Jazzy D's Soul Notes

Just the ticket, a muckraking exposure into the Tory sleaze....

Here is a snapshot of Priti Patel's recent spending of our money on her behalf on herself and her star.Money that is taken out of our taxes and that is yours and mine.
And these are items just over £500.


All confirmed on the official Home Office website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-procurement-card-spend-over-500-2020



The conservative are taking the piss in barrels and laughing merrily as they take the nation into ruins. Klepto-fascists in broad daylight.

Disgusting.

Well, the weather was at it its best late afternoon again. Most of the day was cool, windy, and overcast. I felt a bit overcast this morning. A deep funk you could say. Not improved by two others unfollowing me. Oh, fuck why I ask?

Perhaps reposting that rather wayward conspiracy theory article from pigshitpoet this morning was not the best idea. But why should we censure and sneer alternative views I ask - Wacky or not? As li=og as views are not offensive and demeaning to other people, then fine.

Oh well, perhaps I have too many friends on my LJ list as I must admit time always constrains me from commenting on all their posts.

I have noticed two series have restarted again and I have watched both of them in their second series I think - specifically Stargirl and DC's Titans.

I have now reached the Colin Baker seasons of Doctor Who, and yes, the quality is getting lower as we proceed to the final ones of the old series with Sylvester McCoy.

Mary from number 27 has given me ten paperbacks to sort through and sell or keep as she no longer needs them. Most of them are crime novels which are not my fave genre. One I will keep as it is on the lyrics of Bob Marley and what each song means.

It will be July soon and yet the weather still feels like we are in winter as far as the rain and overcast days are concerned. Miserable declamatory days of thunder and occasional lightning too. Anyway, the one thing that did give an inkling of pride and succour was that England football game the previous night.

Watching the game, I felt a swell of patriotism. That is the good inclusive patriotism that sees the value and wonderful multicultural aspect of our country. This is diametrically opposed to the narrow nationalistic aspect of patriotism. That ugly side reared its head in booing the German team and also for those players that “took the knee” in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement on both teams. That is the kind of jingoistic claptrap that is still persuasive in some quarters and about time it should be stamped out. Yes, be patriotic, but also be critically patriotic. Know your country’s strengths and its weakness, and Its flaws as well, especially historically, and that as Billy Bragg once said, to become a socialist progressive patriot.

So, on this sodden damp day, I went out to Ashford to do another covert visit. During my visit to the town, I found that a new YMCA charity shop had opened up in the mall. I perused the CD shelves and noticed that I could get four for just a pound. I purchased four with one being a bit speculative, but out of the four for the quid I spent, I am keeping two and selling the other two. The keepers are a lovely collection of music by Benjamin Britten that includes the wonderful Four Sea Interludes, and the soundtrack to Adaptations by Carter Burwell. Carter Burwell is a soundtrack composer who has composed many movie scores for the Coen Brothers.

So, as tomorrow is the 1st of July, and it is Canada Day, I shall salute and give salutations to all my Canadian readers.

Frantz Fanon "Black Skin, White Masks" (Pluto Press)



"Black Skin, White Masks" is a broad Freudian-psychoanalytical study into racism towards and the alienation of black people in white societies through clinical, literary, and personal examples. While Fanon stated at the beginning of his work that his examples were derived from Martinique and ought to be considered limited to just Martinique, it is made clear through a reading of his entire work that "Black Skin, White Masks" aspired to much more than to be restricted to just that Caribbean island.

His rich and concise prose, arguments, have considerable breadth for such a slim volume. His points about the culpability of all in a society for the atrocities those in power inflict are moving, damning, and necessary.


Black Skin, White Masks is the unsurpassed study of the black psyche in a white world. Hailed for its scientific analysis and poetic grace when it was first published in 1952, the book remains a vital force today from one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history.

Remember all of this as it has happened before -

A period of absolutely outlandish lies, as taught by Hitler's chief PR guy, Joseph Goebbels: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. ”

This is the kind of misdirection and falsities produced by Trump and his minions. Lie enough times and they believed him. His supporters lapped it up like the good stormtroopers they are. The evilness that could have fostered if they succeeded is unbelievable.

Some facts against the 17-minute rant from the orange-faced plonker.

1/ Mr. Trump has posted more than 70 tweets casting doubt on mail-in voting, referencing voter fraud, or "rigged" elections since April.
But there is no evidence the system is corrupt.
Electoral fraud is very rare in the United States - the rate is less than 0.0009%, according to a 2017 study by the Brennan Center for Justice. There's no evidence to suggest it's been a major issue at this election either.
The president himself has voted by post in the past. He lived outside the state he was registered in, Florida, and requested a postal vote.

This is known as an absentee ballot, which Mr Trump has said he is in favour of because he believes it has better safeguards.
But he has made a distinction with other forms of mail-in voting, such as when states automatically send out ballots to all registered voters.

Oregon and Utah have done so successfully in previous elections.

All forms of postal voting have safeguards - such as authorities checking that ballots have come from a voter's registered address and requiring signatures on envelopes.
Voting by mail is not new - it has been used for many elections!


2/ President Trump has repeatedly criticized plans to expand postal voting, saying - without real evidence - it was open to "tremendous fraud."
He urged Republican voters to turn up on the day, rather than using mail-in ballots.
There's evidence from the vote count that this is what has happened - Democratic voters favoured voting by post and Republicans voted on the day in person.

3/ Trump: "There are now only a few states yet to be decided in the presidential race. The voting apparatus of those states are run in all cases by Democrats."
That's not true "in all cases".

In Georgia, which is yet to be decided, the governor and both houses of the legislature are Republican-controlled.
The secretary of state, who is in charge of the administration of the election, is Brad Raffensperger who is a Republican.
To take another example, Nevada has a Republican secretary of state overseeing its election.

4/ Trump: "They wouldn't allow legally permissible observers."
President Trump is talking about poll watchers. These are people inside polling stations who observe the counting of votes, with the aim of ensuring transparency.

These are allowed in most states, but they have to be registered before election day, usually affiliated with a party or a candidate, although rules vary from state to state.
President Trump has taken issue with a perceived lack of access for Republican observers in certain Democrat-run cities, such as Philadelphia and Detroit.
But poll watchers were allowed to observe the count in both cities.

(Source - BBC/Guardian)

Biden is creeping closer to The White House as the orange faced moron lies about so called postal voting irregularities. It cannot get any tenser. Fingers crossed for the right outcome.