Tag: Politics

Political Echo Chambers

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.

Imagine Dragons – Demons

What does the future hold for Mother Earth?

Sometimes to understand the present we must learn from the past. When we learn from the past we stand a better chance of not repeating past mistakes and those mistakes that are not learned from then look more likely to be repeated again and again.

The most successful cultures, nations and empires have not been kind to those that they have conquered. As an invader would say “This land is now my land even if you were on it before I arrived”, that kind of thing, “Your old gods are not my gods, but I have some far more successful gods to introduce you to whom you must now believe in too, if you wish to continue to live and should you refuse you will die or be my slaves”, as the wheels of the world continue to turn and the world continues to carry on with or without you as the new occupier build there temples on what was once your land.

Of course this was all in the olden days before we were born, we live in a modern cultured, educated world now where people no longer go to war for land, culture wars, or for gods or power don’t we? We now fight just wars for freedom not unjust wars for money and power don’t we?

Well we are on the brink of a potential of circumstances to be able to escalate into world war three so we are sure to find out what will happen next. Sadly justice does not always win out in wars, but is written into the script and end credits by the victors.

 I have often wondered at what the world would look like if the druids were still preaching today? I love pagan and druidic mythology or interpretations of what they stood for in history. Sadly we do not have any direct written knowledge or guidance from those pagan times because those that wrote down their interpretations of them were their enemy, who wanted no less than to defeat their gods and make them worship their gods and adopt their own culture and gods as their own instead in order to survive and as people continue to thrive.  

A love the concept of an earth mother or mother earth and gaia – a planet of life.

But from what little we have learned or can be interpreted to be known today, the druids believed in equality between woman and men. Women could be gods, queens and governesses of people, owners of property in their own right and had the right to marry and divorce. These are something we think of as rights earned overtime and thought for through the 20th Century and rights still being hard thought for in many countries today.  To me this concept is not only about a transfer of power to women but an equality of rights amongst all. It is heart warming to know this is not a new concept but in fact an ancient one from cultures of a distant past.

How and when we treat others with compassion and fairness, whether we know them or not is not a sign of weakness but an insight into knowledge and understanding of others and we should always see ourselves from the eyes of others whenever we can find it possible to do so. We should aspire to be equals wherever we can and not enemies.

When we branch out from the tree of humanity, we are all at one time or another connected, what sustains the life of one can sustian the life of all. From the first seed to the most recently sown. Where one thrives, all can thrive but when we destroy others we risk destroying all including ourselves.

When we see all that are different or indifferent to us as potential enemies that must be battled against then one day we will all be beaten and lose. We must aim and aspire to be equals not enemies. The most powerful enemy who wins upon a battlefield is not necessarily going to be the most righteous or for want of a better word moral or stand for what is right verses what is wrong. Might is not always right.

Eva Cassidy – Fields of Gold

For what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful!

When your the chosen one put on this planet by your American Christian God and then voted into office on his second time round by about 51% of the voting US electorate. Is this a huge vote against the global consensus on what is needed for the environment?

The US now has Trump in charge of deciding what happens in the court of humanity on the future of the climate of this world, a supreme court judge for an issue he has no time for and frankly does not understand and who’s interest it serves, to not care or understand anything about protecting or preserving anything to do with it either.

In reality the policy is one of seeing the environment as a mere stock or commodity to be treated like everything else as something to be bought and sold on an alter of American capitalism and exploitation. Not engaging with the attempt to protect or preserve but to be bought or sold merely for profit.

What he does will be no accident or miscalculation. He can now act as judge and jury on the future fate of this planet, by making a conscious choice to destroy past international treaties with the environment being relegated to a mere commercial product and play thing for a few dollars more a capitalist’s wet dream on the alter of Christian capitalism, but at what cost to us all?

It’s just like playing a game and rolling dice with the globe, a game that can be lost as well as won. Trump will now pick up a set of dice and roll them to see what happens next at the expense of the planet and its populations. One roll could result in no serious irreversible climate damage over the next four years while pumping out black gold from the seas and ground just to reduce the price of gasoline for consumers and make him and his buddies a lot of money.

Whereas on an alternative landing of the roll of the dice it could result in destroying recognised globally established environmental treaties, designed to save this planet and stave of irreversible global climate catastrophise. It could lead to us reaching one of many global tipping points that would result in global climate collapse in ecological systems on the planet and then to the death of us all or a serious reduction in humans ability to survive in spaces on this planet or degrade considerable this planets ability to sustain life as we know it.

While Trump might be banking on the unlikely outcome and too busy counting his profits in his bank accounts to think that the American nation is to big and powerful to be lost to a global issue and might not be affected. If he is wrong, we will all end up counting the cost and paying the price. Just when many US citizens shout out that their prayers have been answered and that their god is good capitalist Christian god and the heir to the thrown of power is Trump, who is now their president elect. I fear the god of this earth to whom I pray to on this planet has yet to give their answer back and will most likely have the last word on this matter of the climate.

We are all now left with no alternative at this moment in time, but to hope that climate scientists are wrong and have miscalculated with all the evidence presented to them that the climate is in peril and so to our ability to maintain life on this earth unless we change course and the fact that we are seeing 100 year likely storms on a yearly basis and are just about to brake another climate record for hottest global temperature on record this year is inconsequential.

We all have to hope, whether we like it or not that exploiting the climate, degrading the environment and the dismantling of globally agreed climate treaties has no irreversible consequences or a bare minimum negative effect to this world or just merely consequences that can be witnessed and then circumnavigated or reversed in some as yet unforeseen way to prevent climate collapse and irreversible habitat and species extinction. I would rather not leave the future of my home, species and plant to Trump and hope, but I was not at the ballot box when his name was put on the card.

Mr President-elect for what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful.

The Devil Went Down to Georgia by Charlie Daniels

Trumpism’s

Trump a successful misogynist who is now president-elect and leader of the free world in waiting, after beating two women at the ballot box.

We not only get the leaders that we vote for, we get the leaders that we deserve.

We live on a dysfunctional planet where you could ask 100 people what makes a perfect world and you would get 100 different answers. One man’s version of heaven is another’s living hell.

The Source Ft. Candi Station, You Got The Love – 1991

Oh Mr President-elect!

A world in flux, just when some thought (including me) that it had got its act together and we were acting, voting and engaging to save a planet, fight a good fight for democracy and do right by others, still with battles to be unveiled and won or lost.

A majority of a countries citizens ( I will let you guess who’s that is) shouted out and voted to say stop the world from spinning. It’s not spinning for me in the right direction now. My money in my pocket just does not go far enough, my petrol in my tank has prices going up and up and I fear for the future and the alien’s invading my country too who also want to take my job and steeling my cash from me while eating my cats and dogs for their tea.

We need a saviour right now one that can solve all these problems and things we fear and face, if that is you they will vote for you in an election race.

So now the voting is over, the stock markets roared with delight. Paying out to all stock-owners thanking them for their votes and giving up their rights.

It’s gone silent now and we wait to see what will happen next, some with hope that those votes cast will bring about a golden age. Others now fear for their lives and for what will happen ib the next phase.

The other 49% wipe the tears from their eyes, shedding sorrows and starting the count of four more years of potential dishonesty and aggressive lies. Now wondering what will happen and when will it come to an end and what on this beautiful earth will still remain.

A Top Trumped America!

The art of politics will always amaze and intrigue. It’s looking like the majority of the people of the US believed in and voted for Trump. The Republican party look to have taken control of the Senate, the house of Representatives and the backing of the supreme court. It’s a huge achivement and things will never be the same again.

We live in a dangerous times in this world, we will have to see if Trump adds fuel to the fire or not. I stayed up most of the night to watch the results of the election, nothing like watching history being made right before your eyes, even when you cant believe what is unravelling before your very eyes. You want to try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt when you can, even Trump.

I could never vote how you have voted if you voted for him. But respect your right to vote in the way that you choose to do. There will be those that are now afriad, bitter, scarred and scared. You can not stop Trump being Trump and doing Trumpisms.

One of the most intriging political comebacks in American history is underway. If it was bought and will be sold it is all to late now to change.

I don’t really remember Trumps election when he was voted in the first time around, it just kind of happened. I dont think we will forget though the second time he has become electeted.

I still think Trump is a bad man and that is probably the majority view by many people I know and respect. You hope in a democracy that your government and like minded governments have the power and abilty to solve your problems and not make matters worse.

Bruce Springsteen – Streets of Philadelphia

US Decides 2024 Election

Nobody knows what is going to happen after the US election!

“2,000 years ago one man got nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be if everyone was nice to each other for a change.”― Douglas Adams

Most people know who they are going to vote for and why.

Nobody knows what the electorate will look like.

Most people know what they want to happen after the US election.

Nobody knows just yet how it will play out.

What happens tomorrow night will send a shock wave down the ages no matter what is the result that will happen.

Will America still be a functioning democracy if Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins?

Will your world be a safer place if Donald Trump or Kamala Harris are elected?

May god bless us everyone.

First Aid Kit – America (Cover)

Sowing the seeds of descent from the fruits of victory

Elections, winners and losers, are happening all around us. In a few days time there will be a huge global future defining election in the USA. Where as in the UK the Labour Party and what we like to think are a socialist leaning leftist side of our democracy won an election a few months ago and have just had their first financial budget in which they look to define who they are and what they will do to the nation of the UK, how they will invest in people, projects and public services. Whilst at the same time politicize issues such smoking as a social evil that deserves to be taxed, chasing and detaining boat immigrants that deserve to be processed and sent back from which ever version of hell they have been forced to flee in the first place and also the panto of continued punishment of those in receipt of financial benefit by the state.

One such potential new policy by labour is to have career advisors in mental health wards so after people that have had a major psychological breakdown for whatever reason or circumstance can then be provided a dose of patronising information and propaganda, on why they are a failed unemployable human being and what they need to do to be a good little take a pay packet home earner. Such a type of policy has no compassion or care about it and will more likely result in more deaths and pain through the front door of the health service a sort of culling of those in need by those in power.   

Another seriously damaging policy of Labour is to the inheritance tax changes for farmers taking money out of farming families on their death bed. This will result in many farmers no longer being able to hand down to the next generation an inheritance of a farm kept in families for generations. Admittedly farmers never vote for the Labour party and never will, but trying to rake in money by destroying family businesses is cold hearted and a brutal short sigted policy, that will very much come back to haunt the Labour party, probably quicker than it expects it to. There will be many farmers angry and potentially ready sooner rather than later to protest about this issue with the concept of taking money of dead farmers through an inheritance tax being taken over their dead bodies quite literally I’m sure there will be resistance to this and not forgiven by the farmers for the damage it will do to their farms and families.

The weird thing in politics though is that although those being targeted now who will may lead to the downfall of a future Labour government probably kept quite when the Conservatives were slowly destroying the walls, ceiling and foundations of our schools, hospitals, rivers and roads. The necessary evil about politics and human nature is people do not like to speak out, protest or show dissent unless or until they feel what is politically happening directly affects them.  

Frank Turner – The Next Storm 

How times change!

Back in 2007 Time magazine named Russia’s president Vladimir Putin as its person of the year. In explaining its decision, the magazine described him as a “steely and determined man” who had “emerged as a critical lynchpin of the 21st century.”

It added: “Putin is not a boy scout. He is not a democrat in any way that the West would define it. He is not a paragon of free speech. He stands, above all, for stability – stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years.”

Where as as early as 2010 there were reports coming out of Russia into the press on the repression of the state stating that Russia was in fact a ‘mafia state’ with the Kremlin relying on criminals and rewarding them with political patronage, while top officials collect bribes ‘like a personal taxation system.

On the 24th September 2024 there was a Statement by Foreign Secretary David Lammy at the UN Security Council where he went on to say Putin’s Russia is a “mafia state” that is “built on lies”. Britain’s top diplomat directly accused Vladimir Putin of running a “mafia state” and likened him to a slave-owner in a fiery address at the United Nations Security Council.

David Lammy, the U.K.’s foreign secretary, took aim at the Russian president during the New York gathering Tuesday, telling Russia’s representative: “We know who you are.”

Lammy invoked the legacy of slavery to take aim at Putin’s conduct in the invasion of Ukraine, and accused the Russian government of running “roughshod over international law” while claiming to stand up for the “Global South.”

“Your invasion is in your own interests,” he said. “Yours alone. To expand your mafia state into a mafia empire. An empire built on corruption.”

He added, “Mr President, I speak not only as a Briton, as a Londoner, and as a foreign secretary.

“But I say to the Russian representative, on his phone as I speak, that I stand here also as a Black man whose ancestors were taken in chains from Africa, at the barrel of a gun to be enslaved, whose ancestors rose up and fought in a great rebellion of the enslaved.

“Imperialism: I know it when I see it. And I will call it out for what it is,” Lammy said.