Music trickles on

One of the few new non mainstream releases. This guy will go places.

Roosevelt - Echoes 

This is the guitar acoustic version. The record version is much more recommended for the morning.

Love music

So helpful..first quarantine video, it even has cats!.. all the winning cards.
The Vaccines - I Never Go Out On Fridays - Or saturdays, or sundays....
Love this band.

Justin recently released another video with new duo The Halloweens. Again, funny and uplifting with the usual touch of poignancy, as above:

#Madrid #covid19 #forcedisolation

Madrid this afternoon. View from my window, forced isolation. Looking at twitter and newspapers like am watching a movie. Surreal for most of us.

Not going to say disappointed at the management of the crisis by national authorities and international organizations because who's expecting any efficiency from them. Yet excited to see those bravely pushing for better ways, new possibly effective approaches like stratified lockdown, rational scientific ideas not based on irrational fear or partisan interests or primitive hasty answers or least controversial  safest actions or that which the dumbest masses will approve like we see now.

Same response as in the middle ages? Wait until it's upon us and then shut down?. We should do better. At least here in Spain some private citizens and companies are pulling for all of us as the government fails miserably in every department and day by day falls to new lows. But I don't want to talk politics. These crisis always show the best and the worst in mankind.
We are at the worst of it now, a little more steepness before we start to walk our way back, I think. Then the economic crisis with this government at the helm, a far left chavist vicepresident who even now is trying to maneuver to push nationalization of companies and comunist measures (same guy who's broken quarantine twice to preach about safety) and our comunist minister of Labour (anyone curious, look at pictures of her these days, how worried she is. Seems she spends most of her time at the stylists, pathetic) ... Ah, I'm talking politics...sorry
Glad my parents are abroad at the moment, in a safer place though that's not saving them from worry and anguish. Keeping in touch with my older family, some have caught it but so far are well..
In the moments of worry and fear most will have, of facing our own mortality much more vividly than usual.. I had a pretty bad experience a few years ago. Kept the circle extremely small, if I had little time I didn't want to spend it on whatsapp and phone calls. But still parents made it larger than I wanted, and people telling me to be positive gutted me most. Why be positive? Be realistic and be you, please. You are going through enough to have to force yourself to be anything or pretend for the sake of others. Process things your way, within limits. A guy writing on google saying he was very pesimistic and yet survived really helped, lol. But everyone's different and need to hear different things. I am practical and therefore what helped me and what I try to convey now is don't lose perspective. It's a time to catch up with acceptance and what life is. And to be proactive and help best we can, there are a million small ways. We may feel sorry for ourselves but pls think of parents of children with cancer, for instance, you'll see what I mean by perspective.
- and I'm fine now btw, turned out to be just another pathology diagnostics mistake.
My cousin works in a hospital, as of yesterday in hers there are respirators for everyone but that is not the case in every hospital. In others those over 65 are sedated and deprived of a few more years of life. The biggest ice rink in Madrid is the new morgue. Many of our nurses and doctors wear trash bags for protection, our pharmacists are out of masks too as are the police.. the government is too useless to buy the proper equipment fast. Tough times, injustice and useless people in charge harder to bear than ever. Almost 10.000 health workers have caught it (data coming from the government, so expect it to be even higher).
Numbers in Spain are not to be trusted as the overwhelming majority of people with symptoms remain untested. Only those with acute cases in hospital are tested (those and the politicians, our president's brother though he didn't have symptoms, his wife, father in law..they have plenty of respirators unused waiting just in case too. O socialism, all the ministers who have fallen ill have gone to private hospitals...). Our health minister is a philosopher who doesn't even know the name of the main drug used against COVID19... And the main reason we have so many cases is our government had a big concentration planned for the 8th (feminism, only socialists and communists, all the other parties were yelled at and forced to leave. Basically the left's best publicity stunt), and they weren't willing to cancel and therefore couldn't take any measures against concentrations until after.
Let's point out that in Spain when the women's right to vote was proposed and passed in 1931 it was done by liberal Clara Campoamor, who defended it against main opponent Victoria Kent (SOCIALIST) who not only opposed it fervently but who once it was passed tried to thwart it with different maneuvers. But now socialists are the ones who decide who can fight for equality and who can not. Pathetic.
With this imposed quarantine the government has taken measures restricting citizens freedom like free access to people's cell phone locations or press conferences hardly ever taking any questions -and when they do questions are selected by the president's censor (he calls himself something else, but that's what he is). In the middle of this massive crisis, with our country already having big trouble because of our deficit (and thank god for EU's supervision, otherwise it would be even worse), our government decides to give away  15 million euros to private televisions. Televisions that have big PROFITS! with celebs getting huge paychecks- I don't want to pay taxes for that, it's pathetic. It is of course a fact now that the mainstream media are their servants. Very worrisome, comes from having the far left deep in the government despite only having less than 13% of votes. First thing they go for, always..
No tax reductions, btw. And making clear their intention to nationalize, appropriate private earnings with the excuse of this emergency...all for the greater good 'course (that coming from our Communist vp, who just moved to a massive house with big swimming pool, guest house and tons of service). Great way to ruin a fantastic country (only with a lot of stupid envious lazy sheep in it).
Ended up talking politics,...

Misc isolation comfort for the lows:

 *All these musicians ... 💗💙💚💛💙

This made me smile, authentically chaotic well intended, fresh, from Chris Martin:

https://www.facebook.com/coldplay/videos/756682838150117/

Nerina, never chaotic, always fun. Streams live show every thursday from her youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=647&v=Pck6G7baXvc&feature=emb_logo

Rufus and his Robe recitals:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B92LtRuFwcH/

Sondre:

https://www.facebook.com/sondrelerche/videos/516237105704418/ 

Laura Marling is doing tutorials of her songs on her insta (guitar lessons).

Andrew Bird was live on his Facebook

* Cats! (@Bored panda)

*Other animals seeing new animals, too awesome.

* Curiosities/good actions: (via scarymommy)

Spain this Sunday. Nightmare or not.

General elections this Sunday in Spain. Decisive. Wishing soo hard.. so important to get rid of the the new low that is our president right now, not by the Spanish people's choice but by dirty tricks and a total lack of scruples.
For that he plotted with every pro independence party in Spain (including Bildu, the new name for Batasuna, former ETA terrorists' advocates) and the far-left Venezuela style party, all in small minority, leaving outside all the moderate (and most voted) parties.
His excuse: the party in power (PP, most voted) was guilty of too many corruption scandals (not the actual people governing at the moment, but other individuals belonging to that party in the past, the last case for illegal financing). This ultra cynical individual forgets that his own party has had far more corruption cases and is in fact currently being tried for the biggest corruption scandal in our history: the "EREs case". I wanted to add a link but the first results in English are all conveniently from El Pais - waay biased, won't bother-, or others pretty unkwnown which would be dismissed. So, basically in Andalucia, where socialists governed for almost 40 years -sistematically achieving the worst employment and education numbers in all of Spain- millions and millions (around 700 of them) disappeared from the money destined to the unemployed: it was spent by socialist administrators on friends' companies, ilegal pre retirements, nights out with plenty of drugs and hookers... I'd say that beats illegal financing). Should he resign for it then, applying his own rule?. Spoiler alert: apparently not.
A few days after his coup, this guy was already hard at work. In the main issues?. No: redecorating the Moncloa (where the president lives), using the official airplane to fly to an in law's wedding an hour away by car, then to go to see the Killers at a music festival with his wife. An airplane that costs a ton per flight, and had up to that point been very scarcely used (we're getting out of a crisis here). A weeek later, his wife got a fantastic position (created from scratch just for her) in a company that receives grants from the government. WOW.  In a few months he's managed the worst employment numbers in the last 6 years, turning the tide from sistematically being reduced to a fast rise in the negative. All that having brought taxes to a new high and public expenditure way beyond budget. Crime, insecurity, are worse than ever. He's also risen the social tension in Spain to red levels, allowing the most virulent independentists their every whim and leaving the rest (the vast majority) defenceless (and we don't only have independentists in Catalonia, oh no). Meanwhile he's been practically absent, travelling around the world with his wife for free, avoiding facing the congress or the press to the point of ridicule. After all, it's been scandal after scandal with his government ministers.
He's been proven a pathological liar who's done all he said he wouldn't do.There's youtube to prove it.
Read, for instance, about how he tormented a former politician for irregularities in a master's degree in her cv, obviously asking for her resignation, and then read about his own doctorate, the strange tribunal, his plagiarized thesis (more than half of it!). Since his case was eon light years worse, should he have resigned?. You guessed right. Cynism beyond belief.
But he has tv and most of the press on his side...

We're all supposed to vote for him because otherwise the "republican"/conservatives/right wing parties may pact with the terrible far right  -new party in town (VOX)- and all sorts of nightmares will happen.
How easy it is to trick some... To me HE is the worst nightmare.
He goes hand in hand with the far left, but apparently those are swell.
What can I say, I hate far anything. Wouldn't want to choose between far right and far left, and I refuse to agree to the far left suddenly being cool and fine and normal. Not to me. At all. Specially after Venezuela. Terrible pictures posted today on twitter. Who wants that for their country?.

To clarify: those parties Sanchez &co refer to as "right wing" are:
1. Ciudadanos: nothing right wing about them ever. If anything they're more left leaning than right, their intention is to be the middle ground. Center. But since they have publicly said they wouldn't agree to a pact with him anymore, given his not defending our Constitution, he just conveniently relocated them to that category.
2. PP: Moderate right wing.
3. VOX: actually, hate to disappoint but nothing "far" about them. Right wing period. But they erupted with such force that putting that label on them was super handy. Suddenly with that word they were the pest and nobody messes with the definition or they may get infected. Nobody say they're not radical because you may then be accused of being one of them yourself. Well, I call things by their name. Their biggest crime is displaying the Spanish flag a lot, which here because of our past (Franco) is not seen with simpathy by many who associate it with him. Their mistake, because this is our flag, no ideology attached, and about time we stop giving it the wrong connotations. I don't agree with certain things, but not xenophobes or homophobes or "facha". So beat them with fair play, oppose them on things they say, don't just be lazy demagogues. Too many of those already.

We do have "far" parties. Bu the only ones that get a considerable amount of votes are far left (though they're never called that in the press): Podemos, whose leader Iglesias rose to stardom fighting for the workers rights against the "casta". Casta is the idea of the stablished political parties full of people who have always been politicians, who've lost contact with reality and use politics to enrich themselves. Fantastic idea, I fully support it.
BUT the only thing this guy has done, aside from being a paid adviser to Maduro (hello, they were justifying him until a couple of months ago!), is very undemocratic "escraches"  (public targeted harassing to democratic parties, like Rosa Díez who used to be a socialist and is now in UPD, again, center, not even right wing, and who by the way is a most corageous woman who spent a long time being a target for terrorists ETA. She put her life on the line for democracy. Shameful), saying publically he would beat a certain famous female journalist until she bled (but he's king of feminists) and switching a modest flat in Madrid for a most expensive huge house with a pool and maids in the outskirts. Yeah.. He doesn't wear suits though and he's kinda hippy, so it does the trick for many. His right hand man, one more who now lives in the poshest, most expensive neighbourhood in Madrid, recently lost a lawsuit: his aide (who cleaned for him etc and who he directly hired) had no employment contract and was being paid less than the minimum wage they angrily demand....How there can still be a single idiot out there who votes or believes these fakes beats me. They're even worse than the casta.

And we have the separatists. And you can want idependence and fight for it. But you can't behave like a bully to all those who don't think like you. Or fill the streets with violence and antidemocratic behaviour denying even freedom of speech to those who don't think like them. But that's another story for another day.

Anyway. I'm tired of manipulation and I fear what's coming if the scruple-less useless Sanchez continues in power, specially needing the far left and independentists support as it seems will be the case.

Many people fool themselves that this guy is going to be some Robin Hood taking the rich guys' money through prohibitive taxes and giving it to them through benefits while they loiter around the house. And they will put on blinders 'cos that's convenient. To start with, that is not my idea of a good way to earn a living (I'd rather have a government that protects the conditions for me to have a proper job), but regardless: the ones bearing the taxes are not the rich. And the ones receiving the money are not the ones that need it most. It just doesn't work that way, just read some History or look at our situation after Sanchez's few months destroying. This only leads to a massive crisis. Again.

I hate when celebs and the like get political and tell me who to vote. I wouldn't want to do that. I just hope people choose between one of the parties (any of them) that will not treat us like we're dumb, will have some dignity, and will govern for all of us. And in the process won't make our country break and hurt.

Don't believe me, check my facts.

Tags: Pedro Sanchez, Pablo Iglesias, Pablo Casado, Albert Rivera, Santiago Abascal, PSOE, PP, Podemos, VOX, Ciudadanos, UPyD, Spanish elections, EREs, casta. Elecciones España. Google, index me dammit!

PS Uggghhh. At least I had hope for a few days. Now it's back to grim reality, where radios play yuck, people travel just to take selfies no one cares about, being informed is waching the news headlines  on tv and entitlement without foundation is the norm. I felt bad for some party leaders I did not vote for but I respect, went to their twitter accounts to give some words of support and found all these lowlives hideously displaying all their hatred and aggression in the most vulgar terms. Who does that. Had Sanchez lost I would have never gone to his twitter to berate him. A lot of humanity sucks.
In the end Spain voted divided in 2 blocks practically equal in numbers ("center/right" and "left"), but because of our election law (D'hondt Method) and the fragmentation of votes in one of the blocks, not all votes are equal. Hence this arrangement. At least Iglesias has lost almost half his votes. Which is little solace: half of Spain is to me deeply stupid and quite mean. Which shouldn't come as a surprise, really. And there's no question: hello unemployment, hello crisis.
For some reason made me want to listen to Billie Eilish's Xanny.. a great song very on point. I've never taken one. Even though this is mighty depressing.