Writing In The Ruins 2: The Internet Is a Place of Poison

 Maybe you've heard of discord, it's quite popular among the youth. They use it to communicate while playing their video games and whatnot. Essentially it's a real time chat app that is quite sophisticated. It has a number of servers (forums) catering to a variety of topics. Unfortunately...

It's also full of fascists and racists.

I don't understand what has happening to the younger generation (and I'm sure this will probably sound horrendous, I don't like to think of myself as old). There seems to be a whole generation, nurtured now by the panoply of social media and digital content, unprecedented in human history. My generation never had this when we were growing up. Not even close. While I'm not technophobe, I don't think it has been entirely positive. These kids have grown up drinking in a variety of political content, reading theory and philosophy, to the point they are intellectually rich but experientially poor. This lends to a certain naivete about the real impact of fascist and racist politics. 

They will argue vigorously how wonderful Trump is and how awful leftists/liberals/progressives (and so forth). They will scream down opposition voices. But they benefit not at all from those they support. They have no lived experience of the working class and the class struggle. Most of the are white men and they feel as if class politics represents an attempt to take from them. They complain with the voice of aggrieved privilege; taking what they have for granted without realising that their ideological interlocutors have less - BLM for instance. All because they haven't got that experience.

I think this is dangerous.

In the wake of the two rich old white capitalists butting heads, masquerading as a presidential debate, this is even more true. The absolute state of it. Trump's tactic was clear: gaslight his opponent. Force him to stutter and lose his train of thought while you constantly interrupt him. I'm not a 100% sure it worked but it doesn't really need to do much, a few clips of Joe being interrupted will be taken out of context and played to Trump's base to demonstrate that 'Sleepy Joe' is dysfunctional.

These are the final days of the American Empire (I hope). Presided over by two horrendous establishment characters. The only difference is that Biden is marginally less disgusting. This was demonstrated by Trump's refusal to distance himself from fascism. Instead he told them to "stand back and stand by". Even if you agreed to a charitable interpretation of that, it will be interpreted a certain way by those it was directed to, and Trump is already mobilising his base to watch the polls. In other words fascists will interfere in the election, or the aftermath. That is pretty scary.

And some people genuinely wonder why we need Antifa.

Writing In The Ruins 1: Working With Organisations

Once a week? Fuck off!

Is what I said in my head during my Fedcap employment appointment today. It's taken many weeks for this appointment to materialise and when they said they'd ideally want to stay in touch once a week I shrank back. Not comfortable with that.

So it's another organisation working with the terminally lazy and mentally befuddled, like me!

It wasn't an easy appointment. That is because I find I am very guarded talking with people like this, because they are part of the system. Like the Agents in the Matrix (a very cheesy analogy but it works). Whatever I reveal to them could be later used to incriminate me. It's an extreme example of what I mean. Essentially, while these organisation offer help, they do not exist to change the system. They are not revolutionary. This means that whomever I work with will always be looking to change me or, if that's impossible, coerce me. 

It's never about the system, only the individual. This is simplistic and it serves a victim blaming narrative. Some might well think that, if I do have a problem with all these organisations then, yes, the problem is me. But that is just facile. It's only partially true: I have a problem, but it's with the system and the fact that these organisations, lacking a revolutionary agenda (which I accept would be difficult), assume the system must remain and be sacrosanct. It must not change, I must instead.

Of course the government is never going to give contracts to revolutionary organisations.

It's possible that my key worker, who may very well be a decent person, may even have revolutionary or socialist views. I think it unlikely, personally, but it's possible. Even then they have to work within the programme. I'm not really comfortable with that. It may be that we develop a rapport, but even then if their programme isn't capable of addressing the systemic problems - never mind the current conditions - coercion will ultimately manifest. It is unavoidable; they will want to push me toward an outcome that's ultimately in their benefit. It may work out for me, I hope it does and I'm willing to see how far this goes, but I'm not going to tolerate being pushed into something just because "beggars can't be choosers" and you have to "earn a living".

Think about what that means: you have to earn the right to live. The things you need to live: food, shelter, clothing, health, culture, community. 

And people wonder why we hate capitalism.

I'm sure I haven't explained this well. Simply put: any systemic organisation can ultimately only reinforce the hegemony of that system, in this case capitalist society - capitalist employment, specifically. It will struggle to recognise, for example, a social model of mental health. It will struggle to accommodate those that themselves struggle to fit in with that system and its hegemony. A system that shapes society through a culture of 'strivers and skivers', 'hard work' and 'winners and losers'. A model I have struggled with, perhaps against, all my life. 

That is the revolutionary struggle in microcosm.

Praxis

 I love the ideas of anarchism: mutual aid, the call for claims of pwoer to justify themselves, and community direct action. These ideas are winners.

Why then are so many anarchists that I've come across such dogmatic wankers?

I don't have years of frontline activism under my belt. I'm not what the right wing would call a 'professional protester'. Even before Covid activism was expensive and not something easy to engage in (not much call for it in the shires). I'm not a huge expert on the theory; in fact I find reading increasingly difficult in general. My eyesight is giong to shit and my concentration is shot. It it can be found audibly then I'm itneresrted. Hnudreds of pages of hudnreds of books of radical theory, political theory, economic theory, I'm going to struggle. Just keeping it real. There's no way in my life I'm ever going to read Das Kapital!

I just try to be a decent person. Not in some halo polishing way, but out of empathy. I don't like to see other people struggle. Maybe that's a personal weakness, as many these days seem to think.

But I can't abide the kind of dogma that says one ought not even vote. All year I've had this nonsense after calling on anarchists to vote for Labour. Why: because good praxis is primarily harm reduction. You don't vote because the system is good. You don't vote because Labour are great. Neither of those things are true. You vote because you can and because contributing to a voice that rejects the horrors of right wing politics, specifically Boris Johnson and the austerity-mongers reduces harm. Is this really so controversial?

To many anarchists, it seems (I'm sure there are many that think otherwise), the issue of not voting is an unbending principle. Don't vote, they say, it only encourages them. If voting achieved anything they'd ban it. This is utter bollocks. 

Certainly electoralism is a problem when it can distract from genuine grassroots causes, but the system isn't going anywhere. I wish it were; it's a horrible system. But if you don't vote you are still participating in it. There is no 'opt out' option. A spoiled ballot simply reinforces the status quo. In other words: either way, you vote! Your voice will be counted whether you like it or not, so you might as well use it.

It's not even about propaganda: I can't stand the imperialist flag waving "my daddy died for your vote". That's pure emotional manipulation solely intended to reinforce the status quo. But you do  have a vote, and it will get used so why not steer it as best you can. That's all I ask.

We're almost a year in of this government and we can see its failings laid bare, exposed in the light of Covid and its reaction to the virus. They have failed on all counts. Thousands dead. Failed care home policies, and now failed student policies off the back of a horrific destruction of kids' exam results and studies. The blatant corruption of contracts given to cronies, wasted. The bigotry and hatred resulting in mass working class divisions highlighted by the masked vs the unmasked. 

And we're still not done: Brexit is and always was driven by a hateful xenophobic ideology, pursued by utter fools. People as ignorant as they were self inflated.

If you think Corbyn would have been this bad, you're just wrong. He didn't need to be 100% better. 1% would have been enough to justify the aforementioned praxis.

We're divided as never before. Isolated and scared. Now you can add emotional exhaustion into that mix. We still don't have a vaccine or cure. Long covid hangs like a shadow as does the looking unemployment and economic aftershocks of this period. You can be sure of one thing: the Tories will use that as cover for more austerity. They will target, as they always have, us.

Praxis

Weekender 28: Anti Capitalism Is Hate Speech

According to the Guardian, Department for Education advice issued Thursday now classifies anti capitalist material/ideas as 'extreme'. Equating it with antisemitism.

We live in a capitalist society. 

We live in a failed capitalist society. The system is on life support, much like the tens of thousands that have died this year thanks to the disease the capitalist government didn't take seriously. An attitude that can only come from capitalism because the system breeds short term thinking and puts profits first. There is very little profit in spending money on preparing for a pandemic, and one of this isn't likely, right?

Oh well.

It's the same system that has also wasted hundreds of millions at a time by giving contracts to private pals who didn't provide. 

Now you could argue that our British capitalists are just shit capitalists. I would argue that these decisions are inevitable under this system. It's possible the government could have been wiser, giving them to more competent providers, but the problem would still remain: contracts given on the basis of profit. Necessarily in the competition (which didn't happen) corners get cut. What we should have is health provision on the basis of need under a planned system. We need X ventilators, masks, etc. So get them.

Instead we get a system that at best exists to make a profit regardless pf the prevailing conditions of world crisis. But you will never get the best example of capitalism. You will get the ruling class making the sorts of decisions it has made: looking after its own, enriching themselves. Quintessentially capitalism. Even if it's shit capitalism.

And so kids will not be allowed to read such things are learn such analysis. My scintillating in depth excoriation of the system will of course be the kind of extreme hate speech anti capitalist rheoric has no been branded. Another sign of the creeping curse of a resurgent fascism - itself a symptom of late stage, failing, capitalism. 

This can't end well.

Weekender 28: From App To Worse

We learn today that the app, itself already months late, cannot include all tests. Results from Public Health England or an NHS hospital can't, currently, be included. I'd say this is unbelievable but that would be a giant lie. At this point I have no conception what it would take to handle this virus correctly under the Tories. I imagine this will get fixed, but for now...it's another expensive white elephant. I still can't use it either. No device I know has the version of Android required, which is also, IMO, stupid.

2023 schools are reportedly infected. There are 32,770 schools in total. At what point does this become a concern? Those are still people's lives as well as educations being affected, never mind the threat of community transmission. It is a low percentage, but that it's being allowed to happen demonstrates the government thinks there is an acceptable minimum - an acceptable amount of potential harm - in the name of capitalism. Don't forget the schools opening is done to facilitate childcare while parents go back to awork. It isn't being done in the name of safety.

Police have moved to break up another anti-lockdown protest in Trafalgar Square. This is depressing on many fronts. Firstly I am not a fan of such authoritarian measures being used on working class people. But that has to be seen through the lens of pandemic. This static gathering comprises people that are not masked. It may well be perfectly safe, but we don't know. More importanlty the one thing it is guaranteed to spread is dangeorus delusion. Misinformation. These are people who are confused and manipulated. Facebook and social media groups spreading the virus of falsehoods all fervently believed. You cannot argue with a mob so really the dismal sight of cops breaking it up is the only reality left to us. But these people need to understand, somehow, they are desperately and unfortunately wrong.

Likewise to the school situation, the government is clearly okay with a certain number of people - families - being thrown out of work. They wring their hands but do nothing. Some are in for a rude awakening when they start claiming Universal Credit. A terrible lesson to learn if they haven't already. 

This is just further demonstration of how capitalism functions. On the other hand we now have the LibDems apparently passing a motion in favour of Universal Basic Income. While the devil will be in the detail the purpose of this, as with schools and unemployment, is to ensure that capitalism survives. If that means having to 'give' people money (temporarily of course) then that is what will happen. But make no mistake the system remains, perpetuating all its problems. It is a fraught fragile inadequate system prone to increasingly frequent collapse. Sooner or later there a reckoning must be,

Septic September 5: Boris Failed Us...Again

 The North West is on fire, sir. Shall we do something?

Turns out that when everyone turned out at 10pm, they all piled into the streets to continue drinking and socialising. Corona happy hour!

The government isn't responding. Boris Johnson is a leader absent from responsibility. He has no answers, no clue, and is advised by the very forces of darkness. Students are in lockdown and, very soon, meltdown. Scuttlebutt is that, soon, Hancock will compel them into their dormitories and halls of residence for Christmas meaning they can't go home. 

This is a fucking disaster. Corona and ale a match made in hell! What did the government think was going to happen when, after unprecedented (and dreadfully late) social upheaval, they opened everything back up again. It's like watching a slow motion factory fire. But no one's calling 999 and the operator works for a private company with no experience overseen by a clown lady who doesn't even understand what the science and her own evidence tells her.

This is not good for my state of mind.

The days grow darker, the air grows colder. A sharp breeze has formed from quite possibly the tropic of misery we are now living under. Trade winds of ill fortune, from whom are leaders are shielded by virtue of ignorance.

I'd be terrified if I wasn't so easily distracted, but even that is getting harder. Fortunately I am financially secure for the moment. That could easily change (I have a mattress on the wrong side of functional).

I have to believe Boris has lost control. He has no idea what to do and instead sublimates that to privileged and entirely narcissistic concerns about nannies and cleaners and the pittance he feels he earns. (Hint: it isn't.) Ruffling your piss coloured locks won't save you, Boris. Nor will it save us. You are a failed state in a state of failure. You are leading us into viral disaster by not leading us out of it. You have squandered it all. A few months ago things were reasonably under control (relatively speaking). Even trips to the beach and the state opening of Poundland didn't cause a problem. Now?

Eating out didn't help out.

Rushing back to the office and stopping only for Pret as proved ill advised.

Opening the pubs and bars was a calamitous mistake.

Do. Something. This lady has it right, from Question Time. 

If our economy has a virus running through it, it cannot survive nor function. That is why the health crisis must take precedence. How can business open with a virus present? How can staff be safe? Customers? Supply chain? How can you guarantee something will actually be 'covid secure'? Or is that the key phrase the government will use to bully people?

But it's a point the government has singularly failed to explain this to people. Instead the public are left to scratch their heads at the mixed messages. They simply ask why their kids can't see their friends or grandparents. This latter should be an easy and obviously thing to understand, yet the fault isn't with the working class. It's with the ruling class who arrogantly assume either everyone is a technocrat or a genius. People don't have time to understand when they're trying to survive. You didn't explain it to them.

Same with this app. As someone else on twitter (I can't take credit) pointed out: if you can afford a phone capable of running the Covid App (which I couldn't find on the Google Play store, never mind that I can't run it) then you're a scrounger/benefits are too generous. But if you can't then you are a health hazard not playing their part. Do they get this? 

That's not to say people can't still be pricks. There's no monopoly on stupid in terms of class. Don't be a dick, wash your hands, isolate if told to (and you can, otherwise...well I don't really know!), wear a mask. CLOSE THE FUCKING PUBS!

https://twitter.com/bbcquestiontime/status/1309253142136193029

Septic September 4: Numbers Go Up

 So the Powers That Be Bullshit have finally released their vaunted track and trace app. I tried finding it on the Google Play store, couldn't. Doesn't really matter actually because my shitty phone isn't up to spec; you need the latest version of your OS of choice. Now that isn't perhaps a controversial requirement, you might think, but it's another arrogant assumption: not everyone has the bestest and smartest of phones. I certainly don't and I can't afford one either. So no track and trace for me. I have to ask: could it not have been made simpler and less demanding?

More importantly could it not have been done earlier? We needed this three months ago. Now we are seeing infections rising at a rate comparable to the bad old days of April. A true second wave is unfolding and, frankly, it's terrifying. This has coincided with the beginning of the dark days: the period where night reigns o'er the day. This is the coming of winter and the six months our inept Prime Moron has condemned us to through his unwillingness to shut what needs shutting.

Like pubs and fucking bars, probably schools and universities since the latter are a hotbed for something like Covid. Can't blame the kids, not when they are crammed into crap accommodation built to profit developers and universities. All capitalism's chickens are coming home to roost. As exemplified further by Rishi Sunak, the hedge fund chancer (i mean chancellor, though what is the difference?), and his inability to take care of people in the inevitable forthcoming lockdown.

Not sure what else to say today. It's looking like dismal deja vu now, when I post. The numbers seem to have only one direction; a terrible gravity lent to them by the utter failure of the Tories. I could vent my spleen some more, but it's a bit late, a bit dark, and I don't want to do that right now. it's tiresome and empty. I can only hope that, in the coming days, we get some good news.

Maybe Dominic Cummings will fall off a cliff or something. 

Septic September 3: Tories Out. NOW!

 Today's misery tally is a new low, in that it is a new high. Over 6000 confirmed cases. The real number will of course be higher because of asymptomatic cases and others that simply slip the net, so to speak.

There's really no need to beat around the bush here. I slept poorly last night. Johnson's pathetic speech demonstrates a hopelessly out of touch government whom, I fear, simply aren't going to get it. The scientists, you can tell, are screaming at them: this isn't good enough. It isn't.

There will have to be a second lockdown. This time it will be ugly. Not just because of the antivaxxer/denialist crowd. But simply because the government has crassly and flagrantly squandered any good will generated from people complying with the first lockdown. To have to go through that again will be devastating. At the very least a good start has to be shutting down bars and pubs. But that doesn't appear to be happening. Instead there's a 10pm curfew which is self evidently futile. It will just cause more people to congregate in bars simultaneously, besides how will it be enforced? 

This is horrendous. I feel sick. I shouldn't. These measures are lightweight, and we all knoew this wasn't going away before Christmas - another platitude plucked from the air by the twat in charge.

They have categorically and comprehensively failed. There is no other word for it. At the very least Starmer must call for a vote of no confidence though given the Tory majority he will almost certainly lose. This situation is untenable. The case rate will continue to rise, I cannot se otherwise.

I am, and we should be, furious. This isn't just typical Tory incompetence, that would be bad enough. It is an abject dereliction of duty by people utterly inept. Their response is bluster, their systems are failing, their leadership corrupt and hopeless. Baroness Harding is still in charge. It is still inadequate.

In Spring, people clapped for the NHS. Kids put up rainbows and other pictures showing gratitude. But for what? To go through that all again? How will those kids feel having to do it again? I do not see how schools can remain open when they are another obvious community vector.

This is a total disaster. It should finish the Tories. It must.

Septic Septmber 2: Exposing The Class War

The media reports Boris might quit because he's fed up and doesn't want the responsibility anymore. This is probably believable because he is lazy and irresponsible.

The media also reports that he's whining because he can't afford enough staff; more than one cleaner (no doubt paid minimum wage) and a nanny for the sixth child he chose to have.

People on Universal Credit have to manage without hired help. Child care is a perennial issue for working class parents. They do not receive £tens of thousands a month, if they did the right wing media would be apoplectic.

This is the essence, and the proof, of class war in Britain.

That same media will defend Johnson to the hilt over that. How can he work effectively otherwise? He must have all these things. If the complains were coming from working class families, particularly those with 6 kids to support from multiple partners, there would be precisely zero sympathy.

This is obvious. It is also class war. It takes different, antagonised, positions on the same position depending on which side of the class divide you sit. The working class single parent won't get getting their child into Eton, won't be in line for the job of PM - a job Johnson only wanted because he though that a) he was entitled as an Etonian (that's the purpose of an Eton education) and b) because ir looks like jolly old larks wot!

To be honest, we all know he isn't even PM: it's Cummings and Gove that make the decisions. He just has to attend meetings, sit in front of the camera, play wiff waff. When it comes to the hard work, he's not interested. This year has been nothing but hard work. Will he quit? I can't possibly say. Are the rumours credible? Hells yes!

Exhibit the second: eat out to help out. Remember that? Rishi Sunak, our friendly former hedge fund manager now chancellor, is reportedly planning a benefit freeze to balance the books. Of course he will, this is also a non controversial claim. Will the right wing, through its media, object? They would if the proposal was to tax the rich or even close a few loopholes created by and exclusively for the rich. That would be viewed as 'stifling growth/innovation'. Whereas cutting the support desperately needed so the working class don't starve (at least not in numbers sufficient to provoke revolution!) is acceptable because it 'builds character' and stops 'welfare dependency'.

Sunak has been repeatedly framed as Johnson's successor. While Boris is proving incoherent and bumbling (the more sympathetic elements of the right wing media will put this down to his deliberately self-inflicted brush with Covid) Sunak is a safe pair of hands. Given the current sharp increase in cases, as the apparent manifestation of a second wave, his reputation should now be in tatters and the man exposed as another capitalist hoping to buy his way out of a crisis the economic system he's sold his soul to cannot process.

And so to the big news: some slight conditions have been imposed, supposedly, for six months. Conditions that will no doubt be ignored by the ruling class. Yet these restrictions are pathetic in the face of a second wave. However the announcement that we're in this for another six months (including the critical Brexit cliff edge) is just a mental kick in the nuts. 

They have squandered Summer's good will, ignored their own misdeeds, burned up any authority they may have had, and replaced it with creeping authoritarianism. Fining people ten grand is utter stupidity. That will never work. Punishing people for behaving as you have conditioned them to do is a fool's errand. But then we are led by fools.

Today is the also the Equinox. I hope nature takes this period of decreasing sunlight to renew itself just as I hope we can.

Septic September 1: Lockdowniversary

 Happy halfway house, although technically I suppose that would be the 23rd. Ah, 'twas a mere six months ago that the Beforetimes ended. Bought down in a press conference held by an idiot who would go one become a moron. Lock ye down!

Some enterprising bright spark could market this with a series of greetings cards. Happy Lockdowniversary! 

Don't sell them your game, Pike!

So far September, like much of the year, has been decidedly hot. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was still Summer, and you'd be forgiven for thinking the Summer was in fact a terrible curse from an angry Sun God. The weather's lovely, but sometimes I wish it wasn't here. These are symptoms of our changing climate. I find the temperatures growing difficult to bear. Maybe that's just me, but if it increases, yearly, as the predictions suggest, this is not going to be easy. 

It isn't even just the temperature; the hot weather feels more aggressive somehow. More present. It wilts the body more than perhaps it otherwise would. I can't point to anything scientific, perhaps it's just a sign of getting old, or maybe I'm just lazy. Nonetheless I'm surely not alone in this. It's something else we are going to have to adapt to. But so far we are not doing well at adapting to anything.

Over 4000 new cases today. Clearly this isn't a brief unwelcome anomaly. The virus is abroad. Not helped by stupid people. I can't blame them as much as perhaps I'd like, although idiots coming back from abroad infected going out on pub crawls need their arses proverbially kicked. Ours is a top down authoritarian society. You can't expect people to take this seriously with the proliferation of toxic misinformation across the media, the constant exhortations to equally toxic normality, and the confused bumbling advice from government, ignored by its own high profile members. You can be damned sure that Cummings is far from the only Tory that has skirted the rules. He just got caught. 

Yet no responsibility is taken. This is unacceptable. The same right wings loons accusing people that want tests to stop carping. Yet they still haven't gotten on top of the situation. Dido Harding wasn't prepared for the second wave that EVERYONE had heard was a distinct possibility we must prepare for. Hauled before ministers she denied the numbers that demonstrated her failing despite them being in her own report. This is what we are dealing with right now: a mixture of industrial scale gaslighting and sheer incompetence. There is no other way to look at this; these people are utterly inadequate to the point of incompetence. We needed to invest in satellites for GPS use, post Brexit. We bought the wrong ones, now we have to go cap in hand to the EU to let us continue using theirs. 

It's beyond parody and beneath contempt, and it's having a corrosive influence on society when, more than ever, we need people to be responsible. We knew this would all happen, and now a terrifying sense of dea vu threatens our lockdowniversary. Right back to square one it seems. I hope not. But if nothing is done there is a chance that cases will simply spiral out of control. There will reach a point where the number of daily cases takes on a life of its own and increases exponentially. This is the aspect the pandemic deniers do not understand. 

Oh dear.

We Kender A Lot, Because We're Out To Save The World!

 At the star of all this bacterial malarkey there were fears regarding the emergency legislation and how it would impact the disabled, particularly with regard to the provision of care packages from the authority. Could local/nation government take them away? I wrote to my MP, the man of the moment: John Penrose. Man-wife of the incompetence jodhpur enthusiast and test-averse Baroness, Dido Harding. A certified failure in all regards.

It's taken 6 months for a response to come from Helen Whately, the care minister. I would say the minister for caring but she's a Tory. Worse, she's one of the really dim ones! Let's go through it, though to be honest it's mostly just bullshit and not terribly interesting.

"This Government hugely values people with disabilities and is committed to ensuring tha they are supported during this challenging and worrying time. It will do everything in its power to ensure their needs are addressed."

Well we know that's bollocks. Usual introductory spiel though.

"There was cross-party support to pass emergency legislation to allow the Government to respond to the coronavirus. This included vital measures to make sure front line services and support are maintained, particularly for the vulnerable and for people with disabilities."

I don't care about cross-party stuff. I'm not partisan and this point is just the usual deflection. "Labour supported it as well, it's all Jeremy Corbyn's fualt!". Problem is frontline and support services have been withdrawn/curtailed. I'm not going to argue the necessity, but my own appointment for an Aspergers diagnosis was indefinitely postponed. I'm not angry about it, but it is what it is.

"The provisions int he Coronoavirus Act are time-limited, to come into force when absolutely necessary and to be terminated as soon as circumstances allow. The Government will ensure that once the crisis is over, the Care Act will again apply."

That's why I'll be keeping this letter. To hold them to this. It may well be the case, I don't want to gainsay the Government, but it's possible the calamity that follows Brexit will cause them to continue with this, or similar measures. Who knows. At least this is on the record. For all the good that will do.

"Local authorities re expected to do everything they can to maintain existing services and to meet the needs of as many as possible, particular for those with the most acute needs."

Which shows the double think and cognitive dissonance baked into modern Tory politics. Does she not realise that local authorities have had provision cut? In Weston Super Mare, John Penrose's own constituency, mental health services (as well as addiction) have been savagely cut. Only recently (before the pandemic) a high profile support service called 1in4 was cut. How can they be expected to do anything when you cut their budget - but then 'everything they can' allows them to do just that, its a clever statement that both shifts burden away from central government while acknowledging local councils can't do anymore than what the Tories' pitiful funding permits.

"In the coming period there will be more need for care services, but sickness and the need to isolate is likely to reduce the number of dedicated social workers and care staff available to support those in need."

No mention of doing anything to increase this, now or in the future. No mention of how crap many private services are (not paying staff for their expenses like petrol). Acknowledging the problems caused by covid doesn't help address them.

"The Government has been very clear that it is prioritising support for vulnerable children during this pandemic and has issued guidance to local authorities and schools to help them work with parents to ensure that children with Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans have the help they need at this worrying time."

But again, funding? I don't know anything about this since I don't have kids, vulnerable or otherwise. 

"The powers in the Bill will provide temporary flexibility over how the EHC plan process works, to help frontline workers focus on direct support for those with the most complex needs, including people with disabilities, and on the response to Covid 19".

There is a recurring them of ignoring the reality of ideologically driven consciously chosen austerity. It's essentially saying local councils have to cut their cloth accordingly. What is not recognised is that this is an entirely unnecessary situation. Government could be providing adequate funding to facility services for all who need them. But instead the tenor of this letter is to endorse triage.

"These emergency powers will allow for the relaxation of certain legal requirements on local authorities, health bodies and education settings over EHC plans. For example. if the Secretary of State for Education issues a notice where a local authority is unable to put in place the provision stated in an EHC plan it will need to use its 'reasonable endeavours' to do this but will not be penalised for failing to meet the existing duty in the 2014 Act. These emergency powers will only be exercised for the shortest period and where necessary and will be regularly reviewed."

I have her word on that, for what it's worth. Time will tell.

So it seems that councils are meant to do their best, but if they can't there's no penalty. I don't know what' reasonable endeavours' are, but you have it right there. Sounds like an official term. I guess it means it must do what it can be reasonably expected (as adjudicated by the state, no doubt). But again given cuts what can reasonably be expected might well be very minimal.

So essentially the letter, which I've not quoted in full (I may try and screen grab it if people are interested), says that the government is going to facilitate what it can (austerity notwithstanding) and will only use these powers where and for as long as necessary. 

Whether that's actually how it works is another matter.

"I hope this reply is helpful"

Yes, so do I

Weekender Half Way! Another 30 Years To Go!

 Oh if I live that long. I could tell my clone-kids about the days before the Great Burning. The Beforetimes before the blessed St AstraZenica blessed us with our gift-pills. They would smile for the allotted period before returning to their dream boxes, monitored by the Panopticon whose name is Nigel. 

No one would remember that clownish thug who drove us into the cement of Covid. The brick wall made of hubris and the chicken game of Brexit. Remember Brexit? Oh such things I could tell thee of the time of the One Nation. Do you remember? In the Beforetimes there was One Nation, not the archipelago you know of today with its polyglot, BeyondSpagBol breakfast flakes and dinosaurs. In those times a slovenly king ruled our lands, not the Corporate Praetor - all hail the Praetor! - of today. He had a vision of a thing called Brexit. A maddening silvered box like a kaleidoscope. It is said that if you looked inside you would see impossible things born of your fondest dreams and darkest nightmares. The sundering of the One Nation and the terrible deal with the Dark Lord of Amerikh. 

Oh sweet clone children. How I wish the Great Burning hadn't rendered me infertile that I might have had proper kids. 

Not really, little buggers.

It is halfway now. next week will be 6 months. Does anyone remember the Beforetimes? I would ride the iron dragon; the living chariot and its human commander. Together this unclean hybrid would ferry me into the Big Place. There I would exchange circular coins for things called underpants and herbs to aromatise my food. What wonders I saw, beyond the hills that mark the lands of my home. 

It is not for us to go beyond now, Mr Frodo. The road does not go ever on. Limited are our shires. An invisible boundary of bacteria based fear descends. A good fear. It reminds those of us with intelligence that we must be careful. Sadly though in these dark times there are many that lack critical thinking skills. They have been robbed of them by a fiendish conglomeration of media and profit. It is safe because we need you to work and make us rich. Fear not for the fruits of your good labour will trickle down like the blessed rains we've also ruined. Are you not grateful?

A gathering of the sadly naive happened again today: another protest by the Trafalgar faithful. The anti lockdown/vaccine/5g/BLM/left wing crowd. They claim reason as their weapon, arguing that, because they question things, they must be correct. Sadly this betrays their claims to critical thinking. It isn't enough to just question things, you need to be able to understand why they are wrong and present evidence. Telephone masts cannot transmit living bacteria. Lockdown is more likely if lots of people continue gathering en masse without masks. Your freedoms are not curtailed because you wear one in public. Yet they do not criticise any other aspect of life wherein our freedom is threatened, such as police oppression of minorities, state abuse of refugees, etc. They are selective and blind to the reality of how the state works.

They lack a class analysis. As such they are blown this way and that by prevailing predominantly right wing media narratives. This is evidenced by the incoherence in their rhetoric. The idea that class analysis is a product of a controlling 'cultural marxist' elite. A myth propagated by an actually controlling right wing increasingly fascist elite who are playing them for absolute suckers. 

However, at this point, I fear these people are too far gone. I don't know how we can reach them before the virus reaches us - through them! Education is the key, talking to these people. But that requires decanting them from their echo chamber and propaganda bubble. Confronting them while they are ensconced mid protest will fail. Can this be done at this time? It can't really be done over social media - and the lies of Facebook are a major part of the problem given how they willingly proliferate junk science, dangerous ignorance, and bigotry. It is a petri dish of conspiracy and paranoia. 

I know of no other solution, unfortunately. It may well be that authoritarian measures - that is, another lockdown - is required. That of course will play into their ideology. It's become increasingly inchoate; a blurred mass called 'freedom'. I don't specifically know what their demands are, but the are related to 'lockdown' and 'wearing masks', but no freedoms are curtailed by wearing masks, in fact they are facilitating as much normality as the pandemic allows.

So of course they just deny the pandemic even exists. It's an engineered project by the shadowy global elite (dangerously close to antisemitism as well - from the same people that will call Corbyn a 'cultural marxist'). This doesn't make any sense either. The powerful elites are capitalists. They depend on the masses to make profit for them. What good does a pandemic that upends that system and puts everyone out of work do? They don't know, but something terrible...it's 'coming down the line'. Prepare! They say.

If only they would, by developing a class analysis. The real key to this is class consciousness. The awareness of how the system works and who it benefits. Hint:

They ain't it.

Nature Wants Revenge 5: Testing Times That Aren't Testing

Another daily high. 4332 cases.

Worrying.

I feel I should discuss more uplifting material, but that seems frivolous. We have got to get control of this, and of course, when we need them most (as far as anyone can need government, but we are where we are), the Tories have, predictably, failed. I don't believe they are capable of otherwise. 

Now is the time to look beyond. We are the only ones that can solve this for us. Not the toffs. You have the grotesque spectacle of Jacob Praying-Mantis, over the dispatch box like it was prey, lamenting the lack of joy and gratitude amongst the prolesouls. That's you and me (fun word though, I made it up!). Less "carping" please, Britain. I guess all he needs to do is whip out his iPhone, activate his playlist, Songs of Ignorance, and play some Jerusalem. (That's a William Blake pun, it doesn't get any better!)

This isn't just an out of touch hedge fund stick insect. It's complete ignorance. It tells me, screaming in my ear, that Boris and the Boys cannot deal with this. This is criminal deja vu; we saw it all unfold last time. Are we going to see it all again, perhaps worse? If you thought the situation was stressful before, wait till we get the second wave. Oops! Too late!

If only we'd seen this coming. We could have given the testing contract to be overseen by someone that's also overseen a massive breach of data for a major communications firm. Dido Harding, former CEO of BReach Breach - I mean Talk Talk - claims the current viral resurgence was unforeseen. A shame then that even the PM disagrees with her. From the Guardian:

"Boris Johnson said the UK is “now seeing a second wave coming in” and that it was “inevitable” that coronavirus would hit the country again. The prime minister added the government is considering whether it needed to “go further” than the current national restrictions that were put in place this week."

4322. Good job Tories.

Nature Wants Revenge 4: Schools Out...Forever?

Been around a thousand schools, so I hear, that have had an experience of Covid since reopening. Confirmed or otherwise. This is, obviously, troubling. Not least of all because our Baroness-overseen test and trace system is currently a wreck and disgrace system. Not because of the workers; they're doing their best. But because it's been handed to privateers - and yet the media has allowed the NHS to incorrectly bear the blame. Just to mention, this is exactly a consequence of Tory privatisation. Their plans are to hollow out the service, give the most profitable provisions to the private sector and let the NHS keep the difficult stuff. Yet all under the aegis of the NHS, which means when private sectors invariably come up short, the NHS can be blamed.

Where was I?

So how can schools function for this academic year? They have had all summer to address this situation. What have they done? Nothing. It's all been left to teachers and local authorities, as has so much of the response to this crisis. Clearly underfunded schools can't afford to do everything that may be necessary, never mind adapting infrastructure to address the pandemic. But the virus doesn't care about your kids. 

Even if one kid gets the virus, how many other students/staff will be asymptomatic? How did they catch the virus or bring it into the school?

If the cases are suspect, but prove not to be confirmed, they still have to be investigated and people will still need to self isolate given a lack of testing. 

Given this, how can schools possibly function if they have to open/close every other week because someone somewhere has turned up and presented with symptoms. That means another year written off, which will almost certainly devastate children's lives.

We already have a terrible education system - not the fault of teachers, but the fault of government tinkering. Capitalism begins at school. Every aspect of the curriculum, overseen and developed by the capitalist ruling class, exists to reinforce capitalist values: competition, division, streaming, performance. Debt, even.

We have an unprecedented, golden (though for dark reasons), opportunity to change so much in society, including how we raise and teach upcoming generations. We must not let this go to waste, even though it will take much struggle. Let's fight.

Nature Wants Revenge 3: Independent Thinking

 A spectre is rising. The spectre of community transmission!

Yes, another day of highs. First the temperature, which feels like nature is trying to cook me in my skin, and now the Covid rate. Is this the predicted, warned about, September second wave? It's just too difficult to tell. What is interesting, though, is that the death rate is actually going down. This could simply be that we can treat the virus better, but concerns remain about lingering effects. A fact ignored by the maskless mass partly responsible for the current predicament. 

We know that the virus is spreading among the twentysomethings the most. Hopefully these people can be reached. Is it because they are out partying, drinking, etc? That's the obvious assumption. I really do think we ought not have opened pubs and bars. Restaurants and cafes are a big maybe, but it's clear we have gone too far opening up. Unfortunately the Tories are happy to do the bidding of the drinks industry, so there is no chance of persuading common sense. What a shame this couldn't have been an opportunity to revise the way we socialise. Do people really need to go drinking? So many things we could with rethinking, but instead the Tories just want to tell everyone to get back to the office.

Such shortsightedness. At what cost?

Who knows if the Rule of Six will make any difference, there are so many exemptions it seems pointless. People can just describe their venue or situation as 'Covid secure'. I have no idea what that means. How can anything be Covid secure when all it takes is someone to come in and spread the disease, perhaps without even knowing. Easier to do when they aren't wearing a mask, as I still see many - mainly white van driver types - not bothering. What can you do?

I don't really see society coping with this. Most people I'm sure are responsible, but are enough? The shape of our character is starting to coalesce. It's pretty dismal. People believe they are thinking independently but reveal just how beholden to the Overton window and its parameters of acceptable discourse. It's like someone saying how they know how to speak Latin, in English. The nature of our society is influenced by the systems that exist within and the forces in power. 

Capitalism has infantilised us. We have given up true autonomy for the dream of being a captain of industry: the apprentice, the dragons, an entrepreneur.  A brave sailor on the seas of economic power. But the reality is only those that have capital can do this, it's just those are the ones that are used to represent these ideals, making it appear easier than it would be for you or I. The rest of us are dependent on the systems, and thus their messaging. 

There is nothing wrong with submitting to authority, the real trick is knowing where it's justified. In the case of masks the evidence is clear and the claim reasonable. At the very least the claims made by the antimaskers are nonsense. Clearly your freedoms are not curtailed and you are not muzzled. You can speak and be heard and you can do so while living your life and going to the shops.

Nature Wants Revenge 2: The Politics of Oppression

 I recently became embroiled in an internet forum argument when I pointed out, in respect of people posting memes, that I found them difficult to parse and distracting. I explained this was a result of neuro diversity. What then ensued was a lesson in the politics of oppression.

People with disabilities, or in my case neurodiverse (I shall conflate the two for the purpose of this post), are marginalised. That much is obvious. Our society makes few allowances for and offers little understanding of disability, except in tokenistic terms when it suits to do so (such as DWP fit notes). Disabled people have to work harder to fit in to society in all sorts of ways, not just physically. Furthermore we have seen many examples, increasing over the last period of austerity, of disability hate and even physical assault.

I don't think it much to ask that a forum make the effort to accommodate people by not shitposting these memes in every discussion. Unfortunately people disagreed. If I didn't feel comfortable then I could just 'ignore' them. Ignoring the problematic behaviour just normalises and allows it to continue while placing a burden on the individual to moderate their behaviour as the victim. This is obviously unfair, and can be unreasonable. Expecting the bullied child to just 'ignore' the bully can be extremely difficult - what if they can't manage it? Does that make the bullying acceptable.

Unfortunately these responses do nothing but reinforce the hierarchy that exists behind the oppression. Of course there are varying degrees of oppression - a silly pic on a forum is clearly not the equal of physical abuse - but the word serves the purpose. It is still emblematic of negative attitudes which should be challenged in order to be removed. 

It was made clear, in the forum, that discussion of politics was unacceptable. However politics is in everything, which makes discussing oppression and ableism particularly difficult. It is intrinsically political because it deals with hierarchies of power. By suppressing that discussion and explanation you are not only reinforcing the oppression once again, you are also making a political statement. if you run a forum wherein you have a 'no politics' policy that is ongoing (as it would have to be presumably), then you are continually making a political statement, and you are continuing to marginalise.

Finally, I'm tired. 

Tired of the endless fucking gaslighting from DWP work programme providers. Tired of trying voluntarily to engage with these organisations, and others. Without fail, every time, they turn out to mess me around, and yet who else is there that can offer help? I've had to repeatedly email back Fedcap employment. Despite having an email trail, they don't seem to remember ever having spoken to me. They seem to be treating me as a completely new case and have asked me to fill in a form that gives them permission to share my data (whatever that constitutes) with the DWP and keeps the DWP in the loop. I asked them about this in the first place because I don't want my benefit being affected if I decide I no longer wish to work with them. That form isn't even one the customer is meant to fill in, it's for the Fedcap caseworker. I gave them my phone number and told them to ring me. 

I'm so fucking tired of this gaslighting shit. I don't get to speak to people and right now I have nowhere to go. I wanted this to work, and maybe it still can. There are no other services available. This area is bereft at the best of times. But yet again, it's another tax payer funded shit show.

Nature Wants Revenge 1: Heat waving

 Well the heatwave is back. Our climate has its revenge, again. Soon this planet will be a lot less inhabitable and we are doing our darnedest to make sure that happens. The skies of California look like something our of a science disaster movie. The sky more orange than the skin of the narcissist baby in charge of America. A 'man' who denies the obvious reality that has led to the situation. One I can guarantee he cares very little about, since California doesn't swing his way.

Meanwhile i have yet to hear from Fedcap. The latest DWP company to provide help for people out of work. I don't know the correct title. It has been three weeks since my initial interview with them during which my suitability for the programme was positively assessed. I had told them I was willing to participate and have been waiting to hear back from the caseworker I was told would be put in touch. I emailed them today - while aware that the current circumstances make things possibly quite different (entirely fair). However the reply I got was completely amnesiac. Even though ti's the same person, even though she can read the chain of emails to get up to speed, it appears she has no recollection and wanted to discuss my suitability for the programme. Again.

I am so fed up dealing with these organisations. Every single one. Without fail. Has been a complete joke. I have already described how what they claim, in terms of health support, is not congruent with what they told me in that interview. Now it appears the process o getting me onto this course hasn't even begun. I don't really know what's going on and I just told her to read the emails and that I wasn't really happy. I bit my tongue, electronically speaking, but I am frustrated with these organisations. All of them do this; a low level yet persistent bureaucratic incompetence that just serves to make things needlessly awkward. All while hiding how useless they are, providing a service that is never what is advertised, in return for public funding.

As I type, Boris the Bollock is in Parliament proroguing my sanity and gaslighting the nation once more. All so he can have his little day out in Westminster, the place he thinks he owns. All doing the will of his creepy adviser, the power behind the throne. Debating whether or not to enshrine into law the act or breaking international law in order to do a deal with people who will punish us for breaking international law. People upon whom the wealth of our trade lies.

But we got a deal (pending ratification) with Japan. So that's less than 1% of our GDP covered. British Stilton is saved - except they are on worse terms than we're being offered from the EU. Terms that have provoked this irrational crazy course of intended law breaking. This deal is also pending whether or not we do break international law and whether that upsets the Japanese to such an extent they decide to tell us to fuck off. We also had a deal with them as part of the EU. One in which we would have had some say at least. Yay Britain. Shooting itself in the foot and calling that a bullseye!

End of the Weekender of the Week of the End 26

 Checked the local rag online. To see the state of Covid. Local secondary school, the one I went to in another life, has had a student test positive. Immediately I'm thinking: is he in my community or a neighbouring village. This area is already one of the highest rates in the country, though it's small population makes for ambiguous analysis. Still a concern though. They've had to self isolate, along with the rest of their 'bubble'. I don't know what that means; a group of students I think. 

What does this mean though? His family will have to follow suit, and hopefully all will obey this even though I'm sure it will be pretty devastating. Not least of all for the parents if they are working. Can they get tested? Can they get financial support? Do their bosses care? More importantly, how did they get infected? Am I at risk?

I cannot possibly know. All of this is so ambiguous. Schools are proving to be a vector right across the country, as the government warned. Is this the tip of a dangerous iceberg, or a necessary and bearable consequence of opening schools? Are we heading for a second lockdown? I fear that will be meaningless. Though the government will have the means to close businesses - who will have to follow suit, it will be difficult on an individual level to manage. Lots of people simply aren't going to pay attention. It's a lovely late Summer afternoon. Lots of people should be able to enjoy the beer gardens and the outdoors en masse. The problem is that is what they are doing!

This whole thing is a more frightening prospect this time around. There is no excuse, not htat it will matter. We cannot expect any better from our useless government as it deliberately buries head in the sand of illegality. We need better, unfortunately; we've seen how bad it can get. We don't need to attempt to break that record. But everyone is weary and wary; there will be an even weaker appetite for lockdown should a second national move be required. I fear it will, but I also fear it will come to that late, and for that reason I fear.

Even so, it is a beautiful Summer day. I love this time of year, particularly sans virus. Yet that reality butts heads with what I see: sunshine and people seemingly enjoying themselves. Calm before the storm...again?

The End of the Weekender of the Beginning of the Continuing to End 26

 At least, one might argue, there is symmetry. As the infections fell over the summer, now they start to rise as we come to the year. So we end as we began. Potentially, though hopefully not, in the shit. The page has yet to be completely written, so perhaps something can wake us up from this nightmare. Shame it won't be our useless fucking government. There can be no doubt now; they are not fit for purpose. 

Even with an 80 seat majority, Starmer, if he was any kind of opposition leader (he isn't, he's just another useless capitalist) would call a vote of no confidence. I wouldn't even be surprised if Johnsons voted for it. Perhaps, deep down within his useless spoilt little soul, he realises he is utterly out of his depth. Three word slogans won't save him.

The rule of six seems to be the last gasp of a desperate hopeless government. What else can they distract us with? Any more foreigners to spit at? Any more cause celebres to ferment faux outrage over? The rule of six is a mess. It exempts anything that can be claimed as 'Covid secure', which nominally seems to be every workplace ever. It lets all sorts of gatherings occur, as if the virus itself would observe the rule. It is perhaps telling that, when trying to find the actual avoidance through Google, I have to go through a ton of media sites at the top of the list before the government's own page.

How then are we meant to make sense of this? More importantly, are we? Perhaps conspiratorial, but is this merely setting the public up to fail. Inevitably the government can blame them, not the rules. Not themselves. Perhaps that's a step too far. But then so is breaking international law to get out of a bill you fought so hard for that you couldn't even be bothered to read!

For example: previously you couldn't meet with people from more than one household indoors. Now you can meet with people from 5 different ones! Weddings are an exception, so that's Four Weddings and 6 Funerals. Gyms are considered 'covid secure', presumably because humans sweat less under physical exertion. Or something. Kids can associate in schools, but not outside. Obviously schools are all safe and were built with Covid in mind. Not. Childcare is acceptable.

There is some question as to whether this rule was also intended to suppress protest. I don't doubt the government would like to, as it always does, do so. However if the protest is 'covid compliant' and 'risk assessments' have been completed (yeah right) then all is well. Meaningless really as the legislation will be used by the cops whenever they want to wade in, as they usually are want to do.

Sport seems to be a grey area. If the local little leaguers are any indication, what sport really means is an excuse for a large social gathering afterwards at the clubhouse. Now to be fair our local services have adapted and most of the gathering is outside, but the presence of meaningful social distancing seems to me minimal. This would appear to be allowed.

In the post apocalypse future where the Vulcans rescue our civilisation and we develop warp drive, quiz shows on Holo-Vision will include questions about what was allowed under the Rule of six. They will speak of their ancestors with pity and incredulity before launching into an infinity we, here, can only dream about. As we shiver in our beds, fearful and tearful that our tomorrows are being mortgaged by idiots.

The Continuing of the Beginning of the End 5: This. Is. Not. Working

 I'm tired. Energy eludes me presently. Perhaps I need to return to my sanctum and recharge my powers under what is certain to be the solar eclipse. After all how many more signs of the apocalypse do we need? LA is bathed in a terrifying red haze, the word is gripped by plague, and Britain's bonkers brexiteers think we are ruled by a reign of frogs.

So now all eyes turn to Britain. Is our government seriously going to do this? Actually break international law and set fire to the situation that's already more flammable than a petrol forest (or California!). Yes, it seems they are. The Americans won't tolerate it. Nancy Pelosi, the pretend democrat billionaire most likely speaks for the American ruling class when she unequivocally tells us NO DEAL! If we threaten the Good Friday Agreement, they won't do business with us. Extraordinary that we are taking the agreement less seriously than the American senate; one of the most corrupt democracies ever to colonise the land.

Meanwhile we are treated to another Johnsonian masterstroke: the rule of six. Another three word phrase (like Get Brexit Done, or Fuck The Tories) that the Cummings mind palace thinks is mnemonically sound. Programming us like a terrible sheepdog, barking from Barnard Castle.

The week ends with the highest daily infection rate since the bad old days. Three and a half thousand new infections, and, it appears, hospitalisations slowly rising as well. Too early to tell in regard to fatalities. This is grim news and our govrenment is left with a hail Mary that seems completely off the wall. How on earth are they going to offer everyone constant testing? They can't even deliver Brexit without fucking iit up. I have so little faith in these spineless lying clowns that whenever I think about them I immediately bring myself down. Its like the worst kind of drug. 

I have no idea how or, more importantly, when this well end. I can seriously see the formation of an emergency government because, surely, we cannot continue with this oaf. Johnson is so far from fit for office that a drunk serial killer would be more appealing. They have no authority, people are clearly not paying attention ut the virus isn't interested in conspiracies, lockdown denial, or any of the assorted idiots spouting nonsense about muzzles on Twitter. 

We

Can't

Go

On

With 

The

Tories

The Continuing of the Beginning of the End 4: Culture War (part 1, probably)

 Are we able to handle not just the virus, but the rules that may be necessary to protect society from it?

Article in the Guardian claims that a survey reports pandemic measures have divided society more than Brexit. The attitudes between those wearing masks and those who don't. 

Ideology has taken over politics. It has snowballed and taken on a life of its own, threatening a very imminent and destructive critical mass. 

The problem is that the left is the underdog while the right controls the ruling class - yet the right thrives by promoting a contradictory narrative. Civilisation's last bastion against the demise of culture. No justification for that culture is offered nor is one sought!

Therein lies the problem. The left, understandably, wants to challenge these narratives - pulling down racist statues. But the response isn't to enter into a dialogue about why we lionise these people and why we should continue to do so when there is no justification for it other than because we have done so. The response is to decry the perceived destruction of culture. It is hard to argue against that because destruction - the smashing of statues - is what is seen. 

The argument against the right wing or fascist narrative requires patience. It's nuances, more complex than mere appearance suggests. It requires a buy in from the interlocutor: the willingness to listen at least. Unfortunately that isn't forthcoming because there is no good faith discussion anymore and the right isn't interested in providing good faith actors (which isn't to say all right-wing thinking individuals can't be persuaded and won't listen).

People are gaslighting, the problem is they don't understand that's what they are doing. THis is what I mean by ideology taking on a life of its own, accelerating out of control. Or certainly threatening to.

They don't want to hear the reasons why people wearing masks look down on them. They choose, consciously or otherwise, to side with ignorance. At the very least refuse a very simple and harmless if unusual request that could help keep shops - and thus society - functioning. People need to be correct, and will double down if that is what they feel they are doing. Wearing masks is woke, yo.

Unfortunately it's not a game. These are the people that will call out the left for being 'soft'. Snowflake is the term de jeur, though they have always behaved this way. However calling out people for being 'soft' in terms of refusing to wear a mask out of fear - turning the argument back around - doesn't seem to work either. What's the alternative though? Let them continue with a practice that could well be dangerous? We tried not wearing masks; we've been trying it for years. Then a pandemic hit and circumstances change, btu the reactionary attitude is to reject change, even when it's forced on them. Like with a virus. They are their own worst enemy.

Unfortunately they blame the people ideology tells them to blame, not themselves or their behaviour.

The Continuing of the Beginning of the End 3: Mask Me Out To The Fall Game

 A lesson in masks. Probably.

I get that wearing one is unusual. So are pandemics, despite scientists trying to compel government to prepare for such a thing. And failing to do so.

This is a novel virus, so it stands to reason that advice given early on could become out of date or replaces later on. This is the case with masks; a fact lost on the conspiracy crowd. They think that proves the new world order are lying to us and that, having spotted this, the conspiranauts have scored a clever victory. This is false; we simply weren't sure earlier on that masks were necessary, despite places like Taiwan having a great deal of success providing them to everyone and wearing them without shitting the bed.

Another reason for not advocating their use is precisely because it's so unusual. No one wants to be the one advocating what some are now, ironically, arguing as draconian or uncomfortable. It also serves to remind people of the reality; you see a person in a mask and the situation becomes all to clear. That's why, speaking for myself, it's uncomfortable (I still do it, and everyone that can ought to as well).

Most people aren't going to be in a position to wear a full on CDC grade biohazard mask. In fact we were warned not to hunt such things down on ebay/amazon earlier on. This was because that sort of equipment belongs in the hands of the professionals who need it more. It's also impractical for us, living our lives and doing our jobs, to walk around in biohazard gear! Consequently we are advised to make do with bog standard cloth masks. Perhaps imperfect, but a reasonable compromise.

They are emphatically not muzzles. Anyone who says this should be roundly ignored and indeed pilloried. It is a stupid dangerous and deliberately provocative claim to make and one so easily refuted (how would you shop?) that to entertain it is to invite gaslighting it. I really have come to despise these people. 

Masks are not perfect. No one ever claimed they were foolproof. However the most important thing they do is offer some protection for essential workers (the people keeping your shops open for example). Do they not deserve consideration? It's arguable whether or not they should be masked, and sometimes they are. But if the rest of us are, for the few minutes we're in their shop, then it helps reduce the need for minimum wage essential staff to have to wear one for several hours at a time. 

I'm ok with that. Mask wearing could have been normalised had we adopted it earlier on. So many things would have turned out differently with that attitude. We are where we are. The government is now banning outdoor gatherings of more than 6. This is another confusing piece of bullshit advice since we know that indoors transmission is greater. Therefore this is just inconsistency masking the Tories' desire to protect the hospitality industry. Specifically their mates in the brewery business (like small faced simpleton Tim Martin of Wetherspoons). Not the working class who enjoy or depend on that industry for a job. Those people should of course be protected and have their wages covered at the very least.

Unfortunately I don't see the Tories shutting pubs down. They should never have opened them before schools. Again, we are where we are. Isn't it lovely.

The Continuing of the Beginning of the End 2: School May Well Be Out Forever!

 Robert Jenrick is lecturing us on what constitutes good covid behaviour. 

The man happy to grease Dirty Desmond's pole and help him break housing law to avoid paying tax. A corrupt piece of Tory filth. This is the landscape we're living on. Breathtaking. Corruption abounds. Meanwhile the Tories are now planning to blithely break international law over Brexit because they can't get their act together over Northern Ireland. Playing games with the peace agreement, which will not endear them to the Americans either. We are rapidly at risk of completely isolating ourselves.

I think the anger is starting to get palpable. Certainly I am angry. There is nowhere else for people to turn. This crisis shows no signs of abating, though, somewhat blessedly I guess, today's figures are lower. About 500 down from the last two days, which is good but still concerning. I have zero faith in Hancock, he has repeatedly shown himself to be an arrogant fool. One amongst many of course.

According to the Guardian, these past six months have cost the public purse £210 billion. You can be sure that will not be paid by the likes of Dirty Desmond, or any of the other fatcat Tory donors profiting from this. It is going to mean increased austerity for everyone else, though one wonders what is left in the cupboard to sell. The NHS, of course. Probably the welfare state. Things the Tories have sought to privatise and flog off for years.

Now the Tories are seeking to blame 'young people', you know the sort. The ones the Mail likes to talk about as hoodie wearing skateboard wielding dope fiends, intent on block rocking beating your grandma to death and selling her medals on fleabay. Is this really fair? Of course not. The government should be setting the example, sending clear guidance based on good science. Instead it's dithered and in a daze. They want schools open and then blame the children when they attend and get infected, meanwhile offering no suport - including and especially financially - to them.

I think it is obvious at this point - it certainly should be - that capitalism has no answer to this crisis. We must look elsewhere. In other words, we must unshackle the means of production, the means by which we live, from private ownership. They must be placed in common control with the immediate end of the profit motive. It is incompatible with life right now. Can we really afford to keep bailing out those who are profiting right now? They are not risk takers; you don't start a business without some measure of financial security - and if you don't, what does that say about our system? We valourise this nonsense, talking about entrepreneurs as heroes, the economic equivalent of Magellan. Blessing us with jobs and the lie of trickle down economics. 

No one should have the kind of money Jeff Bezos has, certainly not when the world is coughing itself into an uncertain future.

The Continuing of the Beginning of the End 1: Bedshittery

 Vicar, it's happening again! 

Another 3000 cases. Ok, that's two days in a row. This isn't good. I hope it can be explained away by a mechanism that isn't another wave of incurable virus, but that seems to be the most likely explanation.

I don't know what else to talk about today. Perhaps YOU dear reader could suggest a topic, or ask me a question. My thoughts are unfortunately dominated, pulled by the gravity of the situation into the black hole that is the Tory nightmare.

We are led by such inadequates that any consideration of a plan or an approach to this situation seems like a false hope. Like walking through a field of hungry alligators and hoping these fellas might be vegan. Forlorn at best. 

They have had six months to plan for the predicted second wave. The boffins warned us now would be the time, if it were to happen. Could this be what we are currently seeing? Unfortunately expecting anything other from these Tories than manicured incompetence seems foolish. Never mind today's latest example of Brexit bedshittery. If the Tories and their billionaire owned press mates think the EU are going to 'blink', they are utterly deluded.

They are utterly deluded.

Six bloody months. Totally squandered. Now they want everyone back to work, kids back in schools, and, if I recall correctly, sporting events from next month, football matches and the like. They'll do it as well because that's what their supporters want. I mean, we've had six months to prepare for the opening of schools. I don't think pubs should have opened in order to facilitate that. It's a laudable goal. the kids need it. But not if it's not safe, and it seems for some schools, it wasn't. We know that many didn't get any support or even funding to prepare their premises for the new reality. It is perhaps no surprise then that some have had to close down again, or some pupils and teachers have had to isolate. This can only have a dreadfully disruptive effect on their education.

Ye gods, I don't know what else to say. I'm sory that will have to do for today.

The Beginning of the End of the Weekend of the Beginning of the End 25

 Daily infections have risen to 3000.

This is a huge and very concerning jump. It could perhaps be explained away in terms of old data catching up, although I'm not sure how that improves things. In my ill informed opinion this is pretty grim news. Time will tell, as it ever does. If we have to lockdown again I fear that it will not stick. The government has lost any authority it may have had, which wasn't much to begin with given that it already waited too long or the initial lockdown. Even the WHO thinks that 50,000 lives could have been saved had we done things properly. The editor of the Lancet has been similarly excoriating.

This time it will not stick. Too much freedom has been given and without proper guidance or a model of responsibility from our useless overlords people will simply ignore it. Either that or the tone of the anti lockdown maskless morass will grow ever more shrill. I do not think these tensions in society can go anywhere positive at the moment. They could be directed, but that's going to take a lot of work from a very divided left. Our society is riven with divisions, all caused by one group of people. They stand unrepentant, slathered in blinding ignorance like mirrors in the sun. 

They don't

They won't 

Care,

Not going to lie my mental health has taken a bit of a dive with this news.

The Beginning of the Weekend 25: The New Dark Ages

I mean, it would be an admission that nobody else, among 65 million Britons, or even 7 billion humans, could do the job. Surely that can't be right?

But it is, Johnson, by which I mean his creepy keeper, Cummings, has appointed sleazebag failure, Tony Abbott, as our trade adviser going forward. A man who has negotiated no trade, but happily blurted his brains on all manner of topics. All of which he's been heroically wrong about. I guess you have to admire that kind of dedication to ignorance.

Not really. Doing so is easy when you're one of the global elite. Which he is, how else does he orbit the mind palace of a shithorn like Cummings. A man so privileged and so amoral he's able to indulge any strange creepy political fantasy. Like some absinthe drenched aristocrat.

So here's a lesson for all you refugees: if you want to come here and be accepted by our broken hateful establishment, just be a bigot ex-PM. Simple. Otherwise tough luck. Imagine; you struggle amid the ruins of your home country, a place you otherwise didn't really want to leave that was an advanced industrial nation. You trek half way around the world into fortress Europa. You reach what you hope are friendly shores, Britain, where you have family. Problem is, no one told you how much of a hateful racist shithole it is. Still you tried; your risked your life at sea. Dodged the shouting stockbroker on the beach. Survived the lunatic racist nationalists invading the hotel.

Only for the equally racist home secretary to stuff you on a plane to...Spain. No food, water, documents. Tough shit, someone else's problem. That's the message Britain wants to send of itself into the world as we cut ourselves from the EU and float adrift, kept above the waters with a sense of over inflated self worth and a ballast full of bigotry. What a sad state of affairs. I read these developments with a mixture of choking outrage and helpless nervous laughter.

Everyday this government manages to outrage me more. I 'm not sure how much more gas is left in the tank. They have two months to cobble together something, anything, in respect of Brexit otherwise we face what could very well be absolute disaster. Yet this is grist to their mill: they call it Project Fear. The more reality impinges on their sad little Englander fantasy, the more convinced they are that everything will work out great. Faith is all you need. 

Ought we be stockpiling food? Saving for a very rainy day? Does this sound insane? It should but not even a pandemic wasn't enough to convince them to put this madness on hold. It's still going ahead!

This is a period where lies, deception, and divisive rhetoric that can tear societies apart can make you very wealthy. Who needs truth? That is a poor man's comfort. There is no profit there.

These are the new dark ages.

The Beginning of the End 4: New Balls Please

Infection rate is almost 2000! Couldn't happen at a worse time. Will it mean anything long term? Who knows. The death rate however is low. Some argue that this is because the main cohort getting the disease aren't the traditionally vulnerable/old, but the young who are surviving it more.

Get back to work though. Travel on buses, already a vector for viruses of all unpleasant kinds. 

WHO reminds us that a vaccine, pending some Putin/Trump informed miracle cure (death sentence), won't be available for another year. We can hope otherwise. 

So this is where we are, and here we are. Wish you were here? 

What do we do? How do we get back to normal? We don't; this is the new normal. Infection rate goes up, infection rate goes down. Virus remains. The people that argue lockdowns inspire fear and we shouldn't ought to give in to fear are the most frightened of all - and who can blame them? I just wish they weren't the ones the media would like to listen to. Is our public discourse really in the hands of David Icke or Jeremy's gullible brother?

I rather hope not. But public opinion is like a tennis ball, batted back and forth between disdainful authoritarianism that wants us all sacrificed in profit's altar, or crazy people who doubt the reality is even real. It's dizzying living like this. When people speak of mental health and how it's affected by the lockdown, they ignore that it's this game that's being played causing it all.

And that's before Boris Johnson and his shit show clown car posse bring in the new balls please.

That's all for today

The Beginning of the End 3: Rule Britannia

 Today a flailing liar whom we will call Hancock, I mean Matt, tried to defend the imminent, and inevitable, decision to hire Tony Abbot as trade negotiator. A man rejected by his own party. A man who has done no trade deals. A man who thinks women are inferior, covid isn't a big deal, and climate change a lefty fantasy. This imminent decision has been defended by the equally hapless, and wholly stupid, Liz Truss. One of the most ignorant politicians I've ever had the misfortune of sharing a planet with.

Brexiteers continue to drive us to the cliff edge in a game of chicken. They believe that the faster we drive toward the EU, the more likely they will be to veer off. We will therefore 'win', because that's what it is. A competition. We have to win. HAVE to. This is how these idiots define themselves. Seventy years of peace, a successful trading bloc, all thrown away because we have to 'beat' the Germans one more time. In the process we're just humiliating ourselves. The war didn't end for some people, it just gave them new terms to define themselves, so bereft they are of anything unique thanks to the overriding stamp of capitalism. Suits and ties.

That's not to say of course the EU is perfect, far from it.

The national discourse has been hijacked by ideology, given its own inertia and thrown hurtling into the sun. Instead of having that conversation, in work places or the streets, we are dumbstruck by that ideology. No one cares what's real anymore as long as the fiction of it is satisfying. 

We are rapidly approaching the eleventh hour. While Britain has not got its act together: the food industry is now reporting that it is too late to label food products! This makes it impossible to export them to the EU. This is catastrophic surely! The government's response: to allow Jacob Praying Mantis to play Rule Britannia in the House of Commons. This is victory to these people; the ability (they never lost) to sing a song no one cares about except puce faced gammonites previously fulminating in faux outrage. 

Thousands have died, our economy is next, taking with it the means to import food and medicine. This country cannot feed itself without imports. Medicines are self explanatory.

Rule fucking Britannia

The Beginning of the End 2: Back To School For Boris

Corona bubbles under. We are living like a saucepan almost brimming with water, threatening to boil over and then burn the fucking house down somehow. The heat keeps pushing the bubbles to the surface. It's like one of those seaside amusements; the one with the layers of coins into which you'd drop another hoping to dislodge the accumulated coins within and claim them, victorious like! The one they based a quiz show on a few years back, in a defiant swipe at actual culture. I forget what it was called, I don't think I've watched any such thing since I thought Deal or No Deal was an exciting study of human nature. It wasn't, of course, it was just a festival of new age superstition and desperation.

Parliament reconvened apparently. We don't miss it when it's gone because of how useless it is, but we demand these shameless fuckers turn up nonetheless, and rightly so. This time Boris the Spider decided to have another shitfit, beginning with the words "Mr Speaker". It's like watching a child crying to the teacher. In fact that's exactly what it is. These Etonian filth have been conditioned to believe "Mr Speaker" is matron or sir, from their days in the private boarding twilight zone that I imagine Eton must be. A weird little continuum into which those deciding whether we live or die will be raised. Following, they are transplanted into Parliament whether they are further nannied like this.

It makes Keir Starmer look positively mature by comparison. It's just a shame that Keir Starmer is desperate to appease the government at every turn, with a career steeped in authoritarian conformity. As Public Prosecutor he enforced the status quo by prosecuting the Fortnum and Mason protesters but not the cop who killed - murdered - Ian Tomlinson. Nor the spycops that infiltrate the left and behave disgracefully. He's also a member of the free market anti democratic US hegemony enforcing Trilateral Commission. He's also done precisely fuck all to really oppose the government during the worst crisis in living memory during which time they have behaved disgracefully, shamelessly slathering corruption over themselves like a pig in shit.

This is as good as it gets folks. A leader so desperate to support a corrupt failed regime like a house about to collapse. The only rationale for doing this is to prevent systemic collapse. He's not the socialist of his youth, but another Labour capitalist. Labour is not the party for the radical, it's just the sane face of capitalism. Given how much of a blustering cretin Johnson is, lashing out like a scalded cat, it is not difficult to see how Starmer's measured performance creates the impression he is on our side. He's not because he's not opposed to capitalism.

Meanwhile I have yet to hear from Fedcap employment despite agreeing to work with them. Obviously the current situation will affect this process so I will have to wait and see, as ever. 

Depressingly the local council has decided to cut down some long standing trees in the neighbourhood. I can only assume they have good reasons for this. The tree in question has been here longer than I have and has really shaped the area it's in. You only notice how much when it's too late. I really dislike things like this and I had no say in it either. I like areas of wild nature, hedges and such. It might not be much, but it's what nature should be: wild and free. Not manicured and kept by humans to appease some cheap aesthetic. Oh well

The Beginning of the End 1: Fuck Social Media All Over Again

 Foolishly, back in the day, I thought social media woudl be a liberating tool. A way to open up communication so that everyone (those that can afford a computer and internet, though) gets equal say and can speak their brains to the whole wide world. In truth it's just another hierarchy.

The content creators that succeed the most are either already famous people, celebrities and entertainers with massive herds of unquestioning followers (because groupthink). Or people who have the resources to put out content of quality. For that you need a decent PC, recording gear, software, and internet connection. If you don't have that what was once a charming haven of 'citizen journalism' is just one more example of top down hierarchy where you will be ignored because your material doesn't look or sound professional, which is completely counter to the whole idea of a freely available platform.

This is a mistake. We need to be reaching out to people, such as those whose kids are starving in a modern industrial society. People who have to rely on a young soccer player because the fucking state doesn't care to ensure their kids don't starve. Instead we get preening buffoons representing their bizarre fake lives, parading their ignorance (pewdiepie the fascist's friend, for example), or the whole unpleasant freak show of left vs right. A world populated by young men (ostensibly) that speak in tongues arguing over cancel culture or which video game is more/less sexist, or putting out thousands upon thousands of hours of highly manicured whining about a female character in a piece of science fantasy.

And I'm so thoroughly, utterly, sick of it.

Staring into this abyss is like a funhouse hall of mirrors. A world of twisted perceptions that stare back at you with hatred and judgement. This is not a democratic place of ideas and even handed expression, it's another example of capitalism. To say nothing of the fact these places are all corporate-owned wherein the owners are happy to pander to some of the most toxic interests alive (such as the POTUS) while repressing the expression of left wingers whom they characterise as terrorists (anarchist sites getting taken down by Facebook while it does nothing about actual fascists).

If you are like me and want to engage in actual discussion with like minded comrades, the internet is, perversley and unfortunately, not the place to go. You won't find anything but misery and woe. But if you disconnect what are you left with? Maybe you're lucky and have a real life network you can work with. Those are the best kind, they can really help people, and each other. But if you're isolated, you have to stick with the poison pixel world of toxic influence, one that seems to be winning the so-called 'culture war'. A conflict only the liberal intelligentsia cares about.