An answer

I know full well that I abuse Blip much of the time for my rants. I do apologise to those who happen to read them and fully support all those who don't. But I'm not going to stop nor let up on my bombardment of Facebook with those matters that I feel passionate about. Those of us who are in the lucky position of not having anything to protect - job, children, zero bank balance - are morally obligated to keep up the pressure. Remaining silent is identical to condoning it. One just hopes those that must remain silent at least vote at the ballot box.

The rants come down to just a few things:

Trump/Brexit which both mystify me. How ordinary and almost certainly in most matters sensible people can vote for such people and things? I bet 95% of Brexit Brits could not cite one factual case of an EU law or regulation that has harmed them. Do any of the normal workers, women, Hispanics, blacks ..... really trust Trump to make America Great?

Environment - all of us see the problems around us every single day, not just from an animal & insect point of view but also our health both physical and mental but also our very existence.

Social responsibility - I considered Globalisation as such as being something positive, making the world a smaller place where all humans could interact more easily, becoming more interdependent, more understanding, sharing "wealth" and thus reducing wars, famine and suffering. The problem is that it has been hijacked by the few who shamelessly pervert it to hold most of the world's citizens at ransom.

Yesterday's rant on medical care was not about the majority of hard-working staff at the sharp end most of whom did a good job but about a system that has forced doctors to make decisions and valuations of human life based on monetary profit.

Power, money and influence have been on the agenda since Adam & Eve but was for the most part relatively local. The two world wars saw a big change but it wasn't really until the 1980s that matters got out of control and exploded with the move to neo-liberalisation.

Despite technology making our world so small (Blip is an excellent example of a positive side), for the most part, ordinary folk now feel so distanced from having any influence on what is going on, fighting to simply keep a roof over their heads and their stomachs filled. They have no choice but to go to work for meagre pay to manufacture products that they know are dangerous to life.

Is it a coincidence that the Trump & Brexit supporters are concentrated outside of the main urban areas? The folk on the low lying east coast of the USA having their homes and property battered by increasing storms and clear effects of global warming are at the front of the Trump rallies. Why? Because nobody else is listening to them. No Washington Post reporter goes there to report on their daily problems caused by closing factories but will helicopter down the moment a hurricane looks like it will bring some front page sensational headlines.

Cornwall will vote for Brexit because the people feel abandoned by their own government not the EU (who actually spend money there) and not by the "flood" of immigrants - I guess Cornwall has amongst the lowest ratio of any county in England. Do you see a Financial Times report on their employment problems? No, but you do see all the media about the London bankers being saved with tax billions when they mess up. And Londoners vote Remain.

And it isn't just the Trump/Brexit/Monsanto/Austerity things and not even the wretched misuse of power by the males in Hollywood, Parliament, Business that we all get to hear about in the press. It is the small things of everyday life even for us who have a relatively acceptable standard of living.

You are feeling unwell and in pain. If lucky you get an appointment with your GP who hasn't got any time to get to the root of the problem and prescribes a painkiller probably from a manufacturer who recently sent him and his wife on a weeks "conference" to a luxury resort. Your health problems don't get sorted but on your next visit, you get stronger painkillers to get you out of the GPs office and so it goes on until you become an opioid victim, lose your wife, family, job, home and finally life. Behind it all, drug companies earning millions for a few at the top of the board and yet tens of thousands of employees continue to knowingly research and manufacturer such products, held by the ransom of the monthly paycheck.

The fight must go on, the Blip rants will continue and I hope to help make the world a fairer and more compassionate place. Easy enough said from the luxury of a home in a safe, dry, warm home with a set of wheels sitting on the drive, a full fridge and enough time to write all this nonsense on a day when nothing else happened and the best I could manage was a photo taken on the evening late evening, way after sunset, walk.

And I managed to left off steam. Tomorrow the Beast from the North West arrives with Arctic cold and I need the steam myself. So perhaps a "normal Blip" can be hoped for.