A cold day with an Arctic wind. I hobbled over the crunchy hailstones to reach the bins and thought better of going out for a walk. I stayed in, wrote some poems and read my Jasper Fforde. I was meant to be going off to the studio to record a podcast with my mate Mike but Dave was unwell so that didn’t happen. Heading off for a meal with friends this evening. A lazy day!! I hope this weather improves! It was 18 degrees a few days back!
Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, the resident Wurzel the Liar is still in office. 20 fixed penalty notices have been served (for starters) so the police reckon that criminality occurred at Number 10. But still the clown denies this. He assures us that if he is served with a fixed penalty notice he will tell us – so that means he will not reveal a thing.
Out in Ukraine Putin is calling in reserves from Georgia, regathering his forces and signing up conscripts. The huge loss of troops and equipment in the war has left him looking like a school bully who has just been knocked cold by the smallest kid in the class. Everything is going wrong. Supposedly a superpower who is poised to take on the world they look more like a souffle that’s been taken out of the oven too soon. His cronies are feeding him misinformation, his troops are either rebelling or being shot to pieces and his equipment is being blown up or breaking down. Not the romp in the park that he thought it was going to be. He was under the impression that he’d sail into Ukraine, be welcomed by the populace, oust the neoNazi government and create a puppet state like he’s done with Belarus. Not quite!
The people of Ukraine knew better. They didn’t want fascist Putin putting them back under that oppressive regime. They didn’t want oppression and suppression. They didn’t think their government was neoNazi. They were prepared to fight to the death to kick the invaders out! They, with the help of Western lethal aid, are kicking the butt of the Russian bear.
India and China are still sitting on the fence. Brazil is another populist fascist state under the greedy Bolsonaro (lining his pockets) siding with fascism.
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
The world’s in a mess. Communism descends into oppressive fascism being preyed on by a selfish, greedy elite. Democracy descends in unbridled capitalism with an exploited majority preyed on by a greedy elite.
Is there nowhere where fairness and equality exist? Is it a human flaw that we self-perpetuate unjust hierarchical systems no matter what we do? We force in democracy to give the people power and the elite undermine it by brainwashing the population and lying to them. We force revolutions and find that we replace one set of greedy monsters with another set that are even worse.
Everything has descended into fake news, propaganda and conspiracy. The web, purveyor of freedom, has been taken over by the people telling us everything is fake while feeding us that fake.
There’s no hope! Inequality and greed rule!
So, in this context, Putin is getting more desperate and trying to at least conquer some part of Ukraine to save face. He’s wasting countless billions pounding cities into dust in revenge on the ungrateful Ukrainians who rejected him as a saviour. He’s pumping out fake news and propaganda. The Russian public love him. He is fighting neoNazis in a liberating manoeuvre. The Ukrainians are flattening their own cities. People saying anything else are traitors facing 15 years in Siberia. Opposition, like Nalavny’s party, are being silenced (one way or another). Putin is using his secret police to keep order and crushing protest. He’s lying. He’s threatening the West with nuclear holocaust and he’s threatening to turn off the gas. His economy is crumbling (shutting off the gas won’t help that) and there’s no way out. Generals, who aren’t already killed, are being castigated, replaced or worse.
What does the future hold??
Meanwhile, we are in a Cost of Living Crisis the like of which we have not seen in modern times. Tory policies are all coming home to roost as global calamities highlight the sequence of corrupt and inept actions they have been gaily doing for 12 years. For twelve years they have been cutting public services, cutting wages and giving away huge numbers of billions to the wealthy. They have brought in a disastrous Brexit and wasted eye-watering amounts on mishandling Covid. They are raising taxes, refusing to tax the wealthy or energy companies, have been stealthily promoting privatisation (to put more money in their chums’ pockets), and creating massive inequality. Food banks and rough sleeping, poverty and starving kids. They call this Global Britain and talk of levelling up. It’s all a pack of lies. The crisis brought about by global changes and their own greed and ineptitude has resulted in a tsunami that is hitting all of us. What a disaster!
But – all I can say is – YOU VOTED FOR THESE GREEDY LYING SELFISH OVER-PRIVILEGED BASTARDS!! I saw them for what they are – Profiteers!!
So to the pandemic that used to be important but is now just a footnote. Big Dog Turd has been saved. It’s over! He’s the saviour!
Except that’s bollocks.
He removed all restrictions in order to gain popularity. Not a shred of science in it.
Last week saw a record number of 4.9 million people going down with Covid – 1.13 – a new record. I know of more people with it than ever before. It’s out of control, breeding variants and waiting a little longer until the vaccine immunity dwindles.
Good luck!
We’re going to need it!!
Stay safe!! Virus, starvation, freezing or holocaust – nice set of Tory choices!!
Opher, this is your best yet – apart from the last bit about COVID. (I’ve spent today looking at the stats, and it isn’t nearly as bad as you say).
May I re-publish it on the Mises website (now re-branded libertarianism.uk?”) I’d like to call it “A View from the Left.” I’ll write a paragraph saying how I met you, who you are and why I respect your viewpoints, then simply reproduce your text (with a link, of course). There are many right-wingers there, but I think some of them might be persuaded to reach across the divide and try to understand where we can find some common ground. (And on that site, some of the “lurkers” who read but not comment are quite influential).
I’d be honoured Neil. I’m not sure I’m a view from the left though – more of a view from common sense. I’d love to get into those conversations we used to have on WB.
Opher, as I’ve just managed to finish and publish a COVID rant ahead of schedule and don’t want to overload the site (!), I won’t be doing this on this occasion. But I’ll say again that a lot of what you wrote here is really good. In particular, you’re dead-on right about communism, democracy and revolutions. And I like your phrase “a view from common sense.”
BTW, latest COVID rant is here: https://libertarianism.uk/2022/04/02/covid-19-are-we-over-the-final-hump-part-1/.
Cheers Neil. It’s one thing identifying the problems and quite another finding a viable global solution. I shall have a long look at your rant tomorrow when I get some time.