Morning music

On this day a year ago

Saturday quiz

Well, once again I beat political journalist John Rentoul, scoring 7/10 as against his claimed 5.5/10. I did not know the answers to questions 5, 6, and 9 (had I thought for a moment, I would have recalled No. 5).

Tweets seen

War with Russia is “unthinkable”; it would result in the near-obliteration (and nuclear pollution) of the British Isles. There are a large number of air bases, some naval ports, a couple of submarine bases, early-warning stations, not to mention electrical power generators such as nuclear power stations. Also, the centre of government and politics (London).

The only slight positive amid a forest of negatives would be that, in the inevitable chaos following a nuclear missile attack, certain hostile elements could be eliminated.

I do not think that I can usefully add to that which I have written in previous blog posts about how the “White Australia” “Lucky Country” I knew for a few years of childhood (in the late 1960s) has become, incredibly, a stressed and multikulti biosecurity police state.

Yes.

One of the most telling indications that Britain has been sliding into a kind of fake “communitarian” fake “caring sharing” police state is that, during 2020 and 2021, and up to the present, Lord Sumption, a former “Law Lord” (Supreme Court justice), has been presented by the msm, System politicians, and of course the know-nothing pro-facemask, pro-lockdown Twitter mob, as a kind of lunatic or eccentric, to be ignored, sidelined, or just laughed at.

Ukraine

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10454611/Putins-build-forces-Ukraine-border-biggest-Cold-War-says-USs-general.html

I have blogged fairly extensively on Ukraine in previous blogs over the past week. There are number of reasons why Russian forces may well invade at least the Eastern Ukraine area (i.e. East of the Dnieper river), as well as the Kiev area. There are few if any compelling reasons not to.

The Ukraine has been a shambolic corrupt mess for 30 years, and its military preparations look like something out of the First World War, with a bit of WW2 Dad’s Army thrown in. In fact, that Daily Mail account refers to British-sent weapons arriving in Lvov, in the deepest part of Western Ukraine, the least likely area to be occupied by Russian forces.

As I have blogged in recent days, if there are sudden acts of sabotage in Kiev or elsewhere in the region (probably executed by Spetsnaz contingents), the countdown will have begun, and the “war” will have begun, in effect, major Russian armoured and other formations following within a few days. I imagine that the initial phase will be short, perhaps less than a week. Putin holds all the cards of importance.

Talking of the corruption of the past 30 years in Ukraine, I am reminded of an egregious carpetbagger whom I encountered in the late 1990s.

A lawyer originating in Virginia, the said carpetbagger —I shall call him “Z.”, not so much to protect the guilty but so as to make a libel suit even less likely— had an office in the City of London and one in Kiev. He wanted me to come to work with him, and probably relocate to Kiev before too long. I had recently returned to London from a year in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and was interested. I had never been to Kiev, but knew that it was considered, in Soviet days, as the greenest (the most “treed”) city in the Soviet Union, and in other respects quite pleasant.

I found Z.’s London office utterly chaotic. Just him, a secretary, and a rather pretty receptionist whom I had encountered somewhere previously, though I could not recall where exactly. She remembered me too.

Z.’s own office looked like a bomb had hit it. Anyway, I agreed to do some work for a few days on a trial basis, but soon found that Z. was a very strange individual, despite stellar paper qualifications. He once again proved the “rule” that, if someone has half a dozen degrees from various countries, he is either a brilliant near-genius, or a charlatan. Z. was no near-genius, in my opinion anyway.

It soon proved impossible to work with a near-lunatic of that sort. I left after 2-3 days, and needed to shake Z.’s cage a little to get him to pay up even a modest amount in recompense.

I did see Z. once more, about a year or two later, travelling on the Central Line. I was standing, he was seated. He pretended not to have seen me, and kept his eyes averted. Perhaps he was afraid of being assaulted (I confess, the thought did cross my mind!).

As it was, I exited at Chancery Lane and he disappeared with the train, eastwards.

There is an odd coda to this little reminiscence. I was talking over lunch, a year later, with someone who might or might not have been connected to SIS (I am still in two minds about that). Somehow, Z.’s name came up, and the luncher told me that Z. had a rather bad reputation in Kiev, partly because he paid girls aged about 16 to walk, naked except for high-heeled shoes, on Z.’s back as he lay on his front…

The luncher added that he himself found it distasteful, not least because Z., a person in his 40s, himself had a daughter of the same age.

Whether the luncher had some particular reason to tell me about Z.’s proclivities, I have no idea. Perhaps the Italian white wine had affected his tongue, though somehow I doubt it. Anyway, if there is one thing I am fairly good at, it is keeping a secret, so Z.’s oddness has not seen the light of day (via me) until now, about 24 years later. Anyway, as said, I got the story about the naked 16-y-o girls secondhand, and have no idea whether it is true.

I see now that “Z.” (whose name does not contain a Z) still has those London and Kiev offices, though.

Late afternoon music

Late music