The Daily Blog Open Mic – 4th August 2025
Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
The Editor doesn’t moderate this blog, 3 volunteers do, they are very lenient to provide you a free speech space but if it’s just deranged abuse or putting words in bloggers mouths to have a pointless argument, we don’t bother publishing.
All in all, TDB gives punters a very, very, very wide space to comment in but we won’t bother with out right lies or gleeful malice. We leave that to the Herald comment section.
EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist abuse, homophobic abuse, racist abuse, anti-muslim abuse, transphobic abuse, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, Qanon lunacy, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics, 5G conspiracy theories, the virus is a bioweapon, some weird Bullshit about the UN taking over the world and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/568878/north-shore-hospital-has-entire-ward-of-people-with-no-medical-reason-to-be-there
Members of the jury – Do you agree or disagree that this country is in a near irredeemable mess under this government? And would you be willing to hold a snap election while there is still enough snap in the electorate to respond, before we all wilt away like decayed celery sticks?
From the net today – feeding our minds’ every need.
AI – Taking pleasure in discussing our problems with AI – in a loop or being garotted?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsuYGDA36eo
Why social media is making us extinct – Aldous Huxley predicted this
And still humanity lives!! I think this is humanity’s song – sorry to be a Cassandra.*
But through briars and tests (hopefully only notional) we must go and hold together till we find a place after leaving known comfort and home behind.
Thomas the Rhymer with lyrics, from Steeleye Span – magical with elves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TOl1JbGadg
Genius with written lyrics:
https://genius.com/Steeleye-span-thomas-the-rhymer-lyrics
Note: …harping and carping (music and storytelling). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_the_Rhymer
Greek mythology:
* https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Cassandra_(name) – – Wikipedia
Cassandra is a female name of Greek origin meaning “the one who shines and excels over men”. It is derived from the mythological character Cassandra, who had the gift of prophecy but was cursed to be ignored.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/568938/illegal-tobacco-a-deadly-10b-industry-in-australia
Blackmarkets – – As I understand it the Mafia started in Sicily when it kept being invaded and people were stressed and hopeless and so turned to ‘helping’ agencies. When I was in Italy in the 1970s cigarettes were blackmarketed.
This is economics which we get bumf about, but ours doesn’t seem to have any brain food value so here is some stuff about supply and demand in food and WW2, and black markets.
Also Book by Nicholas Freeling UK author who lived in Holland
Gun v Butter 1963 – van der Valk detective series
***
Blackmarket England WW2. 6.26m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLdXQ-LbkFU
****
Some helpful reading for narrow-learning university academics – spread your wings, fly up[ and get perspective.
https://clcjbooks.rutgers.edu/books/black-market-britain/ post ww2 1939-1955 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_versus_butter_model
9 Guns or Butter? Living Standards, Finance, and Labour in …
Oxford Academic https://academic.oup.com › book › chapter
The characteristic feature of the German economy in 1939 and 1940 was ‘business as usual’ in the ‘peace-like war economy’.
****
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLdXQ-LbkFU
When did butter rationing end in the UK?
Quora Aug.4/25 https://www.quora.com/When-did-butter-rationing-end-in-the-UK
2 answers · 2 years ago
Why did rationing in the UK only end in 1954, 9 years after WW2? Because the UK got screwed by the Americans over …
· Top answer: Below is a timeline of some of the things which were rationed during the war 19
*****
…..Tag: Guns Before Butter
Art Blart https://artblart.com › tag › guns-before-butter
27 May 2016 — It is a parody of the “Guns Before Butter” speech in which Hermann G.ring exhorted German citizens to sacrifice necessities in order to aid the …
*****
Guns or butter: public debt, fiscal policy and geopolitical …
Chatham House https://www.chathamhouse.org › Events
Guns or butter: public debt, fiscal policy and geopolitical uncertainty. Could middle and advanced country debt derail economies around the world?
****
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_famine_of_1944%E2%80%931945
The Dutch famine of 1944–1945, also known as the Hunger Winter (from Dutch Hongerwinter), was a famine that took place in the German-occupied Netherlands, especially in the densely populated western provinces north of the great rivers, during the relatively harsh winter of 1944–1945, near the end of World War II.
A German blockade cut off food and fuel shipments from farm towns. Some 4.5 million were affected and survived thanks to soup kitchens. Loe de Jong (1914–2005), author of The Kingdom of the Netherlands During World War II, estimated at least 22,000 deaths occurred due to the famine.[1] Another author estimated 18,000 deaths from the famine.[2][3] Most of the victims were reportedly elderly men.[4][5]
The famine was alleviated first by “Swedish bread” flour shipped in from Sweden to Dutch harbours, and subsequently by the airlift of food by the Royal Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the United States Army Air Forces – after an agreement with the occupying Germans that if the Germans did not shoot at the mercy flights, the Allies would not bomb the German positions. These were Operations Manna and Chowhound. …