Ducking and diving
Ducking and diving
What are they hiding?
Afraid to say what they think.
Appealing to the loonines
The xenophobic goonies
Taking the Tory Party to the brink.
Opher 24.6.2019
0.2% of the electorate will decide who our next Prime Minister will be – just 160,000 of the most extreme Tory members – mainly white, old and male!
Both candidates are playing to that field – promising more and more extreme policies to please the xenophobic, nationalistic loonies.
Bluster Bluster Bluster – a poem for Johnson
Bluster Bluster Bluster
A temper like a tempest
Bluster Bluster Bluster
Inept, deceit and jest
Bluster Bluster Bluster
Buffoon, bumbler and pest
Bluster Bluster Blust
You’re kidding me – the best?
Opher – 24.6.2019
This man is an object of derision around the world – sort of Trump-light. He’s a nincompoop! The word was invented for him. Is this really the best that the Tories can come up with? Unbelievable!! No wonder only 5% of under 25s support Tories. They are a dying breed of xenophobic nationalists who have spent their lives supporting the elite and imposing austerity on the rest of us!!
Kiddie Fiddlers
Kiddie fiddlers
In church and state
Covered up and protected
By the prelate.
Operating with impunity
To abuse the innocent;
Pretending to live a life
Most decent.
Those who should protect
Are the ones to betray.
They need hunting down
And putting away!
Opher- 23.6.2019
It’s in the news again – another Bishop covering up the deeds of a man of god. Paedophiles inveigling their way into churches, schools and youth services in order to get their hands on to young innocent boys and girls. That is bad enough – but what is worse are the hierarchy who, for various reasons, cover it up, move the abusers around and allow them to continue to abuse with impunity.
Roaming free
Once we roamed free
Over plains and sea,
Using our wits
Our skills and our knowledge
To take what we needed
To hunt and to forage.
Now swamped by numbers,
Our cruelty and greed,
We create our own downfall
Through the folly of deeds.
Opher 24.6.2019
I still yearn after that life of a hunter gatherer. I know it was harsh, uncomfortable and dangerous. We tend to glamorise and gloss the hardships. It was dangerous. Few grew old. But it seems real to me.
I fear that we are swamping the world with our numbers and sowing the seeds of our own demise out of greed.
No Games
The eagle plays no games
As she soars on the winds
Life is quite simple:
To eat or to starve;
To mate or to perish.
She takes what she finds.
Her skill is all that informs her survival.
Her strength determines
Her or a rival.
Opher 24.6.2019
Nature is simple and cruel. There is little intrigue or politics. What you see is what you get. It is simply a battle for survival and to pass on your genes to the next generation. So basic. If you fail you die.
There is also majesty to it. Unlike most of our existence it is completely real. Our civilisation has divorced us from nature. We think we are not subject to the same laws anymore. Our lives aren’t battles for survival. We’ve opted for safety and comfort.
I wonder what we gave up on the way?
Bought and Sold
Bought and sold
Brainwashed and controlled!
Chained and tricked
By cunning hypocrites.
They use religion.
They use guile.
They use the law –
Death with a smile.
The control the media
To pump propaganda.
They tell what to think
And to who to pander.
Kept in our cages
Within our careers,
Tied with mortgages,
Debts and arrears.
They inhabit a different world
To that of you and me.
They have their clubs
And no so polite society.
The buy the law
With privilege to spare,
They buy what they want
And deny us our share.
Bought and sold
Brainwashed and controlled!
Chained and tricked
By cunning hypocrites.
Opher – 23.6.2019
Huge populations have to be controlled so that they do not rebel against the elite. It’s a business that had been going on for thousands of years. A tiny minority live in luxury on a whole different level and convince us all that this is the best way of doing things!
I’m not so sure!
There is no fairness in this system – money talks.
This is a rare Phil Ochs track that was finally released on the Broadside Tapes album.
In the early sixties Phil would go into the Broadside studios and record his latest efforts onto a tape recorder. Many unreleased tracks were recorded this way.
He was such a great songwriter. I like songs with meaning!
When First Unto This Country
When first unto this country a stranger I came,
I fought the Revolution, peace and quiet was my aim.
When the Indians attacked us, at least that’s what I’m told,
So we threw them off their land with no thought of greed or gold.
Then our ships were being boarded, other countries took our men,
Napoleon was too powerful, the British lost again.
And then hopelessly outnumbered, we fought our level best,
and we borrowed from Old Mexico the American South West.
And when that war was over there was no one left to fight
So we turned and fought each other–to the historians’ delight
Then for thirty years we rested, and tried to ease the pain,
until the Cuban sugar crop we gladly freed from Spain.
Then Europe started feudin’, there were profits by the score,
so the ammunition makers fought the war to end all war,
but old Hitler started marchin’, he practiced over in Spain,
the Depression was defeated, the world was safe again.
So we joined the United Nations in hopes that war would cease
and except for Korea, we almost kept the peace.
Yes, it’s time to really end all wars, the H-Bomb makes it worse
Besides this song is much too long to add another verse.
Unfortunately there is a need for a lot more verses!
Who are they?
Who are the shadowy figures who pull the strings?
The powerful movers who lurk in the wings?
The ones who create the world the way it is?
The ones who give all thoughts about fairness a miss?
Presiding over poverty and war
Orchestrating power games –
Evil to the core.
Just think how the world might be
If we were allowed true equality?
Instead of hypocrites who use religion and politics
To control the minds of a disadvantaged public.
Opher – 23.6.2019
The world is controlled by those with the wealth. They control those with power in an unholy alliance. They buy the politicians, the parties and the laws that suit them, and make democracy a sham. They control the media and influence minds.
Yes there is fake news. No it is not the fake news Trump is talking about.
They like instability, war and inequality. They can profit from it. They promote consumerism and celebrity. It distracts and is profitable. They like the world just as it is – a mess. And they don’t mind if nature is destroyed in the process just as long as they come out of it with plenty of cash.
What a sad way to run a planet!
Tales from Abbey Road – The American girl
The sixties was a great time. There was revolution in the air – not that I ever saw or heard anybody talking guns or armed insurrection. People seemed to feel we were building a new and better society, dumping all the baggage like wars, racism, sexism, hypocrisy, greed and consumerism and creating something less conformist, simpler and more real. People were more open. They were investigating religions, cults, politics and talking about dropping out, giving up being the master’s right-hand nose and getting back to the land. It’s hard to explain. They, for a short period of time, were idealistic times of great friendship and camaraderie. When you saw someone with the hair you knew you had something in common. We shared what we had. There were usually sacraments involved! A joint would be passed around. We’d sit up talking, playing music and laughing through the night.
I do find myself nostalgic for the feel of those days.
We used to hitch-hike a lot. I would sometimes hitch to Roy’s out of town gigs and Roy was known to hitch to his own gigs. Hitching was interesting. You met all manner of people.
Anyway, enough of this preamble.
It was not unusual to put strangers up for a while. Our little two-room bedsit in Manor House often had an array of sleeping bags and new friends. You’d go to a gig and someone would want a floor for the night. One time we accrued an American girl – the reason for this strange acquisition is lost in the depths of time. She was not your typical 60s freak – far from it. I can’t imagine her going to the type of clubs I frequented, but, none-the-less we ended up with her. Unlike most of our guests she definitely overstayed her welcome. She was from a rich privileged background, contributed to nothing, and had a grating, shrill whiney, voice that never seemed to stop. Consequently she tended to dominate everything and was exceedingly annoying.
After a week or two Liz had definitely had enough of her. Goodwill had gone out the window. I was heading off to Abbey Road and Liz suggested I should take her with me to give her a bit of peace. I weighed it up and figured she’d most probably be quiet and a bit overawed. Foolishly I agreed, suggested it to our American ‘friend’ and she jumped at the chance. She liked the Beatles.
I whisked her off on my trusty orange steed, giving her a thrill or two round a few tight bends.
At the studio I explained to Roy what the situation was. He’d already sussed out the general lay of the land. It did not take too long to see what she was really about. She was not one to take a back seat or keep quiet. Being overawed was not in her vocabulary and she proceeded to wander around and get in the way. At one time she went off down the corridor and actually walked in the studio where Paul was working, with the red light on, and interrupted a recording. They were far from amused. Somewhere in the archives she’s probably on tape!
Roy was recording East of the Sun which used this quite complex and evocative high-pitched harmonica. He was having difficulty because the harmonica kept playing up and giving false notes or breaking up. They’d searched round but couldn’t find a replacement in the right key, and being the middle of the night they could not purchase one. They tried soaking the thing in water but it still would not perform and everyone was getting a bit uptight and frustrated.
The American girl was not helping matters. At one point they were telling her to shut up or they’d take her into the studio and sort her out. I think she was quite up for that. I was a bit concerned that it might actually happen.
Eventually Roy got the harmonica to last through the take and they got the track completed. In a mixture of relief and frustration Roy smashed the offending harmonica with the heavy studio door. The American girl eagerly picked up the mangled instrument as a memento.
Well, she eventually got Mummy and Daddy to send her air-fare through and disappeared leaving all her rucksack of possessions behind. That mangled harmonica sat on our shelf for quite a while but eventually disappeared too!
via A must watch video-Hans Rosling
This really gives a great visual perspective on what has happened to the world over the past 200 years.