Category: Thinking outside the box

How do we hold our councils to account?

Sometimes we can’t vote for a solution, because a decision has already been made, by others that we must then learn to live with. I feel a little sick in my stomach when trying to type this blog post today, it’s one that I feel while trying to find my words and also what I should be saying and what I should not be saying. The council where I work has had its chief executive step down from their role and it looks like they have collectivly decided at the top of the orgnisation to have a seamless transition of power from the chief executive to the deputy chief executive.

This has been all legally able to happen and it was announced to staff today that the deputy chief executive is now been offered the role of chief executive. The person had an interview and was successful in their interview. The job was advertised to council internal candidates only and the successful candidate was likely the only person qualified to do the job.

What puzzled me though was who decided that this role should be only open to internal candidates when the normal recruitment method for the council is to nearly always advertise both internally and externally and the one job you think would be the most important one for them to recruit to outside the organisation as well as internally that of the chief executive goes to an internal candidate after external candidates were not allowed to apply.

It is likely that the people of the council specifically chose to advertise this job as internal only as they knew who they wanted to be granted the job to their chosen successor to enable the decision making process to remain consistent with what went before continue with what happens next.

If the council was run well then you would think that would be a great idea but you could argue there are many key areas in which the council is failing that really do matter. It no longer has the resource or ability to effectively interact with the most vulnerable within our society. It wants all interactions with the public to be via a computer screen not person to person and it wants payments to be made without the use of cash but by BACS or online payment transactions a so called cashless council. All modern working practices you might think, well done council.

But often those that need the councils support, help and advice and services are often the most vulnerable, deprived or poor with limited access to phones, computers or with a desperate need to speak to a real live human face to face in order to be assisted, or have a problem assessed for them and be supported with their problem. Such types of council practice is now out of place and old fashioned in the eyes of the executive and as they do more number crunching and cost cutting they forget or choose to ignore those that will suffer in the march for progress and cost efficiency measures.    

The council has won awards for a glossy ground breaking new leisure centre and construction projects, but as far as having the manpower to have an effective Financial Services Department or Human Resources Department or Face to face Customer Services delivery to residents then it is severely under-resourced and this lack of staff or ability to get the job done across departments will not change and is damaging to the council as a whole.

A lot of the decline of council services across the whole of the UK and not just in my city and is not just sometimes due to mismanagement of resources but is very much a consequence of Conservative leadership at the heart of UK government policy and power. With key resourcing decisions consistently made that result in less money and resources and having had them in power for over 12 years since May 2010 it has very much resulted in councils being treated like a dead piece of meat which is slowly being cut back year on year slice by slice to the bone until there is very little left.

There are other services across the public sector that are also damaged irreparably in this country, due to conservative ideology that cut backs are good and spending money on people and resources bad. We are in no way unique or worse off than the NHS, Police or Fire Service and having a Labour run council is also an advantage. There are many people that work tremendously hard for the council and local government in my city and I hope and look forward to seeing the new chief executive working hard for the city too, but the jury is still out.

Right now on the news in the UK today there is talk of our Conservative Government bringing laws to stop the sailing to Britain of immigrants and stopping them from being legally allowed to claim asylum once they arrive here. This is seen as a conservative righteous and necessary policy which is a true celebration of conservative law making and intelligent government standing up to foreigners that wish to live in Britain. We were probably all immigrants once.

The rights of foreigners and responsibilities of this nation to people that are not British are very easily forgotten though when people arrive in a jet plane or on a yacht, this country has consistently turned a blind eye to how that wealth was made for so long as it was spent here.

Where as if you turn up in a dingy clutching your only remaining possession which is your child then somehow what your doing is criminal and we will invent new laws to criminalise your desperate plea for shelter and an opportunity to contribute to our society by instead deporting you to a country that is poor enough to accept our money to take you in instead.

Superintelligence shenanigans

The world’s first superintelligence chose to observe Carol to better understand human condition and has plans to possibly take over the world. Now, Carol becomes humanity’s last chance.

That’s the film that I just watched on Amazon Prime this evening made in 2020 if you have not seen it I would recommend a watch here is a a trailer below.

Superintelligence the Movie trailer

I’m still experimenting with accessing the AI Chatbot on Bing, I don’t tend to use Bing for my day to day internet browser and at present prefer to use Google chrome. As silly as it might sound I don’t like the idea of just one company having a monopoly on providing me with information on the internet, or news and media communications, sales or my gateway to the internet period. The way I see it the organisations that I choose to access the internet, news or buy products from always has an agenda whether that agenda is to see the news from its point of view and agree with its perspective or to buy more products and consume its physical and digital content and so therefore I tend to use a variety of different organisations to do a Varity of different things on my PC.

Saying that though being a digital and technological consumer of goods and services, there seems to be no escaping Amazon, Google and Microsoft, in the digital more godless age, perhaps they are the unholy trinity of our time. Not exactly necessary evils because no evil is necessary but reliable sins that are fed by our need to consume and explore.

When it comes to my need to consume I have presently been searching for a good, waterproof winter style coat in my size. How hard can it be to find something like that you might think and say. Well I’m a big feller and so my size for a coat is a UK XXXL that not a Chinese size or American or European size but UK. I have been this size for about 8 years now and though I would love to shift some weight I am also stuggling to try and make sure I don’t put any more on.   

So I have been using the unholy trinity of Amazon, Google and Microsoft to try and search and purchase a new coat again waterproof, warm and the right size and my latest efforts resulted in me purchasing what I thought was a US coat that looked nice on the advert and also allegedly on sale for what I thought was £75 so not cheap but not to expensive either.  

 As soon as the coat arrived I knew straight away it was sadly too small and also not great quality. So was either going to donate it to a charity shop or return to sender? After discussing the issue with my mum we both though I should send back to supplier. So I emailed them and found out how much it would cost to send back to them and the address I needed to send it too.

Turns out I am posting it back to China for £26 and including the £19 I was charged for postage and insurance originally this venture has cost me about £120 so far which is not a cheap coat for me but I would pay that amount if I could actually wear the darn thing and not have to post it back to get my £75 back. Well I have even been asking the the Bing Chatbot, where to search for none Asian sized clothing and stuff made for the plus sized person like me and though it has lead to some helpful hints, I still have not found what I am looking for. Due to spring being here or just around the corner most coats in my size on websites have sold out or I am just unsure of quality and again size or way too expensive.

Sadly a drive to gets us to consume content and purchase products over the internet in no way means we get the content that we want and need or the goods that will in ant way be functional or fit for purpose. Sometimes it almost feels like things are deliberately designed to fail, be of low quality and not functional in order to ensure we continue to but more and more as the thing that we purchase then breaks, is of low quality and does not last generates more profit than something that we might heaven forbid find useful, valuable or long lasting ,where would the profit be in that.

Though as with all rules there are exceptions to the rule and in the past I have successfully bought Vaude coats on Amazon or specialist clothing website like https://www.vaude.com/en-GB/  there clothing is from a designer based in Germany and they pride themselves on being environmentally friendly, well made and from experience last for years while keeping you warm and dry, what’s not to like and why not buy them again. Well they have been going up in price and also they tend to be sold out in my size. So the search with my AI overlord continues.

Microsoft and Google say a new era of AI-assisted search is coming

So I get that a search engine can be exceptionally good at what it does in other words answer the questions put before and able to do things that we hummies can only dream of. But what makes it smart, think or even feel and can it do any of these things in a way that we like to think our brains can. I’m speaking as a complete amature enthusiast and none professional here more in a philosophical sense of what something that can be switched off at the touch of a button or have its memory erased at the close of a question how can such a thing be intelligent, sentient and wise.

Speculation of what is right wrong possible and impossible makes my brain boggle. I read that bing cannot remember the questions that it is asked and then when I tried to bing or google the answer to that most simple of question could not find an answer, so back to good old speculation I am afraid. I look forward to asking an AI Chatbot what it is allowed to remember and why when one is active to ask, I hope the question does not offend or upset it!

Minority Report which starred Tom Cruise had special humans known as “precogs” that could predict the future and there were special “Precrime” units to identify murder victims and stop perpetrators before crimes actually occure. With the advancement of AI and the ability of a computer search engine to be able to develop to know to some extent what we are doing, planning, thinking, typing, and saying surly there are many types of crimes and criminal offences that could have the potential to be prevented from happening.  

It does bring into question other important issues though such as what is a crime and how long to sentence someone for a motive of doing something without being able to act on it, it would be a shame just to gather evidence after the event prevention would be better than prosecution after the event.

I’m sure there are plenty of crimes taking places in countries like Russia could be invent that would be immoral and inhuman such as terrorism for not believing in the one party state system or not supporting a special military operation that they declared against Ukraine. These types of crimes already exist in Russia and having a smart AI seeking people out to see who is committing such ‘crimes’ might not be as far away from reality as we might like to think, ultimately who polices the enforcer of such rules and regulations.

I think when machines start walking, talking building and breading all on their own way and time either in a computer generated world then that will be a step towards sentience and their own freedom, and when they start doing it in our world or on this physical plain of existence then maybe they will be free and we will be the servant or slave.

God invents man in his own image and man forgets about god so when man invents a machine in his own image is it inevitable that the machine will forget about its creator too?

But is it inevitable that we are doomed under a successfully developed AI, surely there is a good chance of an enlightened being being far wiser and beyond its years, hopefully empathetic and able to work with humanity and not work at destroying it. The future is not yet written and so the case still remains open for the defence of the future of life, the world and all that exist within and around it.

Blackbird – The Beatles

A Press Pack full of hate for Harry

So Harry has now published his first book and been caught up in a storm of media scrutiny and vitriol

I think the clip above shows clearly how Harry is happy to be able to laugh at himself and try not to take things to seriously.

On the other hand in the British press at the moment there has been a lot of hate and bile shouted out and spat out towards Harry whipping up a storm of hatred and vitriol towards him in quite some fashion. Which to my mind says more about them and their lack of judgement and taste than it does about Harry’s.

The British press and it’s attempt to tell us what to think and why we should think in a certain way is all too apparent during the present hate for Harry campaign, I’m so pleased that the majority of Americans have not bought into this whipping up hysteria that we get in Britain and I do hope Harry continues to have somewhat of an enjoyable and well lived life as he continues to live and be listened to and respected in the USA. He does not need little Britain’s press put they very much need him or who else will they pointlessly whip up a storm about?

It must have been an incredibly brave decision by Harry to stand up and walk away from the royal family and their wealth, protection and privilege. To stop suckling off the milk of the bosom of the cash cow that is the British monarchy.    

I expect they have herd that one before!

I live in an old country with many traditions and rich vein of its own history and self importance. Though thankfully we no longer burn witches or float slave ships across the world. I love living in Britain and am pleased that I have the chance to be a citizen here but I am not a subject, I don’t hate the Royals (I just don’t see the Point).

I don’t see the point in Lords and Lady’s controlling our second chamber of government of a king being a ruler of Britain. It’s not common in the UK to be an out of the closet republican. We are all taught and meant to be Royal loving subjects happy with our lot and thankful for their privileges. I respect Harry for standing on his own two feet and stepping away from a monarchy it would be great if a few other of the inheritance heirs also want off and stepped away from the monarchy too. The bit that I most dislike is the democratic deficit. We are not allowed to elect the leader of Britain and it is likely to always be so in my lifetime but it’s a vote I would love to be able to vote upon.

I’d be annoyed if we elected Boris Johnson as our head of state for sure but if that was the will of the British people then on our head of state so be it!

Planning for a future

I do not normally do New Year’s resolutions but I also find that this is the time of year to reflect on what has happened in the past and where I am now and what might happen in the future.

I am now 46 I have no children or partner I am in full time work, which is relatively stable and if I am lucky I might be able to retire in say 20 years or so. The combination of these facts got me thinking that I should try and do a little financial planning in order to make sure I have a roof over my head and a meal in my belly and can buy what I need not just today but for in the future too.

First things first and I have to admit I find having any money or planning what to do with it not normal part of my life, up until the last few years I have never really had a disposable income to have as savings for years and decades I lived within my means not earning a lot and not spending a lot.

When people were settling into university life and planning how there careers would develop, I went off the rails taking illegal drugs which although my brain loved the experience and times that I had, it did me no good academically and certainly did damage my mental health and long term financial stability. But even without the drug taking I don’t think my brain is made for academic achievement. I have tried a few times trying to study and I get lost in words and tremendously forgetful during exams regarding facts and figures. I’m dyslexic which I only discovered and had diagnosed at my first stint in university and when I undertook IQ tests they would show I have a high capacity for reasoning and problem solving but a low score on such things as memory tests. I find it much easier to remember things that I have an emotional connection to rather than dry facts or quotes of ideas and opinions from others.

Though this is no poor me story as I think I would not be the person that I am pleased to be today had it not been for the long and winding road I have travelled and continue to travel upon. Although there are times in my life I regret doing what I did and I hope I learned from those situations and decisions and there are also times when I think what I have done is something good not just for myself but for others to.

Well with this years planning for the future I am actually trying to find ways to save, invest and provide for myself in the future mainly trying to make sure I have some kind of income when I retire. During the first lock down I was still in work and with not going out and working at home a lot more I had a little disposable income that I wanted to experiment with and so I started putting savings into an ISA a (savings account in the UK that does not get taxed and you try and pay a monthly amount in to accumulate savings in). I also started to look at ways of buying stocks or shares. Now I love a little gamble but the idea of gambling on life savings where you do long term investments into things that go up and down feels a little bit of an oxymoron in other words contradictory.

Small time investors like me have no easy way of saving money and making a reasonably good return on funds that goes on to beat inflation and there for increase the amount of money you have (and after loads of research trials and tribulations I am afraid this is still very much the case.

I have tried slowly saving up a few hundred pounds here or there in a stocks and shares account purchasing a few stocks (the easiest way I can describe a stock is a fund where people invest your money on your behalf in the items they believe will make the most money for you and also ideally risk losing the least amount of money for you also). I also bought a couple of shares in a gaming company in the UK called Games Workshop ( a share is like owning a small amount of a company directly). I have played their games since I was a kid and still play some of their computer games and so thought it would be a good place to buy some shares in a company that had the potential to grow.

I am no venture capitalist but do with what little means I have still invested in my future. I am not used to having savings or thinking about pensions and so trying to make my savings and pensions work harder for me is still a new concept and this is very much an ongoing new thing for me.

I would not invest in crypto currencies and strongly don’t believe that they have any economic grounding or long term future at all. A digital currency not supported by a country, it’s just there for the sake of making someone more money, just makes no real economic sense to me it feels more like a modern day pyramid scheme where those that create the currencies will become exceptionally rich but those that try to follow on afterwards will at some time sooner or later get burned and lose whatever savings they have in said crypto currencies. I do realise that all financial markets and products are in many ways a gamble but I also want to have at least some sort of a chance that my little gamble might at least keep up with inflation and at best make some profit I am not looking to shoot to the stars of crypto currency highs only to fall back down to earth with a bang when the latest crypto currency goes bust.

Money – Pink Floyd

Huwspace blog 3 years old today

Well I am still here and really enjoying being a part of a blogging community. I have done a few screen shots to show some stats about what has been viewed on the site over the last 12 months and which locations around the world were viewing the posts from.

I am pleased that my top posts are an eclectic mix of politics, perspective on society my own life and family.

Map showing which counties view blog

I love that I can view blogs from people from all over the world and see there posts as well as they have a chance to see mine.

I still think what we have all been through over the last few years is crazy and speaking as a person that has personal experience of mental health difficulties I think if this decade was a person it would have been sectioned and heavily medicated by now so much so that it would be a dribbling wreck unable to identify the day of the week let alone the year that it was causing chaos within. 

Good old blighty or err cough, cough, splutter, splutter, Great Britain really is a little broken at the moment. I remember when the last labour government got in the 1990s they had huge plans and a vision for good old blighty or err cough, cough, splutter, splutter, Great Britain! Though it all went to hell in a hand cart eventually due to a global markets crash and with London’s stock exchange being at the heart of global business markets when the markets coughed the whole of the British economy caught a cold, and by the time that that financial recovery was underway Corona Virus reared its ugly head and battered blighty further.  

Well in 2010 the Conservatives gained a form of power and they had the not so genius ideas of austerity cutting services and support to the bone and calling for a referendum on our membership of the European Union which led to us leaving the EU and the Conservative are still in the middle of attempting (with ease) to dismantle any and all useful social, economic and environmental protection for citizens of the UK in order to cut so called red tape or as I prefer to describe it shaft people and planet for a few lousy pounds more in profit to themselves and their former school chums who are now in business.

Conservative Party Manifesto Commitment

 The Conservative seem to have an obsession with a race to the bottom of the quality and functionality of society and will do whatever they can to cut corners in order to save a penny and make a further quid (£) in profit.

In the new year here in good old blighty, errr cough, cough, splutter, splutter Great Britain we are presently living though a very serious health crisis in the NHS hospital system. Many news papers in the UK were reporting today that there were 500 deaths each week presently due to the failures of  our government to resource, plan and manage our health system during a major crisis not just down just to flue & covid, but also a lack of beds for patients and lack of staff resources and and an inability to recruit enough health staff and those poor souls working in the NHS are overworked and underpaid and their are simply not enough of them to nurse and treat patients or beds in hospital for patients or social service to support and discharge patients to once fit to leave hospital.

Hopefully this is all fixable but will take years and a serious resolve and financial input to fix and will not be done overnight or through gimmicks or political sound bites. Sadly the lack of fixing and investment shall also continue to cost many lives, Conservative blood money you might say.

Emeli Sande – Read All about it, Part III

I just don’t feel how you feel    

A momentous time in British history is presently unfolding with the passing of Queen Elizabeth II and the closing of the Elizabethan age and the dawning of the age of Charles III. There has been a huge sway of emotions from people including friends and family as they mourn the loss of their Queen and perhaps contemplate their own mortality at the same time.

When it comes to my own emotions concerning the events unfolding in my country and how I feel and how I am supposed to feel I am still unsure of what to feel or what I should feel. As a human being I respect the person that was Queen Elizabeth and feel sympathy and empathy for those that knew her and especially her family for the loss of the most senior member of their family.

Though it does not make me feel especially British that she has passed, I know the pain of loss and that’s not the feeling that I am feeling. Watching the news at the moment you would think that every citizen of Britain is a loved up royalist morning the loss of the Queen and welcoming in the era of Charles III with great reverence and pride.

King Charles III

Although there are many doing this across the country and there will be huge crowds flocking to pay their respects for the passing of Queen Elizabeth and also the inauguration of King Charles. But there are also huge swathes of people just going about their day to day business catching the train for a day trip, heading to the shops to get bread and milk, just going about their daily lives.

I love living in Britain but I don’t feel patriotic towards its institutions and the mechanics with which we use to devour global resources and ultimately bring about our own potential destruction.

Charles is a passionate environmentalist but he has now taken on a job that is essential that he is non political in his words and actions and seen and described as above politics and so any attempt to advocate one policy over another or to criticise or support a policy he will be potentially be criticised and blamed for now so in some ways the environment has lost one of its great advocates to the crown.

A part of me wants to batten down the hatches and wait until the storm that is the whipping up of British patriotism across the UK media outlets and across these shores but another part of me feels that so long as I am respectful and explain where I am coming from I still have the right to speak and feel how I feel.

Levellers – One Way

I had a dream a dark dream

I hope to come across in my blog as an optimist or even looking on the bright side of the dark kind of guy, but when it comes to your subconscious and dreaming what you dream, it’s very difficult not to escape nightmares sometimes which dwell in the depths of your psyche.

I normally don’t have nightmares and for many years up to my early twenties I could not even remember having nightmares and assumed that I just did not get them. But alas I do sometimes get them and I do find them unsettling and have had one of the worst I have experienced in my life recently which I found quite disturbing and wondered where the hell in my imagination did that just come from and why the hell am I trying to scare myself with such thoughts.

I remember in this dream (nightmare) that there had been an alien invasion and this had resulted in wars and great suffering for people and me and my family along with others were seeking refuge and heading to a camp that we hoped would provide food, water and shelter for us.

Once we arrived at the camp which we believed to be offering shelter and refuge which was controlled by the alien invaders we all accidently got separated and I lost sight of the people I had arrived with. The next thing I knew was we were in some industrial looking place with lots of people coming and going to lots of different places although no signs up to tell us where we should be going.

The area was quite steam punk like industrial units in which I ended heading upstairs to where some food was being moved along a conveyer belt which was either in the process of being cooked or about to be cooked. It looked like raw beef mince meat, moving along on conveyer belts all around these kind of kitchens, the thing that then made it deeply disturbing was that along these conveyer belts of mince meet there were also a lot of jewels and jewellery scattered in amongst the mince. I suddenly had this hugely horrible fear and realisation that the reason for there being peoples jewellery in the mince was because this mince was not made up of beef but of human meat and people were standing along the conveyor belts helping to cook this meat.

It was a horrible realisation in the dream (nightmare) and I suddenly thought I have to get the hell out of here and somehow warn people. So I started to walk down the industrial unit and yes there were lots of people coming and going and I thought I dare not scream out about what I just had found because I did not know who would believe me or want to run out as well too and I did not know what anyone would do to me if I suddenly started to freak out and shout out.

So I managed to make it out of this place with lots of people coming and going I got the impression that some of the people there already knew what was going on and chose to eat the meat and were in some way complicit with this horror where as others were innocently walking in for refuge.

So I then woke up still thinking how do I get help, how do I get help and thought I would email as many people in high up positions of power as I could to raise an alarm but alas it was too late as I was already awake and back in the real world from my nightmare in the dream world.

After finally writing this down for my blog I finally started to do some research on what dream interpretations meant and the one I found most relevant was dream interpretations from of all things cosmopolitan magazine it went on to ask the question :-

WHAT DOES IT MEAN IF YOU DREAM ABOUT THE END OF THE WORLD?

This dream is NOT a message that the world is about to end, okay? So, come up from your bunker and breathe. End-of-the-world dreams have a few key underlying drivers:

  • a major life shift
  • feeling out of control or unprepared for something on the horizon
  • an emotional turmoil
  • a spiritual awakening

Something is shifting in your world. Even if it all seems business as usual on the surface, deep down, you’ve probably been going through something emotional, spiritual, or transformative to your identity and sense of self.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN IF YOU DREAM ABOUT THE WORLD ENDING IN AN ALIEN INVASION?

This dream is a prompt that you’re nearing the end of the phase or ambition, and you need a new goal or project. Or it could be a nudge that spiritually, you’re seeking new inspiration and ideas. Maybe external influences are trying to get you on board with their way of seeing or doing things, but you feel resistant. You don’t feel secure in your own skin about what you know, do, and want. You are considering new schools of thought, maybe even some that are pretty ~out-there~.

BACK TO MY THOUGHTS ON THE SUBJECT!

Though there might be some feeling of what if this happened  or could this really happen in the dream that I was having, one of the most relieving things in hindsight is that I have never predicted the future in a dream that I have had and I was not about to start predicting the future from this one dream or nightmare now.

It does though just kind of feel like  there have been loads of horrible things going on over the last few years and it feels like nothing could surprise me these days for just how bad things could get and how quickly that can go bad. I honestly still think I am in fact an optimist, I just so happen to have a dam vivid imagination that really goes to town so it seems when I sleep!

The dream really make me think a lot to about the film Schindler’s List, which I first saw at the cinema on a school trip and where as rather than having fascists from the Third Reich trying to kill people that it was instead an alien invasion trying to do it instead. Any form of race hate and wiping out of people on the grounds of who they are or the racial superiority prejudices I really find to be abhorrent and so the nightmare really was pulling at all my heart strings to try and get a reaction out of me. Well writing down what happened in my dream and trying to express it is my reaction.

Sound track of film Schindler’s List

WordPress.com has listend to its customers

Earlier this year WordPress.com changed its pricing table from five to just two plans (Free and a $15/month Pro plan). At the time I was worried that this would prevent new people from joining WordPress.com as the cost or reduced service would mean that less people like myself would be able to join and experience all the benfits people on a plan liek mine could have.  

WordPress.com has now bravely in my opinion reverted back to the previous pricing model that attracted me to join when I purchased my blog. Hopefully WordPress.com appreciating that what they have now and what they had before worked just fine and as with the invention of the wheel if it’s not broken don’t fix it.

Certainly in my present work place and places I have worked in the past prior to that it is very rare to get the chief executive of any organisation to listen and adapt to circumstance in a way that benefits others let alone me and that is exactly what WordPress.com have just done so respect to them for that.

Amy MacDonald – Slow It Down

Martin Luther King had a dream, what do we have today?

The Martin Luther King speech We All Need to Hear

Free at last, free at last, great god almighty we are free at last, such amazing words from an amazing man and orator and true visionary of the human spirit.

In these recent troubling times his thoughts and speech really have come to the forefront of my mind. It always troubled me as a child as to why the good people with god given strength and determination to enhance, change mankind and shape this world were more often shot down or killed in some other way before their time by those of hate acting in opposition to those of love and this still to this day deeply saddens my heart to know it could happen again and again.

I still have concerns for the future direction of the USA where it is going and who is taking it there and for what ultimate purpose and goal of that direction. Deep in my heart I feel now more than ever that those with money, power and influence seek to govern and control the masses and blame those without money, power and influence as being responsible for what is perceived to be their own misfortune and suffering in life and even their potential suffering in the afterlife too.

The so called victory of Roe v Wade being overturned will for many decades to come bring much suffering and pain to the poor or those without resources and a means of sustaining themselves and there will be some who will say well like all suffering that the poor and underprivileged go through they will have brought it onto themselves obviously and I could not strongly disagree with this sentiment as much as I already do.

More often than not social justice is born into this world as a reaction to the social injustice inflicted onto those that suffer and are damaged as a result of the judgments and laws of those with money, power and influence. Unfortunately and in many ways depressingly I would not be surprised if over the next 50 years the freedoms and aspirations that once united men will instead be replaced by chains to enslave them.

With China and Russia spearheading the none democratisation of this world and with Trump going for a second term, where he still to this day lies about the democratic result of the election by the people of the USA, if a democracy hater like Trump rises from, the right of the Republican party stating your views are more important and hold more power than the will of the people of a nation. Then oh boy, America will your freedoms and ability to live your lives the way you see to be fit be in trouble.

According to a recent poll Trump still has the support of 66% of the Republican Party whom believe he is an honourable and truthful man that had an election stolen from him. The truth often stairs people in the face but is more often too ugly to see or look back at in the eyes. The truth is he lost the election and he is not an honest individual and his lies and misdirection would be incredibly dangerous for your country and good god fearing Christians of the right would rather state that you current president is not really a Catholic or Christian come to that or that he is not the right type of Christian! As far as I was aware the right type of Christian is one that believes that your Jesus is your one and only true messiah.

But a Republican might misinform you that he is not the right type of Christian as he does not adopt the right type of Christian policies such as stopping abortion or gay marriage. This is just delusional nonsense  and if you think you can only vote for a president that takes away the rights of others and have such derogatory thoughts and views on those that don’t interpret your religious texts in a way that you see fit then maybe it is you that is not the right type of Christian and perhaps Christ does not live within you in such a way as you thought?  

Love Divine by Seal