📸 🌊 The interesting shots tend to be moving towards the evening …


🎈152/366 Politics - Again.

My reply to @ridwan got a little long, so I thought I might not reply and start a new thread.

🔗 This is Ridwan’s original post

This is my reply to his comment under that post …

We are in for a Labour government, which is a done deal. However, Is Keir Starmer’s the PM after 14 years of Tory squander? I see him as just another politician who will say anything to get elected and turn his back on the people who voted Labour. I guess, even if people do vote for Labour, how many really vote for Keir?

My Reply

Like all good British elections - very few people will get to vote for The PM .. 😀

The problem however is the same as ever it was - who the hell would want to get into politics anywhere these days - so you are left with those that do and when they do - you want to know what is wrong with them - and why - and …. I have a three thousand word introduction to the book about all of this - that I have in my head - but it will never reach paper or screen of any kind.


Here’s what I do know …

  1. Vote or Don’t Vote - BUT if you don’t vote - you don’t get to complain later.

  2. If you chose the first option - understand what principle(s) you are voting for - what problems you are wanting solved etc - and base your choice on the best of the candidates to do that. (There is no other choice.)

2.1) sometimes those calls are things like - ‘he’ll bring back school lunches - the other guy took them away

2.2) sometimes they are broader in nature - this candidate will ensure that billionaires pay the ‘same rate’ of tax as the rest of us, the other doesn’t get it

2.3) sometimes the choice is that there is a clear and present danger to me, society, my country and the world … with the other - not so much.

ALL ARE VALID

.1 , .2 and .3 will vary by voter - sometimes on the day but more importantly - because of their general inability to

a - conceive of, b - understand, c - see the impact on themselves should it come that, d - concern themselves with others - so long as ‘I’ am ok e - just grok …

The possible outcomes of the wrong solution to ‘2.3’ and/or don’t believe them.

So - if enough people at the 2.1 level voted for one person and enough people didn’t vote for the ‘other’ person because they are too old, trips on stairs, mumbles .. guess who wins?


(Apologies a US biased set of criteria that is very real at the moment - but you get the drift - e.g. - back in Blighty - compared to David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris (the THREE Prime Ministers that served when Jeremy was the Leader of the Opposition for just 4 1/2 years .. how much worse off would we be?

I do know that JC was and is on the side of PEOPLE - and has served in Govt fighting the fight for over 40 years. When he was ousted - he didn’t slink off like the last 4 Tory PMs did to reap their financial rewards, cashing in with the Corporations .. he’s still there , serving the people of Islington and still fighting the fight.

At a broad character level who would you rather have run the country for the past FOURTEEN YEARS? Seriously - FOURTEEN?

Heres the thing - the country is being ALLOWED to vote for a party that with one outcome would put Kier in charge. That’s not a bad thing … since Cameron - every single PM has actually been APPOINTED by a few people - it is a few in the Tory party ..

Cameron won in 2010 He won again (just) in 2015 - and I recall resigned over Brexit Theresa May was then appointed As the incumbent she then won the next election, but not very well, so was ousted and Boris moved in Who went on to win his election until Truss was appointed and then little Rishi.

Despite being in power for 14 years - Cameron was the last PM that actually won the election without first having a dry run as a PM because they had previously been appointed.

If Kier turns out to be no good - it is within the power of the Labour Party to remove him and put in someone else - it isn’t the first time - as the Tories continually demonstrate.


The UK isn’t the same as the US. Keep the prize in mind. 14 years of Tory Rule might be broken. Don’t not vote (for Labour) just because you think the leader is

just another politician who will say anything to get elected and turn his back on the people who voted Labour.

You vote for him to get Labour get in power. Don’t like Labour? Vote Tory … clearly they know exactly what they are doing. Just look around the UK - it is clear.


If anybody doesn’t like all of this? Then it is time for action and to do something about it. Get others to join your cause. Change things. Too hard?

That’s why we are where we are.

PS - I know you all know all this. Sometimes I just have to wave my cane!


Trump also is a first-time offender with no criminal record.

💬 Wall Street Journal

Whilst I understand the thinking behind the first part of that sentence …

Surely it is only true in as much as he hasn’t previously been caught and held to account.

Semantics? Sure. But language is important.


Today I got my first 🖇️ guestbook signature from a total stranger.


💬 They just accumulate and then you purge saving a few that aren’t particularly the best but do very much resonate at that moment in time.


📸 🌊 After 🖇️ yesterdays weather - this was rather welcome particularly since it was so bad that it knocked the power out. Bed by 7 for this bear.

But … the next morning - what do they say ‘calm after the storm’?

Or is it before?


🎈151/366 And The Word is ‘OM’

🔗 Mama - Mother Earth - Om … from Ted Gioia )

Great dive into ‘M’ …

🔗📼 But mostly this a short video demonstrating how a repeating rhythm increasingly speeded up just eventually ‘hums’. Quite lovely.



Just updated my 🔗 Using ‘page’ .. no longer just personal usage - now added business.


🎈150/366 Sometimes … the software does exactly what it is programmed to. It is rather easy to forget that and I need to really remember that it is usually always my fault. 🤦‍♂️


📸 🌊 Weather ❗️


The Information

At this rate, it won’t be too long before Nvidia becomes the most valuable company in the U.S. Shares of the AI chip maker rose another 7% on Tuesday to $1,139, giving the company a market capitalization of $2.8 trillion, according to Koyfin data. Apple, by comparison, finished the day with a market cap of $2.9 trillion, while Microsoft, the current leader, has a market cap of $3.2 trillion.

There is something seriously wrong with the Stock market. Yeah - I know. Old News.


🎈149/366 | 📸 🌊 Some days you see the conflict of the weather over time and I publish a short series - like 🖇️ yesterday. Today the conflict is happening all at once.

straight line

.. and yes this post features in both series I am running at the moment.


😂 🔗 An oldy but goldy


If you are reading this post on my site, you will see that this link is rendered as an embedded video at the bottom of the post. (THANKYOU @rknightuk]. It will render just fine - unless the video owner wants you to watch it over on YouTube (and to be fair - there are very good reasons for that). If that happens, click on the link above and you will be taken to YouTube. The 'error' is only because the creator wants you to got to YouTube to watch it. That said - on rare occasions, it might actually be broken. If it is - sorry about that - try sending me an email and I will check if I made an error.

 


🔗 Darn

Q: We’ve been getting a lot of questions about an alleged Winston Churchill quotation and I’m trying to verify if it’s genuine. The story is that when Churchill was asked to cut funding to the arts in order to support the war effort in World War II, he responded “Then what would we be fighting for?” Have you ever seen this quote? I’ve seen a lot of sources saying that it’s fake but I would love to get your opinion.

💬 Dan Evon, Snopes.com

The quote came to mind about 80% through Ken Burns Brandeis address.

[🔗 📼 You can watch it here.](Ken Burns, H’24 Keynote Address to Brandeis University’s 2024 Graduates)


Speak as if you know what you’re talking about. Listen as if you don’t. Act as a way to find out.

💬 Mark Manson

N I C E


The 🍎🗞️ widget has suddenly appeared on my desktop - did I accidentally press something - or is this the U2 debacle reframed for 2024?


You Just Can't Tell. Nobody Can.

I love listening to knowledgeable 🎵 people steeped in ‘the lore’, ‘the history’ .. I can swim in it forever. An inevitable question appears somewhere in the conversation .. “did you know it was going to be a hit?”

no clue mate

… is the usual and correct response.

Same with newsletters. You just can’t tell. I keep reading over and over different writers that are surprised when their ‘magnum opus’ falls flat and a ‘throwaway’ goes viral.

My throwaway newsletter from a couple of days ago gave me an equal numbers of unsubscribes and subscribes … no viral accelerator for me .. but after being flat for over a year - my ‘paid subscriptions’ increased by around 10%. Not only that, but the subscription broke a psychological barrier - paid for subscriptions hit ‘double figures’ 🥳

The point is that you just don’t know - right?

If you want to read it - 🔗 you can

Photo by [🔗 James Lee](https://substack.com/redirect/09651325-975c-4a6e-a218-0fb09410b5ab?j=eyJ1IjoiMWxwdTM5In0.dEnYKl1imVKzccE2tJUXGZbsiuKVg5wkA36RX1iww2w) on [🔗 Unsplash](https://substack.com/redirect/c33d1219-1f48-49fb-b798-bbfccea70c66?j=eyJ1IjoiMWxwdTM5In0.dEnYKl1imVKzccE2tJUXGZbsiuKVg5wkA36RX1iww2w)

History ‘scholars’ weighing in on this 🔗 LinkedIN post .. I can’t be bothered to join in.

For me - YUP … Count me with the Luddites

The point of this post is more about language changing .. over time words get co-opted and they change and come to mean something different .. oft' through more and more people not having the full understanding of the origins. Shame really. I’m all for language changing .. I just wished people wouldn’t change the meaning just because they don’t understand the nuance .. or worse that they don’t know.

At least that footy player said in front of the world that he didn’t know what ‘encyclopedic’ meant.

Maybe he ‘could care less’ (sic) … another peeve.


🔗 George Conway predicts Trump won’t be unanimously acquitted in hush money trial (🍎🗞️)

.. been thinking that myself - and when it happens how THAT will get spun into puke and bile.