Well, 6/10 this week, and so once again beating political journalist John Rentoul, who scored 5/10. I knew the answers to questions 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 10. I did not know the answers to questions 2, 4, 7, and 9.
Tweets seen
Within the last 15 minutes, from two sources, I have received information that Boris Johnson is allegedly close to bankruptcy.
An unverified assertion from an unknown and doubtful source who quotes two other supposed and unknown/unverified sources. Conclusion: probably bs, but it would be nice if it were to turn out to be accurate.
Russian planes shoot down Ukrainian ones from a safe distance
ARMED forces of Ukraine cannot match the Russians in the air because the planes of the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation launch their air-to-air missiles without entering the enemy's air defense zone.
Bill C-11 (the Online Streaming Act) has received royal assent, having passed in the Canadian Senate. Trudeau now has absolute governmental control of online censorship. He’s not a liberal. He’s an authoritarian. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.#BillC11pic.twitter.com/Zpw73BiCnd
I have been waiting for several years for just one Canadian to step up (’nuff said…). So far, seems that that one hero does not exist…
The Skyhook retrieval system was used in the 1940s and early 1950s by American and British military to enable an airplane to pick up personnel from the ground without landing. An absolutely hardcore military rescue operation. pic.twitter.com/IX6NHQXkTQ
Important questions. While I myself am totally in favour of the NHS idea of health service (“free at point of use”), in principle, I am even more in favour of a health service that works. Increasingly over the past decade or two, I have been forced to conclude that the NHS does not work, or at least does not work properly.
Reuters reported that the United States has seized a shipment of Iranian oil at sea in recent days.
The agency added that Iran seized another oil tanker in response to this US action. pic.twitter.com/BSSfMLAEtK
British intelligence reports that the latest Russian missile attacks were aimed at destroying Ukrainian reserves amassing for a counteroffensive pic.twitter.com/XX7SD3XRYv
Kyiv is moving the date of the counter-offensive to May because the weather conditions are expected to be better then, said the representative of the local government of the Zaporozhye region, Vladimir Rogov . "Their counteroffensive could also be the last order that Ukrainian…
Translation: “we have a crumbling army that has to use press-gangs to enforce enlistment, we have no suitable people for deployment as officers, we have insufficient armament, and we are running out of ammunition.”
Tactics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to undermine high-rise buildings in Artyomovsk/Bakhmut pic.twitter.com/0QZoPgL8Bh
Prigozhin spoke about the situation in Artyomovsk PMC fighters advanced 100-150 meters. The enemy holds 2.98 km of territory. Wagner stormtroopers lost 94 people today. According to the founder of the PMC, large losses were caused by shell shortage . “Losses should have been… pic.twitter.com/yGqV804Xru
In case of aggression, Belarus will be protected by 1.5 million military men , – State Secretary of the Security Council of the country Minsk did not waste time and was well prepared for possible provocations of the West pic.twitter.com/1wsC7cTYCM
In Kiev, it was proposed to hold early elections for the Ukrainian president The reason for this was the inadequate leadership of the country by the current President Zelensky. “Zelensky cannot solve the tasks of protecting Ukraine, its people, which means that martial law… pic.twitter.com/eevnbx7TLf
In the Western msm, we hear much about the possibility of a palace coup in Russia, but nothing about the arguably greater possibility of an internal putsch in Ukraine, against Zelensky and his cabal.
"Russia is on the brink of catastrophe." Prigozhin issued an ultimatum to Shoigu and threatened Putin with military mutiny
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the PMC "Wagner", wrote a letter to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, demanding to provide ammunition. Prigozhin gave an ultimatum… pic.twitter.com/QDdtj5wVNy
The Wagner Group has done most of the heavy fighting so far. How can it be left without ammunition?
It takes a lot to shock me. And I am well aware of the Guardian's and especially Rowson's form. But I still find it genuinely shocking that not a single person looked at this and said, no, we can't run this. To me that's the real issue. pic.twitter.com/1QHfjGW6Ok
Anti-Semitic cartoon by @guardian showing Richard Sharp (who is Jewish) leaving the BBC. Absolutely vile and wouldn’t be out of place in 1930s Germany. Why do you keep doing this? pic.twitter.com/AqhyPCXeEE
— Bella Wallersteiner 🇺🇦 (@BellaWallerstei) April 29, 2023
Ha ha” “They” are all screaming now…the (((usual))) “claque” in operation, yet again.
The disingenuous "41p a portion" recipes, so enjoyed by privileged Guardian readers, need to stop. Reality is *much more expensive* both in terms of ingredients & cooking costs. This is no different to "30p Lee" but is presented as helpful & even as anti poverty. #TheBigHelpOutpic.twitter.com/QxcAmWAMT5
The voting system is rigged, designed to produce seemingly “fair” or “balanced” results overall (between 2-3 approved parties), but in fact not reflecting the true views of the electorate:
See also:
The biggest single voter movement was from Labour to non-voting.
I still don't understand why someone whose only previous experience is money-making – and not arts, or culture, or broadcasting – would think he was in any way suitable to head up the UK's most significant cultural institution.
Well, this week I did not do so well. Only 4/10, one of my worst-ever scores. John Rentoul got 6/10. I did not know the answers to questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 10.
The police are now “too busy” (in their own minds, “too important”) to deal with the real crimes that matter to most people, just as most nurses are too busy or too important to deal with basic cleanliness of hospitals, (so cleaning has been outsourced to useless private companies).
The police, infested by Common Purpose etc, now seem more interested in censoring online or other opinion, and acting as a poundland KGB.
“Here is the Mattel company, with its new range of trouser-wearing, white-coated, stethoscoped ‘role model’ Barbies, frantically sucking up to the Spirit of the Age.
Not all of them are vaccine inventors like Dame Sarah. One is described as a ‘frontline worker’ who ‘joined forces with other Asian-American medics to fight racial bias in the pandemic’. Another is a psychiatrist who has ‘campaigned against systemic racism in the healthcare profession’.
And so once again we see a major corporation making its peace with the new regime. There is barely any company, institution, school, publication or church which has not done the same, or is not about to do it.
People who would have laughed at ‘loony Left’ councils 30 years ago now use language and follow rules which they once mocked when Ken Livingstone and his allies proposed them.
Those who claim to despise Jeremy Corbyn often follow the ideas he helped devise…
And it is not just that they join in. They are afraid to criticise. Huge areas of opinion are now closed off from discussion, for fear of cancellation, advertising boycotts, and generally being cast into the outer darkness.
With gathering speed and completeness, a total revolution in thought and morals is taking hold of Western societies, just at the moment when they should be girding themselves against pressure to become more like China.
The zero-Covid fanatics, ready to throttle our society in pursuit of an illusion of perfect safety, have greatly benefited from this. And in the weeks to come the zealots of man-made global warming will press their dogmatic agenda and their demands that we impoverish ourselves to save the planet (demands China refuses to follow).
If all this had happened in a few weeks, while Red Guards slouched on street corners and the leaders of the old regime were dragged off to the firing squad, we’d see it for what it is. But, as long as there are enough loo-rolls in the supermarket, and the electricity keeps flowing, most people will never notice the revolution raging all around them.” [Peter Hitchens, in the Mail on Sunday].
Hitchens’ column this week is also worth reading for comment about both the ever-shrinking British naval reach, and the facemask nonsense.
GB News
I have still not watched the doomed GB News “controlled opposition” TV station. I have watched a few clips on Twitter. Today I saw another grovelling interview of a character from the malicious Jew-Zionist pressure group and fake “charity” calling itself “Campaign Against Antisemitism”. This time it was CAA “Chief Executive” Gideon Falter.
The interviewer was one Michelle Dewberry [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Dewberry], described (I think rather kindly) by Wikipedia as “businesswoman, politician, presenter, and media personality.“
The “businesswoman” bit seems to be based on two small businesses started 15-20 years ago, both of which seem to have bombed, though information seems limited.
As for “politician”, that seems to be founded on her two unsuccessful attempts to be elected as MP (once as Independent, once for Brexit Party).
As interviewer, I thought her grovellingly unwilling to challenge Falter. Other impressions? Semi-coherent, biased in presentation, and actually rather dull.
I do not suppose that Michelle Dewberry will find life tough once this TV station (pretending to be a media outlet for dissidence) collapses: she has a rather wealthy boyfriend [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Jordan#Personal_life].
How long before GB News does collapse? At a guess, 6-12 months.
[Update, 7 August 2022: seems that I was premature in predicting that GB News would disappear within 12 months. It is still around, though I myself have still not seen it even once.
GB News’ most recent filed profit/loss, only up to May 2021, shows a loss of £2.7M.
Ian Robert Millard 