The Egg's Blog Drafts

Misc / philosophical / spiritual, life, the universe and beyond...

The cosmic manifestation is created maintained and annihilated in infinite cycles within the intermediate causal oceans.
Self-annihilating transcendental hallucinogenic apoplectic europhia.
Normality is the brainchild of convention (thanks to an old friend, Stephen Perry)

1990s
The leopard has got to want to change its spots.
How can you truly know anyone else if you don't even know your own self first?
I've never known someone so self-centred and self-obsessed but with zero self-awareness.
It's not healthy to fanatically believe or follow anything, but it's healthy to keep an open mind.
Going to hell? How do you know we're not already there? If they truly exist, the spiritual realms would be the heavenly realms and the material physical realm would surely be hell. Sure, there's possibly even worst places... or forms, e.g. if karma and reincarnation are a thing, then imagine life as an insect... or being a giant turtle for two hundred years...
If it exists, Hell must surely be empty right now, because all the demons are here on Earth.

2000s
Being in a majority might work in a democratic vote but doesn't necessarily mean you are always in the right. Bear in mind that, once upon a time, Noah and Abraham were both minorities...

2020s
Here's to a Happy New Year with less over-dominant disjointed erratic synthetic kick drums and farty bass sounds - and more focus on the truly excellent music instead.

More misc ditties

15 minutes on Twitter is all you need to realise the human race is doomed to fail.
Patriotism may well be the last refuge of a scoundrel, but trigger-baiting (aka torrancing) is the last refuge of a right-wing troll on Twitter.
Is it really too much to ask for a society and world where characteristics such as truth, honesty, integrity, empathy & compassion take precedence and are seen as essential strongpoints, not weaknesses?
I've blocked hundreds of right-wing trolls on Twitter. Where do they all come from? A troll bot farm, a hellhole in the fabric of time and space? Do they really exist?
Are people really that stupid, gullible and ignorant? If you're not capable of telling the truth about anything, then get off my timeline !

From Tories to MAGA, to fanatical right-wing UltraZionists & Ultra-Evangelicals, to reactionary disingenuous deceitful hacks, to covidiot-conspiracy-theorists (you really think thousands of doctors and nurses would lie to us on behalf of the government?), to Brexit-flagshaggers with "anti-woke" in their bios (which is effectively the equivalent of admitting that you're a racist ignoramus) to right-wing Labour clowns including the current racist (and, unlike Corbyn, properly antisemitic) leader (we've got a word for erroneously claiming that all or a majority of Jews should believe the same political view - I can assure you, we don't - and apparently claiming that you're not a proper Jew if you don't subscribe to the right-wing Ultra-Zionist political viewpoint and should therefore be expelled from the party), the bigoted hateful Rosie Duffield, the utterly appalling Wes Streeting and Luke Akehurst, and many more (I'm sure you all know exactly who).
It's a truly tragic situation. I don't know whether to laugh or cry half the time.
We're well through the looking glass now. 1984 was an understatement, an under-prophecy. The reality is much much worse.
Watch for the signs of the end times. I'm not religious or anything, but it's quite clearly apocalyptic.
I used to be The Egg, once upon a time, you know :-)

UK Politics: Democratic Socialism / Anti-Tory / Anti-Brexit / Pro-EU & CU-SM / etc.

Free Trade just means tariff-free. Customs Union and Single Market combinations also remove the need for customs checks, import duties and a plethora of non-tariff barriers (aka bureaucratic red tape), something which Free Trade deals can't do. You will see... (paraphrasing a post by Sangreal on DigitalSpy around the time of the referendum - yes, that was me)
The only way to be in both the European Single Market and Customs Union is to (re)join the EU. There's no non-EU countries in both, and they aren't going to make any exceptions for the UK.
The only way to be in the European Single Market is to be in either the EU or to (re)join the EFTA and sign the EEA Agreement (like Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein). Switzerland is not in the single market. It's got a special FTA deal from before the EEA Agreement existed which enabled free movement of services and workers on top of their FTA deal. Both the EU and EFTA have agreed there will not be another Switzerland. For UK and other countries, it's EU or EFTA=>EEA only. Neither Comprehensive or Standard FTA deals can deliver the same benefits as EU-CU-SM membership. This is the truth of the matter, so please stop peddling pipedreams and disinformation.
Nobody likes being lied to. The British people were lied to about cover-ups, scandals, Brexit, the EU, immigration, Corbyn, covid lockdown rules being broken in Westminster/Downing St, and by just about every word which came of out Boris Johnson & co's mouths.
The only thing these politicians care about is their own bank balance. Corrupt to the core. They'll say anything to get elected.
Anyone who threatens the establishment's tight grip will be character assassinated and smeared. Don't be fooled into thinking any of these right-wing reactionary con-men are anti-establishment or have got your best interests at heart.
Everyone (politicians, zelebs, media, hacks - we know who you all are) who jumped on the bandwagon to smear Jeremy Corbyn (and thus effectively campaigning for and enabling Boris Johnson and the Tories - the most corrupt, incompetent, hypocritical, racist, cruel, nasty, dishonest set of utter clowns ever to set foot in parliament) are largely responsible for the diabolical state of the country today (2015-2024). If any of them are remembered, history will not treat any of them kindly.
Corbyn isn't a populist. Populists such as Trump, Johnson, Farage & co will say whatever they think you want to hear to get elected, and once elected, they'll do virtually none of it. Corbyn is a conviction politician. His views and policies (public services in the public domain, green revolution, affordable housing, end homlessness, tax the super rich a bit more to help bridge the gap between rich & poor, promote peace and peace talks, etc.) are pretty much constant and he would've actually tried his very best to implement them.
Starmer is neither a populist nor conviction politician. He's just a lightweight Tony Blair meets David Cameron and Nick Clegg clone. Someone who won't rock the establishment boat. A safe pair of centre-right hands who can step in when the Tories mess up. He won't tax the rich more, he won't take away any of their vested interests in privatised services, he won't regulate the press or do anything about rip-off rent or extortionate food & energy prices. Nothing much will change (for the better) under him. That's centrists for you...
Socialism is basically where the people own the means of production. UK was a relatively successful mixed market economy of capitalism and democratic socialism between 1945-1979. Private enterprise existed alongside state/public-owned energy (oil, petrol, gas, electricity), water, coal & steel, public transport (railways, buses), communications (media, telecom, mail), etc. Before Thatcher sold it all off to profit-makers instead. 40 years later and look at the disastrous outcome now. When will these people ever admit privatisation, corporatism & trickle-down economics was a rip-off, fallacy, failure and massive mistake?
Or to quote a certain someone else...
"It's an obvious way of living. You care for each other, you care for everybody, and everybody cares for everybody else. It's obvious, isn't it?"
Left wing constructs / policies include: Socialism / public ownership of public services; NHS; unions; sick pay; maternity pay; equal rights for women, LGBT & ethnic minorities; protecting the environment; free higher education; caring for the vulnerable; bridging the gap between rich and poor via e.g. higher taxes for the very richest... It's not rocket science.
Anyone on the right-wing who claims it doesn't work is either obviously clueless or has vested interests (in e.g. privatised services), or is being deliberately disingenuous, or both.
Corporate-capitalism is the culmination and embodiment of all things evil and wrong in the world today.
Everything these days is about making money.
The world is driven by greed, selfishness, envy, materialism, desire, deception, dishonesty, division, cruelty...
Other than Hell itself, whether real or not, it's about as far away from any concept of heaven imaginable.
The world will never be a better place whilst people keep voting for right-wing parties.
All they deliver is more division, lies, hatred, corruption, selfishness, greed... and ultimately mass poverty... whilst the super rich get richer and richer.
Working class people voting for the Tories is the equivalent of turkeys voting for Christmas.
Yes, so I'm woke and proud of it. Woke means awake, aware, alert... and I actually care about the people and the planet. The opposite of woke is asleep, unaware, gullible, ignorant, racist, bigoted, numptiness, aka the state of being a numpty...
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act” (Orwell)
Agents of said deceit (UK/USA) include: Rupert Murdoch / News Corp, The Conservative Party, Republican Party (MAGA/TeaParty elements), The Sun, Daily Mail, Telegraph, Express, GB News, Fox News, Conservative controlled elements of Sky News & BBC News, Right-wing factions of UK Liberal & Labour Parties, right-wing elements of Guardian & Independent newspapers...
We must hold all these people to account. Keep exposing their lies and keep promoting truth, at all times, at whatever the cost!
So you want to exclude trans people from society, sport, public facilities, everywhere? What do you propose as a solution? All I see is hatred and bigotry but no alternative proposals to the current laws. Rights which were fought for over many years. You don't even appear to be campaigning to change the law. What should trans people do? Should trans women use the men's facilities even though they've generally got breasts and look like women? Yeah, I know, you always give the most masculine looking examples, and (not that looks should even matter anyway) never e.g. the Nicole Maines / Kataluna Enriquez / Gigi Lazzarato types. Should trans men use the women's facilities? Or should all trans people use the men's? Or should there be a unisex option which anyone can use, which of course you right-wingers will help fund? Or is it as I suspect, you just want trans people to be excluded and go away - which I can assure you, is not going to happen!
First of all, transgender people are protected by law,
whereas transvestites are not protected by this same law:
https://www.bindmans.com/knowledge-hub/blogs/rights-of-the-transgender-community/

Why do many of the example cases provided by those protesting appear to be transvestites, not transgender women?

There appears to be some confusion about the definitions amongst those complaining...?

Quote

The law for transvestites

The law protects those "who make a commitment… to live permanently in their non-birth gender",
but not "transvestites or others who choose temporarily to adopt the appearance of the opposite gender".

So according to the law, transgender women have the legal right to use women-only spaces, but transvestites do not. That's what the law says. So if you disagree, go argue with the law, not trans people or trans-right activists.
Enough with these prejudices. It's like all bigotry and discrimination. We hear your concerns, but you're effectively claiming that all trans women are potential or actual rapists, who only want to use women's facilities to gain access to and sexually abuse women. This might possibly be true for a small number of disingenuous transvestites, but the truth of the matter is that, like all other people, it's only a very small minority of trans women who might fit that description - and afaik, many trans women are actually more sexually attracted to men anyway.
So can't you support both womens' rights and trans rights?

Judaism vs Zionism

Ahh, the irony of non-Jewish extremists in CAA, who've been indoctrinated by ultra-nationalists, accusing a few million left-wing / reform / ultra-orthodox Haredi / secular Jews of being antisemites because they apparently don't fit in with some sterotypical view of what they deem Jewish people should think and believe...

Firstly, do not take seriously anyone who claims 90% of Jews support Zionism. This is not true at all.
It would be extremely antisemitic to claim all or a majority of Jews share anything whatsoever. Whether views, features, characteristics, or anything else.

So (and this was once the majority view, pre-1917-48) we've got a couple of million ultra-orthodox anti-Zionist Haredi/Hassidic/Satmar Jews (in USA, Israel, UK, etc.) claiming the Torah states we are explicitly in exile for a reason, we were punished for a reason by God when the temple in Jerusalem was sacked in 70AD, and we cannot establish our own state in the holy land until the Messiah comes. Yes, I accept that might never happen, and the Holocaust obviously changed everything - I never said I was anti-Zionist, just non-Zionist and anti-ultra-zionist-fanaticism.

Alongside numerous Jewish celebrities and academics (e.g. Alexei Sayle, Miriam Margolyes, Ed Asner RIP, Danny DeVito(?), Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, David Graeber RIP, etc.), there's also a growing number of liberal/reform/secular/left-wing/socialist anti/non-Zionist Jews in USA, UK, Europe, etc. (see: JVP, JVL, Na'amod, JFJFP, IfNotNow, JFREJNYC, NeverAgainActn, etc.) who are very active and vocal in their support for the plight of the Palestinian people (note that this does not mean they support Hamas in any way, shape or form) and/or for their criticism of the policies and actions of the heavily right-wing-leaning Israeli state/government.

Then we've got a few million Zionist (some who are ultra-zionist ultra-nationalist) Jews who support Israel no matter what...

Secondly, let's not lose sight of the fact that many of these views are based on scriptures from a few thousand years ago...
No-one can prove these events ever really happened, or if they did, just how accurate they are.
It's all based on faith. Yes, pretty crazy, I know...
But even if Zionism actually goes against the religion of Judaism, let's also be realistic here and realise/accept that the modern state of Israel isn't going away anytime soon, but nor are the Palestinians. So if you really believe in the two-state solution then isn't it time you actually did something to try bring it around instead of just saying it? (me in a now deleted conversation on Twitter with JLM activists)
The biblical northern Kingdom of Israel wasn't actually Jewish though. Only the southern kingdom of Judea/Judah with its capital in Jerusalem was Jewish and practised Judaism. The southern kingdom was chiefly comprised of the tribes (descendants of the 12 sons of Jacob/Israel) of Judah (father of the Jews), Benjamin & Levi (great-grandfather of Moses). The northern kingdom of Israel (aka Samaria) didn't follow the commandments and was punished by God. They were scattered to the 4 corners of the world and lost their name & identities (becoming known as the 10 lost tribes). They were Hebrews and Israelites (as in: descendents of Jacob), but they were never Jewish and neither were those lands.
If they had actually been Jewish then they wouldn't have become known as the 10 lost tribes...

Additionally, I'm 99% certain that no-one alive today can trace their ancestry back to those lost tribes!
If you believe in the bible (Old Testament / Torah) then you must also believe in the Birthright and Sceptre promise given to Abraham by God and handed down to Isaac, then Jacob (Israel), and then split between Judah (sceptre) and Joseph=>Ephraim & Manasseh (birthright). So where is the sceptre today? Where is the monarch/throne in modern day Israel? How does modern day Israel fit the birthright promise? Where are the two nations of Ephraim & Manasseh today? They (Ephraim & Manasseh and descendents) were Hebrews & Israelites, but not Jewish. Their uncle, Judah, was the first actual Jew. You do know about the birthright and sceptre promise, right?
Well... legend has it that the sceptre promise revolves around the so-called pillow/pillar Stone of Jacob (yes, that Jacob), aka the Lia Fáil (Ireland), aka the Stone of Scone (Scotland) aka the Stone of Destiny (Westminster Abbey)... from the Holy Land - where it was uprooted 3 times (as prophecised in the Old Testament) to Ireland to Scotland to England... you know, that stone and sceptre... ooh, the plot thickens!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_of_Scone
The point being that you can't just selectively quote the prophecies which help further your cause whilst ignoring the ones which don't.
So "Zionists" is just a replacement word for "Jews", is it?
This is an incredibly disingenuous and inaccurate claim to make.
There's around 13 million Jews in the world, approximately half who aren't Zionists - whether strictly orthodox Haredi who follow the Torah, or whether reform or secular Jews, etc.
There's over 30 million Christian Zionists in the USA alone. These evangelicals hold some pretty strong fundamental views.
They believe the rapture can't happen until all Jewish people "return" to Israel (even though the vast majority have never been there and, for those who are descendents of converts, neither have any of their ancestors), where they will either be converted to Christianity or be damned to hell eternally.

You can't get much more antisemitic than that.

From a personal point of view, I don't think we're safer today in a tiny stretch of land thousands of miles away surrounded by all our enemies than we are in the likes of UK, USA, Canada, Australia, EU, etc.
Of course, it's a marriage of convenience where the Jewish pro-Israel Ultra-Zonists are concerned, because they believe this rapture thing is obviously never going to happen, so they'll just continue to use the Christian Zionists to help further their cause...
What a truly crazy world we live in!
It's very true about the Christian Zionists. It's not a conspiracy theory. Here's the factsheet:
https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/factsheets/factsheet-christian-zionism/

Republican Senator for Arkansas, Bart Hester - Christian Zionist (Quote: “Anybody, Jewish or not Jewish, that doesn’t accept Christ, in my opinion, will end up going to hell.”)
https://www.nnaweb.org/arkansas-times-publisher-explains-stance-on-israel-boycott-law-to-readers-of-new-york-times
We were lied to when we were children. The desert was already fertile.
There's a right way and a wrong way to do things - and the Nakba was definitely the wrong way.

Non-Zionist vs Anti-Zionist

You should be very careful when using these terms.
Anti-Zionist means you not only don't support the state of Israel but also do not agree it has the right to exist.
There are potentially a few million (including around 2m strictly orthodox Haredi Jews) who describe themselves as anti-Zionist due to religious beliefs as stated in the scriptures.
There's also many Jews who describe themselves as non-Zionist.
This essentially means they're not pro-zionist but also don't necessarily hold any view on the subject.
For non-Jews to describe themselves as anti-Zionist though could certainly be construed as antisemitism because, ostensibly, the ultimate aim of anti-Zionism is for the destruction of the state of Israel.
This would imperil a few million Jewish people who currently live there, thus giving Zionists every reason to make their claims.

Be careful when labelling people like Jeremy Corbyn, Roger Waters, Brian Eno, etc. as anti-Zionist.
Afaik, nowhere have any of those people called for the destruction of the state of Israel.
When Labour leader, Corbyn supported the two-state solution. A true anti-Zionist would not support any solution where the modern state of Israel exists.

Corbyn, Waters, Eno & co are critical of the policies and actions of the state of Israel and afaik also support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, where Israelis and Palestinians live in peace.
None of them have expressed any support for terrorist/extremist groups, including when Corbyn regrettably said "our friends from Hamas" as inclusive speech to welcome two representatives who'd travelled to the UK to join the peace talks.

You must surely question the narrative and agenda when all of a sudden, the likes of Roger Waters, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Ken Loach, Maxine Peake, Charlotte Church, Dua Lipa, Emma Watson, Mark Ruffalo and more, are all being accused of antisemitism mainly just for being critical of the government/policies/actions of Israel or for also supporting Palestinian self-determination and equal rights.

None of those people are antisemites. Just stop it with these absurd accusations. Stop it now!
Stop using our religion as a political football. It's embarrassing and utterly shameful.

Equally absurd accusations of antisemitism (or self-hating) are also made against many predominantly left-wing and prominent Jewish people such as: Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Michael Rosen, Miriam Margolyes, Danny DeVito, Bernie Sanders, David Graeber (RIP), Alexei Sale, Mike Leigh, Eli Valley, Ronnie Kasrils, Miko Peled, Tony Lerman, Andrew Feinstein and many many more, including worldwide members of JVP, JFREJNYC, Na'amod, JFJFP... and also dozens of JVL members who've been thrown out of the Labour Party under Keir Starmer.

Meanwhile, the right-wing friends of the (mostly right-wing) people making these accusations are often ignored, be it Trump, Johnson, Orban, Farage, etc... many of whom have actually made real antisemitic statements in the past.
As I already said, I don't know whether to laugh or cry...
In addition to the obvious jihadist/militant extremists, who effectively hate everything and everyone else, the major antisemites will always be on the far right. These are the ones who actually hate Jews.
The ones who march through the streets in USA chanting "Jews will not replace us".
The NF/BNP who marched through the streets in the UK during the 1970s and 80s and who attacked my synagogue when I was a 10-12 yr old.
An extremely worrying element though is those on the far right who support Israel and Zionism.
Zionism's ultimate aim is to get all Jews out of the UK, USA, Europe etc. and relocate them to the modern-day state of Israel,
so it's hardly surprising that the far right who used to shout "Get back to Israel" (even though the vast majority of us were born in UK/USA/Europe and had never even been to Israel) would support such a thing...
The state of Israel is also believed by them to be a model country when it comes to treating Muslims as 2nd/3rd class citizens.
So, alas, it's also no surprise that the far right who see muslims/Islam as a major threat to the west would support such a thing...
It must also be pointed out that there are obviously also cases of real antisemitism in areas other than from militant Jihadis and the hard/far-right. This includes centrist, left and apolitical areas. I say "real" here to make the distinction between true and fabricated/weaponised cases. The point being that we should not concentrate solely on sources from particular sections, such as from political opponents, whilst disingenuously overlooking the cases closer to home!
Just like with right-wing vs left-wing politics, UltraZionism vs AntiZionism, and everything else that's hugely complex and/or wrong in the world,
sadly, it's all got way out of hand and, although I'd love to be more optimistic, but apart from some kind of miraculous divine intervention, I don't think there's any possible solution any more.

Winamp

It was me who literally begged Justin & team to include JTFE in Winamp back in 2003.
It was me who proposed DrO for the official Winamp Dev team in 2006, and iirc he was reluctant at first and took quite a bit of convincing.
Three or more former Winamp managers under AOL (David Biderman, Ben London, Geno Yoham & others) told me that Winamp would've died in 2004, 2007 & 2012 if it hadn't been for me.
Additionally, there never would've been a Winamp 5.8 or 5.9 release either without me. The new devs for 5.9 were literally clueless about the structure and makeup and needed full guidance
and nobody else knew how to package the installer. I never blew my own trumpet at the time, but yeah, I'm blowing it now :-)
It was a real pleasure and honour to work alongside Justin Frankel, Peter Pawlowski, Francis, Benski, DrO and co.
The last few years though have been a chore, a pain, not really enjoyable at all...
The last few years have been especially tough.
From Brexit and the ensuing uncertainties (Winamp & Shoutcast are owned by an EU/Brussels-based company), to covid and lockdown (like many, I've still not re-adapted), to losing my beautiful sister to covid, and then both my parents passing... I was suffering from grief-stricken anxiety and it was certainly affecting my work :-(
I've put my heart & soul into Winamp for more than 20 years.
It hurts even more to be casually dismissed as an afterthought by a couple of junior middle managers who've been with Winamp for a few months and have contributed virtually nothing other than overseeing its final demise.
I told them NFTs, Fanzone, charging fees for publishers when Bandcamp is free, the Android app (which was a joke in comparison to the old WAFA app) were all bad ideas and nothing good will come of them.
It hurts even more to see the people who came up with those terrible ideas still being employed by the company whilst decent developers left (or were laid off) and weren't properly replaced.
My vision was to modernise Winamp, fix all known bugs and implement support for newer popular audio and video formats and newer technology.
A stable full-featured product should be the key, and with the Winamp name alone, should be enough to keep and build on the already-existing solid userbase.
Their vision was for marketing. How could they use Winamp to make money. And what for? So they can employ a whole heap of people who were never really needed in the first place?
My final advice to them would be... good luck. You're gonna need it. But before you do any more irreversible damage to the brand, sell Winamp cheaply to someone who actually cares.
I'm too emotionally drained to discuss anything else about Winamp right now, but woe betide them if I ever publish my memoirs...
Bitter, much, me?
Well, Winamp was a big part of my life for more than 20 years, so yeah, just a bit.
It really hurts to see all the damage done.
But all of that is over now.
I'm no longer answerable to anyone and now The Egg is back!
So be careful what you wish for ;)