Observations from a Hill

Despite all Trump's lying, posturing and 'economic' gaming, guess who holds all the cards that he so dearly thinks he holds? China, that's who. While America has been lurching back and forth between their two incompatible governmental [im]possibilities for the last fifty years, egged on by the rise and now the gradual decline of neoliberal globalist capitalism; the Chinese have learned, as only a society with such a deep and sophisticated cultural & political history as their's could, to transcend their increasingly embattled twentieth century position on the global stage, whilst the rest of the world blithely chose to ignore what was happening there. Whilst everyone else's eye was far from the ball, China rebuilt it's economy and infrastructure quietly and competently against a background of political pariah-hood; gradually taking advantage of the always on internet economy and lack of any real, formal trade constraints to position itself as the globa...

On our way back from visiting the boys yesterday - they live at the top end of the island of Anglesey, just shy of the most northerly town in Wales - we were stopped in our tracks by the sight of a Red Kite [Milvus Milvus] being harassed by a brace of buzzards: at one point the Kite was literally no more than thirty feet away from us; utterly magnificent. Unfortunately, as usual, we were so mesmerised by seeing this fabulous bird - and at such close quarters - that we completely forgot to get a picture of the event [stock photo pictured]. What is gratifying though is that we are seeing a gradual increase in sightings of the bird this far north. A wonderful and erstwhile maligned creature, it's a very welcome addition to the avian fauna of Gwynedd and Ynys Môn. Hope to more and more of them in the coming years, although the buzzards might not agree with that sentiment!

Beer and FT Magazine crossword on the terrace, Chez Fairview Heights, heno. The first glimpse of the proper arrival of Spring here, although the air out of the sun still carries with it enough chill to suggest another layer of clothing: 'ne'er cast a clout till May is out' still holds true this year, but the otherwise fine and calm weather still brings a cheer to auger the cessation of hostilities of Winter. It's been a busy couple of days here for us, so I'm going to leave tonight's scribble at that. Hopefully tomorrow will be a more relaxing day and a genuine rest from the hurly-burly. Catch you later...  

It looks like Steve Wozniak - aka 'Woz' or 'The Other Steve', co-founder of Apple and its original magister of tech and programming - remains on the side of the angels, committing a new space company of his making "...unlike the others...", 'Privateer Space' to 'clear up' space junk from near Earth orbit. As always, Woz sees the ultimate point in tech - to benefit mankind, rather than simply extract as much money as possible from it by selling 'lifestyle'. In the middle years of his relationship with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, as the company's revenue and stock increased, he was often at odds with Jobs over the company's direction, and he left Apple behind in 1985, the year after the Macintosh computer which he, Jobs and Jef Raskin, among many others, had developed, had been launched with the legendary Super Bowl advert in 1984. Where he and Jobs differed was on user expandability and programmability of the machine. Jobs wante...

Today is the 80th anniversary of VE day, and we duly observed two minutes silence, even though we were sat in the car outside the pharmacy at the Medical Centre this morning.  A brief time of reflection in the humdrum of life. Also, today we hear of a UK trade deal with the US, and the announcement of a new Pope. India and Pakistan appear close to military conflict and in today's New Statesman, Jeremy Bowen laments the situation in Gaza in his piece 'The War to End All Peace'. Global business as usual? Who knows? The observance of VE Day is as far as I'm concerned, a given: we really cannot forget the consequences of nationalism and expansionist aggression. My take on the Starmer/Trump thing is that the Labour government are in a very uncomfortable place: this was - and the Labour Party and we all knew it would be - a very bad time to take the reins of government; only to be amplified a thousand percent by the re-election of Trump to the White House. Schmoozing the Car...

Well, it's currently the eve of VE Day+80; the eightieth anniversary of the cessation of hostilities in Europe in the Second World War, ending five years of all-out warfare instigated by the expansionist aspirations of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Having had family both directly and indirectly involved in that conflict, as I would guess most of us alive in the UK will have had, I feel it's incumbent on us all to at least reflect on the import of the event and remember those who gave up their lives in defeating the tyranny that threatened Europe then; but also to reflect on the global situation in which we find ourselves today, with a belligerent nation, also with expansionist ambitions, at war in Europe at present. The parallels between now and then are there to see, and many are talking about the 'appeasement' of Russia and Putin by Donald Trump over Ukraine, offering to cede territory without the traduced party's involvement. Let's face facts: Putin respects...