The trees that survived the bombing of Hiroshima
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-52459140
I touched on similar themes in my 2019 blog post about evolution and civilization: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/26/the-tide-is-coming-in-reflections-on-the-possible-end-of-our-present-civilization-and-what-might-follow/.
The topic is perhaps particularly apposite today, being the day on which the disastrous Second World War started in 1939, 82 years ago.
Alison Chabloz
Usually-reliable sources report the following about Alison Chabloz, the persecuted singer-songwriter and satirist:
Alison remains well, despite still being incarcerated in Bronzefield Prison near Heathrow.
Apparently, Alison’s room or (to put it that way) cell has a view of a courtyard in which are flowers and cherry-blossom trees. Alison not only sings, but also paints, and is painting the said courtyard scene.
Alison has now been given a (paid) job in the prison, involving arts and crafts, sewing, beading etc; she enjoys such activity anyway.
Breakfast for Alison is, firstly, cereal and milk, delivered to her room along with two flasks of hot water. A full “English” breakfast can then be had elsewhere, together with toast, jam etc. The plentiful supply of snacks said to be available during the day seems almost superfluous. Oh, and the menu for lunch always has six choices, including vegetarian, halal and even kosher! Ha ha! Ironic…
Sources report that today’s lunch for Alison consisted of fish and chips, by reason of today being a Friday. A strange survival from Europe’s monkish past.
Well, of course Alison should never have been prosecuted at all, let alone sent to prison, but it is good to know that she is not quite in the “GULAG Archipelago”…
Perhaps Bronzefield Prison should enter the TV “bed and breakfast” competition, Four in a Bed! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_in_a_Bed. It scores on “value for money”, if nothing else…
At present, Alison is in prison until around the end of the month, but may be released earlier; we shall see.
Tweets seen
Ash Sarkar is a joke even by the standards of the self-describing “Left” (pseudo-socialists). Hard to believe that a “university” (albeit a “McUniversity”) actually employed her briefly to teach “Global Politics” (her degree was in English Literature): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_Sarkar.
A “libertarian communist“…what can one say?
I blogged, a couple of years ago, about people of, or similar to, her sort: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/18/some-thoughts-about-venezuela-socialism-and-developing-a-more-advanced-society/; and https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/01/disordered-and-infantile-people/.
“Idiocy” seems about the right description.
Actually, to get a measure of the sort of political moronics that support Ash Sarkar and her views, you only have to look at most of the replies to that tweet. Alarmingly thick (and ignorant) people.
More tweets
I often think back to the situation in Eastern Europe in the 1980s. I was there a few times in the late 1980s, and travelled there and back by both car and plane; Poland, Czechoslovakia, DDR (East Germany), spending over 90% of that time in Poland. I also had contact with Soviet matters in the 1980s, though did not visit Moscow until later (1993, and then in 2007).
In those 1980s days, despite ramshackle aspects and popular discontent (especially in Poland), socialist rule seemed strongly embedded in Eastern and parts of Central Europe. Eventually, it just fell off like a snake’s skin.
Thinking back further, the Shah of Iran seemed fairly secure on his throne until…well, until one fine day his whole government and society just collapsed.
Late tweets seen
Exactly. There is always the understandable temptation to see the best in the System drones and politicos, “doing their best” etc. Sadly, reality then breaks in, and you see the evil iron fist within that “caring sharing”, “liberal” velvet glove.
Part of the deliberately-cultivated lunacy of the times.
Exciting.
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 