Morning music
Battles past
From the newspapers
“Banks are to be warned by ministers that they must protect free speech as increasing numbers of customers are having their accounts closed for holding allegedly controversial views.
The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is reportedly ‘deeply concerned’ that lenders are blacklisting customers they are deemed to hold contrary political beliefs and social values.
The controversy flared up last week after Nigel Farage revealed his long-standing account had been closed by his bank, while a vicar was dropped by another lender for questioning why their branches were displaying Pride flags.“
[Daily Mail]
I have blogged about this previously. Farage is, as the report notes, not alone. Repression on freedom of expression by banks (bank staff) has been a fact for a few years now. Laura Towler, Sam Melia, and Mark Collett, all of Patriotic Alternative, had their personal bank accounts closed. Straight political bias.
The only thing that will stop the trend to censorship and repression is if bank directors, managers etc are held accountable directly. The same goes for MPs, msm talking heads etc.
Incidentally, maybe 99% of the repression of freedom of expression in the UK comes from the malicious and manipulative Jew-Zionist element; certainly 90%+. See, for example, my own experiences, published at the top of this blog post. “They” are almost always the troublemakers, if you investigate the matter.
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/sicilian-farmer-oranges-bananas-mangoes-italy-tropical-2417532.
“Rosolino Palazzolo, a 44-year-old Sicilian farmer, has just finished picking the first pitanga (Surinam cherry) and acerola (Barbados cherry) on his farm in a tiny village called Terrasini, close to Palermo. He looks at the bright cherries in his hand, smiling proudly.
These fruits would normally be found growing along the equator but, in the past few years, climate change and year-round warm temperatures have led to a produce revolution in Italy’s deep south.
“Italy is turning into a tropical country. That’s why I also grow papayas, mangoes, passion fruit, baby bananas dubbed ‘bananito’, black sapote [a soft, orange-fleshed fruit], annona [custard apple] and even coffee and chocolate plants,” Mr Palazzolo [says].
“Tropical fruit is the future of Italy’s agriculture; it will save the country from the negative effects of rising temperatures and crazy, wild rainfalls.”
“The farmer still grows traditional fruits such as pears, citrus fruits and peaches, and vegetables such as tomatoes and courgettes, but in smaller quantities due to the tropical-like climate that has taken hold in Italy, particularly in the south.”
[i newspaper]
Interesting. Adaptation to a warmer climate.
Tweets seen
La France— réveillez-vous!
The only way to stop the epidemic of drug abuse in the West is to eliminate the users. Poppy cultivation cannot simply be banned everywhere, because opium derivatives are used for essential products such as morphine. India and Australia (Tasmania) are among the larger producers of legally-farmed opium poppies. Afghanistan accounts for about 80% of the illegal trade.
Eliminate all rioters in the field.
Typically misleading Sky News. In fact, it was not “the hottest June ever in UK” (as seen in that tweet) but the hottest June since records began, which was only in 1884. As the report does say, previous hot-June records were reached in both 1940 and 1976. Even the headline, “hottest June on record“, though technically correct, is misleading, because many will assume that records go back to maybe 1700 or so, which is not the case on a reliable or consistent basis.
In historical terms, 139 years (1884-2023) is almost nothing.
We know that there were relatively warm periods previously in recorded European history, notably in the “Mediaeval Warm Period”, often estimated as having happened from about 950 AD to about 1250 AD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Warm_Period.
Before that, there had been a “Roman Warm Period” running from about 250 BC to about 400 AD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Warm_Period.
There was no measurement of temperature then, but warmer climatic conditions can be inferred from forms of agriculture known to have been current, and from animal and plant remains, tree rings etc.
There are various theories as to why those historical periods were warmer than other times before and after, but one thing is for sure— it had little or nothing to do with “carbon emissions”. These were societies without very large populations (the Roman Empire at height may have had 60 million inhabitants), without the internal combustion engine, without industry except on a very small scale, and without the widespread use of coal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal#History.
Those two warm periods hosted higher levels of civilization and culture than the cooler periods on either side of each. Be careful what you wish for.
More tweets seen
Again the technically-correct but very misleading “on record” assertion.
I agree with that tweeter about the sheer audacity, as I think I would term it, of the online fraud and “grifter” “Jack Monroe”.
That sheer gall is what really sets her apart from the numerous other online “grifters” around— her sheer criminal audacity, as well as her relentless use of about half a dozen tactics: pretending to be an “activist” for “the poor”; various mental and physical problems (useful to be able to blame critics for making them worse, though most if not all of them are non-existent); pretending to be short of money and/or living in poverty (rather than a house, possibly with a sea view, in a rather expensive Essex suburb); attaching herself to this or that group as expedient— LGBTQXYZ, disabled, “poor”, struggling single mother (despite her affluent family living in the same area), “socialist” (despite her false “feed a family for £20 a week” claims, “cosmopolitan” (despite rarely having been outside Essex), and displaying little or no obvious knowledge or education), etc.
Then there are the fake biographical details, such as having taken a leading role after or even during the Grenfell fire incident.
What is truly amazing is how many people, even some journalists, still believe all of her rubbish.
I still fail to understand why a black woman in Bristol is (I think) still facing Crown Court trial for allegedly having crowdfunded for legal costs to make a civil claim that (allegedly or apparently) never happened, and then having (allegedly) kept the monies raised for her personal use, but “Jack Monroe” raised monies similarly, supposedly to sue Lee Anderson MP, then did not even send preliminary formal complaint to Lee Anderson, and quite plainly ripped-off the said monies for her own uses, yet (so far) is not charged with anything. Why not?
Late tweets seen
Well, wonders will never cease. I agree with all of that.
The directors of the banks should be held accountable, directly.
Please refer to previous comment.
Eliminate all rioters in the field, then deport their base populations to somewhere outside Europe (maybe to French Guiana).
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 
Look at this hateful, arrogant bastard! Even he pays for new trees and their plantation he should be hanged. People like this bastard think they can do whatever they want because of their wealth.
https://nypost.com/2023/06/28/nj-homeowner-cut-down-32-of-his-neighbors-trees-and-cost-could-top-1-8m/amp/
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Claudius:
Yes. Terrible. At least it looks as if the perpetrator will suffer a financial hit.
The same sort of thing happens here in the UK, especially in or around the Sandbanks area about 23 miles from where I live. Legally-protected trees (often maritime pines) poisoned, or cut back or lopped surreptitiously at night. The motive is often because a house with a sea view is worth more money, maybe even hundreds of thousands of pounds more. It is one of the most expensive places in the UK.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbanks
The evidence for prosecution is hard to obtain, especially where trees have been poisoned (though the money motive often strongly points to the person responsible), and fines levied (in the rare cases of conviction) are commonly £1,000, £5,000 etc whereas the financial gain is probably £100,000.
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Those fines are ludicrous; it is the same with the pathetic sentencers and fines imposed by the “wonderful” British legal system to the monsters who hurt or kill animals just for fun.
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Matt Ridley, is, I believe related to another old Tory braindead moron who is now dead and was one of Mrs Thatcher’s senior ninisters.
Where exactly does the Daily Telegraph and the so-called Conservative Party get these moronic libertarian extremist cretins from? Is there some kind of production factory of these idiots somewhere?
The reason the Met Office has done that, Mr Ridley, is because global warming IS happening, a large amount of it IS man made and it IS a FACT that the world’s worst heatwaves have been occurring more frequently and this is especially the case since the year 2000.
Now one can see why some genuine centre-right people in this country have set-up a new Climate Party so that Tory inclined voters concerned with global warming and the environment have an option to vote for and don’t have to vote Green as that comes with a lot of undesirable leftist, PC baggage.
They have announced they will be targeting the seats held by the many global warming deniers in the libertarian loony, fake Conservative Party.
I wish them well. It is perfectly possible to be conservative minded in one’s politics, pro business AND want to take action on global warming and the environment.
Green Conservatism is a perfectly valid and honourable political position.
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Because of global warming some ENTIRE COUNTRIES are at risk of disappearing such as that tropical fantasy dream holiday destination called the Maldives and Kiribati in the South Pacific. Nearer to home, we could well experience significant coastal erosion in my county of Essex , West Sussex ie near Chichester and Selsey in particular and Suffolk.
The world’s temperature is cyclical and naturally varies but there is no doubt that a large part of the present warming is due to human activity since the Industrial Revolution and we need to find ways to stabilise the temperature by cutting down on greenhouse gases etc.
Clean energy needs to be encouraged. We need to be driving electric cars and hopefully new battery technology will enable us to do that by allowing longer ranges, a reduced need to recharge so often and the batteries themselves can be produced in more sustainable and environmentally friendly ways. This should be possible soon as Toyota has invented solid state batteries.
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John:
The only thing that would accomplish what you mention is the reduction of the world population to a fifth or a tenth of its present level. I do not oppose that, but that remaining population must be European.
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One of the worst aspects of electric cars at the moment in environmental terms are the batteries. They use rare minerals which are often extracted using child labour in places like the People’s Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Soon, this will no longer be the case as new battery technology won’t need to use these rare minerals. The technology is advancing quite rapidly now so that not only will most cars be electrified in the future but also buses, boats, ships and eventually and most importantly of all as they are big causes of emissions planes.
Intact, a few, small private jet sized aircraft have been successfully electrified.
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In order for Western societies like Britain deal effectively with drug abuse we need to have a multi-pronged approach dealing with the SUPPLY of dangerous narcotics AND the DEMAND for them.
Britain is currently far too lenient with drug dealers. Either we execute them as in well run Singapore or we give them exemplary prison sentences of twenty plus years as a minimum with life long incarceration possible as well as in Japan.
Drug abusers should be treated less harshly but as they are helping to perpetuate the cycle of dealing by creating the demand for illegal narcotics they also can’t be given too lenient treatment.
Very recently, Singapore has amended its infamously tough Misuse of Drugs Act to impose possible THIRTY YEAR prison sentences with 15 strokes of the rattan cane for consuming the hardest of drugs like heroin and cocaine in high quantities.
Previously, the maximum was a ten year prison sentence and a fine.
It would help the situation if drug abuse was perceived by some youngsters to be a less glamorous form of existence if celebrities were socially shunned for taking illegal drugs as they are in moral and decent countries like Japan.
https://www.cnb.gov.sg
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John:
I disagree. The people to eliminate first are the users, the customer base for the dealers, and then, after that, the main dealers, importers, and growers (or manufacturers, in the case of synthetic drugs).
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A little, but very revealing, incident has taken place in Italy. The supposedly “ultra-right/neo-fascist” Italian government banned the use of the number 88 by football players because this is a “neo-Nazi symbol”. If we needed further proof that Meloni, like Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orban, etc, are mere impostors/puppets pretending to be something they are not, this is it.
This is a message from Meloni to the (((people in charge))); it means “Don’t you worry, I am with you”.
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Claudius:
There is a huge amount of “controlled opposition” out there. Some of it does not even know that it *is* controlled.
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Farage is one of our more notorious examples. He complains now that the Tories have sabotaged Brexit but that was always a danger of getting Britain out of the EU by means of a referendum in the face of almost universal poltical Establishment hostility to the idea of withdrawal and in the absence of Britain being a genuinely democratic country ie using the absurd and archaic fraud of First Past The Post in elections instead of a fair voting system like Proportional Representation which would enable alternative parties to become strong.
Also, who GAVE the Tories their opportunity to sabotage it? Why, Mr Farage who buggered off as soon as the referendum result was in instead of doing what he should have done ie keep a close watch on the Conservatives by not standing down as UKIP leader.
Notice also how he complains about his bank accounts being subjected to political bias by the banks. Well, that disturbing phenomenon has been going on now for quite a few years now yet where was Farage and UKIP to sound the alarm about these disgraceful actions of banks?
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John:
Yes, and I did not hear Toby Young etc saying anything when bank accounts belonging to the Patriotic Alternative people were closed a couple of years ago. Toby Young is one of the biggest hypocrites around, in my view.
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You are right, as usual. I remember a very shady fellow I knew in the mid 1980s who told me “Most people do not know for whom they are working for”. He was referring to people who are used and manipulated politically and he was spot on.
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The cheek of that awful grifter who calls herself “Jack Monroe” is unbelievable! She almost accused a Michelin-starred chef of “picking her brains” (not very difficult!) to get ideas for economic meals! 😲 😲 😲
The Grenfell Towers story is even worse. She is, undoubtedly, mentally ill. No normal person would make up such stupid, ludicrous lies and yet, she has got away with that. This proves that there are plenty of morons in the UK willing to believe anything. To be fair, every country has a fair share of numbskulls like that. 😁 😁 😁
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Claudius:
Fore some reason, many idiots think that because (as they foolishly believe) her heart is in the right place (i.e. she plays the right notes for them), they should give “Jack Monroe” more chances.She is playing them too.
I think that, under other circumstances, she could be a more obvious criminal such as a thief of, say, jewels and money, or even a serial killer.
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