Category: Thinking outside the box

Understanding U.S. Tariffs: Costs and Consequences

In 2025, U.S. tariffs are taxes levied by the federal government on imported goods at the border. While intended to protect domestic industries and reduce trade deficits, these duties directly impact American citizens through higher prices and broader economic shifts.

What are the 2025 U.S. Tariffs?

As of late 2025, the U.S. has implemented an aggressive trade regime characterized by widespread “reciprocal” and sectoral tariffs: 

  • Baseline Tariff: A minimum 10% baseline tariff applies to imports from nearly all trading partners.
  • Sectoral Tariffs: High specific duties apply to key industries, including:
    • Automobiles and Parts: 25% on most foreign-made cars and light trucks.
    • Metals: 50% on steel and aluminum (up from 25% earlier in the year).
    • Pharmaceuticals: 100% on branded or patented drugs, unless the company builds manufacturing plants in the U.S..
    • Lumber and Furniture: 10% on timber and up to 50% on kitchen cabinets and some furniture.
    • De Minimis Change: On August 29, 2025, the $800 exemption for low-value imports was removed, making small packages from retailers like Shein or Temu subject to duties.

How They Affect American Citizens

The primary impact on citizens is financial, as tariffs act as a “consumption tax” passed from businesses to individuals. 

1. Increased Costs of Living

  • Direct Price Hikes: Importers often pass the cost of the tariff directly to consumers. In 2025, households face an average estimated loss of $1,100 to $2,700 annually.
  • Specific Good Impacts: By late 2025, shoppers have seen significant price jumps in staples:
    • Groceries: Up 2.7%, with beef and coffee surging by 14% and 19%, respectively.
    • Cars: New car prices have risen by an average of $4,000 to $6,500 due to auto and metal tariffs.
    • Apparel: Clothing and leather goods prices have increased by up to 28%.

2. Regressive Tax Burden

Tariffs disproportionately affect lower-income families because they spend a larger share of their income on essential goods that are now more expensive. The poorest 20% of households face a tax increase equivalent to roughly 6% of their income, compared to only 1.7% for the top 1% of earners.

3. Labor Market and Job Security

  • Sector Gains vs. Losses: While tariffs aim to boost manufacturing jobs, research indicates that job losses in “downstream” industries (which use imported materials) often outweigh gains in protected industries.
  • Unemployment: Projections suggest the current tariff policy could lead to an increase in the unemployment rate by 0.6 percentage points by the end of 2026. 

4. Retaliation Impacts

Trading partners like China and Canada have imposed their own “tit-for-tat” tariffs on U.S. exports. This hurts American farmers and manufacturers who sell products abroad, further straining local economies. 

5. Reduced Consumer Choice 

Higher costs and trade uncertainty often lead retailers to carry fewer imported brands, resulting in fewer options and lower product variety for American shoppers. 

In essence, tariffs act as a regressive tax, raising the cost of living and operating for Americans while often failing to deliver promised economic benefits, shifting costs from foreign producers to domestic consumers and businesses. 

Taxman (Remastered 2009)

Political Strategy or Mental Illness? Analyzing Trump’s Statements

President Trump is described as “delusional” by mental health professionals, political commentators, and world leaders due to his persistent assertion of claims that directly contradict documented facts. These descriptions often center on several key behaviors:

Clinical and Psychological Perspectives

  • Fixed False Beliefs: Psychiatrists define a delusion as a “fixed false belief” that is resistant to reason or confrontation with fact. Experts have cited his insistence on “stolen” elections and exaggerated crowd sizes as fulfilling this criteria.
  • Narcissistic Personality: Many specialists argue his perceived delusions are rooted in Malignant Narcissism or Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which can lead to a “delusional detachment from reality” to protect an inflated self-image or “personal myth of greatness”.
  • The Gospel of Positive Thinking: Some analysts link his behavior to his lifelong adherence to Norman Vincent Peale’s “Power of Positive Thinking,” where reality is shaped by one’s own mental attitude, leading to a refusal to acknowledge negative outcomes. 

Recent Examples and Actions (2024-2025)

  • Economic Claims: Critics describe his 2025 assertions that tariffs “magically” bring in billions from foreign countries—rather than taxing domestic consumers—as economically “nuts” and detached from reality.
  • Polling Discrepancies: In late 2025, Trump was described as delusional for claiming he had the “highest poll numbers” of his career on Truth Social, despite concurrent data from the Associated Press and Fox News showing some of his worst approval ratings.
  • Foreign Policy Assertions: Observers pointed to “delusional fantasies” in his 2025 claims regarding foreign leaders, such as incorrectly stating he ended a war between Azerbaijan and Albania (two countries not at war) and suggesting he could “own” or “take over” the Gaza Strip for real estate development.
  • Annexation of Canada: His public discussion in 2025 about Canada potentially becoming the “51st state” was cited as an example of a belief system that ignores the reality of sovereign nations and public opinion.

Debates and Counterpoints

  • Political Strategy vs. Mental Illness: Some observers argue he is “crazy like a fox,” using conspiracy theories and falsehoods as calculated tools for political success rather than out of a true clinical delusion.
  • The Goldwater Rule: The American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater Rule” prohibits members from diagnosing public figures without a personal examination, causing some professionals to push back against colleagues who label the president “delusional” publicly.
  • “Trump Derangement Syndrome”: Supporters often use this term to argue that it is actually his critics who are delusional, reacting irrationally to his unconventional but effective political style. 
Buffalo Springfield – For What It’s Worth (Official Audio)

Economic Black Holes: The Threat of Extreme Wealth Inequality

I think those with wealth and power seek to sustain or increase said wealth and power. The system’s not flawed from the players perspective it is simply one to be used and manipulated to bend to ones own rules and will.

We don’t need monarchs to supress and control us, as we now have a feudal system where the masses work or starve for millionaires and billionaires.

The desire for political and economic domination among wealthy individuals stems from a complex interplay of psychological factors, the nature of wealth accumulation, and systemic influences.

Key reasons include:

Power and Control Wealth provides power and influence, which some individuals enjoy exercising over others. The ability to control one’s own outcomes and exert influence over others becomes an appealing strategy for maintaining status.

Personality Traits Psychologists have noted a correlation between high socioeconomic status and certain personality traits referred to as the “dark triad”:

Machiavellianism: A willingness to manipulate and exploit others for personal gain.

Narcissism: An over-inflated sense of self-importance and entitlement, coupled with a lack of empathy.

Psychopathy: Characterized by a lack of empathy or remorse, antisocial behavior, and a desire to dominate others.

Systemic Reinforcement In highly unequal societies, dominance-based strategies can be more effective and carry less risk of backlash, as those with less power have fewer resources to resist. The existing system often rewards selfish actions, creating a feedback loop where those who engage in such behaviour become wealthier and more powerful.

Fear and Insecurity For some, the drive to accumulate and maintain power is rooted in fear—a fear of losing their status, security, or identity.

Addiction and Competition The pursuit of power and wealth can become an addiction, as achieving success can trigger dopamine responses in the brain. This is often reinforced by a competitive mindset, where status is a relative game, and there’s a constant drive to be “on top”.

Lack of Empathy The wealthy may live in social “bubbles,” isolating them from the realities of those with fewer resources and leading to a reduced capacity for empathy for those in lower socioeconomic classes.

Mega wealth can form economic black holes that suck up and damage alomst everything else in its path.

Extreme wealth concentration is widely reported by major economic institutions as an ongoing and accelerating issue that leads to significant economic and social damage, effectively acting as the “economic black holes” you describe. It exacerbates poverty, distorts democratic processes, and can impede overall economic growth, particularly in developing nations. 

Current State of Wealth Concentration

Recent reports from 2025 highlight the severity of the situation:

  • Millionaires own nearly half of the world’s total personal wealth.
  • The top 10% of earners in the U.S. owned almost two-thirds of the total wealth in Q1 2025, while the bottom 50% owned just 2.5%.
  • Between 2000 and 2024, the world’s top 1% captured 41% of all new wealth, compared to just 1% for the bottom 50%.
  • A recent study found that the world’s richest people own three times more wealth than the bottom half of the global population combined. 

Key Economic and Social Damages

The effects of this wealth concentration are far-reaching and consistently linked to negative outcomes:

  • Impeded Economic Growth: While some level of inequality might incentivize innovation in developed economies, research in 2025 indicates that excessive inequality generally acts as a brake on growth, especially in developing countries. This is partly due to reduced aggregate demand and underinvestment in human capital (education and healthcare) among lower-income groups.
  • Increased Poverty and Precarity: High wealth inequality drives poverty and economic insecurity for those at the bottom. The absence of a financial safety net means many households struggle to manage unexpected shocks, and a significant portion of the population can have net negative wealth (more debt than assets).
  • Distortion of Democracy and Power: Extreme wealth translates into disproportionate political power, allowing the rich to influence rules and policies in their favor, such as through lax inheritance tax laws. This creates a vicious cycle that entrenches inequality and erodes public trust in institutions.
  • Amplification of Other Inequalities: Wealth disparities amplify existing inequalities based on race, gender, and geography. For example, studies show significant wealth gaps between ethnic groups and a substantial difference in average wealth between men and women.
  • Environmental Harm: Consumption patterns of the wealthy elite drive higher carbon emissions, while the poorest populations, who contribute least to climate change, are often the most vulnerable to its impacts. 

Regional Inequality

Wealth inequality is a global issue but is most severe in certain regions. Brazil, Russia, and South Africa have the highest Gini coefficients for wealth inequality in 2024, indicating a highly concentrated distribution of assets. In contrast, countries like Slovakia and Belgium exhibit more even wealth distribution, often attributed to strong social safety nets and policies promoting broader asset ownership.

Future Outlook and Recommendations

Experts warn that without significant policy interventions, such as progressive taxation and stronger social safety nets, the current high levels of inequality are likely to persist or worsen. The next decade is projected to see trillions of dollars in wealth passed down through inheritance, which, in the absence of effective inheritance taxes, is expected to further entrench wealth disparities and undermine social mobility.

What to Do If Your Home Floods: A Tenant’s Guide

It is quite early in the flooding season here in the South West of England although if and when a flood hits a place, it is never expected or predicted to occur. Yes on the weather forecasts they talk about chance of floods and rain but until it happens to you, you just don’t expect it at all. As yet my home or even close to my home has never been flooded from rain or rivers rising although that is not to say it could not or would not happen.

We lived on a hill in Spreyton in our first home there and although we experienced good moorland rain through autumn and winter and at other times too and although the roads leading up to the hilltop village would flood Spreyton always seemed a million miles away from flooding itself being 180 metres above sea level. One of my parents properties did once get flooded, when they lived at the bottom of a hill once, possibly while I was away at university or living in Exeter and a little river formed unexpectedly from the back door taking water quickly out to the front door, luckily not to much damage was done at the time and preventative lessons were learnt.

I feel with living so close to a river about 1 km away with the road close to me known to occasionally flood I stand a good chance of getting flooded at some time in the future myself. I live in social housing and so my rent is fair and affordable but if the worst happened and I was flooded I wanted to check as to what I should do or the practical consequences of flooding after the event. This property has never flooded from the river and so I hope it never does.

Checking the genius that is AI concerning advice and help I discovered the following:-

Immediate Steps & What to Do Next

Prioritise Safety: Ensure everyone is safe. Turn off utilities (gas, electricity) if it’s safe to do so.

Contact Emergency Services if there is an immediate danger to life.

Report to Landlord: Immediately contact housing association through their emergency reporting method (usually a 24-hour phone line). Follow up in writing.

Stay Safe: Follow official advice; don’t clean or repair until the landlord inspects.

Document Everything: Take photos and videos of the damage to the property and your belongings. Keep receipts for any unexpected expenses, such as hotel stays.

If your housing association flat floods, your key rights are for your landlord to make the property fit to live in (health and safety), provide emergency accommodation if needed, and conduct repairs within set timescales (24 hours for emergencies), with potential compensation for damage and rent relief if they delay, but you’re responsible for insuring your own belongings. 

Repairs: Must repair structural damage (walls, ceilings, plumbing) and ensure the property is safe and habitable.

Emergency Repairs: Must fix emergency hazards within 24 hours (e.g., major structural issues, unsafe electrics).

Temporary Housing: Must offer emergency accommodation if the flat is uninhabitable.

Compensation: You can claim for damage to your belongings and loss of use if they fail to act. 

Your Rights

Rent Reduction/Refund: You can ask for a rent reduction or refund for the time you can’t use your home.

Compensation: For property damage (belongings) and inconvenience due to delays.

Legal Action: Escalate to the Housing Ombudsman or consider the Small Claims Court if they refuse repairs. 

Your Responsibilities

Your Belongings: You must have your own contents insurance to cover your furniture, clothes, etc., as the landlord’s insurance only covers the building structure.

Report Promptly: Landlords are only responsible for damage once they know about it. 

Seek Advice: If your landlord does not act within the required timeframes, you can seek advice from local district council, Shelter England or Citizens Advice.

Escalate: If the issue is not resolved, you can complain to the Housing Ombudsman Service, which is a free and impartial service for social housing tenants.  

I can sadly imagine the heartache, sorrow and amount of issues there would be if a property gets flooded and hope it never actually happens but feel its best to be aware just in case it does.

Important measures people are also advised to do prior to an emergency are as follows :-

Prepare an Emergency Flood Kit 

Assemble a “grab bag” of essentials in a waterproof container and store it in a high, accessible place. Items to include are: 

Important documents: Insurance policies, passports, and medical records stored in waterproof bags.

Medications and first-aid: Any prescription medicines, a first aid kit, and essential baby or pet supplies.

Supplies: Bottled water (at least 2.5-3 litres per person per day recommended for survival), non-perishable food that doesn’t need cooking, and a manual can opener.

Electronics: A battery or wind-up torch, a portable radio for updates, spare batteries, and a power bank for charging your mobile phone.

Clothing: Warm, waterproof clothing and sturdy shoes for everyone in the household.

Cash: A small amount of cash, as ATMs and card machines may be out of use. 

Though I am not organised to do all of the above and living in a city I hope I would get some help and support sooner than in a remote area. I do aim to have my wallet, keys and phone all within reachable distance of me at all times of day.

I try to keep my mobile charged and a rucksack with my laptop and charges in it to if needing to leave in a hurry. I do have a folder with important documents kept high up in flat and sign up to emergency alerts and early flood warnings too.

Huwspace a cyblog, written by man while being inspired by machine (ai)

A cyborg is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts, a term that is short for “cybernetic organism” part man and part machine. So with that in mind I am sometimes starting to write my page now as a cyblog part written by me and part inspired by machine or ai. I can ask questions and search for inspiration on Google ai and then expand on those ideas with my own thoughts, ideas and words. Part Huw manmade part machine inspired hence a cyblog. I also now often use WordPress ai to generate images for the site such as the welsh dragon at the typewriter image which is a visual imagining of me as I am from Wales and I was also born in the year of the Chinese fire dragon. So flaming two stones with one dragon breath.

I also wanted to have my blog assessed by google ai today and this is what it says about the blog:

“Huwspace” is the name of a personal blog and associated social media presence run by an individual named Huw. The creator uses the platform to share personal views, reflect on life experiences, and discuss a range of topics including politics, family, friends, and music. 

Key aspects of Huwspace include:

  • Political Commentary: The blog often features opinion pieces from a left-leaning perspective, with the author identifying as a progressive activist and supporter of parties like Labour and the Greens. Topics often include critiques of capitalism, discussions of global politics, and social justice issues.
  • Personal Reflections: The author shares details about his life, including dealing with the loss of his father, his experiences with dyslexia, enjoying karaoke, and meeting new people.
  • Engagement: The author aims to use the platform to share his worldview and engage in discussions with a diverse audience, including friends, colleagues, and readers from across the world.
Sit Down By The Fire by the Veils

How to Identify Your Political Bias Effectively

Are you a Faith and Flag Conservative? Progressive Left? Or somewhere in between?

Determining your political bias involves a combination of 

self-reflection, using structured assessment tools, and being critically aware of your information sources. 

1. Structured Self-Assessment Tools

Quizzes and surveys designed by research organizations and political scientists can help quantify your views on various social, economic, and foreign policy issues, and map them onto a political spectrum. 

  • Political Typology Quizzes: The Pew Research Center offers a quiz that categorizes your beliefs into specific groups based on nationally representative surveys.
  • The Political Compass: This survey places your views on a two-dimensional chart, with an economic scale (left/right) and a social scale (authoritarian/libertarian).
  • 8 Values Political Quiz: This tool rates your leanings on four axes: Economic, Diplomatic, State, and Society, providing a detailed breakdown.
  • Implicit Association Tests (IAT): Offered by Harvard, the IAT can help reveal unconscious biases or automatic associations you might have regarding different social and political groups, which can influence your conscious beliefs.
  • General Voter Quizzes: Websites like Britain’s Choice and Vote Compass offer quizzes tailored to specific elections and demographics, comparing your views to those of political parties or “tribes” in your country. 

2. Critical Self-Reflection

Beyond quizzes, genuine self-reflection is key. Consider the following:

  • Your Core Values: Identify the fundamental principles that drive your decisions (e.g., individual freedom, equality, order, tradition).
  • Views on Specific Issues: Reflect on your stances on a range of issues, such as taxation, healthcare, immigration, environmental regulations, and social welfare programs. Your positions across different topics may not always align perfectly with one single ideology.
  • The “Why”: Understand the reasoning behind your views. Are they based on personal experience, family upbringing, education, or deep-seated psychological traits (e.g., openness to experience, threat perception)? 

3. Analyzing Your Information Diet

The media you consume significantly shapes and often reinforces your existing biases (confirmation bias). 

  • Diversify Your Sources: Actively seek out news and opinions from sources across the political spectrum.
  • Use Media Bias Tools: Websites like AllSides, Media Bias/Fact Check, and Ad Fontes Media provide ratings for news sources, allowing you to compare how different outlets cover the same story and identify potential leanings in language or framing.
  • Recognize Confirmation Bias: Be aware of the tendency to favor information that confirms your pre-existing beliefs and to dismiss evidence that challenges them. 

By combining these methods, you can gain a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of your own political leanings and biases.

My best fit

Establishment Liberals

… along with 13% of the public

Roughly half of Establishment Liberals describe their political views as liberal. They hold liberal positions on nearly all issues and support an expanded role for government and a larger social safety net. They also hold liberal attitudes on issues of racial and ethnic equality. Establishment Liberals are more likely than any other group to say that compromise is how things get done in politics. About half say they are satisfied with the way things are going in the country today, and an overwhelming majority say they approve of the job Joe Biden is doing as president.

liberal Huw

Progressive Activists

13% of the population

‘It’s not really a meritocracy we live in. The people who have privilege to begin with are far more likely to end up in their dream career.’
Sally, 29, South East England

Progressive Activists are highly-educated, urban, and more likely than any other group to be in work. They think globally and are motivated to fight inequality and injustice. Their sense of personal identity is connected to their strong political and social beliefs. They are often supporters of Labour, the Greens and, in Scotland, the SNP. They like to take part in debates and have their voice heard. They are far more active in posting about politics on social media than any other group, and are big consumers of news from many sources, with The Guardian newspaper a big favourite.

Top priorities: Climate change, the economy, inequality

Compared to other groups:

More likely to say they are ‘extremely worried’ about climate change than any other group (72 per cent v 34 per cent average)

Much more pessimistic about the direction the country is heading in, with only 2 per cent saying it is going in the right direction (v 29 per cent average)

Strongly believe that the system is rigged to serve the rich and influential (95 per cent v 67 per cent average)

Very engaged with the news, with 83 per cent reporting use of social media in the past day, 54 per cent reading a newspaper online or in print, and 17 per cent reading a blog – in all cases more than any other segment

Much more active on social media, with 55 per cent posting political content on social media – more than four times as much as any other segment

Least confident that once we are through the worst of the Covid-19 crisis, we will address the problems in society (68 per cent v 46 per cent average). 

More likely to think that the people they agree with politically need to stick to their beliefs and fight (35 per cent v 22 per cent average)

Least proud of being British of any segment (22 per cent v 59 per cent  average) and most likely to say their national identity is not important to them (55 per cent v 24 per cent average)

Strongly believe that white people have advantages over ethnic minorities (93 per cent v 60 per cent average)

Strongly believe that immigration has had a positive impact on the UK (85 per cent v 43 per cent average)

STAND BY ME. (Ultimate Mix, 2020) – John Lennon (official music video HD)

Why Learning from Mistakes is Crucial

A repeated mistake is like running around on a giant hamster wheel, exhausted and weary not knowing how to step off the darn thing or where the stop button is or not knowing when or how to press the stop button or how or when to step off. Repeating the same mistakes again and again while not learning a thing from them is defiantly a mad idea!

To repeat a mistake is often described as making a choice rather than an accident the second or subsequent time. 

Common sayings and proverbs related to this concept include:

  • “A mistake repeated more than once is a choice.” – Paulo Coelho
  • “You can never make the same mistake twice because the second time you make it, it’s not a mistake, it’s a choice.” – Unknown
  • “If you make the same mistake twice, it is no longer a mistake, it is a habit.”
  • “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” (Often attributed to Albert Einstein, but likely not his)
  • “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
  • “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly” (from the Book of Proverbs in the Bible). 

The underlying idea in these expressions is the importance of learning from past errors and taking responsibility for one’s actions and the resulting consequences.

It seems to me politics is the biggest field of play, where this type of collective irresponsibility tends to take place.

Where an elected wealth of political officials, wish to control our finances and keep people within poverty instead of lifting them up out of it, maintain and enhance their own wealth crying foul to those from abroad that might no longer wish to be impoverished . Hmm what would Jesus think of such monetarising people and forces? From what I have read of the bible and learned from my religious teachers then those that choose to enrich themselves at the expense of others such as billionaires, wealthy politicians, using their own power to line their pockets with even greater profits, would repulse the son of god and if you believe in monsters heading to your definition of hell then that is what they likely are too.

What attracts, tempts or even provides people with conviction to vote for such inhumane politicians is hard to know what thoughts go through their heads or try to contemplate what they believe in and why they have those thought thought for such hateful people and views I do not know and will (god willing) likely never know or have.

Life is precious and time is short and for each of the power-hungry politicians voted into power across the globe chosen by their peers or people – Trump, Putin, Xi and Netanyahu are all incredibly dangerous political beasts we will be incredibly fortuitous to escape this time in the worlds history unscathed. Sadly each leader will be thinking from their own perspective, that they must be strong men in order to fight and conquer their own monsters. But what happens when they are the monsters that should instead need to be stopped or in someway fought.

They each poses within them the capability to light a match that within their hands could then set fire to million trees and sadly it takes only one of these four to strike first to make it all come crashing down.

When we are born into this world we arrive with nothing and when we depart this earth we depart with as little as when we arrived. It is what we do with our time here that truly makes our existence all worthwhile.

The National – ‘The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness’

The Risks of Buying on Facebook: My Experience

For those of us that use Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family through it, you might have also noticed that there are a lot of adverts these days appearing on your screen on Facebook, advertised all sorts of things fronted by people and business that have set up pages to pay Facebook to advertise their products on.

I purchased 2 t-shirt’s from Facebook from a website that was advertising its items from a USA website called Soulisfree and the T-shirts arrived and fit as the correct size as sold and I really liked them, one was a black t-shirt with a full sun equinox taking place on the front of the T-shirt and the other as pictured below was called ‘Wandering into the digital world”. The image was one that looked like Alice in Wonderland lifting up a curtain to reveal the code from the matrix in her reality. I thought both T-shirts were cool and looked great. I was so pleased when they both safely arrived with me back in September.

Alice in the matrix

The buying of the T-shirts gave me a false sense of security that buying on Facebook might actually be ok and could have improved since the bad old days of items turning up wrongly sized or misadvertised. So back in September I started getting a lot of adverts promoting advent calendars and one that caught my eye was entitled ‘The Lord of the Rings Christmas Advent Calendar – Collector’s Edition’. I have never bought an advent calendar for myself, don’t own a Christmas tree or decorations but thought it might be a nice idea to buy the calendar and possibly even use the advent calendar items as Christmas decorations and even get a Christmas Tree.

I thought the little figures looked great and what could go wrong trying to buy them on Facebook too, Facebook is a big company with a multimillion pound slick business operation what on earth could go wrong. so I purchased the calendar from a chinese company advertising its shop on Facebook.

Well that was the middle of September when I tried to buy the above item and I don’t think anything is on its way. I had a confirmation of purchase and confirmation of postage sent to me but everything else has gone wrong. The (none Facebook, website crashes when I try to click on it to get an update on my order or ask them when it might arrive). The company has also stopped advertising the calendar on Facebook although they still have some other active calendar adverts on Facebook.

I have tried contacting Facebook asking the to remove the advertising page from their site and shut down the businesses advertising pages on Facebook to stop more people giving this business money for goods that do not arrive. It took me about 4-5 hours to work out how to make a complaint on Facebook and I did this with the help of google search, but its very difficult to complain about past adverts, unless you know what your doing on Facebook.

It’s almost deliberately difficult so that people just don’t bother reporting past fraudulent sites and pages on Facebook which is a huge con by the companies and criminal entities pretended to sell stuff through Facebook shopping windows. Facebook are not stupid and incompetent they are complicit with the the criminal activity taking place through their pages.

Fortunately for me I purchased the imaginary calendar through a PayPal payment and so PayPal have already refunded my purchase and so I am not out of pocket. But for those that end up handing their account details directly to criminal entities operating on Facebook I do feel sorry for those potentially mis sold customers as you just don’t know what they will do with those account details once they have them. I also don’t know why Facebook make it so easy for people to be ripped off through their site, very poor customer practises which they must profit from considerably.

What if 24 hour satellite television news had existed in 1945?

When Hitler invaded Poland and started World War 2 would the news stations have been beaming around the world his justification for going to war and would we have been relying on journalists cleared by or operating within the rules of what the Nazis deemed as appropriate to broadcast to ‘inform’ us of what is going on in Germany and the countries being conquered by the Nazi regime. What a question to consider you might say.

But it really does feel in Russia, Israel and to some extent news from the White House in the USA, it is very much in a one directional form of information presentation. Which we are handed on a plate and if unpalatable then tough luck sucker this is the perspective we are telling you is truth today.

For example Russia entered a righteous war in Ukraine and did not invade a sovereign state for its strategic advancement. You think the fascists in Russia are bad you should watch the videos about the fascists in Ukraine their much much worse than the Russian ones or so the propaganda machine journalists of the Russian state would have people believe as some conspiracist lap this up as so called food for thought.

In Gazza there is an outright genocide through starvation and bombing which our satellite television channels keep on tuning into Israel governments propaganda machine very much like if during World War 2 a Nazi spokesperson explaining live on TV the importance of workcamps to set people free and house jews within them and completely denying the gas chambers as malicious gossip.

In the USA millions of dollars of oversee life saving food, aid and healthcare programmes have been stopped overnight which will lead to the death of citizens across the globe whilst ICE’s US deportation teams kick people out of the country or detain them within the country with out due legal process if not costing lives certainly severally impacting on lives and the big lie reported live on satellite TV by the US governments team is that illegal immigrants are all rapists, murders and drug dealers and therefore need to go.

Its never been easier to report bullshit as fact and facts as bullshit on the TV. Truth is still truth though and facts are still facts, it just so happens I seem to spend more time these days trying to tune out the lies and bullshit than I do tune into fact and truths.

I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore! Speech from Network (1976)

Trying to avoid Bitdefender’s antivirus autorenewal trap

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – oops no that’s the wrong time, though the sun is shinning and the outdoors is warm and not to hot but its definitely not THAT time of the year.

Instead it’s antivirus renewal time for my PC or at least I am getting a lot of emails from Bitdefender telling me to renew my antivirus or sit back and let them automatically take out of my bank in September £80 (HOW MUCH).

Which to my mind is far to expensive and so I have decided that whatever I do I will not be automatically renewing it with them. Normally I purchase my antivirus software on another site on the internet more often than not on Amazon. It cost me £30 last year so I am in no hurray whatsoever to have exactly the same cover for £80 instead!

I have already found a replacement package of Bitdefender antivirus for 12 months for just £20 which I will be using for the next 12 months. But I was annoyed and disappointed by the fact they have set up an autorenewal for £80 for me which I am finding very difficult to cancel.

So I have been following the online instructions on how to cancel the autorenewal and when I get to the correct page on their software the cancelation button is just off screen making it impossible to cancel both on my pc and phone, very convenient for Bitdefender and a royal pain in the behind for me.

I have contacted there customer services team asking them to cancel my rolling subscription and they just emailed me back offering more ways of spending lots of money with them and not cancelling my autorenewal. So I have emailed them again asking politely for them to cancel the dam autorenewal.

I am still waiting for a response from Bogdan C. a Bitdefender Retention & Loyalty Specialist to get back to me on this matter.

Pink Floyd – Money