The Corona Diaries – Day 760

Posted on by Opher

A gorgeous day in Yorkshire (though it started with a heavy fog that had cleared by 9.00 a.m.). It was that warm I even took my jumper off when we took our walk up my hill. There wasn’t a great deal to see. It was still very hazy even in the afternoon. The warmth has started bringing the mayblossom out!! Soon be swathes of white!!

Back home I’ve been playing some North Mississippi Allstars to fill me with energy. Fabulous!!

I finished Mark Hunter’s book – Hysterical Hoosiers!! A great laugh.

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, it’s budget day. The Tories threw a few minor pieces of red meat to the poor. 5p off petrol isn’t going to go far when its gone up by 40p. They’ve done very little to address the tsunami that is hitting us. All we hear is that it’s global forces and the war to blame.

Bollocks!!

We have a perfect storm – food price shooting up, rents shooting up, petrol prices shooting up, energy prices off the scale, tax rises, national insurance rises, benefits cuts.. How’s a poor man meant to live?

So why is the media squealing??? – Because they are run by Tories?

So let’s examine this shall we?

Oil companies profiteering – making billions in excess profits (while pump prices go berserk).

Energy companies have been having a bonanza.

The government failed to do enough on the alternative energy and heat conservation in houses.

The government is raising taxes and national insurance which will hit the poor. They already cut benefits. They are not bringing in windfall taxes on the oil companies.

Brexit, which our clown is trumpeting about, has caused shortages in HGV drivers and veg pickers – resulting in higher prices. The extra red tape, checks and tariffs have increased prices. Food and goods price increases are not global – they are Brexit.

They are not closing the tax loopholes and all those profiteers busy looting have been stashing their money in the Cayman Islands. Rees-Mogg has £135 million stashed there. Heaven knows how many secret accounts are set up there. All these Tory MPs earning millions from lobbying and directorships have been making merry. Do you think our clown has been stashing cash??

The thing that amazes me is that the sheep who are backing the Tories know all this sleaze and corruption is going on and still vote for them. They know all about the Russian connection and still support them. I despair. The sheep can’t wait to get to the abattoir.

This country is just like Russia. Putin and the Oligarchs have been systematically stripping the country of its wealth. They have billions which the Russian people live in poverty. It’s exactly the same here though not quite on that scale.

The Tories represent a band of profiteering exploiters who have been making a killing out of both Brexit and Covid – and they are probably making a fortune out of the Ukraine war. But that’s alright – boys will be boys. Boris is a lad, isn’t he??

Talking of the war. Putin is in a mess isn’t he? He’s lost a mess of tanks, planes, vehicles and between 10,000 and 15,000 troops. He’s in great danger of having his arse kicked out. Logistics have been pathetic. They’ve run out of food, petrol, parts and ammunition. They’ve had to bring in mercenaries from Syria and Chechnia.5 generals have been killed. He’s having to imprison antiwar demonstrators. He’s pumping out lying propaganda. His economy is in a mess. We’ll see where this all goes. Meanwhile he is desperately flattening Ukrainian cities and killing women and children.

He needs taking before a war crimes tribunal (along with all the other war criminals).

As Russia reels, it remains to be seen how long he’ll last! Not what he expected. He got away with Georgia, Crimea and the Donbas and thought that taking Ukraine would be a walk in the park. They’d nip in, take Kyiv in a day, whip Zeletskiy out and put a puppet in. Job done. The west would bleat and rollover. Then he’d sort out a few more countries and create a new USSR.

I wonder how much all those planes, tanks and missiles cost???

I was interested to see just who is supporting Putin. It makes for interesting reading:

Belarus, Syria, Brazil, North Korea, Eritrea – a bunch of warmongering despots, tyrants and populists. Not a great bunch to have as allies is it??

China, Pakistan and India are abstaining they want the cash – this could be a lucrative market. Though China is pumping out proPutin propaganda!! They are not averse to threatening people, crushing civil rights, and invading. Tibet and the Uighurs might have a view on that. They want to do the same to Taiwan.

The Tories, as usual, are saying one thing and doing another – two-faced twats. Grudgingly they agreed to allow the Ukrainian refugees in but they have made such an obstacle course to secure visas that hardly any can get in. Typical callous farce!! Lying and making untrue claims is all they do (when they’re not looting).

So, in the pandemic that no longer exists due to saving the Big Dog Turd’s career, the number of cases has shot up to 95,098 (even with obstacles in testing). The deaths have shot up to 250 and hospital cases have jumped to over 15,000. Not looking very promising is it?

But no doubt Johnson will tell us it’s all hunky-dory. We need the economy going so Rees-Mogg and his chums can stuff even more cash in the Cayman Islands. Besides, 250 deaths is nothing!! They aren’t anybody important!! Who needs science – we’re populists!!

It’s so widespread now I keep hearing of other friends and relatives going down with it on a daily basis! Thank heavens I had my vaccinations before I got it. I’m still feeling the effects.

Stay safe!!

The Corona Diaries – Day 759

Posted on by Opher

Beautiful day today in Yorkshire. Warm and sunny. I walked up my hill. The verges were covered in yellow celandine with a few dandelions and some violets. I saw my first butterflies – tortoiseshell and peacocks. The birds were beginning to sing. A buzzard circled overhead with the vapour trails of jets practising for dogfights and missile launches in this new world that Putin has created. The trees and hedges were still skeletal winter mode waiting to burst into bud.

Back in Coronaland I’ve been listening to the West looking to take Putin to the international courts for war crimes. I’m all in favour. Mind you, fair’s fair. We have to do all the other war crimes too – that includes Bush and Blair in Iraq, Putin and Bashir in Syria, the Saudis in Yemen and then the USA, Saudis and Iran in various other arenas. Until we have the UN with enough clout to take all the perpetrators to court we’re going to have this ongoing brutal, primitive behaviour. It’s madness. If all these leaders of superpowers knew they would end up being scrutinised before an international court they might be more careful. What is going on in Ukraine is obviously a war crime on a huge level, but it’s no worse that Iraq, Syria, Yemen and others – yet few are ever brought to justice.

Amazingly, John Peachey sent me through this snippet from a Russian spokesman who was obviously either in complete denial or else a complete bloody liar! He denied that Russia was deliberately bombing women and children, destroying schools, hospitals and theatres or shooting fleeing civilians.

Russian spokesman_ 2 – Small.mov

Former Putin spokesman audio 21 March. 5 min approx Radio 4.

He claimed that this was all being carried out by neo-Nazis Ukrainians. The Russians were trying to liberate the oppressed Russian Ukrainians. He’s nuts.

Let the evidence be collected and the courts decide!!!

Here in the UK the Tories continue their lying ways. They claim to be sanctioning the Oligarchs but they’re not. Because they gave them so much warning they have had time to put their property and bank accounts into Trusts to avoid the sanctions. It’s a joke.

Exactly the same tactics with the obnoxious P&O sackings. The Tories were all acting with shock and horror as 800 mariners were unceremoniously sacked to be replaced with Indian crew being paid £1.80 an hour. Now it turns out that the Tories were informed days ago and could not be bothered to act. All this shock and horror was an act.

Tories simply don’t care!

They are all the same. They make promises, they feign compassion, they say they are going to do things but they never do. It’s a farce – but people still fall for it.

What they have really been doing for twelve years is to cut public services, cut the money going to the needy and give more and more to the wealthy. The result is a huge increase in inequality, more rough sleepers and more food banks. Millions more kids and pensioners live in poverty.

It is a farce!! They are getting away with it!

Johnson is so keen to make the most of this terrible war that he wants to go to the Ukraine so he can have plenty of photo ops and pretend to be Churchill. I think we should give him the chance. It would be great to see him parading up and down on the front line waving a huge Ukrainian flag and goading the Russians. Unfortunately, I’m sure they’d all be laughing so much they’d fail to shoot him. I’ll contribute to send him there! (One-way ticket of course!).

Incredibly, the MET are grinding slowly to some conclusion. They’ve started interviewing a 100 of the party-goers. I wonder if they all have their stories straight? Are they going to lie to the police?

It’s very strange. The MET seemed to have no trouble dishing out penalty notices to everyone else. Thousands of people were fined for breaching Covid rules. There was none of this huge drawn-out process. What’s going on??

Rees-Mogg tries to make light of this Partygate – but he’s wrong. This goes right to the nub of everything that is wrong with Tories. They are so horrendously arrogant. They really do feel superior to the rest of us. They make rules for us to follow (or we’ll be heavily fined) and they really do not believe these laws apply to them – they are for the plebs. The sheer hypocrisy and arrogance is startling. To make light of this casual law-breaking is just wrong. To make matters worse Johnson then repeatedly lied about it both to parliament and the public. Lying has become second nature to these people.

If you can’t trust anything our leaders say or do that goes straight to the heart of democracy. This is far from a small thing. They’ve hidden the disaster of Brexit behind Covid and tried to spin the incompetence and law-breaking of Covid and now they are trying to hide the lying and law-breaking behind the Ukrainian war.

These people are immoral. They shouldn’t be allowed to govern. They are not honourable in any respect – slimy, greedy, dishonest profiteers.

If the MET fail to hand out penalties to Johnson and all the others it will be a complete travesty. Once it’s done we can get the full Sue Gray report. Then we’ll see if the Tories do the honourable thing – if the lying law-breaker resigns, or if the Tories discover what honour is and kick the incompetent clown out.

Meanwhile, in the Coronavirus pandemic that no longer exists, because Save the Big Dog Turd is in full swing. Yesterday, despite the government’s attempts to suppress testing there were 226,000 new cases with 168 more deaths and increasing hospital cases. This huge upsurge in cases is being blamed on a new variant. Of course, it’s nothing to do with the removal of all restrictions. Perhaps distancing and masks should have been retained for a while longer?

I’ve instituted a no-fly zone over my house! Stay safe!! We haven’t been fried alive yet!!

Poetry – Democracy/Autocracy

Posted on by Opher

Democracy/Autocracy

There’s a battle going down

                For the best way to control us.

To brainwash us through the media

                Or throw us off the bus.

Democracy,

                Flawed

                                But with

                                                Checks and laws.

Autocracy,

                Oppression

                                And control

                                                With vicious claws.

At least in democracy

                We have some say.

In a totalitarian country

                There’s no way.

Propaganda

                Secret Police

                                The despot’s tools.

Freedom

                Of speech

                                In streets and schools.

If only we had true democracy

                With an unbiased media

And no politician’s lies,

                No spin, no tricks

No self-serving fools

                Or clowns in populist guise.

Until then we’ll just make do.

We can vote them out and renew.

Opher – 21.3.2022

There’s a battle between democracies and autocracies!

Democracies are bad enough – what with spin and lies, propaganda and brainwashing, the population is pulled from pillar to post by the shady characters behind the scene. What with lobbying, corruption, threats and bungs our political system is despicable.

But is I have to choose between this and the brutal repression and loathsome secret police I know which is the lesser of two evils.

The Corona Diaries – Day 758

Posted on by Opher

We’re back home! Another glorious day in Yorkshire – bright sunshine (even if there was still a chilly breeze.

We took a stroll along the Beck and appreciated the fresh air. The Beck was crystal clear but not a sign of fish or fowl. The whole length had been dredged of the reeds and, so far, there was no sign of it growing back. One or two birds were singing, a few trees and bushes were shooting, but I guess it’s too early in the year for anything much to be going on – just a few early bumble bees in search of flowers.

We haven’t got over this covid yet. I’ve had a sinusy headache all day and we’re both feeling knackered. Covid really knocks you for six.

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, our slippery liar is still counting his luck in the billions. So far he has got away with negotiating a disastrous Brexit (costing us £37 billion a year), illegal proroguing parliament, constant lying, mismanaging Covid (only saved by the NHS coming up with a great vaccination campaign) and squandering tens of billions in illegally tendered PPE to his chums and a useless T&T, more lying, then all the sleaze with law-breaking and party donations, then all the scandal of cash for private lobbying, cash for peerages and cash for tennis, then all the Partygate hypocrisy and law-breaking, more lying to parliament and the Queen, then the second salary scandals (Geoffrey Cox earning a million while living in the Caribbean), then trying to back MPS carrying out illegal lobbying, more lying, then the support of all the Russian Oligarchs (Playing tennis with them, accepting invites to parties (???), huge donations to the Tory Party, peerages and heaven knows what else! And that’s all scratching the surface. We’ve got all the profiteering, corruption and sleaze to consider. Then we’ve got the war against the BBC, the control of the media, the constant propaganda and lies, the refusal to be scrutinised, the refusal to be accountable, the dishonourable actions and the repression of protest.

This mob of extreme nationalistic populists have taken over the Tory Party, driven out any moderate Tories, and are trying their damnedest to turn the country into a one-party totalitarian state.

Incredible. Have we ever had such an extreme, immoral bunch in charge?? They make Thatcher look tame.

Not only that but this shambling wreck, with his crumpled clothes and dishevelled hair, is making us a laughing stock abroad. It is utterly insulting when he compares Brexit to the Ukrainian struggle against the Russian invasion. His pompous and arrogant stance is nauseating. He’s got far too big a view of himself. This inflated view of himself as some marvellous world leader reminds me of the exchange between the complete nincompoop Dan Quayle, who foolishly compared himself to Kennedy, and Lloyd Bentson:

‘Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.‘

Bentson put the Republican moron in his place. It’s a great shame that nobody has done the same to Johnson. He thinks he’s Churchill but has more resemblance to Wurzel Gummidge.

A former Finnish prime minister has dismissed claims Boris Johnson is leading opposition to Vladimir Putin as “illusion” and “utter rubbish”.

Alexander Stubb, whose country shares a 1,340km border with Russia, said only in “Brexit la la land” was the British PM seen as having “taken a lead globally”.

“This idea about ‘Global Britain’ is as true as ‘peaceful Russia’,” the conservative ex-leader said.

People are laughing at us. They can’t believe we elected this clown. He’s as inept as Trump!!

The damage he’s doing will take decades to put right!

So, in the pandemic that is now over in order to keep Big Dog Turd in office, we can see very worrying developments. I know more people with Covid than ever before. It’s sweeping through. Johnson has pushed aside all scientific advice and made a populist choice to do away with all restrictions. A wiser leader would have given a public address, explained the situation and gone ahead a little more cautiously.

Even with sketchy testing (it’s as if the government doesn’t want us to know what’s really going on!) it is quite clear that the virus is out of control again. We have officially 92,449 new cases with 125 deaths!! I wonder what the real figures are?? The hospital cases are back up to 13,464. There are more virus mutations and variants springing out of this fertile breeding ground.

What nobody is really talking about is the millions of unvaccinated and those who are vulnerable. It seems that the government is taking the view that the unvaccinated have made a choice so more fool them and the vulnerable can just stay indoors for the foreseeable future. Job done – Big Dog Turd saved!!

Then there is long covid. Having just had the virus mildly and experiencing the effects weeks later I can appreciate what a nasty virus this is. It really does mess with all your internal organs – shrinking brains is just one thing (not that that would affect Johnson and a number of Tory voters too much). Long Covid is going to mess with many hundreds of thousands of people.

But, no worry, as long as it keeps the Tories in power so they can continue exploiting us.

Stay safe!! With The Big Dog Turd up against Putin we could be in a nuclear conflagration if he shows his usual level of competence and diplomacy!! Good Lord!!!!!!

Poetry – A New Layer of Hope

Posted on by Opher

A New Layer of Hope

Layers of hope

Built on sands of time,

Dripping into eternity.

Layers of hope

Buried beneath lies,

Rotting into oblivion.

Layers of hope

Vitrified into rock,

Locked into history.

Layers of hope

Through generations,

Fading into obscurity.

Now there’s a new layer!

Exposed to the air,

Breathing,

Gleaming in the dark.

A beacon,

An opportunity,

A new chance.

Will it just become

Another layer

Among the many

Optimistic strata

Of human endeavour?

Opher – 9.6.2020

How many times have we put our faith in leaders promising to solve all the problems only to have those hopes dashed.

We are dumping Trump. We will replace Johnson, Bolsonaro, Erdogan and Modi with sane leaders.

Or will we?

Will we fall for the rhetoric of the narcissists and psychopaths, bewitched by their promises, beguiled by propaganda?

Will hope become another layer in the fossilised remains?

The Corona Diaries – Day 756

Posted on by Opher

Gorgeous day today. The sun is hot!! Took grandchildren to play hockey!!

Played a bit of Elvis Costello!! Great album – ‘Armed Forces’.

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, our shambling clown is trying to consolidate his precarious position by pretending to be a world leader. He’s off cosying up to despots and tyrants in an attempt to get them to deliver more oil and gas. Forget about civil rights, murders and draconian oppression, forget about the murder of gays and the environment – there’s money to be made and his job to protect.

First rule of Boris Johnson is to go somewhere where he can avoid being questioned or scrutinised. If there’s no handy fridge he high-tails it abroad. When pretending to be a competent world-leader he still has to ruffle his hair up so that the British fools who support him still think he’s one of theirs.

Second rule of Boris Johnson is to find a suitable costume to dress up in so that he can pose and deliver nonsensical soundbites.

Third rule of Boris Johnson is to avoid appearing anywhere where the media can ask him difficult questions – like ‘Why is he such a stupid twat?’ or ‘Why does he lie so much?’ or ‘Why does he have to shamble around looking like a scarecrow?’ or ‘Is he going to resign for breaking the law and lying to the Queen and Parliament?’ or ‘How much did the Russians pay him and his Party?’ or ‘How much has he made out of being PM?’ or ‘Is he planning on redecorating soon?’ or ‘Did he ring Cressida Dick?’ or ‘Why is it now OK for his MPs to be spending their time lobbying and earning fortunes instead of governing the country?’ or ‘How is he getting away with such dishonesty, immorality, sleaze and corruption?’

Not that he has to worry too much. The media are all Tory owned (or, like the BBC, Tory controlled) even the most horrendous examples of lies and corruption are hardly dealt with at all. They are rapidly swept under the carpet and forgotten. All a five minute wonder. Most things – like the enormous costs of Brexit, the deaths and inept handling of Covid, the Russian infiltration and funding, the sleaze and law-breaking, the huge personal gains for Brexit and from covid, the illegal VIP lanes for contracts, the cash for peerages or audiences, are hardly mentioned at all. These Tories have been getting away with murder.

The Tories have been using office as a means of making themselves obscenely rich (as if they weren’t already). Then we have the unnecessary austerity, the huge poverty and deprivation, rough sleepers and food banks, starving children and freezing pensioners.

How gullible we are!!

Then there’s the non-existent pandemic. Covid-19 is doing a great job for Johnson and the Tories. They successfully used it to disguise the disastrous Brexit deal that is costing us £37 billion a year and has wrecked all the freedoms we had as well as scuppering the cooperation projects. It is now helping to keep Boris Johnson in post as they mistakenly remove all restrictions and pretend the pandemic is over in order to save the Big Dog Turd.

However, one wonders how long this can continue. The new variants are springing up and causing problems. The Omicron BA.2 variant is proving much more infectious. The Deltacron variant is a little unknown as of yet. What is emerging is that past infections of Delta do not give immunity against Omicron. They are very different viruses. The other thing is that immunity from either infection or vaccination is short-lived – around three months for most people. That means that we’re destined to get it again and again with further attrition of our brains, memories, cognitive skills and hearts. I’m not sure what the long-term effects might be.

This was interesting:

https://inews.co.uk/news/covid-can-get-three-times-how-soon-catch-coronavirus-again-reinfection-explained-1521002

So, as the R-rate climbs more over seventies get the illness, hospital cases are up 18% last week and more and more people become ill it’s a question of where are we going?

An endless round of 3 monthly vaccinations?

An improved medicine and treatment?

A very mild variant?

Another lockdown?

The virus to mysteriously disappear?

We’ll see!

Poetry – I Can’t Breathe

Posted on by Opher

I Can’t Breathe

I can’t breathe

Politics is sucking the life out of me.

I can’t breathe

I can’t believe the propaganda and lies

I can’t breathe

My eyes can’t believe what they see.

I can’t breathe

Waiting for the truth to crystallise

I can’t breathe

They are all playing a nasty game

I can’t breathe

Riding on their gravy train

I can’t breathe

Endless journey to wealth and fame

I can’t breathe

Kicking lives down the drain

I can’t breathe

I can’t breathe

I can’t breathe

Opher – 2.6.2020

As George Floyd was murdered in front of our eyes we are surely forced to confront the system we have created.

Once we lived freely as hunter-gatherers, in harmony with the land, at peace, with no leaders, no government. Then we invented agriculture, leaders, politics, cities, and bred in huge numbers to encompass the globe.

What a sad mess we’ve made of things.

The gross inequality, racism, corruption and violence we’ve created.

It’s smothering me. I can’t breathe.

The Corona Diaries – Day 754

Posted on by Opher

It was bright and sunny and quite a lot warmer in Yorkshire today. I didn’t go for a walk as I had a writing group. So good to meet up with friends and share our writing. Some great stuff.

Back home I’ve been playing some Byrds and finished reading my Jasper Fforde book. Really enjoyed it. Am wondering what to read next!! Might try a couple of friends’ books. I’ve got two ready.

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, our clown is cosying up to another unpleasant dictator who likes beheading people because they are gay. Seems that we need the oil and gas because cosying up to the previous dictator is no longer considered kosher.

Fortunately, our clown was not involved in the release of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe or she’d still be in there! If there is publicity to be made out of it they can afford to come up with £400,000,000. But when it’s giving money to those in need whose kids are starving or fair pay for teachers and nurses that’s another story. That money is needed for tax cuts for the wealthy.

I don’t know what is going to happen with the huge cost of living crisis that is overwhelming us. It’s a tsunami of increases. Rents have shot up. House prices have shot up. Petrol is now over £1.60 a litre. Gas and Electricity has tripled in price. Food is shooting up in price. All goods are becoming more expensive. On top of that the Tories are raising taxes and raising National Insurance. How on earth can people manage? For millions it is not going to be a choice of heating or eating. They are going to have the gas off and still starve.

The growth industry is food banks!

The question is why?

Brexit is costing us £37 billion a year and have put food and goods prices up due to a lack of HGV drivers. Then we have the loss of cheap Eastern European workers in shops, care homes, drivers, builders and pickers. The impact has been higher prices and shortages.

The government has hidden the cost of Brexit under the Covid crisis. Their mismanagement of the Covid crisis meant that they have squandered untold tens of billions on useless PPE, useless T&T, and bungs to their chums. How many billions of silly loans to crooks are they writing off?

They are looking to hide the Covid ineptitude behind a cost of living crisis that they are blaming on global problems. Our energy is going up 50% in April yet in France it’s going up 4%.

The oil companies are making tens of billions of extra profit (while pump prices are exorbitantly high) but the government refuses to take a windfall tax to help out the needy.

They are now looking to hide up the cost of living crisis (of their own making) behind the Ukraine war.

It’s all lies, smoke and mirrors. They are lying to us and looking to shove all their ineptitude, corruption and sleaze under the carpet.

It is very clear what their aims are. They are robbing from the poor – those on benefits and in the public services – in order to give to the poor. The top 5% have never had it so good. They’ve been making a fortune out of Brexit and Covid (and the cost of living crisis and the war). They are a bunch of profiteers busy stuffing their ill-gotten gains in the Cayman Islands.

I’ve got a good solution!! Raise the tax on the stupidly-rich, block off the tax loopholes and put a windfall tax on all of those industries who have made silly money out of Brexit, Covid, Energy and War. Of course, they won’t do that. People like Rishi Sunak are the stupidly rich. They want those tax loopholes for themselves. Those Tory MPs working on their second jobs, earning millions (like Rees-Mogg and Geoffrey Cox). The top 5% are the very people they were put into parliament to represent. They’d rather push the poor into starvation.

So, in Ukraine the Russian military is still totally bogged down, suffering horrendous casualties and losses of planes and tanks. They have been so poor at logistics that their tanks are being abandoned because they’re running out of fuel. They still haven’t managed to take a single city, had another general killed today and are losing this war. They have suffered 13,500 casualties and Putin is having to bring in mercenaries from Chechnia and Syria to bolster his depleted forces. This is meant to be a superpower!! What a joke. We’ll probably find their nukes are made of plastic!!

Perhaps they will have to negotiate for peace??

As the sanctions bite Russia is in a mess. Could be the end for Putin!!

All this mess is our fault though. The West went back on promises and moved NATO into those eastern countries putting missiles and planes close to Russia. Then when Russia invaded Georgia we did nothing. When they invaded Crimea we did nothing. When they invaded the two Ukrainian states we did nothing. The message to Putin was that the West would simply sit back and allow him to take Ukraine.

Putin underestimated the Western response. He no longer had Trump in the USA (who might have joined his mate in invading Ukraine). He’d bought Brexit and got Johnson in power. He thought the EU was weakened and we are led by a clown; he could do what he wanted.

He thought sanctions would be mild and last a few weeks. He must be reeling now and wondering what hit him. It’s almost as if the West has lured him in for a sucker punch.

Mind you, Ukraine is not the nice country it’s made out to be. It’s full of far-right groups and racism. There are some very unpleasant elements!

Over here in Coronaland with a pandemic that no longer exists Johnson must be getting worried. The virus is surging. We’ve shot up to 93,576 cases with 153 deaths. Hospital admissions shot up by a third this week.

Of course, our useless clown is doing his best. He’s keeping out the way and not saying anything. He’s removing testing so we can only guess at the real numbers, he’s disbanded the science group and he’s planning to stop reporting on the virus.

He’s hoping it will magically go away!!

Operation ‘Save The Big Dog’ is in full swing. All the country’s woes are due to other global issues (or Corbyn), every lie, lawbreaking incident or act of ineptitude is covered up. The media and BBC are under control. The rich are getting richer and the poor are too stupid to see what’s going on. All’s well!!

Stay safe!!!

The Corona Diaries – Day 752

Posted on by Opher

First – an update on my lingering covid – I woke up today feeling a lot better. My muzzy headache has almost gone. I’m beginning to feel more like myself. I’m still feeling tired and listless but a lot better.

I have a theory about my extra deep sleep and general weariness. I think my body is attempting to repair itself. Covid is a virus that does not just affect the lungs; it affects the whole body. I reckon that the heart, brain and lungs take the brunt of it. It makes brains smaller, destroys cells and memory. I reckon that is the headache and muzziness. The extra deep sleep is an attempt to repair the damage.

I hope it works!! I need every brain cell I can get!!

We went around to friends for a walk and a meal. We walked out along the river at Stamford Bridge. Beautiful day though the countryside has not woken up yet! It still looks bare, brown and straggly. Won’t be long. I need some hot summer sun!! It’ll also fry that virus!!

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, our clown is gaining in popularity and the Tory Party is rising in the polls – just 4 points behind. People are so stupid.

I was discussing this with our friends. It’s a mystery. The Tory Party was put together by the wealthy landowners and merchants to look after their interests. It is the party of the elite – the top 1% – the millionaires, aristocrats and bosses. In order to do that it has to exploit the 99% of the population.

The Tory Party is still very effective at looking after the interests of the elite. It is also very good at fooling the 99%.

When the masses started pressing for proper democracy and the vote the Tory elite were terrified. They thought that once the masses had the vote their days were numbered, the masses would vote in politicians to look after their interests. They successfully, and brutally, averted an attempted socialist revolution centred around the General Strike in the 1920s.

The only time that the masses achieved power was when the Labour Party were voted in after the war. They were from the working class and brought in policies that favoured working people and those in poverty. They brought in the NHS and welfare state.

So why has the working class become so right wing? They never used to be. Why have they become racist and xenophobic?

It’s easy to see why. The media is controlled by the Tories. The Daily Express, Mail and Sun have been drip-feeding poison into the minds of working people.

The British public are every bit as brainwashed and zombified as the Russians are. We’ve had over a hundred years of Tory propaganda. They are very good at it.

We see in Russia that the Kremlin is feeding the population lies. There is no war – only peacekeeping and liberation. Putin is making Russia safe, making it great again. It’s like watching Trump and Johnson with greater control.

Mind you, our clown is tightening his grip to ensure a Tory Dictatorship. They’ve taken over the BBC and are ousting anyone who doesn’t agree with them. They are making protest illegal. They have been playing the race card.

It is like watching the early days of Putin – it’s a populist dictatorship.

Johnson has miraculously escaped from sleaze, corruption and Partygate. Nobody is talking about the MET or Sue Gray.

It remains to be seen if the Tory Russian connection will sink them??? They’ve been in cahoots with the oligarchs! Of course they have. Oligarchs are their people. They have been feeding them mansions to launder their dirty money stolen from the Russian people, they’ve even secured them places in the Lords. The grateful oligarchs have found a place to launder their ill-gotten gains and all they have to do is bung a few million to the Tory Party and pay for a peerage and pay for a private audience with Johnson. What’s a few million when you’ve stolen billions?

Hats off to Marina Ovsyannikova. What a brave woman!! She single-handedly tried to wake up the Russian population to what is going on in Ukraine. She knew she would be facing fifteen years in brutal Russian prisons. What a sacrifice! Would any of us be prepared to do such a brave act?

I just hope the Russian people wake up. They have been so stupefied. They’ve allowed Putin and his mob to keep them in poverty, creaming off the wealth. It’s worse than life under the Czars!!

One brave and daring they rose up against the tyranny of the Czars. Time to repeat it!! Time to create a proper socialist state and come in from the cold.

Speaking of colds – we’re back to covid! We can’t rely on any stats now. The figures I could find said the rate of new cases had gone up to 171,000 with another 134 deaths. Hospital cases are rising.

Should we be worried?

Maybe not. The vaccination programme with 4th boosters for the vulnerable has greatly reduced the severe cases. Along with that we have various new treatments – antivirals and drugs – that make treatment better.

Johnson is the luckiest guy on the planet. The shit slides off him

Stay safe!! We still haven’t been blown to pieces!!

The Corona Diaries – Day 751

Posted on by Opher

I was greatly saddened a day ago to hear of the sudden death of Dewin Nefol AKA Chris, a commentator and contributor to this blog over a number of years. A man whose intellect and sensitivities I much respected, whose creative endeavours in the form of epic poetry were unique and extraordinary. Someone who became a friend. News of his death came as a shock and brought tears to me eyes. I shall miss him greatly – so long mate!!

It’s over four weeks since I went down with Covid. At the time, due to being vaccinated, it was much like a bad cold (sore throat, sneeze, cough, sinuses, headache) and not severe enough to warrant taking to our bed. Thank heavens we were vaccinated! I think if we hadn’t have been the effects could have been catastrophic.

Three weeks after our recovery we are both still suffering from the after-effects. I woke this morning with a really muzzy head and a sinusy headache that does not respond to Lemsip or paracetamol. Coupled with that we are both feeling washed out and drained of energy. I feel worse today than I have felt for weeks!

The other thing I have been noticing is the effect on my digestive system and sleep patterns. Covid has left me a lot more thirsty than I was before. It has put me off alcohol. I still have a metallic taste in my mouth. I am constipated and have an irritable acid stomach. My sleep patterns are different. I am feeling very tired. If I try to read I find myself nodding off. I feel particularly tired in the afternoon and could easily have an hour’s kip. I am sleeping well at night – and, according to my Fitbit I am spending twice as long in deep sleep! That’s significant.

As a biologist looking at all this I am beginning to make a number of observations/conclusions:

a. It is obvious that the virus infects all the organs in the body and some of these symptoms are probably due to way it has affected the brain, heart, liver and digestive system.

b. My body is trying to repair the widespread damage by inducing more sleep/rest.

c. Trying to do too much causes a setback – having the grandchild with us for the weekend has had a far greater effect than normal. I’m paying for it today.

d. My body chemistry is still awry.

e. Even though, due to vaccination, we only had the disease mildly the damage has been widespread and long-lasting.

I’m just hoping that this ‘lingering covid’ doesn’t last too long!

On the positive front – having now had covid (which we caught three months after our booster) we are now likely to be immune for another three months. As we did not qualify for the 4th vaccination this is quite fortunate. If we had caught it a month or too later our immunity would have dwindled further and we would have been a lot worse.

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, Johnson is relishing his rise in popularity and escape from the jaws of the monster he created. The war is distracting from his lawbreaking, lies and incompetence. He is lapping up the praise heaped upon him from Ukraine for supplying them with sophisticated weapons to blow up Russian tanks and shoot down planes. They probably won’t be quite so effusive when the bill arrives!!

As for leadership?? We still haven’t seen any. Just costume changes and photo opps!! The man is incapable of leading. Even his soundbites are not as catchy. ‘Putin must be made to fail’ does not have much of a ring to it!

Everything the Tories are doing is done through devious means and stealth. They are trying to slide the bill to stop protests through the parliament without it being noticed. They are trying to deflect all the Russian business and hope that the war stops the Russian Tory donations and Russian peerages and Russian election fiddling from being focussed on. They are tightening their control over the BBC and other media outlets. It’s scary. Democracy is quietly being taken apart before our eyes.

We see the effect of this in Russia. The propaganda is being pumped out. Most of the Russian population simply do not believe that Russia is invading Ukraine, neither do they believe that they are shelling civilians.

Maybe things will change a little when the body bags start coming home and the soldiers return with the tales of what they have seen! But then they will probably be stifled too!

That highlights two things for me:

Firstly, the power of the media and how the diet of Tory propaganda through the newspapers has created a mindset in stupid people. The likes of the Express, Mail, Sun, Telegraph and Times have poured out a constant stream of biased news, untrue stories and a programme of vilification against Labour that has given the Tories a platform they don’t deserve and fuelled Brexit. They have a lot to answer for.

Secondly, it highlights to me how careful we have to be overall news coverage. For instance, our views on war. The media controls our views. The world has been beset by some horrendous wars sponsored by the USA and Russia – Syria, Chechnia, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Nigeria, Central Africa, Sudan……. Cities have been razed to rubble, huge numbers killed and mass migration of traumatised, desperate people. They hardly get a mention. The poor refugees are seen as a nuisance and worse. But somehow Ukraine is different. Is it racism? Fear of a nuclear war? Hatred of Russia? Or media conspired.

War is always horrendous. Is it ever justified? How much of this Ukrainian war is the fault of NATO and the West? Have we gone back on assurances we gave to Russia following the collapse of the USSR? Has NATO been deliberately moving into all those Eastern countries, right up to the borders of Russia as a provocation? Isn’t that similar to the Cuban missile crisis? Shouldn’t more effort have been made to draw Russia into the international community?

It just opens up a series of questions in my mind.

I so wish we had a leader who would explain to us plebs rather than just impose his stupidity on us. Herd Immunity is obviously the policy the government has chosen, even if they refuse to share that with us. They have accepted that there will be a number of deaths, rising cases and rising hospital cases but consider this acceptable and a price worth paying. Why don’t they come out and explain it? Why have they simply removed all restrictions and sacked the scientists? Surely, if it is such a good idea then they can explain their thinking. Aaah but these are politicians. They won’t, because if it all goes tits up they can deny it was their policy and claim they were following the science. Lying is their principal fall-back position. They’ve lied about everything else!

So, there are no restrictions. You don’t have to distance or wear a mask. You don’t even have to stay off work if you have covid. They’ve stopped the testing! It’s a free-for-all!

They want us all to get it, don’t they? They figure that they can hide the deaths and numbers! They are working on the idea that it will make them more popular. That’s all that counts!

Covid is now more widespread than ever. I don’t care what the official figures say. They are grossly inaccurate. I know more people who have had it in the last month than at any time in the pandemic. My relatives are a good example. My older sister and her husband have just gone down with it. Liz’s younger brother and his wife, two of their children, two of my sister’s children. They gone through the whole two years and then we all suddenly go down with it in a matter of weeks. Coincidence??

The official figures (which I believe are well done on the real numbers) are a rise to 72,858 new cases yesterday with another 114 deaths. The hospital cases are rising – 11,314 cases yesterday!!

That’s more than when we locked down!

The government is counting on vaccination. By giving 4th boosters to those over 75, care homes and the vulnerable, they are hoping the hospital cases and deaths won’t go too high.

Johnson’s a gambler. He doesn’t use cards or dice; he uses us!!

Stay safe!!