And this latest missive from you is precisely why I follow you. You articulate so clearly the issues of the day, with beautifully formed language. You really are a pleasure to read.
It almost wouldn't be quite so bad if it wasn't for the fact that, in my opinion, all of the terrible decisions made by the over-inflated space hopper - that have lead to horrendous consequences - appear to be attempts to distract from the Epstein Files.
Thanks for sharing, Bear. You have, as usual, elegantly expressed my own thinking and feeling. The forces of Evil Chaos seem to be rolling the dice particularly ineptly at the moment.
Your words chime here. Reading the paper on line...
Watching an evening news broadcast...daily routine - abandoned this week. Just can't take it after that trump objective - deleting a whole country's civilisation. One with an ancient and such an important cultural history. Overlook the politics for now - we're dealing with trump-ism, unthinkable. Our hearts go out to the thinking Americans;the thinking Persians; the Palestinians+Lebanese.
How do we stop the madness + imprison those responsible -while they foot the bill for the rebuilding
Thank you Bear...there must be so many of us - powerless and looking on between our fingers
I hope you get better soon. In the UK we have an unwritten constitution, qualified from time to time, but the USA has both a written and unwritten constitution. One creates government of the people, by the people, for the people but the other is the one about to be celebrated. Government of the people by the wealth creators for their biglyest donors. We really shouldn't be sending our king to celebrate that. So many democracies have followed the American unwritten constitution except those that control political donations to avoid patent corruption. Bear, don't give up.
‘You don’t get to be both the aggressor and the victim’
This statement, true as it is, will create cognitive dissonance in any survivor of misogyny or sexualised violence. Aggressir as Victim is our social protocol. Conventionally socially enforced approved the perpetrator is a wealthy celebrity or international political VIP aka as a Winner not a Loser. Elect an adjudicated rapist and alleged longtime vicious sexual predator of kids to high office in the most militarily and financially powerful nation state in the world, can we really be surprised if he begins to rape everyone in sight and beyond whilst playing the Victim ? If the cap fits…Whilst Putin, Netanyahu and Trump all of them Alpha predators are playing out their very own personal cagefight of competitive global power abuse.
Spot on as usual. I think there must have been millions wondering if they went to bed, one night last week, whether they would wake up the following morning. I'm so pleased your new job is working out well and that it's more rewarding for you. Take care and as my nan used to say, don't let the bastards grind you down.
Don't blame you a bit for feeling as you did, Bear. It's almost impossible to believe the world is as it is just at this moment. So happy you love your new job and happy you're back.
I think it's actually worse because not only is the tango waste-of-space just trying to distract from his track record of child abuse, but also his Israeli partner in crime is trying to delay a court case that will land him in jail too.
Apparently Netanyahu can't be given a fair trial because he can't defend himself without giving away state secrets, and he can't do that during a war.
So he's got a bit of skin in the game when it comes to breaking ceasefires.
What can we do?
Hope like hell for a good outcome in Hungary, for one. Fingers firmly crossed.
Because although Orban has put in place a load of laws that will stop him getting immediately trashed if he loses, his replacement (who has his faults) will probably not be quite as much Putin's puppet, and he will (hopefully) start to cut off the funding routes that have allowed Russians to fund the far right across Europe & the UK.
And at least we can have a quiet chuckle because when Trump sent Orban his very best via his representative on Earth, Orban's poll ratings dropped even further.
I was scrolling through my emails, trying to register how many zooms (that I’d signed up for) I had missed -because my brain is in such a fog- and this jumped out at me. You articulated how I’ve been feeling for a year- and it’s getting worse.
I used to write fairly regularly for different Bylines, but I haven’t been able to write for a year. I am in such a pit of despair at the state of the world, the state Brexit and the Tories left our country in - and the rest.
Every day when I go out walking, I’m enthused about some new topic I feel motivated to write about; but then I return home and the despair has returned.
I’ve also noticed, when I go out walking with the dog and stop to chat to people, how deeply depressed people are under their veneer of coping.
Therapists must be raking the work in at the moment; except that people are so stretched with the cost of living, that they probably can’t afford a therapist.
The only time I’ve felt any positive feeling in the last six months was at the “Together March” on 28th March. That was uplifting - and everyone there knew they were surrounded
by likeminded people, which was powerful and wonderful at the same time.
If Orban isn’t defeated today, I’m not sure what I’ll do.
Can I add a bit of optimism? I understand your despair about the current situation but I'd like to provide a bit of context. It's still within living memory (just about) a time when our continent (I think you are UK-based?) was completely flattened, the place was devastated, millions of people had been killed, millions had been maimed and millions had been displaced. We got through that.
Thank you Claudia - I appreciate your message. I know what you’ve said is true and I’ll try and hang onto that. The problem is that despair is now the new normal - and I need to break out of that cycle …
And there’s Steve (also known as the Great Shenanigator!) @In Otter News
And then there are lots of people, especially here on Substack to chat to. Sometimes it’s about worthy things, sometimes it’s just a bit of fun - I really appreciate the community here. I’ve even made some friends!
One other thought - re the situation in 1945: That’s the last date on the cenotaph plaques in the cemetery back home. In the few centuries preceding there were European wars roughly every 25/40 years or so. It makes me a huge fan of the EU, which has been crucial to us ‘missing’ two if not three cycles of war. Two or three generations of young lads from the village have not been required to don a uniform and march to a battlefield somewhere …. Yes, three shirt summits in sticky conference rooms in Brussels are tedious but they are a much better way to sort out any of our disputes!
First of all, apologies, my first response went haywire just as I tried to post a pic of Hugo. Hopefully I’ve now managed to send it correctly.
Just saying that I really like the community here on Substack. Yes, you get the occasional twat, but generally people are friendly, they write interesting comments, the post funny pictures and sometimes they just offer a hug. It’s great, I like it!
I like the community here too - and we can write more, because sometimes it’s frustrating to have to watch the word count on Blue Sky - although I am a massive fan of Blue Sky
I’ve been thinking about your post and there is one other thought, I’d like to add. I’ve written that I like the community here and one aspect is that I come across people who are working really hard to create (political) change. One such person is @Jess Piper - I’m in awe of her what she is achieving in deep red, rural Missouri.
I’ve got no idea of how the algorithm worked so that I came across her and her posts. Recently she wrote that in her area they managed to achieve that 98% or thereabouts of all upcoming elections will be contested. This is a real achievement and a lot of it was down to her!
All wars are bankers' wars, so they say, and we might remind ourselves Iran runs the world's largest interest-free banking system. It's not hard to imagine the thought of that idea catching on causing palpitations in the powerful Western banking community &, indeed, the UK's ever so precious Establishment in general, hence the general perception of Islamophobia on their part. Just sayin'...
I am an avid news watcher. Well, I was. Every darned programme has his face or his voice and my brain just cannot take any more. I absolutely understand your shut down. What I will never understand is why/ how he is allowed to cause so much death and destruction one day, and host a $1m plate dinner the next.
Although the insanity of Trump's threat is in no way to be under rated I rest firm in the belief that he would never nuke Iran. Not because he on any level comprehends how intrinsically wrong that would be. Hell no. Not because millions of innocents would die, many of them slowly in unimaginable pain that morphia couldn't reach. He couldn't care less.
The stopper is all that oil under Iranian sand. It would be rendered completely without value if it was radioactive.
Trump always follows the money. He's not even all that interested in the presidency outside of the insanely good opportunities it has given him to increase his personal wealth. Something he wasn't very good at it must be said until he landed a gig in which he got immunity from pesky little details like the law.
If anyone in the current debacle of international politics is likely to push the red nuclear button my money is on Israel but can even they be crazy enough to do that?
On a single bright note there is a distinct possibility that Hungary's Orban might be gone by next week.
The evil that man has brought to the international table is largely underestimated.
Anyone witnessing the state of the world has reached breaking point by now, Bear. No wonder you had to take a break for your own sanity.
At this point the only event that could marginally improve things is Trump passing away unexpectedly. And that may be too litte, too late to reverse the damage he’s caused.
Anyway, the Epstein files must definitely contain some nuclear bomb level information when it’s taken a full-fledged war against Iran to divert people’s attention from them. Luckily Melania reminded everyone about them even when that wasn’t probably her intention...
Thanks Bear, I kind of suspected the radio silence was a brain f off moment.
My brain read Trumpetta's post and simply want WTF, dont want to know anymore.
Tuesday night there was a brief moment where it wondered if there would be much left in the morning, then packed in again.
This shitshow is like being back in the 80's cold war tit for tat rubish. Never knowing what state the world would be in the next day.
So I focused on things I could do something about, my job, which I hate, but pays the bills and is needed purely to meet the MIR for my wife's visa.
The accounts for my wife and my business, so for the first time in 5 years I am actually ahead of the year end accounts.
Fimally sorting out the roof bars for car (read, buying and fitting the things), so we can slap a Tentbox on it and spend weekends buggering off around the country.
it was salutary, going to bed and wondering if there would be a world to wake up to...
Scary times
Consider it a practice run...
And this latest missive from you is precisely why I follow you. You articulate so clearly the issues of the day, with beautifully formed language. You really are a pleasure to read.
Absolutely!
It almost wouldn't be quite so bad if it wasn't for the fact that, in my opinion, all of the terrible decisions made by the over-inflated space hopper - that have lead to horrendous consequences - appear to be attempts to distract from the Epstein Files.
Now there's a thought - unthinkable -but that was the start...
Thanks for sharing, Bear. You have, as usual, elegantly expressed my own thinking and feeling. The forces of Evil Chaos seem to be rolling the dice particularly ineptly at the moment.
Your words chime here. Reading the paper on line...
Watching an evening news broadcast...daily routine - abandoned this week. Just can't take it after that trump objective - deleting a whole country's civilisation. One with an ancient and such an important cultural history. Overlook the politics for now - we're dealing with trump-ism, unthinkable. Our hearts go out to the thinking Americans;the thinking Persians; the Palestinians+Lebanese.
How do we stop the madness + imprison those responsible -while they foot the bill for the rebuilding
Thank you Bear...there must be so many of us - powerless and looking on between our fingers
I hope you get better soon. In the UK we have an unwritten constitution, qualified from time to time, but the USA has both a written and unwritten constitution. One creates government of the people, by the people, for the people but the other is the one about to be celebrated. Government of the people by the wealth creators for their biglyest donors. We really shouldn't be sending our king to celebrate that. So many democracies have followed the American unwritten constitution except those that control political donations to avoid patent corruption. Bear, don't give up.
‘You don’t get to be both the aggressor and the victim’
This statement, true as it is, will create cognitive dissonance in any survivor of misogyny or sexualised violence. Aggressir as Victim is our social protocol. Conventionally socially enforced approved the perpetrator is a wealthy celebrity or international political VIP aka as a Winner not a Loser. Elect an adjudicated rapist and alleged longtime vicious sexual predator of kids to high office in the most militarily and financially powerful nation state in the world, can we really be surprised if he begins to rape everyone in sight and beyond whilst playing the Victim ? If the cap fits…Whilst Putin, Netanyahu and Trump all of them Alpha predators are playing out their very own personal cagefight of competitive global power abuse.
Spot on as usual. I think there must have been millions wondering if they went to bed, one night last week, whether they would wake up the following morning. I'm so pleased your new job is working out well and that it's more rewarding for you. Take care and as my nan used to say, don't let the bastards grind you down.
Don't blame you a bit for feeling as you did, Bear. It's almost impossible to believe the world is as it is just at this moment. So happy you love your new job and happy you're back.
I'm absolutely with you on needing a break.
I think it's actually worse because not only is the tango waste-of-space just trying to distract from his track record of child abuse, but also his Israeli partner in crime is trying to delay a court case that will land him in jail too.
Apparently Netanyahu can't be given a fair trial because he can't defend himself without giving away state secrets, and he can't do that during a war.
So he's got a bit of skin in the game when it comes to breaking ceasefires.
What can we do?
Hope like hell for a good outcome in Hungary, for one. Fingers firmly crossed.
Because although Orban has put in place a load of laws that will stop him getting immediately trashed if he loses, his replacement (who has his faults) will probably not be quite as much Putin's puppet, and he will (hopefully) start to cut off the funding routes that have allowed Russians to fund the far right across Europe & the UK.
And at least we can have a quiet chuckle because when Trump sent Orban his very best via his representative on Earth, Orban's poll ratings dropped even further.
I was scrolling through my emails, trying to register how many zooms (that I’d signed up for) I had missed -because my brain is in such a fog- and this jumped out at me. You articulated how I’ve been feeling for a year- and it’s getting worse.
I used to write fairly regularly for different Bylines, but I haven’t been able to write for a year. I am in such a pit of despair at the state of the world, the state Brexit and the Tories left our country in - and the rest.
Every day when I go out walking, I’m enthused about some new topic I feel motivated to write about; but then I return home and the despair has returned.
I’ve also noticed, when I go out walking with the dog and stop to chat to people, how deeply depressed people are under their veneer of coping.
Therapists must be raking the work in at the moment; except that people are so stretched with the cost of living, that they probably can’t afford a therapist.
The only time I’ve felt any positive feeling in the last six months was at the “Together March” on 28th March. That was uplifting - and everyone there knew they were surrounded
by likeminded people, which was powerful and wonderful at the same time.
If Orban isn’t defeated today, I’m not sure what I’ll do.
Can I add a bit of optimism? I understand your despair about the current situation but I'd like to provide a bit of context. It's still within living memory (just about) a time when our continent (I think you are UK-based?) was completely flattened, the place was devastated, millions of people had been killed, millions had been maimed and millions had been displaced. We got through that.
We will get through this as well!
Thank you Claudia - I appreciate your message. I know what you’ve said is true and I’ll try and hang onto that. The problem is that despair is now the new normal - and I need to break out of that cycle …
Yes, I’m in the U.K. on the South coast.
( Are you in the UK?)
This is a pic of Hugo , @Canada Resists .
And there’s Steve (also known as the Great Shenanigator!) @In Otter News
And then there are lots of people, especially here on Substack to chat to. Sometimes it’s about worthy things, sometimes it’s just a bit of fun - I really appreciate the community here. I’ve even made some friends!
Same goes re the atmosphere here...more comforting and responses in more depth...
Can I introduce you to a few things, which help me when I’m feeling too much despair? Let’s start with Hugo
One other thought - re the situation in 1945: That’s the last date on the cenotaph plaques in the cemetery back home. In the few centuries preceding there were European wars roughly every 25/40 years or so. It makes me a huge fan of the EU, which has been crucial to us ‘missing’ two if not three cycles of war. Two or three generations of young lads from the village have not been required to don a uniform and march to a battlefield somewhere …. Yes, three shirt summits in sticky conference rooms in Brussels are tedious but they are a much better way to sort out any of our disputes!
First of all, apologies, my first response went haywire just as I tried to post a pic of Hugo. Hopefully I’ve now managed to send it correctly.
Just saying that I really like the community here on Substack. Yes, you get the occasional twat, but generally people are friendly, they write interesting comments, the post funny pictures and sometimes they just offer a hug. It’s great, I like it!
(I’m in Scotland.)
No problem Claudia!
We love ❤️ Scotland)
I like the community here too - and we can write more, because sometimes it’s frustrating to have to watch the word count on Blue Sky - although I am a massive fan of Blue Sky
Thank you Claudia
I will follow those people!
❤️
True enough
Of course!
I’ve been thinking about your post and there is one other thought, I’d like to add. I’ve written that I like the community here and one aspect is that I come across people who are working really hard to create (political) change. One such person is @Jess Piper - I’m in awe of her what she is achieving in deep red, rural Missouri.
I’ve got no idea of how the algorithm worked so that I came across her and her posts. Recently she wrote that in her area they managed to achieve that 98% or thereabouts of all upcoming elections will be contested. This is a real achievement and a lot of it was down to her!
The same was true of the atmosphere at the huge Remain/2nd referendum marches. Fellow feeling was so comforting
All wars are bankers' wars, so they say, and we might remind ourselves Iran runs the world's largest interest-free banking system. It's not hard to imagine the thought of that idea catching on causing palpitations in the powerful Western banking community &, indeed, the UK's ever so precious Establishment in general, hence the general perception of Islamophobia on their part. Just sayin'...
I am an avid news watcher. Well, I was. Every darned programme has his face or his voice and my brain just cannot take any more. I absolutely understand your shut down. What I will never understand is why/ how he is allowed to cause so much death and destruction one day, and host a $1m plate dinner the next.
Although the insanity of Trump's threat is in no way to be under rated I rest firm in the belief that he would never nuke Iran. Not because he on any level comprehends how intrinsically wrong that would be. Hell no. Not because millions of innocents would die, many of them slowly in unimaginable pain that morphia couldn't reach. He couldn't care less.
The stopper is all that oil under Iranian sand. It would be rendered completely without value if it was radioactive.
Trump always follows the money. He's not even all that interested in the presidency outside of the insanely good opportunities it has given him to increase his personal wealth. Something he wasn't very good at it must be said until he landed a gig in which he got immunity from pesky little details like the law.
If anyone in the current debacle of international politics is likely to push the red nuclear button my money is on Israel but can even they be crazy enough to do that?
On a single bright note there is a distinct possibility that Hungary's Orban might be gone by next week.
The evil that man has brought to the international table is largely underestimated.
Thank you for that possibility of a bright note
Anyone witnessing the state of the world has reached breaking point by now, Bear. No wonder you had to take a break for your own sanity.
At this point the only event that could marginally improve things is Trump passing away unexpectedly. And that may be too litte, too late to reverse the damage he’s caused.
Anyway, the Epstein files must definitely contain some nuclear bomb level information when it’s taken a full-fledged war against Iran to divert people’s attention from them. Luckily Melania reminded everyone about them even when that wasn’t probably her intention...
Thanks Bear, I kind of suspected the radio silence was a brain f off moment.
My brain read Trumpetta's post and simply want WTF, dont want to know anymore.
Tuesday night there was a brief moment where it wondered if there would be much left in the morning, then packed in again.
This shitshow is like being back in the 80's cold war tit for tat rubish. Never knowing what state the world would be in the next day.
So I focused on things I could do something about, my job, which I hate, but pays the bills and is needed purely to meet the MIR for my wife's visa.
The accounts for my wife and my business, so for the first time in 5 years I am actually ahead of the year end accounts.
Fimally sorting out the roof bars for car (read, buying and fitting the things), so we can slap a Tentbox on it and spend weekends buggering off around the country.
Take care Bear.