Some interesting opinions and questions...

One of my friends, yes I have some, wanted to discuss ‘What do you think of the melting of the icecaps’? We have a discussion evening at the local church which encompasses almost everything under the sun! From LBGT+ and why it seems they want to alter the whole of society in their image to whether it could be true that there is an alternate universe where time runs backwards. Well, melting icecaps is a question that can easily be answered, yes it does melt and yes it is very likely humanity’s fault. Corroborated by the raised sealevels. The levels today have advanced already in such a way that the coasts of Wales are now under accelerated threat of destruction by metres every year. Very likely aided by the increased number of heavy storms. We recently had three 90 mile an hour storms in one month! 

So, yes the icecaps are melting and the accompanying rise of sea levels. But of course it all hinges on the climate warming which is not likely to stop. Not at least for quite a number of years, even if we curb our production of CO2 and other greenhouse gases right now. It is not an easy thing to discuss as the problem is also linked to our economy. That is to say, the petrol and diesel sales put billions of pounds into the national treasury! More, society is now completely dependent on the car! I know more electric cars are sold today but it is nowhere near what would be required to make a small dent in our CO2 and nitrous oxide gas levels.

It will be interesting to find out how the government is going to recoup lost revenue due to the rise in electric cars. Don’t hold your breath we will know soon enough methinks.

Thinking also about this universe next to ours, where time runs in the opposite direction. This tickled me pink as I would start my life as an old man, rising out of the ground with all the mourners welcoming me back. I’d better not go the whole hog as I am not sure whether mothers would welcome to receive the baby in a natural way. The idea is about symmetry. The scientist who proposed this stated that there must be symmetry. Much like matter and antimatter but when these two meet it will be BANG . But there has to be something left as energy will be released and quarks. Apparently when matter and antimatter were created after the BB there must have been equal quantities (i.e symmetry) but that’s not what we see, there is more matter than antimatter. So, asymmetry. But why? Yes, if I could answer that I would be buried next to Einstein. But could this alternate universe be made from antimatter? That would create symmetry again. Sorry, I am going to bed, I have a headache.

Does Social Media matter at all? Hmm...

Britain today is bedevilled by a vociferous minority, actually a few minorities, who are constantly trying to get their agenda to the forefront. The forefront meaning the media such as Twitter, Facebook, main stream BBC news channels and so on. These minorities are actually individuals who have aligned themselves with a opinion stream. For instance the Partygate questions had thousands of people on Twitter spouting off about their opinion on the matter. Mostly in derogatory terminology. In one way, although I do not contribute to Twitter I do read and laugh. But frankly it is not really a laughing matter. Facebook I evade like the plague. In my mind Partygate is one of those things you can comment on as it is basically a stupid thing to do in view of the regulations they themselves set up to combat the spread of the Covid virus. They being the top officials of the British government. But is it a police matter? Are you sane? Of course not. There should be a fine of a couple of grand per person or whatever the fine is for a public misdemeanor like that. That’s it in a nutshell. To ask for the PMs extermination (sorry, resignation, I got carried away a bit here), is totally silly. He has some remarkable qualities, one of which is his standard of hair combing but his leadership on the question of the Ukrainian war is exemplary. 

He was the first to start the ball rolling with sanctions. Closing airspace to Aeroflot (Russian airways) amongst many. It took the rest of Europe and America a long while to catch up. French dithering as usual and the Germans deliberating what they should do in view of their dependence on Russian oil and gas. In the end the Germans decided to follow and even increase military spending! The dislike between Germans and Russians is still very much alive it seems. Boris’ speed in decisive action including military help supplying weapons for defending air space, munitions and more plus military manpower to the Baltics must have rattled those in Brussels. The financial clout of the West is still considerable and does hurt Russia being shut out. However, let’s not be smug Russia is a world power and needs be treated like that. It might have backward ideas and it’s military strategies need a serious looking at but we should not underestimate Russia. Although it is time to show that country it cannot do the things it does today. The world is already in serious trouble thanks to humanity’s use of fossil fuels, we need all countries working together to combat the heating up of the atmosphere. We do not need any country to invade another for whatever reason.So, in retrospect, social media has made no difference to anything except to show those who participate as complete idiots. The biggest idiots are those politicians who take it seriously, or use it to their advantage. Perhaps it is wrong to suggest, viewing free speech and all of that, social media must be regulated. Strongly regulated. Boris, get on with it, show a bit more of that Churchillian mettle!

What's the matter with us? You may well ask...

Does anyone think this is a funny world? No? Perhaps we should. On the one hand we have a terrible calamity in the Ukraine where millions of people are displaced, have their livelihoods annihilated and on the other hand we have an idiot American actor hitting another idiot American actor because of what was said about his wife. I listened to that and frankly I agree, some peoples’ hairdo is ghastly. But apparently in this case we are talking about a hair disease called alopecia. It brings me to comment on the general trend of women to show as much flesh as possible. May I ask what the rationale is? Is it women want to excite men because they think on the whole most men are gay? Looking at it from a biological angle and that all animals do similar things such as parading in front of the opposite sex in order to acquire a mate for procreation, you would have thought it should be men partly undressing and parading in front of drab women! But no, humans have a totally different idea. I look at men shown on TV and they are mostly all dressed the same. Perhaps different colour combinations but still jacket, trousers, shirt and tie or ticky-bow. You do not see much chest hair or bare legs. Besides I could not do that because I have no chest hair and my nipples are a sight for very sore eyes.

But let’s go back to poor Chris Rock. How was he still standing after that upper-cut? Or let me be the cynic I really am, was this pre-arranged? There is that possibility and I think, a fair assumption. Or Will Smith’s level of alcohol consumption was off the scale! I must say the performance was great. Worthy of a movie, to be called ‘How I ruined my career in one swipe’. Perhaps an upper cut like that performed should be exported to the Kremlin in order to teach a certain despot some manners and ram it into his head that waging war is an absolute no-no in this day and age. We are not cave men anymore. But perhaps Russians have been left behind and are really still Neanderthals. I have always thought it funny Neanderthals had disappeared but obviously I am wrong. They just emigrated to the Kremlin. It shows in some of the inane comments from there. It shows brainpower and constructive thinking being absent. Friends, we are really badly served by those whom we elect to lead us.

We all should really have a very good look at the standard of those who stand for office, government or other. Not before time!

Slavery, a scourge from the past...

Does anyone marvel at the amount of wokery – just for those who have never heard this word, it reflects the acts by people to make the ‘bad’ things that happened in the past to be the guilt of people today – so, a load of fun to be had then! Take slavery, obviously a very bad thing. But let’s remember one thing during those days most of Europe was engaged in that trade. France, Holland, even Germany and Italy. Even worse, black people in Africa were actually engaged in that trade by rounding up and ‘selling’ prisoners to the white enslavers. BLM was reported to demand an apology from the Royals for these heinous acts. Sure, but what has this to do with today? We should just remember these acts and ensure they will never be repeated! As I have mentioned a few times before, you CANNOT change history but you can learn from it. Something that someone should say to a certain Russian despot!

Slavery, for those who do not have a clue what it is, is the holding of people against their will and usually make them work for their keep. The work being unpaid and extremely hard and dangerous. It sounds easy to some extent but the deprivation was enormous and many deaths occurred. The problem with humanity and this goes for BLM just as well, is that people generally love to pontificate about past wrongs without actually mentioning that these self-same things happen today as well. To highlight the past to examine its reasoning, to look for the why’s and how’s is not a bad thing but to put the blame on people today is just idiotic. 

No-one in BLM mentions the Victorian age in Britain, the abject slavery that hid in the slums. The people, white people mostly suffering early death through the work and the absence of medical services. Housing if you were lucky, had no sanitation and sewage just ran along the gutters. These things don’t happen today, well mostly not because we have learned from history. We learned how to improve our own standards. So, I would say to the likes of BLM, thanks for highlighting the errors of the past, now ensure we do not repeat them!

Anything wrong? Well, you decide...

For a long time I have been very critical of politicians. Yes, I am not proud of it. The task of sitting on your backside in a rat-infested Victorian or even earlier, building; shouting your head off at the opposition or the governing party, is an erroneous job, isn’t it? There are quite a few good MPs but it seems these mostly sit on the backbenches. The ones who have degrees in designing gardens sit on the front bench. It should be obvious that things are not how they should be. OK, so what can be done? Most people I know and believe me, most of the UK population are of the same mind is that we have to manage immigration much, much better. It is not about curtailing immigration, it is about properly managing it so that we get those who can benefit society and not a drain on scarce resources. The inevitable demands we always hear is that they ‘are persecuted’. Most of the time that is patently untrue. Most immigrants are just looking for a better life, and frankly who wouldn’t? But there have to be rules and regulations, it cannot be a free for all.

This question of immigration is closely linked with the world’s population. The planet is trying to support nearly 8 billion humans and that’s about the limit. Even with so many already the climate is turning on us and the resources such as things to eat, grow food, are perilously close to a total collapse. The Sahara desert and possibly other deserts as well, are advancing and growing year by year and accelerating. Despite many, many warnings the plastic poisoning of the world’s oceans and seas are also a growing menace. Even in my provincial backwater you can note the callousness of humans, mostly those under 35 through their abject treatment of the environment. The human disdain for the sanctity of life is shown everywhere, not least in the Ukraine. 

One of my wanting to stand on a pedestal and shout is about the failure of our planning systems. It seems to be a competition which authority can place as many houses as possible on green fields and not worry about the needed infrastructure. Ours known as RCT is in the forefront. When I came to Wales to live with my Welsh born wife there were barely 10,000 people around but before long that doubled. What however did not ‘double’ was the number of dentists and doctors (GPs). Well, it is fun to observe the failures of politicians but the cost unfortunate as that is, is borne on our backs.

Will the Sheikh be right or wrong?

Reading the Daily Express’ editorial a day or so ago by Leo McKinstry I begin to believe they read my blog! The good Leo, one of the best providers of a good political article mentioned the prevalence of British society to sell itself off to the highest foreign bidder. P&O being the latest example. Plus of course that there is a smell of political intrigue about it. The company is owned by a Dubai registered company, in turn owned by a sheikh. It just so happens the sheikh is friendly with a certain Russian despot. As Leo points out ‘Who thinks this is a good thing? You leave the nation open to political manoeuvres’. This of course is also behind the West’s need for oil and gas which over the years came from Russia in ever greater quantity. Meaning we became dependent and that now is being used by Russia to some success. There are many other companies owned wholly or partially through stock-holding by foreign investors. It is not that all is bad but it does make our economy open to nefarious action! It seems to me that we have to decide what is important to us here in the UK. Energy for instance here in the UK is run by two big foreign companies. I don’t need to name them. We all know who they are but again, in fraught times foreign ownership can be against our interests. The problem here is the idiotic minority who believe in the global trading idea. Such as no borders, no limits on trading and other nations can buy anything as long as they pay the money. The question needs asking – who benefits? It does not seem to be UK plc! As Leo said succinctly ‘foreign ownership of UK plc is a threat to our sovereignty’. Exactly now seen with the P&O shambles.

You may ask why the sheikh has allowed this to happen? Oil prices have risen sharply across the world, that will be of benefit to the Arabic world. Secondly being ‘friends’ with the Russian dictator will hopefully benefit the Arab world, not perhaps right now but later on when things have calmed down. That is a gamble on who will win and prevail in this new world struggle. The West or Russia? If I was the sheikh I would be a bit more careful in making my decisions! Just watch and learn!

A view on the situation from my backroom...

Having been bombarded with all the war reports for nigh on two weeks and how the Ukraine is being wiped off the map, I am a bit wary of what the reality actually is. It is obvious that the Russian nation has attacked a neighbour. The apparent reasons are that the Russians do not want a neighbouring nation to be a member of NATO. It wants more influence. This seems to be borne out by some of the other demands such as, Ukraine cannot have heavy weapons, cannot be a nuclear power. The military situation also is confusing. What may I ask is the Russian strategy? They are pummeling the hell out of some cities, killing people indiscriminately, using not soldiers but Chechen killers. Is this the prelude to a complete take-over? Out of 40 or so million of inhabitants close on 3 million have already left! Any nation that loses 10% of its population is in trouble. It seems that Putin’s strategy is simple, cause as much upheaval, destroy a few ear-marked sites like Mariupol which will form the corridor that will allow Russians to ‘own’ the Sea of Azov and cut-off the Ukraine further from accessing the Black Sea. Furthermore, all the refugees are putting great strain on neighbouring countries like Poland. All Putin’s dreams are coming true. He is basically playing the exact same games the German Nazis did prior to WW2. This makes Putin's claims about Neo-Nazis in the Ukraine a bit strange bearing in mind he is acting exactly like it.

So yes, what is the strategy, you may well wonder. Even asking what the West’s strategy is will make your head pound and eyes water. There doesn’t seem to be one except to economically sideline Russia through all the restrictions imposed so far. It seems a bit odd when you read that we still buy oil and gas from Russia. I am confident Putin will think that those will end as soon as a one-sided ‘peace deal’ has been forced upon the Ukraine. And you know, I think he is right. The West is super money orientated, we are far to reliant on fossil fuels and Putin has 40%, nearly half the world’s reserves. In that respect Boris’ inane outpourings make a bit of sense. We sure need to be more self-reliant on power supplies! Those economists that thought to get rid of all our fossil fuel industry (mines etc) and put our eggs in one Russian basket now must return their degrees to the various universities and their knighthoods back to the Queen. 

To end this, I would say all talk about the so-called Russian impasse, their losses and incapability to advance, is rubbish. The Russians do not worry about losing conscripts! The equipment used so far seems to be older stuff, bar some up to date flying equipment. Let us not start thinking the Russians are weak and confused, they are not. It is the stuff Nikita Khrushchev tried as well but did not have the guts to carry it on. Putin has begun to simply turn on the screws and initiated the first steps in world domination. Sorry, USA you are losing it to Russia and China! The only thing Putin has not thought out is how to rule the rest of the world, it has been tried quite a few times before and always has ended in abject failure. But he has started with Europe and that is until he is stopped. History shows us how it happens, how it ends and how everyone suffers. Indeed, what is the point again? 

It's smelling like rotten fish...

The world’s politics and obviously all those who are involved in it, such as politicians, are getting murkier everyday. Just look at what P&O the shipping company has been up to. Most people I know think that P&O are a sound British company. Well, think again. P&O apparently are owned by a company called DP World. That seems to be run from Dubai and its chair is a sultan. DP World has made good profits and even P&O seemed to be in good health last year. According to the Daily Express it paid its owners £270million in dividends. So, what has changed? Some murky financial dealings? Now we read that 800 employees are to go, just like that and blackleg crews flood in. But even worse, DP World has Russian connections, with the Russian state owned (I.e Putin) nuclear energy group Rosatom. Do I smell a big rat here? I certainly do! I can say just one thing to the British government and Boris in particular, wake up chaps! You are being out manoeuvred by a criminal set-up. I suppose one can call it world politics but this is totally unnecessary sheenanigans.

As I have said before, we have to shore up our defences, we have to start being less, much less, polite in foreign politics. Meaning we have to call a criminal, a criminal, and certainly don’t give out titles to foreigners! Even ‘Sleepy Joe’ Biden has got it right for once. The indiscriminate shelling of Ukrainian cities is an act that will put Russian leaders in the dock at the Hague, in the International Court of Justice. It is showing up the real situation and that is that Russia is not a great military strategist. It has the numbers but numbers alone do not make a victory. The Russians are very alike the Mongols of old, trying to overrun a territory and butchering everyone in their way. That is until they find a well-disciplined, and able military force. Even those who have less in numbers. Discipline, and a burning desire to save the land you belong to in the end will always win. You see this all over history. So, it is my opinion that Putin cannot read, knows nothing about history and hasn’t a clue about strategy. Much like Hitler then. We know what happened to Hitler. So, where is the bunker in Moscow? Do we know? Just keep open the door, it will be used pretty soon!

Some interesting view of the future? You decide...

Don’t think I am sort sort of a warmonger but may I ask what the purpose of these ‘peace talks’ between the Ukraine and Russia are all about? From my perspective there is little point in talks when one side simply puts its demands on the table and states ‘These are non-negotiable’. So the Ukraine will cede quite some territory and states it will never join NATO. Putin can now say to his people, 'Look I did not want this war but we have secured our safety by destroying the neo-nazis'. In other words he will come out as the saviour of the nation. Even worse, the West will drop all sanctions because we must have the oil and gas and everything will be hunkydory again. 

Except, it will not be hunkydory. Russia will under its present government by one man continue with its belligerent stance, and continue to aggravate the smaller nations bordering it. The whole exercise was always about restoring the Soviet Union and IT WILL STAY LIKE THAT. It is possible that the two largest nations on Earth, China and Russia who hold enormous resources will try to completely dominate the planet. Frankly, that is what totalitarian states always try to do. The West does not seem to understand the real position it is in. Diminishing resources, over-reliant on oil and gas mainly from Russia as it stands today, international squabbling over fishing rights, destruction of its forests and over population. These things alone and even further increasing, will in the end if we do not address them, destroy our freedoms. You can already note the dash of western leaders, especially Boris to the oil rich Middle East. He is not there to have a holiday and not even to complain about the Saudis killing over 80 most likely non-guilty people but to ensure oil will flow to the UK. So, you can see how that goes. We, the population mostly only care whether we can drive our car(s) and can go on a holiday to Spain to tan our skin cancers but the price of all of that will have to be paid. Already we have heard that climate warming is now irreversible. Some legacy we have left to our grand children. So when this Russian war is over and even a big country like Russia cannot go on losing men and material in the way they are, we must take our security topmost. We need to shore up this island, invest in completely overhauling our infrastructure. Get rid of outdated political systems and most of all rid ourselves of being reliant on oil and gas. 

Just a little aside, I read this morning that Nazanin, is freed! the Iranians have let her go, returned her passport. So let's hope the family, her family, in Britain will now be re-united. But politically speaking did Britain after all these years pay the £400million? It seems so. Apparently it was about Chieftain tanks not being delivered. Yeah, that's the UK for you. But I am going to be a bit more cross-eyed here, might this also have something to do with oil? Has Nazanin, plucky lady as she is and has been for six years, been used as a pawn? Hmmm, don't hold your breath. British politicians can be as two-faced as the Russians are.

Perhaps a timely warning...

Reading the Daily Express this morning my eye fell upon a small side panel article headed, ‘Millions have their ID stolen’. We have 55 million adults in the UK and supposedly 9% have been fleeced. Wow! Are we gullible or what? Five million lost money or had their identity taken from them. Interesting. The down side is this, are we losing that money to Russian fraudsters? Well, I suppose a sizable chunk of it will, yes. We also have plenty fraudsters here, so my question is – what does the police do? Besides drinking coffee in the office? Besides all of that what do WE do, each of us to obstruct the criminal? I suspect most of us are pretty lax in that field. How many operate VPNs? How many have passwords that are little better than not bothering at all? How many just blaze all their details to websites without abandon? Surely each and everyone of us has responsibility to ensure their data is as secure as possible? If you use a password, something like 1234 then don’t be surprised you find yourself duplicated many times and your bank account is empty. If you click on an email from Anna the Russian beauty who desperately wants you to look at her and f**k, again don’t be surprised your computer will have acquired some extra software monitoring all you do. Say goodbye to your money and say hello to the year long dispute with your bank to try to get your money back! It is basically very simple, don’t rely on businesses you deal with to save your data, they won’t. Give them as little as possible. Use a dummy email address, there are plenty of instructions on the Web about how to do that. I myself operate 5 separate addresses. Only one is GMail and that is accessible only with a security key. You have to watch Google, it is a pretty good way to use the Internet but be aware it takes as much data from you as it can. It is useful to now and again check Google and delete data you do not want them to have. Above all do not click on anything you do not recognise or click on spam messages. Have a look at one of my previous inputs. I am really an ordinary user of the Internet but I have pretty good security measures. Lastly do not use a free VPN, they use your data to sell to anyone who wants it. Paid for services are much better and have strict security measures in place. You can also use TOR but I do not since it decidedly slows down your system. But if you are paranoid, please go ahead. That’s it, be aware and stay in control, stay safe!

A dark world view? Hope not...

One of the things I do now is to think about how the world has changed in only a few weeks. I think it should be obvious that this change is not just something that occurred two weeks ago. No, indeed. It has been in the making for some time. We may well ask what made Russia invade the Ukraine. What was all that about? Let’s forget this for a minute, let’s look at what it has done for the West. First of all the west, mostly European at the moment, is in disarray. Britain is no longer part of the European set-up, so the cudgel is with France. Germany has allowed itself to become over-dependent on Russian gas and will have pretty heavy problems for the foreseeable future. Sweden and Finland are considering their options, will they join NATO? Perhaps. You will notice I am not taking the nuclear option because I do believe even Putin will be thinking about survival. So, what about the rest of the world? China, India? I think for Russia to survive its imminent economic collapse they must turn to these two countries. China in particular. In fact the big winner of this will be China. It is therefore debatable whether India will continue with its stance on Russia as they have their own problems with China.

The defence of Europe is also in a pretty bad state. Most countries have reduced their armed forces so much that today Russia could just walk to the North Sea. They won’t because they cannot swim but you will see the point. Britain is no longer a military power, it is riven by idiotic thinking whether it is inclusive enough and spends inordinate amounts of time trying to figure out whether trans women are women or men, or something else. So, we may dismiss the British as a fighting force, at least for the present. For now we only march on the streets to protest. The British are good at that and not much else. From an economic view we have allowed ourselves to sleepwalk into a situation where most of our infrastructure is based on Chinese equipment. There have been warnings but our politicians who are probably the most shortsighted in the world, consistently are denying there was a problem. I would love to hear what is said around the hallowed table in the Westminster Cabinet room now. Probably something about how to bring in 2 million refugees through Dover. I am sorry to say this but this situation could be foreseen a long time ago. So now the chickens have come home to roost and without laying eggs. Surely the status quo has been abandoned? I hope so, because if we are to survive the new world order and possible renewed Cold War we need a fit army and navy, well equipped and ready to fight the evil from the east. We also need to be more self-reliant, self-sufficient in food production and generating power. This should now have top priority.

On top of that we will need to approach the French in view of working together militarily. No need to listen to Macron, he won’t be there by the end of this year. And neither will a host of other politicians. Will Boris survive this? We’ll see but I have a bad feeling….

Perhaps a timely warning?

People are beginning to glibly talk about World War 3. It is somewhat understandable seeing what is happening in the Ukraine. But do we really know what that entails? Once the cat is out of the bag there is no stopping the demise of the human race. It will not just be atomic bombs, no it will also include thermonuclear bombs (aka hydrogen bombs). These have the destruction potential of flattening the whole of London including up to 20 mile radius. If one fell on the capital of Wales, Cardiff, even Bristol could be badly affected. 

So, in that respect I follow the West’s policy of not getting militarily involved bar the supplying of weapons. I do believe that the financial repercussions to the Russian nation will prove to be quite severe especially as the Russian population are swallowing the government’s propaganda. War, and it is a war, does terrible things to the mind. In fact this war will have a very long tail. The Russian nation will not be the same after, even though Mr Putin will survive for a while. 

I believe that this war will have the opposite effect of what the Russians wanted. The Ukraine will become a member of NATO and be a powerful nation at that. It is far larger than France and also has or had nuclear capabilities. Russian by doing this has opened the cage of a tiger. It will take time for the tiger to appreciate where it is and where the quarry is but it will find it. If as has been reported Putin is ill, which I do not believe as it is just propaganda, even so he will go down as the most stupid man of this century. As a politician a complete failure. As a leader, one that has forsaken his duties to his nation. A bully which was shown on his televised rants. How a big nation can sink so low is beyond me. But it is not unknown, Germany did the same twice but remember its result. Germany was flattened. Let’s hope we do not have to do the same to Russia!

Spam? We receive hundreds every day, what can we do?

Despite all the world’s problems and in particular today’s war in the Ukraine, problems with computers and the world wide web continue unabated as well. In particular with the spam problem. According to the sages billions of these are sent everyday. I use Gmail like most other people along with a few others such as Yahoo. But Gmail in particular seems to be the mail provider that attracts most if not all of the spammer world. Even worse most of these spam emails are of a sexual nature. Like do I want an extension to a certain part of my body? Even thinking about that sends shivers along my spine. Or do I want to look at a lady called Anna from Russia who likes cavorting naked on a bare settee. No, I am married and my settee is not bare but has a nice woolly soft covering! So, I have been looking at the problem which is huge. I applaud Google in one way, they filter out most if not all spam messages and put it in the Spam folder but I don’t want to receive them at all. Even though I know Google will delete them after 30 days I rather do not have them anywhere. Anyone can set up filters but that is useless as these messages are already in the Spam folder. Now it is true that some messages are not spam but are filtered by Google as spam because they have what is known as ‘trigger words’. Or the email is missing a sender’s address or there could be something else like using a strange address or name.

So, good email marked as spam will or might not be, read by the recipient. That’s a problem you might have to live with. However, what to do about spam. Well, GMail has a way I found after a long search through mostly useless information. If you want to see it in the flesh so to say, search for the website of Techcult as follows - https://techcult.com/automatically-delete-spam-emails-in-gmail/ - this way will GMail warn you that it is not really the way to do it because they will delete them after 30 days anyway but that’s not my point which is I don’t want them, not even in my spam box. Well, so far it seems to work but I will wait a week or so and report back.If you use Thunderbird then you cannot do it from there, just log into GMail, put in your data as per the usual, email address, password and 2FA phone code and start from there.

Edit 12/3/22

Well, it works, the spam folder is almost empty. But it seems that 'deleted' means they all now are to found in the 'deleted' folder! You might think 'what is the difference?' On the face of it, no difference as you still have to empty the 'deleted' folder manually. So, I have to discover now how to make them disappear automatically. The only problem I can see is that when messages are in the 'deleted' folder Google does not delete them after 30 days. But there is less change of opening them accidentally and therefore no hidden pixels will warn the spammers your and mine address(es) is alive and well!

To go a bit further - you will receive messages, spam included. It cannot be stopped. But the above method will delete spam from the Trash or Spam folder and put them into the 'Deleted' folder. Pending your mail provider deleted messages could be automatically deleted after a certain number of days. I use Thunderbird and have set in the account settings of the email provider (GMail or other) that messages in the 'Deleted' folder will be deleted on exit of Thunderbird. That's the best that can be done I think. So have a go! To do this right click on your account name (usually top entry) and select Settings (bottom line). Under your email provider account name right click Server Settings. Then under Messages click Delete on Exit. Job done. 

Atilla resurrected? Hmmm....

Atilla The Hun is not dead, he is very well and alive. Today it is Atilla the Russian. Humanity has learned nothing. We are still as barbaric as shown in the Ukraine. The Daily Express reported what a Ukrainian minister said – Russians are raping our women. Unfortunately it is also something I have said before. Just like in 1945 the Russian gangs are let loose. Like they do not already have enough prostitutes in Moscow. It is becoming clear that the world might be working towards a nuclear confrontation. The Russian nation has no right to exist in the form it has today. Putin instead of being a world revered politician has become no more than a caged rat. Unfortunately he has one claw on the self-destruct button. Any country that can inflict such damage to another country without reason has no rights whatsoever. The complete governing ‘elite’ are to be tried as war criminals. For Putin there is only one fate, let loose naked and alone in the centre of Kiev’s main plaza.

But for the moment it is what it is, a total mess. You are also seeing the total impotent Russian government when just one man without any thoughts orders the largest army on the planet to invade another country on the premises to ‘clean’ it from nazis. If Putin is so worried about nazis he has only to look no more than a few metres further from himself. Besides all of that, the planning on the grounds of a three day incursion or known as a ‘walk-about’, did not quite pan out. Stiff opposition put that to rest. On top of that it might now well turn out the costliest exercise of all times for the Russians. It might even turn out that the Ukraine will invade Russia or rather the territories Russia has taken so far to get them back. Well, let’s not hold our breath, there is a long way to go. It will be costly, yes even for us. Russia must be shown that in 2022 we cannot tolerate such action.

Some naked truths? Well....

Watching TV programs is a tiring exercise. At present there is nothing much but the war in the Ukraine. This morning the report was particularly worrying to hear about the shelling of a nuclear powerplant! You must forgive me but have Russians a thing called a brain? It must be obvious to all that Russia has become a rogue state, a pariah on this planet. How did the largest country on Earth descend so low? How in all honesty did we all allow a Mafia gang to take over a government? Russia always has had a problem, it did not become the largest country by shelling peas! It did so by naked aggression and by all means still does so today. Just look at its history! From Catherine the Great to Vladimir Putin. It is not a happy book. I am sure there is something wrong with politicians across the world. Some are hiding distinct unsavoury traits. I read something a long time ago that said only people with enormous sex drives become politicians and pending their genetic make-up will become despots. Yes, harems included. By all accounts Mr Putin is such an example. Again also looking at Boris you might wonder, how many wives and others did you say? All that might be true or not as the case may be but you just wonder don’t you?

The question remains, how do we resolve this problem of Russia? Obviously as has been correctly assumed we cannot allow an all-out war because Russia will make it nuclear. I wonder again at the standard of politicians in that country. But we can do much more than that. It has always been successful if you hit an adversary in the pocket. Curtail their spending power, make them scramble for life’s necessities. Another question to be answered is this – why are there so many Russian rich people in the UK? Needs looking at! 

In the meantime we need to re-align our own power needs. Gas from Russia will be a no-no very soon. It may well be that the power industry needs to be re-nationalised. Or parts of it. To leave it entirely in the hands of business moguls is courting disaster for most British households. In the eyes of these companies, like EDF et all, profits matter, as such prices will always rise, and as reported might hit £3000 per annum and that’s just for gas. Well, whatever the future will bring it’s going to be more costly. So let's watch our wallets!

History repeating itself?

Just as it was in 1945 Russian rapists and indiscriminate killers are on the loose again. Not in Germany but now in the Ukraine. Nice people these Russians. This sort of talk obviously comes from my feelings of disgust. Disgust that people like that do actually exist. I am pretty aware that most Russians would be equally disgusted when they finally learn about those sort of atrocities perpetrated by their countrymen. I suppose if you could have been in that Kremlin boardroom with comrade Putrid it would have gone something like this: ‘How are we doing at the moment General Kowalski? Kiev OK now? No? What!!! What do you mean, resistance? These people are potato crunchers, they have no fight in them? Right, start shelling houses and flats, I don't care how you do it. Show ‘m who’s boss, you hear? Kill, kill and let’s get it over with. If Kiev is not in my hands by teatime, I’ll have your head and your wife’s’. Or words to that effect, most likely interspersed with plenty of Russian swear words. 

When I saw that TV shot on the news yesterday with two generals listening to ‘il supremo’ with drawn faces, you will know who calls the shots. But why would people be so afraid? Well, it is a fact that in Moscow, the Kremlin is basically a fortress. If you are in the halls of blood then your life is no longer your own, it is Putin’s. You dare to voice an opinion and your death will be announced in next day’s Pravda! There is only one manager, all others are just cattle.

What I and a lot of people cannot get is that we have such barbarity in 2022! It is really true, we are just clothed apes. Not very far removed from chimps. In fact chimps behave better. When you see children dying in front of their own mother we should all be asking ‘Why do we allow this?’ I realise western thinking about proliferation. But there has to be a stop somewhere? If Putin is so hellbent on global domination, what does he in all honesty think he will inherit? A global radioactive poisoned globe? What is the point in that? Putin standing on a hill looking over the empty plains where radioactive dust storms rage, spreading out his arms calling out ‘It’s all mine, mine’ and ends with a cackling laugh. Only there is no-one that listens. He is alone. Such is the destiny of all idiots that think themselves invincible.

Obviously a hypothetical few words but let’s ensure they do not become the truth.