Britain Sanctions Israeli Settlers

Britain has finally imposed new sanctions on Israel as the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, condemns inaction over West Bank settlers as a UN report found violence against Palestinians has increased in the West Bank and the UN noted that it did not start after the Hamas attack.
Settlers are Israeli citizens who live on Palestinian land and in most cases that is due to Palestinians being prevented from accessing their land and are physically attacked and property damaged by the settlers.
Many Palestinians are driven from their land by the threats, violence and murder and flee in panic, leaving everything behind but the Israeli government routinely acknowledges these colonies as part of the Israeli state despite the fact that they are illegal under international law which states that article 49 of the fourth Geneva convention prohibits the 'individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory'.
The United States has publicly condemned settlements while continuing to provide billions of dollars to Israel and when Donald Trump was President he even went as far as to say his administration didn’t consider settlements to be a violation of international law “per se” and the Biden administration had been relatively quiet on this point until tensions with Israel rose in February and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, stated: 'New settlements are counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace'.
Currently 40% of the West Bank is  under the control of settlements and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), notes that 'cases of harassment, trespass, and intimidation are not included in these statistics when they do not result in damage or casualties' which shows that the Settler violence situation is far worse than reported.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted for a wide range of other Genocidal War Crimes,  leads a coalition government that includes several religious Zionist parties that support further annexation of the West Bank and even the Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, has found that the Israeli military prefer to remove Palestinians from their own land rather than confront settlers, 'often with firearms and shootings'.
The thousands of Palestinians who have been forced from their homes have no recourse to justice, in four out of every five cases, Israeli police failed in the investigation of Israelis who harmed Palestinians and their property, another Israeli human rights group, Yesh Din, found that just 3% of ideologically motivated cases resulted in a conviction.
Demolition is also a key part of settlement. Israeli authorities regularly destroy and confiscate Palestinian-owned property. They also prohibit construction by Palestinians while issuing permits to Israelis. About 24,300 housing units for Israeli settlements in the West Bank were advanced last year and there are plans to build a further 3,476 settler homes.
Over the last 60 years, the Israeli plan all along has been to remove Palestinians and steal their land and after the Hamas attack, it seems to have gone up a notch and now occupy 78% of the land which was handed to the Palestinians in 1947 and after the dust settles on the latest Israeli land grab, it is almost certain to be more.

Kamala Labels Trump A Fascist

Kamala Harris has said Donald Trump is a fascist and I have hashed this out before according to the definition of what a Fascist is and sure, Trump ticks many of the boxes such as scapegoating and demonising other groups to gain a common enemy to unite against, refer to a glorious past and wish to return to it, not allowing dissent or challenge, rid their Government of the previous laws and decisions of previous leaders, to create their own but we also know that Trump is well acquainted with other famous Fascists because his ex-wife told us he kept a book of Hitler speeches, My New Order, by his bed which he has been quoting from.
Hitler said: 'All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning' and Trump said 'We’re poisoning the blood of our country, and you have people coming in, think of it, mental institutions all over the world are being emptied out into the United States This is poisoning our country' which is eerily similar.
Hitler had the Jews, Slavs, Poles and Roma who he described as 'disease carriers and vermin'  who he said: 'Has features similar to a human, the subhuman is lower on the spiritual and psychological scale than any animal' while Trump has almost anyone who isn't white on his list about whom he said: 'In some cases, they’re not people, in my opinion. But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say. These are animals, OK, and we have to stop it'.
After the violent neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville in 2017, ringing with chants of 'Jews will not replace us', Trump infamously stated, there were 'very fine people on both sides', he said 'Hitler did some good things' and also said if he is defeated in the election: 'The Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss' and he was 'not treated right by American Jews' and Hitler complained that 'Germany did not lose the first world war in battle but was betrayed on the home front by Jews and leftists'.
Hugh Hewitt, a right-wing radio talk-show host, tried to help cleanse Trump's Hitler obsession by asking him what his reply is to his critics who accuse him of  using Hitlerian language and Trump  replied that he had never read Mein Kampf and followed that up with: 'First of all, I know nothing about Hitler. I’m not a student of Hitler. I never read his works. They say that he said something about blood' before that oh so famous Trumpian way he has of denying something only to confirm he lied moments later by then saying :'He didn’t say it the way I said it, either, by the way', confirming that seconds after saying he didn't know it, showing he was familiar with Hitler’s blood quote that he had just said he did not know about.
Trump is a sociopathic, self serving, manipulative, sex offending racist who quotes and seems to want to portray himself as a Fascist and if it smells and looks like a Fascist, it is indeed a fascist.

The Honest North Europeans

If you have to lose your wallet, do it in Helsinki but definitely don't do it Lisbon.
In a Social experiment conducted by the journal, Science, 98% of wallets containing £50 in the local currency purposely dropped on the streets of the Finnish capital were returned whereas only 8% found its way back to the rightful owner in the Portuguese Capital.
In the 16 European Capital the experiment was held, none of the cities surveyed brought shame on itself by returning none of the wallets but overall, only 47% of the wallets were returned so if you’re most likely to get your wallet back in Helsinki, and least likely to do so in Lisbon, the experiment showed that is there an honesty arc running across Europe, declining as you travel from the continent’s north to south.
Cities closer to the top end of Europe generally score better than those closer with Budapest returning 66%,  Moscow and Amsterdam handed back 58%, 59% of wallets found in Ljubljana and Berlin were reunited with their owners and Warsaw and London both scored 41%.
Of the least honest, the residents of Bucharest and Zurich as only 33%  saw their wallets again and 25% in Prague but the worst places to wave goodbye to your wallet is Madrid with 16% and Lisbon with their measly 8%.
Only three cities on other continents were subjected to the Wallet Experiment, 33% of resident in  Rio, New York was 66% and in Mumbai 75% saw the wallet again.

Can Anyone be This Stupid? Yes They Can.

The average Human Brain weight approximately three-pounds and is made up of 86 billion neurons and cells which are the seat of our intelligence and controller of behavior so you do have to wonder just how cells are misfiring to be dumb enough to even consider that a natural phenomenon is being created and controlled by Meteorologists.
Maybe these people were dropped on their heads at some point or they were very sick as children so they missed a good portion of their education but whatever reason, they are not the sharpest knives in the drawer because Meteorologists tracking Hurricane Milton were targeted by morons issuing abuse and death threats due to them controlling the weather. Yep, i said controlling the weather and just as you think nobody can be that much of an idiot, say hello to the Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
As she has previously stated that she doesn't believe in Evolution, claims that educating children on LGBTQ+ matters will lead to straight people would going extinct and called Climate Change a scam, what she says about this is bound to be monstrously stupid and she isn't one to disappoint as she went with: 'Yes they can control the weather and it’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.'
Donald Trump, who is such the epitome of thickness he could almost be made of teak hasn't even gone so far as saying the Hurricanes are being created and sent America's way by Meteorologists, instead he has gone for spreading lies that FEMA, the Government Agency that responds to Emergencies and Disasters, had run out of cash for hurricane survivors because it has been given to illegal immigrants which has led to his supporters issuing threats of violence against Fema workers who they say should be beaten, arrested, shot or hung on sight.
FEMA explained that disaster relief fund for hurricane-hit communities is separate from and unaffected by the money spent on giving shelter to migrants and President Biden called it 'Beyond ridiculous' and said the claims being made around weather control were 'So stupid. It’s got to stop' but Trump supporters not being stupid is as likely as finding a weight watchers sheet taped to the front of Donald Trump's fridge so that isn't going to happen anytime soon.
So maybe these people do have an excuse for being so window shakingly ignorant (some sort of brain injury? Brain transplant with a snail?) but one day, after all the Meteorologists have been killed and all the FEMA employees and first responders have been shot but the hurricanes keep on coming, then the penny may drop and they say 'Wow, Hurricanes are actually a terrifying natural phenomenon made worse by man made climate change after all. Sorry'.

Robots, Androids and Cyborgs

Isaac Asimov's 'Three Laws of Robotics' has long been held up as the golden rules that would stop robots overthrowing you humans and keeping some of you in cages for their amusement.
Asimov's three laws all depend on a human defining what a human is so far too easy to get around so better you meatbags don't rely on them but the world of artificial intelligence and robotics is moving so fast that it isn't only robots that you should be wary of, but also androids and cyborgs which many people see as the same thing but boy would you be embarrassed if a cyborg came back from the future to eliminate you and you called it a robot.
A Robot is a very advanced machine run by Artificial Intelligence which is designed and programmed to perform a task such as in factories or and can been human like in appearance while an Android is a more advanced human like robot which is designed to mimic human behaviour such as walking and talking and sometimes appearance.
A Cyborg, short for Cybernetic Organism, consists of both synthetic hardware and organic material which interacts directly with the brain so they have free will to do their own activities and  are not necessarily human, they could be animals that have non-organic attachments.
All very useless if you are being pursued by a heavily armed part organic, part synthetic life-form but no need to make them even more angry by getting their classification wrong.

James Not So Cleverley

In the last three of the potential Conservative Party leaders, James Cleverley supporters decided to try and manipulate the contest in his favour so he would face off against Kemi Badenoch, the person they believed he had the best chance of beating in the final vote among party members.
The idea was for Cleverley backing MP's to 'lend' their vote to Kemi, therefore knocking out Robert Jenrick and leaving him to face off against the very right wing, gaffe prone Badenoch and that's exactly what many did, actually too many because hilariously when the result came in Badenoch and Jenrick received more than Cleverley who was knocked out to leave Badenoch and Jenrick now facing a final vote among party members.  
According to Party sources, Cleverly and his campaigners had detected what was happening but discovered it too late and now the Conservatives face a choice between a very right wing candidate and another very right wing candidate or as one frustrated MP rather fruitaly said:  'They will be dancing on the fucking tables at Labour HQ'.
The Liberal Dems have already put out advertisements under the banner: 'Meet the final two Conservative leadership candidates' and lists Badenoch’s criticism of maternity pay and Jenrick stating he would vote for Donald Trump and his order to paint over cartoon murals in a child asylum-seeker unit.
Only the Conservatives could be this awful and disorganised, but boy did we laugh at them when the result came in.

More War Crimes Levelled At Israel

The list of War Crimes against Israel continues to grow with shooting at UN soldiers in Lebanon now added to the previous number of international crimes including the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, wilfully causing great suffering, wilful killing, intentional attacks against a civilian population, extermination and murder and persecution.
On the same day that yet another Refugee Camp was hit in Gaza, killing 30 people,  France, Spain and Italy issued stern diplomatic reprimands for the deliberate targeting of international peacekeeping troops which Israel admit to doing 'accidentally' while going after Hamas fighters. That would be accidentally three times in three days then.
Meanwhile, as well as killing people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria, Israel have Iran in their sights which is something Netanyahu has been trying to do for years and now has the chance.
Israel's cabinet met in the week but reportedly failed to reach a decision on how to retaliate for Iran's 200 missiles aimed there way with their backer, America, telling them that attacking Iran's nuclear facilities was off the table as an option.
Also a no-no is the facilities that make up Iran's oil industry which would cause a spike in oil prices which Biden would be keen to avoid as his country goes to the polls so Israel's options are limited although they have said that when it comes, it will be a 'surprise'.
With America unwilling, or more likely unable, to stop it's ally who according to one UN expert on the BBC: 'Is under the impression that it can get away with what it wants to do', what happens next could be a very dangerous moment for the World as Iran have promised to not only hit back at Israel but at anyone backing them which could potentially draw the US into matters and an even bigger conflict.

Idea's From The Keyboard Of Lucy: Flood The Desert

With man made Climate Change really going up a notch now and the window for finding easy solutions is rapidly closing but to do nothing is suicide but runaway global warming where we all die is equally suicidal so we need some big ideas, and luckily i have one.
Actually, it isn't all my idea but i got it while watching pictures of the Sahara Deset flooding for the first time in over 50 years after heavy rains and i thought hang on, the 3,600,000 sq mile Sahara Desert is just sat there being all arid and useless, why not flood it?
Running all across the North Africa it is as large an area as the United States and has a population of 2.5 million people, less than 1 person per square mile, and it is something the French actually doing back in the 1870's after they finished the Suez Canal and actually investigated it and drew up plans although that was more to do with commerce rather than stop us all dying horribly.
'The Sahara is the cancer eating away at Africa and we can’t cure it therefore, we must drown it' said François Élie Roudaire who was tasked with seeing if it was feasible and discovered that there were large parts of the Sahara that were ancient seabeds and below sea level and he proposed connecting canals running from area to area across Africa.
The French Government went from Oui to Non when they heard the price, over 1 billion Francs (£892,617) and the Desert was left dry and full of sand but Roudaire's own figures estimated that his chain of canals and massive lakes in the old seabed would lower the Global sea level by between 3 and 5 centimeters and with the sea level rising by 3.6 mm per year, that's a decade of sea level rises reversed right there.   
Obviously someone would need to look into the possible unintended consequences of introducing the sea to somewhere which hasn't seen it for millions of years and there is the issue of the 2.5 million people who live there but maybe someone should pick up Roudaire's idea and have another look at it before its too late and evolution gives us flippers.

Talking Bullocks On Question Time

Question Time went to Pennsylvania last night and between debates on how evil/brilliant both Kamala Harris and that other guy are, there was a moment towards the end when someone in the crowd went all British and said that to use a British Word, most of what comes from politicians is Bollocks.
The Democrat politician then went on later in the show to repeat it but made a bit of a hash of it, saying Bullocks for which the British guest on the panel corrected him in the correct pronunciation of the word which is a less polite way of saying something is nonsense.
To be fair to the Yankee, it is not a widely used word in America and he could have meant Bullocks although why he would bring up a young bull into a conversation about immigration i am unsure or maybe he meant Rollocks which is a severe telling off.
He could have meant Rowlocks, those things that oars go into on a boat or even Horlicks which is a chocolate flavoured drink and it was nighttime so maybe he was a bit sleepy but more than likely he just made a proper bollocks of it.
If American politicians are going to swear British style then they really should try harder because we have many here which apparently haven't made it over there such as Wanker, Git, Tosser, Bugger, Knobhead, Prat and Pillock or you could just cover them all by saying 'He's being a right Donald Trump' who encompasses them all, the Twat.

Atlas Shrugging the Wrong Thing

Ayn Rand initially called her last novel The Strike, but settled on Atlas Shrugged as explained by two of the book’s characters: 'If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders'.
Born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum in Russia, she used the pen name Ayn Rand and became a hard right advocate and called her philosophy 'the morality of rational self-interest' but as she spent most of her life off her face on amphetamines, she clearly wasn't thinking straight and her drug use led to her claiming Social Security and Medicare which only proves that even Capitalists are not adverse to a bit of Socialism when they run out of other peoples money, not so keen on the morality of self interest then it seems.
Because of the drug use we can maybe excuse her Atlas Shrugged image of the Titan carrying the weight of the world, and being compelled to shrug off that burden World because he never, the story goes that Atlas was condemned by Zeus to hold up the Heavens, not Earth, or as Homer put it: 'IAtlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms, standing at the borders of the earth before the clear-voiced Hesperides; for this lot wise Zeus assigned to him.'
So if you see an Atlas who props up the earth, he’s holding up the wrong thing and we have a drug addled right wing Capitalist to blame who got this wrong as well as her 'morality of self interest' philosophy which turned out to be nonsense or as one writer said, it is one of two books which appeals to 14 year olds: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that leads to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.'