Category Archives: Neil Oliver

Diary Blog, 25 April 2024, with some analysis of the war in Ukraine in 2024-2025; also the Israel/Palestine situation

Morning music

[Old Orangerie, Lazienki Park, Warsaw]

Tweets seen

No news for some time about the famous Hamas tunnels that were, apparently, in total about the same length altogether as the actually underground parts of the London Underground (over 100 miles in all). At first, the Israelis were full of public relations news/propaganda about how they had taken several miles of this or that tunnel, but since then, nothing. Are the tunnels still being used by the Gazan side of the conflict? We do not know.

If so, most of them will abandon Poland and move to other parts of the EU— Germany, Denmark etc. Only a few will make it easy for the Kiev regime to press-gang them and deploy them to the crumbling front-line. That would be a death sentence for many.

Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and the war

“Lukashenko proposed to the West to play a draw with Russia, otherwise Ukraine will cease to exist.

More statements of the President of Belarus:

For Americans, China and Russia are not all opponents and enemies. For America, Europe itself, the European Union, is a serious rival. Americans do not need opponents or competitors.

I know the mood of the Ukrainian army. They are already tired of this war. If we do not negotiate now, Ukraine may lose its statehood and cease to exist.

No one wants to fight today. That is why we must move towards peace.

Washington is progressively pushing aggressive narratives against Belarus and the Russian state, increasing the degree of hostility of the NATO bloc in our direction.

The US allocation of 60 billion for the war is the most important factor in the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.”

Biden’s team doubts US aid will help Ukraine win – Politico.

The immediate goal is to stop Ukrainian losses and help Ukraine regain momentum and turn the tide on the battlefield.” After that, the goal is to help Ukraine start getting its territory back,” said one of the officials. “Will they have what it takes to win?” Ultimately, yes. But that’s no guarantee that they will. Military operations are much more complicated than that.

That report about American “analysis” leaves out several important factors which make any large-scale success by the forces of the Kiev regime very unlikely.

The first is the lack of “boots on the ground”, i.e. numbers of soldiers, particularly well-trained soldiers. 500,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed in the past 2 years, it is said; even if that figure includes the badly-wounded, nothing material is altered.

Ukrainians of all ages and conditions are trying to avoid call-up, as the regime drafts people as old as 65, disabled people, carers for sick and disabled family members, some women etc. Those who live beyond Ukrainian borders (perhaps a quarter of the pre-war population) show no sign of wanting to return and rally to the colours; those within the borders try to buy or acquire medical exemptions, or just try to stay “under the radar”.

So overall, the lack of manpower is key. There is no way for the regime in Kiev to increase the supply of men, while the attrition of the war means that every day brings new losses; Russian forces, at present, fire 10 artillery shells for every 1 coming from the other side.

The low birth-rate in Ukraine (one of the lowest in the world) also impacts this. The Kiev-regime side looks to ever-lower age-groups, even to those aged 16, to perform military tasks.

Realistically, no matter how many advanced weapons are gifted to the Kiev regime by the USA and UK etc, Zelensky’s forces will never be able to “regain” those former Ukrainian provinces now under Russian rule: Lugansk, Donetsk, and of course the Russian peninsula of Crimea.

Even less likely is the prospect of the Kiev-regime forces actually taking over undisputably-Russian border areas, or destroying major Russian towns or cities. Should the first happen (which is not even a war aim of the Kiev-regime side), there would be a swift Russian response and re-occupation. Russia, with its famous prostor (apparently endless space) simply cannot be conquered by merely military means, as indeed Professor Haushofer taught. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Haushofer.

As to possible destruction of large Russian urban centres such as Moscow: even had the Kiev regime side the means, all that would then happen would be the deployment of Russian tactical or even strategic nuclear weapons, particularly to reduce Kiev itself. Were Kiev to be destroyed, the war would end immediately.

It can thus be seen that there are only two possible outcomes (unless is posited a general regional or even world war): either Russia achieves victory over Eastern Ukraine by force of arms, or there are real peace talks soon, leading to a result somewhere between such a victory and the present state of play.

Israel

More Israeli war crimes.

Sooner or later, whether in 5 years, 10 years or whenever, the wheel will turn, and the Israeli population will probably be scurrying through devastated streets, the streets of Tel Aviv and elsewhere. Will the Jews of Israel and beyond then themselves expect or ask for mercy?

Not as unlikely as it seems. Israel’s regional enemies become more powerful every day. Who, a decade or two decades ago, or 50 years ago, would have thought that the Palestinian resistance to the north of Israel/occupied Palestine would have the military power, or the missiles, that it has in 2024? With every passing day, the enemies of Israel acquire more powerful weapons. How long before they have weapons that can overcome the Israeli defences?

The Israeli high command (both military and security/intelligence) seems to be playing a delaying game, trying to prevent major actors from acquiring the most powerful weapons while, when possible, destabilizing surrounding (and some other) states. Iraq, Lebanon, Syria Libya, Egypt have all been weakened. Iran still stands.

There is also the fact that the Arab Palestinians within Israeli borders, and in the West Bank and Gaza, have a higher birth-rate than do most of the Israeli Jews. This will surely have an effect somewhere down the line.

Israel is doomed; the only uncertain fact is the date of that doom.

In the recent Israel-Iran exchange, it was noteworthy that planes and rockets from Saudi Arabia and Jordan flew in defence of Israel. I take that to be an Arab response to the increasing power of Iran, rather than a wish to help Israel as such.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the opposite was the case: the Shah’s government was on quite amicable terms with Israel, unlike all of the Arab states, which then were implacably opposed to Israel. The underlying hostility between the Arabs and the “Persians”, however, was just the same, in essence.

That Jewish Israeli politician seems to be the personification of utter stupidity allied to complete dishonesty. Says that executed/murdered Gazans with hands tied behind their backs may have died in “gun battles” or “throwing grenades“.

She also says that the Gazan resistance are “cowards“, because they (to use the old British phrase) “shoot and scoot” rather than waiting to be mown down by tanks etc. What, I wonder, does that creature say about Jewish (Israeli) pilots and drone operatives who kill women and children from 10,000 feet in the air, or even while sitting in a building in Israel?

It is a disgrace that the suborned UK government is giving aid and comfort (and arms) to that tribe.

Good grief! Just saw this: that creature, of Moroccan and Portuguese Sephardic-Jewish origins, was born in London, became a barrister (Middle Temple) and only moved to Israel in 2001, at the age of 27 or 28: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleur_Hassan-Nahoum.

She has been tipped as a future mayor of Jerusalem or Israeli foreign minister” [Wikipedia].

Incredibly (listening to that interview), she is apparently regarded as “liberal” in Israel!

Talking point

Britain’s average has already been reduced several points by reason of importation of huge numbers of individuals from the lower-IQ groups over the past 70 years and particularly the past 30 years.

How can we ever create a higher-level society if the human beings in the present society are, as a group, degrading constantly (as at present)?

Late tweets

Cleverly is completely idiotic. Imagine meeting with those lying conspirators and giving (or at least pretending to give) credence to their demands, after what has been discovered in the last several days! Falter has been exposed more than once as a liar, as has the one seated to his left.

Unfortunately, Cleverly has one of the safest seats in the Commons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braintree_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2020s. Another brainless MP.

The “Campaign Against Antisemitism” is effectively a volunteer arm of the Israeli Embassy in London.

I cannot see why the Metropolitan Police Commissioner felt obliged —apparently— to actually apologise to Falter, who by then had already been exposed, even by other Jews, even by other Zionists, as a dishonest propagandist whose account of the now-notorious Aldwych incident was plainly contrived and untrue.

Perhaps Russia should create a special class of passports for suitable candidates from certain other countries too: EU nationals, UK and US nationals, some others, and those people could then become dual-passport-holders, with the right of residence, under conditions, in the Russian Federation.

Late music

[painting by Vicente Romero Redondo]

Diary Blog, 12 April 2024

Morning music

Tweets seen

Ukrainian failure will be “worse than Vietnam” for the West, Johnson predicts.

If Russia takes control of Kyiv, it will become a disaster for “American leadership on the world stage” that is much greater than the outcome of the Vietnam War. Boris Johnson is sounding the alarm.

He also said he was “praying” that congressional Republicans would end the roughly $60 billion blockade of funding to Ukraine, adding: “The situation is grim and the delay is appalling.”

The British politician also said that the chaotic flight from Afghanistan in 2021 is “nothing compared to a possible Russian victory in Ukraine.”

There are exciting possibilities opening up, potentially affecting not only the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, but also Central and Western Europe, including the UK.

The USA lost any right to claim the “moral high ground” post-Cold War when it engaged in torture and/or depraved humiliation of captives and/or the innocent at Guantanamo Bay, Bagram, Abu Ghraib etc.

As for the UK, the old term “America’s poodle” covers it well enough (or “Israel’s poodle“, as far as the Westminster monkeyhouse is concerned).

my office…is besieged by asylum-seekers. Most of them are young men, illegal migrants, who should be expelled“.

Bravo!

Truth (for once) in the Westminster monkeyhouse.

Very few choose to join any of the armed forces now, because the services have no prestige, a poor career structure (certainly for “other ranks”), poor housing and, at the end, after 3, 5, 10, 22 or however many years, are just dumped into civilian life, in many cases without non-military skills, without accommodation, and without much money.

Another point is that some potential recruits are being forced to wait for months, even a year or more, before being approved by the rotten private contractor, Serco.

Back in 1975, I was told by someone in the Intelligence Corps of the British Army that some people were desperate to join immediately because they had no roof over their heads, and literally no money. The Corps would stretch a point, and allow them to come in even before the paperwork had been completed, and before any binding commitments had been made.

Such recruits would be given accommodation (at Templer Barracks, Ashford, Kent, now turned into a housing development like everything else in England), would eat in the NCO’s mess (there are no private soldiers in that Corps), and something would be found for them to do for a few days or a week while the necessary box-ticking was being done.

If accepted, they would join the next recruit squad; if not, they might go elsewhere in the Army or, at worst, leave having had a week of food and shelter; no harm done. Not now.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Services_School_of_Intelligence; https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/templer-barracks-intelligence-corps-depot-ashford-kent-visit-2002-part-1.90734/; https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1346004242092315.1073741980.269223069770443&type=3.

Apparently, the various military units at Ashford (the Intelligence Corps at Templer Barracks, and also the much larger ordinary Army base which surrounded the guarded Intelligence Corps centre) have long since been moved on, and the area, redeveloped as housing, is now known as Repton Park, though I have just seen that there is a small reserve Army military presence nearby even today.

https://evolutionproperties.co.uk/blog/repton-park-estate/8367

https://www.kentlive.news/news/nostalgia/repton-park-ashford-estate-named-3951650

From the newspapers

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/12/carers-allowance-benefit-error-30p-a-week-dwp

George Henderson had to sell his home to repay nearly £20,000, years after ticking wrong box on carer’s allowance form.

A carer who says he was “dragged through the courts” and had to sell his home to pay back almost £20,000 in benefit overpayments is fighting to clear his name after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) acknowledged he made an innocent mistake.

George Henderson, 64, said he made a gain of just 30p a week while claiming carer’s allowance for his son John, who has learning difficulties and is addicted to heroin. He now costs the Treasury £1,000 a month more in benefits, having become homeless and too unwell to work.”

[The Guardian]

Really absolutely disgusting. Britain in 2024.

Also, look at the sentence imposed by a Crown Court judge in respect of the matter:

He protested his innocence but was found guilty. In 2018, a judge at Preston crown court gave him a 32-week suspended sentence and ordered him to wear an electronic tag for 16 weeks.

Henderson is one of a number of carers the Guardian has spoken to after exposing how people looking after disabled, frail or ill relatives are being forced to repay huge sums to the government and threatened with criminal prosecution after unwittingly breaching earnings rules by just a few pounds a week.”

[The Guardian].

This country has become just unbelievable.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/11/lesser-of-two-evils-voters-in-sheffield-hallam-look-to-labour-with-reluctance

In the high street of Crookes, a leafy hillside suburb of Sheffield with a large student population, there were plenty of people saying they would vote Labour at the next general election – but most weren’t too happy about it.

“It feels like the lesser of two evils – it’s definitely better than going back to what we’ve got,” said Amy Pattison, a 24-year-old occupational therapy student at Sheffield Hallam university. “All I know is I won’t be voting Tory. And whatever I do vote will be tactical.

Most people said they would vote Labour for one simple reason – to get the Conservatives out of power.

I’ll be voting for Labour. But I’m more anti-Conservative than I am pro-Labour,” said Chris Macdonald, a 30-year-old teacher. “If our voting system was different I would be tempted by other parties, but it feels like it’s Labour or Tories, and I want them out.

[The Guardian]

That chimes with my feeling about overall voter sentiment. Few people really like the Starmer version of the Labour Party, but almost everyone wants the Conservative Party to go down (and preferably never get up again).

More tweets

So different figures, but the same story: Sadiq Khan unlikely to lose.

Ha ha! The “Ukraine” (Kiev regime) lobby is totally off the wall.

I have only met one USAID person in my life, as far as I can recall, and that person was a complete idiot.

Exactly the sort of double standards now entrenched in England as well, where the Jewish/Zionist lobby has suborned the police and Clown Prosecution “Service”, “the usual suspects” never really facing the sort of nonsense “investigations” etc social-national people such as myself do.

Late tweets

So it begins…(?)

Late music

Crowdfunder

https://www.givesendgo.com/GC14J

All donations to my court-costs crowdfunder gratefully received. If unable to donate, please share the link.

Thank you.

Diary Blog, 10 March 2024

Morning music

Tweets seen

Nice to see the Constabulary doing their proper job, rather than snooping on blogs and social media, and behaving like a poundland Stasi.

Not just illegal migration-invasion; all mass immigration.

What makes it worse is that the “interventions” by the “West”, particularly perhaps the UK, are so stupid and ill-thought-out. Libya, for example. That triggered much of the present migration invasion of Europe, while trashing Libya itself.

Yes, Gaddafi was rather ghastly but, as Saint-Just opined, “no-one can rule guiltlessly“. Also, after Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram etc, are the Americans or others really competent to pass judgment?

Sam Melia and Laura Towler

[Laura Towler, Sam Melia, and their little daughter]

I am glad to see that their crowdfunder is now just short of £60,000.

A donation (minimum £4) helps Sam Melia while he sits out his unjust imprisonment (2 year sentence; expected to stay incarcerated for 8-12 months), and helps Laura Towler, who is presently about to give birth again, to maintain her home; also, it guarantees a running start to their socio-political activity in 2025 and, last but not least, sticks it to the “usual suspects”, to the “antifa” idiots and to the System.

https://www.givesendgo.com/sammelia

Money can also be sent to Sam Melia directly via the official system in place: https://www.gov.uk/send-prisoner-money.

“Sven Longshanks” and others are also unjustly in prison. https://www.givesendgo.com/SupportSven.

“A generous person will prosper;  whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”  [Proverbs 11:25]

More tweets

What a surprise…not. Rachel Reeves, vice-Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, agrees with Michael Gove, member of Conservative Friends of Israel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gove#Israel_and_Jewish_people; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Reeves#Political_positions_and_views.

You can almost see the puppets’ strings.

See also: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2018/05/30/one-mans-extremism-is-another-mans-struggle-for-liberty-and-justice/.

I have usually not agreed with Portillo’s positions, but when you hear him it is clear that he stands head and shoulders above any members of the present Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet (though he himself was also a member of Conservative Friends of Israel; maybe still is).

Gove, Reeves etc are merely the monkeys— look at the organ-grinders…

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable” [John F. Kennedy]

Maybe a fake, Israel-lobby “National Government”, but once GE 2024 is held, the Conservative Party in Parliament might be reduced to 50 MPs. Where would then be the incentive for Labour to include any of those few MPs?

One way or another, though, we are looking at an increasing repression on free speech, spearheaded by the Jewish/Zionist/Israel element.

500,000-1,000,000 immigrants into the UK every single year now. Join the dots…

At least Pakistani Muslim apostate and Israel-puppet Sajid Javid is leaving politics at GE 2024, but he will just be replaced by another monkey standing on the organ-grinder’s case. No change. No real “democracy”.

Talking point

The moving finger writes; and, having writ, moves on: nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.” [Omar Khayyam]

More tweets seen

Again, forget “the monkey(s)”, look only at the “organ-grinder(s)”…

Whose interests does Starmer always promote? Bingo. You’ve got it.

Tell me about it…

I myself face a criminal court (for sentencing) this week. My “crime”? Breaching a law (Communications Act 2003, s.127) which even the Law Commission has recommended for repeal, it is so unjust…

Purely political. Driven by the “Campaign Against Antisemitism” cabal, which has got its hooks into the police, CPS, TV companies, major political parties etc, despite being tiny in number (though apparently with plenty of money).

The thread is well worth reading.

Ukraine’s armed forces usually receive Patriot air defense systems in the form of a donation, but in recent months, Republicans in the US Congress have blocked further aid to Kiev since October, the text says. Ukraine could buy new installations, but it could take months, if not years, and cost millions of dollars, which Kyiv does not have, concludes the author of the article.

Late music

[Victor Ostrovsky, Rendezvous]

Diary Blog, 7 March 2024

Morning music

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geirr_Tveitt

Talking point

Tweets seen

Well, that pretty much puts the cap on the expected “Conservative” Party debacle at the upcoming General Election.

The Con Party is presently running at between 19% and 27% in various opinion polls, with most closer to the lower level. Call it 23%. Of those 23 points, about 20 points consist of the votes of persons over 65. If that demographic were all to vote elsewhere or abstain, the Con Party would be looking at a vote of about 3%, the same sort of level as that typically achieved nationwide by the Greens (2.7% in 2019).

Of course, that will not happen. Many middle-aged and elderly people are people of habit. Many have habitually voted Con for decades. Many say “so if I don’t vote Conservative, for what can I vote?” Brainwashed by the “two main parties” scam.

Having said that, I now think that many people even of advanced years are now angry enough to either abstain or vote elsewhere as a protest.

I do not think it totally impossible now for the Conservative Party to go one or two points below 20% at GE 2024. That would mean only a few Conservative Party MPs left— between 20 and 50, depending on all the other factors in play.

Sam Melia and Laura Towler

[Laura Towler and Sam Melia]

I see that their crowdfunder is now at (as of time of writing) £56,350, a magnificent sum, and still increasing, though more slowly than in the days since Melia’s sentencing hearing (last Friday, 1 March 2024; he was sent down for 2 years, meaning that he will probably not emerge for 12 months, maybe 8 months).

The money will support Laura Towler (who has a young child, with another expected within weeks), will make Melia’s time in prison more tolerable, and will support the couple and their socio-political struggle in 2025 and thereafter.

https://www.givesendgo.com/sammelia

[Update posted on that crowdfunder site:

UPDATE: Firstly, we would like to thank everyone who has donated so generously to this campaign, from the bottom of our hearts we are thankful for such a wonderful outpouring of support.


Secondly, as most of you will now be aware, Sam has been sentenced to two years custodial sentence.

Sam is now incarcerated in a British prison for the ‘crime’ of producing messages the prosecution admitted were ‘totally lawful’. What’s more, under this particular law, the Judge reminded that the jury that the ‘truth was no defence’.

This campaign will remain live for the duration of Sam’s imprisonment and the money raised will support Sam’s pregnant wife Laura and their child Catherine.“]

A modest donation (the minimum amount is only £4) not only supports a young family (and particularly a young mother who is also a staunch social-nationalist and who is imminently expecting a baby while her husband is —unjustly— in prison), but also sticks it to the System.

[Update, same day: the following message is believed to have originated from Laura Towler:

We can now write letters to Sam 

I’ve just spoken to Sam. He is in HMP Leeds. He won’t be staying there for the whole of his sentence but it might take a while for him to move. He’s safe and has made friends. He’s been exercising and reading a lot. He says the worst thing (other than missing us) is that it’s quite boring, although the library is pretty good. He said he would appreciate letters from people to help pass the time. Please don’t get too political or the letter won’t get through.

Samuel Melia A3370FCHMP Leeds 2 Gloucester Terrace Stanningley Road Leeds West Yorkshire LS12 2TJ

You can include a stamped address envelope in the first letter if you want him to write back. We can also send him books from their preferred suppliers and also email him. I’ll provide some more information on this shortly.].

More tweets

Rachel Reeves. Evil. A Labour Friends of Israel member, in fact “vice-Chair”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Reeves#Political_positions_and_views.

Rachel Reeves was also caught trying to defraud the Parliamentary expenses system in various ways.

Now Rachel Reeves is intending to increase the existing harassment and bullying of the sick and disabled, and unemployed, in the UK, a theme she has supported previously.

The present Government has to be removed, but anyone who imagines that “the party formerly known as Labour” will be better is deluding himself.

Labour’s main problem in getting to its GE 2024 “victory by default” is its own MPs, and especially its own front bench. Every time they open their mouths, they seem less pleasant, and indeed less competent. I suppose that is why Starmer keeps them gagged whenever possible.

Liz Kendall, yet another “Labour Friend of Israel”…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_Kendall#Defence_and_foreign_policy

Ha. Very true. Without the TV fear-propaganda, the System could never have got away with, for example, the 2020-2022 “Covid” panicdemic or scamdemic.

That tweet reminded me of a scene from this film:

A rather odd film, which (as has often happened with me when I encounter experimental-style films, like those of Tarkovsky) grew on me when I saw it for the second and third time (on video).

I first saw Alice in the Cities in the early 1980s, at some art-house cinema, as the Americans say, in Hampstead. I was rather reluctantly dragged there by someone I knew, “Major Tillman” (a nom de guerre), and his French girlfriend. His girlfriend apparently later complained that I had “fidgeted...like a little child“. Probably. I do not have a lot of patience with films. I believe that I heard that they eventually married, and now live in Paris.

On seeing the film again, I think twice more, so three times altogether over 20 years, the film grew on me, though I still think it not entirely a success, artistically.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_the_Cities.

BlackRock also “owns”, now, much of the rich farmland (“black soil” or chernozem) of Ukraine, bought for a song, of course.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackRock

…and guess who is the chief? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Fink

Laurence Douglas Fink (born November 2, 1952) is an American billionaire businessman. He is a co-founder, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation.[1]

BlackRock is the largest money-management firm in the world with more than US$10 trillion in assets under management.[2][3]

In April 2022, Fink’s net worth was estimated at US$1 billion according to Forbes.[4] He sits on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations and World Economic Forum.[5]

Fink was born on November 2, 1952.[6][7] He grew up as one of three children in a Jewish family[8][9] in Van Nuys, California.

[Wikipedia].

https://www.givesendgo.com/sammelia.

In reality, the Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan is being implemented by cabals of evil persons embedded in the Government, Parliament, msm, and Civil Service. They scarcely even try to conceal the agenda any more.

Another talking point

In fact, that person’s opinion is legally incorrect.

“1)A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and “thief” and “steal” shall be construed accordingly.

[Theft Act 1968, s.1]

It is a long time since I practised at the Bar (2008) and even longer (nearly 30 years, early/mid 1990s) since I did any ordinary criminal law, but my clear recollection is that someone can be convicted of shoplifting (theft) without having left the store. That is because the immediately-relevant component of the offence is that the person has “appropriated the rights of the owner” to the goods taken (with a dishonest intent) and with the intent of permanently depriving the owner.

Assuming that the foodbank basket is (as the one in Waitrose is, and I think at Tesco etc) under the name and control of [name]-Foodbank, then anyone taking food from the shelves, with the appropriate intent, and then “giving” that food to the foodbank by placing it in the foodbank basket or bin has committed the offence, even if the shoplifter does not get any (material) benefit.

In fact, I doubt whether it would be any different even were the foodbank basket or bin to be labelled with the name of the supermarket, because the shoplifter has still “appropriated the rights of the owner” to the goods, and intending to permanently deprive. I have no idea whether that exact situation has ever been tested in court, or in appellate court, though.

The same is true of a shoplifter who places items in a shopping bag or pocket (assuming that the “mental element” of dishonesty is present). It is not necessary, to ground the offence, for the shoplifter to have left the store with the goods taken. This is a common misconception.

It is true that store detectives and the like usually do wait until the suspected shoplifter has exited the building before stopping the suspect. That is because the shoplifter can hardly then claim to have intended to pay (as he or she might be able to say if stopped somewhere inside the store); there have, though, been appeal cases reported (often in the 1970s, the Theft Act 1968 still then being quite new) where convictions were upheld under such circumstances.

It is just easier for store detectives to stop suspects outside.

More tweets

Public libraries are vital even though most people, most of the time, do not use them. A component of a civilized society.

Quite right.

Because the German Government 1933-45 has to be demonized…

The Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan, or a large part of it.

Nice.

God. This whole invasion is like a skin condition, a spreading rash of some sort.

Late music

[painting by Victor Ostrovsky]

Diary Blog, 8 February 2024

Morning music

Tweets seen

Rafah, the very place to where the Gazan civilian population was “ordered” (by the Israeli Jews’ army) to flee to as a sanctuary.

Well, I have to say that, for someone the Western msm has been writing off with (invented?) terminal illnesses for at least 3 years, Putin looks remarkably well. Has “our” (((their))) media been lying to us again?

God mote it be“, not because I think particularly highly of Trump as an individual, or as statesman of sorts, but because he will ensure, as far as possible, that the USA and Russia (etc) do not get into a Third World War that might set back civilization for hundreds or even thousands of years.

See also: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/26/the-tide-is-coming-in-reflections-on-the-possible-end-of-our-present-civilization-and-what-might-follow/.

At the end of the day, the choice will be a poor one, because the US political system is sclerotic and almost incapable of substantial change. That will be so even were Biden and Trump not to be the candidates in the end.

As it is, it looks like being Trump on the one side, a very flawed individual but one with real strengths, as against Biden, a corrupt and possibly perverse individual who —most importantly— is plainly at least semi-demented.

People may say “so what if Biden has dementia? He has support etc“. Well, if that is so, why even elect a President? Just let the Deep State conclaves, and secretive Bohemian Grove circles, and Jew-Zionist cabals, rule the USA without the figurehead…

I think that the American public are looking at the two, and are seeing that (to put it that way) one of them is as good as “off his head”…so game over (?).

…and it now turns out that the untermensch even strolled past (the new) New Scotland Yard a while ago! The police must be hoping that he will just throw himself into the river, and thus save them further embarrassment. Where’s Waldo?

If this trend continues, there will eventually have to be, not only in the USA etc, but in the UK too, a purge that will make the Cultural Revolution, the Yezhovshchina, and others, seem mild.

Hillary Clinton, someone who only became prominent because she was married to Bill Clinton. Thank God she never became U.S. President. We would have had WW3 by now. A semi-educated idiot who is presented as some kind of great mind.

Where is Squeaky Fromme when you need her?

A Chinese commentary with English subtitles, posted on Twitter/X not by me but by the Editor of the Jewish Chronicle (ex-Daily Mail), no less.

In view of my upcoming magistrates’ court sentencing, I had better remain silent on this…

More music

[Blues and Royals, London]

More tweets seen

The SNP is always good for a laugh. As for Scotland’s “Independence” pretensions, what kind of “Scottish nation” has Pakistanis (yes, I know that they must have British passports…) leading two of its three largest political parties (SNP and Scottish Labour)?

Does anyone go there, do that, and be (or pretend to be) “overcome with emotion” unless he is at least “part-“? I am thinking of “Boris” Johnson, whose great-grandfather was a rabbi in Lithuania.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier_Milei#Early_life_and_education

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javier_Milei#Personal_life

Whichever way you look at him, Milei seems to be some kind of lunatic.

Amazing how many —indeed, brainwashed— people really want to believe either that the UK actually benefits from mass immigration (which is such nonsense) or at least can comfortably absorb the present (net) inflow of about 750,000 a year (more in fact, bearing in mind that the incomers are almost all non-white, while emigrants are often British people —real British people— going to Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere).

Late tweets seen

[Nikolai Rerich (Roerich), Guests from Overseas]

Late music

Diary Blog, 22 November 2023

Morning music

[VDNKh, Moscow]

Tweets seen

Incidentally, I am told by a reader of this blog that The Times has printed some kind of report about my recent trial. I refuse to pay even a small amount in order read the sort of rubbish put out by the contemporary “British” newspapers, so I do not know exactly what is the content of that report (I can guess, pretty much, anyway), but what strikes me is that it has apparently only appeared today, five days after the trial itself. Hardly “breaking news”.

I wonder what will happen with the newspapers in the UK. Several years ago, Rupert Murdoch gave the paper versions of newspapers only until about 2025 to survive, and certainly one rarely sees anyone buying a newspaper these days. I occasionally see an elderly person (always elderly, meaning 70+ if not 80+) buying a newspaper in Waitrose; not so often though.

The quality of journalistic language, let alone analysis, has fallen through the floor despite (?) the now almost exclusively graduate entry. Poor English, and little background knowledge, are patent.

I read somewhere that newspapers are still functioning because the online versions both take subscriptions, and make money out of advertisements; also, the mainly young “journalist” scribblers are paid very modestly. The only highly-paid scribblers now are the “celebrity” columnists, or so I read.

I myself last bought a newspaper about 25 years ago.

Hunt and Sunak had little choice, politically. Opinion polling puts the Conservative Party on about 20% for the 2024 General Election. Most of that consists of State Pensioners. Without the pensioner vote, the Conservative Party is toast. It may be that it is anyway, but being seen to pander a bit to the most obvious interest of those over 65 is a desperate way to shore up, at least to some extent, that core vote.

Incidentally, using Electoral Calculus, the difference between (A) a 20% vote and (B) a 15% vote is (A) 57 Conservative MPs (Lab 508) and (B) 19 Conservative MPs (Lab 541).

Were the Con Party able to rise to a support-level of 25%, the result might be 125 Con MPs (Lab 452); on 30%, 219 Con MPs (Lab 360).

https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll.html.

For Sunak and Hunt, the (for now) retention of the Triple Lock is a no-brainer, of course. However, it will not save them. The best they can hope for, I think, is a hard defeat next year. It is an open question whether that defeat will prove almost, or actually, existential.

Isaac Levido“? Well, wouldn’t you know? Every. Single. Time…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Levido.

London. Zoo.

https://www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world-news/faces-london-criminals-who-ripped-28153239?int_source=nba

Three train robbers who battered a victim for their £36 chain in a spate of 14 violent thefts have been jailed...”

[My London]

[the defendants]

More “diversity” in our wonderful new multikulti society…

I wonder what our society will look like in 20 years? Or 50? Thankfully, I shall probably not be around to see 2043, and certainly not 2073.

Late music

[Paris under German military occupation, early 1940s]

Diary Blog, 14 November 2023

Morning music

[swimming pool “Moskva”, 1970s]

Battles past

Stray thoughts

Several aspects of the initial Hamas attack on southern Israel last month struck me at the time and thereafter. First, the fact that the Gazan forces were able to plan and carry out such an operation at all. Secondly, that they were able to keep up what seems to have been complete operational security until “D-Day”. Thirdly, that it took Israeli Army forces 12 hours to arrive.

Israel is a kind of armed camp. Most citizens are liable for full-time or reserve service, Israel spends over 5% of GDP on military activity, and it is constantly on alert, yet here we see that there was a large-scale incursion at a known flashpoint (the Gaza border region), and it took Israeli forces 12 hours to respond effectively.

The relatively short distances also make that response time seem long; Tel Aviv itself is only 44 miles from the Gaza northern border, and perhaps another 10-20 miles to the scenes of attack.

There have been “conspiracy theories” asking whether this was a “Pearl Harbor”, i.e. did the Israeli Government know in advance, but allow the attack to happen, in order to have an excuse to reduce Gaza to rubble and destroy both Hamas and much of the population?

That theory sounds monstrous and also unlikely, but it cannot be ruled out, especially with factors such as the offshore oil.

I suppose that history will judge.

Tweets seen

I remain surprised that no-one at all has taken action directe against Cameron-Levita, Osborne, Dunce Duncan Smith or others in the Con Coalition of 2010-2015, but there it is…English/British people tend to be rather tolerant and long-suffering. Many of the guilty go unpunished.

Instead of monitoring actual terrorists, the UK’s shadowy disinformation units, in liaison with the intelligence agencies and Big Tech, monitored people like me.

My “crime” on one occasion was saying that “children have wonderful immune systems” and that “I have a legal duty to safeguard children against harm”.

At the same time, psychological nudge units were employed by the UK government to encourage the public to view anyone who questioned the government as an extremist.

Members of the public, who had been evangelized by the now debunked “safe and effective” mantra, set about hunting down those who questioned government pandemic policy. Often reporting them to their employers and unleashing what I have described as Britain’s unofficial social credit system.

In other words, seeking to punish them via the complaints process and cancel culture. This Chinese Communist style censorship, and resulting self-censorship by vast numbers of the population, allowed ever more extreme policies to go unchallenged and unchecked.

For example, the government announcing that a child would not require parental consent to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Or the government ignoring the advice of the JCVI and pushing ahead with the rollout for children.

It is hardly surprising that there are increasing reports of traditional terrorists and radicalised behaviour within the UK. While the likes of the 77th Brigade were all eyes on British citizens who were critical of government Covid policy, they were all eyes off the real terrorists and threats to our national security.

If the @covidinquiryuk is to be worth the eye watering cost it will eventually rack up, it must address the egregious way the State went about silencing dissenting voices during the pandemic.”

Sobering.

Sunak, the Indian money-juggler, is just another Israel puppet or “monkey-on-a-stick”.

More music

More tweets

Binned.

Late music

Diary Blog, 27 September 2023

Afternoon music

[painting by Michael and Inessa Garmash]

Battles Past

Suella Braverman

Ironic that it takes a non-European woman (married to a Jew, at that) to speak truth to power (don’t imagine that she herself holds any real power, even if she is Home Secretary).

Of course, the stupid, and/or treacherous/traitrous “open borders” Twit-mob, the “refugees welcome” dimwits etc, are all baying for her blood.

The fact is that the huge waves of immigration seen in the past decades, and especially since two events happened —the fall of socialism worldwide since 1989, and the fall of Gaddafi in 2011– do pose, as Suella Braverman says, an existential threat to the West as a whole, Europe as part of that, and the UK as one aspect of that.

It is instructive to read the impressions of people from North America etc who have recently visited the UK for the first time in many decades (1950s, 1960s). They are all appalled at the state of our largely-trashed country.

Suella Braverman pointed out that, in theory, as the laws and realities now are, nearly 800 million foreigners of various types could come to the UK. Of course that will not happen, if only because the UK would collapse into chaos long before. However, 80 million is not impossible over time, and 8 million is all but inevitable unless changes are made.

When I was born (1956), the population of the UK was rather more than 50 million. Now it stands at nearly 70 million, largely if not entirely by reason of immigration and also births to post-1945 immigrants or descendants thereof.

The UK is now in a downward spiral in terms of living standards, standards in public life, pay, pensions, State benefits, housing, healthcare, education, even the roads.

I suppose that Suella Braverman made her speech mainly —perhaps not entirely— for political reasons, including party-political reasons. The reason that it has had so much impact is because we so rarely hear politicians or —even more rarely— msm drones and scribblers actually telling the truth that we, the British people, see around us daily.

That speech will have had a powerful effect.

One of the reasons why the Conservative Party is so far behind Labour in the polls is because the Cons seem incapable of doing anything effectively, and the migration invasion across the Channel (which however may be as little as 10% of all immigration into this country) has become, as people now say, “iconic”, a symbol of general uselessness on the part of the Government.

This speech may steady the voting troops, but in the end is just a collection of words. We need action, not words.

Having said that, at least some of the voters may be waking up to the fact that Labour’s “solution” to immigration-overload will be to “safely” and quietly “process” (ie approve), and then funnel the invaders into the UK. The British people will only start to notice the results when there are almost no real British people left on the streets.

About 75% of so-called “asylum seekers” are eventually approved to stay in the UK, and only a tiny handful of the others are ever removed. Much of the world is in a state of chaos or tyranny or both, a delayed result of the disastrous Second World War and its consequences.

Both System parties of importance are part of the same conspiracy.

Looking at the 2024 General Election, the Con voters have almost given up, but anti-invasion rhetoric (and keeping the State Pension “triple lock”) may at least keep some of the generally anti-Labour older voters on board. We shall see.

Tweets seen

The Jew-Zionist element is behind most of the assault on freedom of expression in the UK.

More music

[VDNKh, Moscow]
[Donetsk, former Ukraine]

More tweets seen

Unreciprocated, I presume…

London. Zoo.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12566905/Croydon-stabbing-girl-boy-bus-way-school-murder.html.

An estate agent who works near the scene where the girl was stabbed complained Croydon had seen an upsurge in violence. 

Leigh Thomas, 41, said: ‘I came out of my office and there were two ambulances right across the road and about 12 police cars.’

He added: ‘Croydon has gone to the dogs recently. The other side of the shopping centre is a war zone.

‘There’s drug dealing, fights, there was another stabbing recently. I grew up around here, it’s not what it used to be.

[Daily Mail]

It’s not what it used to be.” Really? I wonder why…

Bradford. Zoo?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12565899/bradford-city-centre-mob-attack-police.html

Bradford descended into lawlessness yesterday afternoon after a brawl outside the city’s magistrates’ court led to huge crowds clashing with police. 

Youths wearing hoodies and masks were filmed charging after police vehicles and hitting them, as officers attempted to get away from the disorder.

[Daily Mail]

Scarcely a white face there…

…officers attempted to get away from the disorder“… Really? That’s comforting. Not.

Britain’s future? You decide.

Late tweets seen

Something the corrupt Kiev regime never attempted (there or anywhere else) during 30+ years of pointless “independence”.

More than 3,000 tons of weapons, ammunition and vehicles delivered to 12 hangars near Kiselevka, in the Kherson region, were destroyed by the Russian Army.

This was probably the reserve needed for the crossing to the left bank of the Dnieper, and now these plans have been seriously disrupted.

Video: What remains of the military warehouses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kiselevka region. A video of the Russian Ministry of Defense taken after the missile strike.

Late music

[Hohenschwangau]

Diary Blog, 24 September 2023

Afternoon music

I remember watching that French TV series about Robinson Crusoe when I was about 7 or 8 years old.

Battles past

From the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12553151/HUGH-OSMOND-staff-Gen-Z-snowflakes-not-fault-Blame-universities-schools-heads-nonsense.html

Our society should look again at the purposes of education, at all levels from primary, through secondary, to tertiary and beyond. The whole mediaeval-derived “degree” system in particular, with its “first degree” (“apprentice”), “Master’s degree”, and “Doctorate”. More suited to 1523 than 2023.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/meandmymoney/article-12552243/Fashion-designer-Karen-Millen-talks-MONEY.html

The ups and downs of life; quite interesting.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12552471/NHS-chiefs-cruel-ban-drugs-treat-chronic-pain-condition.html

It really is time for the NHS to be treated as a useful service that however needs urgent and radical reform and improvement, rather than a quasi-religious object of devotion or something operated mainly for the benefit of its employees.

Peter Hitchens

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12552809/peter-hitchens-lucy-letby-not-guilty.html

Worth reading. I did not follow the trial closely, and have no feeling either way about the rightness of the jury verdict.

Tweets seen

The Wall Street Journal:

Russia has adapted and corrected many of its mistakes, even as the Russian military’s poor performance in the early days of the war shocked many in the West.

Moscow has spent months preparing a strong defense against the current Ukrainian counter-offensive in the south. The use of drones has become more frequent and efficient; changed the tactics of using the Air Force, now successfully avoiding Ukrainian air defense at low altitudes; added guidance capabilities to old aerial bombs; moved deeper into the front and dispersed warehouses, equipment and command posts; began to better protect our own soldiers and equipment; improved electronic warfare; according to Western officials, it increases the production of tanks (from 100 to 200 per year) and artillery shells (from 1 to 2-3 million per year).

On the battlefield, “the difference since the beginning of the war is colossal.

I recall, even 30+ years ago, when I lived in New Jersey, the increasing problems caused by Hispanic migrants, mostly illegal, mostly from Central America. God knows what parts of the USA are now looking like.

More music

[SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler at the Berghof]

You carry in your blood the holy inheritance of your
fathers and forefathers. You do not know those who
have vanished in endless ranks into the darkness of the
past. But they all live in you and walk in your blood upon
the earth that consumed them in battle and toil and in
which their bodies have long decayed.

Your blood is therefore something holy. In it your parents gave you not only a body, but your nature. To deny your blood is to deny yourself. No one can
change it. But each decides to grow the good that one has
inherited and suppress the bad. Each is also given will
and courage.

You do not have only the right, but also the duty to pass
your blood on to your children, for you are a member of
the chain of generations that reaches from the past into
eternity, and this link of the chain that you represent
must do its part so that the chain is never broken.

But if your blood has traits that will make your children
unhappy and burdens to the state, then you have the
heroic duty to be the last. The blood is the carrier of life. You carry in it the secret of creation itself. Your blood is holy, for in it God’s will
lives.”

[SS Verlag— material for instruction of the Hitlerjugend]

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More tweets

Part of the ever-more-obvious transnational conspiracy.

Ha. Very true.

Suella Braverman is another Priti Patel: all talk, no action (and also herself non-European).

Of course, she is completely correct in what she says above. Jewish-lobby puppet Starmer is a waste a space, but seems about to become Prime Minister simply by default. The invaders will then simply be funnelled into the UK less conspicuously.

Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan.

More music

I used to have that CD, or maybe it was on cassette, long ago.

More from the newspapers

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/posh-market-town-residents-hire-31016400

Residents in a posh historic town have clubbed together to hire their own private security firm to patrol the streets with dogs after burglaries soared.

Locals in Kimbolton, rural Cambridgeshire, decided enough is enough after a spate of robberies back in 2019. They say a police presence is almost non-existent and want to fend off criminals after houses in the neighbourhood started to be targeted five years ago.”

[Daily Mirror]

There is probably a link to —shall we say?— “caravan-dwellers” in that area…

All over England, communities are having to create private police forces, because, when it comes to ordinary everyday crime, the police (or as Sherlock Holmes always referred to them, “the official police“) are now usually completely useless. Many of them waste their time snooping on social media, “monitoring” tweets —or blogs such as mine— and generally playing at “counter-terrorism” and being a kind of poundland KGB or Stasi.

Even H.M. Inspector of Constabulary, Andy Cooke, recently said something quite similar.

See also: https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/20141826.we-not-thought-police-says-new-chief/.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12554821/Joe-Biden-polling-trump-speech-gaffs-cbc.html

A new poll from the Washington Post showed disastrous numbers for incumbent President Joe Biden, who is now 10 points behind former President Donald Trump in in the latest measurement of the US electorate.

[Daily Mail]

Goodnight Vienna Kiev…

Late tweets seen

The world is not without kind people” [Russian proverb].

In fact, I have a lot of time for the Turks, overall. I have spent about 5 months altogether in Turkey, and have seen the behaviour of the Turks, and (with very few exceptions) been quite impressed by them.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had to convince the American public about the possibility of occupying Russian territories so that his allies would not stop supplying him with military aid, said Scott Ritter.

The statement about the possibility of occupying Russian lands is political. It is necessary in order to continue the help from other countries ,” explains Ritter.

According to his words, Zelensky is very well aware of the true situation on the front, but the Ukrainian leader simply has to deceive the West.”

Late music

[painting by Monet]

Diary Blog, 7 September 2023

Afternoon music

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudepo%C3%AAma]
[M. Lounis, Florida Tropical Garden]

Battles past

From the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12488561/I-sedated-one-inch-life-lol-Bet-shes-flat-week-haha-xxx-Court-hears-chilling-texts-two-nurses-sent-drugging-patients-hospital-stroke-unit-amusement-shifts.html

Our NHS“…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12488563/Scientists-grow-artificial-embryo-model-WITHOUT-using-sperm-egg-world-tested-positive-pregnancy-test.html

Scientists have grown an entity very close to a human embryo — without using sperm, eggs or a womb.

The embryo even released enough of the hormone pregnant women produce that turns a pregnancy test positive, resulting in a positive test result in the lab.

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel made the complete models of human embryos from stem cells generated in the lab after building on previous research where they had made mouse embryos.

[Daily Mail]

“The simulacrum of the human” creates another simulacrum of the human…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12487959/Putin-gambling-Donald-Trump-winning-election-2024-hope-end-backing-Ukraine-Western-officials-warn.html

Yes, but other US Presidential candidates are also saying that they want to pull away from the Ukraine situation (thank God).

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12488513/ANDREW-PIERCE-British-taxpayers-paying-army-shirkers-unless-tough-sickness-benefit-scroungers.html

Is that the best the rotten “Conservative” Party can come up with, yet another attack on the sick and disabled etc? Yes, there are some fraudulent claims, but the vast majority are not fraudulent.

Basic Income has to come, and with it an end to this nasty and pointless “jump through hoops or starve” way of running a “welfare” system.

As for Andrew Pierce, if ever an msm scribbler deserved a kicking, it must be him.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/06/work-capability-test-changes-could-cost-some-claimants-400-a-month

What kind of system targets the sick and disabled? This one; the UK’s one.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/sep/06/excess-winter-deaths-caused-by-cold-homes-in-great-britain-up-by-about-a-third

What a disgrace.

Tweets seen

Moreover, most of the jobs on any of the websites noted above will also be on the others. The total is probably only around 15,000; perhaps not even as many as that.

See also: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/08/11/the-jew-epstein-and-prince-andrew-the-british-royal-family-has-another-scandal-maybe-its-time-to-just-get-rid-of-them/.

A typical “Jack Monroe” supporter: not “poor” (in fact, quite comfortably-off), a pseudo-socialist virtue signaller, living in comfortable surroundings, extremely rude, and “of a certain age”…[“Laura Davies: over 30 years’ experience in cross-sectoral and cross-organisational strategic planning and delivery.
Chair of the board of trustees for Sheffield Hallam Students’ Union. Former vice-chair, non-executive director and trustee of numerous higher education and representation charities in the North West of England.
“]

Probably one of the Common Purpose rabble too.

That Saudi prince is huge and rather dangerous-looking, like a genie who has just emerged from a bottle.

Cheerful music and film from the days of the German Reich

Late tweets

If that were to happen (which I doubt)— goodbye Kiev…

What a monkeyhouse; even worse than Westminster.

Western sanctions against Russia hurt Europe itself Europe, like the rest of the world, confrontation with Russia is not cheap, writes The Telegraph. The confrontation has led to rising costs of living across the continent, runaway inflation and economic stagnation, and politically it is increasingly dividing the region.

As another winter approaches, European energy prices are rising again, exposing cracks in the economy once again. There is growing concern in Germany about the damage the conflict is doing to the country’s once well-oiled economic machine, partly dependent on cheap energy supplies from Russia.

The belief that Europe can emerge from the situation relatively unscathed has always been a self-deception, the author of the material summed up. Also illusory were the expectations that sanctions would break Putin. After all, the European economy continues to weaken, and over time, sanctions can finish it off.”

Late music

[Museum of Natural History, the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, in winter]