Quotations and stuff......

If you do enough digging round, it's often quite easy to find quotations from people (some dead, some alive) that you might not have heard of, or even agree where they're coming from.

One such person would be a man who was called Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a pastor (which is something I don't understand, as I don't do religion), but he was also executed by the Nazis in the Flossenburg camp in 1945.

There's a lot of quotations of his that are floating about the internet. Yet just because he was a "man of faith", it doesn't follow that my atheism should ignore him or his quotations - ok, some of his quotations. Those that don't allude in some way to religion (incidental to this view, I might not believe myself, but I'm happy for others to have a belief as long as they don't use it to cause me to have to live in a way that I don't agree with).

So, someone recently posted one of his quotations on facebook, it came from his "Letters and Papers from Prison".

The person who quoted it, was using it as an example to illuminate some of the rather strange political attitudes in the US at the moment.

Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed—in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical—and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental

While it makes sense in highlighting why some may have thought electing someone like their "President elect", any fair minded person could also see why we also have ended up in a very muddled political situation here and that same quote could be applied to those who wanted to leave the EU.

Brain Dead Sheep...........

So, we ended up with a majority in the EU referendum for the leave campaign.

Now the yanks have gone for the worst possible person for their next president.

In our case, it seems that the politicians are determined to get us out the EU, despite the fact that the referendum wasn't legally binding and was of an "advisory" nature.

If you read up on the stuff from both sides, you'll see lots of scaremongering type rubbish.

Personally, I was a remain voter not necessarily because I like Europe (I don't mind it actually and find our small cultural differences quite fascinating), but because of the umbrella of protection it offers us. The UK is the only major industrialised country that doesn't have a formal written constitution and bill of rights (there's a number of technical/legal reasons for that, but I won't bore you with them).

Most of the actual "rights" we enjoy, we have because they've been granted to us by some of the more fundamental pieces of EU legislation. Those are in turn, protected by the European Court of Justice.

By voting to leave, people will have voted away much of that protection. Are they fucking stupid ?

Most of the justification offered for voting to leave, appears to be irrational, emotional and ill-considered. With a little bit of research, those "fears" can be found and proved to be total bollocks. The thinking of small minded, brain dead sheep.........

The EU isn't perfect. But it's better than letting all of our politics in the hands of establishment vested interests, who seem dead set on screwing us over while lining their own pockets at our expense........

Seems that the American voting public are just as gullible by voting for Trump as their next president. But things in the last few days seem to be changing. He seems to be spouting less of the fascist xenophobic tirades and seems to be alluding to not being able to make such sweeping changes like those promised in his campaign speeches/rallies.

Perhaps that now he's got the nod from the voters, he's learning just how much he can't do or that he's starting to show that he's working to a different agenda than the one that comes from the ultra republican types.......

Watch this space.......

Either way, if he's a complete fuck up, they can vote him out in 4 years. Whereas once we're out the EU, we're stuck with it. There's no turning back..........

What planet are these fuckers on ?

I was hoping to produce a sensible, well reasoned, logical, rational commentary about the forthcoming EU referendum.

I've just spent a couple of hours trying - and failing.

Why ? because the more I think about it, the angrier I get.

I'm happy to be up front, inasfaras, I'm in favour of the country remaining part of the EU.

Equally, I'm happy to apologise if this comes across as a bit of a rant, that's not how I want it to be but WTF, if that's how any possible reader feels that I've expressed myself in that way, well there's little I can do about that.

I'm generally of the view that I wouldn't piss on the tories if they were on fire. When I was first learning about life, politics and all that, I read the manifestos of all three of the main political parties for my first election. Don't know entirely why, just that it seemed to be the right and fair way to work out what I believed.

I concluded that it was "the Labour view" that most closely matched my own views and thoughts. They seem(ed) to offer the fairest deal to the largest number of people.

I haven't seen much to change that. I don't agree with the current Labour leader. It seems that many of his views and ideas are too far left for me, but I consider myself democratic, so will go with the majority......

As above, I'm no tory, but Camerons views and more so the former prime minister John Major have made sense. Coming from a political direction that I wouldn't normally trust or believe.

So far, of the various commentary, media articles etc that have been published or broadcast, only the Yes/Remain side of the argument makes any sense. Sure, much of it paints the "worst case scenario" of leaving, while the No/Leave campaign have just stood there pointing the finger and trying to say it's all scaremongering.

Well all you No/Leave campaigners, all the pieces that you've managed to present/say/broadcast have left me with far too much uncertainty and questions.

I'd happily say "lets go" if there was some safe guards. Like having a formal, written constitution and bill of rights so that whatever happens, I wouldn't be any worse off than I currently am. Maybe they should delay the referendum, so that all of the No/Leave campaigners can be recorded and listed, then if they are wrong and we are worse off, they can be stripped of their wealth and assets, so that those of us who think that leaving the EU is a bad idea could have any loses covered - while they wouldn't have a pot to piss in as this ill-considered idea is theirs in the first place.

None of us like to think that we might be wrong, I get that, but so far all the various stuff announced, released, published etc suggests that it's not that we won't be worse off by leaving, it seems we will, but they can't say by how much worse off we'll be. The numbers seem to be worst case as well.

Personally I already feel that I work hard enough for the little that life affords me, without having the possibility of even less, while those in positions of power and influence get more. It's unlikely to affect them in the way it's more likely to impact us "ordinary workers", so lets not give those who think they're superior to the rest of us any more power/influence/wealth etc and end up with the gap between the haves and have nots even wider........

Facebook can be a bit of a nuisance.......

I have many "friends" via face book who are American nationals. Friends via face book is a relative term. I haven't had the privilege of meeting many of them in person, but our paths have crossed through shared interests in many things.

All of the Americans I've met in person, have been nice, pleasant, decent people. I suspect that this would apply to many of those I know via face book as well, but as a european, I still find that once they get together as a nation, they can be rather strange.

This is showing itself of late, because of their ongoing political campaigns from the two main political parties for the selection of their candidates for the next presidential election.

I find myself being more in tune with the democratic views (though that's irrelevant as I don't have a vote), but last week on the BBC there was a programme on radio 4 about statistics and other numbers used in the news/media.

The claims of both the republicans and the democrats were "fact checked" and one of the main sources used was Politifact.

It seems that of the two parties, it's the republicans that are the biggest liars (by some distance, by all account). The higher profile the candidate, the bigger the liar.

Sure, the democrats also use "political bollocks" for some of the claims made in appearances, debates, speeches etc, but they also seem to make much more effort to try and be correct (honest ?) in their statements etc.......

Why is it that Trump is doing so well in the polls, when he's the one that seems to be the biggest liar and scaremongering fool. That's not to forget that he used to be in the democrat camp as well.

So IMO it's beyond belief that your average "Joe" likes him as a possible president, that they can't see him for what he is, or certainly what he appears to be - a blabber mouthed, scaremongering liar, who treats potential voters with cynical disrespect (tell the fools what they want to hear - they'll vote for me) etc etc.

Are people in the US, so shallow, that they can't be bothered to check out what they hear before making their mind up ?

Who knows eh ?