Never speak first

This is from IYE at Unherdables and is interesting advice for the phone: "“The 3 second silent call: why you should never speak first.”

It's American and might apply only there but maybe it applies in general ... video, then I've some thoughts on't.

Whether you buy that that's how they operate or not, it's not bad advice in general and along with today's hackers and censors, a cautious approach to any communication, even emails, net search or VPN, surely seems wise, esp. if you're sitting on a nestegg accumulated over time.

In my case, last evening came changed banking terms and conditions ... if I agree, I can still use online banking. At the same time, Apple are trying to get my financial and other details and are hammering me to take this intrusive update.  They're all at this constant, inexorable, ratcheting encroachment on privacy.

For a start, I do not use landline, though I still have one in case there's some technical verification demand down the track. I have no smartphone, just a dumbphone, no data, hardly use the phone, though it's on, except when on a long task or project.  That messes them up something awful.

I never answer anyway, unless the person is in my address book.I take no callbacks. Major institutions though whom I've given it to can text me, anyone else is blocked. I use no voicemail or answering service.  With texts, I usually phone back ... but never take phoneback from them.

Turning to online things and our devices ... if any panel appears with no way out, no x in the corner, I exit or if it freezes the exit, just shut down. I generally keep the downstairs buzzer off ... those I wish to speak to have my number.

Looking at that "x in the corner" thing, I just exit a different way and swap ipads ... never click on it, no matter what. The exception is cookies, then every so often ... clear all cookies. The golden rule is: "If they want you to do something ... don't do it, however attractive it might seem"

There's something I posted on X recently, picked up by a few people: "Being pushed into doing things we do not wish to, in fact being rushed into it, sign here, is not on my list of "to dos", no way, Jose. Cattle herding us ... I automatically go the other way, even if it's to my advantage to comply."

Naturally, it comes down to temperament and long, bitter experience. As a child on a bike, I avoided places the other kids and trusted adults warned of ... it's still the same way.

Hoping this was of some value to readers today.

Sir John Halstead

The difficulty in running this on blgr is that it does not embed the link:

https://x.com/JamesMelville/status/2020038384303968530?s=20

However, this was James Melville's text:

This scene from Yes Prime Minister is like the Starmer / Mandelson saga being performed in a time capsule.

And this is that clip in a different form:

At the same time, in the light of the Rupert Lowe led inquiry into the abused children, in lieu of the govt Whitewash, there is this link too:

https://x.com/BBMagaMom/status/2019999896577691685?s=20

For those wishing to insta-pooh-pooh that one, quoting the False Memory Syndrome panel which itself was packed with those later found out, I have a year's investigation on it on 2 gig usb stick somewhere ... long time since I looked at it and as some will say ... it was 80s America, wonn it, nothing to do with us? Ditto with the Belgian case. After all, who wants to investigate Solvay snd Bertelsmann anyway?

There is, however, the little matter of the Cambridge Five ... that's closer to home, yes? Christine Keeler, Mandy Rice-Davies?

Fox/Henhouse Interface Time Again

Funny how often that seems to happen, isn't it?

A former learning mentor who sexually abused five vulnerable teenage girls who came to him for support at school has been jailed for eight years.

Predators go where the prey gathers and is vulnerable, and this school in particular seems to have been a whaterhole teeming with vulnerable and wounded prey. 

And it seems the culture he was raised in was a large part of the issue: 

At the same court on Thursday, as Udaw was surrounded by almost 20 family and friends, Judge Giles Curtis-Raleigh told him: "Your actions were predatory, directed against girls who had been referred or come directly to you because they were having problems in their lives and/or in the school where you were working as a learning mentor 

"In each case it was a flagrant, gross breach of trust."

Came to support him by intimidating the witnesses:  

After her statement, prosecutor Catherine Donnelly flagged that one of the defendant's family members was making a "rude gesture" towards the woman while she was speaking, and the judge ordered him to leave court and not come back.

Why wasn't he arrested and charged?  

Catherine Purnell, defending, said her client's crimes were followed by a "very long period of not offending".

Fred West must have been busy laying the odd patio in between, Catherine. Is that the best you can do?  

"During that time, he grew up properly in a way that young men have to when they create and nurture a nuclear family who are everything to him," she said, adding the proceedings have been "devastating" for his loved ones.

Consequences again. 

Are you eighteen or older?

Just a short topic (for me) today ... one screenshot which sums up the criminal ridiculousness of Britain right now ... plus the west.

Added to this is this ridiculous proof of eighteen or over.  Andy at our place:

How am I going to stay in touch with truth and suchlike when I’ve got to prove I’m over sixteen?

To which DAD replied:

The other day I bought a bottle of wine – a rarety for me, but I had a visitor.

I had to prove that I was over 16. I shall be 90 at the end of the year. The cashier was a young lass from my village whom I have known for at least 10 years. We both thought that it was humorous, but ‘Rules are Rules'.

Yes, well I have one coming up myself with the NHS, pre any treatment they deem necessary ... except I'm not complying ... therefore, I might just have no health service access at all thereafter ... and I do plan to do that ... just try to stay healthy.

Everything going on is iniquitous right now and no one is marching on n10 or Whitehall.

Wrong, We, The Longsuffering Taxpayer Do....

Scotland Yard has paid out almost £50,000... 

Have they really? No, of course not. It comes out of the taxpayer's pocket as always, when it really should come out of the pockets of the idiots in blue. And idiots they once again proved themselves: 

Armed police smashed into the home of Roy Morton, who has a pacemaker, fired the stun gun, pinned him down and handcuffed him after a call handler provided the wrong address for a firearms incident.

The terrified father-of-two was then arrested for affray and detained for 11 hours after the raid at 7.13am on December 28, 2021, despite his heart condition and the case being a clear instance of mistaken identity.

How clear a case? Well, Reader, the suspect they were looking for was a young black man in his 20s. Mr Morton is white and 80 years old.

An internal investigation conducted by the Met found the call handler missed multiple opportunities to spot that the address was incorrect.

 You don't say..?

Despite this, the force denied full liability and a five-day trial was listed for next month. The claims were settled on January 22, however.

Understandably, who wouldn't? So it must have been decided faily quickly?

Mr Morton's lawyer, Rachel Harger, an associate at Bindmans, slammed the force for pursuing years of litigation to settle the case. 

Oh. Well, why not, since it doesn't cost them anything... 

'There was an early public acknowledgement that a serious error had occurred, yet Mr Morton was forced to pursue proceedings to the brink of trial to achieve any finality,' she added. 

And what do the Met have to say for themselves? The usual platitudes: 

Detective Chief Superintendent Neil Smithson said: 'We wholeheartedly apologise to Mr Morton and understand the impact this incident has had, while also recognising the amount of time it's taken to reach a conclusion in this case. 

'We hope Mr Morton is able to move forward and thank him for his patience during this process. 

Did he really hsve a choice?  

'We have reviewed the circumstances of this incident to identify any learnings and implemented specific training procedures to avoid similar instances in the future. This includes delivering training to each and every call handler within the Met.'

You mean they weren't already trained to ensure they got the right address? Well, why would they be, when they've got no skin in the game? 

The countryside is for our people ... plus their dogs

There's Wokery plus its nasty, loony, Fabian narrative, yes ... and then there is Globo-psycho-devilry ... the latter I don't post against here, preferring to address it at UHC where readers have been following the occasional snippets getting out, over a period nearing two decades. With the Epstein flood in the past few days, finally people can see we were not quite the whack jobs we were dismissed as.

The source of both the Wokery and anti-human devilry is the same ... and it does come from high up, as the Queen made reference to.  This post is about the latest Wokery. If I could have written it better than Jim C, I would have but as he did a fine job, then here it is below, followed by Lucy Connolly.

Another Case Where Mental Health Services Have Failed Everyone...

Jala Debella, 24, attacked medical secretary Anita Mukhey, 66, in front of shocked passers-by in north London at about 11.50am on May 9 2024. He stabbed her 18 times before he 'casually' walked away while people rushed to help the victim.

Why did no-one rush to apprehend the suspect? Because once again it was a young, fit armed black man who targetted the defenceless elderly woman. Funny how they are never too mad to not pick easy prey, isn't it?

Ms Mukhey's husband Hari criticised the NHS handling of Debella, who was not considered to pose a risk to the community.

By which the staff in charge meant 'not a threat to our probably-gated community in a nice area of London' no doubt. 

At a hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday, Debella was sentenced to a hospital order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act and a restriction order under Section 41 – meaning he can be detained indefinitely.

Or until some other trick cyclist declares him 'cured' and the Home Office fails to deport him back to whichever third world shithole he truly belongs in... 

Addressing his remarks to an empty dock as Debella was not in court, Judge Philip Katz KC said: 'Anita Mukhey was the heart of the family. She was a wife, mother and grandmother, aged 66 when she was stabbed to death by a complete stranger on a busy main road in north London.'

As always, a stranger with a lengthy criminal history: 

Dr Melanie Higgins, Debella's medical consultant, confirmed he had been detained under the Mental Health Act on at least three occasions before he attacked Ms Mukhey. She said he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and arrangements had been made for his continued admission at Ashworth High Secure Hospital in Merseyside.

Too little, too late. As always.  

Three lists which may or may not be of interest

This was from a Jacqui Devoy post on Jung. Neither Freud nor Jung are on my faves list, neither is Piaget nor Bloom ... but Jung at least makes sense below in listing traits of people who have suffered much over a long period of time. I don't mean half the newly invented conditions labelled to permit lingering and hypochondria but more where there is real trauma, as in shellshocked veterans.

Moving on ... not pushing this as a checklist, just mentioning it in passing, by all means argue with it:

Odds on that things will start going astray

Greetings all. This post is also at UHC, on substack and linked on X.

There’s most certainly mischief afoot online

… which was always odds on. The two latest in my sphere are Toodles and Moosh. Toodles attempted to write a reply to Steve, about family and friends I presume … just disappeared it did. Sometimes it can be intended by the good side, not just the mischievous techie goblins, elves and gremlins. Thing is, it could be absolutely anything, from the provider to the platform to the device to the person using it … we’re all of us under the hammer right now.

There are some golden rules. One is not to click on anything which just appears, however innocuous it seems … I was nearly tricked last night into installing something here. I suppose I’m mid tech savvy, very much front end, knowing some things about backend … knowing what not to touch is one step on that journey.

Looking at Moosh … a new account just appeared, using her images but I’m not sure it’s her, there was no indication from her own site, plus she has enemies, as many of us do. I’ll check that out a bit later. Latest for me is one of Elon’s developers, so he says.

I found this too … interesting, suspected as much:

Combining something my techie mate said about the evolution of devices … with a Happy Days observation about “jumping the shark” … the driving force behind any new “thang” is the creator, the innovator, those about him too, decades ago.

Gradually, it becomes apparent that nothing much has really changed … and why should it? Why fix that which ain’t broke? But the tech company mindset is “change for change’s sake”, staying “relevant”, unlike MTV, also a payroll of developers, all wishing to show off, earning brownie points.

So, inevitably, lesser techies are in there and the company fears losing market share. It becomes about profit … just that. Meanwhile, technically, they just have to “jump the shark”. It’s not unlike the imperative an addict feels.

Back to these two ladies … yes, easy meat for those wishing to stop them. Plus Roob, and to an extent Julia. Me? Semi-easy meat, obviously there are ways around me too. Having access to backenders does alter the equation, plus a cautious mindset helps, learnt over time. Plus a partly detached attitude, realising that anything potentially worthwhile will always bring out the stoppers.

Tomorrow’s post at OoL will be about something which was on X about health … thought it might be of interest. Have a good weekend, chaps and chapesses.

.o0o.

To all our readers ... Moosh has been hacked ... please instead use the attached handle for her and operate from there, ok?

He Wasn't 'Left To Fall Through Every Crack' - The System Built The Cracks And Pushed Him Through Them

When Leigh White remembers her brother Ryan, she thinks of a boy of extraordinary ability who “won five scholarships at 11” including a coveted place at Bancroft’s, a private school in London. He was, she said, “super bright, witty, personable, generous and kind”. Ryan killed himself on 12 May 2024. A report written after his death acknowledged significant shortcomings in the support he received while seeking help for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Like many people the Guardian spoke to, he followed the “right to choose” pathway, whereby patients can pick a private provider anywhere in England for assessment, diagnosis and initial treatment. They then ask their GP to enter a shared-care agreement for prescriptions and monitoring.

Sounds great, right? It isn't of course. 

However, Ryan struggled to get the two services to link up.The problem lies in the fact that shared care is voluntary and not all GPs agree to it.

Once again, these overpaid bureacrats are the sand in the gears. Because they don't agree with the policy, presumably. 

Some patients told the Guardian their doctor had rejected their private diagnosis on the grounds that it did not meet their standards.

And no, it's - for once - not down to money. 

This was even after the NHS had paid for it – and despite there being no official rules for private providers to follow.

*sighs* 

...he was referred by his GP for an ADHD assessment with Psychiatry UK, a private provider, in September 2022. It took five months for him to be assessed and diagnosed, but because of his bipolar history a community mental health review was needed before medication could begin. “Nobody chased anything, or took responsibility,” Leigh said.

Welvome to the NHS - in fact, welcome to every government run service in the world, it seems. 

He was deregistered by his GP practice after he expressed frustration at the delay in getting him help.

And because they can and will do this to those who complain without suffering any consequence, it will never improve. 

Right to choose was “poorly regulated, poorly managed and some people are making lots of money out of it”, Adamou said, adding: “If you don’t have regulation for that you are inviting a wild west.”

Regulation isn't going to solve this - consequences for failure will.