Hypocrisy

 

 

Hypocrisy:  The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

Hypocrisy seems to be gaining ground these days, with examples springing up all around. It is something I don't like but when practiced by those pretending to be better and cleverer than us mere mortals, it really aggravates me. So I thought I would mention a few examples:

Beginning with one that came to my attention today. On November 25th, the US regulator for telecomms, the FCC, announced a ban on deployment in the US of telecomms equipment made by, among others, Huawei. That is a ban effective 25th November 2022. The same gang (US government) had carried out a round of brow beating of European nations in 2019, basically forcing European nations to take out and replace their Huawei 5G equipment. The UK Security/Intelligence services had previously done an examination of Huwaei equipment going into UK telecomms systems and given it a clean bill of health. The Yanks shouted at Boris who responded with an "Oo Err Mrs" moment, followed by an edict that all Huawei kit would have to be removed. So, for almost 3 years, it was deemed necessary to eradicate Huawei from Europe on the grounds it was a security risk, while continuing to happily install and commission it in the USA. That's hypocrisy!

How about the UK's lunatic fringe, particularly "Just Stop Oil"? During their recent anti-social behaviour, sitting down in busy roads etc, causing massive disruption to many, and personal distress to others, I couldn't help noticing a couple of points: First, where and when these people found themselves in court for breaching injunctions etc, it became obvious that these people, in the main, came from a certain class; the comfortably off, presumably well educated class and second noticeable feature was their dress. Look for them on the internet and there are hundreds of images, showing them wearing rugged boots with rubber or rubber substitute soles, high-vis gilets, nylon or polyester garments etc. While telling us we must "Just Stop Using Oil" in our daily lives, they seem quite comfortable in wearing clothing that relies for its production on oil! Even if the boots were of natural rubber, have you seen how many tons of diesel fuel is used in the ships carrying the rubber to these shores?

A bit more hypocrisy, featuring once again the world leading exponents of the art, the USA. Currently, they are telling us how the Russian attacks on Ukraine's power infrastructure constitutes a "war crime". Does it now? If true (I don't think it is), was it not a war crime when the US announced in the 1990s how it was going to attack Iraq, beginning with bombing the Iraqi electricity system with carbon fibre filaments, designed specifically to (a) disable the grid and (b) to make it more difficult to restore electricity supplies. Or, what about bombing the crap out of the Yugoslav electricity system because the Yanks wanted to assist Kosovo in their independence grab?

And speaking of independence grabs, how about Ukraine? The regions of Donetsk and Lugansk sought and were granted autonomy within Ukraine in 2014/2015. Note: they were not seeking independence. They chose that route only after 8 years of Ukraine shelling and bombing of civilians and total disregard for the Minsk Accords? Such a flagrant desire to look after themselves (How dare they!) was greeted with contempt and a US led movement to refuse to recognise their self-determination.

BBC; Take note

 

What is this woman doing? Well, she was, at the time the photo was taken, doing 2 things: 1) Politely asking the journalist taking the photo if she could use his phone and (2) Dying.

She had been working in the civil administration building in Lugansk on 2nd June 2014.

Moments earlier the Ukraine Air Force had flown an Su-25 ground attack plane over the street outside the civil administration building and strafed the area with what seems to have been 30mm rounds.

Of course, the Kiev government denied it was anything to do with them. The OCSE reported the following day "In Luhansk the situation remained volatile. On 2 June, shortly after 15:00 hrs, rockets hit the occupied regional administration building. Based on the SMM’s limited observation these strikes were the result of non-guided rockets shot from an aircraft. The number of casualties is unknown". https://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/119479

Regardless of who did what, the poor lady in the photograph died of her wounds a short time later.

CNN published this report, clearly discrediting the Ukraine government's denials: 

https://www.osce.org/ukraine-smm/119479

On the same day, the BBC published this weasel-worded nonsense: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27661848. No doubt, the BBC would consider it churlish of me to suggest that the "reporter" contributing this item was sat in the Dog & Duck in Piccadilly, getting his feed via a Ukraine "source". Churlish or not, I'll take that risk and say just that!

Yet, here we are, over 8 years since this incident and the pompous bastards at the BBC maintain that this struggle/war/conflict (delete that which doesn't suit you) began 8 months ago. No stupid! It began over 8.5 years ago. Try and be a little more honest with your audience. Or try and get another job!

 

Wanna Buy Some Grain?

Recently, following the Ukraine/UK attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sebastapol, there was a brief hiatus in the tripartite deal between Ukraine, Russia and Turkey  that allowed the shipment of grain from Ukrainian ports. The shipments continued after Russia said words to the effect of "OK Ukraine. You have had your warning, don't pull a stunt like that again". The day shipments resumed, I chose 9 bulk carriers departing Ukraine and heading South in the Black Sea.

Given the constant bleating from Ukraine and the UN about how the blockade of Ukraine ports was depriving starving third world nations of much needed grain. A need made more urgent by climate changes around the world resulting in crop failures, droughts etc. If renewed grain  shipments were to bring some desperately needed relief to those countries, it could only be a good thing. However, being a bit of a cynic, I thought I would track these 9 ships "just to see". (I had followed a couple of the very first shipments in July this year and they had not ended up where they said they were going).

Under the deal, shipments go via Turkey for checks to ensure the ships are indeed carrying grain exclusively and nothing untoward. So, it was no surprise to note that of the 9 vessels selected for following, all 9 declared Istanbul to be their destination, once they were underway. Eventually ships modified their declared destinations, usually upon leaving the Bosporus Anchorage after a couple of days at anchor. On 4th November, the following ships signalled modified destinations as follows:

St Sofia            Dest            Cartagena                    Caravos Harmony     Dest        Port Said

Nikolaos  A      Dest            Liverpool                      Despina V                Dest        Rotterdam

Notice how many ports in starving 3rd world nations there? At a quick count, I would say Nil. Zero, blank, bugger all, nought. Well, fair enough. That is only 4 of the 9, meaning 5 others had not decided or declared their destinations. So, Amyntor signalled Istanbul Anchorage as destination on 5th November. And no change for the remainder. Subsequently, Eco Destiny decided on 12th November it was bound for Tripoli and is now in Misrata (Libya). St Sofia has berthed in Cartagena, Caravos Harmony on 8th November decided it was not stopping in Port Said but would transit Suez, heading for Singapore and was last seen in the Gulf of Aden, apparently heading that way. Nikolaos A has berthed in Liverpool, Mount Baker is still bimbling around Maramara Sea, still determined to go to Istanbul. Ikairia Angel, on 11th November, turned around and set off for Djibouti and today it is in the Gulf of Suez. After a few days lurking around Istanbul, African Robin decided on 10th November to go to Almeria and was last seen somewhere between Sicily and Tunis allegedly "Out of Range" of suitable AIS receivers. (Other ships in the same area are NOT Out of Range though, so...hmmm). Following a couple of excursions around the Marmara Sea and the Aegean Sea, Amyntor came back to Turkey and is berthed in Iskanderun

As a table, they all look like this:

St Sofia                 Dest            Cartagena                    Caravos Harmony    Dest       Singapore

Nikolaos   A          Dest            Liverpool                     Despina V                Dest        Rotterdam

Amyntor                Dest            Iskanderun                   Eco Destiny             Dest       Misrata

Mount Baker         Dest            Istanbul                        Ikairia Angel            Dest        Djibouti

African Robin        Dest            Algiers

So there we have it. Of 9 ships carrying "desperately needed" grain supplies to the starving millions, I can see only 1 that would qualify, Ikairia Angel. Having said that, the destination declared by the ship may be Djibouti but it is still in the Gulf of Suez. I would suggest I wait and see!

Where in the bible does it say "The idiots shall inherit the earth"?

 Of course, I am writing this with a jaundiced eye. But then, bear in mind the cause of this affliction. "Mainstream Media". (I hate the term but it is the only one available). I honestly don't know if the BBC (which I consider the bulwark of UK Mainstream Media) is deliberately creating and publishing crap or whether they are doing the bidding of others but as this war in Ukraine goes on they are beginning to really stretch the boundaries of stupid.

Let's take a look at one of today's headlines on the BBC web site: "Celebrations in Ukraine after 'extraordinary victory' in Kherson". I would like to offer an alternative view: There was no victory in Kherson or anywhere else for that matter. The Russians announced a few days in advance that they would be withdrawing from the right bank of the Dnieper River. And some time before that, they had issued a call for civilians on that side of the river to evacuate the area. To me, that does not sound like the actions of a force that was taken by surprise and subsequently beaten back by the enemy that was some miles away still. And, despite the BBC and others proclaiming Ukrainian victories here, there and everywhere since the much trumpeted Ukrainian counter-offensive which began in August and was getting nowhere, they were not yet in a position to seriously threaten the city of Kherson. They had won a couple of minor victories in some villages around the boundaries between them and the Russians.

So, despite the Ukrainian hot air about what was going on, there was effectively a stalemate. Bearing in mind the probable 3:1 ratio of Ukrainian forces to Russian, it probably seemed to the Russians that lines should be shortened here and there and that logic probably extended to the area within and around Kherson. The Russians had forces on the right bank of the Dnieper and they had to be reinforced and supplied via the bridge over the river, which was subject to shelling by the Ukrainians and was not expected to last too long and posed a danger to the forces on the right bank. It was therefore sensible to leave the right bank and to consolidate their forces along a more defensible line on the left bank.

Meanwhile, the Russians had been defending the dam across the Dnieper at Nova Kakhovka. The Ukrainians had been shelling this fairly regularly, presumably with the intention to breach the dam and flood the city of Kherson and its environs. The dam is reported to be damaged but still holding. I wonder if the Russians have looked at this and thought it may be on its last legs?  If so it does eventually fail, who will suffer the effects of the subsequent flood in Kherson. Maybe Ukraine? If so, that would be classed as a self-inflicted injury. Is the BBC reporting this? Don't be silly! Of course they are not. Update: As of 15th November, the BBC are reporting on the dam but of course everything has the usual caveats such as "According to sources" and "The BBC was unable to verify this".

Did anybody notice that within 30 minutes of Ukrainian forces entering Kherson, Zelensky was claiming that the Russians had "committed 400 war crimes" in the city. So soon after the events and so precise! Then the BBC stepped on its dick, publishing photos of alleged Russian collaborators tied to a lamp post in Kherson. A search of the BBC news for13th & 14th November no longer shows this photo. I wonder why? Could it be that someone has realised that publishing this war crime photo was a big whoopsie as it demonstrates a war crime being perpetrated by the Ukrainian side? And still they are banging on about "mass grave sites" in Mariupol and elsewhere. Using their criteria, there must have been some tremendous "war crimes" here in the UK as the place is littered with "mass grave sites". There are so many of these in the UK that we have a name for them; they are called "cemeteries"! 

A few days ago, the BBC did a big piece on "Russians Kept in Dark by Internet Search" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63246153). How interesting. Nowhere does it mention how, here in UK, a government decree was issued months ago, not only banning RT news from broadcasting but instructing all internet providers to block internet access to RT (and no doubt other news organisations that don't fit the narrative). So, Russia blocks/interferes with internet in Russia: "Bad boys, Russians". While the UK does exactly the same but "Hoorah for the bastion of Free Speech in the UK". Now there's balance for you. A living working example of "Don't do as I do, do as I tell you".

Finally (for today at least), I found myself getting very wound up this Sunday. I was one of the 10,000 veterans attending the parade at the Cenotaph, remembering all those who had given their lives in conflicts throughout the ages. Stood on Whitehall, I happened to look up and see, on the roof of the Foreign Office, a bloody big Ukrainian flag. Given the special day Remembrance Sunday is, they could have given this some thought and, if they considered it necessary to fly the flag of another nation alongside the Union Flag, they could have chosen from 100 others. No! They chose to fly the flag of a nation with a dark past from WW2. In that period, Ukraine was the nation of Stepan Bandera and others of his ilk. This was one of the WW2 war criminals that are celebrated in Ukraine today. His followers are very same modern era Nazis that were the target of the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. By giving the Ukrainian flag a prominent place on Sunday, I take it that the UK government is fully supportive of the Nazi ideals

 UKRAINE: The demise of free speech and honest media in UK

Let's start off by making a couple of things clear:

At the outset of the Russian action against Ukraine, I didn't think Russia's actions were a good idea.

I was a British soldier for 5 years around the middle of the "Cold War" and, as a result, was not particularly well disposed to Russia or the USSR.

Over the last few months, I have found my views being challenged and changed by events in Ukraine. My interest in events in Ukraine began at the time of the so-called "Maidan" events in Kiev in 2014. Since those events, I have started to take a more serious look at what is happening there. And a number of things appear to be solidifying out of the information soup being dished up by the media, particularly the "Western" media.

The first thing to solidify here is the fact I am more and more baffled by events. What is worse, looking at precedents and motives for what is happening ends up less and less clear. Bloody murky, in fact. Although one thing is fairly clear; the culprit that pops up throughout world history since the end of WW2 is that bastion of "democracy", USA. I think it is fair to say that, over those years, Russia has never invaded any sovereign nation (don't mention Afghanistan; Russia entered Afghanistan as a result of the then current Afghanistan government begging them to come and help them out in the struggles going on between various factions trying to gain and hold onto power there). The USA, on the other hand, has invaded something like 30 sovereign states. Some more than once! And what about engaging in war without putting soldiers and tanks on the ground? Take a look at Kosovo. 

 After the death of Tito, Yugoslavia embarked on a sort of national Hari Kari and began to fragment. To cut a long story short; a bunch of ethnic Albanians, living in the Serbian province of Kosovo, decided they no longer wanted to be part of Serbia and set about fighting the remains of a rudderless Yugoslav army. The USA decided they would pat the Kosovans on the back, encourage them in the fight which should properly be called a Civil War. This culminated in a relentless US bombing of Serbia. Bombing the civil infrastructure of Serbia, in fact. Bear that in mind when reading US inspired media reports of Russian offensives in Ukraine! The US bombing of Serbia was carried out without the political nicety of declaring war on Serbia. Somehow, the US managed to get NATO involved in an undeclared war. When British and Norwegian forces raced to occupy Prstina airport, they found, to their embarrassment, that they had come second and the Russian forces, who were allies of Yugoslavia/Serbia, had beaten them to it. The Russians knew that a fight over the airport would probably lead to WW3 and they withdrew. It should be remembered that the attacks by NATO, particularly the bombing campaign, was never approved by the UN Security Council. At the end of it all, a new republic of Kosovo was recognised by the US and not many other nations. Of course the UK went along with the US as we do as we are bloody well told by the US!

So, what does all this have to do with Ukraine? Well, Kosovo came about as a result of a civil war in Serbia plus unwanted (see UN resolution 1244, which authorised various military and civil options in Kosovo but which refused to back air attacks) US led bombing of Serbia, yet the US says "That's OK. We can recognise Kosovo as an independent state". 

In Ukraine, the civil population of 2 regions (Donetsk & Luhansk) , plus Crimea, decided they had had enough of the treatment they were getting from the Kiev government and voted to ally themselves with Russia. Voted: a much vaunted process labelled as 'Democracy' by western nations. At the behest of the US, western nations smeared this vote as 'illegal, sham' etc. In other words; what the US helped bring about in Kosovo at the point of a gun was OK & democratic, worthy of being termed acceptable etc, while the use of the ballot box in Ukraine was deemed unacceptable and the western media constantly refers to their actions as illegal. The lesson from this is straightforward: "If you want change, eschew the ballot box, pick up weapons and start a war. As long as you are shooting at a nation the US dislikes, you will get backing from the West".

Today, we have a constant stream of crap from the western media, referring to the actions of the people in Donbas and Crimea  as illegal, a sham etc. They all appear terrified of the idea of presenting a balanced view. The once respected BBC is as guilty of this as any. Who remembers Clive Myrie reporting from a hotel balcony in Kiev when the weather was nice and from an underground shelter when it wasn't? A total pointless waste of BBC expenses. Jeremy Bowen, a reporter who I admired for his Middle East coverage, came up with a piece of drivel from Kiev recently when he referred to the Russians as "having failed to take Kiev, as they had planned". Except, of course, the Russians had no such plan. They made to threaten Kiev in order to draw Ukrainian forces from other regions such as Kharkiv, Donbas etc to ease their fight in those regions. Putin had stated, more than once, they were not interested in taking Kiev; their aims were to support the people of the Donbas in their efforts to be rid of the Ukrainian yoke and to remove the "Nazis from the Ukraine government". It has to be said they have not yet achieved that particular aim.

Truss

Listening to Liz Truss yesterday, when being grilled by BBC local radio stations around the country, a recurring theme/phrase throughout was "It is all due to Putin's appalling war on Ukraine". This seemed to be part of her stock answers to questions about Kwasi Kwarteng's appalling "Financial Event" last Friday. (Note: he couldn't call it a budget as he had broken his own governments' rules on setting budgets which mandates that any budget statement can only be made after consultation with the Office for Budget Responsibility and publication of their view). She decided that rising inflation and sky rocketing energy costs were all a result of Russia and their actions re Ukraine. She is totally ignoring the fact that EU/UK/USA sanctions are hitting the EU & UK much harder than they are hitting Russia. Major energy consumers in Europe refused to pay for their gas in Rubles, a condition imposed by Russia as a quid pro quo for sanctions designed to hammer Russia economically. And fair enough; if I was a seller of a commodity, I would be quite within my rights to stipulate payment must be made in whatever currency I wanted. After various moves and counter-moves by both sides, Germany's access to the gas from Nord Stream 1 was cut off. Nord Stream 2 was not a viable alternative as the US had told Germany they must not commission that route or else Nord Stream 2 would be hit with sanctions. (And that was before Russia's invasion of Ukraine).

Anyway, back to Mrs Truss and her attempts to shift the blame for her own government's incompetence onto Russia's "appalling war on Ukraine". A review of wholesale gas prices shows wholesale gas price on December 21st 2021 was 451.68p per therm. On February 24th 2022 it was 321.05p per therm. February 24th was the day Russia invaded Ukraine, so a significant date. Yet the price on that day was 128.95 per therm, LOWER than the December 2021 price. By March 7th, the price spiked and reached a new high of 540.43p per therm and 2 weeks later, March 21st, it was 227.27p. Half of the previous December's figure! The following 5 months was a series of minor rises/falls around the 200p mark. The price began a steady rise throughout July, eventually reaching the December 2021 figure of 450p on August 18th. This was followed by a series of spikes, reaching 640.91p on August 26th. From then, until today, September 30th, there has been a series of falls and rises until the price reached 249.04 on September 29th. Today, there seems to have been another spike with the latest price (September 30th) showing 383.25p. But then, today is a day AFTER Truss was blaming all the financial woes of this country on Russia. Perhaps her comments caused the sudden spike in prices? Addendum: While writing this, the price has risen to 380p.

 You Couldn't (and I mean COULD NOT) make it up!

 Over the last few days, we have seen the battle of words over the need to get grain exports from Ukraine resume as soon as possible. That is an essential next step for those nations, particularly in Africa, who depend on regular shipments of grain to feed their populations. A majority of the politicians involved in the battle of words around this topic seemingly are incapable of acting like grown-ups and getting the job done. It seems to me clear to even the proverbial blind man on a galloping horse what needs to be done. Bulk Carriers (bulkers) need to get into Odessa to load the grain and get it gone to the ports where it is needed.

So, how are these failed grown-ups dealing with this issue? By putting the blame on Russia. Nothing new there; if the sun was to rise 2 hours late tomorrow, that would be Russia's fault. Obviously. The facts, which are there for all to see tell a different story. Odessa is the only port in Ukrainian territory so the grain would have to be shipped from there. The snag is that the Ukrainians have mined the port and its approaches. We have seen some of these mines go walk about and fetch up elsewhere in the Black Sea, as far south as the coast of Turkey, dangerously close to the Bosporus Straits. A quick look at traffic in that area as I write, shows dozens of vessels making transit through the Bosporus between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. This includes a large number of tankers. One would not want a tanker to bump into one of these mines!

A look at the ports in Ukraine shows half a dozen bulkers in the port of Chornomorsk, 6 more in Odessa, 4 in the port of Yuzhny and another 6 in the port of Nika Tera (on the Bug River, near Mykolaiv. If these bulkers are capable of carrying 20,000 tons of grain, that would mean more than a quarter of a million tons of grain could be on its way immediately. But no ship owner in his right mind would send his very expensive vessels to sea from ports that have been mined, along with the port approaches. Ukraine has to remove all those mines; they put them there, they must clean them up!

Naturally, Ukraine is saying the ports are blockaded by Russia. Complete tosh! That can't be possible if we are to believe the same set of liars that makes up the government of Ukraine. How can the Russians be blockading the ports when that same government said recently that they had "pushed back Russian warships 100 Km. It must be true; it is published in the Daily Telegraph:

"As a result of our active actions aimed at defeating enemy naval forces, the group of ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet was pushed back from the Ukrainian shores at a distance of more than a hundred kilometres (62 miles),'' Ukraine's ministry of defence said on the Telegram messaging app."

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/uk-missiles-help-to-chase-russian-navy-fleet-from-black-sea-coast/ar-AAYcPGC 

Change of plan: MSN seem to be removing that news as I write. Goggle the phrase Ukraine has pushed the Russian naval fleet 100km and you should get links to the same story from the Express, Guardian and one or two others.

The same article mentions that the Ukrainians used missiles supplied by the UK to do it. So there!

Either that statement is true, in which case the Russian navy can't be blockading anything =  Ukrainians lying.

Or they have not pushed the Russian navy back any kilometers, never mind 100! = Ukrainians lying! 

To condense those 2 lines; Ukraine is either lying or Ukraine is lying. Simples!

Ukraine: Get on with it; ship the bloody grain and stop the public hand wringing, telling us how we civilised people should be sending every gun, missile system, every bow and arrow we possess to help you continue your 8 year long campaign of genocide against the civilians of the Donbas region.

 A lovely away day for the chaps and chappesses

Yesterday, 12th May 2022, the UK Government decided to treat themselves with a nice day out to Stoke-on-Trent. This was billed as a "Regional Cabinet Meeting". Given that the House of Commons was half way through debating the Queen's Speech, this seemed an odd thing to do. Let's face it; the Queen's Speech debate is the process where the government's series of lies and distortions, as set out in the Queen's Speech, are debated and therefore open to attack by the various parties and members of the opposition. One would think the government would be keen on attending this debate in order to defend and maybe even promote their plans and empty promises as outlined in the Queen's Speech. 

Obviously not. Some bright spark decided an away day would be a better use of the Cabinet's time so off they all trundled on an all expenses trip up the M6 to gibber and ramble together. For whose benefit? Well, I thought I ought to try to discover what this was all about.

First; let's look at the title of the meeting: "Regional Cabinet Meeting". (This title is not mine; it comes from the Cabinet Office's press handout). At first glance, this would appear to refer to a meeting of a "Regional Cabinet". What it actually refers to is a meeting of the government's cabinet in a "Region". To most of the government members, the term "Region" applies to anywhere with a post code that is not in London. Anyway, once I had found the press handout, I sought the details of what this was all about and what benefit did it bring to the people of the U.K. by holding the meeting in Stoke-on-Trent. Surely, there would have been hordes of local government worthies in attendance? Or representatives of local business? Or even the people who could afford to take the time away from their local food bank?

Refer to the Cabinet Office briefing:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/regional-cabinet-meeting-12-may-2022 

Nothing to see here; move along! The hand out listed none of the those attending. So no point looking to see how many worthies and food bank dodgers were there. They weren't saying. So what about what was said? Well, I can save you the trouble of reading it yourself: Bugger all! The whole press release consisted of 6 paragraphs and those 6 paragraphs were made up of 5 of a single sentence and 1 with 2 sentences.

So I am none the wiser and I suspect what was the cost of this junket, I shall remain none the wiser. Bear in mind; this was the same day Johnson was talking of sacking 91,000 civil servants in order to save a few quid! 

 I am becoming more and more disillusioned with the BBC every day. When I complied to them recently about what I consider to be one-sided reporting on the conflict in Ukraine, I was fobbed off with a load of tosh.

My complaint was not about content or opinions etc, it was about there being no BBC reporting from the other side of the conflict. Everything is "Zelensky says" or "Ukrainian officials report" etc. After Clive Myrie had made a valiant 9 day stand holed up in his 5 star hotel in Kyiv and legged it, leaving his colleagues to carry on in his wake, (to be fair to the man, there was an air raid near by during his time there) all BBC reporting has continued from Kyiv with one or two isolated reports from Lviv. Nothing from Mariupol, Donetsk or Lugansk.

Today, they have sunk to a new low. They are apparently refusing to report on the desecration of British & Commonwealth war graves at the Jonkerbos cemetery in Nijmegen. For those that didn't know, there are over 1,500 graves in this cemetery. The morons responsible painted slogans such as "Fuck Russia" across headstones. I wonder who might have done that? Well, we don't need to wonder. They signed their work and this can be seen here:

https://www.nu.nl/binnenland/6198767/oorlogsmonumenten-in-nijmegen-beklad-met-anti-russische-leuzen.html

Yes. It was the work of the BBC's darlings, Ukrainians, claiming to be supporting the BBC's other darlings, the Nazi Azov Battalion.

Other newspaper articles can be seen here:

https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2022/05/war-cemetery-in-nijmegen-sprayed-with-anti-russian-texts/

https://nltimes.nl/2022/05/04/nijmegen-war-cemetery-vandalized-remembrance-day

Notice too the date this happened: It was the Dutch Remembrance Day. Imagine if this had happened in England on November 11th!

There are reports around the web criticising the actions of Ukrainian refugees throughout Europe and it could be summed up as becoming a serious nuisance.

Let's give the BBC some time though. Of wait! If I, an ignorant old codger who has never been near a journalism school, can discover and read about this incident, can it be possible that the BBC just haven't noticed it?

No, I don't think so either.

 Well! The head shaking (in disbelief) is getting a bit tedious now. There's a lot to highlight at the moment but take the last 24 hours.

Yesterday Boris the Clot was in Bury telling us all how Conservative councils fill in pot holes 4 times faster than any previous government. That's the sort of announcement we all needed at a time when households are being driven deeper into poverty. People can't afford to feed their kids, they can't afford to heat their homes and, if they have a job, they can't afford to drive to work. But, as long as the pot holes are filled in at a record rate.... (I am sure someone will be feverishly fact checking that piece of nonsense right now).

And moving on to today, we have the idiot Heapey talking like a stupid person, saying it is fine if Ukraine wants to use weapons supplied by UK to hit targets within Russia. Prat!

And we have news that Boris is proposing a move to put kids at risk by reducing/relaxing/abolishing (who knows which?) Health & Safety rules governing child care. Nice one you muppet!

At the same time, he is threatening to privatise the Passport Office because they are overwhelmed with renewal applications. I don't suppose he has thought of looking at the monster in charge of that? Clue: the first name beings with a P and the surname begins with a P. No! It is not Peppa Pig! More on that moron in the next post...

And we thought Trump was a dip stick!

I suppose it is disappointing that the person elected to replace Trump has turned out to be something worse. (Be careful what you wish for?)

I have watched and listened to Biden's procession through the US Presidential office, via the media, since he came to office and it has gradually dawned on me the man is so similar to Trump, one could be forgiven for confusing the pair. I used to think the difference was in the way each handled their corruption, double dealing etc, with Biden being slightly more adept at the ducking and diving skills. Now I am not so sure.

So, what has got my attention this morning, causing me to put fingers to keyboard? I have just learned (a bit of 'old' news) that Biden has directed that $7 billion of frozen Afghan funds be unfrozen and to be split two ways: half to go towards providing humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan. Isn't that big of him? He will take half of the Afghan people's own money and let them have it back, somehow, some day, in what will no doubt be trumpeted as a sign of America's largesse; "US providing $3 billion to ease the plight of the poor and starving people of Afghanistan". I have absolutely no doubt we will not see a headline like "US returns $3billion of the Afghan people's own money".

And what of the other 50% of the frozen funds? He is going to use that to compensate victims of the 9/11 attack. What did the Afghan people have to do with that attack? I thought it long established that the perpetrators of that attack were Saudis. Quite a number of those were from an area called Al Baha. When I was last in Al Baha in 2013, the place was known for the amount of police deployed around the city with road blocks, ID checks etc. The reason for this, according to locals, was down to fears the 9/11 perpetrators from the region might still have sympathetic mates in the area. And, at that time, the city and province of Al Baha was well and truly within Saudi Arabia.To the west of the country and south of Jeddah in fact. So why are impoverished citizens of Afghanistan being made to pay for 9/11? How much has Saudi Arabia paid and when? And are we to expect to see the families of the 9/11 victims receiving more than $1 million each? I very much doubt it. There will be deductions for lawyers, politicians and various other assorted pariahs before they see any of it. And still, the source of the money is cash stolen from the Afghan people. While the Saudis get away with it.

Returning briefly to Sleepy Joe, let's have a closer look at him. In the next outpouring of despair, dismay and disgust...

Who is the real bad guy?

 Is it the USA, Russia or Ukraine? Or perhaps all the above?

Since the current Russia/Ukraine "crisis" kicked off (it seems like 10 years ago!), I have had some doubts about the whole propaganda issue going on around it. I don't want to take the side of either Russia or Ukraine, so I won't.

However, there a few points that need to be taken into account here; well 2 points to begin with. The whole shouting match seems to have kicked off when Russia was found to have circa 100,000 troops in the area of the Russian/Ukraine border. My first reaction was "So what?" Isn't the area concerned within Russia? And, doesn't Russia have the right to move their troops hither and thither within their own country? If these troops were not on the Ukraine border, they might be on the border of Finland, China, Mongolia or Kazakhstan. What would be said about the any of those circumstances? Probably nothing, although that would depend on where you were finding your news/commentaries sources.

Anyway, 100,000 (said now to be 150,000 as of today). In Russia. But wait; Russia announced some time ago that they have scheduled military exercises with their best mates Belarus and those exercises are currently ongoing. Did the Russian troops involved in that come from the Ukraine border? If so, the current number on the Ukraine border should surely have decreased, rather than increased? Never mind. What about Ukraine troops? How many of them are there and where are they? There are different figures available, mostly out of date but it is probably safe to assume around 160,000. One has to assume the Ukrainians have the home game advantage, while the Russian forces are probably made up of troops far from home.
And, as I prepare to post this, there is news that Russia is sending some of the troops on the Ukraine border back home. I have been saying since this nonsense began that I thought Russia wasn't going to invade anyone. Putin is doing this purely to rattle the chains of the West to what he could provoke. I would say he has managed the West and our politicians perfectly well. Biden has been spouting traditional USA war mongering rhetoric and Johnson has been slavishly requesting updates on "What do you want me to say next, Joe". As for the US pushing the "False Flag" litany; well, who better to identify one of those operations than the US? Over the years, they have become masters of that underhand game.

 Over recent weeks, on multiple dates, Johnson has claimed "There are more people in work now than there were before the pandemic began". The numbers claimed were variously around 400,000 and 500,000. The latter figure of 500,000 was used the day after Johnson received a letter from the Office for Statistics Regulation advising him his numbers were incorrect. Obviously the letter was ignored. It seems there had been a rise in the number of employees in work, based on numbers derived from PAYE statistics. This data covers only people appearing on PAYE figures as "Employees". Totally ignored was the number of those declaring themselves as "Self-employed". Before the pandemic, there was approximately 700,000-800,000 in the number of self-employed. The actual total, while Johnson was making his empty boasts, had decreased by 600,000.
Never mind, what about a recent claim that crime in the UK had decreased by 14%? The chair of the UK Statistics Authority pointed out that crime had actually increased by 14%. How did this huge discrepancy come about? The government explained that the Johnson figures didn't include fraud. Fraud is not just someone selling an American tourist London Bridge. It goes to the thousands of people being ripped off by cold callers, conning people into moving money out of their account, into another "for security" reasons. It goes to the gullible who receive calls from bogus call centres  in India, claiming to be from Microsoft and saying that the victim's computer has been hacked and for a sum of money, "Microsoft" can fix that. (Note: Microsoft have nothing whatsoever to do with this scam). When that dynamic brain box, Kwasi Kwarteng was challenged on this inaccurate crime stat, he claimed it was quite normal to exclude fraud from the crime statistics and Johnson was therefore right with his claim that crime had decreased. So fraud is no longer a crime then? Well, there you go Mr. con man; fill your boots. Scotland Yard will not be knocking on your door as there is "no crime to investigate here".
That ridiculous idea seems to come from the same school of idiocy governing the Met Police. You know, the organisation that until recently was steadfast in its refusal to investigate Downing St piss-ups. The first excuse was that they have not seen any evidence of a crime. Isn't that part of the job of the police? To investigate allegations and determine if there was any evidence and to then examine that evidence to see if it bears scrutiny? Then they started along the track of "Well, we won't prosecute because these incidents happened a long time ago". Less than 2 years is considered by them as "long time ago"? Mr. Jack the Ripper; you can come out now. If you give yourself up, there will be no prosecution as the events of which you are accused happened a "long time ago".
And, tying together Johnson and the Met Police's abject failure to police, we have the arguments in Parliament during which Johnson repeatedly claimed there were no parties at No. 10. Then he said there may have been but no Covid rules were broken. (I seem to remember he referred not to Covid rules but guidelines. They were quite definitely rules when members of the public were prosecuted!) Johnson eventually progressed to referring to cheese and wine knees-ups as "work meetings".
He went on to tell us that all will be revealed in the outcome of Sue Gray's report. Full and unredacted, he said. A clever shyster lawyer must have spotted a wizard wheeze (couldn't have been Johnson as he is demonstrably not clever enough). The wheeze being to shake the Met into reversing their earlier decisions re investigating/not investigating any Downing St party allegations. A clever move as they could then use the involvement of the Met as an excuse to effectively torpedo the Sue Gray report. Claims of "possibly bias inferred from her report impeding the investigation if the report was published, as promised, in full" to the invocation of sub-judice rules. Despite numerous legal sources rubbishing these excuses, the government allowed the Met to get away with this interference. Doesn't the law re "sub-judice" cover crimes? And hasn't the government and the Met repeatedly assured there were no crimes? If there were no crimes, there is nothing to be sub-judice.
Like I said; a wizard wheeze.
STOP PRESS: While writing this, we have had the latest PMQ in Parliament and Johnson has doubled down on his earlier mis-statement on crime figures. Today (9th Feb) he said at the dispatch box that crime figures are down by 17%. He also threw in some random numbers concerning current staffing in the NHS and the police. These are crying out to be fact checked. In the meantime, I would pose this question: Isn't it time we stopped using euphemisms such as "mis-spoke, taken out of context etc" and reverted to the old fashioned "He's lying"? As I remember from my upbringing, to state something as fact, when you know it is not true, it is called a lie. And the person making such statements is to be called a liar. And punished for it.

 PPE; Tired of Reading About it yet?

The UK PPE supply saga rumbles on. This morning, the BBC News web site reports:

"Government writes off £8.7 billion spent on PPE during pandemic". A rough breakdown of reasons for this shows £673million for items that were unusable, £750million for items that passed their expiry date before they could be used and £4.7billion as a result of the government paying more for the supplies than their current worth.

Add to these numbers the £4.9billion lost through fraudulent Covid loan schemes and we end up with somewhere around £13.6billion thrown away by the government. That number is remarkably close to the amount the government say is needed to tackle the issue of a cash starved NHS/Care system and needs to be raised via the much disputed increase in N.I. contributions (tax). How careless of them! But never mind; as Boris the liar keeps reminding us his government has led world beating this, that and the other.

Virtually all of his "world beating" claims are either based on a clever use of statistics, comparing apples with oranges etc or plain and simple lies.

Looking back over the government's world beating ordering of PPE supplies (something being boasted about along the lines of "We took the appropriate measures to obtain PPE kit against serious competition for available supplies"). Or, in the language of the common man or woman, "We had legions of cronies to take care of. Regardless of the cost to the exchequer".

Reviewing data I collected in 2020, when the spending frenzy was reaching a crescendo, I see that, during the months of April, May and June, there were 233 contracts let to cronies, with a cost to you and I of £5.8billion. Picking one of these contracts at random, I noted one for £122million for supply of PPE gowns awarded to a company named PPE Medpro. According to Companies House, PPE Medpro was incorporated on 12th May 2020. The Companies House filing for 12th May 202, the day the company was incorporated, shows total capital of £100. The contract was awarded on 26th June 2020.

So, a company formed on 12th May 2020 with 100 quid from someone's desk drawer (or found behind the sofa?) was awarded a huge contract to supply PPE kit.Firther reference to the Companies House web site shows this company has not yet filed accounts. None. Since incorporation. Surely one could reasonably expect to see accounts showing at least an inflow of some of that £122million award?

The web site "Thelondoneconomic.com" carried an article on this company back in November 2020:https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/handing-122m-ppe-contract-to-tory-peer-associate-is-the-definition-of-corruption-mp-says-204739/ In the article, reference is made to links between this company and Lady Bra, (Lady Michelle Mone), and her husband, David Barrowman. The Guardian took up this case as recently as January 2022:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/06/tory-peer-michelle-mone-involved-ppe-medpro-government-contracts

The founder of PPE Medpro, Anthony Page,  was previously running a company that managed Michelle Mone's "brand". Well, how about that?

More later...

Daily Wail; a window on the world of some bloody odd people/ideas.

 I am not a regular reader of the newspaper known by many as the Daily Wail but now and then, I will take a look to see what lunacy is being promoted currently. A lot of the daily fare is made up of photographs of various apparently well known and allegedly famous beings of a sub-class known as "celebrities". Oh, and a constant photographic record of Kim Kardashian's arse, size, shape etc. (I wonder if there is a company sponsored psychiatrist on hand in the editorial offices? If so, someone is not doing their job!)

So, what got my attention this morning and caused me to take a look at the online edition? Well, a couple of things; first the ridiculous headline-grabbing quote from  a Tory lickspittle MP, Conor Burns: claiming "Boris was ambushed with a cake".
You couldn't make it up, as they say. No, you definitely could not make it up as we saw Sir Edward Leigh make a similar statement in the Commons yesterday. The popular refrain this morning has the Tory mob chanting "What about getting on with dealing with issues around poverty, increasing utility prices, the NHS etc, rather than be so bothered by all the fuss over Downing Street parties?". Well, to me this is tantamount to saying "Give us a break. We can not multi-task". Shame on the lot of them! They are paid handsomely to attend parliament and deal with constituents' issues of all flavours and varying degrees of urgency.. Nowhere in their job description does it say "but only one issue at a time". And of course, we can always count on that most un-cultured Secretary of State for Culture (and other stuff), Nadine Dorries for pearls of wisdom in times of crisis. She has apparently joined other Ministers in claiming that the gathering of 30 people for Boris's birthday bash could "be seen as an extension of the workplace". They just don't get it; the current crop of complaints & allegations do not relate to people at Downing Street contravening some hitherto unknown law banning the crossing of a line between workplace and non-workplace activities. They all centre around these people flouting rules put in place by themsleves as a defence against Covid19. Rules that have seen Mr & Mrs Public have the police banging on their doors and dishing out fixed penalties. On the BBC news, there was an interview with a man who had 3 friends at his house for a birthday drink in his garden on the same day as the Boris Birthday Bash in London. Within an hour of his friends arriving, the police turned up and fined him for breaking the rules.

And a Labour MP, at the end of PMQ today reminded the House of the nurse, Karen Reissmann who was fined £10,000 (or in bank speak, ten thousand pounds) for breaking Covid regulations while organising a protest against the government's derisory 1 % pay award for NHS staff in April 2021. Regardless of the rights and wrongs, nerit etc, it is important to note the £10,000 in the nurse's case and the possible £60 fixed penalties the Met Police are looking at in terms of the Downing Street fiasco.

Another topic to get my attention in this morning's offering is the Russia/Ukraine issue. I suppose I can be accused of having a jaundiced view of the whole business but my scepticism meter has been steadily rising over the last few weeks in regard to this. So, Russia has 100,000 troops stationed along the border with Ukraine. So what? Those troops are within their own borders. Are we in the West now duty bound to tell Russia where she can or can not station their forces within their own country? And is Russia similarly duty bound to post their forces where the West tells them to? No, I don't think so either. We may all have our doubts and/or suspicions about Russia's intent here but there are ways and means to deal with this sort of argument. And those ways and means do not include the US trying to terrify the West into some sort of panic by claiming that Russia is planning a "False Flag" type of operation in the region with the intention of faking an attack on Russia by Ukrainian forces in order to provide an excuse for Russia to cross the border in retaliation. Well, perhaps we should listen to what the US has to say here. After all, there is no other nation to match the US with first hand experience of so-called False Flag wheezes. There is probably some enterprising so and so in the US selling tee shirts emblazoned with "False Flag? Been there, Done It, Got the tee shirt". I suppose it is fair to say that, given the level of expertise in the US of False Flag moves, we ought to pay attention to what they are saying. Of course, it goes without saying that the UK government are paying rapt attention to what they are being told by the US. After all, it's what they do. Pay attention to what they are told and to do as they are told too!
To go along with the theme; the Daily Wail has a piece by a reporter, Ian Birrell, pretending to show us how we all should be suffering involuntary bowel movements over events on the Russain/Ukrainian border. He has supported his written piece with a series of photographs, presumably to enhance the bowel loosening moves. Small snag though; every single photograph relating to Russian forces comes from within Russia. Best of all is the photograph of a Russian warship. Carrying the tag "Russian Battleship". The actual text accompanying the photo reads "The Baltic Sea's battleship is spotted leaving towards the Atlantic Ocean". Utter bollocks! Since when did the Baltic Sea possess a navy, let alone a battleship? Did they mean to say "Russia's Baltic Fleet"? Anyway, it makes no difference; the vessel shown is this one:

Tarantul Class corvette, Morshansk, Pennant 824.
Photographed at St Petersburg Navy day 2018
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%94%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C_%D0%92%D0%9C%D0%A4-2019_%D0%A1%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BA%D1%82_%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%80%D0%B3_(29).jpg

and at Moscow in 2019:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: %D0%93%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B9_%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%BE-%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%BF%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B4_03.jpg

Read all about them here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantul-class_corvette
Note for those not familiar with warships, there is a bit of a difference between a corvette and a battleship. Google it and check it out.
(The Tarantul Class corvettes came about as a result of their predecessors, Osa Class, being found to be somewhat deficient when British Army Lynx helicopters sank the entire Iraqi fleet of 12 boats in the first Gulf War.)

Finally, returning to the Wail's front page, I see Boris Liar, Liar Your pants on Fire Johnson has attempted to scare the crap out of the Russians. Saying something like "Grr, Bah Humbug phwoar we could send combat troops to Eastern Europe..." What? Both of them? On a Ryanair flight perhaps?