Part of our daily routine is that once we have watched the 6.00pm news and had our evening supper, Meg and I sometimes switch over to YouTube for a piece of classical music with which to end off the day before the carers arrive at about 7.00am. Yesterday, we did this, and the first item presented to us was a speech made by the liberal US Senator, Bernie Sanders, on the floor of the Senate in the US Congress. This turned out to be one of the most powerful and riveting political speeches I have ever heard and it is very easily accessible across the social media. In it, Sanders attacks what he calls the modern oligarchs of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg who Donald Trump has brought into the heart of his new administration. The most controversial of these to date is undoubtedly Elon Musk who is heading up what is called the 'Department of Government Efficiency' and he started off by sacking most of the staff or emasculating the whole of the US Aid budget which will result via the cutting of aids budgets and medical clinics to the detriment of, and perhaps even death of thousands, particularly in South Africa. Sanders makes a powerful argument that these three oligarchs now own as much wealth as the bottom half of American society, some 170 million people. He draws a parallel between these oligarchs and what was termed 'the Divine Right of Kings' which is how Americans were governed when they were a British colony and before the American Declaration of Independence and argues that many of the constitutional rights of Americans are being swept away. For example, the aid budget in the USA was set up by Congress and only Congress, not the President and even more an unelected American oligarch like Elon Musk, can alter its budget in this way. Elon Musk has called for impeaching federal judges following rulings that impeded the Trump agenda. Only 15 federal judges have been impeached since 1803. The process is typically reserved for severe offences, not policy disagreements. Experts warn that abusing impeachment power could diminish the federal government's systems of checks and balances, so carefully enshrined and nurtured in the American Constitution and which I believe is part of the curriculum as part of their civic education with federal law requiring all schools receiving federal funds to include lessons on the Constitution often focusing on key principles like the Bill of Rights. Bernie Sanders has made the whole text of his speech readily available on social media so I may well download it and re-read it when I feel the need. It is an interesting question whether the British media will pick up on this speech as the attention of British politicians has (quite rightly) been focused on the security conference held recently in Munich and e fate of Ukraine. As I write, it looks as though some American and Russian officials (one hesitates to call them negotiators) are assembling in Saudi Arabia to decide the fate of Ukraine with the Europeans as a whole told they are excluded from the process. So, the political programmes that form the meat of Sunday morning (Trevor Phillips, Lorna Kuenssberg) may well be particularly interesting this morning.
After we had breakfasted, I was delighted to get a phone call from our University of Birmingham friend, where we enjoyed a coffee and some Belgian chocolate cake between us. We shared the concerns that we have regarding the present situation in the Ukraine and then I told our friend about the Bernie Sanders address to Congress I had heard for the first time last night. Although our political views are not completely aligned, I did show our friend a cognate video on YouTube in which Saunders gave essentially the same speech. Then the carers arrived and we had to terminate our little get-together sooner than was planned. Whilst hunting for some music on YouTube, I did come across an amazing video claiming that Canada was to join the EU. This is certainly wishful thinking but, as of few years ago, the Eu and Canada actually share a sort of border. There is a small rocky outcrop off the coast of Greenland and the two most proximate countries are Denmark (to which Greenland belongs) and Canada. Membership of the EU is confined to 'European' society but nowhere is the term defined so there is a case to be made that Canada is culturally a part of Europe. But there are too many legal and logistical problems to Canada joining the EU and it is not going to happen. But there is a lifeline in the form of the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in 2016 which has still to be ratified by some members of the EU. But this is one avenue through which the EU and Canada can cooperate much more widely in an attempt to mitigate the Trump tariff wall being erected against Canada.
This winter has seemed particularly hard for us, although not characterised by snow but persistent cold. But this may well change as temperatures could hit 14C by the middle of the week after a period of persistent gloom. The Met Office said people could see sunshine return as soon as Monday in some parts of the country. It will come as a relief after an 'anticyclonic gloom' brought dull skies and bitter weather to much of the country. Parts of the UK could continue to see snowfall throughout Sunday evening and into Monday - but then things are starting to look up. When I was at work in the University of Winchester, we had an 'inter-semester break' at the end of January and so Meg and I sought the opportunity to seek out a little winter sun in Spain. Then, after retirement, we had a series of absolutely marvellous winter breaks in Salobreña in Southern Spain where we went on holiday for as much as a month. Saga holidays were offering four weeks for the price of three and the prices were amazingly cheap (and, in fact, so much so that Western Hotels found it impossible to provide the full board and accommodation when the whole package cost about £1,000 for the month from which we have to deduct the cost of the flights and the excursions) Some people had been going on holiday, one couple for 17 years and so there were a group of us who used to meet up year after year and we had many enjoyable hiking trips and trips out to the Alpujarras mountainous region which was adjacent as well as the cities of Granada and Malaga itself. I was reminded vividly of this when I discovered a series of photographs that I had taken on holiday and then put in some website space provided by much email host about which I had temporarily forgotten.
© Mike Hart [2025]