There are two main theories for SARS-CoV-2’s origin. One maintains that the virus originated in bats, and then jumped to humans, most likely via an intermediate host species. The other states that the virus originated in a lab, but then accidentally escaped, perhaps due to inadequate safety protocols.
It should be noted that there are two slightly different versions of the latter, “lab leak” theory. One says the virus that escaped was of wholly natural origin; the other says it had been genetically engineered beforehand. In the diagram below, A corresponds to the first version of the lab leak theory and C corresponds to the second; B corresponds to the natural origin theory:
The lab leak theory, you’ll recall, was initially dismissed as a “conspiracy” – even though the location of the first outbreak (in proximity to the Wuhan Institute of Virology) suggested it was by no means implausible.
In September of 2020, Twitter suspended the Chinese virologist Li-Meng Yan after she claimed that SARS-CoV-2 was manufactured in a laboratory and accused the Chinese government of covering up evidence. (Dr. Yan subsequently fled to the United States over concerns for her safety.)
In February of 2020, 27 scientists wrote a letter to The Lancet, claiming studies “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife”. The authors stated, “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.”
In May of 2020, Anthony Fauci told National Geographic that the scientific evidence is “very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated”.
In June of 2020, Peter Daszak – organiser of the Lancet letter – wrote an op-ed for the Guardian. He again referred to proponents of the lab leak theory as “conspiracy theorists”, and claimed that his own work “firmly concludes that COVID-19 originated in bats”. (Daszak has actually funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and was the subject of 2015 news item in the journal Nature titled ‘Engineered bat virus stirs debate over risky research’.)
Even today, the Wikipedia page for “COVID-19 misinformation” says the lab leak theory is based on “unfounded speculation and conspiracy theories”.
Yet over the last few months, the lab leak theory has entered the mainstream. Now leading scientists are calling for a new investigation into the origins of COVID-19. On May 14th, 18 scientists – including names from Harvard, MIT and Stanford – wrote a letter to the journal Science: “Investigate the origins of COVID-19.”
The authors note, “Theories of accidental release from a lab and zoonotic spillover both remain viable.” And they argue that “the two theories were not given balanced consideration” in the WHO’s heavily-criticised investigation earlier this year.
The authors go on to state, “We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data.” And they say that a proper investigation “should be transparent, objective, data-driven, inclusive of broad expertise, subject to independent oversight, and responsibly managed to minimize the impact of conflicts of interest.”
The origin of COVID-19 obviously remains an open-question. But the fact that a reasonable theory was dismissed as a “conspiracy” by many scientists and much of the mainstream press does not bode well for our ability to tackle future pandemics.
Stop Press: The editorial board of the Washington Post has called for a proper investigation into the lab leak theory.
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Good morning all downticking trolls.
Blessings on the virtuous.
Good morning. Quick off the mark today! Tree was going it yesterday wasn’t they? Don’t let the buggers get you down…
Good morning hp and Hugh – good to hear from you both.
See what we have to say first!
Are there any signs of things getting better yet in Australia then? Will Denmark be an outlier or will others follow?
The stand-out state, Western Australia, is dropping most of its restrictions at 12.01am this Friday.
I am wary. Mandates still apply for certain occupations. The devil may be in the detail, but I think it’s encouraging that they’re moving in this direction during the course of a federal election campaign (election on May 21).
That suggests to me that they’re hearing from their focus groups that enough is enough.
The problem is that neither Liberal nor Labor have felt the need for the expression of the slightest regret with regard to what has happened. Our best hope lies in a rambunctious Senate with minor party reps who can make life hell for the major parties for the next six years.
Enormous numbers of our young children have been “vaccinated”; information about “vaccine” injury is heavily suppressed; there are considerable numbers of healthcare workers, police and mining sector employees who have lost their jobs; and the Federal Government (likely to be returned) was crazy enough to ban Djokovic.
I thought the utter contempt with which builders were treated in (was it) Victoria by both politicians and union leaders was shocking. I hope they will row back on that, like Manual Chevron in France with his “pissing off” the “unvaccinated” jibe.
I posted about Djokovich yesterday, saying how nuts it was to ban people from cheering for him in the Australian open (had he been allowed to participate), and ordering people to take off pro-Djokovich t-shirts. Seems it’s quite hard to find a free country these days…
Victoria was more savage than Western Australia, where the police – on the whole – behaved very well (G6 knows more about this).
In my worst moments, I feel that terrible damage has been done to the entire spirit of the country, and I don’t know how we can recover.
There was a cheerful confidence here. People really were or seemed to be easygoing and inclined to laugh at authority.
Seeing my fellow-citizens cover their faces with masks they said they hated and lining up to be injected with experimental substances because they were told to do so (a figure of over 40% was given for those who only took the jab so that they could keep their job), has been profoundly disturbing.
The unvaxxed have been made to feel like strangers in a strange land.
I miss my home.
One of the things that worries me most about all this nonsense is the long term psychological damage that has been done, especially to children, who can never get those key years back.
Sadly, the lesson of history seems to be that there are often a lot of collaborators.
I think the challenge is going to be combining optimism (because defeatism doesn’t work) with realism.
There are far too many collaborators, and I’m not inclined to forgive and forget – even if I should.
As for the harms inflicted on children, we should start with serious, public investigations of the death of every child who lost their life to the injections: followed by trials of all involved (top to bottom, including those who administered the injections).
We move on from there. The trials will last for years. I want everyone involved to know what they’ve done, and that includes a lot of teachers and parents. All honour and respect to those who resisted.
Indeed, having attended several rallies I have to say the WA police were as laid back as they could be. They were happy to observe from a reasonable distance. Never any aggression that I witnessed.
We knew there’d be a catch, Alt.
The vaccine mandate covering more than one million workers in WA will remain until the third dose vaccination rate reaches “way over 80 per cent”
Yeah. Those jabs are just so damn effective.
Jesus wept. That’s 75% of the workforce. I followed the link and saw this:
It means staff at hospitality venues must be triple dose vaccinated to attend work, where they would potentially serve unvaccinated customers who had yet to receive even a single jab.
And after the Federal election they can decide that those workers need to be “protected” by removing the unvaxxed from venues again?
I have a cousin who has lost his job to this and another who has kept his with the deepest misgivings (and anger, but he can’t afford to be without employment). I’m very concerned about both of them.
It’s fkdup all right. Customers vaxxed or unvaxxed welcome, but employees are vaxxed or else. Conclusion is you get vaxxed so you can afford to go out.
But as you said earlier the ‘focus groups’ are saying Enough. The polls, in so far as they can be trusted, have been reporting consistently for months that about a third of voters are ready to say Shove It to the majors. And, in so far as they can be trusted, the polls are probably reporting the lowest numbers they can get away with.
I am hearing that the majors are ringing round frantically for campaign help – which is not forthcoming. Loyal party members are otherwise engaged or leaving altogether. How many? No idea – but it’s a good sign.
Top o’ the morning AE. Have a good one.
No chance of the trolls getting me down Hugh. Thanks.
Takes a lot to get Lancastrians down (or so I like to think). I remember the film about good old Gracie Fields singing her heart out, even when she was getting a lot of stick about her Italian husband.
I have two Lancastrian grandparents – both were immensely resilient and loved singing. They were also defiant.
Are Yorkist trolls prowling the internet for Lancastrian messages to down-tick?
There are Yorkists on the other side of the family (along with Irish, Scots and French – but no Welsh, alas). Ought I to have said?
Possibly Annie.
Thanks AE. I have it from many family members that nobody wants to hear me singing.
I’ve always been defiant, often to the point of stupidity.
Have you checked under your bed for ‘trolls’? You seem awfully bothered by them, every second post of yours contains the word ‘troll’.
It’s not paranoia when the trolls really are out to get you!
Did someone mention trolls! Have spear, will travel.
You have an eye, Beowulf!
For a brief while my strength blooms
but it will fade before long and there will follow illness or the sword to lay me low,
or a sudden fire or surge of water
or jabbing blade or javelin from the air
or foul age. My piercing eye will dim and darken; and death will arrive, to sweep me away. But apart from that I’m fine.
Fear not, the dragon will always be waiting to give you the death you deserve.
A quick wake-up for those who still think their ideas formed over the past couple of decades about Russia, Ukraine etc are based on reality, or that organisations like Twitter, the BBC, Reuters, Bellingrat etc are what they are presented as. In fact, as with so much in the Empire of Lies and our woke globalist elites, they accuse others of being exactly what they themselves are, and of doing exactly what they themselves do. (Note the clips of scumbags Rachel Maddow, Jerrold Nadler and Theresa May all pontificating about the outright lies that were the Russiagate fabrications).
Remember, this was a year ago (but of course, nobody but a few of us obsessive sceptics were paying attention to any of this kind of stuff back then, before the war blew up into front page news with the Russian entry into the conflict):
Blumenthal: “it’s in the public interest to know that an outlet like the BBC, with .. its sterling reputation for editorial independence despite being funded by the British taxpayer, has actually proposed to go into a conflict zone – I’m speaking of the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine where thousands of Ukrainians have died in a civil conflict which is actually a proxy war that’s been imposed on eastern Ukrainians and its Russian-speaking population by NATO, that BBC’s proposed to go in there and act on behalf of one side in that conflict – the Ukrainian government side and the pro-NATO side and escalate information warfare. It’s one of the most irresponsible acts that I think any news organisation or broadcasting entity could participate in”
As leaks expose UK op to ‘weaken’ Russia, suppression of Grayzone reporting backfires
Is there really an organisation called Bellingrat?!
In fact, as with so much in the Empire of Lies and our woke globalist elites, they accuse others of exactly what they are and what they do.
I believe it’s called projection. I seem to remember there was an outbreak of it against Coptic Christians in Egypt a few years ago.
Just out of interest, exactly how much influence does the “American” industrial military complex have over NATO?
“Is there really an organisation called Bellingrat?!“
It’s near enough as far as I’m concerned.
“Just out of interest, exactly how much influence does the “American” industrial military complex have over NATO?“
When the US regime says “jump”, NATO governments, with very rare exceptions, say “how high?
And the US regime answers to the big money lobbyists. On foreign policy, that’s the military industrials, and the foreign and identity lobbies – the biggest of which (by far) traditionally were formerly the Israeli and Saudi lobbies. But reportedly in the past few years the Ukraine lobby has been outspending both.
Who will bell the rat?
Remember, this was a year ago (but of course, nobody but a few of us obsessive sceptics were paying attention to any of this kind of stuff back then, before the war blew up into front page news with the Russian entry into the conflict)
I sometimes wonder if one of the distinguishing features of true sceptics is that they have good memories.
Time and again I find myself asking the compliant (I’ve decided on that as a nicer word than “gullible), “But don’t you remember …” – and they don’t. They really don’t.
That may go with a general interest in history. I believe many or most people here have some or keen awareness of Russian history going back for over a century, at least.
But in the current context, it’s memory of the close or immediate past that counts. Liars depend on people forgetting what they said before, while they remember it. I think we are perhaps more likely to remember.
About the best thing I ever bought was a 1906 encyclopaedia.
Apart from anything else, it’s fascinating to see how people saw things before the post 1917 (or post 1945, or whenever it might be) nonsense. I love to have contemporary sources, before the victors have had a chance to write history (which they inevitably do – and if you can still say “his”tory
).
1984 again. The chocolate ration is cut; a couple of hours later it’s announced that the chocolate ration has been increased. Everybody believes it, although intelligent people have to draw on their training in doublethink in order to make themselves stupid enough to believe it.
One of those books I’ll never read in the same way again. That and stories by Kafka.
Best stick with the Van Halen version….
1984 – Got it bad, got it bad, got it bad, I’m hot for teacher….
Very interesting point/theory ( sceptics and “good memories” ). Fits with my own experience.
PS. …. but it’s also possible that the poor memory is not a cause but an effect induced by a greater “need to forget” in order to be able to satisfy a naturally greater need to comply and join in/belong.
Perhaps sceptics feel less need to join in/belong so they can remember things more clearly.
That’s a scary but intriguing thought …
I often thought non sceptics had a greater tolerance for cognitive dissonance
I cseem to remember someone who was very supportive of the “vaccine” narrative whose arguments seemed to be all over the place…
Definitely something in that, as others here have pointed out (re doublethink and the need to change beliefs regularly to fit in).
Though in this case it’s more about attention and interest. Most of the gullibles are either not interested in foreign affairs unless it’s being pushed by the mainstream media or it affects them personally in some way, or not able or willing to dig below the mainstream surface.
And that plays into the general rule of propaganda manipulation – people see the lie, but don’t see or don’t notice the refutation, so the lies about Russia have effect even if they are refuted or the liars are later revealed for what they are. As with the covid fear propaganda, or the idea that US police systematically murder blacks just for being black, or climate alarmism – a general “received opinion” is formed.
Hence the aphorism that what really gets you is not what you don’t know, but what you know that isn’t true – “everyone knows” that covid is a great plague, that American police are murderous racists, that carbon emissions are going to burn the world, that “Putin is a murderous dictator” and that “Russia is an expansionist threat to the world”.
Though in this case it’s more about attention and interest. Most of the gullibles are either not interested in foreign affairs unless it’s being pushed by the mainstream media or it affects them personally in some way, or not able or willing to dig below the mainstream surface.
Yes – we’re looking at intellectual curiosity and intellectual laziness. It’s easier not to dig. And then there are people who like digging.
Nothing is more revealing than the eagerness with which people follow the links posted here.
Putin is a socialist, definitely. He grew up with Bolshevik socialism but has implemented German socialism since taking office.
Oh, and his critics imprisoned themselves.
A quick gaslight, masquerading as fact.
Vitali vs Vladimir, a square go with bare knuckles, the only way to settle this.
Putin v Biden
Or Klitschko v whomever Putin wants to nominate from the Russian MMA or special forces pools, if we are allowing champions.
Russia has not invaded the US.
Vitali Klitschko to beat the Russian MMA champion by one-punch knockout in one second.
Vitali Klitschko is Mayor of Kyiv, formerly known as Kiev so he has skin in the game. Biden has not invaded Ukraine, nor has Putin invaded the US.
Biden is a senile old scrote but he still hasn’t invaded Ukraine so your gibbering about him is in no way different to Biden’s gibbering on every subject in the known universe.
The dispute, as you well know, is between the US regime and Russia. The Ukrainians are just the dupes who get to pay the price. Why would Russia want to deal with the monkey when the problem they have is with the organ grinder?
It’s not even just in the geostrategic background any more, it’s right out in the open:
US a ‘co-belligerent’ in Ukraine war, legal expert says
It still is known as Kiev; you can call Bombay, Mumbai and Peking, Beijing, for all I care, but why then do you call Rossiya, Russia and Rossiyane, Russians? Affectation or subservience?
Can I recommend the article Mark suggests? I think you’d find it interesting.
Thank you Mark for posting the link. I would not have seen it otherwise.
Does it mean all those who pay the BBC licence fee are complicit?
For eight years the West ignored Putin’s concerns regarding NATO. And recently Truss stated that even if Russia left Ukraine, that sanctions should remain. Therefore, Putin has ZERO incentive to stop.
As I’ve noted elsewhere, “the West” must have known what Russia’s likely reactions would be, and I have wondered about the role of the “American” military industrial complex in all this. It is obvious enough that, for example, NASA talk up the “aliens” to try and drive increased funding; the CIA have historically apparently abducted people under the guise of alien abductions and are therefore quite happy for people to talk up “the aliens” too. Therefore, one assumes the American military industrial complex would be quite happy to promote narratives useful to their agenda.
My working hypothesis: they’re insatiable psychopaths.
With a lust for the vast Russian lands.
“Fury as Cambridgeshire County Council’s new £18m HQ lies empty with staff still not back at their desks due to ‘Covid rules’ – as civil servants defy Rees-Mogg’s efforts to end WFH with some Government departments less than half full”
With all due respect to anarchists, I suggest that we need a government minister for dealing with “Yes Prime Minister” type nonsense. Sounds like they’re all at it!
Right from the start of all this, as people began WFH for the good of the country and their colleagues and all that, it occurred to me that a lot of people would be escaping work environments they found unpleasant or irritating for one reason or another.
Of course they don’t want to go back. I’m not sympathising (I think we should face issues in the workplace and either adjust to them or overcome them), but I do understand. They’ve retreated to their caves.
It’s interesting, in this particular story, that the staffers of Cambridgeshire CC are complaining that they are becoming ‘deskilled’ as a result of WFH.
It has always been my concern that the benefits of working in an office will take some time to become apparent as WFH is really only possible where you already have established competent teams?
It will become progressively more difficult to achieve optimum performance as teams are diluted by leavers and new recruits who will not be absorbed and trained as effectively, perhaps?
.
I resisted WFH as long as I could – until I was ordered to do it. I’ve adjusted, but I miss my colleagues and the liveliness of interacting directly with them.
I think your points are important and correct. New recruits miss out on the information that simply cannot be conveyed online (some very important stuff)!
Probably chuck in ‘honest’ there? Those who were malingerers when supervised are unlikely to have undergone a Damascene conversion due to Covid WFH.
Ah, Luttwak, the neocons’ favourite US-uber-alles propagandist, has also been co-opted into the campaign to climb the mugs down from the frenzies of victory anticipation that they were initially whipped up into, in the early days of the Russian entry. (Remember the Spectator’s professor of military studies, or whatever he was, predicting the Russian military was going to fall apart, and those laughable suggestions they were going to “run out of missiles and shells” weeks ago?)
It’s not clear whether he really believes all the nonsense he puts out here, which seems to be based directly on uncritical acceptance of Ukrainian/NATO propaganda feeds, but I think he’s going to be sorely disappointed if he thinks Russia is going to settle for plebiscites in the Donbass and Lugansk. They are in the process of grinding the Ukrainian occupying forces on the remaining territory of those oblasts into blood and twisted metal, and there’s no sign of any possible way that process can be halted.
First, they’ve already formally recognised those two oblasts as independent states.
Second, it seems highly unlikely the Ukraine will ever get Kherson back. The people there seem pretty happy to be using Russian currency and living under Russian rule, by most accounts.
Third, it seems unlikely, given what they’ve experienced, that the Russians are going to stop without also securing Nikolaev, Odessa and Zaporozhye oblasts, and probably Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkov as well. Whether they’ll let them vote to join Russia like Crimea or to set up as independent statelets, who knows.
Given the outright hatred of Russia and the rampant theft from Russia and Russians that has been the US sphere response, and the routine dishonesty of the US and NATO countries in past agreements they have claimed to enter into, there seems no way the Russians could possibly be convinced to accept any kind of truce deal, unless they really are as beaten as the propaganda Luttwak recounts suggests. And that’s pretty unlikely, to say the least.
Certainly, my view for some time has been, why would anyone trust the so-called United States now? There’s only so many times you can fool people.
(And btw is it coincidence the number of times the BBC recently have had people on calling the Russians “monsters” etc.?).
The Russians have reportedly referred to the US as “nedogovorosposobny” in the past (agreement incapable), and that seems about right to anyone honest who has watched its behaviour in the post-Soviet years, in eastern Europe and in the Middle East.
Certainly, it appears there is general recognition in Russia that there would be no point repeating the Minsk Accords experience of relying on agreements with the Ukrainian regime “guaranteed” by NATO countries, which are then flagrantly ignored. Putin would face serious dissent in Russia, where he is reportedly already viewed in some quarters as far too soft on NATO and Kiev, if he were to try that, I think.
And there’s absolutely no reason why they should believe in any promises to lift sanctions. Luttwak’s fantasies about Russians craving for a return of McDonalds and believing anyway that it would happen after a compromise settlement seem ridiculous.
“But trying to work out Washington’s policy is, to quote an alleged Churchillism about the USSR, like watching bulldogs fighting under a rug. You see that something is happening, you hear growls, but you don’t know who is doing what to whom or why. For example, last year then US Secretary of State Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov spent days negotiating a truce in Syria; within a few days the US military attacked the Syrian Army at Deir ez Zor. Who was in charge then? And what was the purpose of either of these actions? No wonder the Russians have concluded that Washington is nedogovorosposobny: no agreement is possible either because it can’t make one or it won’t keep it.“
The Riddle of the Potomac
The Russians must now they be asking themselves “why not” with regard to the entire Ukrainian Black Sea coast, as well as such cities as Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkov.
The fools making the decisions in the US sphere have had their brains warped by decades of a PR culture which tells them that wishing makes it so. They seem to think that because their fables are being swallowed (in political cultures which severely repress dissent from approved narratives), they are no longer fables.
Look at what the Russians have been doing to the capacity of the Ukrainian forces to make war where it counts – in the real world of the Ukraine.
Second, it seems highly unlikely the Ukraine will ever get Kherson back. The people there seem pretty happy to be using Russian currency and living under Russian rule, by most accounts.
What accounts are those? Presumably not the refugees from Kherson.
“What accounts are those? “
The ones you either don’t see or that you would just dismiss as “Russian propaganda” if they were drawn to your attention.
In reality, of course, all sides lie in war, and the Ukraine is a deeply divided society. There are very significant numbers who would be very happy to be under Russian rule, or at least separate from the Kiev regime in a Russian-speaking state, and there are also very significant numbers who feel the opposite way. There are surely more of the latter than the former, but the geographical distribution is very uneven indeed. Those leaving places like Kherson will be disproportionately drawn from those latter.
As has been pointed out here previously, a federal structure for the Ukraine that protected the priorities of each side, and prevented its being used as a tool by the US for its NATO games might have prevented the breakup triggered by the 2014 nationalist coup and subsequent tyranny of the majority. Or it might not. Once the (by far) most powerful state in the world decides to use a country for its geopolitical objectives, it’s hard for anyone to stop the consequences being hugely impactful.
Obviously I haven’t seen these accounts. Nor can I find them with a bit of Googling. So perhaps you can provide links to one or two that you find particularly convincing and let me others judge whether they are Russian propaganda. (Remember these accounts are meant to show that people as a whole in Kherson are happy to live under Russian rule.)
Nope, I’ve played that game with you before, remember, on the covid stuff, where every time evidence was produced you found ways to claim it wasn’t exactly what you were asking for. (As you’ve tee’d up here with specifying that it has to “show that people as a whole in Kherson are happy to live under Russian rule”.)
Do your own research. Just as I didn’t care if you think masking or covid “vaccination” are great ideas, so I don’t really care enough about what you think about the Ukraine to spend time digging up links for you to evade.
I’m glad I spotted your response just as I was about to post my own, suggesting that you might well regard it as a waste of your time. Indeed, it would be.
MTF has form here.
Perhaps, rename to MDF?
Providing evidence is a waste of time?
Do your own research.
I did. I Googled “population of kherson happy with russian rule”. I got nothing about the people of Kherson being happy with Russian rule on the first three screens – not even Russian propaganda – at that point I gave up. I did get lots of stories about the protests when they first invaded.
I don’t really care enough about what you think about the Ukraine to spend time digging up links for you to evade
Forgive my scepticism – I thought that was approved of here.
Rather obviously, ‘the people there’ would not include those who had left.
No – but the people who have left can give an account of what life is like there for the people remaining.
“The study says that by 2050, Europe’s plans for producing clean energy technologies will require annually:
(Wattsupwiththat).
This must surely represent great opportunities for slave owners and coercive labour! But never mind, as long as “Europe’s” politicians keep apologising for things that other people did hundreds of years ago…
You missed this one, Will.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/26/uk-health-agency-to-cut-40-of-jobs-and-suspend-routine-covid-testing
(my bold)
Great idea: let’s stop wasting money testing people with nothing wrong with them in the Summer… so that we can waste money testing people with nothing wrong with them in the Winter. /s
Also
very enjoyableworth noting is the amount of bleating from the ‘usual suspects’.Worth reading in full...
Also found this interesting: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/27/injections-treat-high-blood-pressure-may-signal-end-daily-pills/
Three years?! What a bunch of amateurs to take so long! /s
Still, at least it’s not MRNA… for once.
Yes – but have they tested for the use of 2-monthly boosters?
One wonders whether the condition of those suffering hypertension won’t be exacerbated by worrying for three years about the outcome of the study?
A number of commentators are warning that this might be the next big escalation by the NATO/Ukrainian side:
TRANSNISTRIA AWAITING WAR
“A series of terrorist attacks has hit the region of Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), which borders Ukraine. Transnistrian President Vadim Krasnoselsky placed the region on terrorist alert on April 26. President Sandu called an emergency meeting of the Security Council.”
That piece talks about the possibility of an attack on the Russian peacekeepers by Polish-Romanian-Moldovan forces, while others suggest a Ukrainian attack, using the forces already positioned on the Ukrainian side of the border.
Certainly things look to be getting desperate for the Kiev regime and its NATO backers, so this kind of escalation cannot be ruled out.
Here’s Alastair Crooke on the general outlook:
The Dynamics of Escalation: ‘Standing With Ukraine’
If that site’s down (Strategic Culture Foundation is quite often blocked), the Alastair Crooke piece is mirrored here:
https://thealtworld.com/alastair_crooke/the-dynamics-of-escalation-standing-with-ukraine
I always enjoy Crooke, who is rather good at making inescapable points:
At bottom, the Russia-China axis possess food, energy, technology and most of the world’s key resources. History teaches that these elements make the winners in wars.
Well, yes. Now if “the Russia-China axis” were led by Bidens, the NATO/Ukrainians might still have a chance. But it is not.
I’m afraid the NATO/Ukrainians believe that “History” means whatever they say it means. How many statues of the appalling Bandera have been erected in the Ukraine?
With regard to escalation, if the Poles are encouraged (having been advised to turn a blind eye to the Bandera statues), the Ukrainians might like to ponder the subsequent fate of Lviv.
That metallic noise is the sound of cans of worms being opened…
I’m still anticipating the appearance of the first ‘Transnistrians are Nistrians’ placards.
LOL! A Twitter bomb dropped right into the laps of the Twitterati identity lobby tw*ts. Cue frothing:
“Terrence K. Williams
@w_terrence
Elon Musk is the first African American to own a large social media platform. He is one of my favorite African Americans and it’s sad to see so many people on the left attacking him during this Historic moment.”
https://twitter.com/w_terrence/status/1518961152356663301
I’ve never used this term oon here before, but… LOL
I suspect Gadde cried for fear of going to jail when it’s found out what she has been up to
To go along with the renaming of Isis school, named after the shimmering Thames.
I ask again, is it really necessary to whitewash history?
P.S. what does decolonise (or should that be (decolonize”?) actually mean anyway? Is it what China are doing in the Carribean?
It is not decolonisation. It is the erasure of our history, the basis of our culture.
We ourselves as a people are being replaced in case you hadn’t noticed. In Scotland immigrants are now routinely called “new Scots” by Sturgeon. They no longer have to hide it. The Irish have announced they want 3-4 million immigrants from Africa and Asia over the next 20-30 years. The EU are openly discussing inviting 40-80 million Africans to settle in Europe.
Those dismissive of this view, who claim it is racism, tend to have limited experience of other races and cultures. Naturally they will learn the hard way other cultures do not share our rosy view of multiculturalism. The history of northern India in the 20th century is a case in point.
But the erasure of our culture under the guise of tackling our legacy of horribleness, or whatever they call it this week, are simply destroyers using an ostensibly plausible excuse to destroy that which they hate. They too will be replaced as is always the case with useful idiots.
What do we do? A Bolshevik revolution is difficult to stop, as the Russians learned.
The erasure of History is occurring and it is dangerous. Without History, politics is just fashion without consequence: what views are we wearing this year? Are Russians evil? Fine. Are Ukrainians noble fighters for democracy? No problem – blue and yellow for me, then.
Good history teaching is wonderful instruction in the complexity of humanity, as well as training in sourcing and analysing information.
It invites questions: Who says? All of them? How do you know? Was that true in this situation? And above all, the constant consideration of context, context, context.
It doesn’t mean that we’ll all have the same views – about Bolshevik revolutions, for instance! But it does mean that we’ll have the ability to conduct a reasonable conversation and discussion – seeking to change minds with additional information and the provision of new perspectives.
P.S. I have capitalised “History” in the first two sentences because I’m referring to the subject. But history is still there, despite the erasure of its study, and it does have consequences.
“But the erasure of our culture under the guise of tackling our legacy of horribleness, or whatever they call it this week, are simply destroyers using an ostensibly plausible excuse to destroy that which they hate. “
We’re all trans fans and migrant-lovers? More myths from the media gaslighters
All this is nothing new. It’s just a continuation of the systematic elite social engineering that took place throughout the C20th, with the BBC as a huge part of it.
I suspect that most people did not notice that the “white, British” population actually decreased in England and Wales between 2001 and 2011, certainly not the msm. The overall population of coursed increased substantially over that period. If the British want to continue to have their own culture, the demographics need to change.
Peak woke?
Just getting started. They are specifically targeting children, an easily indoctrinated bunch.
Part of the opprobrium aimed at the Russians is their natural hostility to woke ideas, which they view as decadence. This of course is seen as homophobia and racism etc.
The foundations of woke are well embedded in the west and they are very well funded. As we learned during covidmania most people will not think independently even on issues that involve bodily autonomy; how many of them will take a principled, reasoned stance against woke ideas that don’t immediately affect them?
China electric vehicle explodes while charging
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/04/26/china-electric-vehicle-explodes-while-charging/
Paul Homewood
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‘GPs vote on shortening their working day by two and a half hours’
Can you work minus one hour a day?
On the bright side. Less GP hours. Less hospital referrals. Number waiting reduced.
If they work 9 to 5, that would be an increase on what my GP currently does!
If it becomes widely known that when doctors go on strike, fewer people die it would solve some of the NHS’s problems. People would stay away unless they’re almost sure they’re seriously ill.
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick describes the mentality of the modern NHS as resembling that of the Soviet Union:
https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2022/04/25/evidence-based-medicine-it-was-a-good-idea/
The NHS is the soviet approach to treatment, so it’s not a great surprise.
I gave the first three posts and uptick, as soon as I gave each up tick the system also registered a down tick at precisely the same time.
lol – just upticked your post and it registered as 4 upticks…
It’s the same system the BBC uses to attain virtual ‘balance’.
There appears to be a misapprehension amongst many on here that, in the realm of prose, rather than ‘less is more’, ‘more is more’.
But then the art of concision has never had much play in the world of propaganda.
‘That Russia serves as a reliable cash machine for Europe’s far-right political forces has long been an open secret.’
Open Democracy 06 Apr 22
These days far right seems to mean people who endorse traditional families, view gay marriage as a joke and don’t want their kids being exposed to adult discussions about sexual matters.
Traditional values in other words are being actively recast as dangerous and subversive. Adolescent thinking basically.
Ah yes…the far right, well known guardians of family values:
Austria’s Freiheitliche Partei (FPÖ) and Bündnis Zukunft,
Belgian Vlaams Belang and Parti Communautaire National-Européen,
Bulgarian Ataka,
French Front National,
Hungarian Jobbik,
Italian Lega Nord and Fiamma Tricolore,
Polish Samoobrona, Serbian ‘Dveri’ movement,
Spanish Plataforma per Catalunya.
Quite a family…..
‘EODE founded and headed by Belgian neo-Nazi Luc Michel, a loyal follower of Belgian convicted war-time collaborationist and neo-Nazi Jean-François Thiriart.
Presented by Michel as ‘a non-aligned NGO’, the EODE does not conceal its anti-Westernism and loyalty to Putin, and is always there to put a stamp of ‘legitimacy’ on all illegitimate political developments, whether in Crimea, Transnistria, South Ossetia or Abkhazia.
Moscow’s money talks.’
Reference above
And all the usual responses….petty insults only distinguished by their complete lack of coherent content.
‘Russian funding of far-right, populist political parties with an explicitly disruptive agenda in Western countries is well documented.’
‘….the 2014 international sanctions on Russia have had a considerable impact, precipitating a noticeable decrease in funding resulting from a combination of limitations placed on Russian actors’ international activities, loss of reputation and travel restrictions, as well as a devaluation of the rouble. Another trend has been to engage with far-right political parties across the continent, specifically seeking to influence elections in Western Europe, namely the EU elections of 2014 and 2019, as well as national elections in France and Italy.’
‘….financial support takes three routes: …..dark money channelled to political actors through ‘laundromats’; and State-funded government agencies. While it not possible to quantify the volume of dark funding from Russian laundromats or state agencies, Russian oligarch funding accounted for USD188.2 million in 2009–2018.’
EPR report 2021
Ha ha. You’re great. Keep going
Enough said
“far-right, populist political parties with an explicitly disruptive agenda in Western countries”
What they’re trying to disrupt are the anti-Western policies that have been pursued in most Western states for decades.
Did you skip the classes at school where they insisted you learn to read the question properly?
No one doubts actual hard right Nazi types exist. My rather obvious point was non-Nazis are routinely cast as actual Nazis to discredit them. Those non-Nazis are often no more crazy than people who like traditional social constructs we have enjoyed for centuries. Pretty simple.
Better luck next time
My previous remarks refer.
The term is used deliberately to taint by association, rather than to discuss issues reasonably. See Justin Trudeau (well, we’d rather not). I’m dismayed by how many are taken in by this nonsense.
The really annoying thing about these kinds of childish insinuations of “being in the pay of Milosevic/Saddam/Gaddafi/Assad/Putin” is that I never seem to see any of the money.
I’ve written to Putin to complain.
Apparently the white cats they all have for stroking in meetings keep eating the cheques.
Exactly. That’s because they fear them.
Nowadays, I find myself repeatedly intrigued (my goldfish genes?) at the elasticity exhibited by the term ‘far-right’.
As Douglas Murray commented perhaps five or six years ago, the problem with the Left is they are running out of actual Nazis, homophobes, racists, misogynists and other assorted villains.
Even worse, when you misuse social taboos to silence critics, some succumb but others simply work harder to provide watertight arguments. Which seems to be happening. Casually using the charge of racism to prevent sensible discussion about immigration, for example, only makes the serious get access to the facts, which do not make for pretty reading
Universities minister tells universities to promote free speech while the same government tells Musk to censor content.
That’s quality journalism right there.
That piece on Risa Hoshino sounds like an acute case of narcissistic personailty disorder – these people love the attention and they don’t know when to stop and will take it to the very extremes regadless of the harm they cause – they simply don’t care – there are lots of red flags to look out for just don’t ignore them (poncing money for coffee is one of them lol) – places like facebook, twitter etc are crawling with people like this. I know of a someone who creates a complete fantasy world for himself – even gets dressed up to look the part – they live in a complete fantasy world these people and the scary thing is that they see nothing wrong with it and even scarier than that is that there are people out there who actually fall for this phony nonsense without question. The person I know has been caught out numerous times telling some real big whoppers about his life but there has been no remorse and no apology for what he has done and he just moves on and ‘reinvents’ himself as someone or something else – he left school without a qualification to his name and as far as we are aware he has never held a job for a longer than a couple of weeks – mostly cleaning jobs – yet he claims to have been everything from a telephone engineer to a computer programmer for a big software company, then he was working in the city for some big finance company travelling abroad to fancy locations – a picture of him with a surf board in the US which later turned out to be a beach in SE England – haven’t a clue where he got the surf board from – he can’t swim to save his life, then he was a professional football player then a military serviceman training to go to Afghanistan – and he will even dress the part too for that photo he wants people to see (god knows where he gets the uniforms from) and people get taking in by this phony play-acting – we call him Mr Benn because he changes costumes to suit whatever fantasy he is pretending to be at the time. He’s been all over facebook – as a city worker in a pinstripe suit standing next to a flash red sports car (it wasn’t he’s and it was obviously just parked up somewhere but he pretended it to be his for the photo obviously) then he’s in a military uniform finished traning and ready for combat overseas and people telling him how brave he is etc, then he is a pro-football player posing with some team fans (yes he had the club football training kit on posing outside the stadium with a couple of football fans he’d told them he was one of the new players newly recruited from the lower leagues), I don’t think he’s ever pretended to be a doctor but I wouldn’t put it past him him to try his hand at being a medical professional at some point if he can get his hands on a uniform. But all the time its all false, its fake – he’s a fantasist who is mostly unemployed and when he is employed he’s cleaning out public toilets.
Incredible really. I suppose these people have always existed but social media appears to have spawned thousands of these Walter Mitty types.
So Cambridgeshire County Council employees are not the only ones. The dreadful Devon County Council hs had no cars parked in County Hall for months or employees in the buildings but has been spending a fortune on building works – scaffolding around at least three buildings – watch the Council taxpayers money being burned by the incompetents.
Does this mean they’ve already blown the money they ‘earned’ from giving jabs to the compliant masses? What do they spend it on?
Not a word uttered about the private sector doing more of the same. Try calling your bank to discuss your account – there’s a high chance you’ll hear them cooking their dinner and watching Loose Women while talking about your missing payment.
This is more divide and rule BS and Daily Sceptics is promoting it here every day. Shame.
I’m not forced to pay for the private sector. I can go elsewhere if I find the service unacceptable.
In the DS news round-up we see reported there are 16579 new positive tests in the uk, is this figure entirely due to people travelling abroad and hospital elective inpatient admissions? free testing for most ended 1 April and many testing locations closed down, so wonder who is still having a test.
The war in Ukraine can and should be settled by Vitali Klitschko and Vladimir Putin have a square go with bare knuckles.
Putin v Biden
Or Klitschko v whomever Putin wants to nominate from the Russian MMA or special forces pools, if we are allowing champions.
Biden? He hasn’t invaded Ukraine, he hasn’t invaded Russia and Russia hasn’t invaded the US.
Vitali Klitschko can destroy the MMA nominee and Wladimir can take on Putin.
Maybe Zelensky could strangle Putin with his stockings?
Best leave it to the Mayor of Kyiv
Maybe us sceptics should be given a land mass., Devon and Cornwall for example. Although I am fairly sure that we would mess it up in no time. Dostoyevsky said as much, that if we were to be granted Utopia then we would destroy it in an instant. The real warrior spirit exists in the horrorshow of humanity and still sees the beauty in it.
True. Life is good. We have antibiotics, cars and fun stuff. Our ancestors would envy us. Much of our angst is because some nasty people exist and we are discovering they don’t have our best interests at heart. We are just learning that comfort makes you soft.
“Whole country supports ‘trans’ rights”. (Times muppets).
Seems like I’m right about some of these msm journalists living on a different planet. I still say that in a healthy society, nobody or almost nobody would have these psychological issues.
I’m surprised no-one objected to the Biff, Chip and Kipper book which has someone looking uncannily like Herr Hitler in the background, taking an Alsatian for a walk.
One thing you can say for the Austrian corporal, he was fond of dogs.