The World According To Frod

17/05/2025

Is it a coincidence that just after Trump is offered a gift of a B747 worth $400m, Qatar Airways (note, government owned) places an order for 210 planes with Boeing. I wonder what discounts were applied, I would hazard a guess at, uummm $400m!
Is it also not a coincidence that just after that order is made, Boeing makes an out-of-court settlement relating to the lawsuit filed after the fatal crashes of two 737 MAX's.
Boeing is loosing money due to planes not being delivered on time, delays to new types entering service, and several strikes. Boeing is one of the US's biggest companies, it's their only civil aircraft manufacturer, it cannot be 'allowed' to fail, it is at the front of what makes America 'Great'!
However, I wonder what Airbus, and the EU might have to say about this!

14/05/2025

Seeing as Mr. Trump is, in his words, so well versed on history, someone needs to tell him about a Horse and how it was used by the Greeks to deceive and infiltrate the city of Troy!

05/05/2025

Right then Mr. Trump, if you're going to rename 'VE Day' (May 8th), 'Victory Day for WWII', explain to us how that war continued in the Pacific, and parts of Eastern Asia, for a few more months until the USA dropped a couple of atom bombs in August!
A question, do you consciously make an effort to be a di****ad or does it just come naturally?

03/05/2025

If what Trump believes is right then it is right! No different to the flat earthers, they're right too and that's it. To both, no matter what evidence you offer to contradict that theory, you're wrong! Neither come up with any compelling proof they always answer 'fake news', or 'don't believe what you read, hear on the radio, see on tv'! Mind you, social media is correct isn't it, Trump's mouthpiece, it's called 'Truth', so it must be!

10/04/2025

Just incase you are not aware, and for those who need reminding (yet again), the 'Western World' is being led by an idiot, a dangerous idiot no less! Someone reign him in please and, when doing so, deal with with his primary school aged bully VP too!

24/03/2025

Basic State Pension (in my case) is going up by £455! However, because this Government, and the past Government too, choose not to raise the income tax free limit, my 'real rise' is £364, roughly £7 a week, equals 2.8%, less than inflation (currently 3%) so I'll be worse off! Mind you, the Exchequer thinks they will be better off by taxing me (£91)! Well uumm, no, not when taking inflation into account.
Chancellor Reeves recently stated that tax revenue is down and has threatened cuts. When will you learn cuts don't work, people are put out of work and people out of work don't pay income tax and people out of work don't have money to spend. What d***y drawers needs to do is raise the income tax free threshold by both inflation and by the percentage increase in the minimum wage and the NI hike (which were detrimental to small business).
Don't tax me £91, give it to me and allow me to spend it. I'll then spend it in, let's say, pub's and restaurants (which I won't do if I haven't got it). The Exchequer will still get it's tax and small business will benefit (and not continue to go bust)!
Cuts don't work!

18/03/2025

I have a black bin, a brown bin, and another with a blue lid which I've hidden away because, as you can probably see, the view over my front garden is bad as it is. I have a question for East Herts Council, where am I going to place another two bins come this August? Others, those with small, or no, front area already leave their bins out on the public pavement thus causing an obstruction.
Why don't we sort, dispose, and have, our waste collected from central points like they they do in Spain, Italy, etc.

02/03/2025

As someone pointed out to me yesterday, Trump is doing what he has been saying all along in his election campaign and, effectively, is now carrying out his promises! We, everyone, knew this was coming. We might, almost unanimously, all agree that his methods are deplorable but we were warned. I think the majority of the Republican voters didn't look beyond his 'Make America Great Again' and, as a consequence, they elected him! Whilst some of his 'electorate' will be saying 'what have we done?', the rest of the World are stuck with him, and his plans which, to us, are 'To Hell With Rest of You!'
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1A4GWWyCjj/

Nichols for the Atlantic: "Leave aside, if only for a moment, the utter boorishness with which President Donald Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance treated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House today. Also leave aside the spectacle of American leaders publicly pummeling a friend as if he were an enemy. All of the ghastliness inflicted on Zelensky today should not obscure the geopolitical reality of what just happened: The president of the United States ambushed a loyal ally, presumably so that he can soon make a deal with the dictator of Russia to sell out a European nation fighting for its very existence.

Trump’s advisers have already declared the meeting a win for “putting America first,” and his apologists will likely spin and rationalize this shameful moment as just a heated conversation—the kind of thing that in Washington-speak used to be called a “frank and candid exchange.” But this meeting reeked of a planned attack, with Trump unloading Russian talking points on Zelensky (such as blaming Ukraine for risking global war), all of it designed to humiliate the Ukrainian leader on national television and give Trump the pretext to do what he has indicated repeatedly he wants to do: side with Russian President Vladimir Putin and bring the war to an end on Russia’s terms. Trump is now reportedly considering the immediate end of all military aid to Ukraine because of Zelensky’s supposed intransigence during the meeting.

Vance’s presence at the White House also suggests that the meeting was a setup. Vance is usually an invisible backbencher in this administration, with few duties other than some occasional trolling of Trump’s critics. (The actual business of furthering Trump’s policies is apparently now Elon Musk’s job.) This time, however, he was brought in to troll not other Americans, but a foreign leader. Marco Rubio—in theory, America’s top diplomat—was also there, but he sat glumly and silently while Vance pontificated like an obnoxious graduate student.

Zelensky objected, as he should have, when the vice president castigated the Ukrainian president for not showing enough personal gratitude to Trump. And then in a moment of immense hypocrisy, Vance told Zelensky that it was “disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.” But baiting Zelensky into fighting in front of the media was likely the plan all along, and Trump and Vance were soon both yelling at Zelensky. (“This is going to be great television,” Trump said during the meeting.) The president at times sounded like a Mafia boss—“You don’t have the cards”; “you’re buried there”—but in the end, he sounded like no one so much as Putin himself as he hollered about “gambling with World War III,” as if starting the biggest war in Europe in nearly a century was Zelensky’s idea.

After the meeting, Trump dismissed the Ukrainian leader and then issued a statement that could only have pleased Moscow:

I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.

Trump might as well have dictated this post on Truth Social before the meeting, because Zelensky didn’t stand a chance of having an actual discussion at the White House. When he showed Trump pictures of brutalized Ukrainian soldiers, Trump shrugged. “That’s tough stuff,” he muttered. Perhaps someone told Zelensky that Trump doesn’t read much, and reacts to images, but Trump, uncharacteristically, seems to have been determined to stay on message and pick a fight.

Vance, for his part, fully inhabited the role of a smarmy talk-show sidekick, jumping in to make sure the star got the support he needed while slamming one of the guests. The vice president is an unserious man who tries to insert himself into serious moments, but this time the stakes were much higher than the usual dustups with the media or congressional Democrats. He chuckled as Brian Glenn, a journalist from the right-wing channel Real America’s Voice who is reportedly dating Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, asked Zelensky the tough and incisive question of why he had not worn a suit in the Oval Office. (Perhaps he’ll ask Musk why he wore a hat and T-shirt to a Cabinet meeting, but I doubt it.)

The sheer rudeness shown to a foreign guest and friend of the United States was (to use a word) deplorable as a matter of manners and grace, but worse, Trump and Vance acted like a couple of online Kremlin sock puppets instead of American leaders. They pushed talking points that they either knew or should have known were wrong. Even if Zelensky were as fluent and capable in English as Winston Churchill, he would never have been able to rebut the flood of falsehoods. No, the U.S. has not given Ukraine $350 billion; yes, Zelensky has repeatedly expressed his thanks to America and to Trump; no, Zelensky was not attacking the administration. The Ukrainian leader did his best to stand up to the bullying, but Trump and Vance were playing to the cameras and the MAGA gallery at home.

Vance showed how dedicated he was to point-scoring rather than policy making with an observation so shallow that he was lucky that Zelensky was too off-balance to call him out for it. To emphasize Ukraine’s perilous situation, Vance noted that Zelensky was sending conscripts to the front lines, as if this was an unprecedented policy that only the most desperate regime would dare enact. Zelensky said that all nations at war have problems, but he might have pointed out to Vance that Ukraine is fighting for its very existence, while the United States has dragged conscripts to places far from home—including Korea and Vietnam—to fight against troops supported by the Kremlin.

Today’s meeting and America’s shameful vote in the United Nations on Monday confirmed that the United States is now aligned with Russia and against Ukraine, Europe, and most of the planet. I felt physically sick watching the president of the United States yell at a brave ally, fulminating in the Oval Office as if he were an addled old man shaking his fist at a television. Zelensky has endured tragedies, and risked his life, in ways that men such as Trump and Vance cannot imagine. (Vance served as a public-relations officer in the most powerful military in the world; he has never had to huddle in a bunker during a Russian bombardment.) I am ashamed for my nation; even if Congress acts to support and aid Ukraine, it cannot restore the American honor lost today.

But no matter how disgusted anyone might be at Trump and Vance’s behavior, the strategic reality is that this meeting is a catastrophe for the United States and the free world. America’s alliances are now in danger, and should be: Trump is openly, and gleefully, betraying everything America has tried to defend since the defeat of the Axis 80 years ago. The entire international order of peace and security is now in danger, as Russian autocrats, after slaughtering innocent people for three years, look forward to enjoying the spoils of their invasion instead of standing trial for their crimes. (Shortly after Trump dismissed Zelensky from the White House, Putin’s homunculus, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, posted on X: “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office.”)

Friday, February 28, 2025, will go into the history books as one of the grimmest days in American diplomacy, the beginning of a long-term disaster that every American, every U.S. ally, and anyone who cares about the future of democracy will have to endure. With the White House’s betrayal of Ukraine capping a month of authoritarian chaos in America, Putin, along with other dictators around the world, can finally look at Trump with confidence and think: one of us."

12/02/2025

I'm a bit lost here! Ukraine are resisting the Russian invasion of their country, with Western ally help. Today, the US have decided to step back and vastly reduce their involvement! Ok, their decision not that I agree with their reasoning in that it is for the European's to deal with. But what I don't understand, or I do understand if you see where I'm coming from, is why Trump then held a telephone conversation with Putin (this doesn't look like reduced involvement to me) to work out how to come to some sort of peace agreement! You, the US, have just effectively eradicated, what is now, Ukraine's, and our bargaining position but you still think you can 'solve the problem' on our behalf! Handed 'victory' to Russia on a plate! Either you are involved fully, or you're not!

08/02/2025

Labour's plan to get those on benefits back to work! They say their plan is different to the Conservatives approach, which it may be, but similar all the same!
Isn't it time our Government looked at the wider issue. It's not just those out of work, much of the problem is with those working. In many sphere's we have employees who do as much as they can get away with, a sort job with benefits! We also have employers who do similar in that they get paid far more than they are worth! So, you have employees who, and I can understand their feelings, who begrudge their bosses inflated salaries whilst they struggle to earn enough to maintain their standards of living so, in some instances they, as I said, do as 'little' they can get away with.
Surely bigger savings can be made from those already working. No employer needs a salary of, let's say, a £million +, if they do, have them justify it. If that salary can be justified then perhaps employees can do similar by doing the amount of work that also justifies their income.
There's to much 'he's getting paid what to do what' when it should be 'that's fair wages for what he's doing'! What's not fair is for some employers to be be paid some of the salaries they are recieving and, equally, it isn't fair to be paid well for doing a job that can be done better. A more reasonable balance between us, and them, will improve efficiency and provide way larger savings (money, and time) than trying to get some people off the unemployment register.

The government promise a “radical” shake-up of the welfare system to help people out of work due to sickness.

29/01/2025

Does this Chancellor not understand how growth is created, obviously not! Now before you think I'm Labour bashing, previous Chancellor's didn't either.
You don't get growth by making grand decisions based politics, you get growth based on demand. You don't get growth by asking 'us' to pay for it, by whatever method (tax hikes, borrowing, etc.). When you 'expect' us to pay for these grand schemes, you take money out of our pockets, money that could be 'used' elsewhere (to, yes strangely, give growth).
You, Ms. Reeves have already raised employers NI, so business won't now be so keen to invest.
If you want growth then get those who will benefit from growth (initially) to pay! But you won't do that. You have to improve efficiency to get any sort of growth, our costs are too high!
Time has come where the wealth gap is not sustainable. The majority will see no benefit from grandeose spending plans. Get those on £4million a year to pay rather than forcing those on £12 an hour to do it with no choice on the matter.
A question, why do we need better links between Oxford and Cambridge?

21/01/2025

Right o Mr. Trump, you rename The Gulf of Mexico proving that you're no better than Mr. Putin who does the same with bits of other people's territory, but just do it on your maps, like some Arab countries do by calling The Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf. You, or the USA has, already decided that you will write the days date differently to everyone else except, yes, Arab countries who currently have the year 1446, so why not complete the exercise and start from 1776 by having that as your year '0'! Muslims have Friday off, the Jewish Sabbath is on a Saturday, go on change yours to a Tuesday, or a Wednesday, leaving the rest of us on a Sunday! You might as well, do it at the same time that you do away with daylight saving!
The Panama Canal isn't your's so leave it as it is, otherwise those Chinese you say are running it will stop you from using it, it's a long way to Cape Horn and back, and you can't get your ships round the top of Canada if you fall out with them.
You want to make America great again well, the same could be said any country, like here in The UK, but the only way to do that is get your own 'house' in order! You won in all 7 swing States but your powerhouse States are run by Democrats, have a think about that!
In the meantime, regarding the rest of us in The World, just remember, it's just not all about you! But, in saying that, to a narcissist it is isn't it!