The SAD result of the Local elections

Posted on by Opher

Well it felt good to see the arrogant, greedy and sleazy brought down to earth. I sure like the idea of Cruella, Morbid Mordant, Pretty Dire and Semi Bad being shunted on to the dole queue, reduced to hunting through the situation vacant.

Love the little captions (I don’t know if you can read them easily):

Lost Hope

Mad dog walking

AntiWoke Yoga

Rwanda Lessons Strict Discipline

There’s just John Swinney licking his lips at the prospect of becoming SNP leader!!

But the sad thing is that the Tories are running scared and that much needed election is going to be put off to the last minute. We’re going to have another six months or more of greed, sleaze, incompetence and corruption.

Dear Mr President

Posted on by Opher

This is from an American…

President Trump,

I wonder how much pain you’re willing to cause America.

Apparently, more than you already have.

It isn’t enough that you have spent your every waking moment of the past four years appealing to the very worst nature of your followers; weaponizing them against their neighbours, friends, family members, and strangers.

It isn’t enough that you have perpetually trafficked in lies, when the truth would have been much simpler; that you were almost habitually allergic to honesty even when honesty would have greatly benefited you.

It isn’t enough that you have steadily stoked the fires of racism, that you have courted wild conspiracy, that you’ve never once taken the path of maturity, compassion, and sober judgment in stewarding this nation.

It isn’t enough that you have been so guilty of presidential malpractice, that you have inexplicably made a public health crisis a partisan event, allowing a quarter of a million Americans to die, many of them needlessly

And now, after all that, you’ve chosen to do something far worse as your swan song: to go to war with the very bedrock of this nation: a free and fair election by the people — simply because you cannot live with what they are telling you.

You are indicting a process that you spent months poisoning and polluting and sabotaging. Even those unprecedented efforts to create chaos and silence voters would not deter a record number of Americans from telling you that you are not worthy to lead them.

You are revealing your true character in these moments.

A decent man would honour the unequivocal and clear will of the people.

A decent man would concede with dignity immediately in order to allow calm to prevail.

A decent man would agree to a peaceful transfer of power, as every previous outgoing president has.

A decent man would look at a nation ravaged by a pandemic, devastated by job loss, and exhausted from internal strife — and decide to end his tenure here by finally, for the first time, doing something selfless.

But you are not a decent man and that is simply not your way. You are incapable of the elemental goodness required when called upon by moments of gravity and consequence.

I should have known it would end this way.

This is who you have always been: a man lacking a single noble instinct or humane impulse; a parasitic presence who only takes from things it attaches itself to.

Your ornamental America First rhetoric is burning up in the presence of your caustic conduct right now.

If you loved this nation or cared for its people, you would be an adult man and a true leader, and admit defeat and allow this nation to begin to heal and recover. Instead you incite violence and stir your unhinged base and speak reckless, incendiary lies that will only serve to injure more people and try and avoid your eventual departure.

And make no mistake, that departure is imminent.
You are leaving.  The American people have made that clear. Every president before you has honoured that. And whether you like or not, you will, too.

It’s just really sad that you couldn’t take this moment and finally become a better version of yourself; instead your final days here are ones marked by unnecessary suffering and manufactured sorrow; that in one more traitorous, belligerent salvo, you will assail the very heart of democracy in order to defend your brittle, fragile ego.

History is recording the truth: that you will have caused more injury to America and its people than any of the men who have served the office you hold and will shortly be removed from. You will have even done more destruction to our sovereignty and safety than any imagined foreign threat.

Joe Biden is going to be our next president.

You will soon be leaving, Mr. President.

And sadly, it looks as though you will leave the way you have led and the way you have lived your entire life: disgracefully.

Do we really need strong leaders? I don’t think so.

Posted on by Opher

We’ve seen a lot of ‘strong’ leaders’ through the ages. Most of them turn out to be disasters. Hitler, Franco, Pol Pot, Mussolini, Thatcher, Ghenghis Khan, Stalin, Mao, Trump……… We usually end up with war, austerity, tyranny and misery. I do not respect belligerence. I prefer my leaders to be more consensual and less dogmatic and doctrinal. Compromise is often a better way. Imposition is often bad. Teamwork is better than a single head. The charge of the Light Brigade was magnificent folly and a great disaster.

Strong leaders usually get to the top because of personality flaws. They lack empathy to be able to see the effects of their actions on their victims. Many are psychopaths or sociopaths who enjoy wielding power and inflicting pain. They are bullies. They have trampled their way to the top.

Yet people still have that tribal mentality as of we were still living in small groups on the African plains. Then we did need decisive aggression and violence against other competing groups.

Times have changed. We are supposedly civilised now. We don’t want strong leaders. We want teams to work together to solve problems and find better ways forward.

Yet still we give our vote to those leaders who appear strongest instead of looking at the policies they support and where that will lead us.

 

A Simple Choice – election voting made easy – a viewpoint.

Posted on by Opher

In the forthcoming election there is a choice between two governments with opposing ideology.

After the next election the country will be run by either the Tories, Labour or a coalition. I know what I would prefer.

The Tory party was formed by the wealthy elite to protect their interests.

The Labour party was formed out of the Trade Union movement to fight for the rights and wages of ordinary people.

Nothing has changed. If we cut through the rhetoric, lies and promises to look at what actually happens.

When Labour were in they increased pay and ran the public services properly. They also had the economy in the black until the world-wide crisis occurred.

When the Tories are in they cut pay, cut public services, worsen work conditions, slash pensions and make life miserable for the poor. They give tax cuts to the rich. In these times of austerity the rich have increased their wealth substantially. The inequality gap has widened enormously.

The media (including the BBC) are run by the rich with a strong Tory bias. They put out Tory propaganda to distort the reality. The tabloids are outrageous.

This is not a beauty contest between May and Corbyn; it is a choice between starkly different ideologies.

I vote for more fairness and equality, the protection of the environment and to protect our schools, social services and the NHS. I agree with Corbyn on most things – this country is being run for a small elite to the detriment of the rest of us. Something has to change!

What do you vote for?

A short history of politics.

Posted on by Opher

austerity-isnt-working-steve-bell

  • The country was divided into fiefdoms. The robber barons, kings and their ilk paid for an army of thugs to maintain order. They took what they wanted. The rest was left to ordinary people. In return the ordinary folk got protection from other thugs.
  • The aristocracy and church owned the land, made the rules and organised things. The Church was second only to the king. The ordinary people did what they were told.
  • Magna Carta took some of the King’s power and gave it to the Barons.
  • Parliament was a group of aristocrats and wealthy merchants who met to decided the rules.
  • Democracy was invented. Representatives were elected by votes cast by those franchised to vote. The franchised were limited to a few wealthy landowners. Surprisingly they elected their friends who looked after the interests of wealthy landowners.
  • The Tory Party was formed by wealthy businessmen to look after the interests of wealthy businessmen. The wealthy lived in mansions and palaces with servants and the poor lived in hovels.
  • Democracy was gradually widened through much social upheaval and blood to include one man – one vote (the Tories fought this tooth and nail. They believed that if the ordinary people had a vote they might just vote for a system that was fairer and spread the wealth more)
  • Democracy was widened even further after more strife and blood to include women. (The Tories opposed this on the basis that women were feeble, intellectually challenged and hysterical.)
  • The Labour movement created Trade Unions which fought for fair pay and better conditions. Gradually things became fairer.
  • The trade union movement spawned the Labour Party to represent ordinary people. Their MPs were drawn from the mines and factories and knew what life was like.
  • The Labour Party was taken over by professional politicians and public school boys.
  • We are left with a Tory party who represent the interests of the rich and a Labour Party who are divorced from ordinary people and are only a little bit fairer that the Tories.
  • All the other parties make up the numbers and will never get large enough to form a government.
  • The population are fed propaganda created by the media who are controlled by the politicians and establishment.
  • Money buys the advertising and hence the views and votes.

We end up voting for the lesser of two evils.

Election – I do not know if you have noticed that it is looming! Some thoughts.

Posted on by Opher

cameron cameronhh cameron-miliband

Why is all this election business so artificial?

Politicians are simply not interested in doing what really needs doing. For them it is all about power and votes.

For most of the time they treat us with disdain and contempt.

The short term patterns of our election prevents any long-term planning. When it comes to infra-structure or painful decisions they duck the issues – they think ‘what is the point of doing something that a future government will pick up the credit for? Where’s the votes in that?

What I want is passion and idealism. I want someone who will stand up and put their views out because it is what they believe. I do not want to hear politicians blathering on about what they think might get them votes so that they can wield power and be the big I-Am. I want honesty.

I want politicians to do what is right and not what is popular.

I want integrity, real issues, caring and some common sense.

Why is it that we always have to choose which is the less nasty, less greedy, less crooked, less uncaring?

I want a real choice! I want an alternative to the selfish greed of the Tories with their uncaring disregard for ordinary people. I don’t want to have to settle for a watered down version.