Category: News

Posted on

Harrassment

There has been a lot of headline news over the past few weeks about a certain producer who is accused of various sexual assaults over a fairly lengthy period of time. I have no idea what he did or did not do, and no doubt these things will come out later, if you care. Yesterday there was another story about a well-known actor who has also been accused of things with a 14 year old boy. His response was, basically, I don’t remember, it was a long time ago, I was drunk and anyway I am gay. I have no idea what that all means, either, and my level of interest is fairly minimal. Note that I am NOT defending anyone, just not that interested. If these people really did bad things, they must be punished.

I have a few thoughts, mainly coming from the Jimmy Savile incidents some years ago. Savile, of course, was dead. No-one spoke out about him when he was alive, in a way that anyone took notice of anyway. JS could not defend himself. Once the first allegations came out, it was like a flood gate. Same in the first example here. Many of Savile’s accusers were investigated. It was shown that some had simply fabricated stories in an attempt to get money. It may be, I don’t know, that the same has happened here, that people are saying they too were sexually assaulted but maybe they weren’t, they just want some fame and some money. I don’t know, but if there is even one person who is simply making up a story to ‘cash in’, then it devalues all the others.

I was involved in a conversation about this the other day. Someone remarked that more than 50% of women reported sexual harrassment in the workplace. I asked a simple question, what does that mean. There was a fairly lengthy discussion about this. One vaguely known tv actor has said that he was sexually harrassed when someone touched his arm. My friends seemed not to know. Does it have a clear definition?

My friends concluded that, if you FELT you had been sexually harrassed, then you HAD BEEN sexually harrassed. It didn’t have to be real at all.

I am not trying to diminish these events, if they have occurred, but some of it seems a bit mad to me.

Posted on

Trump destroys the world

President Trump has been at it again. In a speech to the UN, he said:

The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States is ready, willing, and able, but hopefully this will not be necessary.

This is pretty clear at first glance. Getting past the ‘Rocket man’ name calling, Trump seems to be saying that, if pushed, he will simply wipe out North Korea.

Does he mean this? Well, he has a knack of using vague and imprecise language. Commentators take him literally at his word. Like when he said about closing the Internet. He has no power to do that, in the first place, plus I suspect it would be at least very difficult. But he didn’t mean close it down, I think, he meant take tighter control of it, regulate everything and monitor what everyone is doing.

Would he really literally murder 25 million North Koreans, plus untold numbers of others? My fiends say no, of course not, wiser heads will prevail and it wouldn’t happen.

Me, I’d believe it easily could happen. In the end, Mr Trump can destroy the world…

Posted on

Again

So, apparently it went a bit wrong, which is good news for us. What am I talking about? The latest terrorist attack on Londoners.

In case you didn’t see it, on early Friday morning something the police said was an ‘improvised explosive device’ detonated on a train in west London. There was a fire, people were burned, there was disruption and panic and a tweet or two from Mr Trump.

Fortunately, it happened at an outside station, so passengers were able to evacuate quickly. In a tunnel, if it had gone off as intended, loss of life could have been huge.

For those who don’t know, although it is called ‘the tube’, most of London’s Underground system runs above ground. There’s no reason to build an expensive tunnel if you don’t have to. Of course, like most cities, the really underground bits are in the centre. At that time in the morning, trains would be very busy with people off to work and children going to school.

So, we know it did not happen in the school holidays, it happened at a time when the trains would be packed, going to school time, so you have to think that children were definitely considered targets. People have been arrested. One is an 18 year old person who was caught in Dover (possibly fleeing the country?) 18 is barely older than the people who were victims of the attack.

The device seems to have been in a plastic bucket in a bag. People on tv have been asking, what can you do to prevent it? In terms of practical things, like screening everyone at every event, tube station etc, nothing.

But Mr Trump has an idea. Mr Trump the big tweeter. He has said, ‘cut off’ the Internet. Here are his exact words: “Loser terrorists must be dealt with in a much tougher manner,” he wrote. “The internet is their main recruitment tool which we must cut off & use better!”

Mr Trump, who says he gathers all the facts before he speaks, really just should shut up.