Trump was elected despite his Russian connections. Does it matter if he is working for Putin?

At the time of posting this, The Manchurian Candidate has sold weapons to Saudi Arabia to supply a war driven along sectarian lines between factions fighting because the other is the wrong type of Muslim. Ignoring the issue of the double standards of calling for peace in Syria when arming another war, he has called for Muslims to unite against terror. Am I the only one to think that this call is insane when his actions will fuel more conflict?

Anyway, he has also fired the man investigating his connections to Russia, and after his staff have said it is nothing to do with this investigation, he has said it is. And there is the issue of him allegedly asking Comey to drop the investigation, and then, after people said he did not give classified information to Russia, he admitted to doing so.

The thing is that he was elected despite his links to Russia, not just the things that he has said in the past about Russian links, but also his call to Russia to hack the emails of Clinton before the election (calling for a foreign power to take part in espionage to influence an election). That may be dismissed as a joke, as can the allegations that he paid prostitutes to urinate on a bed that Obama has slept in when he had been in Russia. 

So, does it really matter to the people of America if he has links to Russia? 

Of course it matters to the Baltic nations, and us in the UK, but does it really matter to America to work more closely with Putin?

How does a cow sneak off a farm? Right pasteurise.

It has been a while since I last posted. In fact, when it comes to the family, this is my first post of the month.  My daughter has come back from a friends birthday party which involved climbing and mud, lots of mud.  And she seems to have enjoyed it.  In the party bag which was given out beforehand, there was items to use in the shower that they used afterwards, which meant that the decision that my wife and I had made for her to go straight into the bath, or shower (it was to be her choice) was not needed. And in the last week I went on a school trip with my son to Bhaktivedanta Manor which was fun as well.  It was great to be able to spend time with my son on a trip and also help out with his school.  The pictures are from there as taken by the school.  Sadly I have been unwell since then, though I was able to get my annual appraisal done. 

On a different note, I am nervous about Arsenal as the final game of the season determines if we finish in a top four slot and then qualify for the European cup, where, if we qualify, we will fail to get beyond the first knockout stage after the group stages.  Or we may finish fifth and qualify for the Europa Cup. While we would have more chance of winning it, playing in it means we will have no chance of winning the league at home.  

My kids are not playing chess as much as I would like but I have been doing better. Well, in two out of the last three tournaments I have.  I did not fare well in this one, but came second and first in the other two!

I would post more, but as I don't feel well and am going to go to bed now.

How the Conservatives are ruining/running education

Yesterday the Conservatives finally issued the manifesto for the upcoming election. The pledge to remove school lunches and to replace them with breakfasts is interesting. In an age of austerity where children arrive at school hungry, at first look, this appears to be a good idea.  But, despite protestations from the Conservatives, this could make things even worse for our schools.  The Conservatives say that the education budget has been protected and that we have more teachers than before, but our schools face huge teacher shortages which harms the education of our next generation.  And a redistribution of funds also is to cause major headaches for many schools. Before, when teacher shortages were in the news, grammar schools have been in the news to distract people.  Anyway, the post from a head teacher was shared by my wife on Facebook earlier today.  The school that our children go to is facing similar issues and has written to parents asking more money to reduce the cuts that they are going to have to make.  Many parents at our school can afford a few pounds.  This is not the case with parents in schools elsewhere though.

God knows how the Conservatives are going to distract us if they get elected as things get worse.

May the 4th be with you

 Ignoring Star Wars day for the moment, the local elections are taking place in many area of the country.  Opinion polls have stated, over the weeks, that Labour, under Jeremy Corbyn, face a rout, and that this may be repeated in the General Election next month.  But opinion polls were wrong in the last General Election when, like in 1992, people appeared to be too ashamed to admit that they were going to vote Conservative.  And they were wrong in the Referendum on remaining in the EU when our nation voted, by a very narrow margin, for the madness and uncertainty that is Brexit.  And of course, opinion polls called it wrong in the states that gave The Manchurian Candidate (Donald Trump) victory in the Electoral College last year allowing him to become US president (and I pray the world survives to see another one).  Diane Abbott has recently made a huge gaffe on LBC, which while drawing attention to the police cuts that have occurred under the Conservatives, have allowed them to portray Labour as incompetent and that may undo much of the gains in polling which have stated that Labour would not do as bad as originally thought.

But, while a rout of Labour in the local elections of today, and possibly the General Election of next month may be bad for the nation in the short term, it may be good overall. At the moment, the Conservatives can blame the barbaric effects of austerity on the way Labour run councils are run, this being cuts to social care to the elderly, cuts to the disabled, and (even though funding is from central government) how school budgets are being rearranged to make school funding 'fairer' (for many Conservative areas).  If the Conservatives do make the gains in the local elections today that many think they will, they will be left holding responsibility for these cuts. And they will not be able to blame Labour, the way that they are doing.

Saying that, the polls have been wrong before, and Labour may do well today, or even if things are bad today, that might make the electorate think about what a Conservative government means for the NHS, the police, education, the armed forces, social care, the disabled etc...

And of course, with this being Star Wars Day, May the 4th be with you.