WHAT DOES RUSSIA WANT?

         21 January 2022

Russia already has much of what it wants.

1. It has the undivided attention of the States, as in the old days pre 1991,

2. Russia has recovered the Crimea and safeguarded Russia's warm water naval base,

3. Putin continues to destabilise the Ukraine with skirmishes, part I of an invasion a cyber attack (part II would be special troops, III full invasion - this will never happen), this means Ukraine is prevented from joining NATO as NATO cannot accept applications from countries at war, and

4. he can continue to incite the attachment of the Donbas

- all this for little money, big home support, and he's working towards his long-term plan for security via control of a buffer zone between Russia and Europe/NATO.  

It is a fundamental mistake to think we should go "over there" to the source of any problem, and deal with the "root causes". That's fine for quality problems on the factory floor, but surely we have learnt by now to leave other countries and cultures alone: we should deal with these matters when they arrive in our country, and with surgical precision, not go throwing our weight around in places that are best left to sort themselves out.        

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THE TROUBLE WITH LIBERALISM

16 January 2022

I dont think it's guilt, but it is Liberalism, or a particular form of Liberalism. It is the form that puts Human Rights before Citizenship. That's the trouble. And it comes from the idea that an individual is an individual, wherever he or she may be found. 

If you give individuals everywhere the same set of human rights, then it's consistent to take down national frontiers. And while you're at it, where possible, you can go into other countries and free other peoples from dictatorship and install democracy. Why not.

We now know that all that is rubbish and an excuse for horrendous wars and that it suits international capitalism (which I'd argue isn't capitalismany more, not at all) but not the people, it doesn't suit us.

It is wrong, fundamentally wrong, because we belong to a group - the nation - first and foremost. We must put our nation first and help citizens to survive, prosper, find happiness, and have something that we can be proud of to leave as our legacy.

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PARTYGATE

13 January 2022

That's the point isn't it : what did they know that we didn't; and if they could feel safe enough to party, why did they impose those rules?

What was going on? Sounds like this could be massive for all concerned and democracy itself.

As to what this means for Boris' future, for all his faults, known to party members when they chose him, his record of winning is impressive.

 

Twice Mayor of London in a marginalists' city, the EU referendum and a stunning electoral victory, crushi g Jeremy Corbyn and Labour.

Boris got it done, contrast with May before or the lacker-lustres Gove, Truss and Sunak, tomorrow's contenders.

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SOMETHING ABOUT TRUMP

                 Whether you agree with him or not, Trump has done a pretty amazing job taking on the blob and their International Liberal Order.

Who else would want to jump into bed with the world's dictators while shunning democracies, raise protectionist tariffs and bring home the tails of America's supply chains, and exit all the West's Institutions and treaties created since 1945?

I'd also add that, big narcissist though he is, he did it because that International Liberal Order has, in his eyes, been a catastrophe as the blob (the foreign policy establishment):

- has taken America into numerous, extremely costly, wars most of which it lost in great humiliation;

- invited China into this Order, giving it Most Favoured Nation status no less, and America has been robbed blind as a result, enriching fabulously its greatest enemy putting America' very existence in peril

- and in so doing put itself into the world's greatest ever debt, risking its own reserve currency;

- it has impoverished and excluded a third of its citizens and

- saddled America, a home-loving country believe it or not, with the role of the world's policeman.

So it is quite easy to understand why - beyond his indecent personality - Trump has stirred such fear and loathing in the establishment, to the point t where many believe he was cheated out of the election and 6th January was another put-up job, and why he has such a huge and ever-loyal following.             

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INHERITANCE: ENHANCE THE FAMILY LINE

Can we hand over to the next generation a better situation than the one we inherited from the previous, or is our family in decline?

Yes, we are born into a community, we owe the community for our success, our security and our happiness; but we also owe to our family line (from ancestors, through us, to our descendants) and this is where our overall and first attachment and loyalty and our prime responsibilities lie. 

We should ensure our children have a favourable start in life, by way of education and capital or property, to permit them to enhance the family line.

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WHY ALL THE RESTRICTIONS

7 January 2022

                 To understand why politicians are attempting to perrenise the controls, you have to understand what makes them tick and why they are succeeding at the moment. They and the MSM have divided society, aided by the underlying context within which they operate, at least in the short term.

In the longer term, our freedoms and way of life are threatened by poor financials (debt), internal divisions (inequalities) and the threat of war (immigration and security).

But there are solutions, though more hope is needed - more people must believe we can overcome these end-of-cycle forces working against us and people must go to work everyday in a spirit of unity, productivity, sacrifice, thrift, patriotism, if anyone can be bothered to redress the unfolding catastrophe.

I suppose it is ultimately about leadership and vision and working to a long-term strategy. I hate to think what it would be like for our children and future generations, if we lose. If we win through, it could win the West and our children another hundred years of prosperity and security as world hegemon.

WHAT MAKES POLITICIANS TICK

Well, there's the basic drive for power - getting access to the resources to change things your way and push people around - this is the drive that takes certain types into politics.

Covid presented the perfect opportunity. And once taken, power is not normally just handed back.

It was a fine opportunity to distract with the left hand.

THE WORK OF THE MSM

Then there is the MSM to exploit people's dissatisfaction and sell copy. 

POOR FINANCIALS

Underlying all this is the debt and inequality gap. The financial are now very bad, we are nearing the end of a classic cycle. This one started in 1945. They all end this way.

Debt and internal division. 

INTERNAL DIVISIONS

The MSM wind everything up, divide and make hysterical. The more militant extremes too have profited, opposing moderation, and winning the arguments, taking out the centre ground.

 

EXTERNAL THREATS

Plus The Rising Power, looking on, biding its time.

There are things that can be done!

Restore personal liberties, shri k the state, lower taxes. This is what made The West Great, or was the backdrop.

SOLUTIONS

It is possible to find a balance where people earn more than they spend and this horrendous debt gets paid off.

But it needs a united front. There are enormous "cultural" differences within our society to overcome. And the widening inequality gap, caused by central bank printing, needs to be closed.

THE GOOD OUTCOMES

Then you might get some security at home and even some patriotism (a notion that makes people rear up and laugh, ok I understand). That's about support for the ultimate unit in international politics: the nation-state. No rising power would dare risk a conflict, they'd be annihilated.

IT TAKES LEADERSHIP AND VISION AND A SERIOUS STRATEGY

In the unlikely case that The West could find leaders capable of implementing this long-term vision, we'd get another 100 years as world hegemon ... enough to see enough generations , starting with our children, through to prosperity, security, happiness and hopefully their own legacy.

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HISTORY WARNS THE EU

5 January 2022

The EU is committed to federalism, I'm stating the obvious, but what isn't always appreciated is that this flows from what are really, American ideas of international liberalism.

After the war, European countries were strongly encouraged to join up, NATO was created, along with a host of international institutions - the UN, World Bank,  IMF, WTO-GATT.

Once the USA was free to pursue its ideals of human rights and democracy after the cold war, we got Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya  We also have America breaking its commitmentsto Russia and marching NATO up to Russua's front lawn, and the EU picking off former soviet satellites from what Russia thought was its buffer zone. Then came 2008 and 2014 and today it is plain that intl liberalism is in deroute: Crimea is gone forever and America essentially wants to stay at home, safe between two moats and friendly Canada and Mexico North and South.

We also got Russian interference in American elections, ie in its sovereignty. Alerica strongly refuses this because America is a very nationalistic country. And what country isn't ?

There are two lessons from all this for the EU  First, nationalism trumps liberalism. Second, be careful what you wish for because America, following all these defeats is today a very divided country, some would say on the brink of civil war.

To summarise the above, there is a blunt lesson from history for the EU: stop interfering in UK affairs or you will reap the whirlwind.

So, in all clashes between international liberalism (open borders, open markets, universal human rights) and nationalism (nation, culture, citizens first), nationalism has always ultimately emerged victorious.

We need the EU but not the ECJ. The EU is a very good idea But all the areas of mutual benefit - security, law enforcement, welfare, education, fiscal, customs ... - can be picked off one-by-one by agreement netween consenting nations. We don't need a top-down boot camp regime. 

There is no question the EU Order cannot survive in its current imperialist format. The current trickle of national objections - Germany, Poland, Romania, Lithuania - will become a torrent and the top down imposition of control by legal and financial sanctions will be adapted to a bottom up co-operation by mutual benefits-sharing.             

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POLITICAL TOUCHSTONES

1 January 2022

We need to periodically check our political leaders' lists of impressive achievements against our fundamental first principles. Of course, plenty of contradictions, but...

Do they:

Enhance our personal liberty, free us from overly-oppressive human rights obligations?

Reduce the wealth gap, make for a more equal society, enhance equality of opportunity, share profits fairly between capitalists and workers, reduce internal conflict / civil war

Keep / reduce debt to manageable levels

Shrink the state

Enable the private sector to best allocate capital, innovate, improve use of technology, enhance productivity

Strengthen our national defences, power soft and hard, safeguard our borders, our culture?             

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TELL ME ABOUT "THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE"

What looks good to the customer? Here we will join a prospect on the journey to becoming a loyal customer.

It is about the things you and your customer do together. These are called "touchpoints".

From first contact with a customer, through to final delivery and payment, you meet on specific occasions, called "touchpoints". Touchpoints lie on the consumption process. There are other points where you or the customer must do things - tasks - but they are not touchpoints.

All the touch points, in a line, make "the customer journey" along the consumption process, the "buying journey", from marketing process, to sales, to customer service.

And overall, we talk about "the customer experience", CX, of this journey.

What does "good" feel like for the customer? Because your customer's experience is not just about tasks or a set of actions. It is also about feelings.

How do prospects or your customers feel about your brand?

At every customer touchpoint, you can improve—or destroy—how your customers feel about you.

So there are important decisions to make at each touchpoint, and those decisions have an impact on  your business results.

In all humility, we must recognise that often  one company's products or services are often like another's. So the difference is in the customers' experience of you and your brand.

A good CX might come from attention to matters like:

Does your marketing respond to your prospects' and customers' wants and needs in ways that they can understand and relate to?

Is your website easy to find, navigate through? Is it helping and guiding and assisting the visitor?

Do you have clear objectives, a strong CX strategy, adequate resources, to support the customer on the consumption journey? From this derives the level of customer satisfaction, which is measurable.

Your customer relationship management (CRM) strategy will explain how you intend to marshall resources to deliver an experience that will "delight", meaning that at each touchpoint, the customer will have a valuable, positive and differentiated good time. Front and back office departments will work together to deliver this.

"Good" means the customer walks away from each touchpoint feeling happy and satisfied. Marketing campaigns are well targeted, products and services are clearly explained, buying is easy, no problem to contact someone when needed, a customer's loyalty is rewarded, they feel the interactions have been personally tailored to them.

In the back office, all the data supporting the journey is joined up under the process phases and steps and the company benefits from these interactions to improve the process.

And that is how you create a win-win customer experience.

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NOODLES

Noodles: you can buy a packet for twice nothing. It's got noodles, plus two sachets - one is spices and the other is gravy granules.

Noodles are quick, simple, tasty, nutritious, cheap.

1. Boil the noodles five minutes in ample water, tip out of your wok and put to one side.

2. Fry the ingredients in your wok: like protein, any protein such as shrimps or diced chicken or tofu; and veg, any veg in season that you can cut up.

3  Add in the spices (they come in that little sachet with the noodles).

4. Add a few tablespoons of water and tip in the flavouring sachet (eg chicken granules, this sachet is like Bisto and it thickens up the dish as well).

5. After a couple of minutes it's all done and ready to serve.

TIP I add slices of preserved ginger when frying.

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IS THE EU A MARXIST-LENINIST ORGANISATION?

21 December 2021

Interesting how Lenin, who was chairman of the communist Party, organised the state. 

The economy was 80% rural, 20% urban, 90% of industry was state owned.

All public institutions and some private-sector corporations had a shadow leadership comprised of party officials.

The EU employs a similar strategy. If you look beyond the great institutions we all know - Commission, Council, Parliament, Court of Justice, Court of Auditors - you'll find about 34 EU agencies. 

Each was created by taking over and amalgamating national agencies. These agencies have taken regulatory, operational and policy-related tasks in various sectors -  aviation and space (EASA), banking, chemicals, environment, food safety, pharmaceuticals, policing and many other areas. The "commanding heights" of the economy, to borrow a phrase from Lenin.

The EU offers to give legal certainty to the regulations and to subsidise operations in return for rewriting the charter to serve its political objectives (eg freedom of movement) and the transnational agency accepting political appointees onto its board.

The Communist Party ran the country, there was no opposition, it was a one-party state.

Lenin died in January 1924 after a series of strokes. Stalin took over. 

Collectivisation began in 1928/9 resulting in seven or eight million deaths from starvation and 40 million in constant hunger, in the land of plenty.

The great purges began in 1936. For example, 150 of his 180 military commanders, each responsible for a division of 15-20,000 men, were executed. Stalin signed page after page, thousands of names, for his death squads.

Let's hope the EU doesn't revert to that.

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