CATHOLIC, ATHIEST, BELEIVER, FOOL

Through no choice of my own, I was raised as a Roman Catholic in a convent, with all the brainwashing and ritual that involved.   My beloved (mad as a hatter) mother told me, don't ever given in to the nuns and don't ever let them see you cry.  It was terrible advice, I got battered for the entire 4 years I was there!   I just couldn't get the 'faith' bit, try as hard as I might, I couldn't get into the whole praising of statues, icons etc, and this weird love for a 'God' no-one could see.  I would often gaze around the Church during services to see how many had that crazed maniacal look in their eye.  Quite a few actually, it was scary.

Naturally, I denounced Catholicism the moment I walked out of it's dark satanic doors to the middle ages.  I clung onto 'unless someone can show me tangible evidence, a Roman God (I quite liked Bacchus) was just as credible as a Christian God.  How can you believe in something you cannot see?  Sure, there are all sorts of theological arguments, but that's what it boils down to.  

Having no faith can be quite tough actually.  Those times are when the words of Neitzche bring reality home.  God is dead.  There is no God.  You are all by yourself.  When that realisation hits you, you have to take a deep gulp, we need someone stronger than us, we need a higher power, shit, I don't want that responsibility.  I want someone else to take care of me.  That's the easy way, there's safety in numbers, follow the crowd, don't be the misfit thrown out and ostricised.  

I hate organised religion, not for how many they include, but for how many they shout out.  We are good people, with good values as preached by JC, but if you are not exactly like us you are not welcome.  That's always a mistake on society's part, because those thrown out into the cold, are usually the most creative, most entertaining and most innovative.  If I have lived before, I hope it was among the artists in Monmartre in the late 1800s or next door to Virginia Woolf in the 1930s.  That is, people on the outside who don't want to be part of the madness.

But I want to return to religion, faith and, hmmm, yes, believe it or not the Paranormal.  I change my religion on a regular basis, so nothing is ever caste in stone.  As I approach 63, I now describe myself as Agnostic.  That is, I believe there is something beyond..... drum roll.  Not one, all powerful God in the religious sense, no Saviour either, but an inner power that we rarely, if ever, call upon - our own.   At the first college lecture I ever went to as a mature student, we were told we only used 4% of our brains.  That blew me away.  We discussed, among many things, our ability to know, even when we have our backs turned and no mirror, that we were being watched.  We 'felt' it.  It went on to become a very lively and discussion, much deeper than I will go into here.

As I said at the start, I do not believe anything I cannot see.  I have out of curiousity, gone along to spiritualist and indeed, spiritual artist meetings,  that is, I have been among audience waiting, hoping, for a message from beyond.  I had a bit of hope myself when we went in, but it soon became obvious that the spiritualists were using information they had gathered at the tea and biscuits before the meeting.  Also how hard is it to google a town and pick up the names of the main industries.  Did anyone work at Tesco?  Actually seeing these people live made me more sceptical and  I pitied those they were exploiting.  

But things have happened in my life that are beyond reasonable and logical explanation.  Those who have watched 'The Secret' and understand the laws of attraction, will be familiar with the concept that you can wish for something, and have it happen.  Which is why 'be careful what you wish for' is loaded with foreboding.  If you follow your wish, your dream, you do things you are not even aware of, that make it happen.  Now I have several examples of this, in my own life, occasions when 'divine intervention' came to my aid.  I remember, as a single parent with two kids and no food, coming out of work one Friday night going to the cashpoint and praying that my wages would be in the bank.  They weren't.  As I walked away from the cashpoint, I found £40 in cash on the pavement.  Naturally I looked around for whoever had dropped it, but they were long gone. I took it, bought a big trolley of food and thanked every God there was.  

There have been times in my life where I have literally prayed, mostly to the Gods of Smirnoff and Gordons to make miracles happen.  And they have.  Not Smirnoff and Gordons obviously, which left me completely incapacitated, but I went to the higher powers above them.  The actual voice of my mum saying 'go on Lind, you can do it' and the voice of my dad saying 'are you telling me your stories', lol.  He rarely believed a word I said, ha ha.

I'm not going to impart all my paranormal experiences just now, of which there are many, but for the first time ever, drum roll........ I am going to recount the experience of looking after my terminally ill (mad) Mum.   We had been estranged for many years, I too had painted her 'bad' along with society and just about everyone.  Not my Dad though, he loved her no matter, even all the crazy.  It wasn't until a very wise work colleague told me 'she is as she is'. Those words had more impact than anything I had read or studied, I woke up.  I suddenly became aware that I should appreciate her just as she was.  I stopped scolding her, I stopped trying to tell her how she should behave (not that she ever took any notice) and I began to appreciate just how much fun she was!  When we were out and about, she in her wheelchair and brandishing a walking stick, having so much fun strangers would come up and ask to join in.  I always used to believe that her outrageous behaviour was embarrassing and offensive, but it wasn't.  I was delighted to discover she was loved by her neighbours and the local gay community, who loved and cared for her in her dotage and roared with laughter at her scandalous opinions!

Now, to the bit where it gets weird, and something I have never, ever revealed - mostly because it is so weird, and I don't want history to remember me as an OK writer til I crossed the Rubicon.  I have studied, maybe not to PhD level, but more than most, geneology.  I think, and study, for example, the faces all around me in my town, a town founded hundreds of years of ago.  How many of those faces that I see are exact replicas of their ancestors?  I am not a mathematian, but I'd say, a fair few.  That is, human beings still look pretty much the same as they did 500+ plus years ago, only taller and fatter.  But bloodlines can be traced as far back as we want them to be, isn't that mindblowing?  This is the good bit where racists discover their ancestors were black.  

Sadly, I have not paid too much attention to my roots.  I should have.  I always wanted to write a drama about Dundee during WWI.  My own Scottish great grandmother had six sons on the front line, the Western Front, there was a newspaper article about it. Four of those sons didn't come home, she got commenarative plagues in their memory.  Dundee is deserving of a 'Private Ryan' film all of their own, my own great grandmother, with 6 sons on the frontline, sadly, was not that unique, thousands of sons of Dundee were sent to their deaths. Happly, my own grandfather, my dad's dad, survived the Western Front, but was a terrible scallywag who had two wives, two families and multiple offspring.  It was quite disconcerting, at a family wedding, to bump into an exact clone of my Dad!  

But I digress, let's get straight to lunacy.That is the cowardly me there Bjorn, as I am sure you guessed, but then I think Covid-19 .v. Truth to power, and think, wtf I might die soon, and then I will never get a chance to say it. I'm not planning on dying soon btw, just covering all bases, might even google 'online confessions' to cleanse my soul and set up a subscription for an eternity in Paradise. Do Popes still sell them btw?  I toy with religion Bjorn, I describe myself willy nilly, as atheist, at one time anti-theist, Catholic when only a prayer and lighting of a candle will do, but mostly these days as agnostic. That is, I do believe there is something beyond.  I remember in one of my very first lectures as a mature student, being told we only use about 4% of our brains.  That blew me away.  It is surely inevitable therefore, that future generation will be able to tap into very, very, much more.  Mind blowing huh?  I have had signs, signs that cannot be explained in any logical, scientific way, that prove we have powers way beyond those we know.

Gosh, Bjorn you have given me an abundance of ideas for new blogs, plus, permission to write freely.  I know I sound like a bit of a diva when I describe myself as a tortured artiste, but honest to God, when it's your own self doing the tormenting, the next stop is off your head!

Since I have taken on the philosophy of accepting blame for everything that has happened to me and will happen to me, I have felt an enormous sense of relief. Akin, I would say, to Dorothy clicking her ruby slippers and realising her beloved 'home' was all around her. If I am honest, I have never been powerless, I chose every path I took, even those littered with men, liquor, drugs and parties.  Especially those, they were the most fun!

I have, on occasion, tried to hold back my inclination to wander off into stream of consciousness, but as readers of my blog will know, it gets through anyhow.  I guess it is all part of a bigger question that hangs over my head; 'just how much of the craziness, should I reveal?'.  At which point do I scare people away?

But I want to get back to the batshit crazy part, the part you all have been waiting for!  At the moment, my beloved mother passed away, I believe her personality transferred from her to me.  Nuts huh?  I suddenly felt free to use her exact words, her exact voice (we were virtually indistinguishable) and the exact way she would have behaved.  Before I would have been mimicking her, now I was free to take all her stuff, plus her big auld laugh and make it my own.  Did she take it all over from her own mother?  Was she passing it on to me.  It wasn't a great legacy, everyone who knew her, described her as a lunatic 

How do you deal with massive bereavement, major loss?  I truly thought I would die when I lost my beloved Dad, life had ended, there was nothing worth living for.  I survived, the first couple of weeks, by watching back to back episodes of Jerry Seinfeld and Father Ted.  

With my mother, who suffered terminal illness, it was completely different.  Physically, she was terribly ill, she had multiple infections and cancer affecting her mind as well as her body.  I felt grateful to God, if there is one, for sparing her the awareness of what was going on.  For once, being barmy was a good thing.  When I visited her, she told me stories of running wild with her siblings around the fields of Laurencetown.  They were as real as if they were standing right in front of her.  And she bickered with my dad.  Exactly the same pointless argumens they had years before.  If, like me, you are hoping in the afterlife that people move on, forget it.  

I am sure studies have been done, but if they haven't they should be, do those leaving this world, have a direct line to the next?

Ahhhh, freedom to write is so liberating!  As Jim Carey might say, somebody stop me!

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SUMMER 2020 - WHEN THE WORLD CHANGED

USA, Brazil and UK.  What do these three countries have in common?  Apart from allowing the Pandemic to spiral out of control?  They each of course have populist right wing leaders who are happy and more than willing to sacrifice the lives of their citizens in their haphazard attempts to save their economies over the lives of their people.  Trump bragged yesterday that 99% of the population will be unharmed by the virus.  Sounds good, until you do the maths, 1% of 330million is 3.3million.  3.3 million sacrificial lambs, what do you think of that Evangelicals?

I can't claim to know what's going on in Brazil, but the two spoilt brats that are Trump and Johnson are bored with the pandemic and their rich mates are no longer having their coffers refilled by the plebs who work for them.  The idea of the working classes idling in their homes like rich people and receiving cheques for doing nothing is an abomination to the tory elite.  Only they have the breeding to lounge around on chaise longue thinking intellectual thoughts.  The plebs should be given doorsteps to scrub and stones to break, the lazy fuckers.

They say the Great War 1914-1917, was the biggest class leveller the world had ever seen.  The officers, the gentry, fought and died side by side with the men from the pits and the factories.  The women, who stayed home, took over the mens' jobs, proving they were just as capable as men, and they deserved the vote.  It was a pivotal time in history, a time of huge sweeping changes.

This year, 2020, will be pivotal too, I believe.  Covid-19, has been an equaliser on an even bigger scale than WWI.  Probably, for the first time in history, we are all literally in the same boat.  That is, we are all confined to our homes and, be they bedsits or mansions and if we are wise, wearing masks when we venture out for supplies.  There is some joy to be had, thinking about all those billionaires confined to their castles, unable to jetset or procure young maidens from overseas.  And it is downright weird to see the rich and famous speaking to the camera from their own homes (usually with loads of books behind them) and as much in need of a haircut as the rest of us.  We are in a weird era where having loads of money really doesn't mean too much.  Where can you go, what can you spend it on?

These are weird and surreal times, certainly nothing I have ever seen in my now, quite long, lifetime.  I am usually a glass half full kind of person, but these days, I am filled with an unnerving sense of doom and gloom.  I have spent a lifetime trying to imagine the thoughts of normal people on the brink of destruction. In 1930's Germany for example, Hitler had a similar base to Trump, around 30%, one third.  The majority of Germans did not support him, so how did he obtain absolute power?  The obvious answer to that, in this 21st century, is watch what Trump is doing now.  He is following Hitler's playbook almost to the letter.  Fake press, fake enemies of the people and now a reshuffle of history.  His current fixation on statues and culture, is probably all part of his masterplan to replace all statues with statues of himself.  You can bet your life it is not based on anything sane.

Meanwhile, I watched in horror, as the people of the USA and the UK, not only voted in the biggest eejits they could find, but they are prepared to go along with obvious lies that put their lives in danger.  Covid-19 infections in the USA have spiralled out of control.  At a time when the country needs expert pandemic help they have turned their backs on the World Health Organisation, the Centre for Disease Control and their own expert health officials.  Trump is preventing Dr. Fauci from speaking!  Trump's response to Covid-19 has been worst case scenario x100.  It is horrible to watch as an outsider, slow motion slaughter, I almost wish you had Marshall Law where you could march that homicidal maniac out of the Oval Office.

Here in the UK, the curve has come down, but the decision to re-open pubs will probably change all that in the next couple of weeks.  People are fed up with the lockdown, I get that, but the dangers now are far greater than they were back in March.  Personally, I do not believe a word that comes out of Boris Johnson's lying mouth.  I will continue to follow my own instincts and will treat steering clear of the virus like the bubonic plague.  Which incidentally, could now also be on the way.  Perhaps if a few limbs start dropping off, the Boris lovers may see the madness.

But I want to return to June 2020 as a pivotal time in history.  One on which we should all drop a line to our descendants.  Most people I speak to agree, the world will never be the same again.  For example, many who commute to the office every day, may have found they can do their job just as effectively from home. Or, on the capitalist side, their employers will discover they just don't need them anymore.  This government, I feel we have had a tory government forever, have failed to address how dramatically employment would change with 21st century technology.  If the 19th century saw the Industrial Revolution, the 21st century has seen the replacement of humans with robotics.  Ok, the rudimentary mechanics of the 19th century laid off many workers some might argue, others would say it led to a boom in employment.  Another argument for another day, but try speaking to a human being when you phone your bank or any public company.

A forward thinking government would lower working hours, creating more jobs, and invest more in education, science, technology, public health, and the leisure industry.  Very few now live by the philosophy of Presbyterianism and Opus Dei, we don't consider 'time we enjoy' as a straight to hell sin.  Perhaps we should burn in the fires of hell of all eternity for enjoying a nip of gin and a sing song, but we don't care.  We don't fear an eternity of suffering, maybe this existence was an eternity of suffering and the next one will be pure bliss?  No baby has come into this world happy, they are usually screaming their lungs out, as in Oy, I was all nice and warm and snugly where I was thank you.  Maybe when we leave this world, we go into a better one?

My regular readers will notice that I am starting to write even more crazily and haphazardly than I have before.  Now I am thinking fuck it, why do I keep holding back, who or what am I trying to protect.  I have already sold my soul - spoken all my secret thoughts out loud, I have given it all away, revealed everything when I first put pen to paper, so many years ago.  I have shame, like everyone, but I have found freedom with every inner thought I reveal, I don't feel alone and I don't feel weird, because I feel a connection with those reading, I'm the 'bold' one saying out loud what they feel. 

I think the biggest fear for writers is the knowledge that they are exposing all their vulnerability.  It's probably the biggest hurdle writers fear - do they dare let other people know what is going on inside their heads?  But this is not a writing tutorial, nor I hope, is it a sermon - God forbid.  It is a record, I hope, for anyone in the future, wanting to see what life was like with Covid-19, who's full devastation we in the here and now have yet to see.  It won't be difficult for those looking back to figure out where it all went so drastically wrong.  That moment may be, where the East (China) seized power over the West. Not with weapons of mass destruction but with their ability and efficiency to conquer the world's deadliest virus since 1918.  The West have proven they couldn't organise a proverbial piss up in a brewery.  But that is only one example of how the world could dramatically change, there are hundreds. Black Mirror is a good start. 

Sadly, as I have grown older, I have lost much of my faith in the goodness of humanity.  I wish I could wave a magic wand and go back to the innocent child I once was, who believed everyone was good.  Sadly life has taught me that they are not.  I get that we need the psychopaths - they keep the wheels of industry turning and to prevent illegal parking.  But those who are mean for their own self gratification are right up there with puppy and kitten torturers and serial killers.   Demons do indeed exist among us, not in the hell fire and brimstone mythology of the possessed far right, but also in the most unlikely people, who we had otherwise assumed, to be just like us.  That is, we thought, they like us, felt empathy.  It is a shock to the system to discover they don't.  It is a shock to discover, that a living human being, with a working brain, a lifetime of memories, can just switch off the pain they inflict on others.  I don't know if it haunts them daily, or if they, like clinically diagnosed psychopaths, can just switch off?  Those of us with consciences simply wouldn't be able to sleep at night, knowing that our actions were hurting someone.  That is what separates us.  

I am going to call it a fascist mentality.  Because that is what it is.  Trump et al, are entirely wrong in their attempts to label the Far Left and Antifa fascists.  With Antifa, it's right there in the name Anti-Fascist, just like all those soldiers who fought the Nazis in WWII.  Fascist does not apply to the Left, how dumb are they?  It's the dumb and dumber equivalent of calling Trump a Marxist!  So here we are, two certifiable lunatics with access to nuclear weapons.

To be fair, ever since reading 'On the Beach' in my late teens, I have always felt the world hovered on the brink of annihilation, but never more so than now.  It's not just that the orange man and the rocket man would love nothing more than to get into a nuclear standoff, it is their total disregard for human life.  Chairman Kim probably spent his childhood playing Grand Theft Auto, while Trump played stitch up the immigrant workers who built his towers.  In a game of 'chicken' which homicidal maniac would push the annihilate world button first?  Hard to pick huh?

So please forgive the doom and gloom - at this point I wish I had faith, but I fear I have seen too many episodes of Walking Dead.  We are not far off that stage where law and order has broken down and the vigilantes have taken over the pharmacies, the gun shops and the supermarkets.  Now would be a good time to learn martial arts and a thousand ways to cook lentils.  

But I jest.  I have had a great week because I finally got a  delivery from Asdas!  I had to wait two weeks+ but totally worth it. No yeast, gelatin or coffee extract, but Birds Custard powder - yes, the old fashioned round tub, yippee, which brought on a jig!  Simply can't get on with beating egg yolks and using a fiver's worth of vanilla extra to make custard!  Not quite on par with trying to make a cake out of a beetroot in WWII, but vexing nonetheless.

Anyway, my kindest wishes, as always to those who stick with me through thick and thin, it is much appreciated and I pray that you stay safe, listen to the scientists and the doctors, not the politicians. If this were a disaster movie, we are at the 'every man for himself' stage, now would be a good time to throw a deckchair overboard and hope it floats.  

Is 70 the new 50: Unedited

Coming from an era that used to consider anyone over 60 as old and decrepit, I am somewhat bemused that the race for the 2020 US Presidency is between two elderly white men, Donald Trump 74 and Joe Biden 77.  Bemused is the wrong word, I just couldn't find the right one.  Astonished might be closer, but not strictly accurate, a seasoned political commentator might have seen this state of affairs coming for a long, long time.  

Saddened works too.  I am saddened that the USA aren't brave enough to give their young, fiery, charismatic leaders who definitely would force through changes to the most hated government policies, a chance to do so. That these two contenders are so old, shows that the majority, when voting, want to stick to what they are used to.  This sounds odd at this juncture, but bear in mind Trump was a fluke, not from the Hill, but he was still a rich old white man.  

They took a huge leap of faith when they voted for Barack Obama in 2009, and it paid off, they gave him a second term.  The Obama ideology became the 'norm' and Obama became one of the most popular Presidents in history.  Joe Biden, as his former right hand man, benefits from this.  He was the Vice President of an administration that had no impeachments and indictments.  The Obama administration was clean, and in a bizarre twist, is now the traditional, stable, government, Americans look back on.  

But before I go on, I should stat that my knowledge of US politics is scant, in the whole scheme of things. I remember being shocked when America voted a former Hollywood actor, Ronald Reagan to be their President, I thought Bill Clinton was an amazing orator, George 'Dubya' Bush an idiot and Barack Obama charismatic and brilliant.

I don't know a huge amount about Joe Biden, but from what I have seen and read, including the words of Lindsay Graham, he is a genuinely nice guy who is motivated by a genuine desire to 'heal' the country.  That is, he is exactly what America needs right now. 

With regard to his gaffes, the only argument from the Trump campaign against him, they are not as important as his opponents want them to be.  Anyone of any age can make gaffes, but older politicians are subjected to far more scrutiny, journalists are constantly on the look out for signs of dementia or heart failure. On the gaffs front, Trump probably beats Biden by about 100 to 1, he is obviously projecting. 

But let's get back to this age thing.  It is odd to see two such elderly men fighting for the Presidency, Trump is 74 and Biden 77.  Maybe being 70 is now the new 60. In the 21st century, being ancient in politics is now the norm, Bernie Sanders 78, Nancy Pelosi 80, Jeremy Corbyn 71.  I suppose it is a manifestation of the fact that people are staying healthier and living longer.  Or maybe the grey demographic is the silent majority?  

Naturally there is a big difference between the way younger and older politicians perform.  The Young have more passion and urgency, they are quicker to respond, more dexterous with their thoughts and words. The elderly, which sounds awful, may be slower to respond and sound less forthright, but they have a long lifetime of experience to draw on, which will shape their answer. They are more cautious about what they say because they know the implications of their words.  Younger politicians speak about hopes and dreams, older politicians are more realistic about them.

Age and experience has taught me that the slow answers are the ones worth waiting for.  I once spent an entire night watching Marlon Brando interviews.  There aren't that many but he took so long to each question, it took forever.  Being smitten by MB I didn't mind, his answers were so clear and well thought out I was in awe, I felt I had learned a lot.  

But returning to age and politics.  Cometh the hour, cometh the man (or woman).  I am sure the people of America are not in the mood to vote for something new at this time.  And who could blame them.  They want truth as opposed to daily lies.  They want someone to take control of the pandemic that is killing thousands daily, they want someone aware of the needs of ALL of those who have lost their jobs and those in need of healthcare.  Joe Biden has the unique experience of running the country from the top.  He knows how to delegate, he knows how to take advice, he knows how to behave in a crisis.  All the basic skills Trump simply doesn't have.  Saying million instead of thousand, was a gaffe anyone could make, and a pathetic argument in the face of the multiple gaffs Trump makes daily.  It exposes the weakness of Trump's re-election campaign, as in, 'is that all ya got?'.

Trump is stymied because his opponent is an old white guy like himself.  Had he been female, of colour or God forbid, homosexual, he would have had a field day.  'Sleepy Joe' just doesn't carry the same hatred and misogyny as 'Crooked (lock her up) Hilary'.  Putting 'Sleepy' in front of someone's name makes them endearing, not bad hombres, think 7 Dwarves.  He is not able to direct the same hatred towards Joe Biden, as he did with Hilary Clinton.  At that time he was an outsider on a mission to drain the swamp, Hilary being representative of the 'swamp', the establishment, every government that had gone before.  Now he's the establishment, and everyone hates him.  

Trump's inability to attack Joe Biden will be interesting to watch.  He's used all his best stuff against Obama.  He uses Biden's many years in politics as a weapon - naive, he clearly doesn't understand the concept of vocation.  His own CV of failed businesses, casinos, steaks, vodka, airlines, university, charity he stole from, overpriced condos, tv stardom, doesn't scream lifetime devoted to the blue collar workers of America.  Biden has mountains against him, and he is being assisted by members of Trump's own party.  

Perhaps Trump sees any attack on Biden, a white man in his 70s as an attack on himself, especially those gaffes that Don junior gleefully retweets.  I don't doubt that Don, at this stage of his paranoia, torments himself with thoughts of which child will stab him in the back first.  What we have all experienced this past four years, is but a microcosm of what the Trump kids have experienced their entire lives.  Ivanka is playing it safely, all her tweets are sugar and spice and all things nice and she pulls out all her best party frocks to demonstrate just how great everything is.  She has gone to that place that is far far away, where she is the beautiful princess with a fairy wand.  Sadly, that's not how the world sees her or will remember her.  I suspect Lucretia Borgia and Eva Braun would poll higher.  

I think the curious case of why Donald Trump's kids aren't rushing to put their father into a care home where he will get the help he needs, is a discussion worth having.  I remember precisely, day, place, occasion, when I became aware that my beloved Dad was losing his marbles.  I remember a long auld conversation with him, giving a minute by minute, breakdown of an interview I had that day, that took hours, filled with giggly anecdotes from him and from me that ended with him saying 'let me know how the interview goes'.  Ah bless, I thought, and I was to think that many, many times from thereon.  

The hardest part for my Dad, was the anger and frustration he felt towards himself for the gaffes he made.  He had always been a very intelligent, very articulate and very smartly dressed man, he always wore a tie and a hat when going out.  Maintaining his dignity was always his top priority, to the point where he wouldn't even use a desperately needed walking stick.  We, who loved him, turned his gaffes into humour and he would laugh heartily along with us.  But in our hearts, we knew how much it hurt him, and how much it would hurt him if anyone outside 'us' would think him a fool.  Our instincts were to protect him.   We would laugh along with, but we wouldn't allow anyone to laugh at him.  

Trump cut a lonely figure coming back from that Tulsa rally, it will become iconic like the 'the Times Square Kiss (sailor and Nurse)', that pivotal moment that marked the end of the chaotic Trump era. His 1million plus rally was attended by a little over 6,000, a public humiliation of epic proportions.  His instinct told him 'build it and they will come', but they didn't and are never likely to again.  Trump returned to the Whitehouse alone.  No wife, no son, no daughter, no friend, no paid Campaign staffer.  Just him, with his previously crisp white shirt open revealing a smear of his orange stage makeup.  His very fine (expensive) red silk tie undone and hanging tramp like alongside his very expensive crumpled suit as if he had spent the night paying for drug enhanced private lap dances. He awkwardly held a red MAGA hat, unsure whether to chuck it aside or hang onto it as a souvenir of when it was all going great for him.  He didn't put it on and boldly pronounce, hey dumb-ass Americans, I too wear this hat of racism and isolationism so carry on wearing it with pride.  I and my family feel your suffering from behind fences, barriers and walls (and a bunker).  If you catch Covid-19 you are on your own, but if you batter a black person or a democrat I will pay all your legal expenses.  So Trump didn't put the hat on, he just carried it.  He was too 'done in' for that to be a message from his advisors and spin doctors.  They would have told him to hold it up or wear it as a symbol of pride, he has a lot of hats to sell, don't hold it like it's a discarded item like a cheap deckchair found in the debris of the Trump rallies.  

But lets get back on topic.  Is age an issue for Joe Biden.  Of course.  It would be ridiculous to pretend he is the new young voice of socialism who will change the face of America as we know it.  I don't think Americans are looking for polemic change right now.  If anything they are looking longingly at the past, the safe, stable times of the Obama/Biden ticket.  

They can't have Obama, not even Michelle, but they can have the next best thing.  The man who ruled alongside him.  Biden may be old, and God bless him, a little doddery on occasion, but not on those occasions where millions of lives are dependent on his decisions.  Those are not decisions that should be based on arrogance and sociopathic self belief.  We have already seen what happens with leaders who are prepared to commit genocide.  Trump may not have state organised genocide on his record, in the same way as Hitler and Stalin, but I am writing from the here and now. I am not a scientist or a doctor, but I can see, that Trump's 'ignore the virus' politics will kill more Americans than any threat from Russia, China or the rest of the world.   

So here we are, children of the future or any readers looking at the moment.  We are facing the biggest crisis of our lifetimes, the potential that at least one third of the world's population will be wiped out by Covid-19.  Not because we did not have the scientific knowledge to prevent the spread, but because we, the masses who have the power to change things, are intoxicated by the political diatribes of scoundrels and rogues.

It is not politically acceptable to say 100,000 or 200,000 will die. The right thing to say is that no-one else will die under my watch. But, in Trump's mind he still has leeway, his advisors told him, worst case scenario, 1 to 2million will die.  For him anything less than that is a success.

I'm not religious, sadly I do not have any specific God to pray too, though I am quite fond of Buddha.  He at least puts enlightenment first and foremost.  I do pray however, for our friends in America. Most of them, I am sure, did not vote for this.  Those of us on the outside love Americans because the best of them represents the best of all us.  They are a nation of immigrants in a great big melting pot, turning out coffee coloured people by the score and we love them for it.  

Astonishing, there I used it, that this 21st century presidential race is between two old guys who's best years were in the last century, but here we are.  Maybe there just weren't any younger candidates dynamic enough to win a presidential election decisively? That is, someone with the 'X' factor like Barack Obama.  And if they had appeared, would they have had support from the anyone but trump, Republicans?  The Lincoln Project et al?  Joe Biden is a safe bet for them, at heart they are conservatives and he won't upset the equilibrium.  They can, in good conscience, support Joe Biden, intrinsically he has the values as they do.  He's a rich old white guy.

But I am, as I am sure my regular readers know by now, very much an Anti-trumper.  I hope he is defeated by the biggest margin ever, because I still love Americans, and don't believe for one minute, that the abomination that is Trump represents them.

Take care everyone, those in the USA and UK, and be cautious, trust your own instincts, don't walk into dangerous situations on the advice of false prophets.  Stay safe and take care.

KPOP TEENS BROKE THE PRESIDENT

I was supposed to go visit a friend this afternoon, unfortunately, we had to postpone, but it gave me the opportunity to wallow in and relish every killer video and ruthless article savouring the abject humiliation of Donald Trump at his come back rally in Tulsa last night.

For the first time ever, I watched a Trump rally and it was a fail, the like of which the world has never seen before, a failure so great it will take it's place in history.  And the cherry on the top, is the fact, that Trump, his Campaign, and possibly the finest brains of Cambridge Analytica, were outsmarted by a mass movement of kpop teens and tictoc!  So what is kpop and tictoc?  I honestly don't know lol, other than the music/dancing videos of beautiful Asian girls and boys dancing that keep appearing on my twitter feed.  Regardless, I am now a fan and delighted to know the future will be safe in the hands of the next generation.   

So how did the kpop kids as I am calling them, break the President?  They applied, in hundreds of thousands, for tickets to Trump's rally with no intention of going.  The tickets were free, and entry was on a 'first come first served' basis, ergo, they did not stop any genuine MAGAs from getting entry to the arena, there was plenty of space, as we saw.  How the kids kept it quiet, I don't know, but in the days leading up to the Rally, Trump and his Campaign manager, Brad Parscale, were bragging about the numbers, claiming over a million people wanted tickets for the event and the data they had harvested.  BP even tweeted a picture of an outside stage being built for Trump to speak to the overflow of 40k+.   The reality, the venue could only hold 19k and less than 7,000 turned up.  

The kpop kids can be blamed or credited, whatever your perspective, but had 19,000 genuine MAGAs turned up, they could have got in. Trump's fans simply didn't turn up.  Finally, all those on edge at the thought of 4 more years of Trump, can breathe a sigh of relief, even his base have gone off him.  The mood in the arena looked strained - with a whiff of lost white power and desperation. The first two speakers, Lara and Eric Trump, were painfully aware that Trump Snr, was backstage seething at the pathetic turnout.  They brought out old favourites, the right to say Happy Christmas and the promise that 'in God we trust' would remain on US currency.  I don't think either of these have ever been under threat, but they've reached back to their 2016 campaign, they have nothing new.  Attempts to start up chants of 'lock her up' and 'build that wall' were also lost in the general apathy.  The audience finally perked up when Eric referred to the protesters (BLM) as 'animals', probably a high spot for him, but his wife's face said otherwise.  As in, behind gritted smile 'you stupid fuckwit, that will haunt you til you die'.  

Next came Mike Pence, who, fair dues, has the ability to make it sound as if everything is OK. His voice is authoritative yet subservient at the same time, like 'Hudson' the butler in 'Upstairs Downstairs'.  And he's better at lying than Trump.  Trump lies from the position of 'I'm richer, ergo superior, to you, you will believe what I say.  Pence lies from 'I'm smarter than you, I will pretend to like you and there are no depths too low for me'.  Pence is an oddity who will one day, be examined his own right but meanwhile his undying love for Trump is curious, on many levels. Just saying.  

Finally, Trump came on stage, repeating, almost verbatim, every soundbite and victory he has claimed for himself.  He is at that point of dementia where if he gets hold of the microphone, he will simply repeat the same stories, over and over.  He spent a good 15 minutes on the 'ramp story' in the hope of turning his audience against the press, it didn't seem to be working.  He's out of material.  His new stuff, pointing at the sole of his shoe and drinking water one handed was the highlight - for which he got a round of applause!  The coronavirus, he barely mentioned, except to say it had at least 20 different names but could only name one, 'Kungflu'.  He then went on to disparage Covid testing, and gave a little anecdote about telling his people, to stop testing because it made him look bad.  It didn't get the roars of laughter he was expecting.

Oops, forgot, the most uncultured man on the planet, did spend a little while, discussing the importance of preserving culture, forgetting that we all aware he was a greedy real estate developer who left a path of destruction in his trail.  Also, not forgetting his crimes against the environment and the natural earth.  He doesn't care about art, culture or nature, but he his shameless enough to pretend he does.

I'm a big fan of  the Resistance, the #LincolnProject, George Conway, Rick Wilson, Molly Jong et al, and their adverts are breaking this monster on a daily basis.  The bullets are aimed at his psychological soft spots, everything he is frightened and insecure about, a bit mean some might say, but with a monster you have to go for the achilles heels.  God forgive me, but I hate the man so much, I don't care about his agonies, I want to increase them!  That little outburst probably incurs three decades of the rosary and a couple of our fathers, but I don't care! 

Well done you Lincoln folks, but all the money and resources in the world could not have wounded Trump as mortally as the kpop kids did with one large cannon.  They blasted his lead ship - Trump rallies - out of the water.  They hijacked and destroyed his master plan. He truly believed that getting his show on the road would bring back all his followers from 2016.  The Bay City Rollers and ShowWhadaWhaddy know how he feels.  You just can't recapture those golden moments, they never work as well the next time around.  Successful performers reinvent themselves, so too some politicians, but not Trump.  He is too arrogant to think he needs reinventing, he still believes he won in 2016 through his personality and charisma, and he can do it again.  He will fire anyone who says anything different.  

His belief in himself is staggering.  I am wondering if anyone, his family, his servants, anyone, ever got through to him as a human being?  And how does he cope when he fails? And yep, history shows, he fails a lot.  Does he blame people around him?  Yep, absolutely, he fires people on a regular basis.  It is always someone else's fault.  That's how it is with a narcissistic sociopath.  His kids, and God forgive me, I despise them too, are the greedy, soulless spawn of greedy, soulless, parents.  

Who will Trump blame for the rally?  His campaign manager obviously, Parscale is already on borrowed time, but for sure anyone in his vicinity who irks him.  He is probably imagining and being fed, all sorts of convoluted conspiracy theories, Black Lives Matter protesters, Antifa, Kpop kids, desperately searching for an acceptable explanation for his conservative supporters, as to why his rally was so empty.  

That bastion of the Left, Michael Moore, who predicted Trump would win in 2016, came out last week to warn of the 'white men' who would put Trump back in.  He scared us all, having been so spookily accurate in the past.  So where were they on Saturday night?  All the truckers, the coalminers, the bikers, the very fine people carrying tiki torches?  Perhaps they saw in England what happens when angry white men gather in defence of the nation's culture with a couple of hundred cans of lager. The iconic photos of the day, one statue defender pissing on the memorial to a dead police officer, and another statue defender unconscious and being carried to safety by a large, black, good Samaritan.  Sad for Trump, he has a thing for tough guys, their no show has got to hurt. 

Today I heard Preet Bharara, former Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and a prominent anti Trump spokesman, say that for the first time in 3 years, he can feel confident that Trump is finished.  The rally in Tulsa was 'everything' for Trump.  Being the imbecile he is, he can and does, put all his eggs in one basket.  The Tulsa rally was his comeback, his middle finger to all the 'fake news', he would prove to the enemy of the people (the media) that the silent majority loved him.  He went along with all the big numbers that were coming in, in the lead up to the rally because they aligned with is own delusions and false sense of reality. Brad (one mansion, two condos, yacht and Ferrari) Parscale and all the ninnies who surround him, live in terror of his rage, so they tell him anything he wants to hear.  No-one in his vicinity, can act normal because he is an unhinged psychopath.  Parscale may (will) well be the next head on a spike, but he will go out with an 'all the money in the world and I still couldn't make the c.u.n.t. likeable'.  

But I am with Preet.  I don't think anything has hurt Trump as much as this ill thought out, ill planned and ill timed, rally as this.  Even as dense as Trump is, he cannot fail to see the tide has turned and is building up into a tsumani.  Trump's so called endearing qualities are now seen as what they are, the repetitive ramblings of a mean old man with memory problems.  I must admit I was nodding off as Trump spoke (it was the middle of the night here), but I'm sure at one point, while comparing himself to the 'elites', he was droning on about being more handsome, having better hair and better property than them.  I think he also mentions fine silk ties and leather on the soles of his shoes and if he had added, 'so there, ya peasants' I wouldn't have been surprised.   My thoughts?  wtf happened to him? Was it nature, was it nurture, is the devil still around?

But, right now, I am in awe of the kids of kpop, whoever you are bless ya!  I was in awe of the last lot of youthful tech wizards, but you lot are phenomenal!

To all my regular readers and to newcomers, please stay safe during these tumultuous times - and make notes for your grandchildren!

THE BATTLE OF THE STATUES

UPDATE 13/06/20

Eeek, I now find myself on the same side as the far Right, htf did that happen?  My saving grace is that my desire to preserve statues and landmarks comes from an entirely different perspective.  I see them as educational, what school child hasn't stood in awe at the granite manifestation of the dreary old Admiral they were forced to read about.  Times have changed, so too have our heroes.  The dark sides of most of the characters immortalised in marble and granite are now widely known, this generation know that much of what these 'heroes' did was wrong.  They are not idolised, they are warnings from the past, if we can no longer see them, isn't there a danger their evil deeds will also be forgotten?

The Far Right of course, are posturing, they went to London today for a fight but unfortunately for them, the peaceful marchers of Black Lives Matter, had the day off.  Now hyped up on cans of lager they are fighting with the police and urinating on the landmarks they had sworn to protect.  For them, this not about preserving art and history, it is about hyping up the symbolism these statues represent.  The Cenotaph represents the fallen of World Wars I and II, all those who died fighting Nazism.  What do they think their hero Winston Churchill, would make of their salutes to his enemy Hitler in front of the Cenotaph? Perhaps they don't know Churchill had a 'V' for victory sign and that the antifascists won.  The sorrow lies in the fact that most of those marching in London today, have no idea what they are defending.

My hope, more of a prayer right now, is that the character of London is never changed, that all those wonderful old buildings and statues remain as they are.  Our history is rich with characters both good and bad and we have always acknowledged, accepted and learned from that.  Erasing those characters who were bad simply takes away chunks from the bigger story and allows their atrocities to be too easily forgotten.

__________________

What a shame police brutality and Black Lives Matter, has now become 'the Battle of the Statues' and that removing statues and renaming streets and universities has now become the central issue. We should be talking about the massive reform needed within the police and the entire dominant ideology that allows police brutality towards people of colour to exist.

The battle of the statues and the street names can wait another day, it's waited hundreds of years thus far and there are far more pressing matters. People are out in their millions all over the world because society will no longer turn a blind eye to black men and women being killed and assaulted by the police.  That's the issue, let's stay focused.  

Like a lot of people, I too chuckled, as the statue of Edward Colston was thrown in the river where he docked his slave ships.  It was symbolic, it was the physical manifestation of our shared hatred of his despicable trade.  Around that time I shared a tweet from a guy who said, school children learned more about Edward Colston and the slave trade with that one act, than from an history lesson.  Indeed.

But after that I started to panic, because now all historic figures and landmarks are under threat, so too, I assume, all forms of Art, they have even withdrawn 'Little Britain' and 'Gone with the Wind' will also soon be cleaned up.  Will 2020 be the '1984' George Orwell warned us about.  Is history about to be erased?  Will those visiting London find that the 'Sights' have gone because the statues of those who expanded the empire did so by colonising and suppressing other nations.  Maybe it will begin with Queen Victoria.

I would ask, how can destroying history, ever be a good thing?  I am not talking about the destruction of statues by angry mobs, but the removal of statues and renaming of streets by local authorities without any discussion with the people they represent.  It feels like an authoritarian move, even though it is supposedly on the part of the good guys.  

As I explained a few days ago.  Statues are often the target during marches and protests, because they represent the 'Institution', the ideology of the ruling classes.  They represent a time when the elite chose our heroes for us, usually regal, military or political.  True most of them do not represent heroes in the moral and humanitarian sense, but they represent a country's history, warts and all.  Most of us are sophisticated enough to form our own opinions on those characters from history, we might despise what some of them represent, but they are constant reminder of our past.  They are a learning tool, Oliver Cromwell becomes far more interesting when you look at his elevated statue outside Parliament.  He was the scourge of the Irish, ergo offensive, but are his atrocities more likely to be forgotten if his statue is removed, than if it remained with a placard giving a potted history?  

It is only now, whilst the whole world appears to be marching, that attention has turned to these relics of the past.  Statues we have walked past and streets we have walked on for centuries, now represent the hated colonialism of our past.  Are we the first 'woke' generation to see this?  Why here, why now?  Swallows blue pill.  I'm scared.  Where will it end?  This mass worldwide  'Movement' has become so large that they are taking power, and not necessarily the sane ones.  Like the #MeToo movement, it's either opt in, or be a monster.  The entertainment industry and the celebrities are already rushing to distance themselves from anything that could be perceived as racist, from the past.  

Erasing history is where I part company with the far Left.  I simply cannot get on board with this culture of being offended.  Who decided we should all now be offended by statues and landmarks?  And how will tearing them down make anyone feel any better?  If the bad guys are forgotten, won't the things they did be forgotten too?  Isn't the history of what they did an incentive to make sure it never happens again?  History is one of those 'it is as it is' subjects, it can't be changed, but we can learn from it.  Edward Colston for example, has probably been one of the most googled names this week, ergo thousands of people, some for the first time, learned about the slave trade in England.  That's a good thing.

Whilst they have the power, the movement should focus on things that can be changed right here and right now, institutional racism and police brutality.  The public are no longer willing to tolerate it or turn a blind eye, particularly in the USA where gun violence from the police takes so many black lives.  Finally, the power of the masses when they unite is beginning to mean something.  And the fact that they are uniting in the middle of a pandemic shows the strength of feeling.  Trump won't 'give in' to people power, so will probably spend the rest of his presidency under siege if he can't start a Civil War but Biden is listening, and big changes will come.  When historians look back on 2020, let's hope the worldwide marches will mark the year the people said no to racism, and not the year history started to be erased.

DEAR CHILDREN OF THE FUTURE

I have always wondered how ordinary people in the past coped with major catastrophes, plagues, wars, famines, brutal dictatorships.  As a child I pestered my Dad constantly to tell me what it was like in the 'old days'.  His replies always consisted of 'blooming cheek', but he relished telling me stories of his young days in Scotland, working in a factory and doing his National Service.  He was too young for WWII, but aged 10/11 when it broke out, old enough to follow all the battles and losses and correspond with his older brother in the army.  

Most families, I think, have stories that pass down from generation to generation, and usually a 'keeper' of that history, the Matriarch perhaps or an enthusiastic Aunt or Uncle.  The usual question was 'what did you do in the War dad?', but for all of us now, it will be 'what did you do during the Pandemic?'.  Did you have to wear masks? were you scared to go out?  How did you go shopping?  When did Amazon take over the world?

My letter to the future would say, well you know what, in late 2019 we were getting near to that happy state our red flag waving predecessors fought and died for.  We had, going into the December 2019 General Election, a leader of the Labour Party, who spoke for the many not just the few.  An enlightened, compassionate, statesman, genuinely seeking a better future for all.  We also had at our fingertips, all the information we could ever wish and within seconds.  News reporting has been turned on it's head in the last two decades, biased news agencies can no longer lie to us.  Everyone has a mobile phone, every incident of, say police brutality can and will be filmed.  We rarely buy actual newspapers anymore, relying instead on social media, particularly twitter, the President of the USA's primary form of communication.  We can literally receive breaking news within moments and even as it is happening.

So what do we tell future generations, especially those historians scratching their heads, completely  flummoxed as to how we, in the UK and our friends in the US, with all the information and education we had available to us, could democratically vote for (that's the hard part), two dishonest leaders who are not only an abomination as human beings but who are so inept at leadership, they shouldn't be put in charge of anything beyond a stationary cupboard.  How different our death numbers from Covid-19 here in the UK would be today if Jeremy Corbyn had been at the helm.  We have two clowns as leaders, but there is nothing funny about them.

But children of the future here we are.  Democracy has given us the worst of the worst, how did that happen?  The USA has a loud mouthed game show host as it's President, we in the UK, have as our Prime Minister, a life of privilege loud mouthed, top hat and tails wearing Eton toff who belonged to an exclusive club whose initiation ceremonies included burning a £50 note in front of a homeless person.  Both of these leaders have white/yellow haystacks atop their heads as their trademarks, as if to say 'c'mon, look at the mad hair, what's not to love?'.  I see you historians now, shaking your heads in wonderment, were we really that backward? Yes we were (are).  Maybe the mad hair has a hypnotic effect.  

You, in the future, will also have the benefit of knowing how the coronavirus story ended.  Here in the UK as numbers and deaths keep rising, Boris Johnson is doing his best to push all the plebs back to work, whilst also trying to feign care and concern by clapping on a Thursday night.  Lets get the schools open, he says whilst fist bumping the air (except for the private ones like Eton who are not re-opening until September). 'Let's carry on with the handwashing and staying 2 metres away from other human beings, and all will be fine.  Ok, ok, many of you will die, but lets not make a big deal out of it.  We need to get the economy back on track so me and my mates can carry on stashing up billions for when we are voted out of office'.

As Trump hides in a bunker at the White House, all of his little fires are joining together and closing in on him.  Metaphorically and physically.  Mueller failed to do it, Indictment failed to do it, but now the public are coming out in huge numbers against him and he is on his knees.  It is clear his dementia is rapidly advancing but the hatred he has for so many people is eating him alive.  I can't see any non corrupt campaign manager or advisor, telling him to use his grudges against President Obama to win the upcoming election, methinks, that's all him.  He is handicapping his own re-election chances at every opportunity.  He's had enough, he's reached that stage he is so familiar with, where he just declares bankruptcy/gets divorced,  and walks away.  Maybe he is trying to broker a deal where he commits to resigning if the Democrats promise not to put him in jail.    

The results of Donald Trump's and Boris Johnson's chaotic handing of Covid-19 will be available to you, and history will show that the countries with the highest mortality rates had the worst leaders.  Those will be the cold hard facts accompanied by graphs, charts and the warnings by scientists that were ignored.  As I write this today 31st May 2020, the UK has nearly 300,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with nearly 40,000 deaths.  We are nearly 3 months into lockdown and the numbers have never really gone below the peak, the first one, we cynics are expecting a second, much bigger wave.  People are bored with the lockdown, the sun is shining and the sky has never been clearer - it would appear we have been polluting the skies, who knew? (sarcasm).  

The future of course, will have all the facts in front of them, but even now, we can see how Covid-19 has exposed the huge failures of absolute capitalism. China, where the virus originated, with a population of 1.49billion, suffered less than 5,000 deaths, close by South Korea had less than 300.   The USA, population 331million has today, 106,000 deaths, and it has just reopened for business so it will probably go much higher.  The UK, population 66.65million, has 38,489 deaths, but like the US, our government is ignoring the advice of scientists and experts in order to get the economy going again.  The first victims of 'the return' our littlest children, the nursery and reception classes.  Ye Gods, what monster chose the toddlers to experiment with!

But children of the future, here we are.  As this pandemic, this plague, sweeps through the world, and we are probably only about half way there yet, we are being led by imbeciles.  It may explain to you, looking back on these times, why 'the West' lost it's status as world leaders and the East took over.  I write this 'warning to the future', because I have always wanted to read the thoughts of a woman from 1930's Berlin.  I guess, everything is fine, until it's not.  We expect every year to be the same as the last, with the shops and restaurants open, the kids at school, the train packed, having it all come to a sudden stop was a shock to us all.  The world literally changed overnight.  Not in that ominous sense of hiding under the stairs waiting for bombs to drop on us, but, perhaps worse.  We have the enemy all around us, we can't see it, but it can get us in multiple ways, many which we don't even know about.  Is it picked up from surfaces? Is it in minute particles on our breath?  It would be easy to become paranoid, but easier still to become complacent, especially if you have stuck to the rules for so long.  

Fortunately, the statistics show that approximately 80% of people in the UK and the US, believe the scientists and doctors over their leaders and politicians.  Neither country has a fast and efficient system of testing, and the danger (so many more infected) is far greater now than it was when the lockdown began.  Most people will follow their own common sense, advice from the government these days is worthless.  

But, children of the future, it is not all misery.  We have, via the television and internet, every form of entertainment, books, films, music, history, science, the list is endless.  We are never truly alone all the while we have mobile phones and Zoom - a face to face 'app' most of us had never heard of until the lockdown. That panicky sense of imminent danger has calmed down to a resigned sense of 'oh well'.  Not many people are wearing masks anymore and less and less people are following the 2 metre rule.  I usually just move away from them or stand out of their way.  I apply the same rule to social distancing as I do to posting on social media.  I am only responsible for what I do and say, what others do is beyond my control.  It's a bit Zen.

You in the future will of course have all the answers.  You will look at the Great Plague in England of 1665, the 'Spanish' Flu of 1918 and Covid-19, which just to confuse things, really took off in 2020.  It would seem that in 2020 that we are just as vulnerable to plague as our medieval ancestors.  You might wonder why countries such as the USA and the UK, spend so much money on arms and weapons of mass destruction, supposedly to safeguard their citizens, yet so little on protecting their citizens from a deadly virus.  Over the past few days we have seen US police, wearing more armour than Robocop, and over the past few weeks we have seen US doctors wearing bin liners.  It's no wonder Trump has withdrawn from the World Health Organisation, science stuff isn't nearly so much fun as buying fighter jets.  

Karma, we hope, will catch up with Trump and Johnson, sooner, rather than later.  Mob boss Trump will hopefully go to jail and Johnson's legacy will be the thousands of unnecessary deaths because he handled the coronavirus so badly.  Sadly it has taken a global pandemic to expose that these two elected leaders have no leadership qualities whatsoever.

FEMINISM NOW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgp9MPLEAqA

I have an interesting reader who often poses interest questions.  A bit of a welcome break from Covid-19, I think, 

Thank you for your post Bjorn, (on the previous blog) there is much to digest there, particularly with applying the feminist perspective to everything, which I think probably applies to most western countries, not just Sweden.   I should perhaps explain to readers that students of literature when deconstructing a text will examine the text from a Feminist, Marxist, Psychological etc, perspective.  For example, Mary Shelly's Frankenstein from a Feminist perspective; The creature had no name -  neither did women, male obsession, 'workshop of filthy creation'.  From a Marxist perspective - the creature was made up of many parts and more powerful than it knew.  From a psychological perspective, obsession, narcissism, batshit crazy.  Applying a feminist perspective (thinking) when reading a text means actively seeking anything that highlights womens' subjugation and male patriarchal dominance.  Of course, quite rightly, 19th century literature is littered with it, even to the point where talented female authors had to use male pseudonyms to get published.  As Virginia Woolf pointed out, history is HIS-story, all the records of our past were recorded by men.  Even up until the last century, women (working class) were only educated enough for a life in domestic service.  Shakespeare's sister Judith (imaginary) would never have earned a living as a playwright, more likely she would have ended up in prostitution and penury.  

I have always described myself as a feminist, simply for the fact that I have never considered myself in any way inferior to any man.  Not since, I was 5 year old and learned to fight twice as hard! But I have never felt inferior, I have never felt I didn't get a job or indeed anything I went after because I wasn't a man.  That of course may all be down to attitude, I had a crazy mother who didn't accept any of society's rules, so it was probably nature and nurture. That's not say I don't acknowledge blatant inequality and that societies still exist who treat women as second class citizens.  But my answer to every question along those lines is education, education, education.  

So what is feminism now?  It's used by the right to promote corsets, high heels, botox and looking good on a man's elbow - see entry requirements for WH female staff.  The Left embrace all forms of victimhood and nothing makes you a victim more than being born the wrong sex.  I wish they would stop telling young girls that they are disadvantaged, or somehow weaker than their male peers, but that is the dialogue that has been established.  How about telling girls how great they are, and how they can change the world?

Real feminists for me, are women who celebrate and embrace their gender, women who achieve their goals without whining about the opposition and asking for concessions because they are women.  It's like trying to get an advantage by claiming you have a physical handicap, and it irritates me intensely.  I don't know how any woman can claim a victory if they didn't compete on a level playing field.  I think it is heart breaking that talented young men (geniuses waiting to be discovered?) who are discarded from opportunities because of their gender.  How can we find the best among us unless opportunity is truly equal?

When I think of feminism, I think of the most prominent 'Feminists' of today.  Those who have attached the label to themselves, or had it attached to them by the media.  Ivanka Trump, desperately in need of a 'cause' when she entered the Whitehouse, thought I'm a woman, in a cabinet predominantly made up of rich old white men, I'll be the representative of women, the successful ones.  To be honest I have a big problem with Ivanka's female entrepreneur schemes.  She is going into extremely poor societies who's cultures she does not understand and is offering cash only to women.  What about the men?  What about the husbands and fathers, the traditional breadwinners? How does her brand of philanthropy work in patriarchal societies?  Does she think she can change their culture with cash?  I really don't think you should fight gender discrimination by creating a new brand of it by discriminating against men.   

On this side of the pond, we have Labour MP Jess Phillips, not nearly so glamorous or interesting, who thinks women should be more man like.  Or, perhaps that should be more lad like in their speech and behaviour, louder and more offensive but ready to cry  'anti women' the minute she starts losing.  To be honest I don't know what her feminist causes are, other than the right for middle aged, middle class, middle income, foghorns like herself not to be offended or chatted up (as if!).  I've always had a problem with many of the prominent women who pitch and campaign on behalf of women everywhere, because when you start to dig a little deeper, you find that their pitching and campaigning relates only to issues that affect themselves.  How many of us, for example need a panic room?  You don't see them p&c ing for working class mothers, women who can't for love nor money, get the feckless fathers of their children to pay child support.  When young, frightened mothers were being fitted with ankle tags for not handing their kids over to potentially dangerous dads, Janet Street-Porter was writing about leg room on luxury airlines.  

Feminism won't reach down into the masses until it applies to the majority of women in the form of equal pay, equal opportunity, free childcare,  free school dinners for all, those very real, very basic, practical obstacles that make the playing field unequal for women.  But they are not headline grabbing issues like 'Lesbian MP has brick thrown at campaign office window', or 'Labour MP threatened by trolls on twitter wants a panic room'.  I think of those suffragettes who stood on orange boxes and chained themselves to railings, who went before her and sigh.  

The majority of working class women, and the majority of women are working class, do not like, or indeed take any notice of ardent feminists, mostly because, they have never, in any way, been relatable to their lives.  For the two parties, the distain is mutual.  Unfortunately for radical members of any cause, whilst they are able to get themselves all worked up into a frenzy over something trivial, passing that frenzy on is not so easy.  Especially as we love, with all their faults, the enemy we are supposed to hate.  Most women don't hate men. they have fathers, husbands and sons that they love.  They have never been on board with making men the enemy.  They actually like men, the non PC ones, the confused ones (the majority) and even the cheeky chappies.

Given the long or is it short, history of Feminism (200 years?), we have probably made a giant leap to about half way there.  That is, within just a few generations, most of the wrongs have been put right, but there is still a long way to go.  In my opinion there is still a debate/argument to be had as to which path we take.   The problem the most radical feminists have, is that the women they are trying to influence, Do we carry on much the same as we ever did, especially as it was probably being non PC that got most couples together, or do we veer towards the sensitive feelings of those who just can't make their minds up?  I have no problem with anyone being whatever gender they choose, indeed I always celebrate those brave enough to embrace their uniqueness.  

Those who upset me are the androgynous, 'how dare you gender assign me' ones, who I fear want us all sporting short, back and sides and sporting grey onesies.  No pink toothbrush and blue toothbrush, let alone miniature kitchens and baby dolls for the girls or plastic grenades and A47's for the sons.  Now you can buy my little ponies for your sons and tanks for daughters, a giant step for mankind.  Parenting must be hell these days, but my heart especially goes out to those with 'woke' parents.  But the gender assigning deserves a whole blog of it's own, so I will put it aside for now.  

Returning to the points you raise Bjorn, because as you say, Sweden is known for it's freedom and egalitarian ways, I don't think anyone seriously thinks Swedish women are oppressed in any way.  I personally think it is a good thing that men and women are so different, vive la difference (wish I knew how to do symbols), it's what makes the world go around, ultimately, how can any government legislate against human nature?  Misogyny still exists, as it always will, but a wise woman knows how to turn that misogyny back on the man enough to make him squirm.  She teaches her daughter how to do it too.  Like most of the unpleasant beliefs and practices from the past, open misogyny will simply become socially unacceptable.  

I don't stand by, with, or anywhere near the so called Feminists of today.  I think the 'Me Too' movement is a huge step backwards.  Those turning trivial, instantly forgettable instances of inappropriate touching as life changing traumas are the weakest among us, not role models.  Their sensitive, fragile, natures, I would imagine, have taken all of the fun out of the workplace. The young and flirty and even the old and flirty were always the most fun to work with. When you take all that away from an office environment, what's left?  What makes you go in every day at 9.00am?  A love of typing and filing?

Feminist thinking I fear Bjorn, accompanies a clampdown on our language, our Anglo Saxon vernacular (the swear words), our innate humour, our lawful right to laugh out loud at situations we find funny.  If we go by Orwell's vision of the future, we have a dark and gloomy world ahead, one in which we all wear androgynous grey suits and sport 'back and sides'.  Who on earth wants that?