I heard that idiot on the car radio this morning, on BBC Radio 4 Today Programme. Dishonest deflecting but which was not even intelligent deflection. A characterless drone. Just looked him up on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Hands. Background suspiciously cosmopolitan.
This happened also in the First World War— Russian generals and others all conspiring against, and fighting, each other. In the Second World War it did not happen, because Stalin kept a very firm control over the Stavka, the armed forces generally, and the intelligence services, and everyone, from high to low, was —with reason— afraid of his wrath.
He also includes a written statement with a timeline of all events happening since the start of the full scale war. Mostly blaming the Russian MoD for the problems that have arisen due to the lack of supplies and support. pic.twitter.com/tshCSpJ0e3
Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson on the drone strike on the Kremlin:
“Putin has not yet said a word. I think both he and the Russian military will continue to remain calm and collected and will not allow themselves emotional responses. But this moment will definitely be… pic.twitter.com/tuA6DopGyc
Zelensky may be as much of a figurehead or even puppet than he is a leader as such, but he now is the face of the Kiev regime. If Russia can eliminate him, take him off the board, that is as good, or would be, as destroying a whole army. Zelensky is the lynch-pin of this situation. He is the one arranging for shipments of free armament, ammunition, other supplies and, crucially, actual money from the West, in huge amounts.
Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: If Ukraine falls, the current world order will collapse pic.twitter.com/Y6sAvpbxJa
Orban believes that only in a fairy tale can there be a situation in which Russia will be defeated and she will come to terms with this “I don’t have enough imagination to imagine that someone can defeat a nuclear power. To think that the Russians will idly watch as they are… pic.twitter.com/Xy0m7UoeWn
Millions of people in this country are about to spend their weekend celebrating the coronation of a man that they’ve never met, who’s never done anything for this country except steal our money, all while ordinary people are struggling just to afford basic necessities. Backwards.
— David Morgan 🏴 #StayFree (@david_r_morgan) May 4, 2023
Polemical and a little one-sided, but he has a point…
Despite the fact that Western countries are constantly training Ukrainian soldiers to use new weapons, the armed forces of Ukraine still find themselves in embarrassing situations. pic.twitter.com/RHDV74gZGQ
Interesting thread; worth reading. I seem to remember seeing that photo as a child, in a Life magazine book about Italy, published sometime in the late 1950s.
As so often, the camera does not tell the whole truth.
“Liz Truss was last night at the centre of an extraordinary row after the Government demanded she pay more than £12,000 following the disappearance of items including bathrobes and slippers from her grace-and-favour country home.
The Cabinet Office was told by staff at the house that items such as towelling robes and even slippers vanished during that period, and have asked her to cover the cost.
‘They have also objected to the idea that the taxpayer should foot the bill for what were basically a series of summer parties, and say she owes more than £12,000 for it.’
In December, The Guardian reported that traces of a suspected Class-A drug were found at Chevening after the parties – which Ms Truss has said is ‘categorically untrue’.
The newspaper said members of staff twice found traces of white powder in a games room, after nights where Ms Truss was known to have entertained guests. The workers claimed they tested the powder with a swab which changes colour when it comes into contact with cocaine, and got a positive result.“
[Daily Mail]
I presume that drug-abusing Israel puppet Gove was there, together with Woollyhead Trussbanger (Kwasi Kwarteng).
I was doing some cursory reading on some of 60s race riots (having first read many years ago). somehow I had completely forgotten that the famous 1965 Watts riots (probably the worst in the 60s up to that point) was basically just the Ferguson of the 60s, founded on a total lie pic.twitter.com/z7xDLVeY8o
Helped heal this ones broken leg when she fell from the rafters of my barn as a fledgling. Flew off about a month later and never saw her again. pic.twitter.com/SgMs1RksM3
Washington will not help Kiev forever, and sooner or later the US will leave Ukraine, like Afghanistan So says Scott Ritter, a former US Marine intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector in Iraq. “When we leave – and we will definitely leave – Ukrainians will be left on their… pic.twitter.com/TV7usQzCck
The GUR Ukraine is preparing a series of operations on the territory of Russia to shift the focus from Bakhmut, who is being held back with the last of his strength, while losing several blocks a day.
Germany has confirmed the transfer of the second air defense system Iris-T to Ukraine, – on the website of the Federal Government of Germany pic.twitter.com/9ZznO02Bbu
President Biden is pressuring Zelensky to launch a spring counteroffensive or surrender talks now. This was stated by American presenter Clayton Morris. At the same time, the Biden team is afraid of the consequences of an unsuccessful Ukrainian offensive. According to the… pic.twitter.com/yi2aIPWXml
Never give in to “them”, never give in to their whining, or demanding, or to their attempted intimidatory behaviour.
So now Richard Sharp, instead of being some corrupt Tory money-man who used his influence and contacts to get power over the UK's state broadcaster, is a 'victim of antisemitism'. Couldn't be more convenient, could it.
“Poverty increased from 5.5% to 24.2% in Ukraine in 2022, pushing 7.1 million more people into poverty with the worst impact out of sight in rural villages, according to a recent report by the World Bank. With unemployment unofficially at 36% and inflation hitting 26.6% at the end of 2022, the institution’s regional country director for eastern Europe, Arup Banerji, had warned that poverty could soar.“
[The Guardian].
Even before the war, Ukraine was the poorest state in Europe per capita. 30 years of shambolic, chaotic, corrupt misrule.
Ukraine is not really a state at all at this point. It would already have collapsed, both economically and militarily, without the huge influxes of Western money, arms, ammunition, and other aid.
“Of the 57 people who have held the highest office, Seldon suggests, Johnson was probably unique in that he came to it with “no sense of any fixed position. No religious faith, no political ideology”. His only discernible ambition, Seldon says, was that “like Roman emperors he wanted monuments in his name”.
“I suppose at least Cummings did believe in Brexit, although ultimately, really, did he?” he says. “From everything we heard [for the book] it just seemed Cummings was full of hatred. He probably hates himself; he certainly hates other people. He wants to destroy everything. Johnson in his own way never knew what he stood for, but he shared that contempt for the Tory party, contempt for the cabinet, contempt for the civil service, contempt for the EU, contempt for the army, contempt for business, contempt for intellectuals, contempt for universities.
About a decade ago, Seldon, who is a governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, began an informal programme with David Cameron’s government that sought to provide for the present incumbents of the highest office some history of No 10 itself and their predecessors there. He staged a series of talks from prominent historians, as well as performances of Shakespeare in the rose garden, in the belief that politicians “might root themselves in the arts, in the benchmark of what is good and true”. He recalls a performance that the RSC gave for Cameron and guests just before the former resigned as prime minister: “It was quite a moving occasion in the garden. The killing of Caesar was one of the scenes and I remember watching Cameron with his daughter leaning on his shoulder and Samantha next to him.”
When Johnson came to power Seldon hoped the programme might continue – Johnson did after all have a lucrative contract to write a book about Shakespeare. There was no interest whatsoever. “Covid made things difficult obviously,” he says, “but we did come in. Johnson never once showed up. As [his school reports showed] he had no deep interest in any classical history, language or literature or Shakespeare. His examples were always for show. At his heart, he is extraordinarily empty. He can’t keep faithful to any idea, any person, any wife.”
[The Guardian]
Typical of failing societies throughout history; symptomatic.
That photograph, taken on the last day in office of Boris the Clown, is telling. The Poseur in Chief, trying to show off with his younger and new-ish wife, a brainless bimbo almost personifying the kind of careerist know-nothings so prominent in the Westminster bubble of the past decade.
More tweets
Here it is, clear as day. Anyone who insists from this moment onwards that Keir Starmer supports PR, or that Labour will introduce PR if they win, is fooling themselves.
The decisive moment" according to Ritter Scott: In the battle for Artyomovsk, the backbone of the Ukrainian army was broken.Due to the serious losses of the Ukrainian armed forces, especially after the battle for Artyomovsk (Bakhmut), the conflict in Ukraine could enter a new…
NATO sent only 98% of what they needed for the "counterattack" to the Ukrainians. Now Russian forces will destroy everything "necessary", but it turns out that not everything!
After strike of the Russian Armed Forces on the railway junction of Pavlograd, eyewitnesses report a mass detonation of anti-aircraft missiles for the S-300 complex,two divisions (up to 16 installations) of S-300P were destroyed. In addition, supply vehicles with reserve… pic.twitter.com/omZzPXt2zM
🇷🇺The Russian army during the special military operation in Ukraine started using a new command for artillery fire, which reads "three hundred and thirty three". pic.twitter.com/78MPZclJ1f
We may be witnessing the beginning of the end of the British Monarchy.
The odd thing is that, as opinion polls —and simple observation— show, most of the blacks and browns (certainly those under 60) have no time for, or interest in, the Monarchy.
The same is true of the metropolitan LGBTQXYZ crowd, as seen on Twitter.
Yet Charles is bending over backward in the attempt to appeal to those and other “diverse” groups.
In other words, Charles is trying to appeal to those who either hate him and the Monarchy (a relative few), or to those (the vast majority) to whom the Monarchy is a total irrelevance.
It will no doubt be argued by the msm that Charles is being brave and principled. To me, that whole project comes over as weak and ineffectual. As does he.
As blogged in the past, I have nothing much against Charles himself, whom I once met at a small diplomatic reception in Kazakhstan (in 1996). He has championed some issues of importance, including matters of architecture, town planning, animal welfare, and the environment. He may not always have been successful in that —a chequered picture—but he has tried. I think that that cannot be denied.
It must be hard simply to behave decently when you are told by pretty much everything and everyone around you since birth that you are wonderful, special, way above others etc.
However, this Coronation, far from boosting Charles, may well prove to be the start of his —and the Monarchy’s— downfall. He has invited the head of Sinn Fein to attend, yet not members of families close to the Monarchy for decades, even centuries (and not some individuals close to the late Queen).
The whole thing seems to be a “woke”, fake-“diverse” circus of nonsense grafted onto the comfortable and customary mediaeval and Victorian base.
Maybe that is why Meghan Mulatta is not going to attend, because she realized that she would just be one more “diverse” exhibit in the show.
The last Coronation, in 1953, was (apparently) eagerly awaited by much of the population. Sales of then-still-new- TV sets exploded, because it was going to be the first televised Coronation. Much of the population was engaged and, it seems, felt involved, even if, inevitably, only as background chorus and spear-carriers.
Now? Well, writing this piece, I actually had to look up the date of this Coronation, to remind myself (Saturday, 6 May 2023). I noticed one of the Readers’ Comments to that Daily Mail report: the comment said “I am being swept along in [sic] a wave of apathy“. Despite the error, surely correct. I have not yet spoken to anyone who has mentioned the Coronation in any way, positive or negative. Public interest is at or near rock-bottom.
I have blogged before to the effect that what will kill the Monarchy is not hatred, anger, or even principled dislike, or ideological opposition. No, what will kill it (and is killing it) is apathy as much as anything; the fact that the Monarchy, the Royal Family, their activities etc, have just no connection to, or relevance for, most of those living in the UK today.
For all the “diverse” nonsense, most of the non-whites, indeed most of the non-Brits, are simply not interested. Even in the white (British) “community”, there is a demographic split, most of the over 65s not only interested in the Monarchy but supportive of it; as for the under-30s, not. I think that a recent opinion poll said that about two-thirds of the under-30s would like to get rid of the Monarchy. Again, though, the reason is not anger (as in England in 1649, France in 1789 or Russia in 1917) but simple apathy and lack of interest both in the Monarchy and in getting rid of it.
The other glaring fact is the sheer struggle so many now have simply to pay bills, keep a roof over the head, children and companion animals fed, and so on.
The Monarchy will go at some point but , in the much-used phrase of Nevil Shute, “not with a bang but a whimper”.
Marina Purkiss
One of the dumbest guest interviews in the history of UK broadcast television.
The staggering ignorance of the know-it-all Remainers
Marina Purkiss’s car-crash GB News interview reveals the hollowness of the #FBPE worldview.
“In one astonishing moment, she raised the recent renaming of Black Boy Lane in Haringey, north London. Believing she had found a winning line, she insisted that ‘If you had a street named White Trash you might want to rename it’. Why Purkiss considers ‘black boy’ to be a slur on a par with ‘white trash’ was never made clear.“
[Spiked magazine]
Marina Purkiss, a “woke” idiot who thinks that civil rights or human rights such as freedom of expression are unimportant.
Alarming but not surprising that huge numbers of Twitterati think that she is great (and that she somehow “smashed” Jacob Rees-Mogg in that interview).
No doubt Marina Purkiss will continue to make a kind of career out of intellect-free emoting on socio-political issues. She apparently also has other, and remunerated, activity online.
Not that cost-of-living issues are unimportant. In fact, when people start to really struggle, in large numbers, that is precisely when they turn to radical and even revolutionary alternatives which may, down the line, be dictatorial and anti-free speech.
Tweets seen
The Kiev regime has realized that it will lose Bakhmut….🫣
Ukrainian army corpses litter the trenches near western Bakhmut. Zelensky’s orders to not retreat is causing a very high death rate as more reserves with minimal training are sent to defend frontline positions near the city outskirts pic.twitter.com/ZWsDnNKlBa
In Ukraine, the shortage of mobilization resources in general and officers in particular is becoming more acute. Zelensky instructed the commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny to send most of the military commissars from the recruitment centers to the front
I've never seen such protocol for any other PM of the UK. Genes never change. Rishi sunak's blood is indian n carrying the same genes of show-off and abuse of power. One gets to see in the subcontinent, so it didn't surprise me at all when I the video.
And when the banks / pensions market fail next time round – less bailouts and instead, bank acquisitions by governments – the Trojan horse towards CBDCs.
That could be the moment for social nationalism to strike. The missing element is a party or movement. At present there is none worthy of the name. However, in times of crisis and desperation, a party, movement, or individual personality may arise suddenly, out of the depths of the people and events.
During lockdown we couldn’t even mourn our loved ones properly. A son moves his chair next to his mother to comfort her at the funeral of her late husband and was told to separate. And all because governments framed political motives as “The Science”.pic.twitter.com/fjOnOzqYRy
Look at that crematorium drone, ordering better people than himself back to their places. The “panicdemic” really brought out numbers of self-important nobodies of that type. No more were they simple supermarket workers, shopworkers, or filling station cashiers. Oh, no! Now they were workers on the front-line of the “Covid” “emergency”, armed with powers (they thought) to order people back, forward, sideways, or to wear muzzles etc, just like instructors dealing with slow-minded military recruits. I had a few clashes with that sort in 2020-21. How they must have hated having to return to stacking shelves…
More music
[East Berlin, 1970s; reminds me of a few places in South London]
You still see anti-Hitler propaganda about the alleged euthanasia of some medical “hopeless cases” in the late 1930s. Not everything done in the Reich was correct, but what was done of that type was pretty much on a par with what was happening in the UK, USA and elsewhere. The Jewish lobby (mainly) screams endlessly about “the evils of Nazism“, when in fact the same was happening across Europe and North America, but you never or rarely hear about that.
As for a situation such as that in the last few years in the UK, even the Jewish lobby can hardly blame Hitler and the NSDAP for that…
By reason of the repression of free speech already well-advanced in the UK, I am “not allowed” to say what I want to say about what should be done right now…
So people will be “expected” (required?) to stay incarcerated in something akin to an open prison, albeit with cafes and wine bars (in some cases)? Presumably, also forbidden from saying or writing anything anti-“communitarian”…
Zelensky continues to beg for money from the world for military equipment, ammunition, etc. This time the held a meeting with the President of Slovakia and the Czech Republic pic.twitter.com/fPrp9nuT5F
O, TO be in England Now that April ‘s there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England—now!
I agree with the implied statement of political journalist John Rentoul: this week was a touch more difficult than usual. He scored only 2/10; I trumped that with 4/10. Still not very good. I did not know the answers to questions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10.
Tweets seen
🔴 The Army’s flagship museum will not be decolonised, its director has said – as he declared that Britain should not be ashamed of its historyhttps://t.co/rRJjNMFOVX
🧠 Scientists have revealed new details of how the eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2,000 years ago turned the brain of an ancient Roman into glasshttps://t.co/vjuSmWJ2nL
Interesting and arguably depressing. A small-scale example of what globalism is doing on the larger scale— local people frozen out or marginalized for profit.
Oooo look, it's the alternative universe festival where the VBI exists, Jack Monroe is a cooking expert, and Thrifty Kitchen didn't tank! Please can just one of her groupies, who insist it exists, show me the VBI? 🦄
I suppose that events such as the Hay Festival are planned months ahead. The promotional literature is printed, contracts are offered etc. The mass of the msm and public have only begun to wake up to the fakery and lies around “Jack Monroe” since late last year.
All the same, it does not say much for the Hay Festival organizers’ nous.
Does the above mean that “Jack Monroe” is getting thousands of pounds to appear? I do not know.
I know Hay-on-Wye very well, and have been there many times, starting in the 1970s, but have never been there when the Festival (I always call it the Hay Literary Festival; maybe it has changed its name) has been on.
Considering how seriously she takes herself, sometimes I think Jack Monroe being the laughingstock of the whole internet is a good punishment, until I remember she scammed people on carers allowance into funding non-existent “legal action” 😞
— Kelly Jackson | It’s More Fun In Your 30s (@Kelly_Jackson88) April 14, 2023
Yet the hard core of 460 utter mugs is still there, sending “Jack Monroe” thousands of pounds monthly via Patreon, despite all the evidence that she is a fraud, or near-fraud etc.
Peak “woke”? A UK-resident Nigerian “grifter” travels to New York City in order to have a photo taken of himself trying to insult a building. Meanwhile, New York yawns and moves on; in fact, does not even notice “Femi”.
I remember well my days in New York (intermittently from 1989-1993). You have to be a lot more mad (in either sense) than “Femi” even to be momentarily noticed. Look at the passers-by in that photo. Not even bothering to look round at him.
Still, it enables “Femi” to keep pretending that he is some sort of political and social commentator, rather than an unemployed and possibly unemployable “grifter”, without any influence whatever.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said that Moscow's armed forces will be able to advance deep inside Ukraine if Bakhmut falls. https://t.co/c0DtD2btoP
Looks like a de-blocking operation around Bakhmut may be more likely now that the larger offensive has been delayed or cancelled. If the Russians continue applying pressure at different areas the Ukrainians will be forced to send the new brigades and equipment to stop it.
🇷🇺 Fighters of Russia's Wagner mercenary group have captured two more areas of the eastern city of Bakhmut, Russia's Defence Ministry said on Saturday pic.twitter.com/xRo2vwURij
Ian Robert Millard 