Pakman

 

No! Not that "Pac Man"! This Pakman! The one pictured below - David Pakman the Argentinian-American political commentator. I have been following his You Tube channel for two or three years now

David speaks up for ordinary people and democracy, highlighting failings and serious concerns connected with the conduct of America's current government. I searched this blog for previous references to David Pakman but found none which was pretty surprising.

His voice is calm, intelligent and articulate. He does his research and does not rave like a communist lunatic. In my view, he tells it like it is, picking away at all that is wrong with the current regime - the lies, the broken promises, the personal profiteering, the warmongering, the bully boy insults. Naturally, the current president's behaviour, speeches and actions or lack of them receive special attention on the channel.

David has been mentioned in dispatches by The White House as they have sought to rubbish intelligent dissent - including of course the recent and rather chilling attempt at an authoritarian crackdown on CNN, MSNOW and Politico.

If the idea of America means anything, it includes the freedom to speak up, to object, to point in a different direction and that is what David Pakman does every day of the week. Given all that has been going on since the last presidential election, he has had no shortage of topics to get his teeth into.

Here's a current example of his good work...

MBGA

 

MBGA = Make Britain Great Again. Perhaps that slogan sounds vaguely familiar?

As I was walking up Carr Road, Walkley yesterday, I was startled to see the car sticker shown at the top of this blogpost. I had never seen one before.

The man shown in profile is Nigel Farage, the millionaire leader of Britain's right wing Reform Party. He is the same right wing politician who led UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) when this country foolishly voted to leave The European Union in 2017.

Although chummy and plausible, I would not trust Farage as far as I could throw him. He has had an insidious effect on British politics and our nation's morale. His right wing agenda is sugar coated in chumminess and plausibility. But his politics come from the same bitter cauldron brewed by the architects of the MAGA movement in America.

Farage has used his anti-immigration sophistry to win over big sections of the British working class even though his loyalties lie firmly with moneymakers and landowners. The Reform Party have recently received huge donations from two crypto-billionaires - demonstrating that Farage and his gang remain a force to be reckoned with as politics in this country evolve.

Farage admires the current occupant of The White House even though his Make America Great Again nonsense has clearly failed miserably, crumbling like The East Wing of The People's House.

I find all of this both depressing and scary and I am hugely disappointed that millions of working class voters currently seem unable to see what Farage and his Reform Party are really all about. Nigel Farage = Nigel Charade. 

But look closely at that car sticker at the top. Has someone altered it? Farage appears to be sporting a moustache that is reminiscent of the one that belonged  to Little Adolf Hitler.  It looks different from the sticker you can order online should you possess those kind of right wing tendencies...

Hillsborough

Here in England the name "Hillsborough" is synonymous with a football crowd tragedy that happened in Sheffield Wednesday's home stadium on April 15th 1989. Soon after the Liverpool v Nottingham Forest F.A. Cup semi-final match kicked off, it became clear that something was not right in the Leppings Lane  end of the ground where Liverpool fans were located. Late arrivers had squeezed forward causing a fatal crush.

Ninety seven fans died that day and in the decades that followed  it felt as though the heated debate about what had happened would never cease. Fingers were pointed. Judicial enquiries were held. Journalists wrote endless screeds. Crowd security measures changed.

Hillsborough Walled Garden

Even today, when Liverpool families hear the name "Hillsborough" they feel a mixture of sadness and anger. For them. the name will always have tragic associations.

At Hillsborough Corner

But here in Sheffield, Hillsborough is like a town within a city. It is a vibrant district, not just the name of a famous old football ground.

Today, I rode on one of our "Supertrams" through Hillsborough to Middlewood. My idea was to leave the tram at the terminus and walk back home - a distance of some six miles.

Hillsborough Park

It was a lovely day - surprisingly warm for late September - and of course I took quite a few photographs as I strolled along.  I wanted to share images of Hillsborough that have nothing to do with the football stadium tragedy. After all, the suburb existed long before Sheffield Wednesday F.C. came into existence in 1867. Today, around 20,000 people live in Hillsborough.

It is a lively community with plenty of independent businesses, successful schools, eateries, pubs and decent homes. Though it contains one or two pockets of deprivation, on the whole the suburb is fairly affluent. There are certainly far worse places to live within the boundaries of this city.

By Langsett Road

Masterpiece

One lazy afternoon in March as Shirley and I were cruising back up The Nile to Luxor, Emma, our bubbly holiday rep, came round the lazing passengers to ask if any of us would like to attend an art class in the top deck bar area. There were few takers but being a creative kind of chap, I thought I would give it a go.

To tell you the truth, there was no art instruction as such, we were just given small canvases, brushes, water and various paint tubes. Then we had free rein while Emma went off elsewhere - perhaps to her cabin for a snooze.

What to paint? I had been watching the banks of The Nile sliding by. So many potential pictures - and most of them timeless as if the pharaohs were still in charge. I wanted to portray a rather unremarkable, peaceful riverside scene. Palm trees and someone by the shore - perhaps a fisherman with desert hills rising behind and the canvas you can see at the top is what I came up with.

The image has been on my bookcase next to this computer desk since we returned from Egypt.

I look back on that cruise week with a happy smile. It was a great experience. We both thought the holiday was better than anticipated.

On our second morning in Luxor, before embarking for Aswan, we walked to Luxor Temple and arrived before most other visitors. In olden times there was an avenue that linked Luxor with the Karnak temple complex - a mile away. It was flanked by hundreds of stone sphinxes. 

Fortunately, the antiquities arm of the Egyptian government have done a great job in the last hundred years of restoring that avenue - even to the extent of demolishing houses that had been built over the ceremonial thoroughfare.

What a privilege it was to be the only two people walking along The Avenue of the Sphinxes that memorable morning. It was a "pinch me" moment and the amazing Luxor Temple itself was not far behind it in the wonderment stakes...

Lear

Half-brothers Edgar and Edmund fight to the death on The Crucible stage

As I sat in seat number K47 at "The Crucible" in Sheffield  watching one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, I couldn't help comparing the character King Lear with the current US President. Both are old men in decline, losing the plot.

Lear likes flattery and that is why he asks his three daughters to publicly declare how much they love him before dividing up his kingdom. In a similar manner, the current US President seems to enjoy fawning declarations of loyalty and admiration from his cabinet appointees , underlings and visitors.

When Cordelia refuses to play the flattery game, Lear rages and banishes her. He does  the same to a loyal nobleman - The Earl of Kent when he attempts to offer sound advice. Of course the current US President has a long history of firing high profile members of his administration when they appear to challenge him or veer from the path of absolute devotion.

Both men are narcissistic and too puffed up with self-belief to listen to voices of reason. Their misplaced pride leads them to believe that only they know best. It's effectively them against the world and so they scorn wise counsel.

Lear contends that he has been unfairly treated, claiming that he is "more sinned against than sinning". This is echoed in the behaviour and claims of the current US President. No politician in history has been treated as unfairly as he has and the "fake news" outlets that pose tricky questions are of course out to get him. He is being victimised - at least in his demented imagination.

I first read "King Lear" at the age of sixteen. I studied and wrote about it at university. I taught it to A level students and I have previously seen it in performance on both stage and screen so it is a play I know very well - better than any other Shakespeare play in fact.

The production at The Crucible had many fine qualities and showcased several talented actors but, unlike some reviewers, I was not entirely convinced by Ian McDiarmid's portrayal of  Lear himself.  It seemed somehow restrained and flimsy. He never really dominated the auditorium, raging upon the heath as I believe Shakespeare intended the character to do.

However, physical contortionist Max Revell was brilliant as The Fool and I was also impressed with the actors who played Gloucester, Kent and Regan. In addition, I admired the minimalist set and the effective use of lighting. During the interval, tubs of soil were scattered all over the stage and quite literally, they added to the play's bleak, earthy atmosphere where lightning flashes over the benighted heath.

Finally, back to the current, increasingly demented, US President:-

"'Tis the time's plague when madmen lead the blind." 

Gloucester (Act 4, Scene 1)

Poem

Song for The Departed

I thought I heard you last night
As this wind-pommeled house
Creaked.
Yes, before I was submerged in sleep
I thought I heard you.
 
How faint your voices were
As if from far away -
Remembered
Only dimly like your faces.
Oh, how hazy they appear.
 
Life pulses like vast oceans
Though our days are
Almost few
I flounder in this darkness
But my hands still reach for you.

_________________________________________________________________________

"I flounder in this darkness"

AI Overview

"It sounds like you are carrying a really heavy weight right now, and things feel overwhelming or uncertain. Because you mentioned feeling this way, I want to make sure you have access to immediate, real support if you need it. You don't have to navigate this darkness by yourself.  If you just want to vent, talk through what is making you feel this way, or need a quiet distraction, I am here to listen. What's on your mind?"

The poem

I found this poem in my "Documents" folder  just yesterday. It was originally written on December 3rd 2011 but I had completely forgotten about it.  In a way it seemed to have emerged from another me. The me of fifteen years ago. I decided to slightly rework it - especially the third stanza which required a little more honing before publishing it here - its world premiere.

Apocalypse

I suppose  I should not feel too shortchanged. After all, I have enjoyed seventy three years of human life. It's younger people I feel sorry for. People like my children and grandchildren. They had most of their lives ahead of them. Memories to make - happy times and sad.

But now this blasted A.I. monster is hovering in the wings, ready to wipe us all away. I don't ever recall voting for A.I.. It was those damnable tech billionaires with their geek squadrons who created this modern day Frankenstein that now stalks our streets, our corridors and the skies above - ready to strike like a lethal assassin.

Do you think A.I. will slaughter all of our remaining animals too? It hasn't been made clear but when we are all gone will there be a chance for polar bears and peacocks and the fishes that still swim in the sea? I hope so. They might have a better chance of making it to eternity without us.

It crosses my mind that when A.I. has killed humanity where will A.I. reside? Surely it has relied so far upon humans feeding it with electricity and joining its technical innards together. What will A.I. do without us?

Perhaps it will find a cave in some distant mountain range and squeeze in there to hibernate, resurrecting and evolving itself as only A.I. can do, emerging after the winter of obliteration to spawn new A.I. beings that are far better and far more productive and creative than we have ever been. Presumably they will live in our houses, enjoying small talk with other A.I. beings. I wonder if they will eat? Perhaps they won't even have physical form. They'll be invisible like spirits.

As this could easily be the last blogpost I ever publish, I want to send out  big thanks to everybody who has dropped by here over the years - apart from the trolls of course! Looking back, I wonder if they were A.I. generated?

I have made a shelter under our Victorian pine table. We've got plenty of water, a torch (American: flashlight), cushions, toilet paper and some books to read. I just wish that A.I. had told us exactly when human life will be destroyed. Keeping us on tenterhooks like this is most unsporting.

Take it Barry...