Another day

….Another day struggling with Canadian Banks. I have a question here, why the hell do Canadian banks behave like they’re still in the 19th Century? You know, restrictive practices, refusal to deal with certain companies and generally being patronising towards their customers? It’s my bloody money and I’ll do with it as I wish. I am breaking no laws, at least that I’m aware of. They’re very happy to take money from any source, but when it comes to moving that money out using the self same brokers as I used to pay it in, result; radio silence, evasiveness and behaving in a way that makes me distrust them, and banking requires trust to operate. Although I prefer to trust, but now I have to verify everything first. Which slows the job up.

Oh yes, and this is getting tiresome. Another digital book burning, and the defence of that deletion by ‘blue checkmark fact checkers’, who use weasel words and lawyers tricks to defend the book burners. Who funds these ‘fact checkers’ anyway? Whenever I read one of these ‘fact’ checks, their reviews are only true for a given version of ‘true’. Heavily conditional and couched in language so slippery a greased pig would look sticky by comparison.

I must say that these implementers of ‘cancel culture’ are quite creative in finding a source of ‘offence’ over which books were cancelled. Who would have thought that Dr Seuss was ‘institutionally racist’ or that a Captain Underpants spin off ‘mocked’ Chinese culture by celebrating martial arts as a plot device? Seriously people?

As for the latest iteration of the WordPress editor. It makes me want to migrate to another platform. It’s that crap. Can we have the ‘classic’ editor back please?

Out here in the wilder west, we’ve been scootling around Clare and Galway looking for properties via the back roads that the Gardai ignore. That said, I was at the south end of Ennis yesterday and the regular checkpoint coming off the M18 had disappeared. All the cones, everything. We were north of Tuam, County Galway the day before that on the motorway, expecting to get stopped at the checkpoint at the end of the motorway. Nothing. A couple of patrol cars passed us by, but no-one was getting stopped. The only precautionary notices we saw were the temporary lit signs reading “Protect each other” and other such patronising idiocy.

I think there’s been a union meeting and the coppers are refusing to stand around in the Atlantic drizzle asking damn silly questions.

I can imagine the rainy morning Gardai briefings “It’s O’Hallorans and Murphy’s turn at the checkpoint. Err, where are they? I don’t see them here.” Says the duty sergeant.
“Sick.” Comes the laconic answer from the back of the room.
“With what?” Demands the sergeant.
“Standing around freezing their arses off.” comes the reply.

We’re told that things will begin to open up again around 12th April and guest houses and hotels will be allowed to open in June, despite the ‘mathematical certainty of a fourth wave’. That mathematical certainty being the results of a predictive model, the kind that have totally failed to reflect reality so far. So there won’t be a fourth, fifth or sixth wave, no matter the wishful thinking of the doom mongers.

Hi ho, another day……

What upsets me most

Is the uncertainty of all these restrictions. Constantly moving goalposts make it hard to plan and execute those plans, be they business or family. None of this makes any sense from the travel restrictions through all the bureaucratic pettifoggery.

We’re told that government advisers are pushing for ‘Zero COVID’, thinking they can do to SARS/COV-2 what happened to Smallpox. Not going to happen. Smallpox is transmitted by physical contact and close proximity droplet transmission. That and there’s an effective vaccine. Also Smallpox was kept at bay by treatment in specialist isolation hospitals. Historical note; the last Smallpox hospital in the UK was demolished in 1974. I think.

The SARS/COV-2 coronavirus by contrast, is respiratory and airborne micro droplet, and the vaccines, we are told, only provide partial immunity. The only way to be sure you won’t catch it are to wear full Hazmat in a sterile, atmosphere controlled environment, all the time.

Surgical masks haven’t stopped it, the SARS/COV-2 virus, harmless to most under 60’s, passes around as though they weren’t in the way. Lockdowns won’t stop this virus simply because they keep people in their own homes, which is where most disease transmission occurs.

Another historical note; the black death probably killed more people than it should because of the common tactic of incarcerating whole households together when one person caught the disease, thus leading to an exponential increase in mortality where whole families could be wiped out.

As for our little lot, we’re hanging in there, but only just. If it were just me I could cope, but it’s not. ‘South’ is going to a therapist. ‘North’ is just throwing herself into her work and looking forward to the pubs opening, even if it rains. She tells us all the pubs in London are booked solid, so if you haven’t got a table by now, forget it.

Mrs S is struggling, and even though we’ve never exactly been very social people, these masks, the constant threat of sanction is taking its toll. Having to have a ready excuse for travel if stopped by the Gardai (Police) puts unnecessary stress on a simple drive to the shops. It’s the sense of having to look over your shoulder all the time that drags at the senses. Even out here in the wilder west of Ireland. Glad we don’t live where there are active curtain twitchers and snitches. Whoever dreamed up that poisonous idea has a case to answer for.

On the upside, no-one’s broken by any manner of means, but the timbers on this old ship are creaking a bit. I’m sure there are many who have already gone under on the quiet. Small lives breaking up and sinking to the bottom unnoticed and unremarked.

As an aside; doesn’t Boris Johnson look stressed out? He looks beaten down, apathetic. At least in the most recent interviews. There’s none of the old bounciness in him. BREXIT in itself must be stressful enough, but all these restrictions and the bad advice he’s been getting? Turn him over folks, that sides done.

Here in the Emerald Isle we’re told that restrictions may be ‘reviewed’ on April 5th, but I’m not holding my breath. Society has morphed into a ‘one rule for thee, but not for me’ dichotomy. The politicians have booked their Summer Holidays, but apparently the rest of the populace isn’t ‘responsible’ enough. The politicians and privileged are getting their beach breaks this year to frolic in the surf.

Hope there’s a tidal wave and the miserable feckers all drown.

Update: For all you folk in the UK, sod the Government, hug a friend.

Freedom is bad for you?

Through the satirical anti-logical lens of AwakenWithJP

Ignore the Ad at the end. A Youtuber has to make a living somehow.

Associated; new collective noun. Tyranny.

A tyranny of Doctors.

See also;

Diagnosticians A guess of diagnosticians
Dictators A tyranny of dictators

Just for fun

No further comment is required. Enjoy.

What’s next?

I’m fed up of hearing about COVID, so I thought I’d post a few observations about what’s going on internationally with the EU. Now we source a lot of our material needs from non-EU countries, including the UK. One of the things I’ve noticed is how much more expensive shipping and customs costs have been since December 31st. In essence they’ve rocketed. The US into the EU is a case in point. For example I bought a two year supply of one particular item from Illinois yesterday. The item itself is not cheap at forty plus quid (USS65) a litre, but with customs fees the cost essentially doubled. Normally shipping and customs is 50% on top of the purchase price.

It’s the same all over. Shipping costs into the EU from the USA and elsewhere have shot up like they’ve had a Saturn 5 up their arse. Into the UK, not so much, so we’ve cut back on ordering online for a few weeks while the EU, whose top down, one size fits all model of sorting out tariffs settles down. All the while the EU are trying to ‘punish’ the UK for having the temerity to leave their club for bureaucrats, taking all its money and fish with it. Yet in all the EU’s flailing around they’re not just shooting themselves in the foot, they’re doing through knee amputations, which makes them a market I shifted my investments out of some time ago.

Fortunately for us expats in the Emerald Isle, the Euro is depressed at the moment, which makes my life a lot more profitable. The exchange rate is good, so I’m taking advantage of it.

End result; I just made a ‘killing’ on one tranche of shares (On paper anyway), which should start a second bounce when things start opening up, hopefully in June 2021, when dear reader, there will be a great cashing in and loud rejoicing in the Sticker household. Even if the big market bounce doesn’t happen then, we’re still quids in. As an active investor, I watch the markets carefully and did a fair bit of share buying in March / April 2020 when shares bottomed out due to these pointless lockdowns. Mrs S got a bit shirty with me for the purchase, but since she’s come around to my way of thinking, even if she did scorch my ears at the time.

Now I follow this guy on YouTube. He talks a lot of sense, even if I’m not financially in that league. Well not yet anyway.

It’s easy to demand that ‘the rich’ pay for everything as Andrew rightly points out, but what happens when governments run out of ‘rich’ people? As they will. Very quickly in fact. Who do they come after? Well, people like small business owners, or at least the ones they haven’t already forced into bankruptcy. Plumbers, Electricians, Builders, farmers, Amazon traders, shop owners, tradespeople in general and all the self-employed. They’ll be the ones taking the big tax hit. The magic money trees paying all that lovely ‘furlough’ money will exhaust the nutrients in the financial markets, and without putting extra roots into ordinary people’s reserves, will die. Which is what will happen. More taxes on those who aren’t able to move their money fast enough.

Ironically all you lockdown cheerleaders are in for such a financial pounding. Not so ‘the rich’ who can threaten to cut off the politicians money supply and lobby for tax breaks. They won’t be hurt at all.

The politicians can pass what laws they like. The ‘smart money’, as I have often said before, will have already gone where it’s most welcome and treated best, leaving a fading Cheshire cat smile where it had once been. And it won’t be their fault that all is left behind but a wasteland. The blame should be laid quite firmly on the doorstep of spendthrift politicians who wasted the public taxpayer dollar in the first place. Wasted it on giving free stuff to people so that they would vote for the politicians in question. Wasted it on boondoggles instead of infrastructure.

It’s not just me

According to some I’m a deluded fool with a room temperature IQ and ‘science denier’ (A term only used by the severely intellectually challenged) because I’m opposed to lockdowns and masks. Well that is a possibility. I will leave other people to judge.

However, Governor DeSantis, the man who opened Florida has a panel of Epidemiologists and experts who explain why lockdowns don’t and can’t work. How mathematical models have failed to predict outcomes. How people in power have ignored the data. Not just in the USA, but across the Anglosphere and ‘developed’ West.

Yes, the round table discussion is an hour and forty five long. However, the experts confirm my contention that the masks and lockdowns have been a waste of time and furthermore disastrous to human life and the economy in general. Because people are the economy. Restrict them and it all eventually goes to hell.

It’s societal suicide.

I repeat myself; anyone still supporting and enforcing these harmful measures has blood on their hands. Anyone who has ratted on a neighbour for having friends over for visits. Media cheerleaders. Nasty evil and ignorant people who are so overcome with fear that they have lost all reason.

Still not convinced lockdowns are bad public policy? Then you’re part of the problem.

Now I need tea to get the nasty taste out of my mouth.

Perception

I watched a livestream of the London anti-lockdown protest on Saturday, then I saw the media reports and had a serious WTF! moment. Had we watched the mainstream, only a few hundred malcontents were there. The reality, see below, is somewhat different.

All these people want is their pre-COVID civil rights back. The numbers of respiratory cases are falling in line with seasonal norms. So why are the politicians not listening? Why are they sticking their fingers in their ears going “LA-LA-LA CAN’T HEAR YOU!” Then passing laws effectively forbidding any form of protest. Yes Johnson, this means you.

The restrictions should have been lifted months ago. They serve no purpose. Health services, underfunded though they have been have struggled, but then again I’ve heard rumours of publicly employed health professionals subject to what are in effect gagging orders. Has anyone got any reasonable ideas why the lockdowns are still in place? Furthermore why there seem to be plans to keep them there.

St Paddy’s

Over here in the Emerald Isle it’s coming up to the one year anniversary of tiers and lockdowns. Notwithstanding; earlier today Mrs S and I were treated to a convoy of about fifty, yes fifty cars sporting the Irish tricolour and balloons honking madly as they drove up our lane, kids sitting in boats on trailers, standing on the dash as Dad’s drove, waving at everyone from out of sun roofs waving flags. Elf and safetee would have had a conniptive fit.

Despite noises in the media about increased Gardai presence to prevent anyone anywhere enjoying themselves, people found a way round. God alive, this is why I love this place.

A touch of Atlantic weather

Hail hammering on the windows first thing, followed by patches of squally rain, hail and now bright sunshine. Welcome to the wilder west of Ireland young Bill.

Had an interesting chat with ‘North’ over the phone yesterday. Apparently she had her first SARS/COV-2 vaccination last week. “How did it go? Which one did you have?” I asked.
“The AstraZeneca. The jab was fairly painless.” She replied. “Felt a bit sick afterwards though.”
“Really? What happened?” I probed.
“Started about four hours after I had my injection.” She said. “Began with a really bad headache so I went to bed.”
“Doesn’t sound very nice.” I replied.
“Then I felt nauseous and had muscle cramps and pains for the next two days and my arm ached for a week.”
“Highly unpleasant.” I commented guardedly. Somehow I’m glad I’m at the back of the queue for this particular vaccine.
“Yeah, they’re giving the AstraZeneca to younger people reserving the Pfizer for the over 70’s.”
“But you’re okay now?” I asked.
“A bit grumpy.”
“I can tell. Ready for the pubs re-opening?”
“Managed to book a table. Everywhere is booked solid.” I could hear her anticipatory smile.
“Take an umbrella. I know what London is like at that time of year.” I warned gently. “No sense in getting your drinks diluted by a seasonal shower.” She had the good grace to laugh at my pallid Dad humour, bless her little cotton socks.

Then we changed the subject to other things and rattled for another ten minutes about life in general before I passed her on to Mrs S. I didn’t ask ‘North’ about the Saturday vigil that got baton charged by the Met as she has more sense than to get involved in such things. Well, lot that she tells us about anyway. I’ll be happier when she finally gets out of the UK for an extended visit to us here in the wilder west. ‘South’ is sounding a bit desperate to get back to Europe and catch up with family. Which is understandable. We only get to see each other every other year as it is. So I keep sending them both little video’s of deserted Irish beaches and odd little corners of the Emerald Isle as we discover them. It seems to help. Us as much as them.

All the time the soft squalls rolled in from the Atlantic. The weather is a little restricting at present but finding that our two are doing moderately okay takes the edge off things. There’s a bout of fine weather coming in sometime next week, we hope. Ergo Mrs S and I will be taking visits out to the beaches as and when the sun is shining. Even if the wind is trying to blow our socks off.

Afterthought; Seems like the concerns over the AstraZeneca vaccine are spreading. Ireland has just suspended its use after Norway, Iceland and Denmark did over post jab fatalities and concerns about increased blood clotting.

Important Update: France, Italy, Germany and Spain have also suspended AstraZeneca. The Pfizer vaccine is also flagging up similar symptoms to the AstraZeneca. Stats for all vaccine side effects here.

Let it all blow

Mood post; The world is nuts, so I’m inclined to throw up my hands and say, “All the insanity sucks. So let it all blow.”

Laydees and gennelmen! Put your hands together for this one hit wonder from 1984.

The masks are insane, the continued lockdowns are insane, ‘hate speech’ laws are completely gaga, there’s a senile old fool in the White House (Well, more senile than usual) who can’t even be allowed to make his own statements to a docile press. No-one’s doing joined up thinking any more, so I say, let it all go to hell. We might as well have a party while the world burns.

As for the Welsh and scots, sorry guys, but you are so f*cked it’s not true.

Get your dancing shoes on.

Point and laugh

Back from sitting in my car at the beach with books. Am currently listening to the rain thunder on the roof, having returned to the news that, according to some people, ‘men’ should be confined to barracks after 6pm. To keep ‘women’ safe, apparently, from the small percentage of predatory males. Despite protestations by some doltish talking heads, that this was a ‘joke’. Having watched the statement in the UK House of Lords, all I can say is that the teller should work on their delivery and timing, because I don’t think the ‘comedian’ has much of a grasp of irony, sarcasm or satire. Or even has a sense of humour worth the candle.

In response, the law of unintended consequences has just peered around the door with a sly grin on it’s face. See videos below. Okay they’re American examples, but I think it doesn’t require a towering intellect to see how a ‘No men after 6pm’ can go seriously wrong.

How many things? The emergency services are predominantly staffed by men. As are most dirty, dangerous and unsocial hours jobs. Would they have to stay home? Do we let towns burn to the ground because only female firefighters, of whom there are relatively few, would be allowed to fight fires or rescue cats from trees after 6pm? Or fix a flat tyre, tow a stranded vehicle, clear a sewer or fix a downed power cable? If ‘men’ are to be corralled after 6pm, who will be on hand to clean up those messes? Or will power outages last longer because the male members of the crew can’t do anything out of office hours, and even then can’t travel far because they all have to be home before the 6pm curfew?

Then there’s the entertainments industry. Girls nights out without male strippers or bar staff? Indeed, why should young women bother to go out at all if they weren’t likely to find a member of the opposite sex to socialise with? Wouldn’t affect the minority who are lesbians of course, but what about heterosexual females? How would they find boyfriends and potential partners without the necessary frog kissing exercise that is dating? Can’t do that during working hours because any fraternising in the corporate sphere is highly regulated and often discouraged. I can recall a couple of jobs where my contract of employment strictly and explicitly forbade dating co-workers. So the small group of feminists complaining that no one will date them because they’re miserablists with all the charm of a squashed turd will have even more reason to complain. Because there will be no men out there to date. Well not after 6pm anyway.

Yet the Welsh ‘leader’ is taking such measures seriously, as is Siddiq Khan. They’re effing idiots who make things worse. Walking jokes.

The cognitive dissonance is deafening. It’s a kind of societal rape. The only defence, as comedian Robin Williams once said, is to “point and laugh.”

Hell road paved intentions good with to the is. This is an Ikea flat pack analogy, which will require some re-assembly.

Update: Is the world mad? As far as the English speaking nations are concerned, I think the answer is that too many of the political and media class are so wrapped up in their own agendas that they don’t realise how counter intuitive their actions ad speech are. So yes, they’re so busy trying to be all things to all men that they don’t see how crazy they appear. Unfortunately, describing a spade as a metal bladed digging implement is now probably construed as ‘hate speech’. Which is, as a concept clinically insane.

Before the censors get it

While I’m on a beach with my books, you lot might be interested in the following press release, before it gets buried. I’ve been told I won’t be getting a dose of the blessed vaccine because I’m not old enough, which suits me. I’ve shown willing by registering, now maybe the powers that be will leave me alone to read.

PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BREAKING NEWS: Doctors and Scientists Write to European Medicines Agency Warning of COVID-19 Vaccine Dangers

10th March 2021

A group of scientists and doctors has today issued an open letter calling on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to answer urgent safety questions regarding COVID-19 vaccines, or withdraw the vaccines’ authorisation.
The letter describes serious potential consequences of COVID-19 vaccine technology, warning of possible autoimmune reactions, blood clotting abnormalities, stroke and internal bleeding, “including in the brain, spinal cord and heart”. The authors request evidence that each medical danger outlined “was excluded in pre-clinical animal models with all three vaccines prior to their approval for use in humans by the EMA.”

“Should all such evidence not be available”, the authors write, “we demand that approval for use of the gene-based vaccines be withdrawn until all the above issues have been properly addressed by the exercise of due diligence by the EMA.”

The letter is addressed to Emer Cooke, Executive Director of the EMA, and was sent on Monday 1 March 2021. The letter was copied to the President of the Council of Europe and the President of the European Commission.
It states: “We are supportive in principle of the use of new medical interventions.” However, “there are serious concerns, including but not confined to those outlined above, that the approval of the COVID-19 vaccines by the EMA was premature and reckless, and that the administration of the vaccines constituted and still does constitute ‘human experimentation’, which was and still is in violation of the Nuremberg Code.”

Link to letter: https://doctors4covidethics.medium.co…
Video statement by Professor Sucharit Bhakdi, Professor Emeritus of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and Former Chair, Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene: https://lbry.tv/@Doctors4CovidEthics:…
For comment contact Professor Sucharit Bhakdi MD: sucharit.bhakdi@gmx.de, or Associate Professor Michael Palmer MD:mpalmer@uwaterloo.ca

In a public statement the group said…

“No sooner did we deliver our letter than the Norwegian Medicines Agency warned that COVID-19 vaccines may be too risky for use in the frail elderly, the very group these vaccines are designed to protect. We would add that, by virtue of the mechanisms of action of the vaccines, to stimulate the production of spike protein, which has adverse pathophysiological properties, there may also be vulnerable people who are not old and already ill. New data shows that vaccine side effects are three times as common in those who have previously been infected with coronavirus, for example. None of the vaccines have undergone clinical testing for more than a few months, which is simply too short for establishing safety and efficacy.

“Therefore, as a starting point, we believe it is important to enumerate and evaluate all deaths which have occurred within 28 days of vaccination, and to compare the clinical pictures with those who have not been vaccinated.
“More broadly, with respect to the development of COVID-19 vaccines, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has stated in their Resolution 2361, on 27th January 2021, that member states must ensure all COVID-19 vaccines are supported by high quality trials that are sound and conducted in an ethical manner. EMA officials, and other regulatory bodies in EU countries, are bound by these criteria. They should be made aware that they may be violating Resolution 2361 by applying medical products still in phase 3 studies.

“Under Resolution 2361, member states must also inform citizens that vaccination is NOT mandatory and ensure that no one is politically, socially, or otherwise pressured to become vaccinated. States are further required to ensure that no one is discriminated against for not receiving the vaccine.”
The letter comes as a petition against UK Government plans for vaccine passports passed 270,000 signatures, more than double that required to compel consideration for debate by MPs. The petition will be debated in the UK Parliament on 15th March 2021.

Hat tip to Anna Brees.

Update: If the above links don’t work: Try this one for Dr Bhakdi’s video statement.

RT.com is reporting that the EU drug regulator has concerns over post mRNA vaccination blood clotting.

Update 2: Denmark and Norway suspend AstraZeneca vaccinations.

Random amusement

With all the doom and gloom, virtue signalling etc out there, I have a suggestion to fix the world’s troubles.

Read a book. Go on, find something without pictures in it and read the words. One at a time if that is your reading level but do read one. While reading you will not care about Sparkly Megs specious accusations of “raaaaacism” and TV hosts having a hissy fit over it. Reading will immunise you from the ‘newer, deadlier, more lockdownier’ strain of the dreaded lurgi. Reading is cheap, better for you than telly, the radio or interwebs.

It is also very hard to riot while reading a book. So law and order gets a boost.

Has to be a proper book mind, not one of those e-Readers. Only the real papery thing will do. You will feel better for spending some quality time with your nose in a real book. Reading will make you a better person. Trust me, I’m not an ‘expert’.

That’s where I am at the moment. On a windy Irish beach, with a book. Back in a while.

Going through the motions

At present there’s not much happening. Mrs S and I have been sloping off to the beach every day when the sun shines, taking the back roads to avoid the mercifully rare Gardai checkpoints. We’re not stopping and talking to people at length, so we’re hardly likely to catch anything or pass it on. There’s supposed to be a video, but for some reason it’s still being ‘processed’. At least on Bitchute, so here’s the Rumble version.

The only problem we have is having to wait another month before the restrictions are supposed to be lifted. (Yeah, right) That and the seasonal spraying of manure to improve the grazing on the meadow overlooking our little domicile. Boy, doesn’t that just clear the old sinuses. I’m told there’s some rain forecast, sometime. Can’t come soon enough.

In the meantime I’ve been spending some time reading up on the factors that drove some of my ancestors out of Ireland in 1843.

There’s a body of opinion that solely blames ‘the English’ for all Ireland’s problems during those times. Yet the facts, as presented, tell a more nuanced story of the great outflow of Irish people that happened in the 1840’s, of which my ancestors were a part.

One of the points that sticks in my mind from the video is the disparity between the rents paid, and what those nasty bloated plutocrats of English landlords received. Say a rent was forty shillings a year, the land owner only got three. So that’s thirty seven shillings going to the land agents and other middlemen. The system had become financially over balanced. So much so that when the hard times hit, the poor buggers at the bottom of the pile had nothing left, and the top people had no reserves, while the middlemen were sitting pretty, trousering the greater percentage of the rents.

The great potato famine wasn’t the only one to hit the Emerald Isle, but it was as they say, the last straw, the final blow. It was a real tipping point, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands from disease and starvation.

Now this is just an observation on my part, but I have the distinct impression that you poor buggers across the Irish sea are headed for a similar crisis as the EU steps up it’s trade war, and your own government has deemed it illegal for you to leave. Hard times are a-comin’ folks, and if you think Bojo the moron’s half-baked draconian regulations will keep you ‘safe’, think again. The pandemic has been over since last May and they’re still going to keep you locked down until September. At least.

You think not? Then why has ‘furlough (a.k.a. unemployment payment) been extended to September 2021 and people forbidden to leave on holiday? Answer me that. All the time illegal, and possibly infectious, immigrants are being let in on the grounds that they will form a pool of cheap labour and keep demand for pay rises low.

I mean, our current crop of Irish politicians aren’t much to write home about, but at least the Gard don’t come round kicking in your door because you’ve had more than the regulation number of friends round for drinks. There aren’t enough Gardai for starters. Besides, we still have policing by consent over here in the civilised wilder west of Ireland.

No I’m not gloating, just amazed that no-one in the UK is currently rioting, chucking rocks at Tory Ministers or the Stasi currently masquerading as the UK’s Police Service. Like the Danes are, like the Dutch are. And the French. And the Germans and Italians.

At least nothing is flagging up in my news feeds. If anyone has any primary sources, I think we’d all like a heads up.

The Daffs are out

First spring lambs spotted on the hill overlooking our house this morning. New born twins. We’d talked to Colum when he came to collect the rent money on Sunday, and he reckoned that lambing wasn’t due to start for two to three weeks. The sheep it seems, have other ideas.

The Gardai are all busy chasing teenagers for chucking fireworks at them in Dublin, so any rational person will take advantage of such a situation and grab a break at the seaside, negotiating a maze of back roads to do so. I am a rational person, so I took us out for a sunny day at a very nice beach. Which was good for our sanity. Saw one speed trap on the main drag before we made the turn for home. That was it.

Overall we’re all good. The sun is shining, the daffodils are coming into bloom, we’re currently having what I call a ‘false spring’ which is one of those interludes between patches of wintry weather. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it does help us cope with the news that these stupid, pointless and ineffective lockdowns are likely to continue into June. Yeah, right.

Anyway, Mrs S and I are okay. We have a sunny spot in the garden to take tea while farm work goes on all around. Colum’s dog barking at the Shetland Pony Colum bought recently to keep one of his thoroughbreds company. The pony wasn’t too happy at having an uppity dog think he was an over sized sheep and complained loudly. Colum’s sons chainsawing more wood while I restacked our own log store Canadian style. While things are quiet, the chores have to be done. We just get on with things, ignore all the panic mongering, although I did notice that the radio has switched from all doom, gloom and saccharine ‘stay safe’ propaganda to more hopeful stuff about some businesses that have not gone bankrupt in the last year being ‘allowed’ to re-open.

Unfortunately I’m not so hopeful. These lockdowns aren’t going to end until those deluded souls who support them get a sanity reboot. Not holding my breath for that to happen. Things have become too polarised. Everything is partisan political, and if you aren’t in lockstep, you are the bad guy. The politicians are talking about ‘wealth taxes’, which is just another way of passing the bill for their screw-ups onto John Q Taxpayer. No doubt the well connected will pay no more than the bare minimum while those of us who can only afford to buy one house get asset stripped.

So we’re all still at the mercy of this big government-created crisis as the economy implodes and everybody’s assets are bought up on the cheap by those crony capitalists who can afford clever lobbyists. A case in point being all those wealthy climate change promoters who buy large beachfront properties. Pardon me for noticing, but aren’t these expensive waterfront places supposed to be drowning in the next year or two? Like they were back when the ‘global warming’ bullshit first started in the late 80’s?

One item of note being the wholesale purchase of agricultural lands by some very wealthy people. Almost like they want to corner the food supply, isn’t it? Yet these are the very people who support ideas like the rest of us having to chow down on reconstituted Cockroach. These latter day Henry Ford’s seem to think because they have made a lot of money that makes them fit to tell everyone else how to live. I contend that the Davos Party or World Economic Foundation and suchlike are not fit to govern anybody because these organisations are made up of compulsive meddlers who are philosophically incapable of understanding the multiplicity of subtleties the average human individual is home to, like Ford was.

These techno-geeks think we’re all herd animals to be managed and culled on demand. We’re not, humans are a co-operative tribal apex predator. The sooner the WEF gets that memo and stops interfering, the happier everyone, including them, will be.