Thank goodness. In just a few hours the world will not have to endure the obscenity called Trump and something resembling normality will soon return. Regular readers will be aware that the on-going US morality tale has been an important personal escape and refuge from domestic politics and pandemic concerns. It continues to be a source of hope amongst so much terrible news, but most importantly reaffirmation that good must and will triumph over evil.
So much has been staggering it's genuinely hard to know where to start, but news regarding the quantum of lies, mistruths, alternative facts, bull shit and bat crazy b*llocks is simply hard to comprehend. In four years the Washington Post reckons Trump has been responsible for over 30,000 lies, trumped of course by the Big Lie that the election was a fraud and he 'won big'. Interestingly it's been shown that since he was booted off Twitter internet references to election fraud have reduced by 73%.
Of course the dark secret behind all the rhetoric is that he did of course win if you discount the black vote and therein lies the tragic truth of the matter. Trump and the bulk of the Republican Party are racist to the core and it's something the US has been pretending isn't so for years. In the recent CNN documentary about Vice President Kamala Harris she confirmed that the lid has finally been lifted on a very dark truth about racism that's simply got to be addressed and it's not going to be easy or pretty.
At the weekend there was a CNN interview with Tim Snyder, Professor of History at Yale University and author of 'On Tyranny - Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century' and he spelt out a pretty simple message, 'post truth is pre fascism'. There was a real danger in discarding truth and only accepting opinion. Under Trump sources of truth had gone away and people had returned to beliefs. In such circumstances it was not enough for the passive position of relying on institutions to hold, it was necessary for everyone to affirm what democracy looks like and become actively engaged in its support.
I found this interview spoke directly to me as a reminder of the importance in every citizen playing their part through personal, civic and professional actions - very relevant I thought during recent discussion regarding probation's core beliefs, ethics and values.
The good news is that the GOP are going to be convulsed by division which should buy time for the Democrats to repair much of the Trump damage and push forward with reforms. They have their own divisions of course, but Biden is a seasoned and skilled operator most importantly trusted by many even of opposing political viewpoints. If anyone can build consensus it seems he can and having control of Congress, albeit by the narrowness of margins, should mean the obstructiveness by the likes of Mitch McConnell is history.
Readers will be aware of the particular disdain I have for the former Majority Leader, more than borne out in my view by him sitting on his hands regarding Trump's impeachment. Once I eventually got over my anger and disbelief that Republicans had difficulty in just 'doing the right thing', I've taken some delight regarding their position being between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Dump trump and they would surely be 'primaried'- do the right thing and they'd probably lose any election such is the current negative feeling towards the GOP thanks to Trump.
It will be fascinating to watch the inevitable internal battle play out over the coming months and how they can reinvent themselves post-Trump. It all depends on a political calculation over impeachment - daddy or chips? Doing the right thing is not an option it would seem, which brings me neatly to the subject of the media in all this. CNN have recently reported a surge in viewing figures and remain extremely profitable in a field not well known for combining integrity with money-making, as Rupert Murdoch and Fox News have discovered. Hitching their waggon to Trump has landed them in a very tough spot with loyal Trumpers deserting for even more right-wing sites! The loathsome Murdoch has been forced to attempt a bit of rebranding and earnt a stern rebuke from at least one of his children for the media's role in the Big Lie.
Still on the subject of the media, it was noteworthy that Andrew Marr interviewed CNN's chief political analyst Gloria Borger on Sunday and cheekily posed the question of the US news media being 'broken'. In response she outlined the initial difficulty of having to call out the lies of a President, but that essentially it was very necessary in terms of integrity. Was it a set-up message to BBC management and the inherent problem posed by a 'balanced' approach in dealing with lying bastards? It was this ongoing feeble BBC insistence on 'equivalence' that drove me off into the arms of CNN essentially in order to maintain sanity. Is Marr unhappy too?
As an aside, I was intrigued to read at the weekend that much of CNN's success has been due to a former BBC veteran who recently passed away. Chris Cramer had been Head of Newsgathering and was recruited in 1996 to run and essentially design CNN International and I suspect much of his ethos of integrity lives on. Continuing the theme, Piers Morgan at GMB continues to wind up government ministers. I notice the video clip of him trying unsuccessfully to get Matt Hancock to say he regrets voting against the extension of free school meals during half term is the most viewed ever at over 30 million!
Postscript
Piers took on the Northern Ireland Minister this morning for having no explanation for the UK's largest Covid death rate of any nation. The minister was roundly lambasted for wanting to take credit for favourable world comparisons in relation to vaccinations, but dismissed those for deaths as not being valid. Piers Morgan continues to not let government ministers get away with obfuscation and dissembling each weekday morning Monday to Wednesday and the share of viewing audience is steadily climbing as a direct result.
Jim, I don't agree with you that because the Republicans win the white vote that makes them racist to the core - "herein lies the tragic truth"
ReplyDeleteOf course certain elements of the Republican party are racist but that doesn't mean they all are.
I think there has been a rush to adopt a triumphant tone about Trump's defeat which I can understand on a personal level.
But the issue remains that Trump was able to connect with the blue-collar/working classes in a way no Democrat has managed for years.
Take West Virginia - a former mining state with high levels of poverty and unemployment. It used to be solidly Democrat yet Trump won almost 70% of the vote. The question for Democrats is how do they start to reconnect with those people.
I walk like a duck, quack like a duck, but hey! I'm not a real duck.
DeleteHow the priveleged few regard the world:
ReplyDelete"Appearing on BBC’s The Big Questions and arguing against lockdown for everyone, Lord Sumption the former supreme court justice had said he did not agree that “all lives are of equal value”.
Deborah James, who has stage 4 bowel cancer, had replied “With all due respect, I am the person who you say their life is not valuable.”
To which Lord Sumption added: “I didn’t say your life was not valuable, I said it was less valuable.” "
Grotesque & arrogant: “I didn’t say your life was not valuable, I said it was less valuable.”
Good day every day if you're on the test and trace gravey train.
Deletehttps://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/test-and-trace-900-deloittes-ps1000-a-day_uk_6005dc3dc5b6ffcab966c5c9/
Boris Johnson’s test and trace system is paying nearly a million pounds every day to private consultancy firm Deloitte, government officials have revealed.
DeleteDavid Williams, the department of health and social care’s (DHSC) second permanent secretary, told MPs that 900 of the private firm’s consultants were currently being used at a pay rate of £1,000 a day. That would mean £900,000 per day on one firm alone.
And so we enter the week or more where, following the Xmas hug-your-family-to-death policy, figures will reach record levels, and today starts us off with 1,610 registered in the last 24 hours, within the 28-day period of a positive test.
ReplyDeleteUsing that same criteria we have reached 91,470 deaths - but never forget that the 'real' total where covid-19 is on the death certificate will always be higher.
Fact: we have 1/5 the population of USA, i.e. 66m vs 328m...
Fact: we have 1/4 the no. of deaths, i.e. 100,000 vs 400,000.
But the pompous private school boys' club continues to claim the moral highground and refuses to acknowledge they have got it so catastrophically wrong.
Corbyn wasn't the right man, despite my soft spot for the outsider.
But Starmer is now proving he couldn't punch a hole in a wet paper bag.
So, girls & boys, brace yourself for a couple of utterly dreadful weeks.
getafix - if you have access to bbc sounds, give todays's R4 news programme PM a listen at about 5:40pm or so - an excellent piece on the 'claiming to be working class' story.
ReplyDelete"Mitch McConnell acknowledged the violent mob that attacked the Capitol earlier this month was “provoked by the president.” The Senate Republican leader said in a floor speech this afternoon, “The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.” "
ReplyDeletePresumably [Jim's best mate] McConnell doesn't include himself in the category of 'other powerful people' who might carry some responsibility for 'the mob'?
The UK's human falafel & his toxic moneybags chums are picking up where Trump left off...
ReplyDelete1. UK free to make trade deals with genocidal regimes after Commons vote - The government has narrowly defeated a move requiring the government to reconsider any trade deal with a country found by the high court to be committing genocide.
"Sorry, Uighurs, you're not worth shit when it comes to us making money post-Brexit" says UK
This puts the Uighurs on a par with Yemenis & Palestinians, people who are oppressed by nations the UK happily trades with, including vast amounts of military equipment, e.g.weapons, aircraft, heavy plant, etc
2. Ministers set to halt plans for daily Covid tests in English schools - Exclusive: DfE to pause £78m programme weeks after it was unveiled as ‘milestone moment’
3. There was a 71.4% rise in registered deaths involving Covid-19 in care homes – from 560 registered in the week ending 1 January to 960 in the week up to 8 January... The figures show that more than 106,000 deaths involving Covid-19 have now occurred in the UK.
Social cleansing by any other name - at home & abroad.
WHOOOPSSY-DAISY
ReplyDelete"Israel’s coronavirus tsar has warned that a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine may be providing less protection than originally hoped, as the country reported a record 10,000 new Covid infections on Monday.
In remarks reported by Army Radio, Nachman Ash said a single dose appeared “less effective than we had thought”, and also lower than Pfizer had suggested.
By contrast, those who had received their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine had a six- to 12-fold increase in antibodies, according to data released by Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer on Monday."
Maybe Bonzo & the Science should have listened to Pfizer after all???
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-regarding-executive-grants-clemency-012021/
ReplyDeleteTrump's schedule of pardons & commutations for 140+ liars, thieves, cheats & perpetrators of various degrees of abuse & harm.
No different to any other US president then. And I say that as someone who is very much anti-Trump.
Deletehttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-london-55730459
DeleteTrump is supported by almost 20% of Latinos and 30% Blacks and even after post-Capitol rioting, Republicans overall register an approval rating just short of 90%. So there is a long way to go...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/55730719
ReplyDeleteTrump's farewell message fact-checked
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths
ReplyDeleteWhen lockdown was introduced on Thursday 5 November, it was always under the condition that it would come to an end on Wednesday 2 December, a point reinforced by Boris Johnson throughout the period.
Communities secretary Robert Jenrick said he wanted to remove the bureaucracy to encourage greater trade – allowing shops to open for up to 24 hours a day in December and January.
Up to three households will be able to meet indoors from December 23 to 27 under a temporary relaxation of tier rules.
Over 100,000 dead.
sat with one soul while they passed two weeks ago
Deletesat with another soul while it passed today
so that's just two out of 100,000+
Johnson & his fascist clowns ought to be MADE to sit with the dying, to live the pain of the dying & their loved ones, to experience first-hand the consequences of their incompetence.
meanwhile what do you lot in probation get?
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/probation-instructions-pis
13 pages of office contact details
how many probation staff are positive? how many form part of that 100,000? how many clients form part of that 100,000?
The useless fuckers are simply not prepared to accept responsibility for their utter incompetence in any and every respect, be it bringing us the shitshow that is brexit, mismanaging the pandemic, or failing to have a scintilla of humanity.
Now the orange shitbag is a private citizen I hope there's a queue of state prosecutors outside mar-a-lago wanting to issue summonses for a variety of offences, mainly tax & fraud matters like those he pardoned his mates for. Some examples:
ReplyDelete* Fordham – In May 2004 he and four others were indicted on charges related to the theft of more than $2 million from the Community Mental Health Center of East Central Georgia.
* Corkern - admitted to paying $25,000 to David Chandler, the Panola County, Mississippi Administrator. This money was a bribe and reward for Chandler's role in securing a $400,000 payment from Panola County to Tri-Lakes Medical Center
* Melgen - By billing Medicare and other insurers for unnecessary treatment, Melgen pocketed more than $52.9 million in illicit profits, prosecutors said. In a 25-page ruling, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Melgen’s 2017 conviction and 17-year prison sentence for 67 counts.
* Weiss - On February 15, 2000, the Middle District Court of Florida (Orlando) sentenced Weiss, to 845 years – later reduced to 835 years – in prison for racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering. The ruling also included restitution of $125M AND a fine of $123M, in connection with the collapse of National Heritage Life Insurance Company
After my utter distress at having to (more or less) agree with Piers Morgan, I now fear I may have to express some degree of 'aqreement' (loosely) with Priti Aunty who, it appears, had called for external border closures early on in the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteI feel a weird mixture of nausea & delayed gratification... urgh! Time to open a bottle of malt.
Fcuk trump yesterday's man not 1 civil upset USA new peace today. In the UK met police officers fined 200 for eating in cafe shopped in by passers by. Meantime caressing a dick argues the police should have early injections Vax because the police do such a hard job . That's right coming up to the public in your face telling you to go home and then get pushy. I wouldn't queue jump that shower Infront of all the great food shop staff care workers us in probation prison officers live in it. Dentists bus drivers and many others than the doughnut stuffing champions in blue. Gawwd they really are the filth.
ReplyDeleteJim, you'll be pleased to know that Piers plays a key role in this week's BBC R4 The Skewer as he disembowels wankcock
ReplyDeleteSo it seems that Roger Hargreaves' Mr Men are being used as political 'code'
ReplyDelete"The prime minister, who watched the inauguration on television in Downing Street, said Biden’s election was a “fantastic thing … for a country which has been through a bumpy period”, in a coded criticism of Donald Trump’s administration."
Given that there were 39 original Mr Men characters, if Bozo thinks Trump is Mr Bump (number 6), then who are...
Putin? Wrong?
Xi? Mean?
Johnson? Messy?
And other figures?
ReesMogg? Uppity?
Corbyn? Impossible?
Clegg? Forgetful?
Grayling? Clumsy?
*unt? Tall?
https://mrmen.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Men