So many thoughts, so many causes, so little time.

Apologies to my readers, if any such remain. I had decided that I was babbling in the wind and should simply shut up. But then someone quite unexpectedly read the blog and liked it. And others have reportedly been reading it too. So I’ll grumble on for a bit and see how it goes.

This is a bit dated because as I move into my dotage I become even more incapable of completing any task. So this has sat on my PC for weeks.

Subjects selected at random; Such a wealth of choice and so little worth in any of them.

Elections in France and England.

In England I used to vote for the minor party; the two majors having conclusively demonstrated no interest whatever in anything of importance to me.

Interesting that Nigel Farrage has at last been elected; I hadn’t realised that he’d tried so many times before. After his superbly accurate address to the members of the European Parliament I can see no way that any sane voter in the constituency of his choice would vote for an alternative candidate.

As for the rest, it looks as if the population are set for a rerun of the 1970’s ‘Winter of our Discontent’, when Jim Callaghan and the Labour party managed to plunge us all into darkness, with no heating either.

The French are a bit more excitable and seize the excuse to set fire to their neighbours’ cars and houses when they dislike any government action. I thought at one point that Marine le Pen was going to manage a considerable upset but overall she seems to have been swamped again.

People spout about Democracy, often claiming that it is ‘One Man One Vote’. Well no. Democracy was responsible people who had demonstrated good planning and management skills, over a considerable time, being asked to plan and manage public affairs for a fixed term of sufficient years to bring their ideas into use. Then leave the task to others.

We however are invited to elect any random individual who offers him or her self, regardless of their ability to demonstrate any ideas or skills beyond persuasiveness.

And then we give them insufficient time to execute any worthwhile activity when in government.

An intervention here from my friend Laura Ginnit.

Most politicians are elected by the votes of people who believe that the party whom they represent aligns most closely with the voters’ own desires and beliefs. Yet those politicians may with impunity decide to ‘cross the floor’ and align themselves with an opposing party – not merely once but permanently. This is clearly wrong. If they want to represent somebody else’s interests they should be required to resign and offer themselves for re-election. Otherwise, the people who voted for them have clearly become disenfranchised, since those who oppose their wishes have gained an un-elected advantage.

In Australia we also have the bizarre custom of the ‘Two Party Preferred’ system, whereby part of one’s vote may be used to support the election of someone whom you would rather see shot than elected. For myself I would prefer almost anything BUT the two major parties presently trying to rule our lives for the benefit of their supporters, at our expense.

That system is so savagely guarded by those who see it as a way to distort the results in their favour that, when some wonderfully clever persons found a way of exploiting it so as to elect some real people into the Senate, there was immediate uproar and desperate measures were taken to ensure that such a thing could never occur again.

Also, we used to have to either pick from the top contenders for the Senate vote or list every one of the 50 or so on the list in order of preference. This last I would do, as I do with the lesser numbers listed in other elections, by selecting the most unlikely as number one and proceeding in order until the usual suspects were safely at the bottom of the list.

They’ve finally changed that now.

Of course, I could simply leave the paper blank – only attendance at the polling station is required by law; the one part of the process that I approve of – but no, if I’m going there I want to express my opinion in some way.

So what would I like to see?

Candidates elected for a period of 7 years (I’d consider 10 if you like) then out permanently into the world they have formed, with a modest superannuation package and no other handouts.

No other perks and banned from employment by any organisation, State, Federal or Military, directly related to their former position in government. So, no kickbacks in return for favours given while in office.

And lets have no ‘party’ advertising. Preferably no paid media advertising of any kind. Let candidates knock on doors and hold public meetings – at specified venues – so that nobody gains an advantage by spraying money around.

I’m sure you can suggest other means of ‘levelling the playing field’ so that the rich or well organised can’t trample on the prospects of those who would represent the rest of us. I don’t want a Setka or some rich bitch (name your favourite) running my life for their advantage.

I won’t see it happen because we will never be allowed to elect anyone who could bring it about. Yet we have seen various kooks banding together and hoisting one or more of their own into parliament, possibly in reaction to the astonishingly childish behaviour of most of our recent prime ministers.

And another point by Laura Ginnit:

Some time ago now an elected politician, in Queensland, was jailed for irregularities in her election. The sentence was later overturned, as no such irregularities, nor any other, were found to have occurred. The politician was feisty and outspoken and certainly had political enemies. It seems obvious that the case could not have been brought without collusion by her political enemies, yet nobody was ever charged with plotting to overthrow a valid election result by false claims. Such behaviour should surely be considered a major crime in any ‘democracy’. There clearly was a plot; no such action could have been brought about without collusion among several specimens of lowlife. It is a complete disgrace that none were ever charged.

All of which leads, I think, into my next subject.

International terrorism.

It’s a bit sad to see the pompous, self-important representatives of the United Nations solemnly deploring Vladimir the Putrid’s unprovoked invasion and wholesale slaughter in the Ukraine – and doing absolutely bugger-all to stop it.

And it’s a lot sadder when a bunch of murderous louts kill and capture a large number of Israelis and are supported and encouraged to do more harm by the repetition of their chosen name in and on the ‘media’.

Not only that; I even heard the head lout’s name being broadcast by the media. Just the sort of thing to encourage more savagery. I don’t want ‘the media’ censored from reporting facts – if they know the real names of people whom the world would be better rid of, let them publish them – once. But NO fancy titles for creatures who should be regarded as something to be eradicated just like any other threat to public health.

And now the Israelis are being accused of ‘war crimes’. The Israelis don’t WANT a bloody war. Ever since they were finally and reluctantly allowed to try and turn a mostly inhospitable and unproductive tract of land into a ‘Home of their Own’ – which they did, far beyond anyone’s imagining, despite being attacked repeatedly, almost from day one – they have been the target of jealous idlers who want to take what they have created.

The murderous louts started a war. In war things happen very rapidly. Sometimes snap decisions have to be made, with uncertain or inadequate information. So sometimes the decision will be wrong. And MORE innocent people are killed or maimed. More! Because a bunch of murderous louts started killing and capturing innocent people. And of course because desperate people, with no prior wish or reason to kill anyone, fought back.

In Australia we are proud to allow people to promote their views and wants in public. This does not, however, mean that we freely allow people to support Nazi ideals. We have some respect for the balance between freedom of the individual and freedom of the masses.

Now, however, we are seeing demonstrations in support of the murderous louts who attacked Israel and are still killing Israelis, whenever and wherever they can.

This should be stopped, immediately and entirely. If there are people here who came to enjoy our free and open society, yet feel supportive toward murderous louts who have started and are prolonging a bloody, callous war, let them be sent rapidly back whence they came. There will always be a number of our own ‘home grown’ louts and idlers. That is our problem and our police and legal system (laughingly known as the ‘justice’ system) must cope as best they can. People from elsewhere – like me – should accept that Australia is as it is because Australians made it that way, and NOT attempt to change it into whatever shit hole they have been generously allowed to escape from.

If you find that contradictory let me just say that for 10 years after migrating here I flatly refused to criticise any Australian custom or practise. I felt very uncomfortable being required to vote during that time. But after 30 years I DO feel entitled to protest at the stupid and selfish actions of those who have NOT contributed anything worthwhile to Australia, yet expect the right to destroy Australian values and impose their own narrow and selfish interests, from the moment they set foot in this country.
So there!

Banging on gets a bit tedious don’t it!

I grew up in a war, listening to the thunder of bomber engines in the night and wondering if it was our turn to be buried in rubble. The sort of rubble that I saw new evidence of each day, on my way to school.

My three big brothers came home from the war with experiences that they were unable to relate; even to my father, who had spent four years on the battlefields of France in the previous war.

I was a teenager during the needless wars in Vietnam and Korea. Fortunately, although serving in the RAF, I was NOT sent there, nor to Suez either.

In London, in the late 1950’s, there were still businesses working out of premises largely buried under piles of rubble, some of which I had to stumble over to reach their doors.

Anyone who wants a third world war should read Nevil Shute’s novel ‘On the Beach’. It is chillingly prophetic.

But – ‘Heedless of fate the little children play’.

Now what about elections in the USA?

Well far be it from me to try to tell our American friends how to run their country. But the fact is that America has always been an aggressive country. Having gained Independence by war they displaced the native tribes by war, and then devastated half of their own country by civil war.

And do not buy that old fable about how Abe Lincoln started the civil war to free the slaves. His own words are on record – ‘Whether or not to allow slavery is a decision best left to the individual States.’ Lincoln actually said that the war was because he needed the ports – that is, his commercial friends and supporters in the North would lose some of their profits if the ports were controlled by the South.

The USA publicly claimed the right to intervene in the affairs of all countries in the South Pacific and Commodore Peary with his ‘Black Ships’ threatened to destroy Japan’s fragile cities by gunfire, forcing Japan to abandon its chosen isolation and non-interference in the outside world, and ultimately provoking its alliance with Germany in the second world war.

So if Donald Trump wants to stir up aggression at home and abroad he is simply acting in the American tradition. And if that means trampling over the hopes and dreams of half the Nation and alienating the rest of the world, nothing much has changed.

And finally – there are a hell of a lot of people from a lot of hellish places who are desperately trying to get into the USA from Mexico, every day and night. They don’t doubt that, whoever runs the place, it is the best place on earth to be.