Morning music
Saturday quiz
Well, this week one of my poorest scores ever, a miserable 3/10. Political journalist John Rentoul beat my score (with 6/10), a rare occurrence indeed. I only knew the answers to questions 5, 7, and 10.
Tweets seen
Much of the “counter-terror” stuff in the UK is a fake, and a cover for repression of opinion unwanted by and disapproved by the System, or by special-interest groups such as —and mainly— the Jew-Zionist cabals (malicious nuisances such as the so-called “Campaign Against Antisemitism”, a kind of volunteer arm of the Israeli Embassy in the UK).
More “trans” nonsense. Why are so few people, even now, pointing out the sheer oddness of the fact that an absolute tidal wave of this stuff has crashed over the UK in, mainly, the past few years? What is happening? What is being encouraged to happen? What is behind it all?
I do not say “never believe the experts“, but the fact is that they (and, more so yet, scribblers pretending to be expert) are usually wrong, especially when they try to predict the future, or when unexpected events happen.
Examples? Professor Lindemann [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Lindemann,_1st_Viscount_Cherwell], Churchill’s scientific guru, thought that rockets as weapons could never work unless huge and propelled by solid fuel. Shortly after that, the V-1 and then V-2 rockets started to explode in and around London and elsewhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-1_flying_bomb; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2_rocket.
The recent “Covid” “panicdemic” showed up ignorance of the supposed experts of the so-called SAGE committee (I called it “DUMB”— Department Under Matt and Boris).
There are, actually hundreds of similar examples, especially if you move from scientific-milieu examples to those of politics and economics. Lenin thought that the Bolsheviks would come to power when the 1905 “Revolution” (uprising) was taking place. Wrong… and Lenin did not think that the Tsarist state of Russia would fall as a result of the first (Spring) Revolution of 1917. Wrong again…
Probably a poor-looking place even before the destruction, but these were people’s homes, now blasted by some of the war crimes of the Israeli military machine.
At first, I myself believed that the 2022 devastation in Bucha (a small township or suburb very close to, or effectively part of, Kiev) was a real event, albeit one committed by poorly-disciplined allies of Russia (Chechens etc). It is claimed that hundreds of civilians were killed and/or tortured.
Now, I wonder whether it ever happened at all (as reported). The much-photographed devastation seems to have been mainly in one small section of a single street; burnt-out Russian vehicles, destroyed single-storey houses etc. Hard to get to the truth. It may lie somewhere in the middle.
She seems to be mentally disturbed, and/or perhaps a drug-abuser. God help the USA (and Europe) if that crazed woman becomes U.S. President.
Her Wikipedia entry [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Haley] contains a couple of interesting facts. Turns out that she is an Indian (Sikh), and that her personal wealth, estimated at USD $1M in 2018, had jumped to USD $8M only 2-3 years later, in 2021. How?
[Addendum, same day: saw this https://www.forbes.com/sites/kavyagupta/2023/08/08/how-nikki-haley-built-an-8-million-fortune-and-helped-bail-out-her-parents/]
Worth reading
From the newspapers
I have not forgotten the photo of Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner bending the knee together in homage to the black mob(s).
More tweets seen
Quite right.
Laugh of the day?
Saw a tweet from a tweeter claiming that “Hitler was a great failure“. So tweeted a professed fortune-teller [“I read tarot cards with numerology, & zodiac signs“] with exactly two Twitter/X followers and who is following 91 others…
Laugh of the day? Maybe; maybe just unconscious irony of the day…
In fact, I think I see what that tweeter was getting at with his comment, but think also that I shall not comment further on it today…
More from the newspapers
“A restaurant that drowned three hundred cats a month to fuel Vietnam’s cruel meat trade has been closed for good.
The Gia Bảo restaurant in Thai Nguyen city, in the country’s northeast, ran a lucrative trade selling cats, likely including stolen pets, drowned in a bucket one after another.
For five years, Pham Quoc Doanh, 37, ran the establishment after struggling to feed his family selling ‘other normal food and drinks’.
‘It was then I tried selling cat meat since there was no other available restaurant serving this in the area,’ he told Metro.
Doanh reached out to the Humane Society International, campaigning to ban the trade in Vietnam, who offered him a one-time grant to set up a grocery store instead.
On December 6, he symbolically tore down the banners outside his slaughterhouse and restaurant and began a new life.
‘For a while now I have felt a genuine desire to leave the cruel cat meat business and switch to something else as soon as possible. When I think of all the thousands of cats I’ve slaughtered and served up here over the years, it’s upsetting,’ he said.
‘Cat theft is so common in Vietnam that I know many of the cats sold here were someone’s loved family companion, and I feel very sorry about that.’
An estimated one million cats are killed each year for their meat in Vietnam, according to the charity – despite 71 per cent of the population favouring a ban.“
[Daily Mail]
Well, my opinion of Vietnam has never been very high (I admit that I have never actually been there), but at least 71% of the population apparently want this trade banned, and they do seem (from what I read today) to be taking steps in the right direction.
I get the impression at least that the Far Eastern countries are evolving in their treatment of and attitude to animals. Hopeful signs abound.
Late tweets seen
“Zelensky’s Office called for making it more difficult to legalize Ukrainians abroad in order to return them to Ukraine.
Advisor to the head of the Office, Mikhail Podolyak, believes that the 5 million Ukrainians who fled the country with the beginning of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization received too favorable conditions to remain in the West forever.
He admitted that Kyiv is interested in bringing them back and giving them the opportunity to “repay their debt to the state.“
Question(s) of definition…
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 
That horrible woman called Nikki Haley must be mentally ill. In fact, I would say that many of the politicians and so-called “leaders” of the Western world are mentally disturbed, however, that does not excuse their criminal policies and actions for which they deserve a harsh and painful punishment.
BTW, have you watched the magnificent film “Waterloo” (1970) directed by Sergei Bondkarchuk? It has been mentioned a lot in Napoleonic forums and YT in the wake of the horrendous film “Napoleon” directed by Ridley Scott.
I cannot imagine a better actor impersonating the Duke of Wellington than Christopher Plummer in Waterloo. Rod Steiger was also brilliant in the role of Napoleon.
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I have certainly seen the 1970 Waterloo, with Rod Steiger as Napoleon. Did we not discuss it once before on here? Also, as you say, Christopher Plummer (an actor I do not generally like a great deal) was perfect for the role of Wellington.
World-historic times. Napoleon (obviously) changed the map of Europe, in some ways —but not all— for the better.
As you probably know, Bondarchuk also directed the mammoth Soviet film of War and Peace. The aerial shots of the battlefields are similar in both films.
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Talking about Wellington I found this wonderful little scene from the series “Sharpe”. Great acting. I do not know the name of the actor playing Wellington but he did a very good job. The man playing the cowardly Sir Henry Simmerson always plays villains! All great English actors.
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Claudius:
Simmerson—
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cochrane
Wellington—
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Troughton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe_(TV_series)#Cast_and_crew
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Thank you for the information. The quality of the series was not very even, but that scene is fantastic. David Troughton was a much better Wellington than Hugh Fraser. Michel Cochrane is terrific as the despicable Simmerson! Another excellent actor is Brian Cox who played Major Hogan.
Incidentally, I discovered that Michael Cochrane starred in a BBC series about the RFC in WW1 called “Wings”, it is available in full on YT. Strangely enough, his nemesis in “Sharpe”, David Troughton, was also in “Wings”. Here is a link to the first episode:
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