This time last year me and Dad were on holiday in Ireland for St Patricks day, thanks to a bet that I won on the horse the day after Christmas 2023. It was an unexpected win for a number of reasons and so when the bet paid out I shared some of the money with my mum and dad as the money did not really feel like mine anyway.
Dad said that rather than have the cash he wanted to go on holiday to Ireland and so that is exactly what we did. I paid for the accommodation and flights and we shared the costs of the meals and drinks. It was so much fun and went to some new places that I had not visited before as well as some tried and tested places. We initially got a ferry over from south Wales, which very nearly did not happen to County Wexford, then stayed in lovely hotel there and then travelled to Cork where dads Nan was from. We then went up to Limerick and onto Galway where we spent a weekend and was in St Patricks day for the Sunday. Finally we headed back to Dublin for a few days and then caught a flight back home. I love Ireland; I love my family and feel like although I am missing my Dad now that he is no longer with us I am very grateful for the time we shared together.
I feel like I am counting my blessings at present rather than counting my curses and there are many blessings. Though I hoped and thought he would live longer the time we all shared with him was special and I feel honoured to have known him and had him as part of my life.
Trump is an isolationist at heart. There are many things which Trump does not, cannot or has no will to understand when it comes to his world view and he views others as being weak or insignificant, if they do not think and feel the same as him and his outward reaction to those who do not share in his world view is divisive and in the short, medium and long-term extremely damaging to the US, it’s allies and enemies alike. No good will come from Trumps actions and inaction as he seeks to impose his world view on all of us.
With great power comes great responsibility normally and Trump is not responsible to anything or anyone if anything he is a reckless bully or reckless bull in a china shop. His actions and lack of political accountability when signing of executive order after executive order is mind boggling. His overstepping of his executive power with the sacking of state employees, shutting down of government programs is done on a whim and not with any true political oversight judgment or accountability.
With Trump offering trade wars to break up years of stable trading relations and treaties with Canada for what appear to be petty reasoning’s in response to complex problems for the USA e.g. Trump wants Canada to become part of the USA to be used as a strategic asset and profit from this and is punishing Canada for not being part of the USA. Trump is only able to do a lot of the negative things that he is doing because his country the USA is the most powerful trading nation in the world and he is using that power as leverage. If the UK or any other nation in the world tried to do this they would be punished by others and time will see if the US will be punished and how.
His cruel turn on Canada a historic partner and ally is in complete opposition to his views on Russia – Russia really does have an elusive hold over Trump. Not that any conspiracy theorists talk about it but I do wonder if Trumps first wife or current wife could be Russian sympathizers or even agents infiltrating Trumps inner circle and making him a bonified follow of Putin’s Russia as he really does love and respect Russia’s way of doing business and has an affection for Putin.
It’s not just Putin that Trump shows support for he likes and is attracted to the political perspective of authoritarian leaders across the globe and one most damagingly supporting is that of Netanyahu in Israel he does not force a peace deal on Israel and continues to offer them an open-ended offer of arms and a blank cheque to fight against those that wish for autonomy and self governance in Gaza. So he is a man of peace when it suits him in Ukraine but also a man of war when it suits him and the politicians he shows favor to and supports when seeking war in Gaza.
Just a final thoughts I am in no way mad at or wish to upset American citizens the reasons that brought people to vote and not vote for Trump are complex and diverse. I aim to respect and understand what drives people to resort to needing a leader like Trump to vote for whilst at the same time wholeheartedly hating and fearing what Trump is capable of, what he has already done and what he will do next he neither has a moral compass nor proven limits on his power yet.
Richard George Adams FRSL was an English novelist. He is best known for his debut novel Watership Down.
Watership Down is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published in 1972. Set in Hampshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natural wild environment with burrows, they are anthropomorphized (the act of attributing human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities), and the wildlife in the story possesses its own culture, language, proverbs, poetry, and mythology. Evoking epic themes, the novel follows the rabbits as they escape the destruction of their warren and seek a place to establish a new home, the hill of Watership Down, encountering perils and temptations along the way.
Watership Down was Richard Adams’s debut novel. It was rejected by several publishers before Collings accepted the manuscript; the published book then won the annual Carnegie Medal (UK), annual Guardian Prize (UK), and other book awards.
The novel was adapted into a 2D animated feature film in 1978 and a 2D animated children’s television series from 1999 and 2001. In 2018, the novel was adapted again, this time into a 3D animated series, which both aired in the UK and was made available on Netflix.
The scenes this week when Trump and his deputy showed their true colours to Zelensky when invited to the oval office was neither a surprise nor justified. They have no interest in the war and are most likely mildly amused by the idea of trying to make a considerable amount of money over carving out a peace deal that they see themselves as the only ones that can broker and make happen. Though countries pay a price for peace for sure – no leader has gone to the negotiation table quite like Trump before.
Would you like a slice Mr President, I hear it’s very good.
One thing I am also finding very interesting at present is the tone of different media sites, if you pay attention some will side with Trump (stop having those sites as a main source of information, if you dare as that’s just propaganda and disinformation for the wealthy and ruthless, some see it as being both Trumps fault as well as Zelensky which also makes me feel uncomfortable as they are just still trying to justify what Trump just did and continues to do it reminds me of a quote which is ‘Well, you can put lipstick on a hog and call it Monique, but it’s still a pig’.
Trumplet Pig getting ready for his next performance
I part of me thought the image above was too much but the fear of the depths of the potential of Trump is a true worry to me and should be to you too. Some news sites really have taken the situation as a serious and unprecedented attack by Trump, which is what it truly and sadly is with an explanation of this story from a news outlet, cannot always explain away the two sides to each argument theory when one such as Trump is being so manipulative of the truth and outspoken in order to try and get his own way and be seen to try and win an argument
Since Trumps election I have found it quite sickening concerning all of the billionaires queuing up to kiss at the hand of the newly crowned king of the USA. Not one of them has an issue with his morality, methods of salesmanship or political perspective, which says just as much about them as it does Trump.
Lest they forgot at the next election in the states their votes will be equal to and not greater that each and every other American citizen. Imagine a world where billionaires were outlawed and their finances confiscated for the greater good. As they don’t care for your vote or your ability to have a job now, why should you care for their ability to be billionaires either.
If Trump is so keen to raise money by excessive and self serving tariffs on the economic industries and places across the globe why not tax mega wealthy of their power and influence instead? In the next four years Trump should not and will not be judged just on how much money he makes or how much power he has – but on what he does with it and what is undone because of it.
Trump now reminds me of the depiction of Al Capone, an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1925 to 1931 as shown in the movie the The Untouchables a 1987 Film starring Robert De Niro (as Al Capone), Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Andy Garcia and Charles Martin Smith. It is written by David Mamet and directed by Brian De Palma.
Though in the clip below Al Capone is met with justice I sadly don’t think it likely at present to happen to Trump in his lifetime – Trump is likely to die of old age prior to meeting justice and we have another 4 years of his bullshit still to unravel the world and its workings prior to the end of his presidency.
The Untouchables Movie CLIP – Here Endeth the Lesson (1987)
The United States’ steadfast allegiance to Ukraine during that country’s three-year war against Russia appears to be rapidly eroding under the Trump administration. President Donald Trump on Feb. 19, 2025, referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “a dictator” and inaccurately blamed him for the conflict that Russia instigated as part of a land grab in the border regions of the two countries.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said on Feb. 19 that Trump is trapped in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “disinformation space.”
Earlier this week, the US president claimed America had given Ukraine at least $200bn (£158bn) more than Europe has since Russia invaded the country in February 2022.
Mr Trump said: “I think Europe has given $100bn (£79n)… and we’ve given, let’s say, $300bn (£237bn) plus.”
There are a number of figures available for the amount of money being given to Ukraine by different countries.
The Kiel Institute for the World Economy’s Ukraine Support Tracker shows that countries in Europe have allocated a total of €132bn (£109bn or $139bn) in help for Ukraine.
The tracker shows the US has allocated around €114bn (£95bn or $120bn).
There is also a debate about how much money countries say they have given to Ukraine has actually gone to the country itself.
According to The Washington Post, some of the money given by Washington includes sending money through “drawdowns” from US weapon stockpiles and money to pay US-based defence contractors for equipment.
One thing that has fuelled the fires of anti Ukrainian sentiment by both those on the left and right is the belief that the whole war is a money making scam – the sovereignty of the nation of Ukraine does not matter in this argument and their ability to self determination also unimportant, the more I think about it this perspective is very much one pushed by Putin onto the west and lapped up by President Trump and conspiracy theorists arguing the toss about money spent rather than a democratic right and mandate to defend and have ones own land.
Land, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—those once beautiful values all democracies believed in and aspired to. Such views, though claimed by the right to be at the heart of their ideals, are no longer really recognized, sadly, by Trump’s America or by other rising stars of the right across the globe.
When the Brazilian president offered a chainsaw as a gift to Elon Musk, it carried deeply troubling connotations for me: this was a gift from a country that is razing one of the lungs of the Earth, the Brazilian rainforest, and the president of Brazil presents Musk with the very symbol of what is being used to destroy his own country’s rainforests – it feels like a flagrant display of right-wing fascism, tasteless and defiant, a blatant middle finger to the world under the banner of hate, cuts, and a conqueror’s philosophy.
With the climate breakdown and global warming, there were those that believed that the breakdown of social norms and an increase in wars would occur as the planet warmed and climate change impacted our lives, but I had underestimated and underfeared the true nature of the changes now occurring right in front of our eyes. I knew there would be wars, but I thought they would be over mineral deposits in Africa or oil in the middle east and not economic wars over the sovereignty of whole nations in what was once seen as relatively stable or growing democracies such as Ukraine or even well established democracies such as Canada are not safe against Trumps trade wars. Sadly know where is safe anymore; it’s mental, really, what is happening.
Truth matters, both to us as individuals and to society as a whole. As individuals, being truthful means that we can grow and mature, learning from our mistakes. For society, truthfulness makes social bonds, and lying and hypocrisy break them.
Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo was a French Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. His most famous works are the novels The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables
‘The paradise of the rich is made out of the hell of the poor’, There had been in modern times an attempt to help people out of poverty through the wealth of others trickling down to the poor – I fear if Trump has his ways there won’t be much wealth actively tricking to the poor or to anyone else for that matter. With the stopping of aid across the US and internationally and calling out aid projects as wasteful, fraudulent and corrupt, that the US must somehow be saved from and free of, whilst increasing tax breaks for the most wealthy does not bode well for the poor across the globe. The poorer and more desperate you make people the harder they will fight to reach your shores and to break all rules of laws to survive.
There seem to be a considerable swell of people speaking out at present, like I have never seen before against President Trump not so much from politicians or the mainstream mass media but more so on a grass roots level – I hope it’s not too little too late.
The human soul can endure what is real and live through many forms of reality in the hope and sometimes expectation of something better and something pure.
But it is the youth that must fight and die – Herbert Hoover
Trump warns ‘all hell is going to break out’ if Gaza hostage deadline not met by Hamas
How the Palestinians are treated in Gaza really does remind me of the execution scenes in the film Schindler’s list. I dread to think what the final solution is in the mind of Trump and Netanyahu for the Palestinian people.
When you see a whole nation or race of people as an enemy you no longer see them as people at all.
The Liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto – Max Richter “Last Days” / scene from “Schindler’s List”
The Krakow Ghetto was one of five major, metropolitan Jewish ghettos created by Nazi Germany in the new General Government territory during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It was created for the purpose of exploitation, terror, and persecution of local Polish Jews, as well as the staging area for separating the “able workers” from those who would later be deemed unworthy of life. The Ghetto was liquidated between June 1942 and March 1943, with most of its inhabitants sent to Belzec extermination camp and Plaszow slave-labor camp, and exterminated also at Auschwitz concentration camp.
Just heard the phrase on a clip on my X website on the Peston show from tonight in the UK where Martin Lewis talks about ‘people living within their own fiscal eco-chambers’.
To me this really struck a chord and is so insightful to so many political expressions, opinions and perspectives. An echo chamber is “an environment where a person only encounters information or opinions that reflect and reinforce their own.” The term is a metaphor based on an acoustic echo chamber, in which sounds reverberate in a hollow enclosure.
I often wonder why both in the UK and US why elections often appear to be so close and nobody really knows who is going to win or lose or even or by how much of a percentage and also why people seem to express certain strong held views or appear to disbelieve or not have an interest in or care about the views of others that can be considered to be an opposite to their own.
Well I still don’t understand why one would ever vote for Trump and over the next four years were going to see that political reality unfold. But as a businessman and salesman that made a pitch to multiple pockets of people with a wide spectrum of opinions and he was able to rally enough people in enough fiscal eco chambers to ultimately be able to now dominate the political landscape for the next four years in the US and beyond too.
Sadly in the UK the right have dominated our politics in terms of proportion of governments voted in over the years and an eco chamber of people that look inwards to what is in it for themselves when their lives are profitable or are sold a story or business model that looks inwards to making them wealthier and more prosperous, you can see the logic in why a majority would vote for this consistently on an election by election basis and then once elected our government and politicians fights for this ethos for our nations and fight to tell us that this is what they are doing for us and thus the cycle of inward looking self-serving politics continues.
Trumps political perspective might be an extreme perspective of such self serving interests and needs to be fulfilled and voted for but it is neither new nor in many ways an unexpected thing to vote for when given a choice to do so.
The main problem for me, which I mention from my warm, hobbit hole in the shire of Devon in what is after all considered to be a relatively affluent part of the planet and well looked after space and place is that the world aspires to be. A self serving place like many that looks after its own interest and needs but not everywhere in the world is relatively affluent part of the planet or a well looked after space and place on the planet. There are conflicting interest, desires and opinions and not everyone can have or should get their own way. There are not enough trees to be cut down, not enough rivers and seas to be polluted and robbed of life, not enough land to be bought and sold or mines to be dug out or shares to be bought and sold for everyone.
There are many in the wealthy areas of the world whose eco chamber of reality and political perspective often encourages them to ignore or turn a blind eye to the suffering of others, alien to themselves, to ignore and pretend that it does not matter to them because of who they are or what they have and where they live.
Foreign places to many that are experiencing great poverty or suffering in developing or underdeveloped or third world nations, due to lack of fiscal opportunities and jobs or due to wars (not caused by them) or climate change (not generated by them) or pollution (not produced by them), or political stagnation and corruption (also not their fault) are often seen as not our problems too.
Such people living under such circumstances will seek to possibly escape to a wealthy region of the world, safer from all of the above mentioned negatives, these people will be known as immigrants, both legal and illegal ones. Or if fortunate in the country they live in they might seek to work as best they can to provide their future generations with great chance of wealth and opportunities that they could never have had in their own lifetime, but this opportunity will not be there for all.
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