Perhaps it is just the cynic in me, but every time Trump announces a ceasefire or whatever passes for good news in his obviously warped mind, the stock market goes up. Conversely the opposite is also true, when he decides to attack Iran again, stocks crash and oil prices soar. Now if by chance, he or any of his billionaire cronies kept their stocks when prices were about to crash, they would lose money, and I think we have all seen how Trump hates to do that.  The constant rise and fall in prices, which is more than merely predictable if you just happen to be in the loop of information that surrounds Trump would provide a very lucrative opportunity for buying low, and selling high. so, the question of the day is, do you think that these powerful people have sufficient morality, ethics and honesty not to profit from this knowledge?  This is after all, the value of pension plans throughout the world that will probably end up losing out in transactions like this. Such a sce...

 Cheer up, it's Friday! A bear walks into a bar in Billings, Montana and sits down. He bangs on the bar with his paw and demands a beer. The bartender approaches and says, "We don't serve beer to bears in bars in Billings." The bear, becoming angry, demands again that he be served a beer. The bartender tells him again, more forcefully, "We don't serve beer to belligerent bears in bars in Billings." The bear, very angry now, says, "If you don't serve me a beer, I'm going to eat that lady sitting! at the end of the bar." The bartender says, "Sorry, we don't serve beer to belligerent, bully bears in bars in Billings" The bear goes to the end of the bar, and, as promised, eats the woman. He comes back to his seat and again demands a beer. The bartender states, "Sorry, we don't serve beer to belligerent, bully bears in bars in Billings who are on drugs." The bear says, "I'm NOT on drugs." The bartend...

  It’s been a while since I wrote about the world of politics, but I had to return to it at some point, so here goes.   😊   One of the following must be true, or perhaps they all have some semblance of truth?   1)       Politics or other high office jobs attract the delusionally idiotic, the corrupt and the perverted. 2)       Power corrupts. 3)       Even a saint cannot go unscathed through the scrutiny that falls on our public servants and others whose position gets them media attention.   This started while watching Morning TV over my breakfast.   There was a talking head expert on a piece about one of the eternal problems in the NHS, who came out with the following informative statement, “As people get older, they have more risk of dying”.    I bet you never realised that before.   I wonder haw much they pay these TV experts to impart that level of...

 I've posted about publishing a book on Amazon here before:   The Other Road eBook : Caswell, Ian: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store To celebrate me eventually having time to rewrite the start of the story it will be available on Kindle FREE for five days from 1st May.  A paperback version will be available shortly too.  I initially worked hard to keep the word count down, because the publisher I had been going to use recommended a 30,000 word limit, their logic being that this would keep the purchase cost down, thus encouraging more people to give a new author a chance.  30,000 words was never going to happen, but it did give me some sort of guide.  Given the sales of the book so far, I can confirm that cutting down the word count does not work. My efforts to keep the word count down led that first part of the story to be incredibly information dense, with huge monologues etc.  Although I was always unhappy with this, I thought ignoring the experts woul...

 My old Astra was getting to be a real pain.  The noise from somewhere underneath continued (see my original write up on it), but additional, hard to trace problems were also building up.  It had started to leak somewhere around the boot too, yet I could see no good reason for this since the seals were good.  This got to the point where, over time, the recess for the spare wheel filled up and the water then sloshed around sufficiently that it started to soak through the foam of the rear seat, making it damp.  The inside of the windows were often dripping with moisture too, and demisting took an age.  Last autumn and winter here were exceptionally wet, and this was a constant source of annoyance.  Since building an extension on our house a few years I no longer have direct access to my garage, and have to work on the car out in the street. I have to admit that although the bodywork was in good condition, the constant niggles with this car, most of which...