Making the news today....

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

1 hour ago, Woodworks said:

Good luck with that. We have demonstrated that we we are stupid effers from the top down in the UK. Many are happy to let lots die so they can live their lives as they want. Cant see that attitude changing any time soon

I know it’s a hopeless scenario to expect humankind to adjust in such a manner as to address the CAUSE rather than react to the EFFECT. 

 

You’ve only to listen to everyone calling for a return to ‘normal’ whereas it is that ‘normal’ which provided all of the transmission vectors which created a worldwide pandemic from a localised infection event. 
 

Hopeless. 

[Johnsond]

42 minutes ago, Big J said:

 

I strongly disagree. 

 

Holding an amoral narcissist accountable for deplorable actions that lead to the storming of Congress and the death of a police officer (not to mention the serious injuries to dozens more) is not a waste of time. A significant number of Republicans put country before their own political survival and voted to impeach. Even McConnell held Trump to be accountable and only acquitted him based on the technicality that he's not currently in office. 

 

The state of mind of the more extreme elements of the GOP is frightening. They are a long, long way from the relatively moderate politics of the likes McCain, Bush, Romney etc. Marjorie Taylor Green is genuinely certifiable. 

J the thing is it was never ever gonna go through and everyone knew that, in reality all it has done is divide people more than before. 
To lead and win a nation over the road forward is the same as in Scotland. Prove you are better, come out and initiate policies, programmes create jobs and improve people’s lot and lead a country to put it in a better place. Not like the SNP or Democrats are doing ie constantly meaning and backbiting etc. Words are cheap and politicians are the cheapest of them all but results are what counts. You can’t  argue with facts. Trump was and still is supported by millions of working class people whom feel totally betrayed by the democratic elites. Biden has to get them onside which he blatantly is not even at this early stage. Scotland is the same if the SNP could lose the hatred for the union and in Sturgeons case a barely concealed anti English attitude and go  out and turn things around to say hey look how ****************ing amazing we are then maybe rather than being a party of envy and griping they might actually pull things in the right direction. Both the Parliaments ie Holyrood and Westminster are an absolute shambles beyond belief quite frankly, the potential is huge yet we are squandering multiple opportunities to turn things around massively in this country. 
 

Edited February 14, 2021 by Johnsond

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

1 hour ago, sime42 said:

10 hours ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

Many generations of vaccinations against a virus that changes more swiftly than ‘science’ can keep pace is one option...
 
Changing human behaviour is perhaps another?

What types of human behaviour do you mean? Plundering and generally fcking with nature and mass galavanting around the globe types? Very hood call on changing those for the future, but a bit late in this instance, the cat's well and truly out of the bag with this virus.

Yeah, pretty much. 
 

Depressing that all the talk is of ‘living with it’ rather than ‘dealing with’ the causal factors. 
 

 

[Woodworks]

2 minutes ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

I know it’s a hopeless scenario to expect humankind to adjust in such a manner as to address the CAUSE rather than react to the EFFECT. 

 

You’ve only to listen to everyone calling for a return to ‘normal’ whereas it is that ‘normal’ which provided all of the transmission vectors which created a worldwide pandemic from a localised infection event. 
 

Hopeless. 

Normal was/is nuts but easy for us to say living in a beautiful and rural part of the world. For those living and working in a massive urban conurbation the desire to escape would be far higher.

[Big J]

8 minutes ago, Johnsond said:

J the thing is it was never ever gonna go through and everyone knew that, in reality all it has done is divide people more than before. 
To lead and win a nation over the road forward is the same as in Scotland. Prove you are better, come out and initiate policies, programmes create jobs and improve people’s lot and lead a country to put it in a better place. Not like the SNP or Democrats are doing ie constantly meaning and backbiting etc. Words are cheap and politicians are the cheapest of them all but results are what counts. You can’t  argue with facts. Trump was and still is supported by millions of working class people whom feel totally betrayed by the democratic elites. Biden has to get them onside which he blatantly is not even at this early stage. Scotland is the same if the SNP could lose the hatred for the union and in Sturgeons case a barely concealed anti English attitude and go  out and turn things around to say hey look how ****************ing amazing we are then maybe rather than being a party of envy and griping they might actually pull things in the right direction. Both the Parliaments ie Holyrood and Westminster are an absolute shambles beyond belief quite frankly, the potential is huge yet we are squandering multiple opportunities to turn things around massively in this country. 
 

 

America is divided on a level that I don't think that we can comprehend in the UK. The two sides are almost completely irreconcilable and the middle ground of swing voters is tiny. 

 

Trump has been roundly condemned by a large number of Republicans. Even the ones who support him now were largely scathing of him before 2016. Yes, the impeachment was doomed to failure before it was even presented in the Senate, but it was still justified. Just because an just action is futile doesn't make it any less just. The threshold of 67 senators is artificially high, and a majority of them voted to convict. 

 

I still (for the life of me) cannot understand why the average evangelical white voter supports him. He doesn't live by the beliefs that he espouses. He's three times married, clearly a million miles away from being a Christian and he has a long standing history of screwing over the little guy (as in people that work for him). He's quite successfully managed to cultivate a cult of personality around himself, which is all the more remarkable considering he's possibly the most obnoxious person ever to elected to high office. 

 

I use the term 'elected' loosely, given that he lost the popular vote on both the occasions the public were asked to vote for him. The Republicans have only won one popular vote of the last 8. 

 

An interesting factoid is that the 50 Republican senators represent 40 million fewer people than the 50 Democrat senators do. It is amusing that those that claim to have been disenfranchised are actually those that have proportionally the most power, from a democratic perspective.

[Johnsond]

4 minutes ago, Big J said:

 

America is divided on a level that I don't think that we can comprehend in the UK. The two sides are almost completely irreconcilable and the middle ground of swing voters is tiny. 

 

Trump has been roundly condemned by a large number of Republicans. Even the ones who support him now were largely scathing of him before 2016. Yes, the impeachment was doomed to failure before it was even presented in the Senate, but it was still justified. Just because an just action is futile doesn't make it any less just. The threshold of 67 senators is artificially high, and a majority of them voted to convict. 

 

I still (for the life of me) cannot understand why the average evangelical white voter supports him. He doesn't live by the beliefs that he espouses. He's three times married, clearly a million miles away from being a Christian and he has a long standing history of screwing over the little guy (as in people that work for him). He's quite successfully managed to cultivate a cult of personality around himself, which is all the more remarkable considering he's possibly the most obnoxious person ever to elected to high office. 

 

I use the term 'elected' loosely, given that he lost the popular vote on both the occasions the public were asked to vote for him. The Republicans have only won one popular vote of the last 8. 

 

An interesting factoid is that the 50 Republican senators represent 40 million fewer people than the 50 Democrat senators do. It is amusing that those that claim to have been disenfranchised are actually those that have proportionally the most power, from a democratic perspective.

So what you saying J you don’t like Trump 🙄. 
They need to go forward J as we do here and the only way to succeed and pull people together is for someone to break the mould  so to speak and try and govern for all not just the most vociferous elements within their support base. 🤷‍♂️ Easier said than done for sure. 

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

10 minutes ago, Big J said:

America is divided on a level that I don't think that we can comprehend in the UK

We absolutely do have a clear and present example of such division in the UK and it is manifest in the SNP. 
 

It bears many similarities with only scale being different to that across the pond. 

[Big J]

2 minutes ago, Johnsond said:

So what you saying J you don’t like Trump 🙄. 
They need to go forward J as we do here and the only way to succeed and pull people together is for someone to break the mould  so to speak and try and govern for all not just the most vociferous elements within their support base. 🤷‍♂️ Easier said than done for sure. 

 

I agree. It's a monumental task, and I don't envy anyone for trying to take it on. 

 

However, it's possible to work for a unified outcome and still hold wrongdoers accountable for their actions. History will take a very dim view of Trump, and I do not think that he will run again in 2024. I believe this to be the case as I believe that he will be convicted in at least a few of the 30 odd cases that he has pending against him. As soon as the Republican base fall out of love with him, the Republican elite will disavow themselves of him and seek to bury him in the annals of history as a mistake. 

 

Regardless, whichever way you look at it, the American democracy is a seriously flawed and corrupt system. It's an exercise in money creating political influence, and more transparently so than in any developed nation. If politicians were prohibited from accepting funding from any lobby groups, the political landscape would look a lot different.

 

Can we just agree that we'd all be happier if Bernie and his mittens were running the country? 🤣

[Khriss]

One from back then. Old lads still around. Not to be forgotten.  K

Kohima: Britain's 'forgotten' battle that changed the course of WWII

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

---

A group of British-Indian soldiers held off an entire Japanese division for three months in 1944.

 

[Khriss]

( Imphal barracks were just down the road from me, didnt know why it was called that )