Politics – Page 28 – More Zonkyness

Why Republican Politicians Should Be Jailed

Jun 012022

Not all of them, perhaps. But the NRA has a very convenient list of politicians that are friendly to gun rights; which serves as a double-purpose – it’s also a list of politicians who don’t care how big a pile of dead kids it is, as long as they get their backhanders from the NRA.

In the latest tragedy (but hurry up they’ll be another along shortly), the rancid heap of necrotic pus that is the governor (Greg Abbott) tried the usual tactic of blaming mental health despite no evidence the shooter had any mental health issues. The same dude who not only cut mental health funding, but loosened gun controls to make it easier for those with mental health issues to get guns.

There’s a crime that fits the bill – “malfeasance in a public office” – which not completely unreasonably could be argued that certain Republican politicians are guilty of. The ones who take backhanders from the NRA whilst refusing to contemplate any concrete action that might have an effect on mass shootings.

Plus if you threaten them with a scary sounding crime like “malfeasance” they might start contemplating actually doing their fucking jobs.

Boris’ Partygate: Why Now?

Politics No Responses »

Jan 172022

So it appears that the Tory idiots in government have been partying hard all the way through the Covid pandemic including those periods of time when the law prohibited such events. They’re trying to masquerade them as “work events” but even those were prohibited during the height of the pandemic. And you do have to wonder just what they were doing that required physical in person meetings – almost everything that occurs during such meetings can take place virtually.

Idiots? Yes – drunken antics in Number 10 carry a substantial risk of leakage, and anyone with half a brain would be worried about the backlash on leaks that the government was busy partying whilst the public were prohibited from meeting other people for purposes far more serious than getting sloshed.

But the big mystery is why the delay in the news coming out. Anyone could be forgiven for suspecting that the story has been “held” until certain people have decided that it is time for Boris to go.

Was Pushkin Black?

General, History, Politics No Responses »

Dec 182021

A while back something popped up on my Facebook stream claiming that Pushkin (Alexander Pushkin – the Russian poet) was black as a way of saying “look at all these incredible things blacks have done”. I don’t have a problem with that. I might just question the logic of classifying Pushkin as black.

Of course I also question the use of the colour of the dead stuff that keeps the squishy bits on the inside, to divide people into arbitrary categories. But we’ll gloss over that for now.

Pushkin was at least partially black because his great-grandfather (Abram Petrovich Gannibal) was black; that’s one sixteenth. So he was also 15/16ths white. Can someone be both black and white (presumably without stripes)? Of course the racists amongst us were the ones who set the standard for excluding people from the privilege of calling themselves “white”. And just to irritated the bigots, it pleases me to declare that Pushkin was white; and to avoid making those who look to trumpet the accomplishments of black people foolish., it also pleases me to declare that Pushkin was black.

Which is ridiculous of course, but that’s kind of what I feel about the whole obsession with skin colour anyway.

And finally, take a look at Abram’s bio – he’s probably more accomplished than his descendant Puskin.

Refugees Aren’t Fucking Illegal

Politics No Responses »

Nov 282021

In the middle of this week’s tragedy regarding refugees drowning in the channel, various really nasty specimens of humanity were all over the word “illegal”. Which really gets up my fucking nose, because it’s bollocks.

Under the terms of the 1951 Refugee Convention (to which the UK is a signatory) those seeking asylum have a right to enter any country (not the first safe country) and apply for refugee status. Of those asylum seekers who enter the UK nearly 70% are eventually granted refugee status and whilst they are waiting are held in appalling conditions which any decent country should feel ashamed of.

Saving the Planet

General, Politics No Responses »

Nov 272021

I can accept “Saving the Planet” as a political slogan for those who advocate taking action to combat climate change – political slogans don’t have to be entirely accurate although I might argue that “Saving People” is more accurate. Because no matter how serious climate change gets, the planet will carry on.

Don’t get me wrong, I think climate change is really serious – we will see millions of deaths at least; quite possibly billions of deaths. And climate refugees will make the Syrian refugee crisis seem like just a tiny taste of what the real thing will be like. And some historians put the collapse of the western Roman empire down to climate change refugees – I don’t think it’s that simple but it was certainly a contributing factor. That is the level of disruption from climate refugees that we can expect.

And if you’re one of those inhumane nasties that imagines military level forces using lethal force to stop refugees, you can forget it – not only are there enough of us bleeding heart liberals who will shout “fuck that shit”, but it is doubtful that any level of military force could stop millions of refugees.

Climate change won’t destroy the planet; it won’t even destroy the environment. It will change the environment catastrophically and humans are to blame. Whole species will become extinct, but probably not humans; we’re too adaptable and we’ve survived through extinction events before (although sometimes only just).

But before anyone gets too complacent, if we don’t do anything, humanity will survive by the skin of its teeth – if just 90% of us are killed, we’ll be lucky. If we act today to make drastic changes, we might keep things down to just a few million dead; if we had acted back in the 1980s, that would be considerably less.

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