Mick Hart’s totally biased review of bottled beers* in Kaliningrad (or how to live without British real ale!)
Article 11: Oak & Hoop beer
Published: 31 January 2021
I developed a taste for beer when I was about 14 years old, about the time that they turned a blind eye to my age and began to let me through the doors of the village local. Some might say that is a very tender age to be supping and that I should be ashamed of myself, but, of course, I am not. The one thing I have learnt, or subscribed to, as I approach the senior years of my life is that there is nothing so true as the philosophical adage, ‘live life whilst you are young’. I know this to be the touchstone of our brief earthly existence because now that I am older I cannot drink half as much beer as I could when I should not have been drinking it. Ahh, happy days: vitals in their unsullied prime and Courage Tavern on tap. It was “What your right arm’s for”, or so went the advertising slogan, possibly to remind those pub-going blokes back in the 1970s that it was not just something with a fist on the end that you threw after several pints.
But we must leave reminiscences of real pubs, real men and the days of pre-real ale to focus on the latest addition to my bottled beers of Kaliningrad review, which today features another one of those offerings served up in squat dumpy bottles.
All of the beers in this series of reviews are available through general supermarkets, and this is no exception.
Oak & Hoop Beer in Kaliningrad
Oak & Hoop beer comes from the same brewery, the Trisosensky Plant, from which the beer Soft Barley derives, which was the subject of my previous review, and, as with the previous review, I have only good things to say.
First off, you’ve just got to love the advertising. Not only a small plastic beer barrel, but one adorned with a crafted piece of card attached to the pouring top and draped Mason’s apron style from head to toe. The alluring impression is instantaneously craft beer. A crafted piece of card craftily cut and composed to convince the consumer that what lies within is craft. The image of mallet, barrel and stool, all in wood, naturally, with vintage-leaning display type and mellow beer-brown colours all contribute handsomely to the presentation, promise and promotion of a traditional, quality beverage. Oh, and lookee here, notice the awards attained, signified by the august presence of three gold medallions.
I deduced from the first nasal observation a seductive compilation enticingly in favour of roasted malts and caramel, which corresponded perfectly with my long-standing prejudice for brews whilst though they may not be ales as such yet display certain defining characteristics making them more akin to ale than their pallid pilsner counterparts, for which I make no secret of courting less than great affection.
But we are not here to sniff it. We will leave that pleasure for wine drinkers and let them spit it out.
Award-winning Oak & Hoop beer in Kaliningrad, Russia
As first tastes go, there was no doubt in my mind that I had spent my 147 rubles wisely. The caramel and malt bouquet delivered the taste promised by the aroma. Rounded and mellow with just a hint of bitterness, the sweet incipience gives way to a dry, satisfying, lingering taste, the parity of which makes strange bedfellows out of any critical notion that the two could live apart.
This subtle liaison discreetly belies its AVG manliness, which, at 4.9%, packs a not unreasonable clout, but then let’s not be bashful, it’s what your right arms for.
Oak & Hoop Beer in Kaliningrad
If I have learnt anything about beer it is that the first likeable sip does not necessarily equate in taste to love at first sight; you may like, you may love, or imagine you do, but if it be love that willingly takes you happily to the end of the glass, then be sure that it will be lust that brings you back for more.
We are continually reminded, bordello fashion, that pleasures in life have to be paid for, and the pleasure of Oak & Hoop is worth every penny and every ruble, so go for it before you get too old!
😁TRAINSPOTTING & ANORAKS Name of Beer: Oak & Hoop Brewer: Trisosensky brewery Where it is brewed: Ulyanovsk and Dimitrovgrad, Russia Bottle capacity: 1.5 litres Strength: 4.9% Price: It cost me about 137 rubles (£1.32) Appearance: Pale golden Aroma: Hops & caramel Taste: Subtle, attractive blend of sweet & dry with caramel Fizz amplitude: 5/10 Label/Marketing: Traditional Would you buy it again? I intend to. Marks out of 10: 9
*Note that the beers that feature in this review series only include bottled beer types that are routinely sold through supermarket outlets and in no way reflect the variety of beer and/or quality available in Kaliningrad from speciality outlets and/or through bars and restaurants.
A Creepy Case of Contortionist Comparison: There will be a time when history needs to be rewritten to arrive at the truth
Published: 29 January 2021 ~ BLM Riots vs Capitol Media Reporting
BLM Riots (United States) Date: 26 May 2020 Duration: 26 May 2020 – 8 June 2020 (2 weeks) Extent: More than 20 states across America Costs: Insurance costs estimated at between $1 and $2 billion dollars Deaths: More than 19 deaths Arrests: 14,000+ [source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests]
WHAT validity is there in comparing these two incidents: the BLM riots and the storming of the US Capitol? None: except that both were violent and both should be condemned as such. However, the disparity is that only one of these violent incidents appears to merit condemnation, the other is being excused.
I was amused in a morbid fashion to see how rapidly the liberal-biased media moved to make comparisons between the recent incident on Capitol Hill and the Black Lives Matter riots ~ amused, because quite clearly the two do not lend themselves to comparison, at least not a legitimate one.
I read a few more articles, and it soon became clear that the object of the exercise was to vindicate the BLM riots whilst denouncing the Capitol attack as a Trump-instigated insurrection inflicted by white supremacists and far right groups .. and then came all the usual stuff about an assault on democracy, etc.
After I had stopped yawning, I dismissed the latter out of hand. When a politically partisan media spends four years relentlessly attempting to delegitimise a presidency and in the process cold shoulders the democratic process, for it to suddenly reinvent itself as the guardian of democracy and reclaim the moral high ground at a time fortuitous to its own agenda, is a bit too rich to take.
BLM Riots vs Capitol Media Reporting
Let me make clear, that I am not so much concerned with whether you believe the BLM movement to be a legitimate one, with legitimate grievances and that their taking to the streets is condonable or, conversely, whether you believe them to be a subversive, anarchistic mob supported and directed by far-left extremist groups such as Antifa, as I am with the way in which western media reports such incidents in an attempt to influence and manipulate opinion.
Balanced … something the media finds hard to achieve (see Image credits)
First, let us look at some of the statistics about the BLM riots. They are not easy to find, and, obviously, I have no way of verifying their authenticity. Like you, all I can do is repeat what I have read in the media (scary, isn’t it!)
The BLM riots, which kicked off in the States, took place over a period that spanned two weeks and resulted in more than 19 deaths, 14,000 arrests and an insurance bill of between $1 billion and $2 billion. The BLM riots in the UK took place over a period of more than 3 weeks and resulted in 135+ arrests. I have not been able to ascertain the costs of the UK riots either in terms of insurance or policing. There is your homework.
The storming of the Capitol building was a flash incident that took place during one day. It resulted in 5 deaths and 162 arrested. As with the BLM UK riots, I have been unable to determine costs.
The first media report that I chanced upon in the wake of the Capitol Hill incident was one from the liberal-left online feed of The Guardian. The first paragraph reads:
“The contrast between the law enforcement reaction to the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday and the suppression of peaceful protests in the summer is not just stark – it is black and white.”
Yes, and so is the article. After the all-important ubiquitous word ‘peaceful’, a word much favoured and flaunted by UK and US liberal media in relation to the BLM riots, the article continues as a series of photographs put together in such a way as to contrast the ‘peaceful’ nature of the BLM riots against the ‘not so peaceful’ storming of the Capitol.
SOME COMPARISONS WORK BETTER THAN OTHERS! (see Image credits)
If I was to edit an article in favour of those who forced entry into the Capitol, I would select photographs that showed demonstrators waving flags and hugging one another ~ photographs, in other words, that depicted a happy crowd of peaceful revellers ~ and juxtapose these with scenes of mayhem, violence and looting during the BLM riots. Not only do you get the pictures, but I am sure you get the picture.
In addition to awareness of carefully selected pictures, recognising carefully loaded-words and expressions, that is to say biased words and expressions presumed capable of influencing thoughts and opinions, are also a certified means of determining where media bias lies. Once you have identified these, you will begin to understand along which garden path any one article or media corporation is attempting to lead you.
Up the garden path!(see Image credits)
For example, in the article to which I have referred, in addition to the keyword ‘peaceful’, others to watch out for are those that label, particularly those that label and define political street groups and affiliations. Comparisons and contrasts between any one group and its counterpart are key indicators of a specific article’s political bias and usually that of the publisher, unless the article closes on a disclaimer that specifically states that ‘The statements, views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Lie.’
So, in The Guardian’s article, we find the headline: ‘Maga v BLM: how police handled the Capitol mob and George Floyd activists – in pictures’.
Capitol mob; George Floyd activists. Spot the difference.
If you care to read the article you will see that those who breached the Capitol are ‘rioters’, whilst BLM are not only George Floyd ‘activists’ but ‘demonstrators’ and ‘protestors’, which in the carefully selected photographs they most surely are.
If you undertake a Google search on ‘BLM riots’, the search returns nothing on the word ‘riots’. Predominantly, uselessly as far as the search is concerned but with revelatory consequences, the search returns a deflecting preoccupation with the alleged difference in the police response to the storming of the Capitol and the law enforcement procedures adopted to contain those involved in the BLM ‘protests’.
To understand the futility of such a comparison, please refer to the statistics that I have provided on both counts at the beginning of this post.
By far the most involved and convoluted article to labour this perspective is one that seeks to justify the BLM riots on the grounds that certain types of mob violence and the destruction that it wreaks can be excused, even ennobled, depending on the stated cause and aim. I quote:
‘Violence that is intended to spread democracy, end injustice and encourage fairness in the application of the rule of law …’
Oxymoronic, simply moronic or true? Certainly, history and the events currently taking shape in Eastern Europe prove the premise that violence is used to spread ‘democracy’, but as for violence ending ‘injustice’ and ‘encouraging’ fairness in how the law is applied, this just sounds like an unconvincing repetition of that age-old get-out clause about ends justifying means, or, in this instance, the stated ends justifying the means. Rather ‘violence begets violence’ and ‘those who live by the sword die by the sword’ would be more appropriate, don’t you think?
BLM Riots vs Capitol Media Reporting
Nevertheless, you have to hand it to them, to support their tenet of a noble species of violence, the liberal media did manage to quote business owners who in the course of the US riots, although they suffered damage to their premises, loss of stock by looting and near loss of life, yet came out on the side of the rioters, claiming that it was worth it.
This dubious response reminds me of films based on prohibition days. James Cagney and his boys would invade a downtown bar and remodel the interior, persuading the proprietor that it would be prudent in future for him to sell their brand of bootlegged beer, or else. And the proprietor when asked later by the police or press about who trashed his premises, would very swiftly reply that it was just some guys letting off steam, and besides no harm was done.
Media corporations that have taken refuge in this typical liberal response, which is to ‘coset the pepertrators, blame the State and ignore the victims’, are also quick to further jeopardise the integrity of law and order by suggesting that not only is there a racial bias in the way that the police deal with mob violence but also a political one, that the police in other words are harder on riots involving neo-marxist antagonists (which the liberal media always deny exist) and people of colour and soft on far-right white extremists.
Hello, my name is Karl Marx …(see Image credits)
Inflicting disparagement on an already embattled police force when the glass has hardly been cleared away from broken shop fronts and the smoke not yet extinguished from the burnt wreckage of cars and buildings is not exactly the most diplomatic scapegoating. And with the cries of ‘defund the police’ and ‘abolish the police force’ still ringing in your ears, as silly as these slogans sound, you could be forgiven for believing that the BLM riots have less to do at the end of the day ~ the end of several days ~ with racial injustice and more with the neo-marxist dream of disempowering law enforcement, of making the law think twice before confronting and apprehending criminals from certain volatile backgrounds. Buy our brand, or else!
From an ideological standpoint an accomplishment of this magnitude is as good a deflection technique as stirring up riots in countries whose socio-political beliefs run counter to your own purely for the sake of making political capital out of the photographs that ensue, thus distracting the public from the carefully crafted political mismanagement that is taking place in their own back yard. It happens, and it is happening.
BLM Riots vs Capitol Media Reporting ~ conclusions
From an analysis and evaluation of the comparison strategy applied by the liberal-left media, which egregiously synonymises the storming of the Capitol with the BLM riots whilst ignoring the difference in scale and extent, (the Capitol Hill incident bears no relationship to riots that engulfed over 2,000 cities and towns in 50 states and was replicated in over 60 other countries*), it would be difficult not to conclude that the objective is to paint one outrage as irredeemably despicable and the other as excusable, even justifiable.
The narrative goes that the storming of the Capitol was carried out by white supremacists and factions of the far right, whilst the BLM riots were ‘peaceful’ protests that had a legitimate and transparent basis in hundreds of years of racial discrimination and intransigent police brutality.
The manipulation is an insidious one because by deflection the narrative plays squarely into the hands of the extreme left, the neomarxists, who, let us be perfectly honest, would like nothing more than to see the police defunded, but, failing to realise that fantasy are willing to accept, at least for the time being, the compromise of a hamstrung police force whose ability to prosecute law enforcement is severely hampered or even paralysed.
Ahhh, isn’t he nice!(see Image credits)
Fairness, equality and the alleged misappropriation of the law are things to be resolved through constructive debate and due legal process, not street violence and outlandish demands, the anarchistic nature of which emphatically betray ideological motives.
As a footnote, it would be inexcusable of me if I did not mention the BLM riots that took place in the UK. These occurred, as did many, as a sort of clip-on afterthought. The grievance list was read from the same script and the neomarxist desire for the police to be defunded was reiterated, although not a lot of people in the UK bought into that one. With crime in the UK running at an all-time high, and a growing proportion of the UK public believing it to be linked to failed social engineering, surviving in an increasingly fractured and disharmonised society with no fuzz and just a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ was a proposition straight down the pan.
The fundamental difference between the BLM riots in the US and UK was that in the UK it can be contextualised as a continuation or extension of legacy Britain vs others. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the de-erection of statues and the affront that this inflicted symbolically on the legacy values of ancestral home, heritage and history, an affront which reached its apotheosis in the attacks on Churchill’s statue, the shameful considerations among MPs afterwards to remove it to a ‘safe house’ and the gormless daubing in paint on the plinth ‘Churchill was a racist’.
‘We shall fight them on the beaches …’ … and everywhere else I should imagine!(see Image credits)
I think we can safely say, and without valid contradiction, that if it was not for Churchill people from faraway lands would not be enjoying the privilege of sailing to Blighty’s shores, taking up residence here and with the blessing of the state rampaging through the streets in the carefree way that they do (another way of saying ‘protest’). Those who perpetrate such acts and daub ‘racist’ on Churchill’s statue would do well to pause for thought. It was after all ‘racist’ Churchill who led this little island to defeat the Nazi hoards. Had it not been for Churchill’s yesterday I think we can safely say that today it would be Adolf’s statue that they would want to deface, and not without some justification, except, of course, to do so would take a lot more courage than the little that is needed in a country where our police force is less skilled in riot control than it is in offering apologies.
Spurious comparisons, such as the one perpetrated by the liberal media in BLM vs Capitol, though completely meretricious, are timely reminders that never before has the media played such a manipulating part in our lives.
Rolling TV news mesmerises, but it is the spawning of the internet, as an instant and incredibly volumetric means of disseminating ideological gunk wholesale that we need to be aware of. Add to this the incessant chatter and babble from Facebook and Twitter and, unless you choose not to believe anything until it is proved otherwise (and for goodness sake do not rely on Full Fact), you have about as much chance of getting safely through the misinformation and disinformation static as you have of navigating successfully through a fog-filled maze whilst wearing your Covid mask over your eyes (where, it would seem, as time goes by, most prefer to wear it).
(see Image credits)
Where will it all end? It is better not to think about it, but ‘Happy ever after’ is not by any means the place where the New World Orderists or their media lackies would have you believe they are taking us.
Read, watch, listen. Keep your eyes and ears open and above all — think!!
Published: 22 January 2021 ~ It always snows in Russia
Before moving here, whenever I mentioned to a fellow Brit that I was visiting Kaliningrad, I would be asked, “Where’s that?” As soon as I had educated them geographically, among the predictable responses based on prejudice and cliché, an old stalwart was, “Russa! Brrr, it’s cold out there …”
Try as I might to explain to them that since Kaliningrad was the westernmost point of Russia the climate was not that much different to the UK’s, the stock images of frozen rivers, ushanka hats, voluminous fur coats and, of course, snow ~ lots and lots of snow ~ proved impossible to shovel away.
It always snows in Russia!
When I first came to Kaliningrad in winter 2000, there was snow, and lots of it (see Kaliningrad First Impression), and I do recall seeing a tower-mounted digital thermometer somewhere in the city giving a temperature reading of minus 27 degrees. Harbouring the same stereotypical notions of Russia’s salient attributes, this first encounter pleased me no end, providing me with photographic evidence to confirm what Brits had always known, that Russia was cold and that it snowed a lot.
There was more snow to Russify my experience when I travelled to Kaliningrad in 2002. We entered the exclave via Lithuania, where it was also snowing heavily, and the journey by train across the snow-bound wastelands was all that the heart could desire.
This stereotype was to melt away, however, in the winter of 2004. This was the year that a new-found friend of ours looking for adventure and a woman, decided to accompany us on our Christmas trip to Kaliningrad. He knew that it was cold (it’s cold out there in Russia), and his knowledge had been bolstered by the tales that I had told and the photographs that I had shown him. He was excited, and set about preparing himself for Siberia, buying up large stocks of woolies, U.S. military surplus coats and the all-important long johns. His suitcases were fat and heavy.
Who said that it always snows in Russia?
Not disappointed, in the first three days of our arriving in Kaliningrad, the temperature had dropped well below those in the England we had left and, more importantly, there was snow, lots of swirling snow. And then, quiet suddenly, the mercury shot up the thermometer tube, the snow melted, the rain came, and it stayed that way for a month. As I believe I have said before, there is a world of difference between Kaliningrad in the winter rain and Kaliningrad in the snow. Those who live here will know what I mean.
Last year, winter 2019-2020, was like everything else that year, miserable. It was, literally, wishy washy: a winter of muck and puddles.
So, how refreshing this winter to see some snow. It has not been that heavy, but it has been persistent and cold enough for successive falls to settle and to transform the city and regional landscape into a childhood memory of how winters used to be.
Oh, but it’s alright for me, or so my critics tell me. I don’t have to go anywhere. I don’t have to scrape the ice and snow off the car in the morning and then brave the roads on my way to work. On the contrary, I can sit at home, look out of the window and admire the Christmas-card view. And they are right. But I am unrepentant and remain that way. There have to be some advantages in getting starry, and this is one of the few.
Come rain, snow, hail or shine my wife goes out whatever, and this is as it should be. Someone has to do the shopping. And she also has to obtain those much-needed photos for Arsebook, which I can then requisition and use here for my blog.
Russia! It always snow there!
To bring things up to date, for the past several days or more it has been snowing lightly, and today, at the time of writing, it was at it again. Temperatures are low enough to ensure that what comes down stays put; just enough for picturesque, but not enough for concern.
This morning, the scene at the back of the house through the patio door was wonderful. It had snowed quite a lot during the night and the rooftops of the old German houses all had snow on them, some in total, some in places, and the fruit trees had become crystalline, petrified, the smaller branches and twigs very nearly pure white and the trunks and boughs though not completely covered with snow were artistically contrasted by what had collected upon them.
Our pear tree was the most wonderous thing. One side of the trunk was peppered with a white drift of snow and the rest, the smaller branches and twigs, coated into nobly clumps, so that taken as a whole it resembled a giant cauliflower. The rest of the garden had all but disappeared, replaced by a smooth white plateau, except for the Buddha, and he was wearing a snow-white hat in the unmistakeable shape of a British policeman’s helmet. Wherever did he get it from?
No he is not a silly Buddha!
Later, as I was stood in the kitchen making a cup of tea, my eyes caught movement and lots of it through the gap between two houses, which for most of the year is obscured by leaves and foliage. All I could see was different coloured objects darting hither and thither, and then it dawned on me that without the obstructing verdure the small park across the road was visible and what I was witnessing was the congregation of numerous families, mothers with their children, and that the different coloured objects, some zipping across the plateau and others sailing down the banks from every conceivable angle, were children on their sledges.
Children on sledges, Kaliningrad, Russia, January 2021
Olga, who walked through the city centre yesterday, said how delightful it was to see children with their parents playing snowballs and whooshing about on sledges. It was a good old-fashioned traditional family sight, and it reminded her of her youth. It reminded me of mine as well. Whenever there was snow, which became less and less frequent in England as the years rolled by, we children would hammer each other with snowballs. We also had a sledge, a one-of-its-kind made from the light alloy parts of a scrapped Flying Fortress, a B17 bomber, salvaged from Polebrook’s United States’ wartime aerodrome. What happened to this culturally interesting and nowadays valuable item? One of my brothers, with considerably less acumen than myself for the singularity of historical artefacts, deciding that he would clean out one of the family barns after a forty-year hiatus, skipped the sledge and kept the junk. Oh, don’t worry, we take every opportunity to remind him of his folly, in no uncertain terms.
From the kitchen to the living room, looking out of the window at the Konigsberg house opposite that has never had anything done to it at least since perestroika, I noted that the two toilets lying in the back garden ~ where else? ~ had become snow toilets, a rare sight indeed, but not as exclusive or controversial as the giant phallus, complete with two enormous snowballs, that some imaginative and enterprising young men would erect a day or two later somewhere in Kaliningrad.
This made the news, and, of course, Facebook. Personally, we had a bit of fun with this, by which I mean we conducted an experiment. Olga posted the media story to Facebook, and then we sat back ready to compare the different reactions from Russian commentators and those in Britland. As we anticipated, the Russian response was one of condemnation and disgust, whilst the Brits reacted in a flamboyant spirit that ranged from artistic criticism to unbridled glee.
Me? I just felt sorry for the virtue of virgin snow, but I consoled myself with the thought that outside of our circle something like this would never be condoned in the UK for fear that it would offend the delicate sensibilities of feminists, race-grievance wardens and the entire woke community: a giant phallus made of snow! Sexist! Racist!
Joe, Joe, how does your garden grow? With arrogance and bullshit and $$$$$ all in a row (steady on!)
Published: 20 January 2021 ~ Backing Biden Will Not Bring It Back
Today is supposedly a great day for liberals. Joe Biden is about to have his arse officially parked in the White House chair. But against the fanfare of gushing, fulsome headlines yawning on about ‘A New Dawn’, ‘Make America Great Again’ and ‘America is Back’, you can feel the unease exuding.
For most liberals, correction all liberals, Biden is looked upon as the new Obama, which, indeed, he is. To be more precise he is Obama mark II. Apart from colour, the difference between them is negligible, if not invisible. Biden is the same old frontman, there to reinstate, re-enact and recycle all the second-hand directives, programmes and doctrines that Obama left unfinished when he was ousted out of office. He is all that, make no mistake, but he is not the saviour by any means with which the liberal faithful delude themselves.
That neoliberal ship sailed long ago. In America, its passing was marked by the election of Trump; in the UK by Brexit; and in Europe by the fragmentation and ongoing decline of the European Union. Everybody knows this, even the liberals themselves know this. They also know that they have to change course, if only by a healing fraction, but how and in what direction?
They have grown so used to the power of arrogance, so addicted to it, that it has become their master and they its servant. They cannot give it up. They do not know how. They know no other way. It has always driven and steered them, and it drives and steers them now.
This is obvious from the ‘progressive agenda’ that Biden’s bosses working behind the scenes are pushing for him to adopt; the same, if not worse, agenda that brought about the Democrat’s downfall four years previously, and which, if they cannot moderate, will bring them down again.
Backing Biden will not bring it back
Casting Biden as Obama mark II is to raise false hopes and to ignore the inconvenient fact that in the four years that Trump held office the political landscape has changed, and changed irrevocably. Reverse gear is not an option.
But the real problem for liberals is that they simply just don’t get it. This is obvious from the number of articles that keep bubbling to the surface, bursting to know the answer to the enigmatic rise of populism and presuming arrogantly that at some point soon it is simply going to phut away.
This handful of headlines, taken from a random browse of Google UK News, reeks of that delusion.
‘Rising US populism tops risk managers’ fears’
‘Trump goes, but global populism may still grow’
‘After Trump, Is American Democracy Doomed by Populism?’
‘Right-Wing Populism May Be Wounded, But It’s Certainly Not Dead’
‘Sweden’s Identity Crisis and the Rise of the Far Right’
‘What explains support for authoritarian populists in Hungary and Poland?’
The last headline wants to make you both laugh and cry ~ surely liberals cannot be that dense? Can they?
It is not difficult to glean from these headlines that neoliberal globalism is only concerned with power and money (just in case you did not know that). And it is no coincidence that the media outlets that are most concerned with the ‘phenomenon’ that they dub ‘populism’ have a strong economic bias or are specialist financial publications {political bias can be checked using https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/}. During the Brexit debacle, the UK’s liberal mainstream media also weighed heavily in on the economic ramifications, almost to the total exclusion of any societal and cultural concerns. So: civil liberties, forget them; equality, who cares; gender issues, what a laugh; LGBT, BLM, BS (stands for Bullshit). They are the sprats, you are the mackerels.
But take heart, you are still an important mackerel. Even democracies that only exist in name, especially democracies that only exist in name, have parties that need you to vote them in to legitimise democracy and to give them the right to claim that the power that they wield reflects the will of the people ~ at least in theory. Of course, with backing from the right people, the right being the rich and the powerful, that sticky stage could be arguably bypassed and the voting rigged to work in a specific cabal’s interests ~ who said that, Joe?!
The second thing to pick up on from these headlines is the arrogance factor. Such can also be found in article standfirsts or intros. Take these two, for example:
“His [Trump’s] toppling was a setback for global populism, but this political phenomenon may not yet have peaked.”
“The Trump presidency has demonstrated the appeal of populist authoritarianism to many Americans. The way the country responds to the attack on the U.S. Capitol will indicate how long this movement lasts.”
This is the arrogance of which I have already spoken. Liberals from the top to the arse end, just don’t get it that legacy populations have had enough of forced multiculturalism, divide and rule diversity, LGBT this and ‘its’ and ‘others’ that and endless cartloads of pandering PC ‘isms’.
Populism, as they call it, is not a passing phase; it is not a strange ‘phenomenon’; it is not a transient ‘movement’; it was here first; it is the status quo; it is based on the bedrock of history, of respect for and preservation of nation state, sovereignty, heritage and ancestral home, and it is the failure of liberals to accept this, this fundamental truth, that, as sure as Obama never deserved to be given the Nobel Peace Prize, will lead to their demise.
It is this arrogance, or perhaps fear, that makes liberals the western world over act as if time stands still. It is a misconception that has them believe that their finger is on the political pulse when it is actually poised on the self-destruct button.
And yet, somewhere, somehow, in the delusive fog which they have created for everyone else and in which they have lost themselves, they do realise, in a hazy sort of way, that as sure as day follows night and as Biden follows Obama, that if they do not hurry with their impeachment of Trump, the mistakes that Biden will make, which he has to make as Obama’s clone, will surely see history repeat itself.
And yet even if they do succeed in removing the threat of Trump, does that remove the threat? if they can have an Obama mark II what is to stop a Trump mark II? Nothing. Trumpism, as the liberal media have coined it, is not going to go away ~ not anywhere, anyway, soon or ever, and neither is it going to fail, falter or stand still. It is going to grow, both in support and strength, because the soil of arrogance in which it is rooted, that exceptionally fertile soil which Obama & Co provided, is due to receive its biggest consignment of grow-bag bullshit yet. Look, here comes Joe with his wheelbarrow!
Backing Biden will not bring it back
And so today they celebrate the inauguration of old Joe, the Democrat’s Chauncey Gardiner: the red carpet will be laid out, banners will be held aloft, the usual suspects will cheer, the rappers brass band will play and the language of the liberal media will be sweaty with nervous clichés and full of that rich manure to which I have alluded. But even now, before the rank fakery, the razzmatazz and false party atmosphere dies out with the fart of the last champagne cork, from Capitol Hill to Big Ben, Joe looks less and less convincing as the screw that they have chosen to turn on the lid of the populist pressure cooker and more like the final nail in the coffin of the neoliberal globalist dream.
Today is Joe Biden’s inauguration, let him enjoy it.
Tomorrow the world watches and waits for the inevitable mistakes that he will make. Be thankful that he is in office.
Diary of a Self-isolator: Day 310 [18 January 2021] or Business as Usual
Published: 18 January 2021
There is no lockdown in Kaliningrad, Russia. In fact, I think I am right in saying, and I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong, that there is no lockdown across Russia, and it would be deceitful of me if I did not say that when I see what is happening back home that I breathe a sigh of relief that I left the UK when I did.
I am not talking about the numbers, the figures, the statistics the doom and gloom wreaked by the UK media’s representation of how bad the virus is supposed to be, but about the lack of transparency, unambivalent information and, of course, the notorious punitive measures which no one in authority seems able or willing to say are actually making a difference, apart that is from ruining people’s livelihoods and subjecting many it seems to psychological and emotional duress.
No Lockdown in Kaliningrad, Russia
Here, for better or for worse, things continue to be pretty clear cut. We wear our masks, some of us reluctantly and others with zealous intent, where we are told that we are supposed to wear them ~ some of us ~ and we try to avoid large crowds and crowded places ~ some of us ~ and some of us self-isolate.
Bars, restaurants and shops are predominantly open as usual. Hospitality outlets appear to be implementing a table-distance rule, and some establishments close early. Masks are required inside public places, such as in shops, the working environment and on public transport. Also, when I travelled by train last week from Kaliningrad’s main railway station, I was subjected to an electronic temperature check before passing through the security gates.
I am able to report that among our social circle we know about eight people who have had coronavirus, both here and in the UK, or, to rephrase that for accuracy, have had a seasonal respiratory illness that has been classed as coronavirus, and, I am glad to say, whatever it is they have had, they have had it mild.
So far, I know of no one here, in Kaliningrad, Russia, who has had the vaccine and only my mother, in the UK, who is no spring chicken, and a friend of ours around the same age also in the UK, who have had their first jabs.
No Lockdown in Kaliningrad, Russia
The situation here regarding voluntary take-up of the vaccine, and not just the Russian vaccine but any vaccine, is no different than it was when I wrote about it last month: lots of recalcitrants and one or two wait-and-sees. Me? The jury’s out. My wife? No.
So, for the time being, at least, its Carry On Mask Grumbling and keep on taking the homemade vaccine: a combination of quality beers and vodkas. Come to think of it, I must be about due for my follow-up treatment.
Updated: 16 January 2021 ~ Katie Hopkins Life After Twitter!
Katie Hopkins proves that their is life after Twitter! The liberal Twatterati have missed their old sparring partner. Thank you UKIP!
Katie Hopkins is a trained economist, graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Intelligence Corps bursar and qualified marketer, who spent 15 years working for a Global Brand Consultancy in UK, Tokyo and USA, and a media personality and former columnist of The Sun and Mail Online.
She is also regarded by the neoliberal British establishment as Public Enemy Number 1 because of her outspoken views on UK politics, social class, migrants and race. She has successfully weathered all kinds of authoritative harassment and continues to be a thorn in the side both of the Islington set and its liberal adherents by saying “what other people think but are too scared to say”, whilst simultaneously deflecting a relentless barrage of insults like the proverbial water off a duck’s back and always giving her enemies much better than she gets.
Indeed, described by the UK liberal media as a ‘far-right provocateur’, and worse, and by herself as a ‘conduit for truth’, Katie Hopkins takes each and every vilification thrown at her, effortlessly remints them and wears them as a collective badge of honour. I am tempted to say that the reason why liberals love to despise her is not just because she exposes them for what they really are, but because she speaks their language and confronts them on their terms.
Katie Hopkins Life After Twitter!
In June 2020, it could be said, depending on which side of the political fence you stand on, that Katie was officially inducted into the pantheon of patriotic resistance when she became yet another victim of what appear to be Twitter’s ideologically motivated hatchet jobs. Her Twitter account was permanently suspended for what Twitter describe as ‘violations of our hateful conduct policy’. A policy which critics say is hateful alright but only insofar as it is predominantly one-sided, allowing liberal-owned Big Tech to censor, castigate and shut down free speech at will, ie reference Trump and Parler.
The joy of closing down free speech is eerily echoed in the choice of words from the The Daily Mirror, that doyen of the British leftist tabloids, which gloated in June 2020 ‘Katie Hopkins appears to have been silenced once and for all on social media after her Twitter account was removed for good’. This week The Mirror will either be scowling or celebrating on hearing the news of Katie’s arrival in the UK’s political arena. It is not what their brand of politics wants or needs, but it will certainly give them something juicy to write about.
The Mirror was not alone last June: On hearing that Katie had been banned from Twitter, the leftist media fell into a wild paroxysm of orgasmic ecstasy. ‘Permanently suspended‘, ‘downfall’, ‘banned’, ‘hateful’, ‘hate speech’, they wailed, with some media groups, notably The Mirror, making the wild and embarrassing prediction, and in the process sounding like gangsters from a bad B movie, that she, Katie Hopkins, had ‘been silenced once and for all’, which only goes to show ~ and please note those that think it’s all over for Trump ~ that there is life after Twitter. Indeed, plenty of it and of better quality and usefulness.
We do not have to agree with everything Katie Hopkins says or even condone how she says it, but if liberals really believe free speech is sacrosanct and worth defending, and I do not believe for one moment that they do, then they must learn to accept without reservation opposing points of view, no matter how painful it is to them, and not revert to misnomers and euphemisms as a censorship means for political ends.
On the broader canvas, with neoliberalism already forced on the back foot through Brexit, the splintering of the European Union, Donald Trump & Co opportunely given the chance to do to them what they have been doing to him for the past four years, ie snipe, harass and delegitimise, Big Tech looking more and more suspect as a neoliberal control mechanism and coronavirus tyranny eroding all faith in the old political parties, Katie Hopkins accession to UKIP will be seen as a welcome ally for those who vow that they will not be silenced and as a redoubtable foe for those who want to silence them.
As they say in Rushden, Northants, “Go for it gal!”
Published: 15 January 2021 ~ Amazed at the Museum of Skulls & Skeletons
To see it, especially from a distance, you would think that it was just another modern apartment block. Besides, your eyes would be led away by the nearby proximity of a far more interesting building ~ the Zelinogradsk (formerly, Krantz) water tower. Only when you draw closer do you get to see the hotel sign, as large as it is. This is the intriguingly named Boutique-Hotel Paradox; the first paradox being that entombed within this building lies the Museum of Skulls & Skeletons; the second, that it is not really a museum at all but more like an art centre, or exhibition centre, of skulls and skeletons. But you won’t know this until you get inside.
Once on the forecourt shared by the Boutique-Hotel and water tower, you will be unable to miss the directional sign for the museum. It is a large ~ larger than life ~ skeleton made of metal, steampunk style.
My wife, Olga, and I visited the museum on the 21 December 2020.
Here is an extract from my diary:
As we climbed the steps to the entrance of this building, the thought materialised that it was an odd building in which to have a museum. For a start, it was plainly modern, and for a second and last it was more or less nondescript, looking like a large block of flats with one of the lower walls in glass, through which it appeared was a bar or restaurant.
The entrance led us into a foyer, which, in keeping with the building’s general appearance, was office-like. Olga paid the girl sitting at the desk in one corner the skelet museum’s entrance money, and off we went, through some large glass doors and up a staircase, which was, well, office-like. And when we emerged into an identical landing on the second floor, where there was a long counter/reception desk, it felt as if we had come for a job interview.
To our right, there were two large, double, glass doors, and it was in here where the skeletons were lurking.
I am not exactly sure what it was that I had been expecting. Olga had spoken of the museum a year or so ago when she visited it whilst I was in England, and we had posed for a photograph next to the metalwork sculpture of a skeleton outside the front door on the concourse one night last year [2019]. This particular skelet had a bronzed, distressed finish, classifying it in my mind as steampunk, so I imagined that this was how the rest of the museum would be. I did not expect it to be a museum in the traditional sense, full of dusty, old, real bones, which was good, as it was not like this at all. No, Zelenogradsk’s skelet museum is, in fact, a brightly illuminated showroom containing a vast number and range of skelet art pieces of all shapes and sizes made from lots of different materials.
Amazed at the Museum of Skulls & Skeletons, Zelenogradsk
The desk to the left of the entrance, the shelves behind and other surfaces and the display units to the front and side were bristling with every conceivable skelet artefact in miniature or medium. On, within the glass-frontage and around the desk, the smaller items were souvenirs, waiting to be bought as mementoes of your visit. In front of you, and in the centre of the room, there was a large motorbike, possibly a Harley ~ they like Harleys in this part of the world ~ complete with flag, possibly one with a skeleton imprint ~ on which one could sit and have one’s photo taken. In fact, Olga suggested that I do just that, but I declined on the basis that I was not a motorbike sort of person.
I was, however, the sort of person who would be quite ready and willing to stand next to a ‘vintage’ wardrobe containing various skeleton pieces and which spoke to you in English when you opened the door. Olga snapped off three or four pictures of me in front of this, including a most arty-farty one, in which my face appears in the inside door mirror looking quizzically at a white bust of Putin.
Hello, fancy meeting you here
Amazed at the Museum of Skulls & Skeletons Zelenogradsk
The next experience was an unlikely one for us and one, moreover, which Olga placed great symbolic store on later. At the side of us, next to the wall, there was a doorway with multicoloured plastic streamers hanging vertically from the ceiling. A couple of yards away to the right there was an identical door furbished in the same manner. Above each door, on brightly coloured card, I was able to read, in Russian, the words ‘entrance’ and ‘exit’. I asked what this was, and Olga said it was a maze.
Amazed at the Museum of Skulls & Skeletons Zelenogradsk
“A maze!” I snorted.
I just had to step inside and in so doing was immediately and utterly overwhelmed, smothered by the sheer volume of the multi-coloured hanging plastic strips. I pushed my way through them until I reached the back of the cabinet. It must have been almost two yards deep. The density of plastic trailers made it impossible to see what exactly lay at the back of this cabinet, but I could feel a textile wall ~ and that was it. I felt my way back to the entrance, saying, as I almost emerged, “But there’s no way through; it is solid.”
“No,” Olga contradicted, “It’s a maze. It says so on the sign.”
I was just about to question the veracity of this statement when I realised that the vertical strut I was holding was not in fact adjoined to the outside wall.
“There,” said Olga at the same time as I discovered it, “is an entrance.”
Indeed, there was. It was narrow, about one slim person wide, tall, obscured by the crowding nature of the hanging tapes and the dark interior beyond but most of all by the assumption that no doorway would lie at right angles to the entrance.
By now I was curious and made to move inside. Olga was nervous and attempted to hold me back.
“Come on!” I laughed. And off we went.
No sooner had we stepped inside than we were overcome both by the darkness, which was now black as pitch, and by the obstructive density of the dangling ribbons. We had not gone three feet, I imagine, before our voices lowered and our pulses began to race. I edged forward, feeling the wall as I went, until my hand dropped into space. Another right-angled turn. I urged Olga to follow me.
As I entered into a wider void, I heard Olga’s voice in the darkness call out, “Hold my hand! Hold my hand!” I did, pulling her gently behind me. I was feeling for where I suspected the next opening in the maze would be, but it was not. The ribbons seemed to be growing in profusion, but I found another gap and proceeded through it, a frightened Olga clinging to my hand and calling in an alarmed voice, “I don’t like it”.
Into the next compartment we went, with Olga calling, “Let’s go back.”
It seemed to me that this part of the labyrinth was larger than the previous, and when my hands hit solid wall, and with Olga crying to get out behind me, I must confess to experiencing a paroxysm of panic, quite foolish and illogical I know, but panic all the same. I was on the cusp of saying, ‘you’re right; let’s retrace our steps’, when a science officer Spock-like rationale kicked in. “Don’t be so silly,” said a still, calm voice, “you’re only inside a cupboard.”
[I have omitted the next paragraph as it contains the secret to identifying where the ‘doorways’ are, and I would rather you go to the museum and get lost in the maze yourselves!]
Applying this simple science, we did a quick sharp turn and there, lo and behold! through the ribbons that hung like fog, the lights of the larger room penetrated.
As we emerged, I had to laugh, both at our fears and our appearance. My hat was all skew-wiff, making me look like Captain Mainwaring in one of those scenes when the entire Dad’s Army troop cram into the verger’s office, and Olga was as red and dishevelled as a beetroot fired from a cannon.
The difference was that whereas I had enjoyed the experience, she had not; and whereas I recovered instantly, she did not. She was still talking about how much it had disturbed her on the way home and, in fact, throughout the following day.
Made of sterner stuff, however, including a built-in denial system that allowed me to bury quickly any further thought of the spasm of fear experienced and certainly not to discuss it, I moved on to the exhibits, which were many and varied and laid out in large shelving units glazed front and back. My favourite was the excavation scene: a skeleton lying on its side in a shallow hole, its legs bent at the knee and one of its bony hands clutching an empty bottle of vodka. The red earth around the skeleton was caked, cracked and littered with the detritus of our modern age, suitably weathered and tarnished as though it had been there for some considerable time. There was a battered coke tin, a scrunched-up plastic bottle, a squashed memory stick, part of an old music cassette, a CD, a shattered ballpoint pen, a condom (still in its packet, I am glad to say!), coins, a battered mobile phone and other bits and pieces testifying literally to life in the throwaway age.
This exhibit was not, of course, a shelf one. It was contained in and presented through a large flatbed cabinet, tilted at an angle and raised on supports. It stood in front of a window, the closed strip blinds of which had one edge stencilled with the image of part of a skeleton, connected visually to the rest of its skeletal body, which was solid state, pinned above the blind fitting. Two similar designs were repeated in the second half of the room: one, with the skull and two hands of a skeleton mounted above the blind rail and the complete body of the skeleton stencilled beneath it; the other, one side of a skeleton in solid state with the skull, rib cage and one arm stencilled onto the fabric.
In the centre of the room where I had been studying the excavation scene, there was a table-mounted stretcher, on whose surface lay a skeletal leg and, standing next to it, a skeleton doctor, dressed in a white coat with a stethoscope around its neck. Hmm, not only was he not wearing his muzzle (mask), but he had also forgotten to put on his trousers.
The glass-fronted shelving units contained a profusion of artistic sculptures all designed around the theme of skulls and skeletons. My favourites consisted of: (1) a ‘giant’ Zippo lighter, with two skelets standing nearby, one holding the body of the lighter and the other supporting its top; (2) three skeletons together on a beach with a large jug of beer next to them, one of the skeletons is lying drunk on his back and next to him is the proverbial tall story ~ a giant fish; (3) three different tray and skull designs, each profusely decorated ~ one in blue & white motifs; the other deep red with abstract, almost psychedelic ornamentation; and the third in traditional Russian lacquer-work. I also liked the open-sided computer tower with a gold skull inside, and the skulls with green moss clinging in patches to the side of them. One of these had a small graveyard scene modelled on the skull’s cranium, complete with tumble-down picket fence and skewed tombstones.
Amazed at the Museum of Skulls & Skeletons Zelenogradsk
Of the numerous artefacts on display, if I was asked to choose my favourite, it would be without hesitation a figural piece, which was both touchingly symbolic and at the same time macabre. The composition is that of a long-haired female skeleton sitting on the knee of her skeleton male lover, the two are embracing and kissing, and the piece most aptly named, ‘True Love Never Dies’.
I would have purchased this without a second thought, but, alas, none of what we could see before us was purchasable. There were skeleton-themed items that you could buy, but they were cheaply made and overpriced. There were other pieces that I did not care for, mainly those skulls that looked as though they belonged to computer-game software and Halloween-type products: skulls and skeletons with glaring, gobstopper eyeballs. There was even a wall-hanging skeleton with the parched remains of brown flesh clinging to its bones. If this was available for purchase, would I have bought it and hung it on my wall …?
In the end, we settled for a skeleton pen, with two articulated arms. There are a couple of buttons at the back of these little devils and when you press them the arms move, as if they are boxing, oh, and the eyes light up.
I would have bought the skull lamp, but I thought it a tad expensive at thirty quid, and besides I was not sure whether our skelet, the one we have at home who is a member of the family, would be pleased. Skelets, like the human beings that they partly are, can be exceptionally jealous.
Essential details:
Museum of Skulls & Skeletons Saratovskaya St, 2A Zelenogradsk 238326 Russia
Is the reaction to coronavirus just another symptom of liberal malaise?
Published: 12 January 2021
I hear tell that Joe Biden is destined to become the fraudulently elected President of the United States. I have also been told to believe that the crowd that gate-crashed Capitol Hill were a ‘mob’, whereas, in a bizarre comparison, Black Lives Matter are peaceful, praise-worthy protestors. There are even pictures to prove it, according to The Guardian and, of course, the BBC.
As intelligent readers you will not have failed to recognise the inequality and discrimination at work in these remarks and thus the tittersome irony.
We are told these things. But what do we believe?
‘DC police made far more arrests at the height of Black Lives Matter protests than during the Capitol clash’ ~ CNN Investigates
‘BLM v Washington DC riots: How were the police responses different?’ ~ BBC
So, Capitol Hill was a ‘riot’; BLM was a ‘generally peaceful protest’.
“Yeah, right …”
Ignoring for the moment that the unfortunate incident at Capitol Hill is being distorted in the most cynical way to cast fresh and potentially provocative aspersions on US law and order (Maxwell Smart: ‘Ahh, the old deflection trick, chief!’), we do know unequivocally that Big Tech unilaterally banned President Trump from Facebook and Twitter. This peculiar, but hardly unexpected, turn of events prompted this response from that bastion of free speach, my personal friend, Lord Wollocks:
“We all know that Facebook and Twitter have been ruthlessly implementing a partisan censorship programme in which anybody who rocks the neoliberal boat is given the big heave-ho. Nobody, not even the ‘useful idiots’, really believe that this ideological deplatforming is anything but censorship, even though it hides behind sanctimonious catchalls like ‘banned for inciting racial hatred’, ‘banned for inciting religious hatred’. As the old saying goes, ‘One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’. And mark my words: Arsebook and Twatter would take that comment down faster than a pair of a trousers on a self-proclaimed man.”
We do know that Black Lives Matter is not banned from social media platforms.
We don’t know what’s happening with coronavirus, or rather the way in which both the British establishment and the ‘sshhh, you suspect who’ State in America is managing it, mismanaging it or even stage managing it? But it is certainly disturbing that the two countries that pride themselves on being the world’s beacons of democracy are pissing on their own wicks, and that fewer and fewer people are inclined to believe that it is an accidental up-wind blowback but rather that what is being done to us is being done deliberately and with malice aforethought.
(Image credit: http://clipart-library.com)
Certainly, hitherto unprecedented draconian police-state measures enacted in the name of controlling the Covid-19 virus are casting a long, dark shadow over the freedoms and so-called democratic rights of the beleaguered people of these two nations. In the UK, social distancing, muzzle wearing, lockdowns, limitations on the number of people who can mix together, even in their own homes, bring disturbing reports on a daily basis of police who are far too ready to exceed their celebrated policing-by-consent authority, and in some lackaday instances are acting in a brute-force manner not unlike the Stasi (see this video by Nigel Farage Say NO to a Police State).
Is Big Tech censorship a coronavirus clue?
So, we ask ourselves the question, and many people are asking this question? Are these punitive practices all part of a neoliberal globalist plot. Has Trump’s Presidency, Brexit, the imminent disintegration of the EU, all of which are symptoms of an increase in the shift away from liberalism to patriotism, triggered such a shit-fit among the neoliberal political elites that they have been forced to play their hand, to strike when coronavirus is hot! Ahh, the last resort of scoundrels!
Those who subscribe to the theory that the Kalergi Plan is an essential pillar of liberal hegemony, but one which has quite unexpectedly buckled beneath resilient patriotism, may well be of the opinion that as long as Hungry and Poland continue to hold out against intimidation from the Brussels’ mob who want to force them to open the migrant floodgates, dissatisfaction with the Federalist project in Spain, Italy and Denmark and the gathering traction for Frexit, indicates that the game in Europe is almost up. Is this then where the intervention of unbelievable philanthropic billionaires, Big Tech, the media and social control comes in?
Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi (image attribution: see end of article)
Now it would be easy for me at this point to force-feed you my opinion, but why resort to mainstream media tactics when opinion on social media, that heaving crust on a hot volcano ready to erupt, offers a far more accurate insight into the mood of the people. I like nothing better than to wassail around on the internet ignoring mainstream media but dipping into it now and then to read the comments of readers. I am also more inclined to go looking for the truth, or the best thing to it, in the journalism provided by independent, alternative media outlets and only resort to Twitter and Facebook in search of those endangered species, the brave few struggling to speak their minds before they are caught in the dragnet of liberal censorship.
For example, here is an interesting comment posted recently on Facebook (Note all quotes from other sources here have been copied verbatim and with no censorship on my part):
‘Over 70 billionaires got together on Trumps inauguration day to determine the future (& to make certain it wouldn’t be trump). They each pay dues of 250 million a year to a Soros organization (he has over 100) They meet annually. They will only get richer & control us more. They are all, every last one of them, in bed with the Democrats. Their goal = power. control, $$$$, and to supplant america with their values, their desires, their economics, their health system, their business methods, banking systems. etc..& put in an overwhelmingly large bureaucratic government that can be transitioned into a global one when they are ready. This sounds like science fiction, or a conspiracy theory, but sadly it is not.’
The following quotes have been taken from the ‘comments’ section of the above article:
‘They [UK/America] allowed socialism and feminism to ruin their society and family values. Now they pay the price.’
‘The big tech is already a branch of the “Shadow Government/Deep state” that has complete control of Congress overall. The big tech social media have been infiltrated by the CIA just like the major corporate news have been for some time now. Read the book “Press-titutes Embedded in the Pay of the CIA”(2019), by Udo Ulfkoette. Stay away from Facebook, Twitter and such. I have never used them. Find other alternatives. We cannot allow freedom to perish. Peace.’
‘Wait till the Democrats pass their ‘hate speech’ laws. Say the wrong thing, you get canceled, lose your job, hell, they may even take your children away from you. That is how insane this is becoming.’
Well, I don’t know about that, but certainly, Big Tech seems to have made one of the biggest blunders of their electronic existence:
“We will not be SILENCED! Twitter is not about FREE SPEECH. They are all about promoting a Radical Left platform where some of the most vicious people in the world are allowed to speak freely.” {quote taken from article cited above in which it is attributed to Donald Trump}.
I have the distinct feeling that Trump is not the sort of person to be bullied or censored into submission, and neither are his 75 million US voters. The trouble with ‘push is ‘shove’.
(Image credit: http://clipart-library.com)
Within this nightmare world of a panic-stricken globalist movement that will stop at nothing to preserve its disintegrating one-world government dream, it is, I admit, most tempting to imagine coronavirus, as imperfect as it is, as an ill-conceived or ad hoc smokescreen, barely functioning for the insidious purpose for which it was invented and inevitably doomed to failure, but nevertheless, for the moment, a powerful force for division, diversion and control, a force that offers a shortcut to the social instability that diversity was meant to procure but which, in spite of the efforts of NGOs and craven complicit governments, has been too long in the making to retain its viability.
The part played by Big Tech in this Orwellian scenario reveals itself in those blocks you get on Facebook when you try to post anything on coronavirus that does not conform to the official narrative and where you are peremptorily redirected to a page that purports to contain the truth. A very fine thing indeed, except that it is their truth ~ or so many of us suspect.
The internet, however, is an unwieldly beast, as its frightened proprietors are beginning to discover, and no matter how these contemporary Citizen Kanes ~ the Mr Zuckerbergs, Sundar Pichais and Jack Dorseys of this world~ attempt to rein it in, it will eventually break away from them, as it is doing now. Truth will always out in the end and when it does comes casualties …
Is Big Tech censorship a coronavirus clue?
Is this a fragment of that truth or not? I found this article which exists in the asteroid belt on the other side of the mainstream media suspicious enough in content for it to raise an eyebrow. It is published in The Daily Expose, a media outlet I must confess with which I am not acquainted, but am somewhat relieved to discover that in spite of its provocative name the temptation has been resisted to choose as its logo a man in a mac.
In this video (quick, before they ban it!!), its protagonist, Dr Shiva, who describes himself as a ‘scientist, engineer and educator’ and is summarily dismissed by the mainstream media as ‘a conspiracy theorist’ (he and the other 75% of the West’s population who have been railroaded into this concentrated camp and where the figure is growing exponentially) looks at the bigger picture: the ‘where we are now and what is to be done if we still want to be a free people’.
The political classes, mainstream media, Big Tech, big business corporations, the mega-rich and, alas, a gaggle of untalented and overpaid celebs who will jump on any bandwagon for a bit of free publicity, universally condemn these ideas as conspiracy theories, but the problem with all of these institutionalised factions is that they are wide on criticism and short on answers.
Take coronavirus, for example. Of all the respiratory diseases known to man (its & others etc) no one can deny that Covid-19 is one of the most, if not the most, eccentric and improbable of viruses. Not only is there no consensus about how and why it effects people differently but there also appears to be scant agreement about the measures required to contain and address it. Thus, until it is proven otherwise, you cannot blame a groundswell of people for believing that fraudulent viruses are as credible as fraudulent elections or even that the two go hand in glove.
In the last analysis, Big Tech and Big Media are owned by the sort of people who tell us what they want us to know and to believe what they want us to believe. Big media no longer reports the news, it creates it according to its own political, economic, ideological bias etc, leaving Big Tech to filter out all opposing variants and sell it on as gospel.
There is a lot of good, quality and more reliable reporting out there in the non-mainstream media, and if you take a moment to look around you will be surprised what you will find. Of course, you may have to put up with being labelled a conspiracy theorist, a member of the Far Right, a Fascist by the likes of The Guardian, The [not so] Independent etc, and you can be sure that those liberal pseudo-moral high-grounders Twatter and Arsebook may block your comments and posts, they might even deplatform you, but if that does happen console yourself with the fact that not only must you be right today but on the right side of history forever. Moreover, such violations of freedom of speech and democracy grant you, the victim, lifetime membership to an exclusive but rapidly growing club that is destined to change the world we live in and change it for the better. So wear your deplatformed badge with courage and also wear it with pride!
Wherever they think they are taking us and wherever we want to go, It is going to be a bumpy ride, the road to the truth usually is, but hang on in there, fight back when you have to and continue to take the knocks. In the end it will all be worth it:
Photograph attribution for Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi: [Unknown photographer – ÖNB, Bildarchiv Austria, Inventarnummer Pf 3944:B(2)(https://www.bildarchivaustria.at/Pages/ImageDetail.aspx?p_iBildID=20223510), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69147423]
Published: 7 January 2021 ~ Orthodox Christmas Day in Russia❤: Support the Restoration of Zalivinio Lighthouse
You might think that the last place you would want to be on a freezing cold winter day, with the wind whistling round the Baltics and shivering your timbers, would be perched on top of a derelict lighthouse. You might feel the need to ask why? Why would anyone in their right mind want to do this? And you might believe that the answer lies notably in the psychological reference above ‘in the right mind’. But there are at least two other factors that need to be considered: one, history and a love of it; two, that in the right mind or not, we happened to be in the right place ~ I think it is called nearby.
Zalivino lighthouse is located in Zalivino ~ where else? Ahh, but it is not that simple. Zalivino is a village nestled against the Baltic Coast in Russia’s Kaliningrad region. Now, if you were to conduct a search on the internet for the exact location of the lighthouse, you might find that lighthouse or no lighthouse you run aground on the rocks of all sorts of name changes and district alterations, so, for the sake of simplicity, let us say that the original (German/ East Prussian) name of the village was Labagiene, which, after the Second World War, when the region fell into Soviet hands, then became Zalivino.
The lighthouse, however, is named Rinderort, after Labagiene, renamed as Haffwinkel, merged with the settlement of … and if that has not confused you, I do not know what will.
But moving swiftly on: The first lighthouse to be constructed on this spur of land at the edge of the Curonian Lagoon was made of wood. Erected in 1868, it was illuminated by a simple kerosene lantern. The brick tower that replaced the wooden structure was built in 1908, extending upwards to a height of 15 metres, with a cottage appended for the lighthouse caretaker. In the intervening years, between the tower’s construction and World War II, subsequent modernisation was sporadically enacted.
After the war, when the former East Prussian region passed into the hands of the Soviets, the lighthouse and the land it occupied fell under the auspices of a local fish farm, and the ruined building next to the tower was an occupied dwelling. From what people say, the lighthouse continued to function during this period, but ceased to do so in the post-Soviet era.
Whilst some of the dilapidation evident today has accrued from common disuse and neglect, rumour has it that in the 1990s the building was cannibalised. Bricks, always a sought-after commodity, went missing as did the bronze lantern and other metal parts from inside and around the dome of the tower. Inevitably, as the tower and surrounding buildings fell steadily into ruin, it soon attracted the unwanted attention of vandals, among whose number were also arsonists.
By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, lighthouse romanticists and those interested in the history of the region in which they lived had seen their numbers swell substantially, as tourists, both from further afield in Russia and from other parts of the world, travelled to Zalivino to pay homage to the lighthouse. In 2020, this influx received greater impetus by the closed-border restrictions caused by coronavirus and the Russian government’s related incentive to boost domestic tourism.
In recognition of the site’s heritage status and its destination as a tourist attraction, in July 2020 it was acquired by the Museum of the World Ocean, whose remit it is to preserve, conserve and renovate the structure as a place of historical interest. The renovation will include restoration of the bronze lantern, the tower, caretaker’s cottage and the rare weather mast.
The estimated cost of renovation is somewhere in the region of 18 million rubles (approximately £179,575.47), and a fundraising campaign is already underway.
Support the restoration of Zalivinio Lighthouse
When we arrived at the lighthouse site on this very cold day, we found the lighthouse and its associated buildings at the end of a winding track. We parked up in front of some long, old, German buildings, which I presume were once part of the fish farm complex, and then walked the short distance to the rickety gate and compound fencing behind which the tower resides.
A large banner, pictorial and text-laden, told me in Russian all I wanted to know about the future plans for the site, and had my command of the Russian language been better, I would have been well informed.
As we approached the compound two people donned their coats and emerged from a little blue mobile hut. These were the caretaking staff and representatives of the World Ocean Museum.
If we had been in England this site would have been strictly out of bounds due to the ongoing process of renovation, coronavirus and the fact that it was winter and therefore out of season and off limits, but we were not in England so we were not told to bugger off! Instead, we were cordially welcomed, and, after five minutes of jumping up and down on the spot to keep the circulation going, we were taken on a tour of such as there was to see.
First, we were invited to contribute something to the renovation fund, which was a bit embarrassing as we had to have a whip round. We were carrying plastic, naturally, but otherwise we were cashless on the Curonian Spit. It was not much, our 500 roubles, but as the old lady says, every little helps (That is a saying, by the way, not a reference to my wife!).
The roubles having been procured and placed for safe keeping into a very attractive antique lamp placed on top of the sites’ well, the guide began her talk. The historical background of which she spoke is augmented and illustrated by four or five display boards attached to the wall of the larger of the domestic buildings. Alas, however, these signs are all in Russian, but, with the timely assistance of my wife, I was able to capture the tour guide’s gist.
History boards at Zalivinio Lighthouse Kaliningrad region, Russia
Moving around to the bay side of the buildings exposed us to the full frontal of the rude breeze, where, to tell you the truth, we had difficulty concentrating. I hopped around on one foot, and my wife’s nose had turned so red that it could easily have stood in for the lighthouse lamp. However, I refrained from suggesting that my wife’s nose would make an excellent money-saving alternative to a replacement lantern out of concern for my personal safety, that and the fact that my teeth were too chattery to formulate the words.
Olga Hart feeling cold in front of Zalivinio Lighthouse (Jan 2021)
Olga Hart feeling colder a few feet from Zalivinio Lighthouse next to the sea
Although the outbuildings offered little in the way of shelter, much of the roof is missing and the doors and windows have gone the same way as a substantial proportion of bricks, inside proved kinder for our bones than shivering outside on the water’s edge.
Zalivinio Lighthouse Kaliningrad region: much work to be done …
For all the ravages of time and misappropriation of materials, the building itself appears to be quite sound and the massy wooden beams strong and durable, and, with a little imagination ~ a lot, if you have not got much ~ it was not difficult to envisage these rooms reconstructed and reinstated to their former glory.
I did not expect that we would have access to the tower in its present condition, my conclusions based once again on precedent in my native country, England, where Health & Safety and all that jazz would most likely have stymied any such fancy, so imagine my surprise as well as untrammelled delight when the question was put to us, ‘Would you like to climb the tower?’
The guides warned that the last stretch of the staircase was almost vertical, so be careful, and that was it, off we went. It was so refreshing to be allowed to do something that relies for safety on your own common sense.
Climbing the tower of Zalivinio Lighthouse (Mick Hart, 2021)Out of the window all at sea
The lighthouse tower is by no means wide, and the mode of ascension is by a stone-stepped spiral staircase. Windows at regular intervals permit you to gaze out at the increasingly elevated scene as up you excitedly go. Suddenly, you feel the cold breeze on your face, alerting you to the fact that you are almost at the top, and there, in front of you, is a short metal ladder. To gain access to the lamp room and viewing tower, it is necessary to climb these steps, so, although I am not a great fan of heights, it had to be done and up I went.
Metal ladder leading to the lighthouse dome and viewing platform (January 2021)
Where better on a freezing cold day? Mick Hart, top of Zalivinio Lighthouse (Jan 2020)
Already inside the dome was a gentleman dressed in a woolly hat, overalls and thick white gloves. He was busy wrapping webbing around his body and adding and fastening buckle attachments to a series of belts. Surely, I thought, he is not … But he was.
He looked up at me looking at him, and I said, in my best Russian, “Stratsveetee,” to which he replied with the same. He gave me a lingering look and smiled, as if he had worked out what it was I was thinking: “Rather you than me!”
Heritage restorer at Zalivinio Lighthouse Over the top on a cold day
The dome, which is windowless and open to the elements, can easily accommodate three people. In its centre stands a solid brass or bronze stanchion, which would, I surmised, once have supported the warning lantern. Some of the dome’s outer wall panels are absent, nicked, I imagine, but the decorative metal railings that encircle the platform looked present and correct enough.
To say that the view from the top is breath-taking, particularly on a day like today, would be as predictable, I predict, as coining the phrase that Zalivino lighthouse is located in Zalivino, but look at the photos and judge for yourselves.
Zalivinio Lighthouse, Kaliningrad region, Russia. View from the top (January 2021)
Whenever I visit a conservation/restoration site, I never fail to be impressed by the commitment and dedication of the people involved, and today was no exception. Many would have taken one look at that fellow hanging on his harness doing whatever it was he doing at a height of 15 metres in temperatures well below freezing and their response would be, rather you than me Gunga Din.
Just hanging around at Zalivinio Lighthouse Kaliningrad. (Mick Hart, Jan 2020)
I am sure that the suspended man’s name was most likely Valordia, Sergey or Vladimir, but all the same in my estimations he was up there all right and doing it ~ whatever it was he was doing. I bet not even Gunga Din himself would have left his Indian restaurant in Bethnal Green to do such a thing as that!
Support the restoration of Zalivinio Lighthouse
Eighteen million rubles is a lot or rubles to muster, so if you could see your way to donate to this worthy cause it would be most appreciated. Not only will you have the satisfaction of knowing that you have done your bit to preserve an important heritage site, but through the donation incentivisation programme you will be eligible for certain rewards, which include tours of historic places and other cultural and entertainment benefits.
Please click on the following link for more details on how to donate and for further information on the restoration programme: Old Lighthouse Zalivino
Outline of the lighthouse restoration programme
Restoration of the bronze lantern
Restoration of the lighthouse tower and caretaker’s house
Restoration of the weather mast, complete with navigational signs
Repair the pier and undertake dredging work along the coastline
Improve the quality and appearance of the grounds around the lighthouse
Create an exhibition of the history of navigation and business in the region.
A regular report on the collected funds and completed works of the Museum of the World Ocean in conjunction with the foundation Beautification and Mutual Assistance will be posted on the official website of the museum: www.world-ocean.ru
Examples of donation rewards
Donation: 1,000 rubles Exclusive tour, with a tea party for 2 people. Choice of one of the following destinations:
Royal Gate Friedrichsburg Gate
Donation: 5,000 rubles A collective tour on a fishing boat, a ‘Rusna’ kurenas (invitation ticket for 2 people), approximate duration 2 hours. This service is available in summer from 1 June to 10 September.
Exclusive tour, with a tea party for 2 people. Choice of one of the following destinations:
Lighthouse in the village of Zalivino Royal Gate Friedrichsburg Gate Maritime Exhibition Centre (Svetlogorsk)
Donation: 50,000 rubles A collective tour on a fishing boat, a ‘Rusna’ kurenas (invitation ticket for 2 people), approximate duration 2 hours. This service is available in summer from 1 June to 10 September.
An exclusive tour for 2 people of the ‘Depth’ exhibition, with a visit to the GoA ‘Peace-1’ accompanied by a hydronaut.
Exclusive tour, with a tea party for 2 people. Choice of one of the following destinations:
Lighthouse in the village of Zalivino Friedrichsburg Gate Royal Gate Maritime Exhibition Centre (Svetlogorsk)
Donation: 500,000 rubles The opportunity to hold two corporate events at the Museum of the World Ocean (up to 30 participants; maximum duration 3 hours each), choosing from the following venues:
Sea Hall NIS Vityaz Royal Gate Friedrischburg Gate Warehouse Maritime Exhibition Centre (Svetlogorsk)
The opportunity to stay in a guest cabin on the NIS Vityaz (invitation for 2 people) (1-day duration).
A collective tour on a fishing boat, a ‘Rusna’ kurenas (invitation ticket for 2 people), approximate duration 2 hours. This service is available in summer from 1 June to 10 September.
Exclusive tour, with a tea party for 2 people. Choice of one of the following destinations:
Lighthouse in the village of Zalivino Friedrichsburg Gate Royal Gate Maritime Exhibition Centre (Svetlogorsk)
An unlimited number of free visits to the lighthouse exhibits in the village of Zalivino.
Awarded the Beacon Friends Club sign.
Invitation to the annual ceremonial meeting of the members of the Beacon Friends Club (June 8, the day of the Lighthouse Service, on the territory of the lighthouse in the village of Zalivino).
Addendum Have you spotted the deliberate mistake? Zalivino Lighthouse is, of course, in Zalivino and not ‘Zalivinio’ as it sometimes appears in this text. I apologise unreservedly to anybody to whom this mis-spelling may have caused inconsolable and even terminal distress, especially to those who may have incorrectly assumed that Zalivinio is somewhere in Italy (is it?) I know of many wordsmiths who sadly may never recover ~ shame that … I wrote this piece whilst I was perfectly sober, which might go some way towards explaining why I have got my words in such a mucking fuddle. However, after careful consideration, I have resisted the desire to rectify the mistake on the grounds that it may incriminate my permalink, an occupational hazard of blogging that fellow bloggers are sure to empathise with even if the rest of the universe will forever stand in judgement. Er, sorry.
