American? Nah Canadian Eh!

To think of all the trouble Tony Blair had got himself in by inventing weapons of mass destruction just so that he could have a legal pretext for invading Iraq. These days, he would just have said: 'Look guys, let's take out Saddam and get our hands on the oil' but wars for oil were done differently back then and World Leaders felt they had to try and at least make up something to justify it but seemingly not so much now.
What the Iraq War in 2003 did lead to, apart from ISIS, over a million dead and a reported $2 Trillion cost burning its way through bank accounts, was anti-American sentiment. Blair we made such a Pariah in his own country that not only was he forced out but when he popped his head up decades later to sell his iffy book, people threw shoes and eggs at it and he had to be bundled out the back door for his own safety.
Keir Starmer was at pains to point out that Britain was not involved in any way, shape or form in the kidnapping and latest warmongery by America in Venezuela but what this does return us to is the point in 2003 when Americans abroad adopted the strategy of 'pretending' to be Canadian to avoid confrontation.        
There has always been an undercurrent of anti-American feeling swirling around Britain and Europe since i can remember but it was always low level and not particularly powerful however after GW Bush and Tony Blair's Middle East adventure, it snowballed into such proportions that it even rated a question in the House of Lords.
A 2005 Pew Trusts research poll found that then anti-Americanism was deeper and broader than at any time in modern history and back then it was found the main reasons that the rest of us outside of the USA failed to hold up America as a shining example was Bush, Iraq and Israel.
Today it would be Trump, Venezuela and Israel and although it is wrong to label all Americans, how safe might they feel venturing into a hostile resentful world even if they don't support Trump? As soon as they open their mouth to speak their accent will give them away, unless they say they are Canadian because to our ears they sound the same.
Unfortunately, we are stuck with the Carrot coloured man of peace bombing and kidnapping leaders of oil rich nations until time he is no longer in charge and as i just read that despite being morbidly obese, each day he eats two Big Macs, two Filet-O-Fishes and a chocolate milkshake, plus 12 sugar free diet cokes so it may not be that long anyway and then American's can stop pretending to be Canadian because as my Canadian friend told me 'It's like trying to pass off a Robin Reliant as a Porsche'. 

Picking Cure Over Prevention

Climate science has made one thing clear, global heating is behind today’s extreme weather and it is almost certain that greenhouse gas emissions warming the planet will lead to catastrophic weather again this year.
Unfortunately we have been too stupid to stop the planet warming while we still had the chance so all we can do now is adapt to it and minimise the risks to life from such events where the result is paid for in lives from floods, storms, droughts and deadly heatwaves.
We had COP30 in November but nothing came out of that but it is not the Earth that is danger, that will happily carry on turning whether we are on it or not and with deluded rightwing governments extremely hostile to fazing out fossil fuels, a raging Mother Nature will make sure there will be less of us this time on the Planet next year than there otherwise would be.
It isn't just the poor countries that will suffer, so will the rich ones because it isn't until an incident which kills many people, such as the floods in eastern Spain that killed 230 people, that the politicians actually do something because the investments needed to defend communities from flood, fire and heat are not attractive to Governments.
Due to the missed opportunity over decades to limit the damage and deaths that extreme weather will cause, it is case of us trying to now somehow live with it and adapt to it but the changes which have been made with things such as flood defences and dredging rivers will not be enough when the warming climate really kicks in,  a UN report put the figure it would cost globally to secure ourselves against the worst effects of Climate Change at £310bn annually.
That is on top of the cost of Net Zero and redusing our emissions so the humans on the planet are not in a good place at the moment and we only have our own stupid selves to blame. 

American Defence Full Of Holes

You got to hand it to the Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, who didn't go down the route of some World Leaders who signaled their disapproval of America's imperialism and killing of over 100 civilians whilst kidnapping of the Venezuelan President, he dived straight in head first.
'A clan of paedophiles wants to destroy democracy in Columbia. Harsh, yes, but that’s the reality' were the opening words before going on to explain that Trump's action's were trying to distract from the Epstein files
The American defence of their actions is full of holes, if they wanted to go after the drugs angle then the US Intelligence themselves say that Cocaine comes from Colombia and Fentanyl from Mexico, Venezuela is a place they pass through and if they blame the Venezuelan regime, they are happy to leave the regime intact with the people surrounding Maduro still there and the number two behind
Maduro is being sworn in as we speak and appears acceptable to the Trump regime.
But the imperialistic military action comes at a time when Trump has also freed or pardoned other convicted drug dealers and people accused of ties to drug gangs and cartels - notably the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who had been convicted in the U.S. of helping smuggle more than 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S and was sentenced to 45 years prison time .
Also freed by Trump was Ross Ulbricht who was serving a life sentence for creating a dark web site known as Silk Road, used by drug traffickers to buy and sell drugs and also Larry Hoover, who was serving multiple life sentences in federal prison for drug trafficking as well as freeing and deporting to El Salvador a man named Cesar Humberto Lopez-Lario, accused by the DOJ of being a high-ranking leader of the drug gang MS-13.
In his first disastrous term in the White House, Trump also freed Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, Mexico's former Secretary of National Defense who was on trial for partnering closely with drug cartels that funneled vast amounts of drugs into the U.S.  
What they are not saying, and only Donald Trump is repeating, is that they are keen to get their hands on Venezuelan oil on behalf of the American oil companies and for the profits for America but they are playing down that angle and going with the drugs.
Obviously nonsense to anyone not gullible enough to believe the weak Trump justification and as the USA has a veto at the United Nations, nothing is going to happen there but at least it is a chance for the International Community to say America, and Trump, are wrong un's and this was ALL about the sex pest getting his teeny tiny hands on the black stuff in the ground in Venezuela and yes Mr Colombian President, deflecting attention away from the Epstein Files .

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Back To Work We Go

And just like that, it’s back to it. When your work productivity ground to a halt around the start of December, and you cheerfully set your Out of Office just a few weeks later, you never, in a million years, expected January to arrive.
But the days turned into nights and nights into days one too many times, and here we are. It’s 5th January, all your resolutions have already been abandoned and it’s back to the grind.
It’s cold, it’s dark, payday is further away than Jupiter, and your inbox is overflowing with people you promised you’d get back to in the new year.
You drag yourself out of bed to the blare of your 6 a.m. alarm and slip into your dressing gown, discovering its pockets crammed with empty chocolate wrappers and shuffle downstairs, flick the kettle on and catch sight of the Christmas tree that’ll soon be out on the pavement or stuffed back in the garage.
You open the fridge, and even though just two days ago you swore this would be your healthiest year yet, you stuff the few bits of Ghetto into your mouth for breakfast.
You were going to start running every morning, but bugger it, start it tomorrow.
‘Right!’ you say, while sipping your first cup of tea of the day. Right… let’s get to it. Let’s go back… to work!
New you, new socks, new shoes. You’re back to reality. The decorations are down and Christmas is all over for another year. But don’t worry, it’ll be back before you know it.
Here’s the rest of the year in one short list:

 January: Recovery, work, Tax Return.
 February: Valentine’s ready meal and bottle of wine.
 March: Spring is finally here! It’s still cold and grey, though.
 April: Chocolate eggs.
 May: Slightly warmer days.
 June: Garden furniture back out.
 July: Oh, it’s raining for an entire month.
 August: Far too hot for three solid days. First thought about Christmas.
 September: Start wearing a scarf again.
 October: Halloween.
 November: Fireworks.
 December: Can’t believe it’s December. It’s bloody Christmas again.

Naming The Full Moon's

Tonight is the first full moon of the year and the full moons across the year have a name with most coming from the Native American culture so tonight's is called the Wolf Moon, named after the howling of hungry wolves lamenting the scarcity of food in midwinter.
February's is the Snow Moon for obvious reasons as the Native American's would see it while being typically cold and surrounded by Snow.
The Worm Moon is March's offering and named after the worm trails that would appear in the newly thawed ground while April gives us the Pink Moon due to the abundance of early blooming (assumingly pink) wildflower and May's full moon is the Flower Moon thanks now blooming flowers that occurs as spring gets going properly.
June is the Strawberry Moon as the Native Americans would harvest the fruit in June and July's Buck Moon is so called due to the antlers of the male deer beginning to regrow  this month and August gives us the Sturgeon Moon because as the name implies, there appear in large number during this month.
The Full Corn Moon rises in September as this was when crops were gathered at the end of the summer season (this is the one we call the Harvest Moon) and October is the Hunters Moon because this is when the Native Americans went after the summer-fattened deer and fox and its the Beaver Moon in November as this is when the Beavers built their winter dams
December is the Cold Moon as it heralds the start of Winter but some times we get 13 Full Moons in a year and two in a month and this is called a Blue Moon but nobody knows why its called that but it did give us the saying 'Once in a Blue Moon' as the two in a calendar month happens roughly every 2-3 years when the first Full moon is very early in the month with the last one being in August 2023 and the next one coming May 31st 2026.

World Reaction To American Warmongering

As the Mango Moron in the White House finds himself in such esteemed company as Putin in Russia and Netanyahu in Isreal as invaders you would expect the rest of the World to be rightly condemning America's latest occupation of an oil rich country and it did spark an influx of comments from some, but others weirdly disapproved but in such as way as not to criticise the man who only a few weeks ago was crying about not receiving a peace prize.
Slaps on the back and a well done from Israeli Prime Minister, War Criminal and Genocide committer Benjamin Netanyahu who said: 'I salute your decisive resolve and the brilliant action of your brave soldiers' and the Terracotta Tyrant's pal in Argentina, President Javier Milei made straight for the Trump colon by calling it: 'Excellent news for the free world'.
On the disapprove but don't upset the Fuscha Fascist are Colombia (deeply concerned) and Spain who said: 'The situation in Venezuela must be resolved exclusively by peaceful means, through dialogue, negotiation, and respect for the will of the Venezuelan people in all its expressions, without external interference and in accordance with international law' while French President Emmanuel Macron said the transition: 'Must be peaceful, democratic, and respectful of the will of the Venezuelan people'.
Outright condemnation came from China who said they were: 'Deeply shocked and strongly condemns the use of force by the U.S. against a sovereign country and the use of force against the president of a country' and Russia who accused America with a straight face that they had: 'Committed an act of armed aggression against Venezuela' and called the pretexts used to justify such actions as 'Unfounded' and 'Ideological'.
Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Da Silva, said America had: 'Crossed an unacceptable line' and was 'A grave affront to Venezuela's sovereignty' and the Belarus President ,Alexander Lukashenko reached for the Caps Lock to type on Social Media that 'The President of Belarus CATEGORICALLY CONDEMNS the act of American aggression against Venezuela'.
Uruguay said it: 'Rejects, military intervention by one country in the territory of another' and Chile's President, Gabriel Boric said they: 'Express our concern and condemnation of the military actions of the United States in Venezuela'.
The Iranians, as expected, said they: 'Condemned the U.S. attack on Venezuela as a blatant violation of its national sovereignty and territorial integrity' and Malaysia said they: 'Opposes all forms of foreign intervention in the internal affairs of other States, as well as the threat or use of force'.
Cuba President, Miguel Diaz-Canel issued a sharply worded condemnation, accusing Washington of carrying out: 'A criminal attack against Venezuela' which they described as 'state terrorism directed at the Venezuelan people' and Mexico kept it simple with: 'Mexico condemns the military intervention in Venezuela'.
Offering no comment at all were Germany's Friedrich Merz and the UK's Keir Strarmer with Merz saying they will take their time to evaluate what happened and the UK's Keir Starmer was keen to ensure Brits that the UK Government was not involved whatsoever and he would: 'Want to establish the facts first but international law should be upheld' and the European Commission, Canada, Guyana, Italy, Belgium, Paraguay, Indonesia and Denmark who all said they were: 'Monitoring developments closely' while Trinidad and Tabago were also keen to let it known that they: 'Were NOT a participant in any of these ongoing military operations'
Most nations pointed towards International Law and the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, said he: 'Emphasized the importance of full respect, by all, of international law, including the UN Charter' and was 'Deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected'. Assuming he meant  Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations which states: 'The UN and its members must follow, focusing on sovereign equality of states, good faith fulfillment of obligations, peaceful settlement of disputes, refraining from threats or force, non-intervention in domestic matters (except when peace is threatened), and cooperation with the UN, ensuring even non-member states respect these principles for peace. Key aspects include sovereign equality (Art. 2(1)), peaceful dispute resolution (Art. 2(3)), and the prohibition of the use of force (Art. 2(4)).
Obviously as the USA has a veto at the United Nations and as we found out with Iraq and Afghanistan, they can get away with literal murder, so nothing will happen there but FIFA might want to rethink the peace prize they handed to the Apricot Arsehole sex pest after this weekend.

Who Was Hugo Chavez?

With what is going on in Venezuela, I have been asked by several people too young to know who was Hugo Chavez and why do i rant about how great he was?  
I make no bones about, i thought the man was a shining example of what all World leaders should aspire to and you only have to look at the state of the Country that he inherited from the brutal right wing dictator Perez, and compare it to how it was when he left it in 2013, dying of Cancer.
In 1998, the majority of Venezuelans lived below the poverty line and after Chavez won the Presidential election he made it a priority to lance this particularly unpleasant boil.
He nationalised the country's oil reserves and set about using the revenue from the oil business to be used to finance social and development programmes.
Chavez began literacy campaigns, built free medical centres and hospitals and constructed schools in the poorest neighbourhoods as well as subsidising supermarkets to reduce the cost of food to the poorest families.
What Chavez did was not such a revolutionary idea, he just let the people keep the profits from the natural resources of their country to better their lives.
To compare 1998 to 2013 figures make astounding reading.
1,628 doctors in 1998, 19,571 in 2013, 250,000 free school meals in 1998 and in 2013 there was 1.8m.
Access to education dramatically increased, including more than 1 million people participating in free adult literacy classes, leading to Venezuela eradicating illiteracy by UN standards.
The 60% of the population in poverty in 1998 was down to below 30% and the Venezuelan economy grew by almost 80% with inflation down from 120% in 1998 to just under 20% and malnutrition related deaths fell by 50% during.
Don't expect those bent on condemning Chavez as a power crazed megalomaniac to applaud these impressive achievements, two Venezuelan students i spoke to about him complained that 'He only helped the poor' which is praise indeed although the irony was lost of them being International Students who were obviously doing okay, but the rest of us can maybe agree that he has set about solving the problems of the most vulnerable in Society, one year he even imported 124,000 toys from China and sold them at 20% of their price to hard up parents for their children's Christmas presents.
What Chavez had was oil being sold at $100 a barrel, what Maduro inherited when he took over was the oil being sold at $40 a barrel and that's where the problem's started but thanks to Chavez, for 15 years the lot of the poorest, illiterate, sick and hungry got better and he helped a lot of people which is a massive success in my book and there are not many politicians who can boast that after they leave office.

This Makes Me Smile

There are some stories which make me smile and none more of the reported third place Elvis took in his own look-a-like competition and Dolly Parton being beaten into 2nd place in hers by a drag queen.
Charlie Chaplain apparently was also beaten in a similar contest by two people who were apparently more like Chaplain than himself and you would think that the guy who voices Elmo on the Muppet Show would pretty much be the automatic winner of any Elmo impression competition but he failed to convince a bunch of judges at an event with one saying that even he could do a more convincing Elmo impersonation.
These came to mind while reading about Violin virtuoso Joshua Bell, him with the £3.5 million Stradivarius violin and is generally accepted as the best violinist in the World and known for playing complex masterpieces on his expensive instrument.
The story was that days after selling out a concert in Washington at hundreds of pounds a seat, he performed a free mini-concert at a subway station for 45 minutes, performing six classical pieces in all.
Assuming he was a busker, he raised $32 from passer-by's, brilliant.

Trumps Venezuelan Oil Grab

Back in the day when America invaded other countries for their oil at least they had the decency to lie about it, even George W Bush went to the trouble of making up the WMD and links to Al Queada  before going into Iraq but Donald Trump didn't even bother, plumping for regime change and oil rights as justification for bombing and kidnapping Nicolás Maduro and his wife although there was the Fentanyl flooding America and Maduro being some sort of Drug Boss nonsense but according to a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) report, Fentanyl is produced mainly in Mexico and crosses into the US almost exclusively via land through its southern border and Venezuela is not mentioned as a country of origin for Fentanyl smuggled into the US in the DEA's 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment so that was rubbish straight away.
Maduro called it using the Fentanyl as an excuse to try to depose him and get its hands on Venezuela's vast oil reserves and Trump pretty much confirmed that when he said recently that: 'They took our oil rights. We had a lot of oil there. As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back' so spot on Nicolás, you called that 100% right.
For a man who wet his pants when he wasn't given the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump sure has no problem not only using his own military but providing the arms for others to use but while Trump is blustering about what a great success the operation was, the details are yet to be seen and we all remember how he said the same thing about Iran but that ended up amounting to dropping tens if millions of pounds worth of bombs to put a dent in a mountain and put back the Iranian's Nuclear program weeks according to his own intelligence Agencies.   
So here we are with the latest press conference to discuss the unprovoked and illegal coup where Trump said American oil companies would move in to fix infrastructure and will be: 'Taking a tremendous amount of wealth from the ground and get reimbursed for everything we've spent' with the US selling oil to other countries, that's the US, not Venezuela.
So naked Imperialism and regime change to enable an oil grab but Trump has done nothing since taking office except massively increase the number of people around the world who would hope that if there was going to a regime change, it will come in the United States.
That said, nobody is talking about the sex pest and probable pedophile appearing in the Epstein files today though.

Stranger Things Finale

Unusually for me, i got in on the ground floor with Stranger Things, my usual tactic is to join things halfway through and play catch-up but there I was in 2016 telling people about it and how they should give it a go.
My plan was to watch it at 1am New Years Day when it landed on Netflix just to avoid anyone telling me what happened but when i saw it was 2 hours long I changed to watching it last night instead and avoiding reading or talking about it yesterday.
Something i always notice in American series such as this is the budget  which was a reported $50-$60 million per episode and the 8 episodes of Series 5 costing a hefty $400-$480 million which to put into context, the Downton Abbey TV series cost around £1 million per episode but then i guess they didn't have to CGI Demogorgons chasing Lady Sybil around the family's estate which must have been a bit of a cash saver, although it may have made it more watchable if they did.
I am aware that there are some people who may not have watched it yet so I hesitate to give away any spoilers but it seems like not everyone liked it, one reviewer i just read said the CGI was almost as bad as the Flash and AntMan 3 which i wouldn't know because i haven't seen them as i'm an adult and not 13, but i liked it.
It has action and just the right amount of emotion which is unusual for an American show which usually overdoes the sentiment and emotion and left a bit of a question mark over Eleven right at the end for you to take whichever way you wanted.
For a show which seemed to be based on the game Dungeons and Dragons, it was a lot better than that makes it sound but I would say to Netflix that was $400-$480 million well spent and i hope you have some left over for the new Buffy The Vampire Slayer which apparently cost $2 million per episode to make although it will probably cost just that alone to make Spike and Angel appear as they did when we last saw them in 2004, that's a lot of heavy make up.