The big question of the the start of 2017 is did our Prime Minister Theresa May Know...about the Trident missile test ... or...Donald Trumps travel ban.
This is going to be very brief
A trident missile was tested and failed.
Isn't the point of a test to see if it works 100% correctly and if it doesn't you find out why and make changes? its not a school exam where the item tested is given a score against all others in its class. The missile was fired, didn't do what it should and now that learning is being used to make changes. This does not effect the debate that was had around out nuclear deterrent and so did it matter if Theresa May knew? I'm sure we have had other military equipment fail and then be improved which we are still purchasing.
Donald Trump Signs off Travel Ban.
I wrote about this earlier in the week and whilst i have thought about it and discussed it I still think the demonisation of people based on religion or nationality is wholly wrong. The reason I refer to it again is 2 fold, 1 so that we don't forget and take our eye off the ball allowing for a "security" measure to become a genocide, and 2 because its is now being asked "did Theresa May know?"
Yes she did, anyone and everyone who saw any of Donald Trumps pre-election propaganda knew of his intention. Yes there are still questions that need to be asked about it, its details, its purpose, it's execution and its effects But the question of people knowing is a simple one, he said he was going to do it, he got elected into a position where he could do it an now we are having to get to grips with his actions.
I do hope there is a good outcome to both of these but i am worried that about the segregation of the global community by association.
Tuesday, 31 January 2017
Monday, 30 January 2017
Plastics in the ocean, Sky's Ocean Rescue Campaign
Last week saw Sky launch its campaign to reduce the amount of plastics washing into the oceans of the world. I will not repeat the info that sky has but i have posted the link below.
http://news.sky.com/video/why-should-you-take-part-in-sky-ocean-rescue-10740487
It was not too long ago I was thinking of the plastic bottle as a saviour in the world of litter picking an street cleansing, thy generally don't break up like a glass bottle and are less dangerous to collect etc, but this campaign has made me stop and think. In Tamworth for over a decade now we have collected plastic bottles in blue boxes or bins and sold on this recyclate to be spun and made into the fashionable fleeces worn on a cold day, we did this by the container load and the council generated a nice income. But this is clearly not the whole solution. not every bottle is recycled.
The sky campaign raises some interesting solutions such as bottle return deposits etc and this got me thinking. No one is reinventing the wheel here, there was always a deposit on glass bottles in the past and then in another true sense of recycling for a purpose and not recycling for the sake recycling we used to have glass milk bottles. I believe milk bottles are no longer make?
So following this thought I looked for a milk man in my area, apparently there are some but they come around in diesel powered chassis cabs! hold on what happened to the milk floats of the 1970's powered by batteries, remember the electric milk floats. So we used to have washable sterile reusable bottles moved around under nice clean electric vehicles and now in the 21st century we are producing more plastic in a decade than the whole of the 20th century and running milk floats on fossil fuels.
May be we should go old school and reintroduce reusable bottles and newer high tech batteries.
On a different note my initial reaction was to consider a trip to the beach to do a litter pick of plastic bottles before they drift out fill with water and sink.. . then I stopped and thought hold on all rivers and as in Nemo "all drains lead to the ocean" its our local parks rivers and streams that need cleansing before they end up in the sea.
So to conclude have a look at the Sky campaign lets all support it in any way we can whether in thought or deed,
I did find the below Youtube video interesting, its not going to solve the problem but it gives you something to do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqGaRqjWICU
Saturday, 28 January 2017
Trying to blog about The Donald
Wow they say a week is a long time in politics, the last 12-18 months have been that ram packed with headlines all of us have polarised to either extremely interested or lost all respect and interest in governance. Yet the headlines keep coming, check out one of this weeks offerings in President The Donald's mudslinging. The inaugration cake is a copy !
So what do I think of all this and what do I blog about?
The first week of his presidency is coming to an end but the protests aren't. I do have to say I wonder what his 10 year old makes of all this, the inaugaration and the support and protests.
The american voting system has elected Donald Trump as the 45th USA President and there is nothing the 2 months of protesting can do about it, Donald Trump is the president of America. As I wrote at the time of his election in a similar way to the UK voting for Brexit the vote was for change and not for continuation of the norm. One thing that I still haven't quite worked out is the burning of the limo we all watched as the president was sworn in just around the corner, was this a display of power against the wealthy and elite? if so surely the same limo would have burnt if Clinton had won or was it jut vandalism with a convenient excuse?
Donald Trump's campaign was for change and he pitched it in a tangible way the finest example the wall. To be honest I didn't actually believe he was 100% literal and serious. but hold on he was serious and it was not a metaphor for increased border controls he is deadly serious and has signed the orders.
Before I comment on his executive orders I want to comment on the relationship The Donald is developing with the press and mass media, I have for a long time had concerns about the influence journalist can wield particularly when they allow their personal opinions to take objectivity out of their writing and the boundaries between an opinion column and reported news continues to blur, but I am not The Donald and I will not take on the whole press. I will however be watching closely to see how he continues to try and manage the media and their links to the establishment. This is going to be fascinating.
Right so executive orders,
You can not deny that Donald Trump has one what many politicians fail to do and that is act immediately, He made campaign promises and whilst I expected him to water these down , do U-turns or hope that some may be forgotten he has came out of the traps running and has started to deliver on his promises. so what have we had so far.
He has signed the papers to change the Obamacare health insurance, complete the trans continental oil pipe lines and withdrawn from the TPP. These alone can stimulate some huge debate as there are arguments on both sides but they are no where near the level of the two I've saved for last. If you thought the women's protests and inauguration protests were large enough as I type this the world is desperately trying to comprehend the impact of the executive orders to build wall along the Mexican boarder and as the protests begin again we all look and wonder what ill be the impact of his securing the US borders and what I would call the xenophobic racism of travel bans for certain people and nationalities.
To be honest compared with the last one the wall seems quite normal and sensible.
Today Donald Trump has allowed Islamic state terrorist a victory, he has allowed them to change the way the free world and in doing so he has punished many many innocent people.
I am willing to allow a bit of benefit of the doubt that he might just be putting down a marker and give himself some breathing space, but there are better ways of doing this, the US was not under immediate attack from these groups but a small number of terrorist hiding behind someone else's flag.
Islam is a religion and Muslims believe in there religion in the same way Christians and Sikhs do. but that doesn't mean they support the splinter group who are using Islam as an excuse to create terror for their own benefits.
The countries Trump has banned travel from do have majority Muslim populations but that doesn't mean every person is an IS fighter.
I could keep going but I wont. The bottom line is that any executive power that tries to deal with a problem by demonising particular groups based on nationality or belief system is completely wrong.
America came a long way during the civil rights movements of the 60's, 70's and 80's please don't let it slip back, We know there are still issues in the US but this is a massive step in the wrong direction for racism.
I am pretty much speechless by the travel ban.
So what do I think of all this and what do I blog about?
The first week of his presidency is coming to an end but the protests aren't. I do have to say I wonder what his 10 year old makes of all this, the inaugaration and the support and protests.
The american voting system has elected Donald Trump as the 45th USA President and there is nothing the 2 months of protesting can do about it, Donald Trump is the president of America. As I wrote at the time of his election in a similar way to the UK voting for Brexit the vote was for change and not for continuation of the norm. One thing that I still haven't quite worked out is the burning of the limo we all watched as the president was sworn in just around the corner, was this a display of power against the wealthy and elite? if so surely the same limo would have burnt if Clinton had won or was it jut vandalism with a convenient excuse?
Donald Trump's campaign was for change and he pitched it in a tangible way the finest example the wall. To be honest I didn't actually believe he was 100% literal and serious. but hold on he was serious and it was not a metaphor for increased border controls he is deadly serious and has signed the orders.
Before I comment on his executive orders I want to comment on the relationship The Donald is developing with the press and mass media, I have for a long time had concerns about the influence journalist can wield particularly when they allow their personal opinions to take objectivity out of their writing and the boundaries between an opinion column and reported news continues to blur, but I am not The Donald and I will not take on the whole press. I will however be watching closely to see how he continues to try and manage the media and their links to the establishment. This is going to be fascinating.
Right so executive orders,
You can not deny that Donald Trump has one what many politicians fail to do and that is act immediately, He made campaign promises and whilst I expected him to water these down , do U-turns or hope that some may be forgotten he has came out of the traps running and has started to deliver on his promises. so what have we had so far.
He has signed the papers to change the Obamacare health insurance, complete the trans continental oil pipe lines and withdrawn from the TPP. These alone can stimulate some huge debate as there are arguments on both sides but they are no where near the level of the two I've saved for last. If you thought the women's protests and inauguration protests were large enough as I type this the world is desperately trying to comprehend the impact of the executive orders to build wall along the Mexican boarder and as the protests begin again we all look and wonder what ill be the impact of his securing the US borders and what I would call the xenophobic racism of travel bans for certain people and nationalities.
To be honest compared with the last one the wall seems quite normal and sensible.
Today Donald Trump has allowed Islamic state terrorist a victory, he has allowed them to change the way the free world and in doing so he has punished many many innocent people.
I am willing to allow a bit of benefit of the doubt that he might just be putting down a marker and give himself some breathing space, but there are better ways of doing this, the US was not under immediate attack from these groups but a small number of terrorist hiding behind someone else's flag.
Islam is a religion and Muslims believe in there religion in the same way Christians and Sikhs do. but that doesn't mean they support the splinter group who are using Islam as an excuse to create terror for their own benefits.
The countries Trump has banned travel from do have majority Muslim populations but that doesn't mean every person is an IS fighter.
I could keep going but I wont. The bottom line is that any executive power that tries to deal with a problem by demonising particular groups based on nationality or belief system is completely wrong.
America came a long way during the civil rights movements of the 60's, 70's and 80's please don't let it slip back, We know there are still issues in the US but this is a massive step in the wrong direction for racism.
I am pretty much speechless by the travel ban.
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