Monday, 16 August 2021

Biden, Chamberlain and the left: appeasers of tyranny





















The shock of the Taliban's victory in Afghanistan leaves a cold feeling inside not just me but millions of others around the world. Already the executions and violations of human rights have begun in earnest. 

The so-called socialist left has almost without exception celebrated the defeat of what it calls "Western Imperialism" claiming it was the Americans and the West who are the real enemy.

Tell that to the fleeing Afghans. 

Tell that to the women who will be forced back into total subservience.

Tell that to the female Mayor of Kabul who said she awaited her fate.

The rise of religious fascism will not end here. ISIS has lost one caliphate it is building elsewhere. In Mozambique, in Sub-Saharan Africa. Al Queda remains a threat as do the the terrorists of Hezbollah armed to the teeth in the failed state of Lebanon by Iranian clerics who seek hegemony in the Muslim world.

The there's the war in Yemen. The left blame the West yet it is the Iranians who started this conflict and armed the Houthi.

There was the war in Syria where the left only protested about Western bombs as if the Russian ones killed and maimed no one whilst propping up Assad's vicious dictatorship.

Religious fascism in the form of Islamism has scored yet another victory against the ever weakening democracies. The enemy without is joined by the enemy within. Not just Islamists but those that cover them like the various left-wig sects who seek to destroy our democratic way of life and think the defeat of the West by deranged Jihadists will hep their cause.

If our freedoms are to survive then the time has come to stand up to the Islamists and the so-called left both at home and abroad.

The left have shown that do not care one jot about ordinary people. They parasitically adopt issues to further their own cause. They cynically use race, religion, asylum seekers, refugees, antisemitism and whatever else they can get their claws into to undermine and divide. In this they are no better than the fascists

If our freedoms are to survive then the time has come to stand up to the Islamists and the so-called left both at home and abroad.

____________________

Meanwhile President Biden will join Chamberlain as one of history's worst appeasers. 

Satire meets reality........

Thursday, 12 August 2021

Musical Influences - Genesis


























Genesis were one of the earliest bands I got into starting with Selling England By The Pound and Genesis Live very quickly after grabbing a couple of albums from their back catalogue all of which are now considered classics of the Prog Rock Genre.


























The band are not to everybodies tastes as I became aware especially after they drifted into the world of popular music, though for the most part I continued to follow them for a long time. However the influence that Genesis had on me was very much only up to their double concept album, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.

It was this song that brought  to my attention when I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe) entered the charts in 1973. Love the lyrics....




























Peter Gabriel was a great front-man for Genesis, though this led to jealousies with the other members of This track from Genesis Live, The Knife was originally from the LP Trespass.



The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway was the last album from their classic years and remains a favourite to this day though my vinyl copy purchased in my schooldays really does need replacing with a CD!






Wednesday, 11 August 2021

"The billionaires are the government and they are Israel"

If anyone needs reminding how inherently antisemitic & conspiracy theory led the Corbynites were and remain even without their Messiah I offer you this. 

Note the first two lines.

And then see how only the democratic West gets the blame. Russia, China & Iran are always let off the hook. 



Monday, 9 August 2021

Does anyone remember the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign?

 















Back in the early eighties during the Thatcher years I recall a whole umber of different campaigns that we (that is the "left") used to go o demos protesting about. El Salvador, South Africa and Nicaragua backing the Sandinistas if I recall correctly. 

There was certainly a more internationalist approach by the left than today where the obsession with the Israel/Palestine conflict to all else has led to the rise of an antisemitic left*. But I digress, well sort of. Do you remember the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign?

I do. Had the t-shirt, mug, various badges, pamphlets and went on a few demonstrations. It was a big campaign supported by the unions, the Labour Party and the left almost without question. Today we hear very little about it ever sice the "right side" that is the left "won".

Daniel Ortega was the hero of so many of us as he fought the oppressive US backed regime ad set up a new socialist future. Yet today even Beauty Queens are not safe from him and his wife who both have every intention of hanging onto power at all costs.

As elections approach The Guardian reports:

For months Ortega’s government has been detaining political adversaries, including presidential hopefuls, ahead of an election in which the former Marxist guerrilla and cold war antagonist of Washington will be running for a fourth consecutive term.

Berenice Quezada, who was Miss Nicaragua 2017, was detained at her home late on Tuesday night and placed under house arrest, the Citizens Alliance for Liberty (ACXL) party said.

She was the eighth contender in the election to be arrested since May. The other seven candidates and about two dozen opposition leaders have been arrested on vague treason charges. Most of those arrested in the crackdown are being held incommunicado, at undisclosed locations and with no access to lawyers

Of course if you listen to those few comrades still defending the so-called "revolution" it's all the fault of the USA and the "right-wing opposition.....

















The Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group claims:

Nicaragua faces a critical situation as it approaches its elections in November. The US has upped the ante once again, threatening Nicaragua with yet more sanctions and other coercive measures and continuing to fund and support Nicaragua's right-wing opposition. As has been the case for several years now, the reports in corporate media give a completely distorted and false impression of what's actually going on in the country.

Not sure how a Beauty Queen is such a threat but then Ortega has his fawning fan club with the likes of Margaret Flowers tells us:

.... social transformation (revolution) requires both political power and participation by the people. Without political power, revolutionary programs will not have the material resources they require. Without the participation of the people, revolutionary programs, even with resources, cannot be put into practice and defended.

Typical Marxist gush that relates to the imposition of "socialism" from the top down by any means necessary which brooks no opposition as the experience from the Soviet Union through China to Cuba has taught us.  

No wonder Nicaragua has been put on the back burner by so may of the comrades. Every one of their revolutions has brought not justice or freedom but repression and dictatorship by the vanguard that the left see themselves as beig part of. A corrupted ideology through and through.
___________________________________________________

*And they wonder why no Jew can ever trust them over Israel? No one should trust them ever. I will return to this theme tomorrow using their own words

Friday, 6 August 2021

Kim Wilde ft Boy George - Shine On (New Single!)


























It's rare that I buy 7" vinyl singles these days though I did pick up a couple (Hawkwind & Alien Weaponry) a few years back but it's not like the old days when we could pop out after school and pick up the latest releases for 50p a shot! The going rate for a vinyl single these days appears to be £7.99, so just for the occasional treat. 

This latest limited edition release from Cherry Red Records features two stars from the eighties, Kim Wilde & Boy George teaming up for a duet. I've always been a fan of Kim Wilde and did pick a album of hers a couple of years back.

Anyway without further adieu for a Friday night is their duet Shine On....



Available from: www.cherryred.co.uk

Kim's Website: www.kimwilde.com

Thursday, 5 August 2021

Musical Influences - Pink Floyd


























Pink Floyd are one of Britain's most successful bands and back in 1973 when they released Dark Side Of The Moon it seemed like everyone who listened to music had a copy and that poster was on their wall! The album seemed to stay in the charts like forever. It was in fact a world wide hit. 

As a result I began collecting Floyd;s back catalogue and over the years did manage to have all their studio albums though a couple did get nicked. I recall their first two LP's beig re-released as a double album as A Nice Pair and when I got enough money remember the shop assistants face when I asked if they had the album. Did't think. Realise now. Sorry love. My bad.


























Floyd did a mixture of both serious and amusing tracks such as Bike which remains the missus favourite.




Another of Pink Floyd's amusing little tracks was the rather lengthily named Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict from the Ummagumma double album.



Although I like all their albums, though the jury is still out on their last effort The Endless River. If you ask me which is my favourite it will always be Atom Heart Mother.  It's unlikely that there will ever be any new albums from the bad though I do keep a eye out for Dave Gilmour.




Monday, 2 August 2021

Taking Some Time On: Underground sounds of 1970 (Cherry Red Records)





























The seventies opened with a whole world of underground and/or progressive rock as most of these bands were known to me as I became interested in music in the early seventies. Previously Cherry Red Records had released Banquet covering the underground scene in 1969. Additionally they released New Moons In The Sky: The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1970 plus two subsequent compilations covering 1971 and 1972 respectively.






















This compilation features bands which have appeared in both series such as Family, Hawkwind and Curved Air amongst others. Like all the releases in these series their are bands that I was familiar with, vaguely heard of or had not heard of at all. Certainly unless one has a vast collection of early seventies albums most of these tracks will not be in your collection. In this 4 CD set there are just two tracks I already had out of a total of 57.

CD 1 includes tracks from Barclay James Harvest, Fleetwood Mac, Van De Graaf Generator, T2 and more. I have chose this number,  The Song Of McGuillicudie The Pusillanimous from Egg



CD 2 Introduces us to Kevin Ayres, Traffic, Rare Bird,Stray, Family and others. From this I have selected Funny Ways from Gentle Giant.




CD3 brings us Quatermass, East Of Eden, Hawkwind, Cressida Affinity and others. From this I have selected Things May Come, Things May Go, But The Art School Goes On by Pete Brown and Piblokto




Finally on CD 4 we get Michael Chapman, Curved Air, Yes and more though the choice to end this post is Heaven from Gracious. 




Available from: www.cherryred.co.uk

The previous compilation in this series is still available: