The Corona Diaries Pt. 4 (119 days from December 16th 2021 to April 9th 2022) – Paperback, Hardback and Kindle

Posted on by Opher

This is what you can expect:

The Corona Diaries – Day 665

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Opher

Fabulous day for mid-January. Ridiculous! Blue sky and the sun felt warm. If it wasn’t for the coldish air it could have been summer. And there are still people who deny there is any global warming!!

We went to Scarborough (no fair) to have a walk around the castle and down into the harbour. It was great to be able to eat fish and chips outside without feeling cold!!

Back home I’ve been editing the Captain Beefheart book and playing some White Stripes!!

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland our lying clown is really in the mire. I think the trough has fallen over. All the greedy profiteers are trampling him into the shit as they frantically look for a way of preserving their gravy train.

Johnson is now a liability. The ship is sinking. They are twelve points behind.

All this feels Dillingerish to me. Johnson has committed lie after lie, has presided over unbelievable sleaze, has been a thoroughly spoilt entitled prick, has been amazingly inept, blatantly self-serving and has got away with murder.

People have excused him the lousy Brexit deal, the tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths, the philandering, the wallpaper, holidays and blathering. They even find his lawbreaking endearing. Dillinger was a murdering gangster but was brought down for tax evasion. Johnson has been unbelievably incompetent, greedy, lying and lawbreaking but is being brought down by a party.!

It’s risible.

One wonders if a similar thing might happen with Trump – some unforeseen trivia that will finally burst the bubble so that the TRumpists wake up to see what a lying, conniving, self-server the incompetent twat has been.

We’ll see!!

I must check what is currently happening with that nasty piece of work Bolsonaro. If he had his way he’d flatten the whole Amazon jungle just to fill his bank account.

Hopefully the world will eventually right itself and these extreme fascist populists will be consigned to history.

It’s not a nice place at the moment. Trump is dumping democracy and heading for fascist tyranny. China is quietly spreading its influence. Russia is on the verge of war.

Mind you, I don’t think Putin is entirely wrong on this. As soon as the USSR broke up NATO was very quick to move in there. We saw the American response when Russia tried to set up missile sites in Cuba. They were prepared to start a third world war. Putting missile sites on the border of Russia is no different. This is a power game and the USA is not blameless.

What a mess we humans make. We’re meant to be intelligent. It seems that intelligence is soon trumped by greed and lust for power.

We take heaven and transform it into hell so that a tiny minority can have more than they can possibly ever need. Madness.

So, we have a Save The Big Dog policy coming into force. Yesterday, in typical Orwellian doublespeak, we were told that the virus is decreasing sufficiently to allow Plan B to end next week. That is on the day when the virus incidence went up 14,000 to 108,069 new cases with 359 more deaths.

Now, I am not an expert on language but a decrease to me means something going down in numbers, not up!! Something going up by 14,000 is a big increase!

Is this some new use of language?? Are we inventing new meanings?

Or is this lying Boris making a political decision in a desperate attempt to gain some popularity. He’s in a nosedive and needs to pull out before he hits the ground and messes his hair up!!

They’re chucking out ballast. The BBC, immigrants and Plan B.

Next week they throw out the red meat and massacre the Number 10 crew!!

Meanwhile the true criminals go free!!

Stay Safe!!

The Corona Diaries – Day 666

Posted on January 20, 2022 by Opher

I’m a bit out of touch today! Is Johnson still there? I hope so!! He’s the best hope we have. Without his lies and incompetence, the Tories could be in power forever!! They’d turn us all into peasants doffing our caps to the Lord of the Manor.

I’ve been to my writing group – exchanging a round of great stories, pulling the government apart and having a laugh. Back home I’ve been playing some David Gray and doing a lot of editing of the Beefheart book.

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, the herd of swine are organising. They are all learning their lines so that they can repeat them for the media. The idea being that the more times something is said the more people believe it. It’s the Goebbels version of propaganda.

It seems that the Tories want to move on. Johnson has said a heartfelt apology. We have to wait for Sue Gray to report to Johnson, for Johnson to read the report and decide if he’s done anything wrong and then to mercilessly sack lots of underlings. Job Done. We have to remind ourselves what a great job he’s done. He’s led us through Brexit. He single-handedly created a vaccine and administered. it to the whole country. He’s defeated the virus! He’s been tirelessly focussed. Now he just wants to get on with the job in hand – levelling up, fighting invasion from immigrants and getting the country back on its feet!! Land of Hope and Glory!!

My view is a little different.

Our clown of a leader is very sorry that he’s been caught lying and partying. He’s desperately sorry that he’ll lose his power and hence his influence and wealth.

He wants the Sue Gray greywash, reporting to him to exonerate himself!! He’s sure that he can excuse his own behaviour, tart it up with spin and blame it on others.

He thinks that if he sacks lots of innocent people the public will forgive him.

He has negotiated a disastrous Brexit that was so badly negotiated that it has caused mayhem, red-tape and spiralling costs.

He had absolutely nothing to do with the manufacture of vaccines. That was private companies who are making a killing.

He had absolutely nothing to do with the vaccination programme. That was the NHS that he and his chums have been cutting to the bone for twelve years and selling off to the Yanks.

The virus is far from defeated but for populist, political reasons he is lifting all restrictions.

He is providing a whole series of distractions – destroying the BBC (win win – they will no longer be held to account!), dealing with the threat of millions of immigrants and the imaginary levelling up of the country (a total farce). He thinks we are all fools who can be easily duped and have the memory of goldfish.

He’s not a Big Dog – more a Big Dog’s turd!

Will chucking red meat at the electorate work?

You know what? This time I think it won’t! Once people have seen him for the lying inept clown he really is it will be hard for them to go back to being duped!

The polls and council elections in May will probably see us being rid of him.

So, yesterday there were another 107,364 new cases with 359 more deaths.

Boris Johnson and his slimy government claim this is the end of the pandemic. In order to gain popularity they propose to end Plan B, remove all restrictions and send everyone back to the office.

Is this a sound scientific response? Or is this the Tory Party asking hundreds of thousands to die for Boris??

I think the latter. I think they are lifting restrictions despite the high levels of virus in order to try to save the clown’s career.

This is far too early. The virus is not reducing. A 100,000 cases a day could soon spiral up if restrictions are removed. But it seems that the future of Johnson as PM is more important than the lives of citizens.

So as Austria introduces mandatory vaccination and unvaccinated sportsstars are being banned from travelling, we are being sacrificed to improve the electorial chances of Tories.

Stay safe!! We’re the pawns!!

inal volume of my Corona Diaries, extracted from the daily rants I produced during lockdown in the Covid Pandemic.
The provide an insight into daily life during lockdown, what I was writing, reading, listening to and eating as well as where I was walking and the wonders of nature’s uplifting effects on the spirit. It combines this with a rant about our corrupt, inept and greedy politicians – namely Johnson and Trump and their useless, self-centred associates.
This diary provides a picture of life during lockdown, the changing political/medical scene and describes what it was like to get covid, come out the other side and straight into war!
We are the survivors of a very strange and unique time (no thanks to our leaders!)
If only we learnt from what has gone before!

The Corona Diaries Pt. 4 (119 days from December 16th 2021 to April 9th 2022) – now available -Kindle, Hard back and Paperback

Posted on by Opher

Our Lockdown.

Our Covid.

The final volume of my Corona Diaries, extracted from the daily rants I produced during lockdown in the Covid Pandemic.
The provide an insight into daily life during lockdown, what I was writing, reading, listening to and eating as well as where I was walking and the wonders of nature’s uplifting effects on the spirit. It combines this with a rant about our corrupt, inept and greedy politicians – namely Johnson and Trump and their useless, self-centred associates.
This diary provides a picture of life during lockdown, the changing political/medical scene and describes what it was like to get covid, come out the other side and straight into war!
We are the survivors of a very strange and unique time (no thanks to our leaders!)
If only we learnt from what has gone before!

The Corona Diaries Vol 4 – out soon – Paperback, Hardback and Kindle

Posted on by Opher

The final volume of my Corona Diaries, extracted from the daily rants I produced during lockdown in the Covid Pandemic.

The provide an insight into daily life during lockdown, what I was writing, reading, listening to and eating as well as where I was walking and the wonders of nature’s uplifting effects on the spirit. It combines this with a rant about our corrupt, inept and greedy politicians – namely Johnson and Trump and their useless, self-centred associates.

This diary provides a picture of life during lockdown, the changing political/medical scene and describes what it was like to get covid, come out the other side and straight into war!

We are the survivors of a very strange and unique time (no thanks to our leaders!)

If only we learnt from what has gone before!

The Corona Diaries Vol. 4

Posted on by Opher

I’ve just spent the last days compiling the final volume of my Corona Diaries extracted from my blog. During the pandemic I put out a daily rant. The early ones are out in three volumes. This one will be out shortly. It takes me from December 2021 to April 2022 and the end of the pandemic and covers my own illness.

Makes for interesting reading – a reminder of the corruption and incompetence as well as the daily life in lockdown.

Foreword

Posted on November 4, 2024 by Opher

I have finally found the time and energy to compile the final section of my catalogue of Corona posts. During the pandemic I put out a daily broadcast. We lived in isolation during the strangest, most surreal time, yet already, just two years on, that all seems like a fading unreality. These posts remind me of the reality of those days. Overnight we were thrown from a life packed full of commitments, activities, friends and packed calendars into a blank canvas. For once in our lives we had time! What a strange experience!

Some of us spent that time profitably. I wrote, listened to music, read, went for long walks, basked in nature and we decorated the entire house! Some of us became incredibly bored, ate, drank, smoked and watched day-time telly. There wasn’t even any sport. I guess I was lucky. We lived on the edge of the countryside. We had a big house. I had lots of interests. Writing and reading take time. Walking in nature (without traffic) revitalizes the spirit.

Time well spent.

Those daily rants captured a little of that strange time. They were full of rants at the spectacular ineptitude and corruption of the Johnson and Trump governments. I watched with horror at the vacillation between panic and arrogance, the lack of preparedness and ignorance. We were incredibly lucky. We dodged a bullet. As it turned out the virus had a relatively low kill rate – 1 in 1200 – next time we may not be so lucky. A virus will come along with a 90% kill rate, then we will be in trouble. Hopefully, when that happens we will have a competent administration in charge and an intelligent, scientific policy. Hopefully (but I wouldn’t count on it – they seem to currently be re-electing the biggest idiot who has ever gained office – we never learn).

My reports gave an insight into my daily activities as well as my diatribes aimed against the politics of the pandemic. They usually contained a weather report (weren’t we lucky with the weather?) and what I was reading and listening to. There is the complete range between the personal and wider issues. I usually put in the deaths and a record of the current initiatives on a national and global scale (along with my personal views).

They also give a report on what it was like to finally catch the dreaded disease (fortunately when fully vaccinated) and the long-term effects.

I am compiling them with an eye on the historic importance of those two years. They are really no more than a personal record for me to look back on. The first three volumes met with shattering indifference. I think I actually sold 1 copy. So I know there are no commercial gains to be had and no interest from outside to my own experience. That’s fine. I am writing this for me.

In order to compile this book I am trawling through the archives of WordPress and copying the reports that I put out. This is not as easy as it seems. I have put out some 20,549 posts over the years (sometimes up to 20 a day) and WordPress annoyingly seems to jumble them up so that finding a sequence is made much harder than it should have been.

In the course of this I  have found that there were ten days not accounted for, and, despite diligent searching, I have not managed to plug these holes. The posts are missing in action. However, my assumption is that there were some days (as around Christmas time 2021) when things were going on and I did not manage to put out a post. So those posts were not actually lost as much as never existed. Not to worry. The reports are extremely repetitive anyway. They were not intended to be read as a book; they were put out as stand-alone daily reports in a blog. You haven’t missed much. When put together like this they can be boring. Fine with me. I dip into them and it jogs my memory. They are my personal diary. Nothing more.

By the time of this fourth volume the fear factor had all-but disappeared. The vaccines were out. Exasperation had replaced concern. We knew more about the virus – how it was spread, the success of the vaccines and its deadliness (or lack of it). I was immensely furious at the corrupt squandering of money on VIP lanes, ludicrous salaries, PPE, undocumented loans and useless schemes – apps, T&T and Nightingales. They were frantically throwing money at any Tory donor who asked instead of using tried and tested firms. They were also hiding things up and putting out misinformation. The way they had panicked and chucked out the elderly (often infected) from the hospitals to Care Homes in order to make space. Instead of putting together a sane, scientifically designed program to avoid infection they continued with more of the same. Science was besmirched with politics and greed. A tale of political opportunism, unbridled avarice and complete stupidity.

Eat Out to Kill Again! Why not Eat Outside to Help Out – they knew how the virus was spread. The weather was fine. Stupid schemes badly thought through that killed people!

I despair!

Anyway, you can see that this is dredging up those same old frustrations and angers. I’ll stop. I’m only talking to myself anyway.

This then is the final section. It takes us from December 2021 to April 2022 and our re-emergence into a different world.

I churned these reports out on my blog in a torrent without any editing or rewriting. Consequently they are probably riddled with poor grammar, spellos and repetitive nonsense. I did toy with carefully reading through and working on them but rejected that. I think they stand as they are – spontaneous outbursts. They are what they are – warts and all. They are of their time – raw and rough.

The pandemic was over but the War in Ukraine was just starting. We humans are surely the most stupid species that have ever lived. We have intelligence but, as you can see from these reports, we allow our hormones and self-interests to supersede all else. We elect fools, psychopaths, narcissists, self-serving conmen and arrogant imbeciles and then wonder why their insane black and white solutions don’t work. We never learn.

We never learn.

The Corona Diaries – Day 498

Posted on by Opher

Another beautiful day in Yorkshire. I had a zoom meeting with my writing group so I went for my walk this afternoon. Glorious! I love summer! Shorts, sandals and T-shirts. You can feel free, unconfined, unrestricted. Great.

In between I’ve been playing some Leonard Cohen, cooking and editing. It’s been a busy day.

I got told off for my political rants and told I should go and live in an authoritarian country. I’m not sure I want to live in an authoritarian country. I find this place repressive enough and am fighting hard to prevent this slide into extreme authoritarian control – the type of repression that the Tories love so much – you know, stopping protests, draconian laws, control of the media, being unaccountable for gross breaches of ministerial code, parliamentary conduct or even international and national laws. That’s authoritarianism – a slow slide to fascism (now not so slow under lying Johnson). Anyway, I have no intention of stopping telling the truth. Our Tory government is becoming more extreme and authoritarian by the minute. I think they should stop lying, stop breaking the law and stop hammering public servants and the poorest in society. I want to live in a fair society – not this elitist hell the Tories are creating.

Sorry.

Meanwhile, out in Coronaland, our disappearing clown, who promises the earth and delivers thin air, who refuses to put himself in a position where he is interviewed and has to defend his lies, policies and actions (because he can’t) – so he avoids all cross-examination and refuses to be held to account still thinks that the British public are a bunch of morons who will be delighted with a diet of lying soundbites. But then I suppose those lying soundbites – taking back sovereignty, £350 million a week, oven-ready and world-beating – were enough to win over enough gullible people, get him elected Prime Minister and get him a majority of 80 so that he is never scrutinised or held to account. But will that bubble burst? I bloody hope so!

We had another 29312 new cases yesterday ( a great underestimate given the reduction in testing) with another 119 deaths. It seems that a lot of young people are ending up in hospital and it is the unjabbed who are mainly dying.

Fit and healthy man, 42, from Southport, who rejected vaccine, dies of Covid | Coronavirus | The Guardian

I suppose they must think that death or life-long invalidity is a price worth paying! I wonder if they refuse antibiotics or other medicines too?

Just think if we didn’t have vaccination we’d all be dying in droves from smallpox, diphtheriae, typhoid, polio, tetanus and all those other illnesses that wiped out huge numbers in ages past. Or is that just fake news in the history books? All those diseases were hoaxes!

Personally I can’t wait for autumn to get my third jab to build up my waning immunity and give me better protection against the variants Johnson so stupidly ushers into the country.

Hopefully we are nearing herd immunity which must be one reason why the virus has not gone as rampant this time. It is also the reason why it is not killing so many people. The vaccine provides great protection against death and ventilators. That’s science for you – beats superstition any day! Another reason for lower cases and deaths seems to be the responsible behaviour of most people. They are still wearing masks, social distancing and staying out of indoor spaces. That partly reaffirms my faith in the British people – but I keep reminding myself that these are the fools that voted in this appalling Tory government! (So my faith is only partly restored!!)

In order to get to that herd immunity the government is opening up vaccinating the over 16s. They’ve had to because of the chicken-heartedness of young people. We’re not there! As those under 12 are unlikely to become very ill it might be worth holding mass covid parties for them! That would boost the herd immunity levels!! (Just kidding).

The challenge will come in autumn. With waning immunity, worsening weather and people going indoors the virus might well have one last go at killing us. There might even be a few more nasty variants to have to deal with.

Stay safe! Your end is nigh!!