Getting people to look into their distant past during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, begin to understand how fucked up the Wakandans anti history sentiments are.
[PJMedia] The UK’s Prevent program, which is supposed to be protecting the Sceptered Isle from terrorism, recently came under fire for treating actual Islamic terrorism as if it were a mental illness. But that doesn’t mean that Prevent has been wanting for terrorists: like its counterparts in the FBI, it has kept busy looking for “far-right extremists” and has now published a helpful guide to spotting those dangerous right-wingers. It turns out that they’re people who read Beowulf, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, 1984, and other great works of English literature.
Gee, you’d almost get the idea that the Leftist culture warriors who control Prevent, Britain as a whole, and the U.S. as well, want to destroy the civilization of which those works and writers are a hallmark. And you’d be right.
Prevent casts a wide net. The UK’s Daily Mail reported Friday that among the “potential signs of far-Right extremism” and “key texts” for “white nationalists/supremacists” that Prevent flagged were the “comedies Yes Minister and The Thick Of It, the 1955 epic war film The Dam Busters, and even The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare.”
And much more: “A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards.” These include “The Lord Of The Rings by JRR Tolkien, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, 1984 by George Orwell and the poems of GK Chesterton. It also referenced films including The Bridge On The River Kwai, The Great Escape and Zulu.”
Other books, shows and films on Prevent’s list included that bane of freshmen literature majors everywhere, Beowulf, and other monumental works including Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Historian and broadcaster Andrew Roberts marveled: “This is truly extraordinary. This is the reading list of anyone who wants a civilised, liberal, cultured education.” Read the rest at the link
[Hot Air] You knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. Everybody should have known it was coming. But of course, the powers-that-be are doing their best to turn up the temperature so slowly that the frogs don’t jump out of the water before the water is boiling.
Rationing. Scientists in the UK are now proposing rationing of food, gas, and other necessities of life in order to save Mother Earth.
Climate change could be tackled with the help of a World War II-style rationing of petrol, meat and the energy people use in their homes, UK scientists say.
They claim that this would help countries to slash their greenhouse gas emissions ’rapidly and fairly’.
Researchers from the University of Leeds also said that governments could restrict the number of long-haul flights people make in a year or ’limit the amount of petrol one can buy in a month’.
The beauty of the rationing system over others designed to save the planet is that two religiously-held ideals of the Left are combined into one perfect solution. Both the climate change and equity gods get their pound of human flesh. What could be better? Slip in a 15-minute-city or two and you have the urban planning gods satisfied as well. Package it, sell it, and voila, you have your communist dystopia in a nicely wrapped package.
#1
They'll tell us what we "need." Man appearing before the local Ration Board by Norman Rockwell.
Rockwell was a genius. Notice the man standing has his 'hat in hand.' Next person looks on, very concerned. At the far end of he table in a swivel chair, with cigar looking askance at the man standing, ignoring the dutiful civil servant. He's probably the local board chairman. Last member to arrive that morning wears a vest and is seated in a small folding church chair furthest from the chairman. A wet cold, nasty day.
One end of the room flooded with light. The other end, dark. View of the flag somewhat obscured. Rockwell catches it all.
#4
I saw an exchange in the check-out line the other day — a young man, neatly dressed, with some canisters of powdered baby formula listening to the cashier explain that he could only have X number, and had to put the rest back. So for some things rationing is still going on here.
#5
I read story after story in selected media about lapses and failures of fundamental things always taken for granted in times past. Now, pervasive inflation, shrink-flation, declining quality, shortages in food and basic commodities, unpunished law-breaking, harmful public policy decisions at every level, DEI and ESG, dishonest or deceitful government explanations, horrible economic forecasts, foolish foreign entanglements and clandestine military ops in crazy places like Somalia and Yemen, and supine favoritism towards China despite endless bleating from Foggy Bottom Sheep like Blinken, Sullivan and Nuland. Behind it all the spectre of Obama 3.0 and the faces of Jarret, Rice and their minions still infesting the White House.
I have begun to wonder if this is what the beginning of collapse looks and feels like. Slowly and now, suddenly, everywhere?
The total absence of seeing visuals and hearing strident voices of masses of Americans marching down Pennsylvania Avenue in protest of all this frightens me the most. Has our national character really been this diluted and culled?
On Presidents Day, the Puppet appears not in Ohio, but Kyiv, buying a political theater moment with staged air-raid sirens, to utter gibberish, not encouragement to the people he purports to lead!
#8
The current USA "democracy" is more evil than overt autocracy.
Because the United States "democracy" is dictatorship plus a large machine of deception and psychological manipulations, messing with people's brains by the entrenched bureaucrats in order to legitimize their actions , no matter how stupid and irrational. The elected representatives including the president are impotent and afraid, to even discuss or take actions (Trump)
It's very easy for the civil servants ruling class to create the image that what they do is approved of and cheered for by the public. You pay money to some, deceive others by fake news and blocking alternative sources, create social media bots, cancel and purge dissent. Only a brutal patriotic civil war will save that country
Posted by: ACA JOE ||
02/21/2023 21:53 Comments ||
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#9
And the man on the far left seated is Norman himself
Senator Lindsey Graham captured the essence of what today's video is all about - "If you jump on the Putin train now, you're dumber than dirt."
Between President Biden's visit to Ukraine and VP Harris' comment on Russia's crimes against humanity, it's clear that the US has drawn a line in the sand, and Russia is on the other side. This means that Russia (or at least Putin's government) is on the blacklist of world affairs.
According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Chinese are considering providing lethal aid to the Russians, so that blacklist might be getting a little bigger. Unfortunately for the Chinese, any disruption to the already crumbling relations between the US and China could prove catastrophic.
The breaking point has been on the horizon for years now, and we all should have seen this coming. The ramifications will be huge, and a complete reordering of the global economic system is just the tip of the iceberg.
#3
It's almost as if some people, having served in the military, can see only military solutions after that. That's how his "mentor" in the senate was, at any rate...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/21/2023 13:30 Comments ||
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[TheEconomist] THE OFFICES of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), NATO’s command centre near Mons in Belgium, are the opposite of imposing. Instead of granite and marble, the low-ceilinged corridors are decked out with plasterboard and tiled carpeting. Four-star generals prefer offices high above the fray, naturally—but SHAPE only has three storeys. The building, erected in the late 1960s, was supposed to be temporary.
Never before has the flimsiness of SHAPE so belied NATO’s monumental sense of mission. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, on February 24th 2022, has revitalised the alliance. It is armed with its first new set of goals since 1967, the year shape’s offices opened.
Whereas the old NATO was reactive, it is now being rebuilt to deter Russia in peacetime and to respond immediately and in force as soon as it threatens to encroach on its members’ territory. "We are rapidly enhancing the readiness of our forces," says General Sir Tim Radford, SHAPE’s second-in-command, "and our overall military responsiveness is increasing exponentially."
The war has changed Ukraine even more. Mr Putin planned a lightning strike to topple the government, the culmination of a campaign of aggression and destabilisation that began in Crimea and the Donbas region in 2014. Instead, in the pulverised ruins of Donbas and in bomb shelters across the country, it has forged itself anew, into a more unified, more Westward-leaning, more resilient democracy.
Russia, meanwhile, has been reorganised around the war and Mr Putin’s broader hostility towards NATO, even as sanctions and an exodus of its best-educated citizens have sapped its long-term economic prospects. Its descent into despotic militarism, coupled with Nato’s invigoration and Ukraine’s transformation, have turned the war into a trial of rival ideological systems.
Ukraine’s future still hangs in the balance—and is likely to remain uncertain for years to come. Mr Putin may accept a ceasefire at some point out of expedience, but his overhaul of Russian society is geared entirely towards aggression abroad and repression at home. Any conceivable end to the shooting will therefore require strong Western security guarantees and large and lasting transfers of arms and financial aid—almost as if a second, much bigger Israel had appeared on Europe’s eastern borders. Some European leaders argue that requires full NATO membership.
If reconstruction of Ukraine were to fail, and its economy to falter, then Ukrainian democracy would start to fail, too. NATO’s generals reckon that Russia could rebuild its land forces in three-to-five years. Ultimately, the conditions would be ripe for Mr Putin or his successor to have another go. Russia is a deadly threat that must be destroyed. The time for talk is over and the time for kinetic action is long past.
"The war brought back the US as a prime European power," says Fabrice Pothier, a former policy planner for NATO and director of Rasmussen Global, a consultancy. Under President Joe Biden, the United States has sent Ukraine weapons and aid worth $48bn. Kori Schake, a former official now at the American Enterprise Institute, a think-tank, says it is clear that, without the United States, Europe would not have come together to provide Ukraine the support it needed. Cheap at twice the price. If we can bleed Russia white using nothing but dollars the Federal Reserve mints out of thin air, why aren't we doing even more?
The aid is not just an indication of America’s generosity, but also of its strength. At a cost of roughly 5% of America’s annual budget for defence, Ukrainian forces have punctured the myth of Russia’s military prowess, destroying more than 1,000 Russian tanks in less than a year. "We used to think Russia was the second-best military in the world," says Ms Schake. "And now it’s not even the best military in the former Soviet Union." They're ripe for action. Just take a wrecking ball to the structure and Putin's entire rotten dictatorship will collapse. Thanks to Finland we now share a huge border with Russia, one that cannot be defended in its full length. It's basically a highway to Moscow.
If we do not defeat Russia the consequences will be enormous. What's this "We" you speak of, Herb?
Posted by: Fat Bob Thrart2867 ||
02/21/2023 00:00 ||
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#5
We... If WE are involved, I'd have you know that I wont being wearing one of your Gold Ribbons. I will not be targeting and shooting at the russians. Guarantees.
How about YOU. Why dont YOU be a hero. I dont want nothing to do with WE. It's YOU. Not US. And YOU can make your difference, YOU join here:
#6
I tried to find out who this "we" is. I followed the link but could not find the writer's byline. You'd think the guy would be proud of what he'd written and want his name on it but, no. No byline.
Good one, Fat Bob. I thought Russian propaganda was bad but this shit stinks to high heaven.
Yeah, you want a fuckin' war? You go right ahead. Don't come crying to me when you get your butt blown off and stop asking me to pay for it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/21/2023 13:15 Comments ||
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#7
I have just learned today that our nuclear bombers are on 7 day 24hr watch. No weekly practice drills. Something is up. I cannot elaborate but this is here and now.
#9
^ Any luck at all, insiders at the big US weapons makers have already done internal studies that show anything but a knockout win by the US at the get-go will be "bad for future business prospects."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/21/2023 16:40 Comments ||
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[RedState] The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.
Before we begin, take a close look at the image, above.
I screenshotted it from the video in this article, in which Joe Biden made the remarks I’m going to write about. Does that guy look coherent, much less capable of holding the office of the President of the United States?
The question is rhetorical, of course; let’s move on.
Here’s Biden in a White House statement announcing yet another aid request for Ukraine — but this one’s “different.”
It’s gonna deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance, as well as food, water, medicine, shelter, and other aid to Ukrainians, displaced by Russia’s war. And [to] provide aid for those seeking refuge in other countries.
It’s also gonna help schools and hospitals open. It’s gonna allow pensions and social support to be paid to the Ukrainian people so they have something in their pocket. It’s also gonna provide critical resources to address food shortages around the globe.
Astonishing, ain’t it?
Posted by: Skidmark ||
02/21/2023 00:00 ||
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#2
“ It’s also gonna provide critical resources to address food shortages around the globe.” Holy Shamwow, that’s some serious medicine show propaganda.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/21/2023 13:35 Comments ||
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[American Thinker] While much has been written about the aftermath of the East Palestine train wreck burn, there is little regarding why the rail tank containing hazardous chemicals needed to be blown up.
I am a retired engineer having significant experience with pressure vessels and some background with DoT tank regulations. I offer my thoughts based on limited knowledge and a little thinking.
From what I could learn, the contents of the tank(s) were becoming unstable, and pressure was increasing. It was feared that the tank would explode and send shrapnel everywhere. So the decision was made to relieve the pressure with a "controlled burn." This story raises many questions that must be answered.
The first question is, what was causing the pressure to build? Physically, there is no difference between a tank sitting on its wheels on a track and a tank lying on its side on the ground. There is nothing about a tank lying on the ground that would cause pressure to build. Was there a fire around the rail cars? I've seen nothing indicating that this was the case, nor is it likely there was a wild land fire in the middle of winter in Ohio. How did they know pressure was building? Were they monitoring a pressure gauge on the tank? If so, they were close enough to put out any fire that might be threatening the tank. Furthermore, transport tanks are equipped with a pressure relief valve that would not allow pressure to build enough to burst them. Note: If the contents of a transport tank are so hazardous that they are unsafe to vent via a relief valve, additional requirements are imposed on tank strength and integrity during accidents.
Because rollovers and derailments are expected, hazardous transport tanks are designed to survive them. They are also designed with rollover protection so that fill connections are protected to remain accessible and functional in the case of these accidents. This would have allowed responders to connect to and empty the tanks into alternates such as over-the-road tanks and then hauled away. Why was this approach rejected?
Finally, these tanks are made of ductile material, typically mild carbon steel. They do not eject shrapnel when they burst. Rather, they split apart, with all material remaining contiguously attached. The tank itself might become airborne, but it would not break up into pieces. Why was the governor of Ohio told the tank would produce shrapnel? Even if the shrapnel scenario were true, how would that be more hazardous than releasing tons of hazardous acid and toxic fumes?
Admittedly, my knowledge of these topics is limited and I welcome any corrections. However, I believe these are serious considerations that need to be addressed — if for no other reason but to prevent future incidents like this from recurring.
#4
I know this sounds only slightly off-the-wall (Alex Jones territory) but.
....could this have been a Homeland Defense exercise (w/o balloons) gone terribly bad ?
#8
Adding fuel to the fire - so to speak - from Wikipedia -
In the U.S., OSHA lists vinyl chloride as a Class IA Flammable Liquid, with a NFPA Flammability Rating of 4. Because of its low boiling point, liquid VC will undergo flash evaporation (i.e., autorefrigerate) upon its release to atmospheric pressure. The portion vaporized will form a dense cloud (more than twice as heavy as the surrounding air). The risk of subsequent explosion or fire is significant. According to OSHA, the flash point of vinyl chloride is −78 °C (−108.4 °F). As a gas mixed with air, VC is a fire and explosion hazard. On standing, VC can form peroxides, which may then explode. VC will react with iron and steel in the presence of moisture<./em>
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/21/2023 15:48 Comments ||
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#9
Used to make lots of everyday stuff. Like hated fossil fuels, much we take for granted in daily life would be absent without it.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/21/2023 16:05 Comments ||
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[Bee] According to sources, Vice President Kamala Harris became distraught this weekend after discovering that the president admitted to hospice was only Jimmy Carter. Harris, who has been waiting patiently for Joe Biden to die, fought back tears of disappointment when she discovered the current sitting president was alive and well, albeit in Ukraine.
Harris reportedly spent $200 on a flower arrangement for Biden's bedside that she now has no use for.
"President Carter is 98 years old, which means he is almost dead," Harris explained upon hearing the news. "That is 18 years older than President Biden. That is old. Old people die. Die starts with the letter 'D.' Biden is still alive. HA HA HA HA HEE HEE HEE HO HO!"
Kamala then broke down crying as her hopes of being President were dashed once again.
At publishing time, Harris put in a call to Putin and strongly hinted that now would be a great time to bomb Kyiv.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/21/2023 09:25 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.