The Trump Speech As Read By a British Woman

Richard Mellor

11-28-25

I have to say, this is brilliant. He’s talking a lot about Kemala Harris as well. But the more I think about it is the important conclusions we must draw from it. 

 

Aside from the comments, comedic as they may be, especially read by an older English woman with a middle class accent and a smile, they reveal just how unhinged Donald Trump really is. 

 

But more importantly is that we have a situation where this cretin is in the most important political office on the planet, a position that has the ability to destroy human progress or wreak havoc on humanity. And Trump, like most of them since the disastrous defeat in Vietnam, chooses the latter.  It does make one think deeply about Kennedy’s murder as he was clearly an obstacle to a protracted war in Vietnam. On another note, thinking of the US War on Vietnam, there is an interesting review of David Halbertson’s book,The Best and The Brightest here.

 

But there’s more. The Democrats were forced to eventually tell the truth about their esteemed leader, that he was losing his marbles despite the rest of us victims of a dysfunctional state witnessing it with our own eyes and ears. We watched the press conferences under Biden as lie after lie spewed from various representatives’ mouths. What a carnival. For me, watching Blinken, a war criminal by any measure, was as bad as having to watch or listen to Trump. 

 

So the Democrats lied to the US population until they could no longer do so. Staying in power is far more important than producing positive results for the populace, the lucrative rewards of power are too great to be sacrificed on the alter of truth and decency.

 

But the whole scene has turned in to a cinematic epic as the menagerie of mad scientists, defenders of sex traffickers and, genociders (in common with the previous administration) cover for Trump. They actually praise his speeches like the one covered here. It’s like a Monty Python sketch.

 

The only conclusion we can draw is not that Trump or Biden are examples of bad presidents; the evidence is overwhelming that US capitalism is in a serious political crisis, it is rotting from within. It’s not the only country in which the body politic reflects internal decay in general, but it’s the most important, the guy with the big stick.

 

With a systematic crisis, no political party or individual that doesn’t see the need to change it, that society needs to be restructured, as a young woman at the No Kings protest in my town pointed out, can correct the problem. The system is too far gone and a band aid might slow the bleeding but can’t fix the wound.

The Death of Snow Days | Opinion

From The Minnesota Reformer

by Frank Bures, Minnesota Reformer
December 10, 2021

 

Late last year, an email arrived in my in-box from the Minneapolis Public Schools, with an odd heading: “We’ve changed how we handle winter weather.”

I read on:

Earlier this year, the Minneapolis Board of Education approved an e-learning plan for our schools. That means that MPS no longer has to cancel school due to bad weather.

Were they talking about snow days? They didn’t say snow days.

While this likely won’t be much of a change for the foreseeable future due to COVID-19, it will be once we can return to in-person learning, no matter when that is.

The email did not say, “We are canceling snow days.” It didn’t even use the word, “snow day.” But as I parsed the anodyne, bureaucratic language (designed to obscure, not clarify), it sure seemed like that’s what they were saying: Whenever it snowed, it would be like a little slice of pandemic all over again.

The email continued:

If you don’t agree with our decision, as always your family can make the choice that’s right for your student by following your school’s standard absence procedures.

Translation: If you don’t agree with our decision, screw you.

The message felt like one more dump on the pile of crap that was 2020. But who had the energy to fight it? No one knew when we would be back in school anyway, so it didn’t seem to matter. Besides, could they really just kill the snow day? Without consultation? Without clarity? Without ceremony?

Time dragged on. Most of us forgot about this email. Then in November of 2021, almost exactly a year later, another email arrived, vaguely titled: “Inclement Weather and E-Learning.”

Instruction for MPS students will continue this winter even on days when winter weather makes travel difficult. While some of us will be sad to see “snow days” go, the State of Minnesota has approved up to five “e-learning days” for schools annually.

Translation: The snow day is dead.

Among the many diktats handed down by Superintendent Ed Graff (yes, that’s how it feels), to me this was the most egregious and heartbreaking. Snow days are part of our history. They are part of our culture. They teach us to love winter. They teach us to respect nature. Deep in our hearts, every one of us still hopes for a snow day.

Unlike the pointless shuffling of the Minneapolis School District’s “Comprehensive District Design,” the death of the snow day changes the fabric of childhood across the city. Growing up in Minnesota, I remember looking outside to see the world covered in white. Everything stopped. The world was silent and clean, like a new space had opened up in time, one we could fill with whatever we wanted. Snow days were one of the purest joys of youth.

Less so for parents…I know this as the father of teenagers who had their share of snow days. But if snow days were a kind of parental purgatory, e-learning days are a house-bound hell, as parents try to force their child to endure the most soul-crushing kind of screen time.

Having grown up in the 1980s, I may be too old to appreciate the rigors of modern education. But it’s hard for me to see the death of the snow day as a step forward. For those of us trying to encourage our children to spend less time online, to be less connected, and to be more in touch with their own minds and selves, this is a step in precisely the wrong direction.

The message it sends to our children is this: You are never off. You can never escape. Your time is not your own. Nothing is more important than your work. You must always be connected. You must always have your device. And your device must always have you.

There is a good chance my kids will be sick on e-learning days. That’s the least I can do for them. But even so, it won’t be the same as a real snow day. It won’t feel like a gift from the Gods of winter. They won’t feel free. Instead, they will feel like they are skipping school. They will feel the strain of their electronic chains. They will feel the ever-present fear that they are falling behind, losing ground, failing.

From now on, in Minneapolis, the joy of the snow day will be replaced with the dread of e-learning. Our children will never experience the pure feeling that Bill Watterson, poet laureate of childhood, captured over and over in his comic, Calvin and Hobbes. It was the feeling he chose to convey in his final cartoon. In it, the boy and his tiger wade through waist-deep snow with their sled:

“Wow,” Calvin says, “it really snowed last night! Isn’t it wonderful?”

Hobbes responds: “It’s like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on!”

“A day full of possibilities!” Calvin says. “It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy…Let’s go exploring!”

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com. Follow Minnesota Reformer on Facebook and Twitter.

Help Workers. Buy My Art

Penis meet Tomato 2021

I have had a revelation. I can be an artist.

Richard Mellor

GED/HEO

 

I have wanted for a long time to express myself in art but didn't have the confidence; I was destined to be a ditch digger. I remember when I met the woman who was to become my first American wife and why I am here in the US. She took me to the National Gallery in London’s Trafalgar Square. Maybe I took her to impress her; I can’t remember. At the time she was the girlfriend of a US American guy I had met while hitchhiking around Europe; a good man I am still in touch with 54 years on. She, like he did, wanted to travel in Europe. I met him on the beach in San Tropez in 1967

 

Anyway, we went to the National Gallery. I remember going inside and there was a sign that said there was a Leonardo Da Vinci cartoon on show in a special room. This sounded interesting I said to myself, “I’d like to see a good cartoon”. I was a big Tom and Jerry fan.

 

I walked in to this room that was dimly lit in order to preserve this cartoon. Why a cartoon needed preserving I wasn’t sure. I had in mind something like Tom and Jerry or Mickey Mouse or something like that. You see, my friend has a university education and knew what it was, but I wasn’t too cued in to art. I ended up marrying her and we too are still good friends. I learned a lot from her.

 

It turned out this cartoon was a drawing of sorts. I stood there a bit perplexed. People were staring at it in awe, looking at it for quite sometime. So I looked at this old drawing from some Italian dude from a long time ago, I was aware of who he was but never paid any attention to his drawings. I did know he painted the Mona Lisa. She was supposed to be the most beautiful woman ever but I think Christine Keeler and at that time Hayley Mills beat her out. I spent a lot of time thinking about Christine Keeler at that time. But who am I to judge, an uneducated laboring boy from the UK. I looked at it for 10 minutes and walked out. It looked OK.

 

Anyway, I have come a long way since then. I read about Picasso paintings that my mum used to think were silly and Dali paintings of melting clocks not to mention other such artistic works fetching millions of dollars.

 

Penis meets tomato after a beer

So I have decided it is time I use the skills I have acquired over many years as a blue collar worker to express myself in a way that can add to the great art that human beings have produced over the centuries.Is it possible it is proletarian socialist realism?

 

I have included here two photographs that took a great deal of thought and work to produce; I had to arrange the pieces, get the light right, the composition is exquisite. The titles beneath the images, express the deepest emotions and thoughts of the average US working man.

 

I am hoping that these works of art will sell, I am convinced Angelina Jolie will be interested in purchasing them. I will donate any monies I receive to my union’s strike fund and to the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to hetero sexual Englishmen.

Trumka Head of The AFL-CIO Issues Militant Response to Capital Siege

Freedom supporters chatting with police after storming the US Capitol

I am passionately pro organized labor but militant radical statements like this below form the head of the 14 million member trade union movement are just irresponsible. This could cause a riot. I read that the US Congress amid all this furor has just passed Medicare for all after reading this terrifying threat to the rule of capital. Richard Mellor

Statement from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on the breach of the U.S. Capitol building:

"We are witnessing one of the greatest assaults on our democracy since the Civil War. Today’s attempted coup has been years in the making as Donald Trump consistently spews venom, conspiracies, hate and lies to his supporters. They are carrying out his wishes, and far too many Republican lawmakers have enabled and even encouraged this violent threat to our republic. Emboldened by an Electoral College system that creates an avenue for insurrection instead of simply certifying the candidate with the most votes, this is an effort to violate the constitutional rights of every law-abiding American and the labor movement will not stand for it. Not today. Not ever."

Bridging The Gap Podcast. Episode Three. Who They Are and More

Bridging The Gap · Septempber 1, 2020 - Episode 3

OK, this is the third podcast from Mo and Rich.  They hope folks will "like" it and follow on Soundcloud. Mo is a young woman, Rich is an oldishhhh man.They welcome comments, constructive criticism and suggestions either through Soundcloud, that is the best place to like or comment, or you can comment on this blog or e mail them at we_know_whats_up@yahoo.com  if you want them to discuss an issue. And share on FB if you like it.

Those Gringo's Sure are Sneaky. Wait For It.

As many people that read this blog know, I am originally from England and now live in the US, California to be exact. We have many Latinos from different parts of Latin America here. As Mexico is on our southern border, Mexicans are probably the most numerous group, and of course, this state used to be part of Mexico until 1850 losing it in the Mexican American war. California is one of the largest agricultural producers in the world due primarily to everything being imported-----its water, its nutrients in the form of fertilizers and its labor power which is, and historically has been, Mexican, although other ethnic groups have migrated here and became agricultural laborers. A good book about California's agricultural history and its workforce is Carey McWilliams' Factories in the Field. For those living in the East Bay you'll read about pea pickers and others and attempts to organize them There were Sikhs, Japanese, Armenians and, Europeans escaping the dust bowl all here to work.

I tell this story because last night I stopped by and hung out with three Mexican, Mexican/American friends, solidly working class people, the "Salt of the Earth" which is a term my mum would use to describe basic folks. As an aside, there is a famous movie with that title about a strike of Mexican workers. It was banned in the US for 11 years or more as communist propaganda. It is worth watching, dated, but still very relevant today. You might find it in your local library as I did.

Rosa, Ricardo, Hector  (I changed the names to protect the innocent) and me were sitting around in the garage having a beer and chatting and Mexican music was playing on the You tube.  My Spanish is not conversational but I learn a little bit each time from them as they're trying to help me become more familiar with Mexican culture and the immigrant Mexican culture. We talk about our lives, how we came here, what our childhoods were like and so on. We have lots of laughs. There was a video on the computer with this Mexican man dancing to this music and Rosa tells me if I want to be a "real Mexican" I have to learn to dance like this as the man was sort of waving his feet around as well. She showed it on another video about dueling accordions that was introduced by Freddie Fender. I saw a film on Netflix once about a German guy who loved to play the accordion and ended up moving to Mexico because it is so popular there.

The guy in this video above is muy famoso apparently. His name is Flaco Jimenez. I found this clip and it's great and not only that, it's funny and political.

I talked with Jo when I got home about the wonderful time I'd had. I felt like I was immersed in this other culture completely and I shared my aspect on things as well. I felt that way when I was in Baghdad and in Basra as a young man where I sat in a cheap pensione with long haired traders from Goa, but I did have to travel a ways for that. I often hang out with Hector as his English is better than my Spanish but not great so we struggle through the communication web. How lucky I am that I don't have to travel to Mexico to feel like I'm immersed in its culture, or one side of it anyway. Mexico is a huge country with different traditions and cultures.

I watched this film some time ago about an undocumented worker who had to retire after working on

a chicken farm. Being undocumented he couldn't receive benefits despite years of  work. It's a bit slow for some US audiences as there isn't much raping, cars blowing up buildings collapsing and throats being slit to keep people interested. But it's a lovely film as far as I remember.

When I reflect on these wonderful exchanges between working class people that are wonderful experiences and memories for me, I think of that filthy degenerate in the White House. He is not alone in his policies which are nationalist and of course chauvinist. Obama was known as the deporter in Chief and also began the sanctions against Venezuela in order to undermine that regime that was not willing to hand over its state wealth to the US multi-nationals.  Hilary Clinton boasted of the friendship she had with the brutal Egyptian despot Mubarak, he was "like family" she said and Obama only reluctantly abandoned him when it was clear the Egyptian masses were going to rid themselves of him. We now have Michelle Obama cozying up to the mass murderer George W Bush referring to him as her "partner in crime" and a "friend". The ruling class and its political representatives understand class solidarity very clearly.

They are all representatives of capital and will defend US capitalism against its own working class and workers abroad that resist its invasions. We should not forget that workers were often shot for trying to form unions here. But Trump has undoubtedly, as we say here on this blog, brought  the whip of the counter revolution to the working class and forced people to sit up and listen. He has been positive in this regard.  As for his wall, he can stick it where the sun doesn't shine and I'm not talking of the Mariana Trench

But enough of this degenerate. The video is good with some unbelievable accordion playing and funny with it. I think I saw a couple of co-workers dancing in the crowd but who knows. Larry N would find them for sure.

Great News as US Economy Picks Up

Richard Mellor

Afscme local 444, retired

Well, some people are very happy. It seems the US economy has been picking up steam expanding at a 2.9% rate in the last six months.  The driver of this car is government spending it seems. Infrastructure, You ask?  New hospitals, schools, recreation and cultural centers in our communities, perhaps? The abolition of the $1.trillion student debt? Rebuilding hurricane devastated Puerto Rico? Surely not.

Unfortunately not. Defense spending which contracted at a 2.1% annul rate between 2009 and March 2017 has risen at a 2.9% rate since.

The US Predator in Chief lifted defense spending caps that were introduced to try and alleviate the deficit and things have been humming along since. In the fiscal year ending September 30^th defense spending grew 6%. US taxpayers should be very grateful that we live in a free country with two political parties that look after our interests as both parties, agreed to a budget that boosted  government spending some $300 billion over the next two years including a nice $165 billion more for the military. In the US we call this Bi-partisanship---working together for the good of all.

So there has been this “surge” in defense spending in the spring and summer of this year as we as Americans with our two Wall Street based political parties at the head, take humane steps to protect us (and the free world) from communism, existentialists, revisionists, Grenadans, swarming hordes of Central American wasters with a few Arabs mixed in, gays, transsexuals, mentally ill people who want government hand outs, Canadian socialism, female impersonators, short foreigners masquerading as children, and so much more. Why oh why do so many global forces want to invade us and destroy our way of life? It’s jealousy;  it has to be.

There’s more good news ahead: “I would expect that, with the increase in the defense discretionary caps, that its contribution (defense) is going to increase and in fact it will be leading overall GDP growth by mid-2019” says one CFO at a money managing outfit.

The US economy has moved forward on the basis of a war economy yet we are never at war. I know what the refrain "War, what is it good for?" means now. It's good for profits.

How to Handle Mean People

These two are wonderful.

Capitalism, Nature and a Little Comedy

Readers of this blog who also follow some of us on Facebook know that we are avid hikers.  I am lucky enough to live in a truly beautiful part of the world, an urban area with lots of wide open space and trails. The amazing beauty in this short clip is not going to last forever. In fact it will not survive the market onslaught and destruction that the capitalist mode of production has waged on it for a few centuries and continues to wage on it with ferocious abandon.

Capitalism will destroy life as we know it on this planet if it not overthrown and replaced by a democratic socialist world, a global federation of states, economies producing on the basis of social need and not profit, cooperation not competition.  We have children because we believe in the future. But there is no future with capitalism. It means then, that we must dedicate out lives to changing it, for our children and grandchildren. This is Briones Regional Park, a public space on the east side of the San Francisco Bay. I found this beautiful butterfly on my hike, it was reluctant to fly for whatever reason. What beauty it is and we should fight vigorously to protect it and humanity from the savagery of the market.


Along with the beauty and pleasure of the natural world and ordinary working class people's access to to it, there is the human side of it. Our relations with each other and with all animals. Humor is so important to us as well. One has to possess a sense of humor to be a revolutionary. And we all know that humor keeps us afloat in the world of work where our life activity is bought and used by others. "The time during which a laborer works...." wrote Marx,"....is the time during which the capitalist consumes the labor power he has purchased from him.". I am retired thanks to working in the public sector and having a union. Reducing the hours of work and lowering the retirement age are important and necessary demands in any struggle workers engage in. Here's a short clip for dog lovers. Dog's need psychoanalysis too as capitalism is rough on them as well. We have included a Latino Dog, a Mexican to be exact who is not too keen on an Irishman singing songs to him, a ferocious canine indeed.



We want to protect our environment, the natural world in which we live. The environmental crisis is perhaps the most serious issue facing the human species today. So we are serious about this. But being serious about changing society doesn't mean we have to be humorless.

A Toilet Can Be a Precious Thing. It's Not a Rest Stop

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

Well here's a little bit of information for you. What struck me when I first came to the US 44 years ago was the absence of public toilets. Here I was in New York City in 1973 and they were very hard to find. Another thing that really pisses me off is restaurants that ply you full of food and beverages, coffee and the like and have one toilet for 80 or more patrons. I use this term "toilet" as we don't "rest" "bathe" or generally "powder" anything in there. 

This has become more of an issue with me in my later years. You see, when we get older, our muscles are not as strong. Muscles are an important tool of the human body including in the elimination of waste. I know this is not a very sexy subject my young friends with the holes in your jeans, phones in hand and pants a sagging.  And while I may be a very sexy individual, I am not owning up to any leakage here that I can't control under healthy conditions, but I sure as hell can't control things the way I used to.  It's more common for me these days to have about 20 minutes, 30 max,  from the first tender moment the need is brought to my attention to the final crescendo. And I can share this with confidence------I am not alone, in fact, I am one sole example of millions.

I know this as like anything in life, when something happens to us personally we had never given a second thought to, we start finding out that there's lots of people in the same boat.  I'll often be talking about some person for whatever reason and might say "You see that old lady over there" and then it dawns on me that I'm the same age or older---but I never think of myself as old until my body or some other external event like looking in a mirror reminds me.

But back to the toilet.

I was having breakfast a few weeks ago and was chatting with my friend over coffee after the food had gone down, and my body began giving me some early warning signs. As we do when we're young and involved in something, we put such signs off for a bit but that's not such a good idea these days. I got up and went to the toilet but there was a line outside and the guy in there was on a long visit.  After about 10 or 15 minutes I began to get a bit desperate.  

There was a table next to where I was standing and there was a party of 6 or so sat around it, all old folks come from church looked like. I was becoming somewhat agitated and as anyone who knows me can testify, when I am afraid, shy, agitated, concerned, I verbalize. I started complaining like I do about a place that feeds 80 people but only provides one toilet; "They have no problem encouraging me to put food or liquid in but very stingy on providing me a way of getting it out. " I said. That's because there's no profit in it you see. A toilet takes up space and that means a table where a commodity is sold has no place to go. Toilets hurt profits for businesses unless they charge to use them.

So these other old folk started complaining about it too. One guy waxed eloquent about almost losing it one day (not literally) because of the lack of a toilet, it made me realize how prevalent this issue is and how such a demand is crucial in organizing. I worked in the streets and sometimes finding a toilet was impossible if businsses wouldn't let you in.  I couldn't wait any longer and walked up to the counter and told the manager if he doesn't find a toilet for me I'm going to crap my pants in his establishment. Turns out the employees have one upstairs and they sent me up there. What a relief.

I came back down and agitated a little with the other aforementioned older folks and we all agreed how age discrimination is so prevalent in our society. In all aspects of life, including homelessness, the aged suffer more than most except infants. 

This is a political question like everything else in life. It is more accurately an economic one as well. There are laws that determine whether an eating establishment, bakery, coffee shop has to have a toilet, a waste elimination plant. It's probably based on how many tables, customers or whatever. These laws are passed by capitalist politicians in capitalist parties who are bribed by associations representing the restaurant industry. We often hear talk about "big labor" in relation to the national federation of organized labor, the AFL-CIO. But structurally, big labor is minuscule (not in the potential power of workers organized or not) when compared to the thousand upon thousand of organizations representing various branches of industry. And of course, they control the state and the two capitalist parties represent their interests.

I do not believe a small local business serving  food and drinks should have to provide toilets for the public at large any more than I believe that health care for employees should be their responsibility. But if they serve food and beverages they should provide adequate toilet facilities. Public toilets are another matter and like any other crucial social needs, access to good health care for example, should be provided by society at large through the state, we have the money, resources and ability to do so.

Don't get me wrong. I prefer being older than the alternative. I don't want to die yet and few people do want to die plus as an atheist I am not concerned with heaven or hell and I am happy after 1000 years or so, a pope says hell doesn't exist. Of course, we knew that all the time and so did they.  I love life and the beauty of nature, the wonderful potential of humanity and of course, beer.

Speaking of beer, I gotta go.

Mysterious ailment Afflicts Blogger

Sisters, brothers, comrades.  We regretfully announce that of one of the authors of this blog has been struck with an unusual ailment. As you can see from this video he was unfortunate enough to have come in to contact with the deathly Amanita Phaloides. This has proved his undoing.  Could it possibly be the work of Ivanka Trump who was very insulted with his previous post about her being an idiot?  Surely not. "Just because I make millions off the backs of low paid brutality treated Asian workers doesn't make me an idiot" Ivanka told FFWP. This all happened while our author was walking on his beloved trails. Was it bad luck? Will there be sanctions against Facts For Working People? You decide.

UK's Position on Europe Explained.

Yes Minister was a British political comedy series during the 80's. Here's a short clip. It was quite popular and not entirely inaccurate.

English 101 from our Irish friends

Richard Mellor

The beauty of dialect, particularly Irish English. This is the Dublin dialect. I remember being in Galway once and we went in to this bar that was an Irish spoken only bar. I didn't speak it or nor did my Irish friend. I thought it might be a bit uncomfortable for me having a strong English accent and all but it was fine and I was spoken to in English by the bartender. I don't mean any offense to my Irish friends but when I hear Irish people speaking Irish it is just not the same. I worked for some time with Irish immigrants in the 1960's. We worked laying sewer mains throughout Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. There were men for all over Ireland on those crews. And the stories, expressions and dialects I will never forget. How can you Irish humor in any other way but Irish English. I just can't picture it.

In England, our accent identified one's class background strongly, particularly if you were from the North, the traditional home of the English industrial working class, coal, cotton mills etc. But if your buddies started "talking proper" and that sort of stuff, they were really ridiculed and scorned as hypocrites and such. Me and one of my best friends were in a pub one time that was populated by a large number of rural petite bourgeois, young women, the folk club type.

We stood behind my friend's brother sipping our pints and we hear him say to this young woman, "What social circumferences have you been frequenting lately?" in an accent not his own. We worked laying sewers in the countryside after all. We knew he was a lost cause after that.

Like the Scots or the Welsh, the Irish spoke English but it wasn't their language. Their language was discouraged and often forbidden.  I can understand how an Irish person would want to speak Irish and fluently but to lose Irish English would be a great loss to the world and like England and the US, there are many accents there.My friends in Derry are sometimes hard to understand but I wouldn't want it any other way. See Ken Loach's movie Riff Raff, it is in English with English subtitles

Working class dialects or language are rich and colorful, full of expressions about life that can only arise from certain conditions. The Yorkshire and Cockney dialects are all very expressive like the rhyming slang so popular with great lyricists like Ian Drury.  The northern accent has become almost fashionable now just like Irish English has. When I was young the Irish were ridiculed because they couldn't speak properly, they said "dis" for this and "dat" for that, for example. They would say "Tatcher" instead of Thatcher.

This is true of any working class accent of course, looked down on from the middle and upper classes. The difference with being a non English person was the racism that would accompany the class prejudice.

Here in the US some years ago there was this huge debate over what I would call, black urban dialects. They even gave it a name, "Ebonics". There was all sorts of chatter about it as if there were no such equivalents in other cultures, it was not some sort of bizarre abberation. It's frustrating at times when I hear someone say of a black person that she is "talking white". How can you talk white?  They will say this in either a positive  or negative light. But what is actually meant is they are using the English dialect (with proper gramamr of course) acceptable to the US ruling and middle classes, is would be a middle class educated black person. They're not talking in a way the white workers I know do and certainly not with the same dialect of a white rural worker.

But I must remind myself that here in the US there are no classes, we live in a classless society apparently.

Anyway, enough rambling.  Hope you enjoy the beautiful expressive English in the video.

Melania Trump on Fire?

by Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

Yahoo news is fake news. It reports today that "Melania Trump Smolders in Cocktail Dress Next to Hijab-Clad Emine Erdogan" Now anyone knows that this is grossly unfair to Ermine Erdogan as Slovenian women are more prone to spontaneous combustion than Turkish women. This is a proven fact and was revealed on the Bill Maher show. Yet Yahoo continues to make a deal of it as if Emine Erdogan has a chance in the spontaneous combustion competition held in Brussels yesterday. As for the Iceland candidate, how could she expect to win, it's laughable. You can''t spontaneous combust in Iceland.

 

It is important to also point out that Melanie had another advantage, she was standing next to the woman who had pigs blood splattered over her dress and it is also a well known fact that pigs blood increases the chance of spontaneous combustion, especially  among Slovenian women. So Yahoo's glowing report about Ms Trump's "smoldering" is nothing but sensationalism and fake news.

Melania's shoes: cost $1995

Now, the other issue is this. That Ms Trump was smoldering and wearing these heels to accentuate her height, does not mean she is a good lover or a more intelligent and gracious women than Ms Erdogan.  I want to add a little bit of my own experience here. I was in London last year and got to talking to two women with heavy cockney accents. They were both Muslims. They were both dressed in black and one was comletely covered except the eyes and the other I could see her entire face. I got to talking to the one with the eyes only exposed and apart from the lovely cockney accent she had beautiful eyes and it made me wonder what the rest of her looked like under there. I was not put off by the garb although I am not sure I would want it 24/7. But I am not wearing it.

 

I found the mystery of it it quite titillating. After I explained to her that we weren't all like the Predator in Chief here in the US she began to womansplain me about why she wore this attire. She was not shy.

 

It was her choice outside of the home she said. It was cultural and in the present climate I guessed it might be more important for her than ever. This was my impression because I remember when I lived in this small village in England I was pretty much the only Catholic. I went to a Catholic school in the nearest town about 12 miles away and I have this memory of standing at a bus stop wearing the uniform of Blessed George Napier Roman Catholic Secondary Modern and feeling very proud of it. It's sort of like being the sole representative of a dying language. One has to defend it. The more Muslims are demonized, the more they will defend their faith and culture.

 

Anyway, as they walked off I turned to them and, being as the only Muslims I know are Arabs  I said "mas salama" or goodbye. Immediately I heard this "Oy, we're not Arabs we're Bengalis." A lesson learned.

 

Emine Erdogan.

Now the important thing is that I do find it odd and repressive that a woman dresses like that and yet a Muslim man can wander around uncovered. But who are we to talk. We have 10 year old children dressing like 25 year old women with makeup and lipstick and parading around like models. They are not behaving like children should.

The main thing is that no one should be told what they should or should not wear (young children excepted). Madison Avenue tells us what to wear. We have young people walking around with pants with lots of holes in them that cost a lot of money. Millions are spent convincing women especially to dress and look a certain, way.  I remember reading Malcom X's autobiography and he talked of wearing his hair in a way that made him appear more like a European, a white man. The capitalists don't spend billions on advertising because it doesn't work. The media can convince us of anything.  

 

As for Melania Trump's spontaneous combustion in Brussels. From reports I read in the media, the last time she smoldered like that was when her husband admitted to the world that he grabs women's crotches whether they like it or not, so there is evidence that sponataneous combustion and anger are connected.

I sort of fancy Ms Erdogan.

Kevin Higgins on Theresa May's Love of Foxhunting

The Great Repeal — a poem by Kevin Higgins

May 14, 2017 Kevin Higgins

Image: Jaymo.

The Great Repeal

By Kevin Higgins
“As it happens, personally I have always
been in favour of fox hunting” — Theresa May

Furthermore,

when we abolish the political correctness gone mad
that is the Human Rights Act,
it will again be legal to strip and smear
Conservative parliamentary candidates
with animal fat and pursue them with hounds
through the Devon countryside
bank holiday Mondays; legal

to remove from your property
with a horse whip or, failing that, a cross bow
any Daily Mail journalists
you catch going through your bins;

legal to tie down and spread tuna fish oil all over
the Chairman (or Woman) of a FTSE 100 company
and leave the rest
to your expert team of feral cats;

legal to chase
with demented Alsatians
through Welwyn Garden City of a Wednesday
former rock journalists with nothing left
but their opinion of themselves;

legal in certain parts of East Sussex
to set starving greyhounds
on anyone you think resembles
a retired tennis player
or Mike Reed of the BBC;

legal again to hunt, using properly licensed rifles,
decayed intellectuals
with nothing now going on under
their formerly magnificent hair
on the anniversary of Professor Norman Stone’s funeral;

legal once more to celebrate
St. George’s Day by following
Pippa Middleton around Herefordshire with bulldogs
and a temperamental shotgun;

when the British people rise,
put the B back into Britain
and she once again rules
the itsy-bitsy waves
around the Isle of Wight, mate.
The waves around the Isle of Wight.

Bernie Sanders: Please just go away

Sanders came down like a wolf on the fold
The young people loved him, he's honest they're told
He asked all the questions, why are there more poor
And the liberals went nuts, please Bernie say more

He traveled the country greedy bankers beware
You are good men too but be nice and share
I know it sounds bad, revolution and all
But there's much anger out there if it spreads we'll all fall

I'm not going to win  if I do it's Ok
Hillary or me you'll still have your say
Gosh darn look what happened that Trump took the cake
I'll work with him though if he'll put on the brake.

Please Donald think of the people you hurt
You go way to far making them more alert
to the system we live in truth that we lied
Please Donald help me or we'll all be damn fried

I am a good socialist as you can see
There's not that much difference between you and me
Just be a nice guy that's all that it takes
Please Donald please put on the brakes.

I know folks are angry, they heeded my call
But my revolution really was nothing at all
A few vague phrases to get her more votes
If rich folks make money they'll raise all the boats

I still go on about how its all bad
The more that I whine, the madder the mad
But now it's all over I'll be on my way
Independent again, had my fun for a day

But please Donald please, think of the poor
I know your a good man I'm pretty damn sure
Your dad was a slumlord, a Nazi, a thug
But I'm here now Donald, I'll give you a hug.

Can't we all just get along

Emma Peel with a special nod to Byron

An Inaugural Poem.

I have been invited by Dept of Foreign Affairs to read this poem at The White House on St. Patrick's Day. KH

Image not with the original publication. Source

I Am Pleased To Congratulate On Behalf Of The People Of Ireland

Donald J. Duck on his election
as forty fifth, and possibly final,
President of that great entity
traditionally known as the United
States which, admittedly,
by the time he’s finished with it,
will likely be called something else.

In the heat of battle President-elect
Duck has said things
which have left him with bridges to build
with certain people, such as Mexican
transsexuals, and women
who don’t want him,
or anyone politically
associated with him even thinking
about grabbing their
vaginas, or the vaginas of their
friends, mothers-in-law, or
as yet unborn children.

We think today in particular of
Secretary of State Clinton,
though only very briefly,
for eaten parsnips are quickly
digested, and we must move on.
Democracy (and, for that matter,
dictatorship) have their own outcomes.
This being the case, if President-elect
Duck wants to build a crazy golf course
in every front garden on this island,
I will work closely with compliant
urban district councils, sympathetic
journalists, and members of the judiciary
to have the necessary planning
fast-tracked.

And rest assured, every opportunity
that presents itself, either
I or one of my Ministers will be there
to shake his hand,
or any other part of his anatomy
President-elect, Donald J.
Duck, wants shaken.

KEVIN HIGGINS

Revelation or revolution. It's a no brainer.

by Richard Mellor

I think this map is on the wall in the US Congress

Afscme Local 444, retired

I have to admit I was somewhat awestruck by the following words at one point in my life.

"And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth."Revelation, 14. 2

If I could only learn that damn song. But things got a little rougher:

"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels." Revelation, 12. 7

The problem now was that I found myself sort of attracted to serpents and dragons and didn't want to be one of the 144 thousand if it meant the serpents and dragons couldn't come with me. To be honest, I just didn't like Michael if he didn't like animals. And, I wanted to know how the world worked.

I was the only Catholic in my village if I remember and I had a little alter in my room with two little candles and a plastic virgin Mary in the middle. By the age of 10 I had really become interested in biology and how the body worked. I was reprimanded for my experiments in the field and even had to say ten or sometimes 20 hail Mary's as a punishment. "Bless me father I have sinned, I have had immoral thoughts" I had to tell the man with the cloak. I felt like Galileo who was imprisoned for saying the world was round, or the great alchemists and women healers who were burned at the stake as witches for studying science. But I could say the hail Mary's very quickly so it didn't last long. More importantly I didn't give up my passion for biology, I was going to follow in the footsteps of the great alchemists.  So I would turn the plastic statue of the virgin around when I conducted my experiments so she wouldn't be able to snitch on me anymore.  I became quite an expert in my field.

But later on as I was becoming more interested in the world around me, about human society, tribal culture, feudalism, slavery and the system I found myself in that was called capitalism or freedom. I came across these words that seemed to me to make a lot more sense than what I was taught. I still kept an interest in biology but I had found my calling. They made a lot more sense to me than the war between Michael and his angels and the two animal. I mean, did they really do that?

I was told not to read these words as a bad man wrote them, a god hating man named Karl Marx. He wrote, among other things:

"In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness."

 

Another German dude, Fred Engels, an atheist like the previous author, also wrote some words that made me perk up. He wrote:

 "The materialist conception of history starts from the proposition that the production of the means to support human life and, next to production, the exchange of things produced, is the basis of all social structure; that in every society that has appeared in history, the manner in which wealth is distributed and society divided into classes or orders is dependent upon what is produced, how it is produced, and how the products are exchanged. From this point of view, the final causes of all social changes and political revolutions are to be sought, not in men's brains, not in men's better insights into eternal truth and justice, but in changes in the modes of production and exchange” 

I wonder why the first versions that I eventually abandoned as they seemed absurd after I was about 10 years old, are quite prominent in the institutions of capitalism, this free society we live in, and the latter ones have to be sought out, the authors demonized, the philosophy slandered. 

 

The people that propagate the former view of the world have built buildings where they can gather people up and tell them about Michael and dragons and angels and even cherubs. It is an important business with a lot of employees and gold and property.  They have some buildings that can hold as many as 30,000 people but not the 144,000, that special group that their book says will be lifted up from the earth. Many of the US branch of this view of the world has moved to Israel/Palestine because that's where the ship is going to land that will take them out of here.

Oh well, at least I don't have to say 10 hail Mary's anymore.

Irish team wins the gold and explain how they did it.

My friend from North Carolina asked me if the guys above who won the rowing gold in Rio were speaking English. What's the matter with her? Of course they are. They're just excited and as they say, it's great craic altogether.  No prepping for these guys, say this, say that. Be professional don't upset the viewers or more importantly, the sponsors, don't say anything controversial.

I went in to a pub once, or should a say an Irishman who shall remain unnamed took me in to it. It was in Galway. "Only Irish spoken here" a sign said. I was disappointed not because I can't speak Irish, but because I would be denied the pleasure of hearing English spoken the Irish way.

You have to love these two guys, regular folks, went to Rio and won the damn medal,  I miss this accent so much. In England it is not a rarity, and is particularly common in the sport of horse racing as so many jockey's are  Irish and some of the greatest trainers in the world are too.

So, in the words of a famous Yorkshireman,  Eyt all, sup all, pay nowt; And if ivver tha does owt fer nowt – Allus do it fer thissen.

We're free because our media is free from government control.

If there is one thing to be thankful about it is that we have a free media in the US.  I was just thinking about how important that is and wanted to share with readers a few truths that would never have come to light without a free mass media as those claiming responsibility for events are revealed to us.

Richard Mellor 

Event                                                          Those responsible

Killed Kennedy                                               ISIS

Marilyn Monroe                                             Saddam Hussein

John Denver                                                   Moamar Ghaddafi

Cancelled Seinfeld                                         PLO

Princess Diana                                               Osama bin Laden

2007 crash                                                     Keyser Soze'

Roseanne Barr’s anthem catastrophe           Bashar al Assad

Holocaust                                                      Yasser Arafat

Global Democracy                                       Henry Kissinger

Warriors 2016 NBA final defeat                  ISIS

Exaggerators Belmont defeat                      Muslims

Creator’s Belmont win                               Westboro Baptist Church

Photo of Liz Tyler breastfeeding                ISIL

Jebnnifer Anistons self doubt                     Vladimir Putin

Unhappiness                                                 Muslims

War                                                               Muslims

Flint water crisis                                          Muslims from Dearborne only

Katrina                                                         Hugo Chavez

Shot Malcolm X                                           Bob Hope

These are just a few of the important events in our time that we would never understand if our media wasn’t free.