Most of you will know about International Women’s Day. It is the day in the UK when feminists, The Guardian and The Independent celebrate feminism and in Russia femininity, but how many of you know about Men’s Day?
Russia Pays Tribute to its Men
Men’s’ Day in Russia is actually called Army Day. It began life as the Defenders of the Fatherland Day and, as the title suggests, was reserved for those who served in the military but has now been extended to incorporate all members of the male sex.
And today, 23rd February 2021 is that day: a day on which all Russian men will be looking forward with unalloyed joy to receiving the traditional Army Day gifts: socks, shaving cream and aftershave.
Apparently, the gift policy has become so predictable that it is rumoured that Russian men have renamed the day ‘The All-Russian Day of Shaving Cream’ and some have even formed a pre-emptive coalition, stocking up in advance on socks, shaving cream and aftershave in the hope that their wives or girlfriends will get the message and present them with something quite unexpected.
Perhaps I can help them.
Russia Pays Tribute to its Men
Not many people know that I was once in the Russian military, although, as the photograph shows, it was some time ago.
Nevertheless, working on the premise that ‘when in Rome …’, and having made sure that I had enough shaving cream and aftershave to sink a US aircraft carrier, I took the precaution of purchasing not just one pair, but two pairs of thick woolen handmade socks from my local babushka. Now, I thought, let’s see wifey how inventive you can be.
Result?
It’s enough to make the nation jealous: How many Russian men can say that they are a proud owner of a masculine blue towel monogrammed with a Russian tank and flag?
The temptation to sit down tonight wearing nothing else but my blue towel whilst drinking home-made vodka with a polar meeshka may be too seductive for me to resist and far too much for my wife to bear (pun intended).
I think I can safely say that next year, it will be back to the socks and shaving cream.
I was sitting in the office of our antique shop. It was a bright, sunny afternoon one Saturday in June. A couple whom we knew as being members of the 1940s’ crowd had just parked their 1935 vehicle on the small forecourt out front. I greeted them as they entered the shop, and they said to me, in a disappointed tone, “We have just heard that the shop is closing; that you are selling up and moving.”
I replied in the affirmative.
After saying how much they would miss the shop and us (which was nice of them), they enquired where I was moving to. Over the past six months I had become an expert at answering this question. Turning away to place an advertisement on the shop’s ad board, I casually replied, “Russia.”
Nine times out of ten, on hearing this, the astounded party would cry: “Russia!”. And some even fell back a few paces, as if thrown from the bombshell I had just dropped.
On this occasion I was deprived of my fun, as the people concerned turned out to be the one in ten: they expressed no astonishment on learning that I was planning to leave ‘our wonderful democracy’, in fact they empathised with me, sounding envious that I was ‘getting out whilst I can’, and saying “we don’t blame you” and “we would like to do the same.”
Mick Hart & Olga Hart in the Vintage & Antiques Emporium
But I did not decide to leave the UK and give up the country where I was born and everything I had ever known simply because it would furnish me with a first-class opportunity to laugh at the way the UK media brainwashes people.
It is true that my wife is Russian, and some people when apprised of this fact took it for granted that this is why I wanted to move to Russia, the logic being that had my wife been Martian I would want to move to Mars or, even more irrational, had my wife come from Wisbech I would want to move to the Fens. She hadn’t, and I didn’t, and I wouldn’t. Would you?
There was, of course, a bit more to it than that.
Moving to Russia from the UK
My wife, Olga, moved to England in 2001. In Russia she had been a qualified teacher of English with 10 years’ teaching experience, but as we know, or are led to believe, educational standards in the UK are far superior than those in any other country, so her qualifications and teaching experience was immediately rendered null and void.
Being a worker not a shirker, within two days of arriving in England, Olga set out to find gainful employment, no matter what it was, and after a couple of weeks managed to obtain the envious position of waitress at d’Parys Hotel in Bedford. Not bad, we thought: from qualified teacher with 10 years’ experience to table servant in two weeks: Welcome to the UK!
Nevertheless, it was a job — a thankless job. No sooner had she started than she fell foul of a bossy young lady with a rank inferiority complex and seriously challenged people skills, whom I would eventually christen ‘Fat Arse’ ~ for reasons that would be quite apparent to you had you been acquainted with her ~ and by extension (heaven forbid!) d’Parys then became known to us and our close circle of friends as DeFatties.
Incidentally, this rebranding of the hotel almost caught us out when my seven-year-old stepson, who liked to be taken to d’Parys for chicken nuggets and chips, blurted out one Sunday afternoon, “I like it here in DeFatties!!”
“DeFatties?” asked Olga’s bemused manager.
“Er yes,”I quickly replied, “Daniel calls it that because I always say that we are off to d’Parys for chicken nuggets and fatty fries, instead of saying chips, and although he’s doing well with his English, he does tend to confuse his words a little.”
But I digress.
During this period of her induction into the side of British life which immigrants rarely anticipate, Olga did manage to find temporary work with an agency that needed tutors with foreign language skills to act as a guide and mentor for overseas students. She juggled both jobs and eventually migrated her waitress skills to what was then d’Parys’ sister enterprise, The Embankment Hotel in Bedford.
The Embankment Hotel, Bedford, UK (December 2019)
Whilst labouring here, in addition to working towards her UK Citizenship ‘exams’, she was also studying for a postgraduate degree at Luton University, and in the meantime landed her first education post in the UK as an advisory teacher for EMASS (Ethnic Minority Achievement Support Service).
This meant that she would have to give up her job in the hotel trade, an outcome which my stepson Daniel heartily disapproved of. His mother becoming a ‘teacher’ was a definite step down from hotel waitressing, with its chicken nuggets, fatty fries and often free ice cream.
Although the EMASS job was a demanding one, Olga enjoyed it. As she said later, she felt as if she was actually doing some good and although it was not that well paid, most importantly, she liked the staff and got on well with her boss.
It was about this time, as Olga passed her QTS (Qualified Teaching Status) exams, that I asked her, whilst she still had chance to change her mind, was being a full-time teacher really what she wanted? I had visited a couple of schools in Kaliningrad, Russia: once to collect Daniel from primary school and, on another occasion, to pick up some documents from the Russian equivalent of a UK comprehensive. On both visits I had been struck by how well behaved and polite the children and students were and how attentive and orderly they were in class compared to their British counterparts.
I was not without experience of what British schools were like. I had a near brush with school culture when I left university. Not having the faintest idea of what I wanted to do in life, I fell prey to what in those days was standard career’s advice, which was to dragoon you into teaching. Reluctantly, I went through the motions, which included three-days’ ‘teaching observation’ at a school of one’s choice ~ I chose The Ferrers School, in Higham Ferrers, Northants*.
This brief introduction was enough to convince me that by not pursuing it further I would escape a career worse than death, and that, remember, was back in the 80s, when although British schools and life in Britain generally was all going terribly wrong at least it had not gone so utterly wrong as to be irredeemable.
But, in spite of all my remonstrations to the opposite, Olga ignored my pleas, held her course and set sail into the Poe-like maelstrom of UK education, reasoning that this was her job, this is what she had been trained for and this is what she wanted to do. Besides, she enjoyed teaching and enjoyed being a teacher.
Illustration for Edgar Allan Poes’ A Descent into the Maelstrom by Harry Clarke (Attribution: Harry Clarke, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Soon after qualifying she landed a job at the now no-longer-in-existence Harrowden Middle School, Bedford, and soon after that she stopped enjoying teaching and stopped enjoying being a teacher. This was the UK: being a teacher in the UK was nothing like being a teacher back home in her native country, Russia.
There are so many accounts that I could narrate to you about my wife’s experiences as a teacher in the UK, but I will leave that for a later post. Suffice it to say, it was every bit as bad as I had described it and worse, and it was no coincidence that the first school at which she worked, Harrowden, soon earnt itself the sobriquet of ‘Harrowing’.
If you are familiar to any degree with the UK education system you will not consider it to radical of me to say that UK schools and universities are little more than political indoctrination factories. The educational equivalent of ‘from the cradle to the grave’, but in this instance from primary school to university, the principal function of the education system is to inculcate, without fear of question or second thought, the dubious doctrines of so-called liberal progressiveness, particularly with regard to socially engineered and politically correct enforced multiculturalism and, in more recent years, gender engineering.
This, let us refer to it as political paedophilia, filters down from the top, through the career school heads and the ultra-left liberal staff to be consolidated by the biased nature of the texts and writers studied and reinforced by a daily helping of liberal-leftism from the BBC.
At the time that Olga was teaching, the BBC was head-over-orgasm in a tawdry sycophantic fantasy with Barack Obama, pulling out all the stops to cast him in the unlikely role of the Patron Saint of Democracy. When he was ousted in 2017, Trump was immediately framed as Bogeyman Number Two, just behind Vladimir Putin. Although Olga was unwilling to take an active part in this political grooming of youth ~ and refused to point blank ~ she had to endure considerable bullying before her case was heard, viz that she was there to teach English not enforce political views and corrupt the minds of the young.
Be careful whose sweeties they are and who you accept them from!
There are many other problems associated with working as a teacher in the UK, such as inflated bureaucracy, unnecessary paperwork, unpaid overtime etc, but these ills are universal to a good many other jobs and professions. However, one that is exclusive to teaching, and which stems from the same invasive fungus root of ‘liberal progressiveness’, is the continual round of daily abuse that teachers have to contend with both from feral pupils and their belligerent parents.
Every single day in my building, there are egregious acts of student misconduct going unchecked. Teachers are losing hope that things will ever get better, and we are tired. We are expected to be therapists, social workers, substitute parents, punching bags, and outlets for student rage and verbal abuse. Teaching is only a small percentage of what we do anymore.
Once again, I do not intend to expatiate on this here but will leave that subject for a later and more detailed post on the parlous state of the UK’s education system, in which I shall provide specific examples of incidents that my wife experienced whilst teaching.
After 20 years on the frontline of Britain’s schools, my wife had had enough. It was time to call it a day ~ get out. In many ways, this was a great pity, as teaching had been her life. In the UK, in addition to her teaching qualification, she attended and successfully completed many professional development courses and received numerous compliments and accolades from the heads of the institutions in which she had taught, from members of the teaching staff and also from pupils.
The rewarding element of teaching ~ so sad that UK’s schools are the victim of a pernicious ideology
Throughout her career, she had seen many teachers come and go, both long serving and new: some who had been ‘dreaming of escape’ for years and just could not take it anymore; others, fresh from college, who lasted less than a week before making the brave but timely decision to embark on a different career.
As if an Orwellian education system, lunatic skewed political correctness and state-sponsored delinquency was not enough, another baptism of western malfeasance awaited my wife.
In the time that she had been resident in England there had been several anti-Russian campaigns prosecuted in the extreme by the UK’s media, but in her last three years of living there the establishment and its media’s attempts to trash all things Russian and stir up rampant Russophobia had gone into overdrive, having obviously been prioritised by those who control our governments.
It was no coincidence then, and it is no coincidence now, that the anti-Russian Blitzkrieg had been launched at a time when both the British and American public’s trust in the neoliberal way had resoundingly hit the skids. The last thing that an imploding democracy needs is its 5-year cross-tickers looking elsewhere for the national, traditional values that no longer exist in their own back yard. And UK politicians would do well to remember that making history is a considerably less stable proposition than valuing and celebrating history, not to mention rewriting it or simply giving it away.
At last, incensed by the liberal propaganda machine and suffocating political correctness, Olga broached the subject to me of getting out ~ of leaving the country.
So, did I agree to go just because I am a fine husband and devoted to my wife? It would be so easy at this point to say yes, and by doing so pedestal myself as a martyr to feelings other than my own, but the truth is that it took almost three years before I, too, decided that I had had enough of the liberal canker that was so malevolently blighting the land that I loved. English born and bred, a legacy Briton with roots ~ my grandmother’s brother fought and died for his country in the First World War; my two uncles also fought in the Second World War, and my father’s brother, who was a Major in the Second World War, was awarded the Military Cross (M.C.) posthumously) ~ it should not have been an easy decision to make, and it wasn’t.
In the interim, whilst I was weighing my decision, I used to joke that the next time I went on holiday to Kaliningrad I would ask for political asylum on the grounds that I could no longer live under the oppressive liberal yoke: open borders, anti-social behaviour, ethnic-linked but never officially admitted-to crimes, increased internet censorship, and all the other politically correct baggage ~ the petty, ridiculous, meaningless stuff that is blown out of all proportion and which saturates our daily life, such as should we have a female Dr Who? how many women are there in the UK’s board rooms? not enough black actors on television, should same sex couples be allowed to adopt children, LGBT issues, gender issues, race issues and aarrrrggghhh!!
And then comes Brexit, with its liberal-motivated back-stabbing, double dealing, wriggling, writhing shiftiness and utter contempt for democracy — the liberal leavers screaming (and don’t they just!) that we must have a ‘people’s vote’ in the name of democracy when by the democratic process that is exactly what we had, it was called a referendum. (Apropos of this, it amused me recently to see the headline in one of the UK’s extreme left newspapers which claimed that if Trump was not impeached it would be a ‘threat to democracy’. Talk about ironic!)
Even though Democracy ~ battered, bloody, tarnished, sullied, bribed, threatened and subjected to all manner of shameful legal illegalities ~ would eventually break free from its criminal leave abductors, thanks primarily to Nigel Farage, by now my mind was made up. We were sailing on a cultural Titanic. It was time to leave the sinking ship
There were some who asked, “Why not got to Spain?” and “Why not go to France”. I suspect my reply was somewhat too obtuse for them: “The EU ~ NGOs ~ Merkel”.
And now, when fellow Brits ask me ‘do I like living in Russia?’ I play their game. Knowing what they want to hear, I reply, in a suitably pained tone: “Why did I do it …?” And as a triumphant smile begins to dawn on their faces, before they can say I told you so I quickly conclude my statement with, “ … leave it so long, I mean. I should have moved ten years’ ago!”
Next (when I have time to write in between beers) ‘What I like about life in Kaliningrad’
When it’s gone, it’s gone … Updated 5 March 2024 | First published: 16 September 2021 ~ Death of the House of Culture Remembering Zalivino’s House of Culture. The space once occupied by the House of Culture is now just a bed of hardcore and thistles. Here is what it was like before they made… Читать далее: Death of the House of Culture
What I like about Kaliningrad Updated 18 April 2022 | First published: 2 March 2021 ~ Kaliningrad beyond the headlines of the West [INTRO} I wrote this piece over a year ago, at a time when western media had nothing better to do than push a hysteria-fomenting narrative about the coronavirus pandemic; now, apparently, it… Читать далее: Kaliningrad beyond the headlines of the West
Diary of a Self-isolator: Day 645 [9 December 2021] Published: 8 December 2021 ~ Vaccination Passports Stop the Spread of Underpants Diary of a self-isolator is one of a series of posts and thoughts on self-isolating in Kaliningrad. Links to previous posts appear at the end of this post. It’s amazing isn’t it! Just when… Читать далее: Vaccination Passports Stop the Spread of Underpants
In Memory of a Good Friend Published: 1 November 2021 ~ Celebrating the Memory of Königsberg Tour Guide Stas 28th November 2021. Today was the anniversary of Stas Konovalov’s death. After paying our resects at the graveside, a group, consisting of family, close friends and neighbours, were brought together by Stas’ mother for a memorial… Читать далее: Celebrating the Memory of Königsberg Tour Guide Stas
“Bucket!” he shouted. They hadn’t let him in! Diary of a Self-isolator: Day 608 [2 November 2021] Published: 2 November 2021~Old Tin Buckets & QR Codes So I said to my wife, “No, I don’t think so. I’ve got better things to do this morning.” But she looked so disappointed that I relented, saying, five… Читать далее: Old Tin Buckets & QR Codes
The Reset people want is more Churchillian than Economic-Elitist-Tech
Published: 14 February 2021 ~ The Great Reset Answer or Suspicious Coincidence?
The UK has never been more divided than it is now, thanks to coronavirus, or rather the way in which coronavirus is being presented and handled by the British establishment. Whilst divisions exist within divisions, making it somewhat more complicated than the comparatively straightforward Brexit divide, with open-border liberals on one side and legacy Brits on the other, the main groups can be separated into three distinct confederacies.
Those who accept and support lockdown unconditionally and are, or at least appear to be, quite content to spend the rest of their unnatural days mask-ridden and locked away. These are the hardline lockdowners, the majority of which, funnily enough, are freedom-espousing liberals.
The second group comprises those who think that the UK is ruled by a bunch of gross incompetents, a Conservative-Labour cabal, who, running around in ever decreasing circles, should really have disappeared by now and hopefully eventually will once they have learnt to tell the difference between their elbow and their arse.
The third group are those who earnestly believe that coronavirus and the misinformation/disinformation industry that has grown up around it, together with the bizarre, confusing melee of totalitarian-type rules and restrictions, are part of a grand plan to bring about a radical, global shift in economic and social structures, which will blight the lives of the many whilst filling the coffers of the elitist few.
The Great Reset Answer or Suspicious Coincidence?
Although the latter group is summarily slapped down by liberal media censorship, sectioned under its willful wackos, weirdos, freaks and cranks act, there is no doubt that the tide of public opinion has changed and in the absence of consistent strategy, openness and more plausible explanations, it is the suspicions of this group that are gaining wider acceptance among the British public.
You only have to cast an eye along the comments at the end of online news reports and videos to see that the UK public, in looking for a way out of the conflicting messages and contradictions maze, is finding answers in explanations that favour above all else a neoliberal global conspiracy often referred to as the Great Reset, named after the eponymous book, Covid-19: The Great Reset, written by Klaus Schwab, the Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, and Thierry Malleret.
The Great Reset Answer or Suspicious Coincidence?
If your prejudice lies in dismissing conspiracy theories, so be it, but when I read that the usual liberal suspects ~ the BBC, The New York Times and The Guardian, among others ~ had denounced this view as ‘baseless’, a far-right conspiracy theory and, even worse, that progressive-policy open-borders Biden has used ideas from the Great Reset with which to line his speeches, I thought ‘ay up!!!’.
I have to say that seen through the prism of the Great Reset the ‘mishandling’ of the ‘coronavirus pandemic’ makes a lot more sense than the mass of contradictions disseminated to us by the mainstream media and inflicted on us by roller coaster politics and the not so merry-go-round and around of episodic lockdowns.
If true, we can honestly say that what up until now has been a political movement operating insidiously by stealth and subterfuge has been brought out into the open, either blatantly by arrogance or by the force of its own desperation and, in the process is exposing itself for what it really is and what it really wants. In other words, the old kid liberal gloves, fashioned out of the bogus skin of philanthropy, equality, fairness, freedom and the milk of human kindness are well and truly off, revealing the cold, callous, manipulating digits of the greedy, grasping, money-grabbing globalists and their greasy-thumbed liberal agenda.
If this is what they are up to, then the biggest hand that they have overplayed so far has to be Hat Mancocks’ (blast, Bill Gates and his ever-dysfunctional spellchecker ~ I have the same problem when I try to spell ‘liberal’ and it comes out ‘totalitarian’), ‘we’ll force them into hotels and give them 10 years in nick’ speech.
At the end of this post, I have included a random selection of comments taken from a news video of Matt Hancock laying down the law. It should give you a fair insight into how the British public ~ the still-thinking faction of the British public ~ feel.
The Great Reset Answer or Suspicious Coincidence?
And here’s your homework: After reading it, browse around on the internet and read some of the mainstream media articles and watch the various videos ~ interviews, discussions, news features etc ~ and then read the comments (note that some mainstream online news companies have ‘turned the comments off’ no doubt feeling the heat of truth!). Look at what people are saying and who ~ by political persuasion ~ is saying what. Then think, Great Reset and who, by political persuasion, are in favour of this and why. At the end of this exercise, you may be ~ should be ~ asking yourself why on earth would you put your trust in a so-called liberal democracy?
I am not saying that the Great Reset is the answer or the wrong answer, like a mysterious virus that never originated from where we suspect it did (so say the WHO), it could quite easily be just another of life’s odd coincidences. Couldn’t it?
Now you can say that I’ve grown bitter but of this you may be sure The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor And there’s a mighty judgment coming, but I may be wrong You see, you hear these funny voices In the Tower of Song ~ Leonard Cohen
Comments on Mat Hancock’s Hotels & Prison Speech (unedited)
{Note: If you think the situation is bad under a Conservative government, think how much worse it could be under a looney left administration! As they don’t say but should, there’s a silver lining in every pair of underpants!}
This is the most bizarre action ever taken. Why are we not facing up to the fact; this island is no longer free. With the daily news all about lockdowns and police arrests, and closures, we are sounding more like a country at war with our own people
It’s so sad that people are not rising up against this tyranny
TYRANNY AT IT’S FINEST! WELCOME TO 1930S NAZI GERMANY.. yet we have not learnt from past mistakes.
Pity they didn’t close the borders a year ago. Oh and patrol the channel and send the illegals back
All about the money money. Nothing to do with the virus. And some people think this is going to end because of the vaccine not a hope they have made millions out of it and will not like giving up making easy money
Millions… don’t you mean billions !
People think the money is the Power,it is a powerful tool but these Bozo’s hold sway over millions of people, divide and conquer is what they want, then they control with ease.
Welcome to your new police state,neighbours reporting neighbours lockdowns every winter limited travel,
What a joke… people get less for armed robbery!
what are you going to do about the illegals that come in by boat send them back this is ridiculous people can kill people and get less than 10-years they’re getting 10 years and they haven’t even done a crime this country is a prison in itself you just locked in your houses
It’s a pity they don’t get ten years for lying to the public.
They should all be banged up and key thrown away for trying to pass this hideous Corona virus bill. Won’t be long before we’re not allowed to have an alternative opinion without being sectioned and forcibly jabbed. That’s not on the news is it.
The vaccine was meant to be the light at the end of the tunnel and yet it seems , ever since the start of its administration , U.K. is going into more and more draconian measures beyond reason. It’s just shocking.
Too little too late. Should have shut the borders a year ago.
What the hell is going on ??? You can murder someone and get less prison time. And all the while the illegal immigrants pour in to a warm welcome and a hotel. It’s scary how undemocratic this country now is. This is just wrong on every level the borders should have been closed 10 months ago but to talk of 10 years in prison is just madness
100% this is just the start but I’m afraid a lot of the country still believe in everything these muppets are telling them stay in stay in stay in many have been brain washed that much people are scared to even step outside there front doors very sad to see
Diary of a Self-isolator: Day 333 [10 February 2021] or Russia’s Near Normal vs the West’s New Normal
Published: 10 February 2021 ~ Russia aims for pre-Covid Near Normality
There are a few weeks to go yet before I can legitimately celebrate my first Covid self-isolation anniversary, but as that peculiar milestone approaches there are other positives that merit raising a glass or two.
Top of the pops must be the worldwide thumbs up for Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. Following news of its approval by one of the UK’s most prestigious medical journals, the Lancet, begrudgingly the West’s media has been forced to concede that Sputnik V flew first past the finishing post in their international vaccine race, proving against all odds that the classic adage ‘who dares wins’ is still the winning formula.
The ‘bugger, we got it wrong’ factor is almost palpable in hindsight, as the great bastions (I think that’s the right word?) of the neoliberal press twist and turn within themselves to corkscrew a last derogative spin out of what remains of their discredited cynicism, and inevitably in the process come away from it all looking and sounding rather mardy.
With the EU let down somewhat embarrassingly by a vaccine supply bottleneck and other problems with its two main vaccines, one developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and another by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, let’s hope that neoliberal globalist politics will not get in the way should Angela Merkel’s welcome mat need to be rolled out quickly for Sputnik V. After all, the international nature of a pandemic requires international co-operation.
Pre-Covid Near Normality
Another reason for celebration, but one tempered by caution and common sense, is the understanding that daily coronavirus cases in Russia are down 50 per cent from their peak in mid-December 2020*. With infection numbers said to be travelling in the right direction, downwards, it would appear that in some parts of the country steps are being taken to relax coronavirus restrictions*, a move which represents an entirely different approach to the ‘no light at the end of the tunnel’ endless lockdown scenarios with which my family, friends and the rest of the nation are faced in embattled Britain.
In Moscow, limitations on opening times of pubs, restaurants and clubs are due to be removed (I should say so!), and full-time teaching in universities is to be resumed.
Cheering news for those who have been staunch and consistent critics of the efficacy of masking-up is that based on evidence of increasing immunity the days of mandatory face masks might soon be over in Russia. And not before time.
Recently, I was pulled up by a tram conductress ~ one of those large redoubtable babushkas ~ for being maskless on public transport. I had not forgotten to wear my mask, and neither was I making a formal protest; the face towel had simply chosen to leap from my pocket as I was boarding the tram. I did try to improvise by wrapping my scarf around my mush, but this stout defender of rules are rules was not the sort to take prisoners. Fortunately for me, my wife procured a spare mask from her handbag and honour was seen to be done ~ in other words, I narrowly escaped the humiliation of having my maskless arse kicked off the tram.
Had this happened it would have been a grave injustice, as I, for one, have found wearing a mask to be particularly useful recently, possibly not as a hedge against catching coronavirus but most definitely as an effective face glove, as temperatures in Kaliningrad plummet to minus 20. If the weather carries on like this debunking global warming, I will have no choice but to snip off the fur-lined flaps from the sides of my spare ushanka (hat) and attach two bits of elastic to them.
However, whilst we wait for this to happen, here is a quick recap of the latest response to coronavirus as reported in Russian media:
🤞There is hope in the air that soon we might all be enjoying more air as part of nationwide demasking.
🤞As there are no strict lockdowns in Russia, they will not be lifted, but spirits may still be lifted by relaxing what restrictions there are.
🤞Normal service is beginning to be resumed in the nation’s universities and, most importantly, in the bars, clubs and restaurants.
😁Sputnik V gets 10 out of 10 in the International Vaccine Race and quick to criticise critics 10 out of 10 for egg on their face. And doesn’t it serve them right!
Published: 8 February 2021 ~ Awesome Königsberg Cathedral Organ Concerts
We recently received a kind invitation to attend an organ concert at Königsberg Cathedral. This was the first time that I had been to a concert there, and I was keen to discover if the sound of the cathedral’s pipe organ was as impressive as it looked.
With temperatures outside falling to as low as -17 degrees, we were surprised, happily surprised, to discover that in spite of the capacious size of the cathedral it was warm and comfortable. For a cathedral that had been reduced to a shell in the Second World War by RAF bombing and subsequently and painstakingly restored, the atmosphere and ambience is superb. Lighting is important in any environment, but particularly so in exhibition and concert halls, and here it cannot be faulted.
The colonnades, sturdy walls and Gothic vaulted ceiling served the acoustics well, the hard surfaces reflecting the quieter notes distinctly and the deeper tones with generous resonance. The organ rolled, rumbled and reverberated, the multiple dense sounds thundering spectacularly from numerous points within the buildings chambers.
I will admit that I am not much of an opera aficionado, but on this occasion I felt that the dulcet tones of the singer complimented and contrasted perfectly with the rich and varied tones of the pipe organ.
At the close of the concert, we chose to walk around the back of the cathedral, past Kant’s tomb. My wife, Olga, rightly commented that here, outside and within the cathedral, you can still feel the spirit of the city of Königsberg.
This was so true, and I felt rather guilty that I had not visited the cathedral more frequently since moving to Kaliningrad.
I confess that since the death of our friend Victor Ryabinin in the summer of 2019, I have been purposefully avoiding the cathedral and the surrounding area. The cathedral and Kneiphof island are only a stone’s throw away from Victor Ryabinin’s former art studio and as such constituted the epicentre of his cultural and historical world. There were so many memories that I did not want to face, and so many more, like this evening’s, which he may once have been a part of but now never will ~ at least in person.
But you cannot hide forever, and I was glad that I had agreed to go to the concert.
Even in the falling temperatures and with noses like beetroots, Olga managed to snap off some photos of the cathedral on a cold winter’s night, which capture the magical quality of the external lighting and how it is used to imaginative effect.
Brrrr: It was time to rattle back home on the number 5 tram and, once indoors, make with the cognac!
Königsberg Cathedral Organ Concerts: Königsberg Cathedral website: http://sobor39.ru/
Concert details for 6th February 2021
Titular organist of the Cathedral, laureate of international competitions, Mansur Yusupov
Soloist of the Kaliningrad Regional Philharmonic, laureate of international competitions, Anahit Mkrtchyan (soprano)
Music and song featured works from the following composers:
A. Vivaldi A. Scarlatti G. F. Handel J. Pergolesi J. S. Bach V. Gomez M. Lawrence, A. Babajanyan
Published: 5 February 2021 ~ How Russophobia makes the West look Silly
Have you noticed how anti-Russian hysteria whipped up by the UK media comes in waves? It is rather like a bad case of diarrhoea, very often brought on by something uncomfortable happening on the home front which swiftly requires some form of diversion.
Why is the West so Silly?
A couple of years ago, the UK media’s Russophobia ramp-up preoccupied itself with the terrors that Brits would face if they travelled to Russia for the World Cup, Dr Salisbury and the Mysterious Case of the Skripals, watch out there are hackers about, and the omnipotent cyber power that Russia is said to possess which enables it to steal into one’s sub-conscious and influence the way one votes, from Brexit or not-to-Brexit to presidential elections. Incidentally, how does this work? Here I am committed to vote Remain in the Brexit referendum. I read something on social media, purported to have been written by someone from a foreign power, telling me to vote the opposite way. Bingo, I’ll vote to Leave!! I mean, would you? Do you? Does it …? Or, in the United States: I am going to vote for the Democrats. I always vote for them. I don’t know why, perhaps it’s because my mum does. She’s very PC and cannot have enough ‘isms’ in her life. But wait a moment, I have just read something that has told me to vote for Trump! Right, Trump it is.
I’ve just had a word with our cat, Ginger, about this, and all he can say is ‘give me some grub or let me scratch and bite you’. And then he rolled over and purred.
Nevertheless, such was the panic engendered by this media-created long arm of the Russian state, even longer than the famous long arm of the British law, that my mother was convinced that when she woke up one morning and found that the wheelie bin had gone that it must be the Russians who’d dun it!
Sputnik V romps home
I can see that you are not comfortable with the diarrohea metaphor, so let’s try another. How about a militaristic one, in which there are major battles and random cases of sniping?
For example, when the Russian vaccine Sputnik V was announced last year as the world’s first coronavirus vaccine, it sparked nothing short of a full-scale war in the West’s mainstream and science journal media.
Examples of Headline News in the West
Experts Raise Alarm As Putin Says Russia Has Approved World’s First Covid-19 Vaccine
Russia approves Sputnik V Covid vaccine despite testing safety concerns
We have no idea if the Russian Covid vaccine is safe or effective
Russia’s Fast-Track Coronavirus Vaccine Draws Outrage over Safety
Russia is spreading lies about Covid vaccines, says UK military chief
UK ‘95% sure’ Russian hackers tried to steal coronavirus vaccine research (Who wrote this one? Was it ‘Highly Likely’ Theresa May?)
It began politely enough, with the odd shot or two fired at the vaccine’s validity based on scientific testing protocols, but soon escalated into the bellicose language that we have come to expect in the Coronavirus & Cyber Cold War era, with accusations of disinformation, misinformation, no information and, yep you’ve got it, hacking.
As the first salvos gradually diminished, the sniping continued sporadically until, on 2 February 2021, The Lancet, an esteemed British medical journal, published the results from a phase 3 trial of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in an article headlined ‘Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine candidate appears safe and effective’. On the same day, the BBC ran this article, ‘Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine has 92% efficacy in trial’, in which, in recognition of the unjust way in which Russia had been treated, it was quoted that “we should be more careful about being overly critical about other countries’ vaccine designs.”
A muted apology but an apology all the same.
It was quite obvious, and therefore understandable, that with western mainstream media using the phrase ‘vaccine race’ freely from the outset to dramatise research efforts to develop a Covid vaccine, that considerable pique would follow when on entering the race, which was pretty much a closed affair, Russia left its western ‘competitors’ standing, pipping them at the post before they had time to pip.
Of course, the US and Brit government will never forgive Russia for coming first in their race, apart from the loss of prestige there is all that globalist vaccine money to think of, but they are doing their utmost to detract from it by focusing instead on selectively publishing photographs taken of street protests recently staged in Russian cities.
I asked my dear and well-informed friend, Lord Wollocks, what he thought about this:
“Deflection technique. A bit embarrassing for the West of late. Lots of civil disorder. Last thing that they want [in the UK or the States] are their people looking in the direction of the former USSR and saying, ‘my word but things look a lot more civilised over there’, especially if they make the not-so quantum leap from a land blighted by coronavirus mishandling and BLM riots to one which holds unswayable store on conservative norms and family values.”
And off went Wollocks, to make a cup of tea.
No one, not even Lord Wollocks, made any connection between the good visual copy of street protests elsewhere coinciding with Biden coming to power, but that was possibly because if all else fails there is always this little bit of land, Kaliningrad and its region, at which to level one’s sites.
A rather Silly case of Russophobia
Western media has a never abating obsession for what it calls the strategic military importance of Russia’s westernmost outpost. In the past 10 years it has been in and out of the press more times than something attending a gender reassignment surgery which cannot quite make up its mind. On one hand, Kaliningrad has a ‘taste for western Europe’, on the other, it has a lot of clout for resisting western Europe, but should there be nothing more to snipe at Kaliningrad makes a convenient target.
Wait a mo! If I was going to nip into someone else’s backyard and switch off the dog so that my mates could rush in behind me and claim squatters’ rights, why would I want to tell the owners of the yard what I was going to do? Whatever happened to secrets? More to the point, what do spies and military generals put on their CVs when they are seeking alternative employment?
I mentioned this news report to a Russian friend of mine as we were standing in the supermarket trying to decide which brand of vodka to buy. I said, “Analysts say Poland could win Russia-NATO war by invading Kaliningrad and securing Moscow’s nukes.” “Really,” he said, raising an eyebrow. He thought for a moment, scratched his head and then asked, solemnly, “So, which vodka is it to be?”
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.
