The World Now Stands at Another Pivotal Cross-roads...And As 'the Lady Galadriel' Informed Her Fellow Middle-Earth Dwellers Back in That Approaching Age of Men (As the Elves' Age Rapidly Came to its Conclusion), One Step Either Side Could Well Mean Death & Destruction to Earthians Everywhere...

Time, I Suggest, For Aotearoa-New Zealand's Once Respected Labour Party to 'Go Back to the Drawing Board' and Spend Some Real Time & Deliberation Considering and Coming to Grips with Why They Were So Roundly & Decisively Rejected by NZ Inc At the Recent Elections...

Vis-a-vis which I was spot-on in my belief it'd be an absolute rout (on a scale not seen since the 4th Labour Government in the 80s was thrown out on its ear in 1990), but quite wrong (like various other thoughtful commentators, pundits and pollsters) that the turnout would be well down on the usual...

Perhaps 'the Voice' (Referendum on Recognition of Australia's Indigenous People) Failed (Over in the Land of 'Oz) Not So Much Because Aussies Rejected the Very Idea of Paying Due Acknowledgement to Their Original Settlers, But Because It So Quickly Fell Prey to Virtue-Signalling Wokesters, Elitists & Moreover Poncy-ing Politicoes Who Never Fail to Mess Up a Good Thing and Indeed Whatever They Place Their Anti-Midas' Touch of Death to?

The Complete & *Utter Trashing of the Once Beautiful & Glorious, Picturesque-In-Every-Way Idyll(ic City) of Portland Oregon is a Real Tragedy to Behold (from However Afar)...& a Sad & Undying 'Testament' to the Ultimate Bankruptcy of the MODERN Political Left (in the U S A)

*'Nutter('s) trashing (as I completely inadvertently, freudian-slip-like wrote initially) rather! 

Once a city extolled (along with Eugene, Seattle, Green Bay, Wisconsin and the Twin Cities - of my mother's childhood) to the rafters as 'one of the 10 most livable cities' in the United States in my beloved Book of Lists my oldest sister gave me 'back in the day' 40 or so years ago...

And incidentally Yours Truly did sojourn there for three months or so in late 1992 and found the reports thereof were not unfounded...

It's Sad to Have to Say, But Joe Biden Is Beginning to Look a Rank Amateur In Matters International, In 'Foreign Affairs': Some Might Even - God Forbid - Say: Bring Back Donald J Trump...

For whatever I've said - aplenty and little positive - in times past about the latter fellow, he can hardly have been accused of escalating tensions with Russia (or any other nation) to the extent/degree that Biden & Co have of recent times, to the point where some might suggest our world is rapidly being precipitated towards WW111...

And though I'm the last person in the room to serve as any kind of apologist for Vladimir Putin and his ilk, the onus is always upon the better person to show self-control and self-restraint, rather than up the ante to the nth degree so that in the final analysis, when push come to shove, Putin feels so humiliated with his back quite literally up against the proverbial that he feels he has no option but to initiate and unleash the end of all things...

Hey, Hands Off My All-Time Favourite Film - Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: IT'S PERFECTLY FINE/GOOD/ACCEPTABLE IN ITS ORIGINAL FORM (As In *Cinematic Version with Gene Wilder As Charlie)

Most things of a creative nature are best left as is - which of course isn't to say that folk aren't free to chip in later on down the track with their own idiosyncratic takes upon the selfsame...

*Having admittedly yet to get around to reading the book by Roald Dahl. 

Postscript:

There's 'infinitely' more I could add, but for now I simply wanted to get my own view upon the record.

I'm NOT Sorry to See the Back of Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon: Though Undoubtedly 'Charismatic' To a Degree & Rather Adept at Tapping into the Popular Mood Upon Matters Devolutionary and Anti-Boris (Johnson) & Brexiting-Conservatives, Her *'Wokeness' Has Evidently Been Her Ultimate Undoing...

*As discussed twice this week upon the Mike Hosking Show with British correspondent Rod Liddell. 

But far as this particular punter is concerned, her willingness to 'get down and dirty' regarding her predecessor Alex Salmond revealed a spirit of vindictiveness and maliciousness ill-befitting a leader of a once admirably noble people, the Scots...

If there'd been any semblance of substance to the sexual harassment allegations it'd have been another thing entirely...

But oh so typically these days, simply by being aired they gained traction and credibility...

Dirt sticks, as they say - however absolutely baseless in reality.

Not altogether dissimilar to the Peter Ellis witch-hunt in Aotearoa-New Zealand back in the day.

Postscript:

So all power to Sir Cliff Richard's proposal for an Innocents' Law (or suchlike) in the 'United' Kingdom.

With the Go-To Shutdown Cry of "Racism" Willy-Nilly These Days - as Newstalk ZB Drivetime Host Heather Du Plessis Allan Aptly Expresses the Matter - Hey, We Needn't Bother Any More With Serious Discussions and Debates Upon Anything Important: Bravo to the Cancel Culture Woke Brigade, Lately Ignorantly Led In These Antipodean Regions by the Green Party's Marama Davidson and Te Parti Maori's Raweri Waititi

So, According to BBC World, the Otherwise Ineffectual, Even Fairly Incompetent, & Certainly Unimpressive, U S Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, Is to Head to the Middle East (Israel and Egypt Etc) Next Week 'to Seek to Help De-Escalate Tensions Between Israel and the Palestinians'

Yeah, right: while he and his hapless Administration do all in their power - I mean, ineffectual weakness - to meanwhile hasten/precipitate WW111 with Russia! 

What planet are these people on?!?!?!? 

I mean, really?!?!?!?

Call Putin a Madman - & He IS - As Much as You Like...But Please Don't Turn Around the Next Moment & Pretend That Such a Madman, When Pushed Up Against the Proverbial Wall & When Push Comes to Literal Shove, Won't Be Equally Irrational When It Comes to Launching Nuclear Weaponry Upon Ukraine and Ukrainians...

Whether so-called limited, tactical - or strategic - weapons, in the long-range, long-term consequences/ repercussions thereof it's all essentially the same. In such a scenario it's hard to not foresee WW111 as then being not all that far  - God forbid - away.