Published: 31 December 2022 ~ F*ck New Year Calendars and How do They Work?
Every year, on the 31st of December, most of us, not all but most, celebrate the arrival of a New Year. Some celebrate it quietly, others party like it’s going out of fashion, hopping, whooping, shouting, working themselves up into a right old frenzy as the hours, minutes and seconds count down to midnight. By the time midnight arrives, sobriety has left, and everyone screams ‘Happy New Year’, and then we get more drunk.
As a consequence of this mandatory ritual, typically and ironically for most of us the New Year starts on a none too auspicious note: We fall into bed at 5am and wake up half-way through the day with a bucket for a head, a mouth that tastes like the cat slept in and a guts ~ Well, let’s not draw a picture.
As the last minutes of the last 365 days of our life tick away, you can guarantee that almost everyone around you will breathe a sigh of relief, chorusing “I’m glad to see the back of 1065,” for example, “1066 can’t be any worse!” I think it was Harold who said that.
So it is with philosophical solemnity, that I present to you today, on this last day of the Year of Our Lord 2022, this photograph of a rather rude calendar, which a ferret and I discovered whilst roving the bars of Kaliningrad.
Now we have no way of knowing, and cannot say for certain, if those who hung this calendar on the wall, presumably in January of 2022, were in receipt of psychic information. Did they have a direct line to the Universe’s Control Centre? Was it just a self-fulfilling prophesy? Or is it the work of a ‘double agent’, ie I will denounce 2022 but secretly I support it. In other words, how does this calendar work?
Presumably, like any other, you pin it on the wall on the first day of the New Year to which the calendar applies. Well, OK, making allowances for hangovers, most likely on the second day. But how do you know? How do you predict how the year will pan out for you? What gives you the right and credibility to hang a calendar on your wall that says F!ck 2022, 2024 or 2020-anything?
Does the advocate of this type of calendar have a sixth sense ~ some might argue that they must have a sick sense? Before hanging such a prophetic calendar on his wall, does he consult the tarot cards, examine his crystal balls, believe in horoscopes, resort to numerological mysticism in which 2+2= 6 (which just means his maths are awful) or does he sign up to the endless twaddle that spews out of YouTube videos from self-appointed, self-proclaimed, creepy homespun spiritualists? The mind ~ that is, the mind that is still in control ~ boggles, and shudders, to think.
F*ck New Year Calendars and How do They Work?
Those of you that cling to the adage that pessimism breeds pessimism, ie what goes around comes around, and that bad-joke calendars like this manifest reality, will no doubt recoil in horror at such presumptuous negativity and may even have a calendar on your wall to set the record straight, a calendar, for example, on which it could be written ‘Welcome 2022’, the bold, pink words surrounded by little elves that dance, fairies that flutter, butterflies that bob and rabbits that bunny and bunnies that rabbit, all afrolick together among the softening rays of a sunburst yellow bathed like a halo on the blue-sky background, and they sigh, they sigh with such sighs of optimism that they carry you back like a tune to your childhood and you know instinctively and have no doubt that this, at last, is Your Year!
Looked at objectively and objectionably, It’s hard to decide which of the two calendars surrenders itself more completely to the irony of fate: the bar’s F*uck You calendar or the optimist’s New Era dream, ‘Hoorah! 2023 is going to be the year for me’. (Some woman on YouTube told me so!) Ah, hem …
I don’t wish to be a killjoy, especially on New Year’s Eve, but it must be plain to the most myopic that calendars that purport to predict the essence of the coming year, both the good and the bad, are best to be avoided, or, if the temptation is just too much, try keeping them off your wall, at least until their year is out and the next year safely in.
Let hindsight be your witness and you will minimise the chance of Irony passing judgement on you!
Published: 25 December 2022 ~ Kaliningrad Retro Car Club in a Festive Mood
A big thank you to Inara and Arthur for inviting me to the Kaliningrad Retro Car Club end-of-year party last night and to the members of the club for making me feel so welcome and for creating a night to remember. It was especially fortuitous for me that the party coincided with the 24th December, Christmas Eve in the UK.
Apprehension at the outset that the venue for the party, the old Luftwaffe spare-parts building, would be brass-monkey cold was largely unfounded. Improvised heating using one of those gas-fired space appliances worked far better than I anticipated, and as for the cold it could not compete with, this encouraged those who like and want to dance to do just that; their jumping and jiving around proving to be an excellent way of generating the auxiliary heat that we needed.
Kaliningrad Retro Car Club party
The car club’s chef had prepared various nourishing dishes, the warm ones claiming a decisive victory for mission Keep the Cold at Bay, and generous proportions of vodka, cognac and cognac liqueurs, toasts galore and the warmth of the company present ~ particularly the latter ~ all did their sterling bit to stave off the winter temperatures.
It was heartening and appropriate that Father Frost (Father Christmas) should drop by to assist in the festivities and to doll out seasonal presents, and I was especially pleased with the car quiz that proved to me once and for all that when it comes to taking part in quizzes I could do much worse than not take part.
It did occur to me, too late, of course, that to show my appreciation for an excellent evening, I could have volunteered to help clean up the venue the following day, a sort of Christmas Day treat for my conscience, but as the idea refused to catch up with me until the time for action had passed, I will have to think of something else.
One positive thing that I could do is to reiterate my offer to the president of the club, which is to donate a rather fine door to the Luftwaffe building that we have secreted in our garage. I think that it would look very nice and would attest to its functionality hanging on two or three hinges where the hole in the wall to the toilet is. I am nothing if not inventive.
Above: Kaliningrad Retro Car Club members
Above:First Aid for anyone who complains about the cold ~ Vaccine Vodka. And the Retro Car Club’s resident nurse. She has a heart of gold and a lovely bedside manner
Above:Father Frost drops by
Above:Mick Hart with a pint in his hand and Lenin looking over his shoulder
Above:Olga Hart with a kind and friendly fairy behind her
Above: What is it … don’t be rude?! I’m talking about the object I am holding! It is, in fact, a napkin holder made out of vilkee and lorshkee ~ that’s forks and spoons to you!
Above: Us with a Christmas tree made by children out of coloured cloth and sponge
Above:The entertainment. A class act, an unusual feature of which was the levelling of the guitar on JImi Hendrix’s head
Above:A highly detailed model display of theRoad of Life, the Siege of Leningrad, WWII
Published: 16 November 2022 ~ How to blog when you are not
Not seen nor heard of since the last time I was seen and heard of, people have no idea why they are asking where is he, when, by all that was two and thruppence, I should be posting things to this blog. After all, you don’t buy a blog and bark yourself.
People are saying things and jumping to confusions:
Ms Nosepoke: “He hasn’t posted anything since 18th October. If you ask me, he’s up to no good.”
Ms Nogood: “What are you suggesting?!”
Ms Knowsitall: “What the eye don’t see …”
“More tea vicar?”
And then there are the rumours; the dark and sinister rumours:
He turned gay and joined the BBC. He got himself a job with The Guardian as Chief Wokesperson. He won the lottery and bought himself a beach hut in Brightlingsea (aah, how he remembers Lynn and that hot summer of 76!).
The media says (so it can’t be true) that the sanctions worked (we know it’s not true!). They forced his return to Devil’s Island, where he is currently doing penance. Each time he goes to the supermarket, he carries with him an old lady’s shopping bag and solemnly swears at checkout, “No, don’t give me a carrier bag; the UK is saving the planet’, even whilst its government, ignoring the needs of the NHS, continues to ship thousands of tons of ozone-depleting munitions to far-away lands at a time when the country’s cost of living and inversely its standard of living are exploding and imploding respectively as if every day is November 5th.
He’s in the UK, there’s no doubt about that! Someone who knows him, saw him. He has cunningly disguised himself as Lord Lucan. He was spotted in a Paki shop in Peterborough buying some UHU to hold his moustache in place and an overcoat to wear in bed! “Such selfishness! He always was a selfish man; a man of toxic masculine aspirations!” (previous mother in law, twice rejected) “And his poor, poor, neglected greenhouse tomatoes, what’s left of them, shivering in that conservatory with ho heater to call their own, recalling at their tormented leisure the chilly and chilling maxim, ‘politicians in glass Number 10s should never throw stones or tantrums !” Poor Liz Truss, she never got the chance. No sooner on the inside than on the out, she was not in the glass house long enough to do any permanent damage: Smash! And now what has become of her? And what has become of the blogger?
We will accept a reward
His family, who are extremely concerned that he might come home, are offering a substantial reward, payable to them, from anyone who has any information pertaining to his whereabouts and who hasn’t got the decency to keep it to themselves.
Retired police officer Superintendent Clampit, from the City of Armston, warns that anyone discovered not to be withholding vital information about his whathaveyous will be subject to the full and most serious rigours that the law can implement, and, on conviction, which will never happen as the police are far too busy arresting people for allergic reactions to Liberal (I heard it on the Grapevine) Jeremy, could face five years in Vine Street Prison or be sentenced to a lifetime’s subscription to The Guardian, whichever of the two is perceived to be the most terrible, vile and odious.
Lifetime friend, Professor Toalbucket, who met him yesterday, but don’t know where, don’t know when, had this to say: “It’s all so peculiar!” And after a moment’s reflection: “It don’t make sense!”
How to blog without heating
The missing blogger’s neighbour saw him in the garden once. He was going back into the house. This did not stop him wondering, however, why a man who to all intents and purposes was a born-again extrovert but hardly ever went out was where he was when he should have been blogging. His neighbour had an awful lot to say on the subject but, being Russian, he would keep talking in his own language in spite of attempts by trillionaire string pullers of western-leaders to cancel Russian culture. Since sanctioned, he no longer has access to things that he never knew he had and didn’t need, but he knows that he has a lot of gas and he’ll use it to heat his house this winter.
One theory is that the blogger has stopped posting because he hasn’t posted anything recently; another that he might have posted in invisible ink; and yet another ~ conceding that the previous two are as silly as a country that fills its hotels with thousands of migrants at a cost of millions each day (Are you a politician or a politician’s friend who owns or has a stake in a string of British hotels?!) ~ that he may in fact still be posting but posting surreptitiously using a false identity and assumed name.
Someone, someone who makes money out of things that have no relevance to the real world, has suggested that he could be posting in an esoteric way, such as posting somewhere in a parallel universe or at an earlier time in his life, when, for example, he was at school, in those inconceivably terrible days before internet and arsephones.
Chrystal Bollocks, YouTube’s Number One snake-oil salesperson, called upon her disciples, the gullible and emotionally vulnerable, to tune into her latest meditative video, and there, amongst the postsynch sounds of tinkling tubes, tiny bells and dubbed-on heavenly choirs, in a husky half-monotone whisper (barely audible above the ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs) she pulled the answer to this and to everything else in the Uniperverse, as if it was rabbit pure and simple, out of her magician’s hat. We are so lucky, don’t you think, that we live in an age where, without recourse to qualifications, nuisance of track record or the inconvenience of credible reason, we are blessed with so many experts.
Whether it is better to be trapped inside the mind of some meditating monk or stuck in Dr Who’s wardrobe with a gaggle of prissy old BBC wokists, it is widely believed, from one end of Hackney to the other, that he will just turn up like a bad Rupee. Some say that he should have stuck to the straight and narrow; others that he did, but it sent him round the bend and then, with the full complicity of the French Government, across the Channel to Blighty.
The Dover Port Police, acting on information received by George Sorryarse, have already launched several more boats to ferry migrants freely across the Channel. At the same time, they are conducting a dinghy-by-dinghy search.
Should, during the course of this extensive operation, it be discovered that he has concealed himself among the deserving illegals, make no mistake, said a Labour MP, we shall turf him out.
“We simply won’t tolerate English people wanting to live in their own country!” said a spokesvestite from the Home Office. (Patriots live in hope that one day they will rename this department the Go Home Office and that once renamed it will at last succeed in performing the vital function for which British taxpayers’ money funds it, namely to ‘send the buggers back home!’. Anything less than this should immediately see the department renamed in the spirit by which it is highly regarded, in other words the Home Orifice.)
“Bugger!” his kindly uncle retorted, inspired to do so by some word or other he’d see in print recently: “He wouldn’t come looking for me so why should I go looking for him!”
Asked to comment on his whereabouts, all his old university tutor was willing to say was (He had a wry smile upon his face when he said it): “One can only hope that he doesn’t end up like his favourite author, Edgar Allan Poe, paralytic, face down in the gutter, garbed in somebody else’s clothes … mind you, if my memory serves me right, it wouldn’t be the first time.”
Someone with his mind so thoroughly grounded in the mundane and his logic so infused with and underwritten by commonsense that it couldn’t possibly do him any good had the impertinence to suggest that his whereabouts is Kaliningrad, and that, having recently returned from a sojourn in his native country, England, he is preoccupied with solving the question ‘Is Bedford UK Worth Visiting?’ And that once he has answered this question to the accord and dictates of his own satisfaction, he will post his response forthwith. Even bloggers take holidays, this venerable person ventured.
He was immediately slammed a conspiracy theorist and has had his culture cancelled!
Alena Kravchenko writes about her love for photography and a past project in the present
Published: 26 July 2022 ~ Alena Kravchenko Photos 1940s’ English Home in Kaliningrad
About Alena Kravchenko, Professional Photographer
Alena Kravchenko: I have been interested in photography for as long as I can remember. It began in my youth as a hobby. Using my then state-of-the-art Polaroid camera, I would happily snap photos of family and friends and the more pictures I took, the more immersed I became in the art of photography. Furthering my education in this direction purely through self-study, I eventually mastered the art.
For the past three years I have been photographing professionally, receiving commissions for various commercial projects, whilst continuing to develop my skills in the art and science of photography.
To assist me in this endeavour I attend various master classes, study paintings, go to exhibitions and to concerts.
In each context I challenge myself, experimenting with different shooting techniques, different genres and with different stylistic interpretations. Every time I work on a project, I try something new and learn something new! This is the joy of photography! It is an endless source of creative self-expression.
Anything can inspire me to create a project: Nature, with its extraordinary colours and lively locations; people by their charismatic appearance, idiosyncratic character or simply because of their interesting features; diverse forms of architecture – both historical and modern. Whatever the subject matter, I pay great attention to detail and location.
I look at the world through the eyes of a photographer, frequently wishing that the pupils of my eyes were small lenses themselves, able to capture immediately the beauty that surrounds me. But, alas, this never can be, and my phone’s memory is often full, because it is neither practicable nor feasible to carry an expensive and heavy camera with me everywhere I go.
Sometimes I wonder where my inspiration comes from. For example, I recently drove past a field of lambs and visualised a photograph of a shepherd girl and her sister. Photography allows this licence. It allows me to project my vision of the world. The world of photography is wonderful. There is so much to see and explore!
About Alena Kravchenko’s 1940s’ project shot at the home of Mick and Olga Hart
A word from Mick Hart: You know, everybody needs someone to say nice things about them sometime, even me ~ it’s different from when you say them about yourself. So, for the record, for my detractors, the sentiments that follow are not exclusively my own, and I can honestly swear that no money passed hands between Alena Kravchenko and myself for her modest opinions of us and her restrained appraisal of our home.
Alena Kravchenko: A couple from England inspired me to create a project with an Art Deco flavour.
Mick and Olga Hart were performing in Yuri Grozmani’s WWII film Last Tango in Königsberg.
Elegantly dressed in 40s’ style, they looked as if they had stepped from the silver screen of cinema during the Art Deco era.
Immediately, I wanted to get to know them and arrange a retro photo session.
It wasn’t difficult. Olga agreed and a few days later I was invited to their home.
What joy I experienced when stepping over the threshold!
Mick and Olga are real rarity collectors; keepers of 30s’ and 40s’ history.
Music from the 30s and 40s, commingled with the smell of sweet perfume, carried into the hallway. The vintage space immersed me. It was as if time had been placed on hold.
Mick and Olga were exceptionally friendly, giving me free reign to photograph whatever and wherever I liked. I started using my camera from the hallway and couldn’t stop. By the time I had finished, my camera and I were satisfied that we had explored and captured life as it would have been lived in the period leading up to and during the war.
Using Yury’s screenplay as my premise, I wanted to capture the story of this house; the story of a warm relationship between a married English couple and the home and working environment of wartime British intelligence agent, Mick Donovan, as portrayed by Mick Hart in Yury Grozmani’s film. I was more than pleased with the end result.
Mick and Olga’s house is a real museum; a tribute to the 1930s and 40s. As I moved from room to room taking pictures of this special couple from England, I was overwhelmed with delight. They are true custodians of history.
Below: In the UK, during WWII, no sooner was your back turned than …
Western Snactions turn McDonald’s in Russia into Vkusno i tochka
Published: 22 June 2022 ~ McDonald’s restaurants in Russia reopen under new name
Whilst the UK media hovers indecisively over what to replace its run of good fortune with, as interest in and editorial enthusiasm wanes for Ukraine ~ in the past two weeks there has been a flitting back and forth from woke stories about schools no longer allowing boys to wear skirts (have I got that wrong?) and hopes that a new strain of coronavirus may see the swift return of lockdowns, masks and vaccinations ~ Russia has been celebrating the replacement of the McDonald’s chain of restaurants with the inauguration of its home-grown version.
🍔McDonald’s, which had been selling burgers in Russia for more than 30 years, switched off its friers and suspended its business shortly after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine before griddling off into the sunset. For some, the loss of McDonald’s in Russia was palpable.
Speaking entirely for myself, McDonald’s, or rather the fanfare that surrounds McDonald’s, has always been a mystery to me. In my day, old McDonald had a farm, not a burger bar. Or was that McDonald’s father?🍔🍔You probably won’t believe this but until the launch of Russia’s McDonald’s and the publicity it has generated, I had no idea what a powerhouse of Americanism McDonald’s was. To me it was up there, or down there, depending upon your point of view, with Wimpy, KFC, Little Chef, Burger King and the rest, all lumped together under the ‘frie’s’ umbrella, poor colonial-cousin substitutes for good old English chips and the good old English chip shops via which they are purveyed. Give me a portion of proper, thick-cut, chunky English chips any day than those itty-bitty American fries, that was my motto! In fact, it was the word ‘fries’ that actually did it for me in the sense of not doing it for me at all. Nothing in the world of fried foods, especially chips, has ever been the same since my brother rebranded chips and by extension British cafes with the decidedly unflattering nom de guerre ‘fatty fries’. However, as a patriot, resolutely opposed to continental affectations in all walks of English life, especially the realm of grub, words in fancy dress such as the now ubiquitous ‘French fries’ are pure anathema to me.
Another reason for avoiding McDiddles was possibly my conversion at a relatively early age to vegetarianism and a delicate constitution in the guts department. Given these two influential factors you can probably understand how blown-up images of Big Macs and Triple Cheeseburgers with an extra portion of fries on the side and a generous helping of onion rings had me longing for a lettuce leaf and reaching for the Gaviscon.
My apologies to die-hard McDonald’s fans:
*From childhood’s hour I have not been As others were—I have not seen As others saw—I could not bring My passions from a common spring—
*Edgar Allan Poe’s Alone (How much more Alone would he have felt had McDonald’s existed in his time and then like life itself ceased to be?)
With McDonald’s exit stage west, you would have thought that here was the perfect opportunity for Russia to turn off Americanisation and surge ahead with a nationwide chain of resturants selling wholesome, healthy, traditional Russian nosh. Obviously, there is no such thing in Russia as McDonald’s-phobia.
Conversely, a Russian equivalent of McDonald’s working in the West would have been tarred and feathered by now, which rather proves the point that there really is no Russian analogue to the West’s anti-Russian hysteria.
McDonald’s restaurants in Russia reopen under new name
In the absence of a McDonald’s phobia and facetiousness aside, I do understand both the historical and symbolic significance to Russia of the McDonald’s take-over.
When the first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Moscow on 31 January 1990, for some it must have seemed like the ultimate stamp of the American invasion but to others, to a new, western-enthused generation, it must have embodied the hopes if not of a brand-new beginning, then at least of a new Brand-named beginning.
What I did not know was that the first McDonald’s restaurant which opened in Pushkinskaya Square (Bolshaya Bronnaya Street, 29) Moscow in early 1990 lays claim to being the most frequented McDonald’s restaurant in the world. It is said that in its 30 years of existence it catered literally for more than 140 million patrons1.
Whilst the McDonald’s empire is a hegemonic feat of fast-foot globalism, the ability to fill its big Yankee boots in a few short weeks is a success story in its own right. It is little short of amazing that they, a consortium consisting of the Moscow government, federal authorities and the business community1, managed to take on the abandoned McDonald’s empire, rebrand, refit, restructure and rescue it in the time it would take for me to say, could I have a veggie burger please?
The 850 former McDonald’s outlets spanning 62 regions of Russia will open at a pace of 50~80 restaurants a week under the new Russian name of Vkusno i tochka (‘Tasty and that’s it’ or ‘Delicious full stop’), says the new owner, Alexander Govor2. A timely intevention that will not only re-establish the fast-food market in Russia and navigate its new course but also secure employment for thousands of people across the country.
When you take into consideration that the special military operation in Ukraine commenced a few weeks ago, on 24 February 2022, during which period the West has subjected Russia to economic warfare on an unprecedented scale, the transformation of a moribund McDonald’s into the rebranded Vkusno i tochka stands in testimony to the resourcefulness, resilience and ability to endure, which Russia as a nation has adroitely exhibited throughout its challenging history.
In stark contrast, I think it will be a long time if possibly not an eternity before I can procure equivalent success in the UK with Mick Hart’s McBorschkee’s chain of restaurants. Until then, its back to peeling spuds and heating lard for the chip van.
Updated: 22 March 2023| First Published: 12 April 2022 ~ Eastward Expansion of the West the Real Reasons? {Regularly updated}
Introduction
A daily brief, updated whenever I feel like it, providing links to news that you won’t see much of, if anything, in the UK about the US-UK confederacy and what it is up to and why on Russia’s borders.
Here you will find links to Russian news sources, commentators’ comments, snippets, video links, embeds and random musings updated on a daily basis but mostly not always.
Please feel free to share the links, embeds etc that appear in this post with your friends and colleagues as an antidote to excessive amounts of suspect UK downstream media. Like the vaccine, I suggest that you come back regularly for a series of boosters as long as your arm.
Keep the Faith and remember the maxim: The Truth Will Out in the End!! ~ Mr History
Quote> “The diplomat [Polish Ambassador to France Jan Emeryk Rosciszewski] is convinced that the Ukrainian crisis is a battle for the basic values and culture of the West, which is why “it is so important to win.” Comment> The inverse thus naturally follows that the Ukrainian crisis is a battle for the basic values and culture of Russia, which is why “it is so important to win.”https://ria.ru/20230319/polsha-1858972477.html?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop
Quote> “Twitter users criticized the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, who said earlier that the European Union will make every effort to reduce the military potential of Russia.” Quote> “Help EU states to become prosperous again instead of spending our money on Ukraine and fomenting conflict,” wrote a Twitter user. Ursula von der Leyen criticized for saying about Russia’s military capabilities – MK
Quote> “There was no response from the Western ‘peacekeepers’ to Putin’s accusations against the West that the supply of weapons to Ukraine is inflaming the conflict, turning it from local to global, they preferred to remain silent.” https://regnum.ru/news/polit/3782811.html
The reason for the special operation in Ukraine was not the imperial ambitions of Vladimir Putin, but the attempts of Western countries to drive Russia into a corner by expanding NATO, political scientist John Mearsheimer said in an interview with the American magazine, The New Yorker. In the US, the main myth about Putin was dispelled – RIA Novosti, 20.11.2022
Comment [Mortimer, RT News article] > The world seems to be at an inflection point, like when a curve changes direction. So many formerly rock solid countries seem to be fragile and on the verge of collapse. The USA, most of the EU, and Israel – always fragile, is looking shaky as well. This feels like just before the fall of the Soviet Union, but this time it is the west’s turn. https://www.rt.com/news/564839-medvedev-warning-israel-ukraine-weapons/
Quote (Vladimir Putin)> “The West is ready to cross every line to preserve the neo-colonial system which allows it to live off the world, to plunder it thanks to the domination of the dollar and technology, to collect an actual tribute from humanity, to extract its primary source of unearned prosperity, the rent paid to the hegemon. The preservation of this annuity is their main, real and absolutely self-serving motivation. This is why total de-sovereignisation is in their interest. This explains their aggression towards independent states, traditional values and authentic cultures, their attempts to undermine international and integration processes, new global currencies and technological development centres they cannot control. It is critically important for them to force all countries to surrender their sovereignty to the United States.” https://www.rt.com/russia/563827-putin-speech-colonial-west/
Headine> Russia has dismissed any Nord Stream leak accusations against them as ‘stupid’
Quote> Accusations have flown across Europe and the world following the leaks, with Ukraine arguing Russia is to blame. Moscow dismissed the accusation on Wednesday.
“It’s quite predictable and also predictably stupid to give voice to these kinds of narratives — predictably stupid and absurd,” Peskov said. “This is a big problem for us because, firstly, both lines of Nord Stream 2 are filled with gas — the entire system is ready to pump gas and the gas is very expensive … Now the gas is flying off into the air. Are we interested in that? No, we are not, we have lost a route for gas supplies to Europe,”
Biden’s neoliberal administration is bringing the world closer than it has ever been to nuclear conflict. Tucker Carlson of Fox News nails the West’s insanity, noting that the United States could, if it wanted to, bring the conflict in Ukraine to a peaceful resolutionalmost overnight, but …
Quote> ‘Should the Donbass regions declare themselves as part of the territory of Russia, attacks upon them by Ukraine (as has been the case since 2014) would then be classed as attacks upon Russia. That carries far more serious repercussions in terms of the Russian constitutional statements about its ability to protect itself.’ Quote> ‘The implications are extremely serious. Russia has written into its constitution that the use of heavy and potentially nuclear weaponry is permissible should it need to defend itself. That will become clear should the Donbass regions declare independence and decide to align with Russia rather than Ukraine. At this point the opinion of the West ceases to matter. Ukraine attacks, especially those supported by Western provided military will be seen as acts of war which then permit the use of weapons of mass destruction.’ https://www.russia-briefing.com/news/russia-on-the-brink-of-war.html/
Comment in RT article by reader ‘Shivermetimbers’ “The west is again at it mincing and spinning Russia’s nuclear doctrine. Russia has repeatedly stated that they’ll use any means to their disposal if and only if she is under threat of losing it’s identity as a state under pressure from western forces. Meaning they’ll not put their hands up in case US/NATO seem poised to win a conventional war against it and violate Russian territory or place Russian troops under pressure.”
Why is Ukraine the West’s Fault? Featuring John Mearsheimer
Comment> Looks like Daily Mail readers are a few jumps ahead of their liberal counterparts in their assessment of what people want from their politicians, ie putting their country and their people first! Elementary my dear Truss
Medvedev quote re Truss > “She will quarrel with everyone, fail everything and leave in disgrace, like her predecessor, shaggy Boriska. Well, in Britain, famous for its traditions, it seems that another one is appearing,” Medvedev concluded.” 🤣
‘According to Medvedev, the “new prime minister” Truss is an incompetent and mediocre Russophobe who has no elementary ideas about politics, but wants to defeat Russia in everything. In addition, according to the deputy chairman of the Security Council, the new head of government “mows” under Margaret Thatcher- the first woman to hold this post in the UK – but does not have her abilities, and also intends to overcome the energy crisis and food inflation, which became the consequences of her own “delusional sanctions exercises”. < https://lenta-ru.translate.goog/news/2022/09/07/feminitiv/?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop&_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
Oh dear, the inevitable has happened, the UK has been Trussed!
Headline> What’s wrong with politicians in the West?
Quote> Professor Chossudovsky notes that Western politicians are quite capable of taking a fatal step for the planet, because [their ignorance and stupidity are] controlled by money.
As an example of a politician of a narrow-mind, the author of the article cites the head of the British Foreign Office, Liz Truss , who said that, if she becomes prime minister, she would not hesitate to give the order to use nuclear weapons .
Claims that Russia has been sanctioned by the world appear to be 85% short of the truth, with only the ‘world’ as defined by the neoliberal globalist collective participating.
RAND advises the US and its allies about the explosive situation on Russia’s borders and its need to proceed with caution and diplomacy. Quote> “RAND risk analysts note that Russia today has more than enough reasons to think of NATO as an aggressor. In response to this, the West will receive preventive strikes from the Russian Federation – and to say that this will be unjustified Russian aggression will no longer work.” https://military-pravda-ru.translate.goog/news/1731238-rand/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
Headline> Candidate for British Prime Minister, Tugendhat, offered to expel Russians from the country
Quote> Tugendhat (Is that his real name? Check his passport!) said: “People who pose a threat and undermine the security of the kingdom will not find shelter.”
Comment> Does something tell you, as it tells me, that this is probably not the best time in history for Boris Johnson to be replaced by anyone of a sabre-rattling disposition with ex-military connections and delusions of imperialist grandeur. In spite of its political tragedy, I’m quite fond of that little bit of land in northwestern Europe. Aren’t you?
Bottom-pinching country at rock bottom (Gay Pride is obviously not just for June!)
Comment> People in high places pinching other people of the same sex’s lower places, the NHS unable to cope because of over-population and the migration fiasco, the government mired in sleaze, ministers losing jobs faster than underwear descending during Gay Pride Month and no money left because its all been spent on exacerbating Russophobia. This, then, is the UK.
Quote> Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman: ““London threw all its forces into countering Russia and participating in hostilities in Ukraine. Huge financial costs, British mercenaries, instructors and key forces of the special services – everything is mobilized for Russophobia.”
Comment> … and now the PM has resigned. Fingers crossed …
Little Miss Bossy Boots, Liz Truss (aka “Look mum, I’m the foreign secretary!”), appears to be groping about for a way of mitigating the British government’s freezing of Russian assets (which could be described as daylight robbery) by transforming Number 10 and herself into a merry band of Robin Hoods, or should that be Robin Hoodies (innit!), who rob from the rich to give to the poor. Except in this case, it has nothing to do with the poor and needy and all to do with a needlessly poor excuse.
There’s nothing toxically masculine or even vaguely masculine about Johnson and his western cohorts
Thought of the day> When the British Prime Minister has nothing left in his arsenal (I think I’ve spelt that right) except the cringe-worthy lingo of liberal-lefty woke and feels impelled to resort to terms like ‘toxic masculinity’, you know the bell has sounded for the final miserable act in the comedy of transexualised errors which Britain has become. Boris, you have been fatefully cast: the UK is badly in need of restoring and conserving. A strong traditionalising Conservative leader is needed, not a neoliberal-pandering appeasing soggy cream poof! [Audience (Labour) clapping: “You’ve got to hand it to him, as gender-neutral cream poofs go he certainly looks and sounds the part!”]
Headline> ‘Reuters: Western politicians were surprised by the Russian salad on the menu at the NATO summit’
Comment> The symbolic significance of Russian salad on the NATO summit ‘Smart Food & Drinks’ menu says it all ~ isolating Russia is not an option! Apparently, the dish was so popular that it sold out in the first two hours!
Comment> Ukraine has provided the UK with the perfect opportunity to spend the sort of lolly on beefing up its military that the liberal-lefty lobby at last feels helpless to oppose. But who’s going to pay for it? Can we really afford it? And, more to the point, is it all a waste of tax-payers’ money? Quote> “Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in May that Moscow does not want war in Europe and that it is the West that ‘constantly insists that …Russia must be defeated.’ The end of the military operation in Ukraine, he said, would stop Western attempts to undermine international law and promote a unipolar world.” https://www-rbc-ru.translate.goog/politics/28/06/2022/62babf329a7947852ccbffe2?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop&_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
Are you spinning like a top? If Western media spins anymore it will bradawl itself up its own … Headline from RT > Western media celebrates ‘Russian default’
Comments at end of article > tchort says: “The main stream media should worry more about losing their subscribers, than Russia’s default. Western media is now nothing but a comedians’ theater trying to validate its ridiculous narrative, and where investigative journalism has all but disappeared from the nation’s commercial airwaves.”
TANK says: “This stupid western game is like me going to the bank with the money, during normal opening hours, and they just won’t let me into the bank so I can give them the money. And then they blame ME for it. What a bunch of dimwits.”
Quote> German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, ““Putin appears to be afraid that the spark of democracy might jump to Russia …” Quote> The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, commented on the words of Scholz, noting that “German sparks” spread to Russia a couple of times. “We won’t allow any more fires,” she assured. Comment>The problem with the leap-frogging ‘spark of [liberal] democracy’ is that other rather unwanted things tend to jump about with it, such as social engineering, anti-social behaviour, rampant street crime, state-backed terrorism, BLM riots, loss of cohesive culture and identity, historical revisionism, degradation of sovereignty and patriotism, political correctness, woke and so much digitalisation and transsexualization that before you know where you are or who’s behind you, you are well and truly up Queer Street and on your way to a famous creek with no paddle ~ although the boats to Dover can do without as they’ve got the Royal Navy. Whatever spark it is that German Scholz is talking about, it’s not the spark of truth or decency. https://www-rbc-ru.translate.goog/politics/20/06/2022/62b0a6bb9a7947606308e96a?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop&_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
‘”The European Union has completely lost its political sovereignty, and its bureaucratic elites are dancing to someone else’s tune, accepting whatever they are told from above, causing harm to their own population and their own economy,” Putin said.‘
‘“Such a detachment from reality, from the demands of society, will inevitably lead to a surge of populism and the growth of radical movements, to serious social and economic changes, to degradation, and in the near future, to a change of elites,”’
Now see (below) Neil Oliver’s videoed summation of the State of play in the UK today: ‘The State is no longer working to serve us and to protect our shared heritage‘
“The first act of violence in [Ukraine] was actually the Western-backed mob putsch which overthrew Ukraine’s lawful government in 2014” ~ Peter Hitchens, UK Journalist, Twitter, 22 May 2022
Quote> The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which unites the most developed economies in the world, called the UK the main victim of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine. https://lenta.ru/news/2022/06/08/loser/?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop Letter>Dear Mr Johnson, has the UK government taken complete leave of its senses …?
Comment>Who is Bishop Richard Williamson? Well, if you do a Google search for him you discover that he is a renegade, a ‘Holocaust denier’, an extremist, an ‘inciter of hatred’ etc, etc, etc. That alone should tell you that he is a branded enemy of the neoliberal one-world state. The Pope doesn’t appear to like him because he has openly condemned the Roman Catholic Church for selling out to liberal secularism. The western globalist cabal don’t care much for him, possibly because when he refers to the leaders of western governments he does not use sugar-coated terms like humanitarian, tolerant, democratic or free-world loving philanthropists but criminals.
When I first saw the, let’s face it, badly edited video embedded below, my initial reaction was, is this something from Monty Pythons, but there is no mistaking the sincerity and clarity of Williamson’s take on our liberal masters and what they are up to in Ukraine ~ and everywhere else for that matter. There are other illuminating videos out there in which Williamson describes and lambasts western society’s planned and steady moral decline. His accent on traditionalism as an essential pillar for social stability and his unfashionable view that respect for authority is an essential prerequisite of that stability is tantamount to heresy in the ‘progressive’ world of Woke, and I do not suppose for a moment that his rational beliefs that women attempting to adopt the roll of men or to become men is tragic and that it is parents who should rule their children not children rule their parents wins him any plaudits among the usual suspects.
In the video that follows, Bishop Richard Williamson states that Russia is the last obstacle to the One-World Order. Note, you will see that whoever made the video has captioned it, “You won’t believe your ears!” In fact, not everyone’s ears, eyes and minds are intimately connected to their television licence.
Comment> There is not much that western governments are good at. Telling the truth is particularly hard. But where they do excel is in their attempts to cancel culture. I should know, I’m English and we have hardly any culture left. That’s probably one of the reasons I like living in Russia. Quote> [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov] ‘“The West has declared a total war on us, the entire Russian world. Now no one hides this, it reaches the point of absurdity, to the very culture of the abolition of Russia and everything connected with our country. Under the ban of the classics: Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky , Tolstoy, Pushkin. Figures of national culture and art, who today represent our culture, are also being persecuted … healthy patriotic forces have consolidated [in Russia, and President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy is based on] … broad national consensus”’ https://www-vedomosti-ru.translate.goog/politics/news/2022/05/27/923932-lavrov-zapad?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop&_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
Why does the UK media treat the British public as if they are stupid? Is it because they have insurmountable faith in their own duplicity?
Comment> Wonders will never cease, but considered journalist Peter Hitchens may have rocked the neoliberal globalist boat with this one. The last thing the UK wants to be accused of is that it has within its midst journalists of integrity and independent thought. Time for the UK masses to disappear quickly back under the bedclothes, behind the biased safety of their learnt-by-rote media mantras or (where they seem to dwell perpetually) up their own …
Quotes from Mr Hitchens’ article in Mail Online> “Not since the wild frenzy after the death of Princess Diana have I ever met such a wave of ignorant sentiment. Nobody knows anything about Ukraine. Everyone has ferocious opinions about it.”
“Look, I respect those who take Ukraine’s side in this war. They have a valid point of view which I happen not to share. But what I object to is the wholly one-sided nature of public opinion here. It is so bad that it is a positive disadvantage to know anything about the subject.”
“The UK media coverage of this event strove mightily not to mention the neo-Nazis and to avoid using the word ‘surrender’.”
Comment> America is projecting itself as an exceptional power and an indispensable force for good in the world, but Russia intends to save itself from this ‘goodness’. It is not the first time in history that we have saved ourselves from totalitarian ideologies – Nazi Germany, the Napoleonic Wars, the Tatar invasion. And it does not matter that Russians are routinely disparaged by Western Europeans as savages and barbarians. We want to protect our beliefs and values, which are based on Christianity, no matter how outdated and how outvalued such ethics are held by the West. We mean to and will save ourselves from the threat of the West’s satanic globalism, from its mass consumerist self-absorption and twisted posthuman delusions. And so it is with my head held high in the midst of Western Russophobia that I am glad and proud to say that “I am Russian.” (Thank you Yorshik for your contribution to my blog. MH)
The Eurovision Wrong Contest It’s come to a pretty pass when all you’ve got left in your ammunition chest is the Eurovision Song Contest. Should it be renamed the Eurovision Pong Contest, because something certainly stinks. It smells a bit like ‘past its sell by date’, but at least it shows that the world (the western world that is) of entertainment is singing from the same song sheet as UK/US western media. Obviously, Sandy Shaw got it right when she won the Euro-must-be-daft-to-watch it Song Compost in 1967 with the aptly and prophetically named ‘Puppet on a String’.
‘Make It Up as You Go Along’ Western Media The most unsurprising of eventualities regarding Russia’s 9th May Victory Day was that contrary to the West’s media predictions that Vladimir Putin would announce mass mobilisation to facilitate total war in Ukraine, it didn’t happen. Nevertheless, this did not stop my brother from advising me by email that I should get a sick note from mum, as I used to do when I was at school, explaining to Mr Putin that I was very sorry, but I couldn’t possibly march in army boots with a bad leg like mine. As this expedient turned out to be unnecessary, I was able to reflect more fully on what it was that the West could learn from the sincere and heartfelt devotion of the Russian people to the sacrifices made by former generations of their countrymen during WWII in the interests of preserving their country’s sovereignty and for Russia’s right to continue to live without interference and threat from the West. This exercise in cogitation brought forth the simple but inevitable conclusion that it was not so much what the West could learn as what it should remember, not only about the facts pertaining to WWII but to any and every period enshrined in the past. The greatest and unforgivable crime against the inalienability of history is the immoral attempt to rewrite it, however futile such an attempt unavoidably proves to be.
Headline >The Guardian: Britain is using Ukraine for a disgusting game Johnson using Ukraine as a diversionary tactic to refocus the public’s attention away from his failings as Prime Minister and the Conservative party’s internal conflict for change of leadership. That’s a take on the role that Britain has assigned to itself with regard to Ukraine that we can all relate to. You cannot blame the British public for their willing participation in this game. It is not often that they get the chance to rattle the sabre and wave the flag. Patriotism and white flight are outward bound third class, making way for boat loads to Dover and the pathetic and steady accretion of woke. Link>https://www-pravda-ru.translate.goog/world/1703851-konservatory/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
Quote: ‘US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Washington would “keep moving heaven and earth so that we can meet” the military needs of the Ukrainian government, while urging other countries to also contribute to the cause.’
Comment: That’s very altruistic of the US. Let’s hope that it does not eventually lead to Earth being raised to Heaven ~ or at least in that direction …
Desperately trying to be more zany than each other is the sort of thing that gets alternative media sources a bad name. You might conclude that if they cannot take themselves seriously who is going to take them seriously (snigger). However, once you’ve cut through the silly voices, pop-video props and comic-strip presentation, nuggets of interest and sometimes rich seams of mind matter seldom mined by western masses are there to be had and processed. Forget how he says it, but listen and reflect upon what this chap has to say (see video below): https://rumble.com/vw8q9n-ukraine-and-russia-what-the-media-wants-you-to-think.html
Now here’s a chap from America who claims that the conflict in Ukraine didn’t start recently but is in it’s eighth year (see video below). I wonder what the BBC and fact checkers make of that! 😉
“Sanctions are a tax on independence.” ~ Sergey Lavrov
There is something so solid, reliable and dependable about Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia. It’s such a treat when you contrast his cool, sometimes blunt but always level-headed presentation with, for example, the comic braggadocio of our Boris, the shop-window plasticity of US politicians and the smug narcissism of oily Turdeau clones. My wife tells me that Lavrov is also fond of cigars. You cannot fault a man who supports the noble art of cigar smoking!
At the end of this panel there is an article link featuring an interview with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, conducted by TV channels RT, NBC News, ABC News, ITN, France 24 and the PRC Media Corporation, which took place on 3 March 2022, regarding the situation in Ukraine.
Four quotes by Lavrov from that interview:
“Each country has the right to choose alliances. However, no country can strengthen its security at the expense of the security of any other country. No organisation can claim dominance in the Euro-Atlantic space, which is exactly what NATO is doing now.”
“I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the thought of nuclear war is constantly running through the minds of Western politicians but not the minds of Russians.”
“No one has listened to us for 30 years. The West is perfectly aware of our concerns. Endlessly ignoring them with such arrogance has not worked and will not work. Only naive people could have thought otherwise.”
“I assure you that we will deal with whatever problems the West creates for us out of its determination (I emphasise once again – not to ensure their own security, this isn’t about the security of the West at all) to use Ukraine as a tool and a pretext to prevent Russia from pursuing an independent policy. There are few countries left on Earth that can afford such a luxury. Sanctions are a tax on independence, if you like.”
If you only ever read one article published in Russian about the situation in Ukraine, then make it this one!
“There are only a handful of Western journalists on the ground in Donbass, while the Western mainstream press is rubber-stamping fake news about the Ukrainian crisis using the same templates it previously exploited in Iraq, Libya and Syria, says Dutch independent journalist Sonja van den Ende.”
Since Russia launched its special operation in Ukraine to protect the republics in the Donbas region of Ukraine and its own country by negating the potential for NATO to use Ukraine as a base from which to attack Russia, Russian media as well as Russian posts and comments on social media relevant to the Ukrainian situation have been banned in the UK, presumably for the purpose of concealing the West’s involvement in the events that led to the conflict and to present a one-sided version of that conflict in order to influence public opinion and to promote and maximise mass hysteria. All that we are seeing now is a continuation of the West’s policy to subjugate and marginalise Russia, everything else is just a means to an end. ~ comment from reader of my blog expatkaliningrad.com
Eastward Expansion of the West the Real Reasons?
Katie Hopkins, political commentator, proving once again that she has the balls to say “what other people think but are too scared to say”:
Published: 10 June 2022 ~ Victor Ryabinin Pushes Boat Out with Bronze Aged Fisherman
At last, on Saturday 4th June 2022, the memorial plaque that we commissioned in 2021 linking Victor Ryabinin, friend and Königsberg artist, to our physical representation of his famous painting ‘Boat with Flowers’, which occupies pride of place next to the Soviet fisherman statue, was given a home. The reason it never got attached last year was that we could not make up our minds where the plaque should go. The original plan was to include it within the boat and statue ensemble, possibly secured to a large flat-surfaced rock, screwed to the side of the boat or mounted on some plinth or other. I was easy with any of these three options, but Olga opined that the plaque would be hidden, which would rather defeat the object.
Thus, the location of the plaque was put to the vote, resulting in the unanimous decision to secure it to the side of the house, beside the garden gate. Our friend with the drill and bolts, Mr Chilikin, performed his side of the operation, whilst I, having just returned from the shop with two bottles of beer, provided inestimable assistance by holding the plaque in place.
Victor Ryabinin
When you lose someone as dear and as vital as Victor, time has a perplexing way of flying and standing still at the same time. This July will see the third anniversary of Victor’s death. It seems like only yesterday, ten thousand days or more.
I am not ashamed to say that once the plaque had been placed, I did shed a few tears, but being a real Englishman, not a cheap British counterfeit, in order to maintain the myth of the stiff upper lip, I managed this in private.
Of course, once the plaque had been ‘unveiled’ a toast ensued involving vodka, after which an intuitive silence fell on those of us present, the shared but unspoken thought being that had Death not exercised its non negotiable right to inopportune subtraction, doubtlessly Victor would have been with us today, and no plaque would have been necessary, just another glass. Life goes on, as they say, though never quite in the same old way.
This year our boat is not looking anywhere near as well-stocked and verdant as the one in Victor’s painting, so project two is to rectify that discrepancy as soon as humanly possible.
Before getting down to the serious task of celebrating what was without argument the most glorious summer day this year, Mr Chilikin also made good his promise to turn our fisherman bronze. You may remember that last year’s restorative work on Captain Codpiece, our statue, had garnered criticism from a certain outspoken babushka, to wit that his new coat of paint appeared to be designed to make the feeble minded do something remarkably silly, like go down on one knee. Hence, there was nothing for it: either we had to delete one letter in the ‘Codpiece’ name and add two more in its place or pursue the original plan, which was to make him bronze.
The latter option being the best in good taste all round, though the former was chucklingly good, Mr Chilikin got to woke, I mean work, and with the catalysing infusion of a couple of homemade vodkas gave Codpiece a new look that would make any alchemist jealous.
In the 1960s, the fisherman had been silvered, but that was long ago. The Soviet era passed, the silver wore away and the fisherman’s concrete superstructure began seriously deteriorating. We repaired him, coated the concrete in a special sealant and weather-proof solution and painted him in a dark matte ground with hints and highlights of bronze. Finally, succumbing to the criticism that he was as dark as a midnight mushroom, we turned up the bronze, although some might say that relative to the new beginning he is fullfilling an act of destiny and turning into gold.
“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” ― Oscar Wilde
Published: 6 June 2022 ~ Word War III the Latest Media Plandemic
So, do you do it and, if the answer is yes, do you do a lot of it? I do ~ musing, I mean.
And isn’t there just so much to muse on?
Let’s take Ukraine, for example. When I say take, I don’t mean as in takeaway ~ which, someone suggested, is what the Poles want to do ~ I use the term figuratively, as in example1.
I am sure you will agree that it is an excellent example, as it is virtually impossible these days whenever the need for musing arises not to have a muse or two about what it is the West is up to out there in Ukraine.
The one place where you won’t find that out is in the British media, because Britland’s media is far too busy making (you could say ‘manufacturing’) news than reporting it. They did it to you with Brexit; they did it through the Plandemic; and now they are doing it to you again with Ukraine. Why does the British government and its media lackies want to scare you shitless?
10
The simple answer, but not the whole story, is to get you to buy newspapers and to click on their websites, thereby enabling them to fleece gullible advertisers. Terror sells ~ but there is more to it than that.
It is ironic don’t you think (well, do you think?) that UK media is obsessed with speculation as to whether the crisis in Ukraine will result in World War III (it has certainly resulted in Word War III), which, incidentally, should it happen would make it hard to find the UK on the global map (not trying to frighten you, or anything), but continues to support UK government policy to pump shipment after shipment of arms to Ukraine, thus bringing the threat of Armageddon closer. Such irresponsible profligacy costs the British taxpayer dearly for something that to all accounts gets itself blown up soon after it arrives on foreign soil2.
9
If the Labour Party was not so riddled with woke, someone ~ someone who is not scared to be called misogynist ~ could come right out with it and tell the foreign secretary ‘Liz don’t Trusst her’ that she is not fit for purpose and that perhaps it would be better for everyone if she just went home where she could try to do something useful like whip up a batch of scones. That something from the Labour party could then add that the money the UK is throwing away on its latest imperialist misadventure could be put to better use, such as donated to its favourite political hobby-horse the NHS, if only to finance the extra burden that will soon devolve to this commendable institution from the influx of merry migrants that keep grinning their way on boats to Dover. The logic is elementary but fundamental: more people in an over-populated country means less NHS to go round.
8
I know that there are an awful lot of Brits musing on the immigration fiasco, most of whom will never go beyond musing as they are afraid to voice their opinions, and I fully understand why. It is all so tiresome, is it not, having to prefix every honest syllable you utter with, “I’m not racist, but …” And after all, why should you bother? It is obvious that Britain’s political elite don’t or else the little overcrowded boats would not keep bobbing in. But then the difference between Britain’s political elites and you is that when the sh!t hits the fan, which it will (look at Sweden!) the elite will be going the other way and you’ll be left in the line of fire.
This tragedy is no longer one which is waiting to happen. It is already underway. But let’s not muse on that. Our current muse turns on the question: Is the British establishment placing the lives of every citizen in the UK at risk by openly suppling weapons to Ukraine, by its bellicosity towards Russia and by playing lapdog to the United States?
7
When nuclear war was first mentioned, which, in case you didn’t know was by the West and by the Brits, Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, had this to say:
“I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the thought of nuclear war is constantly running through the minds of Western politicians but not the minds of Russians.”3
Since then, however, the unthinkable, which also used to be the unspeakable, makes guest appearances on a regular basis throughout the UK media, so much so that if it wasn’t for Britain’s endemic violence and the UK’s cops losing the fight against street crime, the possibility of nuclear war would even eclipse these subjects.
Given the extent of the media-led psychosis and the paranoia it has imbued, it is hardly surprising that there are people in the Russian Federation who have begun to respond in kind4.
6
Time, do you think (well, do you think?) for British people to stand up for themselves, to instruct their ‘democratically elected government’ and its malignant media that enough is really enough.
There are, however, other ‘atomic bombs’ that haven’t gone off as planned, for example sanctions.
I sometimes get the impression that I am the only one that the West has sanctioned! Recently, someone sent me some money from the UK, and it arrived in Russia worth half as much as it was before the liberal globalists set out to cripple Russia’s economy! Am I missing something here ~ apart from half my cash? Did the West unleash sanctions deliberately to make the rouble stronger? Last month, the pounds weakness in relation to the rouble meant that I could only buy half the amount of beer that I would normally buy? Now, that is serious! Meanwhile, according to my family and friends in Britland, the cost of living is soaring and the standard of living collapsing. Ahh, but I hear you say, there is madness in our government’s method.
5
We all know by now, or should know, that the sanctions have been successful, at least in punishing every Tom, Uncle Tom, Dick and Leroy in the US and UK, but not, it would appear, in Russia. The civil unrest hoped for and orchestrated with the assistance of a certain ‘philanthropic billionaire’ has not materialised, and Russia’s special military operation appears to be going as planned. Political analysts opine that whilst the West may delay Russia’s progress in Ukraine, it will not stop it from achieving its goals5.
The extent of the West’s frustration is encapsulated in the ever-self-explosive rhetoric embarrassingly evacuating from the oratory orifice of the Polish prime minister, who appears to have ordained himself as the Archbishop of Anti-Russian Hysteria. Notwithstanding his ‘personal shame’ ~ ‘the personal shame of the Polish Prime Minister’6 ~ at least he looks good with his 1960s’ hairstyle and specs, but even those have not proved sufficient to dissuade neither US nor British governments from continuing to spend billions on military equipment bound for Ukraine, where off it goes to get blown up. Someone commenting on a media site waggishly asked, wouldn’t it just be a lot less trouble and considerably less expensive to blow these shipments up before they leave the US and the UK, thus saving the price of the postage?
4
Every crisis known to man {LGBTs, Its and Others} ~ or should that be ever manufactured by man? ~ has been a godsend for profiteering of one kind or another.
Evidence suggests that the UK establishment is profiting from the conflict in Ukraine by using it as a cover for the miss-management of its economy7: terror and hysteria make superb attention conductors. The strategy is not new. It’s merely a resuscitation of the old Theresa May ploy, “It’s ‘highly likely’ the Russians have done it!” Move along, please, nothing to see (or believe in) here.
But even exploitation, or so it would seem, is not what it used to be. I must say I am rather surprised that someone in high office has not yet implemented Plan A as a means of reassuring Brits that should the UK government over play its hand in Ukraine, thus sparking a global disaster, surviving a nuclear holocaust may yet be possible providing that mandatory lockdowns, mask-wearing, compulsory vaccinations ~ and WHO knows what ~ are rigorously adhered to.
3
I am convinced, however, that the endless stream of third-world migrants pouring into Dover is a crucial component of the UK’s defence strategy, guaranteed, I imagine, if not to act as a shield against incoming missiles to effectively deter any kind of invasion other than the migrant one, which the UK establishment appears to support. For surely nobody in their right mind would want to take possession of a country ravaged by migrant unrest and migrant-related violence, plagued by woke, cancel culture and, buggered if I know what else, ahh that reminds me, gay parades.
2
I’m not suggesting that lockdowns, mask-wearing and mandatory vaccinations would be any less effective than they have proved to be for anything else, but better the devil you know than the ones that make work for idle minds.
Celebrating Victory Day across the Kaliningrad region
Published: 15 May 2022 ~ Triumph and Trips on the 9th of May Kaliningrad
The weather was so gorgeous on this year’s 9th of May morning and there was so much of it, that I thought it must have been something the West had sanctioned.
The sun was shining like a bright new stable rouble and the sky so blue that had it not been for the exculpatory fact that everyone was as happy as Larry, it could have been mistaken for the Polish Prime Minister’s temperament (Well, he never felt more like singing the blues, did he!).
As it wasn’t ~ the sky as blue as the Polish Prime Minister I mean ~ and before Arthur Eagle realised that he was standing in sabaka gavnor (that’s dog’s s!!t to you), planted on the verge no doubt by an expelled Polish diplomat (they can be very temperamental, those Poles), there was nothing for it than first to be thankful that we were not all standing where Arthur was ~ I called it in the West ~ and then to drink to Russia’s Victory and, of course, to Victory Day.
As I wrote in my previous post Victory Day Russia 2022 Brings Record Turnout, our first victory today was finding a square foot of space among the crowds where people weren’t, and then, once we were in it, moving with the multitude onto and into Victory Park. The last time I saw this many people crammed into one place it was on a Royal Navy ship trafficking migrants to Dover. The atmosphere was different, of course; it was not the jubilation of grabbing all that you can get, like a free-for-all in a jumble sale, but a moral imperative fuelled by gratitude and patriotism, which, as you should know dear reader, is a rich resource in Russia and which, like gas and oil, and it would seem most other things, is a sanction-proofed commodity.
Whilst this sincere demonstration of social cohesiveness and high regard for cultural integrity could not be anything else but a source of complete frustration for Soros and Co, that infamous firm of migrant movers and embargoists, it did cause a minor inconvenience for us, as Arthur had to park the Volga some way away. But with the usual dexterity of Russians to turn a potential handicap into advantage, we found our route on foot taking us over the vertical lift bridge, a grand old double-decker design with its roots firmly planted in the industrial age.
This meant photographs, and even an arty farty one (well, almost) shot through the steel and rivetted girders of the bridge, framing two distinctly different periods of architecture and juxtaposing the old and the new both in terms of design principles and the materials employed. If you look closely at the photo below at the inset panel, you will see, in the foreground behind the weather ship, the recently completed World Ocean Museum globe and peeping out behind it to the right the time-honoured turret of Königsberg Cathedral.
The other advantage of Arthur’s parking was that he had found a quiet street where those of us who were not behind the wheel could partake of another quick snifter of delicious homemade vodka ~ vodka distilled with a twist of lemon. It was also a nice street for Arthur’s shoes, as there seemed to be nothing NATO-like for them to accidently stand in.
Triumph and Trips on the 9th of May Kaliningrad
Having made everyone jealous with our improvised boot fare, we then ‘classic-car-d it’ to Mr Zverev’s museum in Nizovie, where, in keeping with the tenor of the occasion, the frontage and grounds to the back of his fine old german building had been requisitioned by the Soviet era.
Out front, a Soviet Capitan was keeping watch. He was wearing the khaki uniform of the Red Army, consisting of an officer’s visor cap; a Gimnasterka ~ loose fitting thick cotton shirt; Harovari, ‘elephant ear’ cavalry-style britches; and thick canvas and leather Sapogi (boots). Around his waist he has a broad leather star-buckled officer’s belt. The gun he is carrying is a ppsh sub-machine gun with drum magazine.
We know all this not from research for this blog but because when we lived in England we were, for a while, members of the Red Army’s 2nd Guards Rifle Division, a re-enactment group that attend 1940s’ historical events at locations throughout the UK and where at some they fight it out with the Germans ~ entirely, I hasten to add, in the spirit of reconstruction.
Mr Zerev’s Capitan now no longer a stranger to us, I said my next hello to the star of Yury Grozmani’s film Last Tango in Königsberg. The swish 1927 Cadillac shared the billing today with two Red Army motorcycles (one pictured below) and, just around the corner of the building, a curious armoured vehicle. I never thought to ask if this is a real military vehicle or something cunningly mocked-up for display purposes. See the photos: what do you think?
Olga Hart with mystery military vehicle
It may look like a cuddle but it is actually a comrade’s embrace!
Mick Hart with no ordinary Soviet soldier. Apparently, when not in uniform he is assisting Mr Zverev with the design of his museum.
Triumph and Trips on the 9th of May Kaliningrad
Off the military scene, but no less interesting, was an old orange Soviet tractor. I do appreciate an old tractor. They always trundle me back in my mind to the farming days of my youth: no cabs, cold metal seats, diesel fumes and dust. Once driven, never forgotten! By the way, the seat on this particular tractor, with its high foam and leatherette back rest is not the original. In the days when tractors like this roamed the earth, luxury was no object ~ there wasn’t any. The original tractor seat stood by the museum wall, all hard, bucket-like and bum-and-back unfriendly. The good old days indeed!
What most of us are conveniently inclined to forget when we gaze nostalgically on these old wheeled vehicles is that the probability of breaking down was considerably higher in ‘the good old days’ than it is for modern vehicles. Perhaps this is why a friend’s classic car from the Kaliningrad Retro Club decided to remind us.
Pushing the Moskvich 1500 was great fun, but like the thrill of the bucket toilet deprived by the modern flush, I suppose such entertainment will eventually come to an end once they invent key-turn ignition.
As the sound of patriotic Soviet music belting forth from two giant speakers faded into the distance, I looked forward to a long woodland walk on the outskirts of the village where relatives of our friends live but had to make do instead with fine beers and a comfy settee whilst watching Moscow’s Victory Parade on widescreen TV. After all, as I said to my wife and our friends, they could tell me all about their long walk when they returned. A personal victory for me on Victory Day!
Published: 12 May 2022 ~ Victory Day Russia 2022 brings Record Turnout
This year’s attendance at Russia’s annual 9th May Victory Day celebration of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War (WWII), which liberated the world, ensured Russia’s preservation and determined its future role on the international stage, was nothing short of spectacular. In Moscow it was reported that more than a million people took part in the annual procession of the ‘Immortal Regiment’, and a friend, contacting us by VK messenger, said that the crowds in St Petersburg were literally overwhelming.
Here, in my hometown, Kaliningrad, the volume of people making the yearly pilgrimage to Victory Park to place flowers of respect and gratitude on the monuments to their Soviet forbears who had risked and layed down their lives by the millions to free the world of Nazism was a truly phenomenal sight. Russian citizens of all ages from the very young to the very old streamed towards the park, proudly holding aloft placard-mounted photograph portraits of grandparents and great grandparents who had fought and died defending their country.
Victory Day Russia 2022 brings Record Turnout
Such was the magnitude of the throng that when we arrived at the edge of the park we found further progress impeded by a redoubtable network of crowd-control barriers. However, with a little effort and ingenuity we gradually joined the vast procession as it slowly made its way towards the Monument to 1200 Guardsmen, the city’s foremost war memorial.
Here, the crowds would pause to say a silent prayer, to reflect on the sacrifice made by previous generations and to lay flowers at the foot of the 26-metre obelisk.
The Monument to 1200 Guardsmen is Kaliningrad’s open church. Its landmark obelisk, eternal flame ~ lit more than fifty years ago ~ and spacious square flanked by two figural sculptures depicting Soviet troops storming the city of Königsberg (renamed ‘Kaliningrad’ after the war) is a living memory embodied in stone and bronze of the fortitude and heroism exemplified by the Soviet people in resisting and vanquishing fascism and in lifting the shadow of the dark forces that it had cast upon the world.
Like the eternal flame of which it is a part, the Monument to 1200 Guardsmen is a holy place of patriotism. The crowd brought more of it with them. In addition to the portraits of their ancestors, many people carried and waved small commemorative flags and some of the more adventurous full-sized Soviet banners. The Georgian ribbon, a one-time component of military decorations but latterly used to honour veterans who fought on the Eastern front, a symbol of glory instantly recognised by its striking combination of contrasting black and orange stripes, was everywhere. And many people, including my wife and our comrades, also donned wartime pilotkas ~ olive-green military side caps complete with Soviet insignia.
Along the approach road to the obelisk and the entrance to Victory Park music of a patriotic and sentimental nature recorded during the wartime era played through the PA system. People brought up with these songs, and later generations who had been taught them by their parents and in history lessons at school, sang along as sentiment directed, sometimes wistfully, then triumphantly but always with great affection.
The shared respect for historical memory by so many people of so many differing ages was uplifting and inspiriting. It is hard to imagine greater devotion stemming from people of a sovereign country to and for that country. The evocation of pride and faith, unity and belonging is one which westerners seldom encounter; indeed, one which modern western youth deprived of would find alien.
Victory Day Russia 2022 brings Record Turnout
For Russians, however, the past remains a part of the living present. It is the foundation of their strength, a triumph of cultural values that has transcended generations and continues to transcend, uniting and sustaining them. It is the dove and poetry of the Russian soul; the stoical spirit of the Russian bear. The people of their past are the people of their present and the children of their present is their future. This then is the march of Russia’s Immortal Regiment! <9th May Victory Day 2022>
