Still no reports of #Fallen London. If it did fall down it got up again, they're never gonna keep it down.
Just had a tahini koulouri at the Greek immigrant bakery/coffee shop in Battersea. It was delicious. Typed on my non-stolen phone.
I feel like you have all chased Os away. With him gone, maybe we could have a grown up conversation about the direction the world is travelling? Some things seem obvious. The fight for rare minerals is underlying all that is going on in the world. I wonder if that wasn’t Russia’s end goal with Ukraine all the time. Where do we think that is going to push things next? Migration. I actually feel the Middle East situation has calmed. No US there blowing stuff up for a while. Will we see migration slowing down? Anyone seen any good articles about this? And what is a good level of net migration? 500k? 250k? Bang even? Polarisation of society. We are turning into a society that has lost interest in consensus. How do we fix that?
Although minerals play a part Putin's refusal to recognise Ukraine as a sovereign state regarding it as being historically part of Russia is a prime mover. A worry for neighbouring countries. Migration is forecast to fall in a number of studies. Ukrainians and Afghanis numbers have already peaked and maybe Sirians will be more inclined to stay in their country as other places may do if foreign aid improves conditions. As for the loss of tolerance, understanding and concern for those less fortunate and the environment I've no idea how to bring back a sense of collective responsibility.
Ahhhh on the second point, don't be fooled by the ME situation having 'calmed' - because there's so much noise around all the other madnesses, there's an awful lot that we're just not seeing or reading about because it isn't as loud or immediate. The ME is potentially about to blow up in a really big way. I just spoke to my mate over in Iraq and he's in the process of writing a report - the situation out there right now is critical, as Trump has voided a 125 day waiver that the Iraqis have when buying Iranian electricity and gas. He's basically killing all those deals as he wants to cripple Tehran - the problem being that in doing so, they're going to lose 35% of power going into Iraq, which nobody can backfill. So we're going into 50 degree heat and with the prospects of electricity and gas in the country essentially breaking down, which will undoubtedly cause civil unrest in Iraq. Added to this, the Iranians have started putting together potential revenge missile strike sites as a result, including oilfields under Western control in Iraq, and the air bases/missile silos in Diego Garcia etc. So yeah, don't be fooled. Keep a little eye on all that whilst you're dealing with the rest of the madness.
The polarisation is undoubtedly, unequivocally, caused by the algorithms which drive the majority of social media platforms. These lead the unwary down rabbit holes from which many find it difficult to escape. Every conceivable topic is presented as a choice between black and white, with no option for grey, and once you follow one extreme, the algorithms dictate the flavour of the posts you see from that point onwards. The proprietors of these platforms have taken Philip of Macedon’s “divide and conquer” idiom to its logical contemporary conclusion, as setting us all at each other’s throats is exactly how they generate more clicks and more advertising revenue and rake in the takings. I suppose fixing this problem and reviving the concept of consensus is ultimately down to all of us as individuals, by self-regulation. However, some kind of government intervention, particularly when it comes to children using social media, is going to have to happen at some point.
I saw in an interview, with Zelenskyy, that he was saying that “Putin will be dead soon. Fact.”. I know there have long been rumours about Putin’s health, but is his end imminent?
His replacement could be Igor Ivanovich Sechin or Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev, could either be worse?
