WordPress.org help sucks

Despite logging in successfully, I can Not ask a question nor add to any forum. I’ve read the instructions and I’m told to click an ‘add new’ button that is not there.

My problem is this:

I updated to 4.9.6 after backing up, as was suggested.

Then I got about 350 spam posts to my blog.

I think that all WordPress sites that updated were so targeted. I’ve seen a lot of c..p posting, but never at this volume. It was too fast to be manual, and several IP addresses were involved. I think there’s an alternate TOR being used.

Any ideas about this? I’m tempted to simply .htaccess the top level IP range for every spam I get.

Isabelle Kenyon: This is Not a Spectacle

This is a cut&paste of an Amazon Kindle Book Review.

This is Not a Spectacle      Isabelle Kenyon

A powerful poetry collection, an experience that will haunt you.

five stars

As always, do not let my star count override your judgement of content. More on the stars, counting, and my rating challenges later.

In the first poem, Lonely Hearts, Kenyon will ambush you. In the next, Mumbai, you will feel a sense of otherness, ending in irony. Then in sweat shop you will feel the discomfortable motivation of a worker. These fine poems are too short to quote from without giving them away.

I will skip forward to Car Park Scene, which like much of Kenyon is a trace harsh and strongly written, for example this: “but your tears are endless and /convulsing shoulder – shadows play in the /darkness. /She does not console you but…”

For a heartbreaking experience, turn to Hospital. Here’s a teaser quote, see if you can figure out what’s happening: “You couldn’t have known but you /Smiled when I said I loved you and /Told me how to cook rice: I said /‘We’ll talk about it later’ as they /Wheeled you away….”

Again in Identity: Granny Olga we find this: “You in a hospital room, becoming a bionic woman.” Kenyon’s voice in this collection is a powerful one that is not for the faint of heart.

Spoiler warning: this is the ending of Teenagers at a Bus Stop: “Who are we? /We are drink, we are music; we are pretending, we are stumbling, we are lost-In the dark we are only teenage hunger. /We are always famished, starving: /Love us. Feed us. ”

I have other favourites in this book, but the above should give you a decent feel for the voice, power, and experience which Kenyon has captured for you. Now for the star count boilerplate.

My personal guidelines, when doing an ‘official’ KBR review, are as follows: five stars means, roughly equal to best in genre. Rarely given. Four stars means, extremely good. Three stars means, definitely recommendable. I am a tough reviewer. I try hard to be consistent. Kenyon brings strong description and powerful emotions into your brain. Roughly equal to best in genre? I think so; five stars it is, and extremely recommended.

Kindle Book Review Team member.

(Note: this reviewer received a free copy of this book for an independent review. He is not associated with the author or Amazon.)

Digging Holes to Another Continent : Isabelle Kenyon

This is a copy of a review that will eventually appear on Amazon Kindle when the subject book is available there. It is essentially identical to a review on GoodReads that is available now.

Digging Holes to Another Continent      Isabelle Kenyon

Recovery in a strange land.

four stars

This is an unusual and very personal work of twenty poems. As always, do not let my star count override your judgement of content. More on the stars, counting, and my rating challenges later. Let’s get to the good stuff: Kenyon’s work.

The first poem, The Journey, sets up the context of the work. A trip to New Zealand, apparently to attend a wedding, becomes a healing experience.

For an insight into recovery, turn to Wave Meditation, where we find this: “Lifted, /further from shore /by waves of fury /their ferocity sudden, /awakening animal instinct…”

For a complex poem, turn to He Married a Faith Healer, where we find this: “Faith healer /what does it mean /when you speak for my dead Grandmothers /in their tone, /without meeting them,…”

In the fine metaphor Beach Thoughts  you will read: “You are not who I thought you were.” Buy the book and turn to this poem.

For a good laugh, turn to Did You Hear the Possum Last Night.

Now for my star count boilerplate. Twenty poems is enough to capture a personal recovery, and Kenyon has done this extremely well. It is a bit harder for this reviewer to evaluate a ‘voice’ from a small collection. My personal guidelines, when doing an ‘official’ KBR review, are as follows: five stars means, roughly equal to best in genre. Rarely given. Four stars means, extremely good. Three stars means, definitely recommendable. I am a tough reviewer. I try hard to be consistent. I find four stars to fit my criteria as a tough reviewer. Your personal rating may well be higher. Definitely recommended.

Kindle Book Review Team member.

(Note: this reviewer received a free copy of this book for an independent review. He is not associated with the author or Amazon.)

Smile: you’re on Photo Radar (again)

Here in Toronto, Canada, there is a push to start up photo radar again.

It was used on highways several years ago, was hugely unpopular, and eventually scrapped. Now they want to bring it back, but with a twist:

It will be employed in school zones.

That sounds so impossible to oppose: don’t you want our school children to be safer?

One of the serious safety concerns for school zones is that parents block the street by parking illegally while waiting for pickup children. Other kids cross the street hidden by these parents’ cars – a significant additional risk. Nobody seems to have the cojones to address this problem.

Why I’m against using photo radar in school zones is based on how radar is used in school zones today.

The school zone is NOT patrolled during times of student arrival or departure. I live across from a school and have spoken to patrolling officers. I know what I am talking about.

One school zone is only patrolled on Sunday. Since the reduced speed limit is easily forgotten in the total absence of traffic, single cars are ticketed over and over with no safety benefit whatsoever.

The school zone across from me has not been patrolled in quite some time. I tried to explain to (patient, friendly) officers that a nearby school, on a lower speed limit road, was much more of a car-student hazard due to the curving street, shortening driver and student sight-lines. Amazingly, the radar effort did move to that road.

What happens in front of my house with radar is legal but annoying. Mothers arriving home at six o’clock experience a downhill, wide road with no other traffic and no pedestrians. So they accidentally increase speed, and get ticketed – for the record, in a school zone. But school has been out for 2.5 hours.

Photo radar is, imho, a cheap way to issue tickets. That’s OK if the usual ‘tolerance factors’ are applied. But don’t pretend you’re protecting school children if you’re not there when they are.

Binder Proof

Netanyahu has added gasoline to the fire on Iran. With peccable timing, he has ‘proven’ that Iran reneged on its dealings with regard to the sanctions/nuclear research agreement.

Here you will find (if you haven’t seen it already) how this proof was demonstrated. I use the word demonstrate for a reason: it’s all, imho, just pure show.

In this writing room I have a large shelf-full of binders similar to those shown by Netanyahu. I could, with a curtain and a helpful TV crew, unveil these and claim they are historical proof that Netanyahu has ordered slaughters in Palestine, mostly by bombing. If you search for ‘Israel bombs Palestine’ in YouTube you’ll see there are lots of confirming instances of my claim.

Netanyahu’s proof is simply pointing to a set of binders and claiming what is in them.

Contrarily, the inspections of Iran are surprisingly invasive, and have given the international community strong evidence that Iran is indeed fully complying with the agreement.

But, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the USA are all dead set against Iran. Thus the ‘proof’ and its acceptance by Donald Trump, POTUS.

Who would deal with this president? Expert advice goes unheeded. Deals are broken due to a publicity stunt. I guess that’s today’s dumb question.

Contra NRA

Oliver North is about to become the head of the NRA. He will be trying for even more political clout and more members, and of course, less gun control.

You can find out about that here, among other places.

Oliver North avoided jail by testifying before Congress about the scheme involving Iran and the  Contras and Nicaragua. Partly to get hostages back, US weapons were sold (illegally) to Iran. North’s brilliant addition to the scheme was to use the money (illegally) to fund the Contras operating out of Honduras against the government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. I might note that Ortega is still in power there. You can find out more about this at this page.

Allow me to pontificate / rant here for a sentence or two.

One is not offered immunity from prosecution, nor does one need to accept it, if one is innocent. I can be forgiven for considering North to be a self-demonstrated criminal.

It was North who advised the Contras, to be more successful in their incursions into Nicaragua, to hit ‘soft targets:’ hospitals, markets, and schools. These tactics continue to be used today, for example in Syria and Yemen.

The NRA has made an ‘interesting’ choice of leader. North is media-famous and clearly a weapons hawk. Just what we need, after the Florida school shooting: contra-publicity for the NRA.

Liberty: a rant

At one point, a previous POTUS was angry at France. I think they pulled out of the (probably illegal) enforcement of a no-fly zone in Iraq.

Probably this president was W.

He re-designated French Fries as Freedom Fries.

The Statue of Freedom is really called the Statue of Liberty.

It was a gift from France. Why didn’t W call them Liberty fries, and add vinaigre for irony?

I said this post was a rant, so I’ll end with what I think is a roughly accurate quote from Noam Chomsky.

We have a statue of Liberty on our east coast. We should add, on our west coast, a statue of Responsibility.

But no. Iraq was invaded, Libya reorganized, the Iran deal threatened, steel and aluminum trade sanction threats made (and, so far, repeatedly delayed), Chinese island building ignored, the TPP disdained, global warming treated as fake news.

If the Statue of Liberty could speak, she might have called them small-minded fries. The French are rarely small-minded, whatever one thinks of their policies. Their one mistake, imho, is going along with Germany in demanding austerity. After Germany dominates everyone else, they will imho turn on France, when it’s the second last economy still standing in the EU.

If a Statue of Responsibility could speak, it would probably weep first.