Tag Archives: food

Diary Blog, 11 April 2026

Afternoon music

[Levitan, Birch Forest]

Saturday quiz

Well, this week a convincing victory over political journalist John Rentoul, who scored a modest 21/. My score was 6/10. I did not know that answers to questions 2, 4, 6, and 7.

Talking point

I happened to see again the following, a blog post I published nearly 2 years ago in 2024:

Basic Income

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockton,_California#Experiment_in_Guaranteed_Basic_Income

As part of a privately funded experiment in Universal Basic Income in 2019, the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (S.E.E.D.) conducted a pilot project that gave a $500 stipend to 125 randomly selected residents for an 24-month period with “no strings attached.[51] “

[Wikipedia]

SEED was a Randomized Control Trial that distributed $500 a month for 24 months to 125 recipients. The cash was unconditional, with no strings attached and no work requirements, and recipients were selected randomly from neighborhoods at or below Stockton’s median household income.

Results gathered from the first year, which spanned February of 2019 to February of 2020, found recipients obtained full-time employment at more than twice the rate of non-recipients. Recipients were less anxious and depressed, both over time and compared to the control  group. They also saw statistically significant improvements in emotional health, fatigue levels and overall well being. Recipients had a greater ability to pay for unexpected expenses.

People spent the SEED money on basic needs, including food (nearly 37%), sales/merchandise (22%, on home goods, clothes/shoes and discount/dollar stores), utilities (11%) and auto costs (10%). Less than 1% was spent on alcohol and/or tobacco.”

https://www.stocktondemonstration.org/press-landing/guaranteed-income-increases-employment-improves-financial-and-physical-health

In my view, Basic Income must be the way to go, with AI and robotics impacting employment and set to do so more. The alternative to Basic Income is to have a tiny sliver of the population ultra-wealthy, a wider layer wealthy, and about 80% of the population near-destitute.

I think that that is even more obvious in 2026.

Another talking point

A country that has forgotten its culture, history, traditions and national heroes is doomed to extinction” [Tolstoy]

That is where the UK now is; or very close to it.

Another talking point

Give white men a pile of bricks and they will leave you with a civilization. Give blacks a civilization and they will leave you with a pile of bricks” [Anon.].

Simplistic, of course, but true none the less. The white inhabitants of London, and many other European and North American cities, can vouch for the veracity of that.

Tweets seen

Field Marshal Starmer-stein…

Perhaps, after Reform UK gets into government but then fails to satisfy the needs of the British people, real social-national politics will come to the fore. We do not need universal support, nor even a majority, just a large enough minority (disciplined and equipped etc) to take over regardless of rigged System elections.

[“The IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) officially made Argentina the head country member of the alliance last month. This is why they want Argentina to become a safe haven for Israelis.

If you look at every other country who is a member of the IHRA, or observing the IHRA, you’ll see most have been seriously impacted with mass immigration from the third world in recent years.“]

The “fifth column” in most advanced and/or wealthy states…

Incidentally, depending on definition(s), there are between 193 and 330 states, countries, territories etc in the world. The so-called “international definition of antisemitism” has only been adopted by between 38 and 47 (again, dependent on the details) of those states, territories etc.

[“Around 700 years ago, there was a bottleneck phenomenon with Ashkenazi jews.

About 40% of Ashkenazi jews’ maternal DNA traces back to only four women from this time period.

Genetics are destiny with behaviour.

Ashkenazi jews are far more prone to schizophrenia, and just general paranoia, than White populations because of this.

Also, with such a small gene pool to work from, if their ancestors had strong dark triad traits, it’s certain that most living descendants today also have them which explains this awful behaviour below.“]

See also:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/scientists-reveal-jewish-history-s-forgotten-turkish-roots-a6992076.html

Our animal friends. (yes, they attack chickens etc, so protect your chickens more effectively; “good fences make good neighbours”…).

I remember it well. I called that area home for many years.

[Little Venice, London W9; the Lagoon]

Israeli Jews did that, and much more besides, and even the Jewish-lobby organizations in the UK and other parts of the world admit (indeed, claim) that most Jews living in the UK and other countries support what the Israeli Jews are (once again) doing. Mass slaughter of civilians.

Need one comment?

Late tweets seen

Britain would have been better off had Johnson been put up against a wall 25 years ago.

Peter Hitchens debates with Zoe Strimpel, American Jewish Zionist. She comes to the UK, and is allowed not only to live here but also to scribble, remuneratively, in the Press, and to talk on TV etc, purporting to tell us, the British, what we should think and do. A propagandist for Israel and Jews generally.

I doubt that I should be allowed to go to Israel, or even some Jewish enclave in Connecticut, and make a good living in the local msm, while criticizing and lecturing the inhabitants of either of those regions. Why do we allow it to happen here?

The same goes for all the foreign bodies in our Parliament, not only Jews but also various other types of non-Europeans.

[“Tim Dillon: “Israel is just blowing up apartment complexes in Lebanon.”

“Massacring women and children.”

“The blowback that Israel will get from this—and the US will get for funding it—will be insane.”

“You are creating terrorists all over the world.”

“It’s going to radicalize them.”

“Israel bombing Beirut 100 times in … 10 minutes.”

“In a densely populated urban area.”

“I’m starting to get this nagging feeling that Israel doesn’t really want this ceasefire.”

“Israel claims in all of these buildings, there are terrorists doing terrorist things.”

“Their argument is like, if we kill everyone, inevitably some of the people will be terrorists.”

“I’ve never seen the brutality of this type of warfare.”

“You can’t just indiscriminately kill civilians and not expect that people are going to be radicalized.”]

I sincerely hope that someone shoots that bastard, and that it takes him several hours to die, just as he slowly killed that wolf.

The same goes for all those who stood by in that bar two years ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/10/wyoming-wolf-bar-animal-abuse

Are the abusers still around? Is that bar still standing? Apparently, the bar owner shown above is the aunt of the primary criminal.

Late music

Diary Blog, 10 July 2025

Afternoon music

[painting by Volegov]

Talking point

What can I say?

Stray thoughts on a hot afternoon

I have never claimed a long culinary repertoire; indeed, before I married for the first time, I lived almost entirely on cold food (whatever the season), or fed while outside my residence(s), though I did occasionally cook buckwheat kasha (quite nice if boiled then fried), scrambled eggs and, from time to time, vegetable curry.

Two marriages etc have, perhaps counter-intuitively, led me to pick up a few other recipes, such as fish pie. Today, though, I embark on something new, formerly had only at other people’s houses (often in gardens) in summer— okroshka.

Okroshka is cold soup, which if made properly is very pleasant on a hot day. Many recipes can be found online, e.g. https://www.anediblemosaic.com/okroshka-recipe-refreshing-russian-cold-soup/.

Sometimes, okroshka has ham in it, but I do not eat meat, and I think that (as with Russian or “Olivier” Salad), ham or other meat is an unnecessary extra anyway.

I doubt that mine will match examples had elsewhere, prepared by foodie people, and I lack kvass (a drink made from fermented rye bread), a usual ingredient, but I expect it will be good enough.

On this hot day, I have also been thinking about something else, namely the fact that the Starmer-stein Labour Friends of Israel government has lost control of this country in every way.

Migration-invasion continuing at an even greater rate, with an average of about 1,000 a day now crossing illegally, and a further 5,000+ coming in “legally”, as (or posing as) “dependent family”, “spouses”, “fiances”, “tourists”, “high-skilled workers” (Indians able to work a computer, medical staff etc), “students” (few ever return home), and so on.

We also have an “invasion by births”, births of non-Europeans, whether born in the UK or not.

Court system on its knees, street crime ubiquitous (in the London area). The latest wheeze is to release “some” (presumably, non-political) prisoners after they have served 20% of their headline sentence, so someone sentenced to a year will only do about 10 weeks, and a 3-month sentence will presumably be, in reality, 2-3 weeks .

If there were no non-Europeans in this country, or only small numbers, the prison population would not be about 120,000 but nearer to 20,000. In fact, if the Irish “tinker”/”traveller” element, and the Roma Gypsy element, were also both removed, the number of prisoners would fall to about 10,000.

The court system has backlogs which are getting worse. I noticed that Professor/Dr David Miller, now being privately prosecuted in the magistrates’ court by the malicious Jew-Zionist org “Campaign Against Antisemitism” or “CAA”, had his first appearance a few days ago. Trial is set for December!

In the Crown Courts, many cases starting their process now, have trial dates, in some instances, set as far ahead as 2029!

The streets, especially in London, are becoming an urban jungle.

This government has pretty much lost control. Ironic, really, because there has not been a UK government so full of control freaks since the days of Tony Blair.

Incidentally, another cold soup I like is vichyssoise. Maybe tomorrow or the next day.

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

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

More music

[painting by Levitan]

Tweets seen

Whatever diplomacy is, it is not that.

News from France

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14894021/Women-claimed-Brigitte-Macron-born-man-CLEARED-appealing-defamation-ruling.html

Two women convicted of defaming French first lady Brigitte Macron by saying she was ‘born a man’ were today sensationally cleared on appeal.

[Daily Mail]

See also (pub. 2019):

That idiot thinks that Russia will allow a quasi-NATO force to occupy parts of Ukraine. That will never happen.

The UK’s “intelligence and security” orgs usually act as puppets of Israel, the Jewish-dominated USA, and so on.

Now that is interesting.

See also:

[“Opposition politician slams Macron for selling out French nuclear independence to US “[Emmanuel] Macron is pushing to put our nuclear deterrent in the hands of NATO and the United States!” French Patriots party leader Florian Philippot blasted on X, slamming the president’s decision to sync nuclear policies with London. According to one of Macron’s loudest critics, British nuclear strategy is already fully integrated into NATO and coordinated with the US. “This man is methodically working against ALL aspects of our national independence. He must be removed as soon as possible!” insisted Philippot.“]

Macron is a Jewish-lobby, Israel-lobby, NWO/ZOG puppet.

The Gaullist force de frappe was the right idea— enough to deter hostile attack during the Cold War, but independent of the USA, and also not likely to cause a nuclear war. Defensive.

I almost (but not quite) feel sorry for Penny Mordaunt. After a non-“silver spoon” childhood and youth, and some years in public relations, she became an MP at 37 (in 2010), a minister in 2015, and a Cabinet minister by 2017. By 2022, she was regarded as a potential Conservative Party leader and so, at the time, Prime Minister.

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

Penny Mordaunt’s two Con leadership bids ran quickly into the sand. She then lost, in 2024, her Commons seat (fairly narrowly, and because Reform UK ate into the Con vote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth_North_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2020s).

Now, Penny Mordaunt apparently makes an income as part-time “consultant” to British-American Tobacco, though it is hard to see what value, if any, she might bring to such a role.

Penny Mordaunt (whom, as a politician, I do not entirely dislike) is now politically irrelevant, and still seems to regard the Conservative Party as the main show in town, whereas in reality the Con Party is on its last legs. The polling says it all: Starmer-Labour is a dead party walking, in much of the country, but that does not mean that the Conservative Party will bounce back as in the past. Look at the opinion polling. The Con Party is on 16%, 17%, somewhere around there, with no sign of increasing its support.

Politically, and at only 52, Penny Mordaunt is finished, in my opinion. She has no Commons seat, and is unlikely to win back her former seat (though I concede that that might just be possible in a 3-way Labour-Reform-Con contest in —?— 2029 at Portsmouth North). I doubt that she would join Reform under any circumstances (and, to give her her due, I think that she is driven, partly, by principle as well as by expediency— but after her near-win in 2024, she would surely be “nailed on” if standing again but under the Reform banner).

Penny Mordaunt looks defeated on that video.

“Many are called but few are chosen” applies to politics as much as other things.

Israel-puppet Senator Lindsey Graham should now check his wallet…

Ecce Zelensky’s idea of how to enforce conscription into his failing armies.

Late thoughts

Late music

Diary Blog, 18 October 2024, including a few thoughts about IQ and related topics

Morning music

[“Eighteen Years“]

Talking point

I happened to see on TV an elderly, over-90 years, but very compos mentis, retired professor, talking to the TV chef Rick Stein about the decline in average IQ since 1950, as apparently noted in a study done by, or under the auspices of, Bradford University. The professor cited as a (or even the) causative reason the decline of consumption of fish and shellfish in the UK over the past 74 years.

That may be part of it. Certainly some types of fish popular with the mass market have become expensive; even standard British favourites such as cod and haddock. I bought some fish and chips recently: 1 large cod, 1 large haddock, 1 small bag of chips. £20.50.

Whether you think that £20.50 for a smallish bag of chips and 2 large pieces of fish is expensive or not will depend on your general financial level, but it is at least certainly more than most citizens will want to pay out on a daily basis.

Some fish in the UK is not, however, expensive, however poor you are. Mackerel, for one, which can be bought (uncooked) in a supermarket for as little as a pound or so for a good-size fillet.

I recall that, when I lived in Fethiye (Turkey) for a few months in 2001 (I drove there from the UK, a trip that was more difficult then than it now is), I went to the fish market in the town almost daily, about 4-5 times a week. The hierarchy of price descended from the most expensive, which were huge langoustines, or tuna steak and swordfish (cut from massive whole tuna and swordfish, some 5 or 6 feet or more long and 1-2 feet wide), through many other types of fish and shellfish and down to tiny fish, presumably by-catch, which cost only about 5% or even 2% of the most expensive. There is always a decision to be made by the individual on what is affordable or not.

[the fish market, Fethiye, Turkey. The many restaurant tables and chairs were not there when I used to patronise the market (neither was that sign in English) but, at that time, in 2001, the fish market was new, having been built or rebuilt and possibly having also been relocated from a different place. That was 23 years ago. How time flies when you are older…]
[Fethiye, Turkey; the marina part of the harbour area]
[Fethiye, Turkey. The best part of town, by the marina]

IQ in a general population is obviously affected by diet, but is also a function of other factors. The UK’s average IQ level has been badly affected by, inter alia, the mass immigration that has been such a feature of the past 75 years.

Importation of non-European peoples into the UK has had many negative consequences. A lower average IQ is merely one.

One sees evidence of decline in IQ and/or educational levels everywhere. One example might be secondary school exam papers. When I was studying, belatedly, in my mid-twenties, for “A” Levels (and an “S” level) in 1983, studying alone and without tuition, I sent off for papers from a number of previous years, from the 1950s and 1960s right up to 1982. Even in 1983, one could see that the level of difficulty had steadily declined over the previous 30 years.

Since the 1980s, of course, there has been massive award inflation. Not only at secondary educational level but also at tertiary (university) level. Hardly anyone actually fails a university degree now, unless the student drops out. The kind of average degree, normal only 30 or more years ago, a 2:2 (as earned by Tony Blair, among others), is now not even considered a reasonably “good” degree. The real standard has not improved, but dropped, while presented as something wonderful.

Not that IQ (and knowledge) mean everything, anyway. “EQ” (“emotional intelligence”) is also important: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_intelligence.

As for myself, long ago, in the 1980s, my IQ was tested at 156 (UK average being 100, and university students typically testing at 125), certainly in the top 1% of the population, but that was in the mid-1980s, when I was about 30, and it may well be (I do not know) that I would test lower today. By way of compensation, though, I think that I can say that experience, and other infusions from the stream of Life, make up the difference, and perhaps more.

We often hear that “things do not work properly any more in our society”, and that may become a greater problem as average IQ drops ever lower.

Our society should be travelling, by design, in the other direction.

Tweets seen

At this point, anyone who submits to being injected with those “vaccines”, especially the “Covid” ones, is just an idiot or loonie.

See also:

More music

More tweets seen

“Tel Aviv Keith” Starmer is a very nasty little man, a typical bureaucrat given power and unable to handle it.

[“Off with their heads!“]

Do not imagine that words alone will sort out this whole mess.

It is time to stop thinking of MPs, not all but many of them, as merely “mistaken” or “wrongheaded“, and to awaken to the fact that some, perhaps many of them, are —in a word, in lay meaning— “traitors” to the British people and their future. Not necessarily the above MP, though; I am talking generally.

Whatever one may think of “Tommy Robinson”, he has a point, nicht wahr?

This decision by the SRA about Lewis’ negligent advice is just awful. Mark Lewis told Pete Newbon that the defamatory publication did not identify me. It was startlingly incompetent advice because the publication contained a clear photo of me and Tolley v Fry (possibly the most famous defamation case) says a claimant can be identified by a photo or sketch. The SRA’s own Code of Conduct says solicitors must “ensure that the service you provide to clients is competent…” So contrary to what the SRA says, incompetent advice is a regulatory matter. And the SRA’s strategy for dealing with Lewis’ incompetent advice is for Newbon to bring a negligence claim or complain to the ombudsman. Obviously, Newbon will not do either of those things. It scares me that the SRA – faced with a solicitor who appears not to grasp the absolute basics of the area of law he works in – won’t take action to protect the public from incompetent advice. Surely it is the SRA’s job to identify and deal with solicitors who give incompetent advice?@sra_solicitors @lawsocgazette.

[James Wilson, successful claimant in the legal case Wilson v. Mendelsohn, Cantor, and Newbon (deceased)]. ]

Mark Lewis, as previously noted, is a self-publicizing and —by the “occupied” UK msm— hugely overrated solicitor who should have been struck off (not merely reprimanded and fined, as he was) for some of his previous professional (meaning unprofessional) defaults. He is, and has been repeatedly proven to be, dishonest, untruthful, and professionally negligent.

Only a complete idiot would now instruct “Mark Lewis Lawyer”.

What is protecting Lewis, in my view, is the fact that the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority was screeched at in 2019 by the organized Jew-Zionist lobby, after the SRA fined and reprimanded Lewis, after which he performatively decamped to Israel (but then slunk back quite often to the UK to make money). The SRA may be running a little scared of “the screechers” (((them))).

Late music

[Wanda Landowska and Tolstoy, either at Yasnaya Polyana or, more likely, at Tolstoy’s house in Kropotskinskaya (Moscow); possibly around 1900. I have visited Tolstoy’s Moscow house]