WHAT DISPLACEMENT ACTIVITY ?

There are difficulties with remaining upbeat in the light of the rising infection rates. Displacement activity is being stretched to the limit. I find myself wandering through previous entries, two of which were written seven years ago. One on 12^th December 2013 was a simple reprinting of the Journalists Code of Ethics. It is at:

https://fbuffnstuff.blogspot.com/2013/12/journalism-and-ethics.html

Loujain al-Hathloul

Zhang Zhan

Its main headings are Seek Truth and Report It, Minimise Harm, Act Independently and Be Accountable. It would not hurt if some journalists and editors had another look at the fine print, nor would it hurt some governments and their departments of justice to have a look at the terms and conditions of safeguarding a single individual’s human rights and promoting freedom of speech. There is too much going on under the cloud of the pandemic that may pass by unnoticed. Some of it is reported, but only on the back page so to speak, after columns on the pandemic and its variants. This is quite natural, but one must not loose sight or sound of the back page. Women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul (sentenced to 6 years imprisonment) and journalist Zhang Zhan (sentenced to four years imprisonment) should not be forgotten, despite Saudi Arabia and China signing a $265m deal to fight coronavirus.

On another tack I came across a paragraph from the 3^rd October 2013 relating to the possibility of pursuing a higher degree in performance writing:

“I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in, would be appropriate in the circumstances. At the outset one feels a certain assurance that one is on a track little travelled by. The concept of innovation strolling around the brain, synapses happily engaged in thought, is a pleasant sensation; however, the feeling is soon engulfed by the plethora of ideas and references contained in the first text one picks up, and the pleasant feeling subsides from the realisation that the strolling concept of innovation reveals a cavernous dearth of knowledge and ideas about the brain. The synapses cease to tingle, the neurons hover and the transmitting pulses subside.”

The gaps in one’s knowledge are crevices that become crevasses which appear to have no bottom. The shock of it gives one pause. As a result, one indulges in a variety of displacement activities, the idea of which is to bring one comfort, and, by returning to one’s comfort zone, one will regain composure and begin again to tingle the synapses. Of course the length of time it takes to recover one’s composure varies from person to person. So setting up a zoom call, or pouring over an on line order from the supermarket, choosing the next Netflix or Prime movie, what book to read – or not- can exercise the mind for any length of time; particularly when the activity is in the cause of humanity by not going out and catching or spreading the virus. It is one’s patriotic duty after all.

 

I am also well aware that my plight is very much a middle-class dilemma. There are numbers of people who are worried about far more important problems in their lives than whether or not what they do to have some comfort comes under the heading of displacement activity. For this, I profusely apologise. Let us hope there will be some comfort for all in the new year.

WHO ARE THE CONVERTED ?

A suggestion has been made that the blog is merely preaching to the converted and, as people tend to watch the news every day, I am just reiterating what people already know. In particular as it affects the United States. It is certainly the case that there are a number of broadcasters on various channels across the United States, with much larger platforms than Blogger.com.

On CNN alone, we have Brianna Keilar, Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, Wolf Blitzer, Jim Acosta; on the comedic side, the talk shows. On CBS there is The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and on NBC The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon; on radio there are phone in shows, the Thom Hartmann program and Alan Watts on KPFK in Los Angeles.

As against that, we have Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager and the man fired by Fox News for sexual harassment Bill O’Reilly (still broadcasting). They are all plugging away at various theories as to how the democrats stole the election. They are all listened to by a great number of Americans who believe the trash they spew out, and they are all very wealthy because of those numbers of listeners. There are many more divisive pundits who claim that they and their followers are the true American patriots and defenders of the Constitution. There is of course, Fox News, long-time supporters of Donald Trump’s presidency, and six-year-old rising star Newsmax TV, broadcasting nationwide with “Real News for Real People and Better Talk”.

In short, there are many outlets on cable, radio and the web that clearly have much larger audiences and more highly paid pundits than fbuffnstuff.blogspot.com. So please forgive my rants and obsessions. I did put out a video on You Tube on the 12^th October addressed “To Donald Trump Supporters” asking them to carefully consider what they were voting for. To date it has had only 61 views. So clearly not seen by many and, more than likely, not seen by any Donald Trump supporters.

Also, I do not know anyone who is a supporter of Donald Trump and certainly none of the people I bother with my blog holds a view (so far as I can tell) that would conflict seriously with any appraisal I might express in the blog. So, in effect preaching to the converted is about all I can do.

I am surprised to find on the statistics relating to the blog that there have been 609 entries to date from the very first one on the 29^th January 2011. There were no entries at all in 2014 and 2019, and between 2015 and 2018 there were only 25. Since the 12^th November 2020 there have been 23 entries.  Surprisingly, given the lack of posts in the last 7 years, there have been 183,817 views of the various entries over the last 9 years. Assuming the viewers have also read the pieces, the audience is as follows:

United States 74.8K; Russia. 31.8K; Ukraine. 11.8K; United Kingdom. 11.3K; France. 8.42K; Germany 8.06K; Turkmenistan. 3.38K; Poland 2.04K; Canada 1.95K; India 1.13K; Unknown Region 754; United Arab Emirates 626; Brazil 564; China 515; Spain 497; Turkey 378; Netherlands 373; Ireland 356; Mauritius 300; Other 24.8K.

In the last 30 days however, there have been 3440 views, 2720 of which have been in Russia and only 160 in the United States. So, 90 Russians a day have a glance, whereas only 5 Americans do. I can only assume my comments are of more interest in Eastern Europe than in the West. I do not know why that is, and since I have expressed an aversion to what is going on in Eastern Europe, I am even more puzzled. Perhaps my real audience awaits:

 

WHAT FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT ?

Chaos at Dover – what a surprise. Drivers have been told that they require a negative covid test to be allowed to travel to France. The drivers at the front of the queue to Dover port have been told to drive back to Marston, some 26 miles away to get the test. They are told  "It’s not us. It’s the French.” Why would someone, whose been waiting three days, get out of the queue to go 26 miles away to get a test and then wait possibly another three days to get back through the 26 miles of traffic? What is wrong with taking the test to the front of the queue and start testing the drivers from the front of the queue and work back. If the test results take 30 mins, after the first 30 minutes, the queue can start moving, and anyone who tests positive can be taken out of the queue. That would seem to satisfy any problem of equitable treatment.

Why have a row with drivers when the tests can be performed onsite? Surely it is easier to set us a testing site at the entrance to the port than to organise turning back heavy vehicles and causing traffic jams in two directions. What is the thinking behind this?

“They told her they will not start allowing vehicles through until "protesters" - several dozen drivers - move from the roundabout at the entrance. But the drivers have said they will not move as they do not want to go to the back of the queue and cannot move as the road is blocked in both directions. “

Why are the authorities making things so difficult?  Test people at the front and get on with it. A senseless confrontation initiated by officials lacking basic common sense. Get a grip. On top of which this is not something that hasn't happened before, as this news item from July 2016 can testify.

It is enough to make one weep at the stupidity of the ‘job’s worth’ mentality of some British functionaries. This attitude is not strictly British, and one has encountered it in other countries, but somehow, in a country where the judicial concept of Equity began in the 13^th Century, expanded in the 16^th century and refined in the 19 century, the principles of fairness would be second nature; but no, that is clearly not the case here.

Now I may be wrong about the situation in Dover, indeed I may have got the wrong end of the stick, and, if so, I profusely apologise to the officials attempting to regularise the situation at ports of exit round the country. The logistics of testing and traffic control in an already chaotic situation must be overwhelming. Perhaps my suggesting there may be a simple solution is being naïve.

Whatever happens from here on, in respect of travel abroad, will change dramatically. We will most definitely have to arrive at what ever port of exit at least 2 if not 3 hours before the booked travel time. The same will apply to Eurostar travel from St Pancras, making what could be a quick three to three and a half hour journey (door to door from Lambeth to Paris 9eme) into a six hour marathon, and it will cost more. What is the use of high-speed trains when they are slowed down by red tape?

I rant on because, if nothing else, the restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by the corona virus within our own borders, are a foretaste of the restrictions on our freedom of movement beyond our borders. Under the guise of taking back control, the British public have given up a degree of freedom they may never regain.

STAMP YOUR FEET AND STAY UPBEAT

Celia says I should not be so depressing, and the blogs should be more upbeat, but keeping up with events has been somewhat of a problem. The covid 19 virus is seemingly more difficult to check despite the rolling out of various vaccines. It rampages round the country oblivious to the hope of its imminent eradication. Its mutations have caused great confusion. On the one hand, in the light of vaccines being deployed, a sense of optimism and relief caused the powers that be, to call for moderate relaxations of interaction between peoples with an expectation that normal commerce was on the horizon. On the other hand, it is clear that the powers that be spoke too soon and are now back peddling like fury to rationalise their over optimistic view, despite the knowledge they had of the mutation spiralling out of control and the need for restraint till a much greater number of vaccinations have been administered.

Thus, confusion reigned and frustrations set in.  At his current press conferences, the Prime Minister ducks and dives away from questions about his responsibility for having created the confusion in the first place. But that is typical Boris. “No need to answer that, let’s move on -next!”.

 

Rolling in on top of his discomfort, the reaction to the mutation in the UK by the rest of the world, in closing off their borders, has shown up what isolation and taking back control has wrought. The Transport Secretary boasted, that the numbers of lorries stuck in motorway traffic had been reduced from 500 plus to 170 thanks to the preparations made in anticipation of Brexit, thus showing how well prepared the UK was in dealing with traffic heading for the ports and the tunnel. Ample provision had been put in place to deal with any increase in a pile up of traffic at newly created parking sites. In fact, the number of lorries creating a bottleneck has increased to over 1500. So much for preparation. The Prime Minister boasts of his friendly conversations with ‘Emanuel’ (whose birthday it was, apparently) which will of course resolve the situation in a trice. Still the headline reads “1500 lorries stuck in Kent as UK talks to France” and “Lorry numbers stranded at border continue to rise”. 

I am not suggesting that had the Government reacted to the evidence of the virus mutations, when they were informed about it in September, that the situation at the borders would be any different, but judicious and more effective thinking might have created a different scenario than the one we now have. In any event, on the learning curve of the realization that the referendum was a colossal mistake, this is a very salutary lesson.

 

It is about time that governments realised just how interconnected the world actually is. If the world wide web is any sort of lesson, it is time to wake up. No country can take back control. The world economy and the world climate are a global problem that is clearly out of the control of any single sovereign state. The best and brightest in all countries need to interact to find cooperative solutions. 

 

The solution to the current pandemic, it would seem, is to roll out a program of vaccinating the entire world population. Otherwise, coronavirus will not be eradicated. It is clearly too virulent to be ignored. People can and have been infected more that once. Let's just get on with it.

 

Nonetheless, be that as it may, it should not deter anyone from having as nice an end of year sequence of celebrations as one can have. So here a couple of dittys to cheer you up. They both involve cultures with stamping feet and hand clapping. Very upbeat.

DOES EDUCATION MATTER

The determination of the Electoral College vote, culminating in the acceptance by some senior Republicans of the result, may bring the election pantomime to a close; however, the ongoing saga of the future of American Democracy and the deep divisions within the United States are still cause for concern. The ‘Stop the Steal” crowd has not ceased to squawk, which leads me to question the matter of having an education.

 

I am confused by what I find about some of the chief wailers. What I find astonishing is the information that Rudy Giuliani made the NYU Law Review and graduated cum laude with a Juris Doctor degree in 1968. At that time he supported Robert Kennedy and voted for George McGovern. Sometime, between 1975 and 1980 he joined the Republican Party. He apparently distinguished himself as Mayor of New York on 9/11 in 2001, being called ‘America’s Mayor’ and being named Time Magazine’s Person of The Year 2001.

Since his association with Mr Trump, he has imploded into a fantasy world, bringing upon himself allegations of corruption and profiteering, violating lobby laws and being a central figure in matters that contributed to Mr Trump’s impeachment. The numerous lawsuits maintaining false allegations, voter fraud and wild conspiracies aimed at overturning the 2020 election of Mr. Biden, are perplexing.

 

What on earth, you may ask, has happened to him. Is he ill? Has he suffered from some serious mental stroke? or has he been bewitched by Mr. Trump? Mr. Giuliani supported Mr Trump during the 2016 campaign for the Presidency, during which time he defended Mr Trump against allegations of racism, sexual assault, and not paying any federal income taxes for as long as two decades. The drivel he has spouted since leading the post-election legal team, and the vehemence with which he makes his pronouncements, shows him up as an embarrassing and pitiable figure advancing towards the cameras bleating “I’m ready for my closeup”. How sad is that?

 

Mr Giuliani’s co-advocate Ms Jenna Ellis, enrolled in 2003 at Cedarville University, then in 2004 transferred to the Colorado State University  in order to study journalism. In 2011, she received a law degree from the University of Richmond School of Law . She is a former deputy district attorney in Weld County, Colorado  and a former assistant professor of legal studies at Colorado Christian University . As a private lawyer, she has litigated cases in state courts. In 2015, she self-published The Legal Basis for a Moral Constitution, a book arguing that the Constitution of the United States can only be interpreted in accordance with the Bible. Ellis was a stern critic of Donald Trump in 2015 and early 2016, until he became the 2016 Republican nominee for president, after-which Ellis began voicing support, including in media appearances. Ellis was hired by Trump in November 2019 as a senior legal adviser.

 

In the light of Ms Ellis’s initial disapproval of Mr Trump, can one infer a touch of opportunism in her support in 2016 with Mr Trump being chosen as Republican Presidential candidate, or was it, given her deep sense of biblical studies, some damascene revelation. In any event how does her continued support square the ninth commandment “Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbour” (Exodus 20:16)?  Perhaps her interpretation of the Bible is very strict and she defines neighbour as the people who live next door. Anybody else doesn’t matter, one can shout falsity and mendacity as much as one likes to the rest of the world.

We then have Kayleigh McEnany, an American political commentator and author who has been the White House press secretary since the 7^th April 2020. A graduate of Georgetown University and Havard University, she began her media career as a producer for Huckabee on Fox News and later worked as a commentator on CNN. In 2017, she was appointed national spokesperon for the Republican National Committee . She stated, boldly, to the assembled White House Press corps that she would never lie to them, perhaps obliquely referencing a predecessor’s (Sara Huckabee Sanders) penchant for blatant economies with the truth. A surprising statement since Ms McEnany worked with Ms Sanders father at Fox News.

The important thing to note in respect of this Blog, is that she is said to be a graduate of Georgetown University with a Batchelor of Science degree, and Harvard University with a Law Degree. How does that level of education allow her to continue parroting the preferred line of rigged and stolen election? One would assume a Law Degree requires some degree of research and a relationship with the rules of evidence? Did that aspect of her studies elude her?

And then we have the put aside, but still in there fighting, Sidney Katherine Powell who was born into a working-class family in Durham, North Carolina, grew up in the city of Raleigh, and knew from an early age that she wanted to be a lawyer. She graduated from Needham Broughton High School  and went on to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts. At the age of 19, she was accepted into the University of North Carolina School of Law,  where she graduated in 1978 with a Juris Doctor degree. She began her legal career as one of the youngest federal prosecutors in the US.

The current entry in Wikipedia reads, inter alia:

Powell has promoted numerous conspiracy theories. She has claimed that Flynn was framed by a covert "deep state" operation, and has also promoted personalities and slogans associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory. In regards to the 2020 presidential election, Powell alleges that a secret international cabal involving communists, "globalists", George Soros, Hugo Chávez, the Clinton Foundation, the CIA, and thousands of Democratic and Republican officials, including Trump ally and Georgia governor Brian Kemp, used voting machines to transfer millions of votes away from Trump to Biden. Powell has also baselessly accused other Republican and Democratic candidates of paying bribes to the Dominion Voting Systems Corporation, so as to ensure the tabulation of votes is rigged in their favour.

 

So how does a North Carolina School of Law Graduate, I would guess at age 22, since she enrolled at 19, come to believe such ridiculous and patent nonsense? What has happened to her in the intervening years, having showed such promise early on?

 

What is it about the education of these four people that gives one pause? Of course, they are not the only pillars of authority who continue to flout the Constitution and Democracy in the United States. The actual danger lurks in the great numbers of the under educated devotees, their avid listeners, who take their words as gospel, and continue to chorus, assisted by bull horns and sporting assault rifles, “Stop the Steal”.

 

I have been of the view that elementary education was to provide children with the fundamental tools of being able to function in todays world. Secondary education is to engage in using those tools to acquire more extended knowledge and the possibilities that might unfold as a result. In effect to begin to learn how to think and deal with becoming an independent individual. Education beyond that is to sharpen and organise thought and method in respect of a particular endeavour or a multiplicity of endeavours. Underlying all that, certain gentlemen of the Scottish Enlightenment also proposed that there is a human element which they describe as an innate sense of empathy. We are human beings and therefore we will understand human nature and empathise with other human beings. Apparently, we cannot help ourselves when it comes to compassion. Would that were the case.

 

One has seen precious little empathy from Mr Trump since the beginning of the pandemic and none at all since he began bleating about the ‘rigged election’. Why are so many willing to support his self-manufactured cause? His narcissism has become acute. His bullying behaviour is out of control. His grasp on reality reduced to nil. Still educated people are prepared to offer him assistance and coddle his ego.

 

Even Senator Mitch McConnell, in his speech professing acceptance of Mr Biden and Ms Harris as president and vice president elect, he first praised the alleged achievements of Mr Trump’s administration. One of the achievements mentioned was Mr Trump initiating Operation Warp Speed. Frankly, that’s like praising someone for phoning the fire department when it’s already on the way. I suppose that might be worth a well done. 

My general question though is what has higher education done for the thought process of the “stop the steal” proselytisers. One does not know how many have converted to the current Cult of Trump as a result. Out of the 70 odd million who voted for him, some may have come to the realisation that there was no rigging or fraud, and may have accepted the values of the American Democratic process; however, the numbers of the blind faithful may be quite extensive, The one’s with guns the most entrenched. President Biden and Vice President Harris have a lot of educating to do with this rabble, like a group of pupils reflecting the worst Inner-City School one could possibly imagine. Education clearly does matter, whether it actually works at any level is something else.

MAKING BRITAIN GREAT AGAIN (BS)

One of the great things about living in Europe is being able to visit so many countries with so many different cultures: language, architecture, food and drink, scenery, places of interest, friends and family. The joy of wandering through cities with extraordinary histories that have had, in one way or another, a deep impact on our lives.

Five European countries account for over 300 million foreign visitors each year, with France and Spain accounting for over half that number. France has the largest number of tourists visiting yearly, very nearly 90 million.  More than any other country, although Spain is a close second. That’s more than twice as many as visit the UK (39 million).

For my own part I have many memories gathered over 70 years from my first arrival in Paris from New York, via Cherbourg to the Gare St Lazar in 1949. I still have vivid memories of travelling through Europe in days when border checks and passport controls were something one had to get used to. The time it took was variable to say the least. On occasion it was a simple look see at the car, a uniformed man taking passports into a kiosk or office, returning with them stamped and handing them back with a salute, a welcome to (name the country) and a ‘bon voyage, gute reise, buon viaggio etc.’ At other times, a lengthier inspection, having to get out of the vehicle, open bags and generally mess around until officials were satisfied that there was nothing suspicious of untoward about our entry into the country. Over the years one got used to green channels and red channels, duty free purchases, and questions about packing bags, number of cigarettes and bottles of wine and spirits.

There then came a day, so far as the United Kingdom was concerned, when most of that disappeared. The passport check remained in the UK, but once on the continent one was as free as the air. The paper work and the inspections were minimal, save on occasions when one had to submit to a short look see by customs at Dover or Folkstone, but on the whole it was pretty straightforward, despite being pissed off one was occasionally picked out as a vehicle to be looked over. But one got used to it and travel around the continent, whatever the weather, was fun and full of memories. One could drive from Sagres in Portugal along the Atlantic coast roads, through Spain, France Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, to Sweden and back south through middle Europe down to the boot of Italy without showing one’s ‘papers’ or even changing currency.  It created a very nice feeling of togetherness, of oneness with one’s fellow man. Not that the French were any the less ‘French’, waiters still shrugged their shoulders at your choices on the menu, or the German’s any the less ‘German’, very precise giving directions, or the Spanish being Spanish, or Italians Italian. But they were all human and apart from the odd unfortunate incident (which can happen all over the world) they were welcoming and helpful, ever ready to show off the nice things about their country, what made them special.

That was the point. Freedom of movement and communication and a joining together in peace. No more trenches or barriers. A free and easy exchange of ideas was the order of the day. Even though the commercial and political decisions were sometimes more difficult to arrive at and agree, that did not stop the countries from actually being Sovereign to themselves, holding close to one’s culture, way of life, and rules of law.

If you join a club you agree to abide by the club rules, but that doesn’t stop you from being you. In the last 40 years, ask yourselves: What is it I am not able to do by being a citizen in the European Union? You will find that there is precious little to prevent you from doing whatever you could do before being in the European Union, except it’s actually easier to do. Want to move about, a change of scenery, study a new language, see different stuff, work somewhere different, no problem, do it.

The nonsense of taking back control, was a pure fiction. "We want to make our own laws without European interference." "They can’t tell us what to do".  "We have to be able to make our own deals and more lucrative and better", and so on, bull shit. The utter nonsense is breath-taking, yet listened to.

As to the laws, they’re already part of UK law, and have been for years. The fact is that the European Court of Human Rights exists because of the United Kingdom’s common law and traditions. So, making one’s own laws has been done. As to health and safety regulations in respect of food and the workplace, why is that a problem? Regulations in the service industries, is equally necessary in all countries, to safeguard the citizens. Professions everywhere have codes of conduct. To safeguard the citizen, rules and regulations exist everywhere. They are not just made to piss you off, although sometimes they do; but you get over it and move on, you don’t move out.

When it comes to fishing, there is a problem with quotas and what is known as quota hopping. The number of fish pulled out of the sea has required regulation in order to preserve and protect stocks of fish. Therefore, quotas have been put in place. There has been a problem with foreign ownership of British quotas, a problem arising out of the sale of quotas to the highest bidder.

Deals were made, and now they appear to be unhappy about it. On top of that there is the problem of access to territorial waters and markets. Nonetheless, the problems arise out of the selling off of quotas to foreign owned vessels. A problem of our own making. This surely could and should have been sorted out long before now, and should not be a sticking point in trying to make a deal now.

Countries have, of necessity to survive, to make deals with one another. It’s the nature of the world. Deal making as a group, or deal making on one’s own is just as difficult, but compromises have to be reached. The idea is to make a deal that benefits everybody involved. It is never one sided, or shouldn’t be. By voting to leave the European Union the UK shot itself in the foot, and now has to make deals all over the place. Its own prognosis is a downturn of significant proportions.

So, in the event of failing to come to terms, the cost of living will be going up, as will the cost and time of travel and communications. The potential loss of free ‘mobile roaming’ will be a tragedy in more ways than one. The paperwork involved for anyone just traveling to France will expand (green cards, international licences, health insurance, different lanes for customs and customs quotas etc.) but no doubt we will all get used to that again. There are many other more significant changes that I believe the country will come to regret, and may find difficult to get used to.

On top of all that we have global climate change problems, on which we have to globally get together to sort out, and the pandemic, on which we have to globally get together and sort out.

  Kenneth Clarke

So just what have we taken back control of? As Kenneth Clarke (UK Conservative politician who may be known to foreign readers?) has pointed out the country has been set back 50 years.

He’s not wrong. Taking control of our destiny? Is it our destiny to become little Britain, a sad little isolationist island with little or no significance in world affairs? Is it Boris’s Britain First? Just aping America First and Make Britain Great Again? embegaaa doesn’t quite have the ring of maga, but how does that seem to be working out anyway? Look at the mess that man’s made. I guess it's happening here, all we can do is crack on.

Here’s a little ditty to crack on with:
 

THE SUICIDE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

As I watch the continuing saga of America’s attempt at installing a new president, I am bewildered by the seemingly continuous barrage from reporters on CNN, NBC, CBS, USA Today, NPR, KPFK, LA Times and You Tube, referring to the baseless claims of President Donald Trump. I am shown videos of the people in support of him, as well as those who don’t. I have seen interviews with a variety of folk on the street and attempts at interviews with certain politicians from BBC reporters. I have seen the impassioned press briefing from Republican Election Official Gabriel Sterling.

 

I have seen and heard the baseless claims and the demonstrations by Trump supporting zealots in the street and in front of the homes of election officials, and, in particular from politicians addressing the faithful from podiums. I have noted the deafening silence from the republican senators and congressional representatives, thereby consenting to the continued rhetoric of the baseless claims.

 

I have noted legal actions taken by the Trump team of lawyers being dismissed by the Courts with accompanying statements by the Judiciary.

 

All this baseless oratory and posturing is apparently tolerated because of the belief in free speech and a person’s right to challenge grievances before the courts.

 

How about enforcing some law? A novel idea, I am just wondering. There are in the United Kingdom a couple of statutes that I am sure may well have their equivalent in the United States. If not, there clearly ought to be.

 

Section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986

Fear or provocation of violence.

(1)A person is guilty of an offence if he—

(a)uses towards another person threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or

(b)distributes or displays to another person any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting,

with intent to cause that person to believe that immediate unlawful violence will be used against him or another by any person, or to provoke the immediate use of unlawful violence by that person or another, or whereby that person is likely to believe that such violence will be used or it is likely that such violence will be provoked.

 

(2) An offence under this section may be committed in a public or a private place, except that no offence is committed where the words or behaviour are used, or the writing, sign or other visible representation is distributed or displayed, by a person inside a dwelling and the other person is also inside that or another dwelling.

 

(3)F1. . (repealed). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

(4) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the

 

Factors indicating higher culpability

1. Planning

2. Offender deliberately isolates victim

3. Group action

4. Threat directed at victim because of job

5. History of antagonism towards victim

Factors indicating greater degree of harm

1. Offence committed at school, hospital or other place where vulnerable persons may be present

2. Offence committed on enclosed premises such as public transport

3. Vulnerable victim(s)

4. Victim needs medical help/counselling

 

Now let us look at the video evidence of protests outside the home of Jocelyn Benson, Secretary of State of Michigan. People. She said they were “…screaming falsehoods and obscenities into a bullhorn while my family was finishing hanging Christmas decorations and my four-year-old was setting in to watch ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’”.

Now, I may be wrong, but the shouts and attitude exhibited by the mob in front of the house, some with guns, coupled with the screams and shouts, to intimidate Ms Benson into changing the results of an election, seems fairly threatening to me, as well as being aggravated by threats directed at the victim because of her job. She has stood up.

 

That mob went way beyond the right of assembly or the rights of free speech. Where are the authorities making the arrests? Where are the District Attorneys calling for indictments? Where is the Michigan State or Federal Law to deal with this malicious and pernicious uprising?

 

All this mob action, which is what it is - one can no longer call it peaceful protest - is being fuelled by The President himself and his various cohort.  “He should be taken out and shot” from one supporting politician in reference to someone actually upholding the law and the Constitution.  

 

That alone, on anyone’s view, is nothing less than Incitement, given the propensities of so-called Trump supporters. Again, in the United Kingdom, there is an Act of Parliament to deal with such criminal activity. I am sure there must be an equivalent statute somewhere in the United States. It comes in the form of the Serious Crime Act of 2007.

 

Serious Crime Act 2007

44 Intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence

(1) A person commits an offence if—

(a) he does an act capable of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence; and

(b he intends to encourage or assist its commission.

(2) But he is not to be taken to have intended to encourage or assist the commission of     an offence merely because such encouragement or assistance was a foreseeable consequence of his act.

 

It is not a Statute intended to limit freedom of speech, nor is it intended to limit the right to assemble and protest, but it is intended to deal with behaviour that goes far beyond those criteria, and is therefore a serious crime. It is very carefully worded, and indeed the questions of ‘intent’ and ‘foreseeable consequences’ are very much a matter of interpretation.  But foreseeability and intent can be seen from an objective point of view. It is based on the behaviour, demeanour, actions and speech of the offender. That and the consequences for the victims of the offence. Paragraph 2 of the section leaves a lot of room for interpretation of ‘intent’.

 

Sections 45 and 46 further distinguish various forms of intent and belief.

45 Encouraging or assisting an offence believing it will be committed

46 Encouraging or assisting offences believing one or more will be committed

 

What I am getting at, is that when one sees and hears the various people addressing crowds of vehement hyped-up supporters, it is not difficult to interpret ‘intent; and ‘foreseeability'. Gabriel Sterling sees it, and in his anger said “This has got to stop!...someone is going to get shot!”

 

People have rights to free speech and assembly; they do not have the right to threaten and become a mob.  In allowing the President and his supporters to clearly go beyond the pale under the guise of rights provided by the Constitution of the United States, is to deny the very existence of that Constitution which was established to protect the citizen and not to facilitate the abuse of the citizen.

 

Under the rule of law, we all have a duty of care towards one another, which is why I am posturing that by allowing this nightmare to continue, allowing mob rule, and failing to enforce the rule of law, we are seeing the suicide of American Democracy.

A RETURN TO VALUES

My comments about stepping up to values was a bit of a muddle.  What is going on in the United States appears to be but a symptom of what is going on around the world. It is a rather difficult concept to deal with. Difficult in the sense that what is going on is rather sad and I do not wish to be depressing, so I was trying to find a way of avoiding using the words sad and depressing, but it is just that. I am simplifying a great deal, so please bear with me.

 

Many years ago, human beings evolved on this planet. They formed into groups of varying sizes, nomadic at first, hunting, gathering, etc. and eventually creating territories they considered their own, and marking the borders that subsequently defined nation states. There was the odd dispute over territory, the attempted land grab and the colonising of one state by another. These geographical problems and disputes have carried on in one form or another. The members of the group occupying each territory, soon devised their own form of communication and their own way of organising how the group within the territory would co-exist as members of the same group. They created their own rules and regulations. The individuals within each group and subgroup had certain needs in order to survive, and as the groups expanded certain essentials became apparent. Shelter, food and clothing were top of the list. As living arrangements grew more complex, and the well-being of the group became a problem, sewage and the collection of waste within the community became equally essential. With each development of inventions to enhance and improve the lives on the individuals within the group, more rules and regulations were required to keep pace. Roads needed constructing. Cooking and home comforts required heating and lighting. All these facilities had to be safe, secure and simple. That required more rules and regulations, such as road traffic, health and safety regulations, licencing etc…

 

 

On top of everything, various individuals within the group behaved badly. Some behaved very badly indeed.  The groups then developed their own individual methods of dealing with this bad behaviour, establishing various rules regulating the behaviour of how individuals related to one another. A number of ‘Thou Shall Nots…’ emerged, along with ‘If you do, then…” certain punishments would follow. This led to organised law enforcement, just as disputes between nations led to armed forces for protection of the state.

 

Those straight forward simple matters evolved regardless of how the group chose to run its affairs. Whether run by committee, dictator, king, queen, parliament, duma, congress, tribal council etc., shelter, food, clothing waste disposal and communication were always there to be dealt with.

 

As humans evolved into their nation states, it became sufficiently apparent that some form of co-operation between groups was advisable in order to avoid the various outrages and wars that blew up from time to time. As a result, a variety of international events evolved to bring nations together in peaceful endeavours, in particular sporting events-football, athletics, tennis are but a few. Nonetheless there still remained a couple of stumbling block along the way, and these stumbling blocks became the cause of mass murders and genocide: individual freedom, race and religion.

 

Every once in a while, an individual comes along who somehow captures the imagination of some of or the whole of the group, or indeed the whole of the world. In more recent times Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Adolph Hitler are instances in point. Those individuals are few and far between, and their influence is such that it can change the course of events, for good or bad.

The religious mayhem and racial atrocities that have occurred between Muslims and Hindus, Catholics and Protestants, black and whites, Native Indians and Settlers, Colonials and indigenous residents, Jews and everybody, is endless.

 

The 18^th Century however, produced an extraordinary number of people who thought very much about the way we live: Voltaire, Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith, Mary Wollstonecraft, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Georg W F Hegel, Jeremy Bentham, Edmund Burke, Arthur Schopenhauer, Montesquieu, Denis Diderot, Gottfried Leibniz, Germaine de Stael, Emilie du Chatelet, Giambattista Vico,  Frances Wright, Judith Sargent Murray, Motoori Norinaga, , Nimnomiya Sontoku, Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi, Dai Zhen, Gim Jeong-hui and a number of others around the world. How humans behaved and interacted was very much their concern. Rousseau’s Social Contract, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense emerge from a period referred to as The Enlightenment. 

 

In contrast, here is a more recent discussion of Justice and Power from 1971 between Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault:

 

Although the beginnings of the codification of the rights of man, all be it limited in scope, starts with Magna Carta 1215 and some 400 years later with the Bill Of Rights Act 1689, it was not until the last quarter of the 18^th Century that a group of men came together to establish a government, a nation state, dedicated to the proposition that all human beings are created equal, and that that principle would be establish in law, and further,  that human beings had inalienable rights which would also be codified in law.

 

That was no small thing. It might not have been the only place in the world where that sort of thinking took place, but it was one that sparked human beings to speak out boldly and proclaim those inalienable right as the principles which are meant to guide our lives. Certainly, for the last 50 years, the proclaiming of civil rights and individual human rights has been a keystone of every government. If has been well established and put into law in many countries. Race hatred, religious hatred, gender hatred, discrimination of any kind infringing on individual liberty is not to be tolerated. It is taught in school. It is not a political position; it is simply a matter of human decency which everyone must adhere to. The mantra is do no harm. It should by now be beyond argument. And yet it is still an issue.

 

We are in the middle of a pandemic. The question of the face mask is an issue. The fact, that cannot be in dispute, is that wearing such a mask will probably prevent the spread of the virus, even though it would not stop one getting it. Wearing a mask might prevent you from spreading the virus. I repeat Wearing a mask might prevent you from giving someone else a virus that could kill them. This has been stated over and over again, yet there are those who claim it is a blow against liberty. “You can’t make me wear one, it’s against my rights”. Why is a simple gesture which might prevent another person dying a blow against civil liberty? Why should it become a matter of law enforcement to make one human being try to safeguard another? I assumed it was what being human was all about. Do no harm. Keep your distance. Where is the blow to liberty in that? Simple gestures are not a blow to human rights. It is simple human decency.

 

Recently, football (soccer) players have, at the start of each game, ‘taken a knee’ in support of yet another attempt at eradicating racism by ‘black lives matter’. Because of the pandemic, games have been played without spectators. Recently some 2000 spectator have been allowed in, to help the clubs financially as well as reviving the proper sporting atmosphere. A match at Millwall in London, once more displayed the arrogance and ignorance of the racists. When the players got down on their knees they were greeted with loud shouts and boos from the spectators. By what right do they have to disrupt the activities of others in this fashion. One cannot say that, everyone is entitled to free speech, everyone can have an opinion. That does not wash. Racism is not an opinion. Racism is not free speech. Racism is a fact, and the fact is, it is illegal. It is against the law. It is not something to be tolerated under the guise of free speech. Why are we still having this discussion?  This from Sky New UK.

The human values that are held in greatest esteem should by now be second nature. Too many people and too many young are so sadly ignorant of decency, one is rendered almost speechless.

 

The example of a so-called President of the United States, who dribbles lies and fantasies, proclaims hate and fear to ignorant crowds of worshipers is a disgrace so abhorrent to decency it is beyond endurance. Is his voice so loud that the cries against him go unheard, or are the cries against him not loud enough for them to be heard? It is difficult to tell from abroad. Why wait for the 20^th January. Can you not urge him to get out now? Let the transition team in now, too many real lives are still at steak. Do not wait for his exit, press him to go now. No news network should expose anymore of him to the American public, let alone the rest of the world. Shut him out.

 

The fascist example of the 1920’s and 1930’s was surely enough of a lesson to humanity that arrogant narcissists elevated to power is not a very healthy political position. But they build such marvellous roads and the trains run on time.”Il duce ha sempre ragione” was the mantra for Mussolini, it is the same with Trumpism “The Donald is always right.” 

 

 

Please! ENOUGH

 

Why do I care so much about values? I should have stayed in the class.