TRUMP AND THE LAW

As a Brit I am amazed at the on-going row between the Trump Administration and the Governor of California.

I can't imagine a situation in the UK where a judge could rule that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom committed an illegal act. Should such a situation occur it would result in the resignation of the Prime Minister and probably the fall of the Government virtually immediately.

Yet a lower court federal judge, Judge Breyer, rules that Trump committed an illegal act - violated the 1903 Militia Act and violated the 10th Amendment of the United States' Constitution and that pending a preliminary injunction hearing on Friday the matter is now before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal.

And Trump is still President, having been told, in court, by a federal judge, that he violated the 10th Amendment of the United States' Constitution which he swore on Inauguration Day to ' preserve, protect, and defend'.

I cannot conceive of anything even remotely similar occurring in the UK, the national government at war with a section of its own country  and being dragged before the courts for its actions.

How has this great country, the defender of democracy throughout the 20th century, sunk so low?

Is this truly what Americans voted for, is this the kind of country they want?

  A FAIR TRIAL? THE EXECUTION OF ANTHONY WAINWRIGHT

Carmen Gayheart was raped and murdered in April 1994 and her assailant,  Anthony Wainwright, was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death on May 30, 1995.

To my mind, there is something wrong with a justice system where Wainwright spent  over 30 years on death row before being executed by lethal injection on June 10, 2025.

A system which allows appeal after appeal, to the Florida Supreme Court, three times,  to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, twice, and to  the U.S. Supreme Court, all with little or no chance of success, cannot be either fair or just.

By comparison, when the United Kingdom enforced the death penalty execution was carried out after the elapse of three clear Sundays after sentence was passed. Appeals could be made to the Court of Appeal, only once, and if that failed to the Home Secretary.

If that was unsuccessful the file was annotated with the words, "The law must take its course", and the execution then went ahead, at the most three weeks after conviction and sentence.

I won't pretend that the United Kingdom's system was perfect, and yes! Miscarriages of justice did occur, which with a protracted stay between sentence and execution may have been prevented, such as the case of Timothy Evans, wrongly hanged for the murder of his daughter in 1950, a murder carried out by his landlord John Christie, which became clear at Christie's own trial three years later.

Had Evans still been on 'death row', although there was such thing in the UK,  then he may well have been pardoned, or at least afforded a re-trial.

Evan allowing for such infrequent cases I still feel that justice should not only be fair, but swift, sparing the condemned the agony of years of living in limbo, denying the relatives of the victims closure ( both Carmen Gayheart's parents died never knowing if her killer faced the ultimate punishment), and saving the state a fortune in both the costs of incarceration and of prolonged and repeated legal proceedings.

       In remembrance of the victims of Air India flight AI171

 To Cross the Rubicon.

In ancient Rome, it was illegal for a provincial governor to lead his army into Italy without the Senate's permission. 

The Rubicon River was the boundary between Italy and the province of Gaul, where Julius Caesar, serving as governor of Gaul, was with his army.

In 49 BC Caesar crossed the Rubicon with his legions, defying the law and triggering a civil war which ultimately led to Caesar becoming dictator for life.

In 2025 Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, sent his legions, the National Guard and elements of the United States Marine Corp, to perform  law enforcement in California in direct contravention of the law, which would need there to be, not merely civil disturbance, but an armed insurrection against the United States of America to justify the deployment of Federal Troops, which there was not.

In 49BC Caesar's action triggered a civil war with Caesar becoming dictator for life - the parallels between Trump's actions and those of Caesar are uncanny, and deeply disturbing.

Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat its mistakes.

 WHO'S TO DOOM?

 America is sailing in dangerous waters.

 Pam Bondi, the Attorney General of the US has authorised the FBI to arrest two judges who have dared to defy Trump's illegal deportation of alleged illegal aliens and has then gone on Fox News, the Trump media outlet, to brag about it and to threaten more such actions, stating that those who break the law, ie disagree with Trump, will be arrested.

 FBI Director Kash Patel has also posted his 'belief' that Judge Hannah Dugan obstructed FBI agents in carrying out an arrest.

Now 'belief', by Kash Patel or anyone else is a long long way from either proof or probable cause and such public comments on a matter which is now sub judice could also be adjudged as being predacious to a trial, something you'd think the Director of the FBI would be aware of, which may be why he has now deleted the post.

 Too Late  Kash, the damage is done and we all now know how much you respect the law.

 I make no comment as to whether or not these judges have committed some offence but when the Executive (Trump) goes to war with the Judiciary, who are the true guardians of democracy, it is a dangerous game, with far-reaching consequences for all Americans.

 "Where do murderers go, man! Who's to doom, when the judge himself is dragged to the bar?"

Herman Melville

 DEMOCRACY IN PERIL

 Two cases which are currently before the United State's courts have the potential to completely over-turn two of President Trump's principal election promises, to deport thousands of refugees, asylum seekers and illegal aliens to El Salvador, and that he would impose far-reaching tariffs on imports into the USA.

The first of these cases revolves around a ruling made on the 15 March by Federal Judge Boasberg when he imposed a temporary restraining order on the use, by the Trump Administration, of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act  to deport people to El Salvador and ordered a 14-day halt to the deportations covered by Trump's proclamation.

When told the planes had already departed, the judge issued a verbal order for the flights to be turned around to return to the USA and that people could not be deported without due process of law.

The Trump administration ignored his ruling thus putting them in contempt of court and liable to summery imprisonment.

Judge Boasberg is now starting proceedings to call the Trump administration to justice.

The second case comes from Governor  Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, who has begun a legal action against the Federal Government arguing that Trump has no power to enforce tariffs without the consent of Congress, which Trump has never obtained meaning his entire tariff strategy is illegal.

So how is Trump to going to salvage both his election strategy and stay out of jail?

About 90 days ago Trump signed an order requiring J D Vance and Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of State for Defence, to report on whether there was such an emergency that would justify Trump invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act, which would enable Trump to declare a State of Emergency, suspend the Constitution and the rule of law and govern by military force.

One might reasonable infer that these two Trump acolytes are most unlikely to go against Trump's wishes, which raises the very real possibility that Trump will indeed invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the militia, in effect the National Guard, or even his tens of thousands of MAGA supporters, the same ones who, at Trump's instigation, stormed the US Capitol Building  on 6th of January  2021.

Trump, thus released from any obligation to either the Constitution of the United States, or the rule of law, could imprison any who have dared to question or defy him.

Democracy is a fragile concept and once lost can rarely be recovered but under their current President the American people, for the most part ignorant of either the law or an understanding of what tyranny means, could wake up one morning to a very different America, one where the freedom to speak your mind, to hear both sides of an argument, to enjoy a free press, has disappeared.

Where George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' becomes a reality.

 

 COMMON SENSE RULES - AT LAST!

A female nurse is suspend for objecting at having to share a changing room with a man in a skirt.

Keir 'flip-flop' Starmer thinks one in a thousand women have a penis and that it is wrong to say only women have a cervix.

The finalists of the Ultimate Pool Women’s Pro Series held at Robin Park Leisure Centre in Wigan, Harriet Haynes and Lucy Smith, were both men.

Thank goodness this stupidity will come to an end now the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has ruled that the sex of anyone is determined by biology.

 Yes I know that should be self-evident to anyone except flip-flop Starmer , the managers of Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy and whichever idiots run the Ultimate Pool Women’s Pro Series - but it isn't!

Blinded by a perverse ideology, in thrall to the trans minority that says you can change your sex just by saying so, these and numerous others have, by their actions, discriminated against women for far too long.

It is not trans-phobic, or any other kind of artificially invented phobia, to state the bleeding obvious, that women carry the XX Chromosome and men the XY, and dressing in a skirt, self-identifying, or carrying around a Gender Recognition Certificate will never alter that.

A man is born a man and will die a man, no matter what they or anyone else, including Mr flip-flop, has to say to the contrary, and all credit to the Supreme Court for having the courage to defy this warped ideology and the howls of anguish spewing from those outraged self-interest, trans-support  groups and spell out the truth in no uncertain terms.

If one wants to see the true colour of those, mostly men, trans-activists one has only to look at the demonstrations held by those men in London, some carrying banners advocating burning J K Rowling as a witch, and that the only good TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) is a dead one.

So much for tolerance and compassion, little of which is on show from the vile misogynistic creatures sending death threats to those brave women who led the fight for female equality.

It is no surprise to hear that Labour politicians led by one-woman-in-a-thousand-has-a-penis Starmer, have already begun plotting to over-turn, or ignore, the court's ruling.

 THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS - AND DONALD TRUMP

I can't decide if Donald Trump is mad or just that his mouth isn't connected to his brain, either of which  would go some way to explaining his continuing bizarre utterances, think -

 'The USA should take over the Ukraine's atomic power stations'

'I don't regard Putin as a bad guy, (this invader of other sovereign nations he wants for his own)

'We're changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America'

'The United States will take over  the Gaza Strip and make it the Riviera of the Middle East............

but his latest  takes the biscuit, that it “Sounds good to me” that America should join the British Commonwealth of Nations!

An organisation made up of fifty six nations who at one time or another were British colonies or possessions, which of course America was until it decided to leave in 1776 and quite frankly I don't want back!

No Donald, you stay on your side of the Atlantic, play golf and wreak your nation, but don't think for one second you'd be welcome in our organisation of free sovereign states.

 THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACT AND ILLEGAL ALIENS

There has been various cases of late regarding asylum seekers, criminals  and illegal aliens avoiding deportation by citing their rights under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights.

One such case was that of convicted criminal Klevis Disha, an illegal immigrant, who was allowed to stay in Britain because it would be “unduly harsh” for his 10-year-old son not to be able to get chicken nuggets in Albania and would thus infringe his rights under Article 8, the right to a family life.

Another is that of a woman, repeatedly refused asylum who, citing her right to family life, in that she would be at risk of persecution if she returned to Nigeria, even though the tribunal judge acknowledged that she was lying, was given leave to remain in the UK.

For those unsure as exactly what this much-misused Article 8 says I quote:

RIGHT TO RESPECT FOR PRIVATE AND FAMILY LIFE

1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.

2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Note my underlining - Article 8 is NOT an absolute right but a qualified one and can be disregarded in the interests of public safety, like allowing a convicted criminal to stay in the UK, despite his son's love of chicken nuggets, or a lying Nigerian member of a terrorist organisation to also stay here.

The fact is, appeal tribunal judges are treating Article 8 as an absolute right, so either they are ignorant of the law, in which case they should not be on appeals tribunal in the first place, or they are, for personal political reasons, deliberately misusing the law, in which case they should be in prison.

 AMERICA FIRST

The European nations now getting themselves in a collective fit about America's seeming threat, led by its new President Donald J Trump, to withdraw from its position of the defender of western civilisation, as if this was something new.

Whilst the world has got used to seeing America in the role of global policeman, and has happily sheltered under its nuclear umbrella, it has in reality been fooling itself since 1945.

America at its heart is isolationist, and why not?

It has all the oil, coal and gas it can use; it can, should it so choose, produce more food than it can eat and is wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice. The world might need America, but it is doubtful that America needs the world.

Since its inception the United States has been essentially an inward-looking nation and where it has involved itself in world affairs it has been only to serve its own self-interest.

The USA would never have become involved in the First World War had Germany not incited Mexico to declare war on America and if Germany had not been so stupid as to order its submarines to sink US ships. Even when it did, belatedly, join the war it was not as a partner to the French and the British, rather it fought its own private war with Germany, did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles but made its own peace with Germany in 1921.

It is highly improbable that America would have chosen to take part in the fight against Hitler's Germany during World War Two.

There was, and has always been, a strong anti-British feeling amongst Americans, driven by their envy of our innovation, Empire and language. There was, in 1918, a very real possibility that America, now it had an army in Europe,  would 'sort out the British once and for all', presumably in revenge for losing the war of 1812.

There was at the same time a corresponding strong pro-German sentiment in America, the USA had, in the 1930s, the largest Nazi party outside Germany.

After Pearl Harbour America would have been quite content to have its own private Pacific War with Japan and leave Europe to sort out its own destiny and salvation had not Germany, in an act of madness, declared war on the USA.

Since the end of WWII we have seen American expansion and aggression across the globe, but it has rarely been to the advantage of the nations affected.

Korea, due to America's war, is a divided nation, each half living in perpetual fear of the other.

Vietnam was wracked with strife for 20 years, and for what? Not for Vietnam's benefit that's for sure.

The Gulf War? Nothing more than America's revenge for the loss of the Twin Towers, no matter how it might be dressed up as a fight for freedom.                                                                                              

One hundred years on from Woodrow Wilson's 'America First' annunciation in 1916 we see its resurgence in Trump's  threats  to withdraw from international treaties and  conduct an isolationist trade policy, imposing tariffs on imports in an effort to return America to a self-sufficient nation.

And now, Trump wants to buy Greenland, annex Canada and invade Panama, all for the greater good of..........the United States of America!

America First!

 

 TRANS-GENDER MADNESS

Actress Shobna Gulati has decided, at age 58, that she is now 'non-binary', as she no longer wishes to be identified as either a man or a woman!

So it's taken her 58 years to decide she is ........what exactly? An it?

Meanwhile Eddie Izzard, age 63, has announced he is 'gender fluid', a man one day and a woman on another.

While this may seem funny, and bordering on both the ridiculous and attention-seeking from two so-called celebrities who are hardly household names, this fixation on gender carries with it great dangers, best illustrated by the case of Jennifer Melle.

She is a 40 year old nurse, with a 12 year career of caring for people, who while removing the catheter from the penis of six feet tall convicted paedophile referred to him as a man, hardly surprising as she had his penis in her hand!

Now we know Two-Tier Keir Starmer thinks that 0.1% of women have a penis, or about 63,000 people,but most sensible folk might conclude that nurse  Melle was correct, but apparently not!

This penis-wielding six foot paedophile 'identifies' as a woman and launched a vicious racist tirade against nurse  Melle who instead of being supported was instead subjected to an investigation by the Nursing and Midwifery Council and has been sanctioned by her employer the St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Jennifer Melle is now suing her employer for harassment, discrimination and for a breach of her human rights, and how I hope she succeeds against this creeping malaise now affecting all sectors of society and from which none of us is safe.

This persecution of anyone who dares to speak out against this trans-madness has all the hallmarks of the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem witch trials and the  McCarthy campaign of the 1950s.

From the 14th to the 21st century, seven centuries of persecution .............. and we've learned nothing!

 BERNIA SANDERS AND A LESSON IN DEMOCRACY.

I take grave offence at the American political commentator Bernie Sanders' contention that America is the world's oldest democracy.

Great Britain has had a parliamentary democracy since at least 1660, some 116 years before America, who did not attain true democracy until 1964, 300 years after Great Britain.

Great Britain was amongst the first countries in the world to hold secret ballots for elections, the first such occurring at Pontefract on 15 August 1872.

America did not convert to nationwide secret ballots until 1950!

So come of it Mr Sanders, America has nothing to teach the United Kingdom about democracy.

 THE LESSON OF HISTORY

Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat its mistakes

On the 7 March 1936 German troops re-occupied the Rhineland, a de-militarised zone set up, and in direct contravention of,  the Treaty of Versailles which had ended the First World War.

The victorious powers, France and Great Britain, made only a token protest at this gross violation of the treaty.

On the 30 September 1938, after threats from Germany to invade Czechoslovakia, Britain, France, Italy and Germany reached an agreement generally called the Munich Agreement, hailed by the then British Prime minister Neville Chamberlin as 'peace in our time' to allow Germany to annex the Sudetenland, the border areas with Germany of Czechoslovakia.

Emboldened by this easy victory  in March 1939, Germany occupied the remainder of Czechoslovakia in direct contravention of the Munich Agreement.

 The seeds were now sown in Germany's mind that they could get away with invading and taking over another sovereign state and the great powers, Great Britain and France, would stand idly by and let it happen.

German invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 and Great Britain, at last, issued Germany with an ultimatum, "withdraw your troops from Poland or a State of War will exist between us".

No such undertaking was given,  the Second World War began, and 40 million died.

Had the Great Powers resisted Germany's 'pushing of the boundaries' it is possible that the Second World War might never have occurred.

In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, and then annexed it, in a mirror image of Germany's actions towards Czechoslovakia in 1938, some 76 years before.

Whilst various countries, and the United Nations, condemned the Russian invasion as a violation of international law nothing was done and Russia got away with this annexation of part of the sovereign state of Ukraine.

Just as Hitler in 1939 so Putin in February 2022 thought the Great Powers would not interfere so Russia invaded the Ukrainian mainland.

President Trump of the USA is now prepared to compel the Ukraine, under threat of removing its military assistance, to reach a settlement which would include the Ukraine ceding some 20% of its territory to Russia.

Peace in our time? Perhaps not.

How long before Putin's Russia, sensing the west's, especially America's reluctance to stand in its way, moves to occupy all of Ukraine as German did with Czechoslovakia in 1939?

 And what then? Which country will next fall to Russian expansionism? Estonia, Lithuania, and will the world and Trump's America, stand by and let it happen?

Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat its mistakes

 

                                                            MURDERED by HAMAS

for the Lord shall be thine

everlasting light, and the days

of thy mourning shall be ended.

Isaiah 60:20

WOKE MADNESS

A man, a doctor no less, applies make up and wears a skirt and thus declares himself to be a woman.

A female nurse of some 30 years standing objects to this man using the female changing room at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy (I suppose it had to be in Scotland, the country that put a male rapist in a female prison because he said he was a woman).

The nurse was promptly suspended by the hospital for alleged bullying and harassment of this man in a skirt.

Yes I know, sounds implausible,  but it's all true, you couldn't make something like this up.

The nurse has now taken NHS Fife to a tribunal claiming that being made to get changed beside a man amounted to unlawful harassment under the Equality Act.

Unbelievably, the NHS guidance states that 'trans' men and women are allowed to use the changing rooms that align with their gender identity, so call yourself a woman, put on a skirt and go into female changing rooms to watch real women undressing!

THIS IS WOKE MADNESS.

There is much I decry about President Trump but he, at least, is meeting this 'trans' rubbish head on by 

signing an executive order that prevents so-called transgender women from competing in female categories of sports, which is a start.

I hope he goes further and puts an end to this woke ideology, at least in America.

 TRUMP AND CANADA

Trump continues to denigrate Canada at every opportunity from imposing tariffs on Canadian imports to (falsely) claiming that the USA subsidises Canada to the tune of 200 billion dollars!

He continues to claim that Canada should become the 51st State of the Union, that it doesn't pay its fair share towards NATO and that it shelters under American protection.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump reiterated that Canada would be better off as the 51st state, repeating the false claim that his country is paying “subsidies” to its northern neighbour, and called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “Governor Trudeau.”

I don't recall Americans deriding Canada on D day when the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division landed on Juno Beach; when Canadian troops fought their way inland advancing more than 11 kilometers by the end of the day, while the Americans were bogged down on Omaha beach.

When the Royal Canadian Navy cleared a safe path across the English Channel for the American forces while its destroyers silenced the enemy shore batteries

More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in the war and over  45,000 gave their lives in the cause of freedom, with another 55,000 wounded.

The Canadian contribution to D-Day helped turn the tide of the war but Trump is not one to show gratitude, or even acknowledge the fact that Canada is one of America's longest and most staunch ally - no in his eyes it is little more than a parasite, a nation that would not exist if it wasn't for American largesse.

 THE NEW AMERICAN VALUES

In another bizarre Trump news conference the man who has previously denounced empire building now says he wants to own Gaza and turn it into  a Rivera of the east, removing all the inhabitants and forcibly resettling them in  Egypt, Syria and the Lebanon, which sounds very much like what Adolf Hitler proposed for the Jewish people of Europe in the 1930s.

Trump's intention was made quite clear by his White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt  when she said that the USA  wants to take over Gaza, in other words conquer and occupy another state, presumably by force as it's unlikely the Palestinians will just go quietly.

To put this into perspective, the territorial boundaries of what is now Gaza was originally part of the Ottoman Empire until at the conclusion of WWI and the dismantling of the Turkish Empire it was controlled by Great Britain under a League of Nations Mandate.

The relinquishing by Great Britain of its mandate in 1948 precipitated the Arab-Israeli war during which tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees fled to the Gaza Strip.

Subsequent conflicts led to the area being occupied at different times by both Israel and Egypt  until the Oslo Accords established the Palestinian Authority as a limited governing authority, initially led by the secular party Fatah until that party's electoral defeat in 2006 with Hamas then taking over the governance of Gaza, which ultimately  led to further conflict with Israel.

No stretch of the imagination can possible give America any rights whatsoever over Gaza and Trump's expressed intent to take over the territory is conquest, nothing less.

Taken with his expressed intent to re-occupy the Panama Canal Zone, annex Canada and occupy Greenland by armed force it ill beholds him to criticise Russia for it's illegal occupation of the Crimea and its war with the Ukraine.

Is this to be the new expression of  'American values' where any smaller, less powerful nation, which means most of the rest of the world, can be seized and occupied by America, just because it can?

 

 ELON MUSK and the UNITED STATES TREASURY

I've just been hearing on that excellent podcast The Meidas Touch of a law suit filed against the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the US Dept of the Treasury and the Bureau of the Fiscal Service.

Scott Bessent, a major donor, fundraiser, and economic advisor for Trump's Presidential campaign was appointed Treasury Secretary by Trump following his election as President.

The law suit, filed on behalf of the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government  Employees and the Service Employees International Union alleges a breach, by Secretary Bessent of the 1974 Privacy Act.

Whilst I am conversant with the UK Data Protection Act I am not well versed in the US Privacy Act but what it appears to do is to  prohibit the disclosure of an individual's information held by the government to any person or agency without the  written consent of the individual concerned.

There are some exceptions to this prohibition but they mainly deal with the use of the person's data for census purposes, for law enforcement, Congressional investigations and such like.

The complaint contained within the law suit is that Elon Musk requested the personal and fiscal data held by the US Treasury and that his request was refused by the responsible employee on the grounds that it would have been a violation of the 1974 Act. The suit further alleges that Trump appointee and new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, dismissed that employee and authorised the release of the data to Elon Musk without first gaining the consent of the relevant persons.

These are, of course, just allegations not facts, and my reading of the 1974 Act may not be  accurate, but for such a law suit to be filed in the first place is a damning indictment of the Trump administration where Trump fundraisers and acolytes are placed in unelected positions of  almost limitless authority and are thus able to use that authority for personal gain or advantage.

There are many things wrong with the system of UK Government but the  Chancellor of the Exchequer, a post equivalent to the US Treasury Secretary, is appointed by the Prime Minister from amongst the elected Members of Parliament and is answerable to Parliament and ultimately to the electorate, as are all Cabinet and senior members of the Government.

Being a donator to the Prime Minister' election or dancing about on the campaign stages does not get you in charge of the country's finances, nor is a special government department created just for you to run.

 TRUMP, TARIFFS and his PANDORA'S BOX

So Trump's 'beautiful' tariffs are already coming back to bite him.

Trump has imposed new tariffs on China including increasing those on semi conductors from 20.5% to 50%,  which means those semi-conductors which are essential for the manufacture, of amongst other things, micro-chips, which these days control just about everything from mobile phones to 'smart' fridges, from EV cars  to TV sets, will now become considerable more expensive to the US customer.

Trump's 'plan' if you can believe that he actually has a plan, rather than just a collection of knee-jerk sound-bites, is that America will now make its own semi-conductors........only China controls some 60% of rare earth metals essential for their manufacture, and to rub salt into the wound have retaliated by imposing a tariff of 75% on the export of rare earth metals to the USA.

Trump has also imposed 100% tariff  on Chinese EV's (electric vehicles) which supposedly will mean his new best friend, Elon Musk, will corner the market with more and more Teslas........but but but...... even Elon can't make electric cars without the now far more expensive rare earth metals!!!!!!

A problem with meddling with trading procedures is that no longer are American cars, fridges, TVs et al made exclusively in America using components all of which are made in the USA. America, like all other countries, sources its components and raw materials world-wide and to disrupt one avenue has knock-on consequences which are both complex and far-reaching, and frankly are beyond Trump's limited intelligence.

One thing is certain, by upsetting the delicate balance of inter-continental trade Trump has opened a Pandora's box, one he has no hope of containing.

 TRUMP and CANADA

 So Donald Trump has gone ahead, made good on his promises and imposed tariffs on imports from, amongst other counties, Canada who has retaliated by imposing tariffs of 25% on 155 billion dollars worth of American exports.

 

The Canadian Prime Minister made a noteworthy speech in response noting that these Trump imposed tariffs are a violation of a previously agreed free trade agreement and quoted JFK when he said "geography has made us neighbours, history has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies".

 

Trump has gone into meltdown on his Truth Social network effectively threatening Canada with a trade war unless it accedes to his demands and agrees to relinquish its sovereignty and become the 51st state of the USA claiming that without American subsidies Canada is not a viable country and should "become our cherished 51st State".

This action by Trump is no way to treat your friends and allies, a nation which sent its young men to fight and die alongside Americans on D Day and if he thinks Canada will roll over and become the 51st state, well he doesn't know the Canadians.

The consequences of a trade war were illuminated by President Ronald Reagan in his radio address to the nation on international free trade of 20th November 1982:

read it here:

 https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/radio-address-nation-international-free-trade

Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat its mistakes.

 THE DEATH PENALTY and  HUMAN RIGHTS

As with most murders of a particularly horrendous nature the case of Axel Rudakubana has resurrected  the call for the restoration of the death penalty.

For the record, capital punishment for murder was abolished in the UK in 1969 but it was not until 1999 when the UK signed the  6th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights that the death penalty was automatically abolished for those remaining crimes which still carried it, namely: piracy with violence, treason and  mutiny in military service.

Despite numerous calls that the UK should renounce the Convention and thus be able to  re-instate capital punishment it really isn't that simple.

The Convention was a direct response to the human rights violations perpetrated by Germany during the Second World War and in 1948 politicians including Winston Churchill, academics, business leaders, trade unionists, and religious leaders convened the Congress of Europe, at the end of which the Congress, issued a declaration pledging to create a Convention on Human Rights .

The British MP and lawyer Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe was one of the principal architects of the Convention, so given that the it was the United Kingdom that pushed for the creation of a Council of Europe, a European Convention on Human Rights and a court, the European Court of Human Rights to enforce it, and that the Convention was based on the 1689 English Bill of Rights, for the UK to renounce the Convention would be an act of momentous hypocrisy. It would be equivalent to saying that it (the Convention) should apply to all those (semi-civilised) Europeans but that Great Britain was above such considerations.

 When capital punishment was abolished it was replaced, in the case of murder, with an obligatory sentence of life imprisonment.

There is little doubt that the mass of the general public, strongly opposed to the abolition, thought that this meant murderers would be kept in jail for the rest of their lives, but in this they were to be swiftly disappointed.

 In the majority of cases throughout the1960s and right up to 2006 the average time served in prison for murder was between 10 and 15  years and it was not until 2003 that the sentencing judge was able to set a minimum time that must be served in prison for a life sentence, and was also able to order that for certain specific crimes the sentence could be  what is known as a "whole life order" where the prisoner can never be released and must die in jail, a power exercised by the Home Secretary until 2000.

 Even in the extreme unlikelihood of the UK revoking the European Convention on Human Rights capital punishment would still be illegal until restored by Act of Parliament. Given that it was Parliament, not a general public consensus, that abolished capital punishment in 1969, 30 years before we signed the 6th Protocol of the Convention, and that Parliament has consistently refused any call to reinstate the death penalty, the chance of any such restoration is not a realistic possibility.

However, there is another consideration on the whole debate that surrounds capital punishment,  that of which is the most humane way of dealing with those which commit the most serious of crimes.
Is it humane, within the broader definition of the term, to incarcerate an 18 year old, in the case of such as Axel Rudakubana, for 52 years?

He will not be eligible for parole until he is 60, at a time in the future which will be so far removed from the world he knew as to be unrecognisable, it would be like being transported to a different world, a world as alien to him as life on Mars.

Is a swift, painless execution a more humane way of dealing with such criminals?

When a dog no longer has any 'quality of life' he is put painlessly to sleep and Parliament is now debating just such an alternative to  those humans suffering from an incurable illness, the so-called 'right to choose'.

So it is inhumane to keep a suffering dog alive and may soon be possible for a terminally ill human to end his or her own life, on the basis that it is cruel and inhumane to allow them to suffer needlessly, but it will still be perfectly acceptable to incarcerate someone for 50 or more years, until they either die within those stone walls, or become so divorced from life outside that they must remain there until death resolves their condition.

One wonders, faced with such a life, how many would choose execution, as did  Gary Gilmore, executed at his own request by firing squad on January 17, 1977.

 THE WASHINGTON AEROPLANE CRASH and PRESIDENT TRUMP

My heart goes out to the relatives, comrades and friends of the sixty seven people killed in Wednesday night's collision between  an American Airlines aeroplane and a US Army helicopter on the approach to Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C and the subsequent crash of both aircraft into the Potomac river.

However, the comments made by President Donald Trump immediately after the accident beggars belief.

Without a shred of evidence, and in advance of any investigation into the cause of the tragedy, let alone any conclusions, this shameless man jumped on his favourite bandwagon and laid the blame for the accident on 'incompetent' flight controllers appointed by ex Presidents Obama and Biden, appointed not for their ability but because they were 'DEI appointees'.

To try and score political points on the bodies of those killed is beneath contempt. While I am no fan of this bombastic self-delusionist  I didn't think even he would stoop so low.

Even if it had any resemblance of truth, that air traffic controllers had been hired not for their ability but in order to satisfy some Diversity, Equity and Inclusion quota, this program now so belittled and blamed by Trump was actually instigated by him during his first term as President.

By his own standards then it is Trump who is to blame for those sixty seven deaths! 

Orwell had a term for such delusional thinking, he called it 'double think' the ability to hold two diametrically opposed views at the same time, and believe them both to be true. 

Welcome to 1984's America.

TWO-TEIR KEIR AND THE MUSILM RAPE GANGS

So two-tier Keir announces that there will be a public enquiry into the activities and background to the Southport murders by Axel Rudakubana, but still refuses one on the Muslim rape gangs in Rochdale, Rotherham et al which rather than being over, as the Southport murders, is still on-going.

Just this week we read of another trial of Mohammed Zahid, Naheem Akram, Mohammed Shazad, Nisar Hussain, Roheez Khan, Arfan Khan, Mushtag Ahmed and Kasir Bashir, who are all charged with rape, indecent assault and indecency with a child when over a five year period it is alleged they systematically raped and abused two 13 year old girls.

Could it be because the social workers, care home staff, local council employees and police who in numerous areas collectively and severally ignored the girls' plights, in some cases claiming the girls consented, when a child under the age of 16 cannot legally consent to intercourse, who branded the girls 'slags' and even now Oxford, Newcastle, Manchester, and Calderdale councils are refusing to use the term 'Asian grooming gangs' claiming it to be Islamaphobic. No it's not but it is incorrect, these were not 'Asian grooming gangs' they were MUSLIM RAPE GANGS.

Is two-tier Keir's reluctance to order an enquiry because in most cases this abuse took place in Labour-controlled areas and two-tier Keir is desperate not just to avoid alienating the Muslim vote in those areas but does not want his party's dirty linen washed in public?

 TRUMP AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

When taking the oath of office as the new President of the Republic Donald J Trump promised, before God, to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, yet one of his first acts as President was to issue an Executive Order which was a blatant violation of the very Constitution he had just hours before promised to uphold.

So what was that all about?

His Executive Order allowed for, during the deportation of illegal immigrants, the deportation of their children as well even if they had been born in the USA.

Why is that significant?

To quote the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States:

Fourteenth Amendment

Section 1

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

Trump has by his actions demonstrated his contempt for the very essence of America and has, within hours, violated an oath he took before God and the world.

Is this truly the best America can offer, a man so wrapped up in his own self aggrandisement and  contempt for the rule of law that he believes he can act with total disregard for the very foundations of his country?

What has this nation that gave us Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy come to?

TRUMP PARDONS

So Trump, in one of his first acts as President, granted unconditional blanket pardons for those who took part in the January 6th riots in an attempt to overthrow the result of the 2020 Presidential election by force.

Some of the rioters were convicted of seditious conspiracy, which means a group having or taking part in a plan to incite people to rebel against the authority of a state. Treason by any other words.

Some rioters, carrying  confederate flags and weapons attacked police offices, one of whom died as a result of an attack.

But hey! The election was stolen from Trump and these good old boys were just trying to right a wrong.

God help America.

 ELON MUSK SALUTE

At Donald Trump's inauguration parade Elon Musk, who was  prancing about the stage like a deranged puppet with clenched fists gestures

made what many have interpreted as a Nazi salute - judge for yourself.

 THE RT. REV. MARIANN EDGAR BUDDE

The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde during a service at the Washington DC National Cathedral did, at the end of her sermon, implore Trump to have mercy and to remember Christian values when dealing with immigrants and trans-gender people who are now afraid for their future.

She reminded him that Americans  were all new-comers once.  It was a powerful and heart-felt expression of those Christian values Trump professes but seemingly does not practice.

It has now gone viral on You Tube, watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9uSLoxTtwI

Trump and Vance were clearly not happy with this sermon, Trump afterwards saying it could have been better.

"He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really co-operating with it"

Martin Luther King Jr.

Postscript

Trump has lashed out on his Social Media account calling the bishop 'a radical left hard line Trump hater', that she was 'very ungracious' ......... 'not compelling or smart' .

That she 'is not very good at her job' and that 'she and her church owe the public an apology'.

Wow! She really got to him didn't she?

Notably, amongst this petulant tirade, there is no mention of addressing the issues the bishop raised, but then if you disagree with Trump you are either wrong or stupid, for he can never be wrong.

 TRUMP, GREENLAND AND WORLD WAR III

Donald Trump seems to be determined to take control of Greenland one way or another.

Just to put the record straight, Greenland is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark and has been a Danish/Scandinavian possession since first occupied by the Vikings in the 10th century.

It's citizens are full citizens of Denmark and as Greenland is one of the Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union, citizens of Greenland are also European Union citizens

The United States of America has no cultural, religious or indigenous  connections with Greenland whatsoever.

During World War II, the US invoked its Monroe Doctrine and occupied Greenland by military force, Denmark being occupied by Germany at the time was in no position to object.

Despite post war objections to an armed military presence on its sovereign territory Denmark has been unable to compel America to leave and abandon it's illegal occupation and in1951 was forced to enter into a treaty with America giving it a significant role in Greenland's defence and the United States  Space Force currently maintains a base on Greenland.

This is a prime example of a big powerful country like America using its strength and might against a smaller weaker country, it is bullying of the worse kind and a deplorable use by America of its force. America can now no longer be consider a force for good but sits alongside Putin's Russia as a bullying, Imperialist power.

If Trump were to carry out his threat, should Denmark refuse to his 'request' to buy Greenland, and occupy it by force of arms, then as Greenland is a member of NATO, whose creed is an attack against one member state is considered an attack on all, Greenland would be within its rights to demand NATO fulfil its treaty obligations and declare war upon the USA.