waving white flags, going to the aid others or attempting to crawl to safety.
As expected the Government have shockingly continued to stand by their armed forces, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson saying the Ministry of Defence would support soldier F and pay the legal costs as: 'We are indebted to those soldiers who served with courage and distinction' and 'the government will urgently reform the system for dealing with legacy issues. Our serving and former personnel cannot live in constant fear of prosecution'.
Those pathetic words just mean that they will make sure that the military will not be able to be prosecuted for when they go on another mass killing spree.
The Northern Ireland Veterans group said 'No soldier should be charged. It happened 47 years ago, a line in the sand needs to be drawn and people need to move on' which is just more pathetic nonsense because no matter how long ago it was, if someone murdered another person, then they should be brought to trial and prosecuted.
The murderer known as Soldier F can only feel aggrieved that he is the only one being prosecuted for that dark stain on our nation and the atrocious grief he and his trigger happy friends caused that day.

Tuesday, 12 March 2019

UN Condemn Israel Again

Defenders of Israel sometimes point to the amount of UN Resolutions against Israel as proof that the UN is anti-Israeli but the truth is that the reason there are so many UN Resolutions against Israel is because it has spent the last 70 years invading, murdering and subjugating its neighbours.
A UN investigation into the 2018 Gaza protests has concluded that Israel committed war crimes and crimes against humanity with soldiers intentionally using live ammunition against children, women, journalists, health workers and people with disabilities resulting in over 6,000 people injured and 183 killed.
The UN report condemning Israel comes shortly after the an EU report which denounced Israeli settlements on Palestinian land and called on Israel to remove homes built on stolen Palestinian land.
Unfortunately, America continues to stand squarely behind Israel with their chequebook and nothing will change while they are continually funded by continuous American Governments.
There is a responsibility for the international community to take decisive action towards Israel respecting UN Resolutions and human rights in Palestine and take a woefully long-overdue steps towards peace with their neighbour, maybe then the UN will stop pointing out what a murderous and truly awful nation Israel is in their treatment of the Palestinians.

Praising Trump

At a cost of $21bn, it is $5 billion cheaper to go to the Moon and Mars than to build Trumps wall which stands at £26bn only with less racist overtones.
Usually dismissed as a massive idiot, Donald Trump earns a brief reprieve today with his announcement that NASA will receive  $21bn to 'continue building the key components of the exploration campaign that will send astronauts to the moon and beyond'.
NASA plan to build a 'Lunar Gateway' outpost which will be orbiting the moon by the mid 2020s, and lunar landers to deliver cargo there by the late 2020s as well as a manned mission to the moon by 2028 and a view on flying to Mars.
'NASA is on the cusp of accomplishing more than we've ever been able to accomplish before' said one NASA boffin although it come at the cost of a reduction in Earth science missions finds which research climate change.
As Trump and his administration are climate change sceptics (Chinese creation in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive and all that), it is ironic that he is using his nations tax dollars to provide an escape from the polluted mess of a planet he is helping to create. 
Also ironic that he is spending $21billion to send humans to another World while spending $26 billion keeping people out of his own little part of this World.

Tim Berners-Lee On His WWW Invention

Thirty years ago today Tim Berners-Lee put forward an idea he called 'Mesh' which evolved into the World Wide Web which revolutionised the World but reminiscing on his invention three decades on, he isn't too pleased with what his baby has become. 
His concerns are over how the Web has created: 'opportunity for scammers, given a voice to those who spread hatred, and made all kinds of crime easier to commit' and cited the Cambridge Analytica scandal at Facebook as how people's faith has been shaken in the Web.
In retrospect, allowing the public to post their unfiltered thoughts online was always going to be a problem and is now an entrenched problem for the Web although Berners-Lee appears to consider it a fixable problem and suggests a 'Contract for the Web' with people signing up creating a set of rules for the internet to make it a lot less inhospitable and crime ridden wild west where anything goes. 
That seems to fall heavily upon the big firms regulating their users and removing any content deemed unsuitable but that opens up the problem of how and who decides what is unacceptable.
The reality is that you can tinker with the edges but the Web is probably an unfixable problem and in another 30 years time the same problems of scammers, haters and criminals taking advantage of the freedom and anonymity that the Web provides will still be with us.

Monday, 11 March 2019

They Called Their Business What?

I always wondered if the brains behind the refrigerator company SMEG knew what they were doing when they named it, i get hours of fun asking my friend who has one if he keeps his cheese in it.
Other favourites are Schiit Audio Europe and before a hasty name change, the South Hants Institute of Technology always made for a great acronym.
Companies House has put out the names of 87 businesses whose names were too rude to be allowed onto their register, such as Royal Nuts Ltd, Purple Helmet Bikes, Cat Shit Coffee, Crap Ltd, Slag Ltd, Tits On Bikes, Cocks On Socks and AnusBeauty.
Also sent back to rethink their names were Top Dogging Ltd, FashionFuckery, Toss Charity, Panda Knob Ink, Knickers Knackers Knockers, Stop Making Everything Shit Ltd and TittyGoHard.
Alas we will never find out the exact nature of the service provided by TittyGoHard because as a Companies House spokesman explained: 'A company must not be registered by a name if, in the opinion of the secretary of state, its use by the company would be offensive'.
So thanks to the secretary of state we won't be using Panda Knob Ink, drinking Cat Shit Coffee or buying our Knickers Knackers or Knockers all in the one place anytime soon.

In, Out, In, Out, Shake It All About

The problem with kicking the can down the road is that at some point you actually run out of road and so it's finally here, after years of not very much, can-kicking and delaying, this is the week that determines Britain's future in the EU.
With just 18 days until Brexit, Mrs May has promised this will be the week when the real decisions are made but by Friday things could look very different.
If tomorrow's vote on Theresa May's passes then Brexit will be rubber stamped and we will wake up former-EU members on 30 March.
As she lost the last by by a record amount and it is basically the same deal she is offering up again it is highly unlikely we will be going anywhere at the end of March so Wednesdays vote comes into play which is a vote to accept or reject a no-deal scenario which again, is expected to be heavily defeated.
Interesting there are talks of mass Conservative Party resignations if the Prime Minister tells her MPs they must vote to keep no-deal on the table.
If by Thursday MPs have rejected the deal in thr first vote and no deal in the second vote, the third vote comes into effect which is to delay Brexit, therefore extending Article 50 and continuing with negotiations.
The more extreme of the Conservatives are threatening to invoke a coup and replace Theresa May if we meander our way through to the third vote and Labour are threatening to bring out the no confidence vote again with a view to forcing a General Election.
So by Friday we could be on our way out of the EU, have a new Prime Minister or be set for a General Election or none of at all if Theresa May repeats what she did last time and pulls out of the votes to avoid defeat and save her own neck and we come back again in the next 18 days to do it all over again.
Exciting 'innit!