Farmer Diaries

 I've not talked about the British economy very much.  Granted it's not firing on all cylinders, things are thought and blaming the Labour government is easy.   I agree that some of the recent policy announcements were expensive giveaways to people who will soon be able to dictate terms. The reality of a post-Brexit world is finally coming home to roost, it is evident that the Conservative who had three years in power after the "day" did nothing.   The new government is still finding its feet, it will be interesting. Of course the government's biggest problem is the new American administration.  In the past week, Trump has made more public statements than Biden did in four years in power.   For Britain, the problem is dealing with the 800-pound gorilla. the problem is simply, that certain classes of civil servants have discovered that they have real bargaining power, that they did not have in the past.  Nurses, Doctors, technicians....

 In the United States, every department has an inspector whose job is to report to Congress how well (or badly) things are working in a department, from embezzlement to misuse of resources to conduct that is well outside the department rules or even breaksing laws. twelve of the most important checks and balances have been removed in a midnight raid.   In effect, Congress will not be informed (or the public) of mismanagement, theft and overreach. The impact is simple, lots of illegal things are about to happen.  the interesting thing is will Congress let Trump get away with it?  In my estimation, they will.  Republicans in Congress are not the most courageous lot, some are remarkably stupid and more importantly ignorant.  What Trump is setting up is an autocratic system where his "enemies" who always played by the rules will be hounded out of office and put in jail.    Trump admires two people Putin in Kim Jung Un.   Let's face it, ...

 I used to be a political animal here in the United Kingdom.  I lost interest in the last few years of the Conservative term.   Honestly, Brexit broke me!   So when I am asked about President Trump a few things are clear.  First, a leopard does not change his spots; what was true of the first administration is certain to be true of the second. In the first two years of his first administration, Trump was surrounded by people who were of the faith but had no trouble in speaking to power.  They were all fired!  Those who survived were the ones that prayed to the altar of The Donald.  Yes, I am being hurtful, but the truth always hurts.   Bottom line those who did well in the second half of his administration drank the cool aid.  The problem with the cool aid is that you are divorced from reality.  So the administration wants to kick out all the illegal immigrants, well where will he kick them out?   Will Mexic...

Before Christmas, and as a favour to an old friend I spent a fortnight in China, granted about half the trip was in Shanghai.   Talking about China when you spent most of your time in Shanghai is like talking about the United States after a week in New York.  You have no idea what you are talking about.  My two weeks in the country were to meet "clients" of my old friend, as a company can no longer travel to the country, but me and my wife, as tourists were left mostly alone.    First, I must say that I had forgotten how beautiful the country is, and the size of the domestic tourist industry.   Shanghai is an amazing city, and since 90% of my time there was spent in the central part, I did not see any of the dislocation mentioned everywhere.   The one aspect that really surprised me was the number of cameras everywhere.   I mean, we complained in London, but in Shanghai and the other cities we visited, it was insane.  ...

 So Donald decided to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.  I wonder if this will be as popular as when George Bush chose to rename French fries Freedom fries, to the total consternation of the French population who always wondered why Americans called "frites" french fries since the country best known for "frites" was Belgium and not France.    To the French, the "insult" led to more hilarity than anything else, since it demonstrate the ignorance of Americans as to where the food came from (don't get me started on hot dogs or Hamburgers). If it is any consolation there has not been an official renaming of places since 1953,  the Japanese and the Koreans are still in a tiff about the naming of the Sea of Japan (aka the Sea of the East).  Anyway, America can call the Gulf of Mexico anything it wants, it doesn't mean that anyone is paying attention, and it is unlikely that a lot of maps will change the names (maybe some pro-Maga map maker -- ...

We rented a few condos in Vail for the Christmas period, in fact, we landed in the US on the 26 of December for 10 days of skiing and fun.   The skiing and the fun were all there, which was great, what was less fun was the "political discussions".  For some reason, Americans are convinced that the entire world is interested in the bowel movement. I mean, sure Trump won, but he's not taking office for a few weeks yet and the stuff coming out is amazing, I mean invade Canada, Greenland and Panama.  My favourite was three nights ago when some guy was trying to convince everyone that it was not Putin who had invaded Ukraine.   I mean that's beyond revisionist history.    When did America's far-right become pro-Russian?  In short Americans are nuts and that's that.  I have no idea how successful Trump will be in his second term,. because he did absolutely nothing in the first term, he did cut taxes and built about 10 km of new walls with Mexi...