Een marginale sloppenwijk in een Afrikaanse derde wereldstad? Nee gewoon het station #Brussel-Zuid in de hoofdstad van #Europa… pic.twitter.com/5ZiJYwlSVw
— Filip Dewinter (@FDW_VB) August 13, 2023
Cursed be our politicians.
MFBB.
Monday, August 14, 2023
IMPORT THE THIRD WORLD, BECOME THE THIRD WORLD.
From Filip Dewinter's twitter account, images from Brussels South, which is Brussels most important railway station since most lines from around the country and the most important international railway connections (including the Eurostar to and from London) converge here:
Cursed be our politicians.
MFBB.
Cursed be our politicians.
MFBB.
Saturday, July 22, 2023
SATURDAY NIGHT GEORGE HARRISON, JUDY COLLINS.
George Harrison with the Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp. From his 1970 album All Things Must Pass.
Harrison wrote it as a tribute to Frank Crisp, a nineteenth-century lawyer and microscopologist as well as the original owner of Friar Park, the Victorian Gothic residence in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, that Harrison bought in early 1970.
Judy Collins with Both Sides Now. From her 1967 album Wildflowers.
American singer/songwriter from Seattle, Washington. "Both Sides, Now" was actually written by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, but it was Collins who recorded it first. It appeared on the US singles chart during the fall of 1968.
Hat tip for both OutlawDaugher, 21!
Goede nacht.
MFBB.
Harrison wrote it as a tribute to Frank Crisp, a nineteenth-century lawyer and microscopologist as well as the original owner of Friar Park, the Victorian Gothic residence in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, that Harrison bought in early 1970.
Judy Collins with Both Sides Now. From her 1967 album Wildflowers.
American singer/songwriter from Seattle, Washington. "Both Sides, Now" was actually written by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, but it was Collins who recorded it first. It appeared on the US singles chart during the fall of 1968.
Hat tip for both OutlawDaugher, 21!
Goede nacht.
MFBB.
Friday, July 21, 2023
RECOMMENDED READS: GINA LOUDON'S "THE DARK, UNTOLD TRUTH OF TRANSGENDERISM".
Over at Townhall, a must read by Gina Loudon:
There is a new stock-in-trade in the American domain today – human beings.
Even children are being used in Mengelian experimentations that might have given Hitler pause.
The tragedy of sexual-reassignment surgery has a terrifying history.
The popularization of medically sanctioned sexual mutilation began with well-known sexual perversion advocate, Alfred Kinsey.
Kinsey contended that people are “sexual from birth” and experimented on babies in the 1940s and 50s. His legacy stands largely unchallenged today by the American Medical Association, despite his advocacy of bestiality, pedophilia, sadomasochism, and incest.
His experiments largely led to the so-called Sexual Revolution.
In 1967, a student of Kinsey named John Money was asked by a set of desperate parents to repair a botched circumcision on their baby boy, David, who was a twin. Rather than repair the damage, Money advised the couple to raise the baby as a girl and remove his genitalia.
By age 12, David was struggling mentally in addition to his physical malformities. By 14, he begged to be made male again. Throughout his teens, he became severely depressed. Ultimately, both brothers ended their own lives.
It was later reported that Money sexually molested both boys, and forced them to have incestuous relations with one another at age 7.
This tragic case prompted further study, and the not-yet-corrupted medical establishment opted to largely end sanctions of the mutilation experiments, for a time.
So if we, as a nation, researched this and even the left agreed to end such studies because the outcomes were so grim, why have the powers that be reinvented this cause at this point in time?
The American Medical Association stands to gain millions of dollars between surgeries and medicines from each transition. The American Psychological Association will have its membership explode when all of these children and their parents and families need a lifetime of therapy and drugs for what they have done. Big Pharma can’t even calculate the money that will rush to them. And the Democrats have taken up their cause calling it “gender affirming care,” (as if there were anything “caring” about it, considering the real data). The Democrats will be richly rewarded by all of those profiting off of these children, and the cycle will continue.
They will hire their own corporate “scientists” to conduct “research” to confirm their propaganda, and just like that – a total fraud will be imposed on the American people.
Those imposing this horror will clutch their pearls and deny their collusion or a profit motive, and sadly many Americans and others who stand to be bilked (or worse) will overlook the undeniable truth of this. But data exposes their profit motive.
Vanderbilt University and London’s Portman Clinic tracked those who forewent gender reassignment, and found that 70-80% of those who face gender confusion but do not have transition surgery, lost their feelings of confusion over time and ultimately were considered “recovered.”
Johns Hopkins ended their sexual reassignment surgery in 1970 for that reason. Their chief psychiatrist called sex change “biologically impossible” in the Wall Street Journal.
He cited a 2011 study at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden that followed 324 sex reassignment patients for decades. After 10 years, patients had increased mental difficulties. Suicide mortality rose to almost 20 times the rate of those who did not transition.
Why aren’t we reading this or hearing it from the “experts” on our televisions?
Many sober-minded professionals point to the reality that in no other dysmorphic disorder, do professionals advise that we “equip” the disorder by prescribing diets to anorexics, or sharp knives to Borderline Personality “cutting” patients, for example.
If the real concern is suicide, why is the AMA/APA/Democrat party not studying the use of gender affirming hormones rather than prescribing hormones and mutilation contrary to their natural birth gender?
It certainly cannot be the multi-million dollar price tag on the head of every child they transition. Surely not. Because “the truth is the greatest enemy of the state.”
These are dark times, indeed.
MFBB.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” — Quote commonly attributed to Joseph Goebbels
There is a new stock-in-trade in the American domain today – human beings.
Even children are being used in Mengelian experimentations that might have given Hitler pause.
The tragedy of sexual-reassignment surgery has a terrifying history.
The popularization of medically sanctioned sexual mutilation began with well-known sexual perversion advocate, Alfred Kinsey.
Kinsey contended that people are “sexual from birth” and experimented on babies in the 1940s and 50s. His legacy stands largely unchallenged today by the American Medical Association, despite his advocacy of bestiality, pedophilia, sadomasochism, and incest.
His experiments largely led to the so-called Sexual Revolution.
In 1967, a student of Kinsey named John Money was asked by a set of desperate parents to repair a botched circumcision on their baby boy, David, who was a twin. Rather than repair the damage, Money advised the couple to raise the baby as a girl and remove his genitalia.
By age 12, David was struggling mentally in addition to his physical malformities. By 14, he begged to be made male again. Throughout his teens, he became severely depressed. Ultimately, both brothers ended their own lives.
It was later reported that Money sexually molested both boys, and forced them to have incestuous relations with one another at age 7.
This tragic case prompted further study, and the not-yet-corrupted medical establishment opted to largely end sanctions of the mutilation experiments, for a time.
So if we, as a nation, researched this and even the left agreed to end such studies because the outcomes were so grim, why have the powers that be reinvented this cause at this point in time?
The American Medical Association stands to gain millions of dollars between surgeries and medicines from each transition. The American Psychological Association will have its membership explode when all of these children and their parents and families need a lifetime of therapy and drugs for what they have done. Big Pharma can’t even calculate the money that will rush to them. And the Democrats have taken up their cause calling it “gender affirming care,” (as if there were anything “caring” about it, considering the real data). The Democrats will be richly rewarded by all of those profiting off of these children, and the cycle will continue.
They will hire their own corporate “scientists” to conduct “research” to confirm their propaganda, and just like that – a total fraud will be imposed on the American people.
Those imposing this horror will clutch their pearls and deny their collusion or a profit motive, and sadly many Americans and others who stand to be bilked (or worse) will overlook the undeniable truth of this. But data exposes their profit motive.
Vanderbilt University and London’s Portman Clinic tracked those who forewent gender reassignment, and found that 70-80% of those who face gender confusion but do not have transition surgery, lost their feelings of confusion over time and ultimately were considered “recovered.”
Johns Hopkins ended their sexual reassignment surgery in 1970 for that reason. Their chief psychiatrist called sex change “biologically impossible” in the Wall Street Journal.
He cited a 2011 study at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden that followed 324 sex reassignment patients for decades. After 10 years, patients had increased mental difficulties. Suicide mortality rose to almost 20 times the rate of those who did not transition.
Why aren’t we reading this or hearing it from the “experts” on our televisions?
Many sober-minded professionals point to the reality that in no other dysmorphic disorder, do professionals advise that we “equip” the disorder by prescribing diets to anorexics, or sharp knives to Borderline Personality “cutting” patients, for example.
If the real concern is suicide, why is the AMA/APA/Democrat party not studying the use of gender affirming hormones rather than prescribing hormones and mutilation contrary to their natural birth gender?
It certainly cannot be the multi-million dollar price tag on the head of every child they transition. Surely not. Because “the truth is the greatest enemy of the state.”
These are dark times, indeed.
MFBB.
Saturday, July 01, 2023
AIR DEFENDER 2023 OVER SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN!
A yearly NATO exercise involving 10,000 personnel and some 250 aircraft. Magnificent images of, a.o., the venerable MRCA Tornado, still in service with the Luftwaffe.
Notice, at the 16:09 mark, the Luftwaffe Typhoon with the stylized portrait of General Johannes Steinhoff on its vertical stabilizer. Steinhoff was a famous ace in WW2's Luftwaffe. In the last weeks of the war, he was a member of the famous, albeit small, JV (Jagdverband) 44, an ad hoc Gruppe of Me262 jets raised and commanded by Adolf Galland and grouping together 'Experten' as well as promising novices. Sometime in mid-April 1945, Galland took off in a Kette (a 3-aircraft formation) from JV44's base at Muenchen-Riem, and burst a tire. His Me262 crashed and, choke full of jet fuel, immediately took fire. Somehow Steinhoff managed to get out of the jet, but engulfed in flames as it was, he suffered severe burns all over his body. Although he maintained his sight, his eyelids, severely singed, died off, and it wasn't until some 20 years later that Steinhoff (by then a General in the postwar Luftwaffe) was operated so that finally he could close his eyes again!
Hat tip Kuruki (twitter handle @Kuruki23882260 ).
Nite.
MFBB.
Notice, at the 16:09 mark, the Luftwaffe Typhoon with the stylized portrait of General Johannes Steinhoff on its vertical stabilizer. Steinhoff was a famous ace in WW2's Luftwaffe. In the last weeks of the war, he was a member of the famous, albeit small, JV (Jagdverband) 44, an ad hoc Gruppe of Me262 jets raised and commanded by Adolf Galland and grouping together 'Experten' as well as promising novices. Sometime in mid-April 1945, Galland took off in a Kette (a 3-aircraft formation) from JV44's base at Muenchen-Riem, and burst a tire. His Me262 crashed and, choke full of jet fuel, immediately took fire. Somehow Steinhoff managed to get out of the jet, but engulfed in flames as it was, he suffered severe burns all over his body. Although he maintained his sight, his eyelids, severely singed, died off, and it wasn't until some 20 years later that Steinhoff (by then a General in the postwar Luftwaffe) was operated so that finally he could close his eyes again!
Hat tip Kuruki (twitter handle @Kuruki23882260 ).
Nite.
MFBB.
Saturday, June 17, 2023
SATURDAY NIGHT BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, DEPECHE MODE.
Bruce Springsteen with Brilliant Disguise. From the 1987 album Tunnel of Love.
Single is about his doubts about his marriage to actress and model Julianne Phillips. They divorced in 1989.
Depeche Mode with Policy of Truth. Album Violator (1990).
You wouldn't believe it, but after 43 years the band, though now reduced to Gahan and Gore, is still around (DM formed in Basildon, Essex UK in 1980).
Good night.
MFBB.
Single is about his doubts about his marriage to actress and model Julianne Phillips. They divorced in 1989.
Depeche Mode with Policy of Truth. Album Violator (1990).
You wouldn't believe it, but after 43 years the band, though now reduced to Gahan and Gore, is still around (DM formed in Basildon, Essex UK in 1980).
Good night.
MFBB.
Saturday, June 03, 2023
FASCINATING VIDEO OF THE CONVAIR B-36 PEACEMAKER'S INTERIOR!
A legendary intercontinental bomber caught between two eras.
We've shown this clip from the movie Strategic Air Command, starring James Stewart, before:
Nite.
MFBB.
We've shown this clip from the movie Strategic Air Command, starring James Stewart, before:
Nite.
MFBB.
Sunday, May 28, 2023
LEGENDARY ENGINES: THE NAPIER DELTIC.
A magnificent video on yet another brilliant Napier product, the Deltic:
As you heard, before Napier, Junkers too found out there were problems with the correct phasing of the three cilinder banks. Where Junkers abandoned the triangular design and developed a 'square' variant with four banks, which apparently gave no problems, Napier found the solution. Or rather, a senior draftsman at Napier found it: simply making one of the three crankshafts run in the opposite direction to the other two!
MFBB.
As you heard, before Napier, Junkers too found out there were problems with the correct phasing of the three cilinder banks. Where Junkers abandoned the triangular design and developed a 'square' variant with four banks, which apparently gave no problems, Napier found the solution. Or rather, a senior draftsman at Napier found it: simply making one of the three crankshafts run in the opposite direction to the other two!
MFBB.
Saturday, May 06, 2023
BRILLIANT VIDEO: WHAT HAPPENS IF A STAR EXPLODES NEAR EARTH?
A must watch, even if physics is not right away your strong suit:
Good night.
MFBB.
Good night.
MFBB.
Tuesday, May 02, 2023
MAY 2ND, 2023.
It's been twelve years since my father died:
It's been twelve years father, but we think of you every single day.
Rest in Peace. You are not forgotten.
MFBB.
On Monday, May 2nd, 2011, at about 22.05, my father passed away after almost one month on Intensive Care.
He was 77. He had some little troubles typically connected with his age, but was otherwise a healthy person. Four days before he was admitted to the hospital, towards the end of March 2011, he participated in the annual dinner event of his old schoolmates from the Institut Technique at Ath (Hainaut Province), and he was by all accounts the healthiest and ablest of the group. Four days later he was on Intensive Care. A month later he was dead.
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." ~ Psalm 23:4 ~
It's been twelve years father, but we think of you every single day.
Rest in Peace. You are not forgotten.
MFBB.
Saturday, April 29, 2023
SATURDAY NIGHT ALANIS MORISSETTE, LIVE.
Alanis Morissette with Thank U. Album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998).
Canadian-American singer/songwriter from Ottawa, who debuted with Jagged Little Pill (1995).
Live with Lightning Crashes. Album Throwing Copper (1994).
American rock band from York, Pennsylvania. Frontman and only constant member is Ed Kowalczyk.
Nite.
MFBB.
Canadian-American singer/songwriter from Ottawa, who debuted with Jagged Little Pill (1995).
Live with Lightning Crashes. Album Throwing Copper (1994).
American rock band from York, Pennsylvania. Frontman and only constant member is Ed Kowalczyk.
Nite.
MFBB.
Saturday, April 22, 2023
SATURDAY NIGHT DIRE STRAITS, ROXY MUSIC.
Dire Straits with You and your friend. Album On Every Street (1991).
Once called the greatest British rock band of the 80s by the magazine Classic Rock.
Roxy Music with Dance Away. From the 1979 album Manifesto.
For me at least, it's hard to come up with a more iconic English rock band of the 70s. Roxy Music was formed in late 1970 by Bryan Ferry, who had just been fired from a teaching job, and bassist Graham Simpson.
Good night.
MFBB.
Once called the greatest British rock band of the 80s by the magazine Classic Rock.
Roxy Music with Dance Away. From the 1979 album Manifesto.
For me at least, it's hard to come up with a more iconic English rock band of the 70s. Roxy Music was formed in late 1970 by Bryan Ferry, who had just been fired from a teaching job, and bassist Graham Simpson.
Good night.
MFBB.
Saturday, April 08, 2023
HAPPY EASTER 2023!
Like every year, DowneastBlog wishes all its readers of good will a Happy and Blessed Easter!
If I am allowed to make a special recommendation this year - please pray for the people of Ukraine, who have had their world turned upside down, lost their belongings, and many their loved ones. Pray, even, for the Russian soldiers, for most of them have been thrown into this senseless undertaking against their will and have had their lives shattered too - and many have already paid the ultimate price for nothing other than the megalomaniac dreams of their leader.
MFBB.
If I am allowed to make a special recommendation this year - please pray for the people of Ukraine, who have had their world turned upside down, lost their belongings, and many their loved ones. Pray, even, for the Russian soldiers, for most of them have been thrown into this senseless undertaking against their will and have had their lives shattered too - and many have already paid the ultimate price for nothing other than the megalomaniac dreams of their leader.
MFBB.
Sunday, April 02, 2023
DRUG WARS IN ANTWERP ESCALATING.
For the umpteenth time a bomb attack near the center of Antwerp. Serious damage in 4 streets. The house against which the explosive was used would belong to the parents of a suspect in the Sky ECC-dossier.
The drug trade in Antwerp - main European entrance port for Colombian narcotics - is mainly in the hands of Moroccan gangs. Oh blessed Multiculturalism - the gift that keeps on giving.
65 explosions over the past three years. Several dead and wounded. The genie is out of the bottle. These are the bad fruits of 30+ years of cordon sanitaire, effectively the political neutralization of Vlaams Belang, the ONLY party which is serious about organized crime.
MFBB.
Buurtbewoners explosie Antwerpen: “Uit bed getrild en dan uren buiten wachten in pyjama” https://t.co/xBUNbgVFI3
— Nieuwsblad.be (@Nieuwsblad_be) April 2, 2023
The drug trade in Antwerp - main European entrance port for Colombian narcotics - is mainly in the hands of Moroccan gangs. Oh blessed Multiculturalism - the gift that keeps on giving.
Na de handgranaten en het cobra-vuurwerk is de drugmaffia in @Antwerpen toe aan op afstand gedetoneerde 🧨 explosieven… Na 65 aanslagen op 3 jaar tijd: nog altijd geen tijd om het leger in te zetten en te laten patrouilleren op de hotspots waar 90% v/d aanslagen plaatsvinden? pic.twitter.com/3edwhFMLWA
— Filip Dewinter (@FDW_VB) April 2, 2023
65 explosions over the past three years. Several dead and wounded. The genie is out of the bottle. These are the bad fruits of 30+ years of cordon sanitaire, effectively the political neutralization of Vlaams Belang, the ONLY party which is serious about organized crime.
MFBB.
Sunday, March 26, 2023
THILO SARRAZIN: "DEUTSCHLAND SCHAFFT SICH BESCHLEUNIGT AB."
Thilo Sarrazin is a former high ranking German public servant, a.o. Finance Senator to the Senate of Berlin. He is also a (former) socialist (SPD) politician who has seen the light. In 2010, he made international headlines because of the publication of his book "Deutschland schafft sich ab", "Germany abolishes itself". Before that, he had already severely criticized the horrible effects of limitless immigration in his country by people who are not even willing to integrate and look upon Germany merely as a provider of free welfare:
"Integration requires effort from those that are to be integrated. I will not show respect for anyone who is not making that effort. I do not have to acknowledge anyone who lives by welfare, denies the legitimacy of the very state that provides that welfare, refuses to care for the education of his children and constantly produces new little headscarf-girls. This holds true for 70 percent of the Turkish and 90 percent of the Arab population in Berlin."
In this video clip, which unfortunately has only German subtitles, he makes the case that his prognosis for the ongoing Population Replacement was actually too modest, since it was made years before Merkel first opened the borders wide for mostly islamic Third World wreckage and the subsequent intakes in the years were rather affairs of "200,000, 350,000 or even 500,000 people", not 100,000/year as he originally envisaged.
Unfortunately, what holds true for Germany is also the case in almost all of Western Europe, where politicians by and large seem to be curiously possessed by a frantic, unhealthy desire to import as many foreign population groups as possible, preferably those from backgrounds diametrically opposed to our western cultural and moral underpinnings. It's highly bizarre, since there is not a single rational argument in favor of these Open Borders policies.
We are litterally witnessing the death of Europe as we know it. Only fools can doubt that what will replace it will be worse.
MFBB.
"Integration requires effort from those that are to be integrated. I will not show respect for anyone who is not making that effort. I do not have to acknowledge anyone who lives by welfare, denies the legitimacy of the very state that provides that welfare, refuses to care for the education of his children and constantly produces new little headscarf-girls. This holds true for 70 percent of the Turkish and 90 percent of the Arab population in Berlin."
In this video clip, which unfortunately has only German subtitles, he makes the case that his prognosis for the ongoing Population Replacement was actually too modest, since it was made years before Merkel first opened the borders wide for mostly islamic Third World wreckage and the subsequent intakes in the years were rather affairs of "200,000, 350,000 or even 500,000 people", not 100,000/year as he originally envisaged.
Unfortunately, what holds true for Germany is also the case in almost all of Western Europe, where politicians by and large seem to be curiously possessed by a frantic, unhealthy desire to import as many foreign population groups as possible, preferably those from backgrounds diametrically opposed to our western cultural and moral underpinnings. It's highly bizarre, since there is not a single rational argument in favor of these Open Borders policies.
We are litterally witnessing the death of Europe as we know it. Only fools can doubt that what will replace it will be worse.
MFBB.
Sunday, February 26, 2023
DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT.
Rob Lee always has incomparable footage.
It's curious, the brazenness - or stupidity - of the tank crew to approach the crossing, which obviously is a killing ground - without precautions. The T72 could have reconnoitred cross country, avoiding lurking danger.
One of many Russian blunders, not neutralizing the Ukrainian Air Force on Day 1, which certainly could have been achieved with proper planning and smart, massive deployments.
How was my weekend? Rather boring. No sales this weekend, albeit progress was made in a dossier. Just trying to keep the company afloat.
Naturally, it's better than being at the front. Seeing the hardships of the Ukrainian military and population helps to put it all in perspective.
Nite.
MFBB.
Video from Ukraine’s 72nd Mechanized Brigade in Vuhledar. It shows a Russian T-72B-series tank hitting a mine where a T-80BV, two BMP-3, and a BTR were apparently previously damaged/abandoned by mines. Two BMPs then turn around. https://t.co/qMDgNdhH3D pic.twitter.com/TEmEgiOkqy
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) February 26, 2023
It's curious, the brazenness - or stupidity - of the tank crew to approach the crossing, which obviously is a killing ground - without precautions. The T72 could have reconnoitred cross country, avoiding lurking danger.
One of many Russian blunders, not neutralizing the Ukrainian Air Force on Day 1, which certainly could have been achieved with proper planning and smart, massive deployments.
And how is your weekend? pic.twitter.com/PTE3usrTvl
— Ukrainian Air Force (@KpsZSU) February 12, 2023
How was my weekend? Rather boring. No sales this weekend, albeit progress was made in a dossier. Just trying to keep the company afloat.
Naturally, it's better than being at the front. Seeing the hardships of the Ukrainian military and population helps to put it all in perspective.
Nite.
MFBB.
Saturday, February 18, 2023
REX'S HANGAR: THE HANDLEY PAGE HEYFORD.
Spending more time on Twitter has, through getting acquainted there with aviation enthusiasts, rekindled the fascination of my youth for anything that flies. This evening's topic is the Handley Page Heyford, a curious early thirties bomber design:
Nite.
MFBB.
Nite.
MFBB.
Sunday, February 12, 2023
STALEMATE IN UKRAINE.
One year into the war, the military of supposed superpower Russia has essentially confined itself to areas which even before the conflict were no longer fully under Ukrainian control. It can safely be said that the performance of the Russian armed forces - all three branches of it - is dismal.
The following video is curious since Russian mobile targets - Msta howitzers - are taken out by Excalibur rounds. I was under the impression that the GPS-controlled Excalibur shells are only used against fixed targets, what with a mobile target starting to move after the shot has been fired and some time elapses before the shell enters the target zone?
Still, the sheer quantity of videos showing devastating Russian losses should not lead one to believe that only one side is taking losses:
MFBB.
The following video is curious since Russian mobile targets - Msta howitzers - are taken out by Excalibur rounds. I was under the impression that the GPS-controlled Excalibur shells are only used against fixed targets, what with a mobile target starting to move after the shot has been fired and some time elapses before the shell enters the target zone?
#Ukraine: Today, three Russian 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled 152mm howitzers were damaged/destroyed by Ukrainian M982 Excalibur strikes on the left bank of the Dnipro River, #Kherson Oblast. pic.twitter.com/KsoCCIFgrH
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) February 10, 2023
Still, the sheer quantity of videos showing devastating Russian losses should not lead one to believe that only one side is taking losses:
#Ukraine: A Ukrainian 2S19 Msta-S 152mm self-propelled howitzer was destroyed by a Russian Lancet loitering munition in #Luhansk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/SCulQVdAfv
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) February 10, 2023
MFBB.
Saturday, December 31, 2022
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023!!!
To all my followers and all people of good will, a very happy New Year!!!
Sorry for the far too light blogging but I really don't intend to quit yet. It's just that 2022 has been an exceptionally difficult year, what with my condition (multiple myeloma aka Kahler's Disease), the troubles in the company (especially personnel, but biz has been very tough also), the lingering difficulties due to covid (now luckily receding...).
Anyway, all the best and stay tuned!
MFBB.
Sorry for the far too light blogging but I really don't intend to quit yet. It's just that 2022 has been an exceptionally difficult year, what with my condition (multiple myeloma aka Kahler's Disease), the troubles in the company (especially personnel, but biz has been very tough also), the lingering difficulties due to covid (now luckily receding...).
Anyway, all the best and stay tuned!
MFBB.
Saturday, December 24, 2022
MERRY CHRISTMAS 2022!
To all my fellow Christians and to all people of good will a heartfelt Merry Christmas!
This is the Adoration of the Kings by Gerard de Laresse (1641-1711), a Dutch Golden Age painter and art theorist.
Sorry for the almost nonexistent blogging lately, but this has been an excruciating year in more than one aspect. Hopefully 2023 will be somewhat better.
MFBB.
This is the Adoration of the Kings by Gerard de Laresse (1641-1711), a Dutch Golden Age painter and art theorist.
Sorry for the almost nonexistent blogging lately, but this has been an excruciating year in more than one aspect. Hopefully 2023 will be somewhat better.
MFBB.
Saturday, November 05, 2022
SATURDAY NIGHT ALTERED IMAGES, BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE.
Altered Images with Don't talk me about love. Album Bite (1983).
Scottish new wave/postpunk band from Glasgow. Founded in 1979 and, despite a couple of breakups, still around! Singer's Clare Grogan.
Big Audio Dynamite with E=mc2. From the album This is Big Audio Dynamite (1985).
Formed in London in 1984 by Mick Jones, singer and guitarist. Also ex The Clash, from which he was fired in 1983.
Hat tip for both OutlawDaughter. Would you believe it!
Slaap wel.
MFBB.
Scottish new wave/postpunk band from Glasgow. Founded in 1979 and, despite a couple of breakups, still around! Singer's Clare Grogan.
Big Audio Dynamite with E=mc2. From the album This is Big Audio Dynamite (1985).
Formed in London in 1984 by Mick Jones, singer and guitarist. Also ex The Clash, from which he was fired in 1983.
Hat tip for both OutlawDaughter. Would you believe it!
Slaap wel.
MFBB.
Sunday, October 09, 2022
SUNDAY NIGHT ART SNACK: PEDER MORK MONSTED (1859-1941).
Peder Mørk Mønsted (10 December 1859 – 20 June 1941) was a talented Danish landscape painter in the realistic style, although some works show impressionist influences.
Green spring landscape with a sitting child at the edge of the beach (1887)
An ardent traveller, especially in the Mediterranean (Algeria, Greece, Egypt...), he produced countless sketches during these travels which he later developed into paintings. He was especially popular in Germany, where he displayed several times in Munichs Glaspalast (destroyed in a fire in 1931).
Wooded river landscape (1929)
Good night.
MFBB.
Green spring landscape with a sitting child at the edge of the beach (1887)
An ardent traveller, especially in the Mediterranean (Algeria, Greece, Egypt...), he produced countless sketches during these travels which he later developed into paintings. He was especially popular in Germany, where he displayed several times in Munichs Glaspalast (destroyed in a fire in 1931).
Wooded river landscape (1929)
Good night.
MFBB.
Saturday, October 01, 2022
SATURDAY NIGHT THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT, MAC DEMARCO.
The Alan Parsons Project with Silence and I. From the album Eye in the Sky (1982).
English multi-instrumentalist rock band around Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, active between 1975 and 1990.
Mac DeMarco with Chamber of Reflection. From the album Salad Days (2014).
Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist (often vintage) and producer.
Slaap wel.
MFBB.
English multi-instrumentalist rock band around Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson, active between 1975 and 1990.
Mac DeMarco with Chamber of Reflection. From the album Salad Days (2014).
Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist (often vintage) and producer.
Slaap wel.
MFBB.
Saturday, May 21, 2022
SATURDAY NIGHT METRONOMY, OUTKAST.
Metronomy with Corinne. Album The English Riviera (2011)
English electronic music band, founded by Joseph Mount in 1999. Hat tip OutlawDaughter.
Outkast with Hey Ya!. Released as a single in 2003.
American hiphop duo which formed in East Point, Georgia, in 1992. Hat tip OutlawDaughter again.
Nite.
MFBB.
English electronic music band, founded by Joseph Mount in 1999. Hat tip OutlawDaughter.
Outkast with Hey Ya!. Released as a single in 2003.
American hiphop duo which formed in East Point, Georgia, in 1992. Hat tip OutlawDaughter again.
Nite.
MFBB.
Sunday, May 08, 2022
SUNDAY NIGHT ART SNACK: LEONARD CAMPBELL TAYLOR (1874-1969).
Leonard Campbell Taylor RA (12 December 1874 – 1 July 1969) was a British painter, mainly of portraits and interiors in a traditional style. During World War 1, he served as an official war artist.
Women playing chess
Exquisite! More on Taylor here.
MFBB.
Women playing chessExquisite! More on Taylor here.
MFBB.
Tuesday, May 03, 2022
MAY 2ND, 2022.
It's been eleven years already since my father died.
For many of my in memoriams I've been using Bachs beautiful "Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ" (BWV 639). And I would have done it again this time, were it not for a conversation on Twitter I had with a friend of mine whose father, too, passed away, just one week ago. That friend was asking for suggestions for musical accompaniments during the church service.
I did suggest BWV 639, but then my friend himself wondered whether Bedrich Smetana's Ma Vlast would be okay as the final musical piece, when the coffin is carried outside...
...and it suddenly sounded like a good idea to me! Not for its length, because it's a full twelve minutes, too long for this intended purpose, although you could truncate it at the 5th minute or thereabouts...
... but for its inherent optimism, and why not? For Christians, Death is not the end.
On this humble blog of mine I do not face the same constraints as the pastor who may suspect - rightfully - that many churchgoers would not be, ah, at ease with a twelve minute composition at the end of the service. So... this In Memoriam will, for once, have Ma Vlast as an homage to the excellent human being my father was:
Rest in Peace, father. You are not forgotten.
MFBB.
For many of my in memoriams I've been using Bachs beautiful "Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ" (BWV 639). And I would have done it again this time, were it not for a conversation on Twitter I had with a friend of mine whose father, too, passed away, just one week ago. That friend was asking for suggestions for musical accompaniments during the church service.
I did suggest BWV 639, but then my friend himself wondered whether Bedrich Smetana's Ma Vlast would be okay as the final musical piece, when the coffin is carried outside...
...and it suddenly sounded like a good idea to me! Not for its length, because it's a full twelve minutes, too long for this intended purpose, although you could truncate it at the 5th minute or thereabouts...
... but for its inherent optimism, and why not? For Christians, Death is not the end.
On this humble blog of mine I do not face the same constraints as the pastor who may suspect - rightfully - that many churchgoers would not be, ah, at ease with a twelve minute composition at the end of the service. So... this In Memoriam will, for once, have Ma Vlast as an homage to the excellent human being my father was:
Rest in Peace, father. You are not forgotten.
MFBB.
Saturday, April 23, 2022
THE DISMAL PERFORMANCE OF THE RUSSIAN ARMED FORCES IN UKRAINE.
I can't make any sense of it. The Russians are failing on all counts. What's most obvious is that they are failing on the operational level, what with the ubiquitous footage of T-72s with their turrets blown of, charred hulks of APC's, dead bodies of Russian soldiers... and Ukrainian tractors towing away Putins tanks and mobile artillery.
Less obvious, but even more damning for the way Russia is waging this war, is the absolute failure on the strategic level. For over 60 days on end now, the Russian war machine has tried to engage the UA Army on a half-ring front beginning just west of Kiev and extending clockwise around Ukraine's eastern portion until Kherson. In the process, numerous Russian units have broken their teeth trying to neutralize city centers. During all of this, they allowed the free flow of all that is necessary for a modern army to fight from west to east - which doubtlessly happened during the night.
But if they had not wasted all those efforts in absurd and costly battles and instead staged two strong attacks, one towards the south from their foothold just West of Kiev and the other northwards from Kherson, they would have cut off that lifeline and bagged not only all of the UA Army in the east, but in the process strangled the defenses of Kiev and the other big cities as well. They don't know their own history anymore, for this area was once the scene of another big encirclement which cost them 600,000 troops with all their equipment.
Other failures presented themselves in not taking out all of the UA Air Force on Day 1, which, given the Russian Air Force's far bigger size, should have been possible to achieve. Then there is attacking just prior to the onset of Rasputista, turning Ukraines famous Black Earth, frozen until half February, into an impassable quagmire and confining even tanks to roads.
Let Michael Kofman weigh in now:
I don't know how this will turn out, but I hope the lines of communication between the West and Russia remain open, because barring a miracle, I fail to see how Russia can extricate itself from its self-inflicted disaster and still pretend it has 'achieved' its goals. Mounting losses and getting nowhere may lead the Russian top brass to employ tactical nukes, and when that happens... the road to Nuclear Armageddon lies wide open.
In light of all this, the EU's pathetic rushing of the process to accept UA's membership is utterly foolish. Instead, it should shut up now and keep quiet... while, instead of raking the fires of discontent and frustration n Moscow even higher, working quietly on a diplomatic way out of this mess for Putin so that he can save his sorry face - although the bastard by no means deserves it.
MFBB.
Less obvious, but even more damning for the way Russia is waging this war, is the absolute failure on the strategic level. For over 60 days on end now, the Russian war machine has tried to engage the UA Army on a half-ring front beginning just west of Kiev and extending clockwise around Ukraine's eastern portion until Kherson. In the process, numerous Russian units have broken their teeth trying to neutralize city centers. During all of this, they allowed the free flow of all that is necessary for a modern army to fight from west to east - which doubtlessly happened during the night.
But if they had not wasted all those efforts in absurd and costly battles and instead staged two strong attacks, one towards the south from their foothold just West of Kiev and the other northwards from Kherson, they would have cut off that lifeline and bagged not only all of the UA Army in the east, but in the process strangled the defenses of Kiev and the other big cities as well. They don't know their own history anymore, for this area was once the scene of another big encirclement which cost them 600,000 troops with all their equipment.
Other failures presented themselves in not taking out all of the UA Air Force on Day 1, which, given the Russian Air Force's far bigger size, should have been possible to achieve. Then there is attacking just prior to the onset of Rasputista, turning Ukraines famous Black Earth, frozen until half February, into an impassable quagmire and confining even tanks to roads.
Let Michael Kofman weigh in now:
I’ve been traveling and not writing much these past two weeks. Some brief thoughts about the second phase of the war, Russia’s offensive to retake the Donbas, and implications. Thread. (map from Nathan below). 1/ pic.twitter.com/CLGRZimeLx
— Michael Kofman (@KofmanMichael) April 23, 2022
I don't know how this will turn out, but I hope the lines of communication between the West and Russia remain open, because barring a miracle, I fail to see how Russia can extricate itself from its self-inflicted disaster and still pretend it has 'achieved' its goals. Mounting losses and getting nowhere may lead the Russian top brass to employ tactical nukes, and when that happens... the road to Nuclear Armageddon lies wide open.
In light of all this, the EU's pathetic rushing of the process to accept UA's membership is utterly foolish. Instead, it should shut up now and keep quiet... while, instead of raking the fires of discontent and frustration n Moscow even higher, working quietly on a diplomatic way out of this mess for Putin so that he can save his sorry face - although the bastard by no means deserves it.
MFBB.
Sunday, April 17, 2022
HAPPY EASTER 2022!
DowneastBlog wishes all its readers of good will a Happy Easter!
The painting, oil on wood, is part of a tableau in a chapel in the main church, Saint Bartholomew, of my birthplace.
MFBB.
The painting, oil on wood, is part of a tableau in a chapel in the main church, Saint Bartholomew, of my birthplace.
MFBB.
Saturday, April 16, 2022
SATURDAY NIGHT KACEY MUSGRAVES, PERTURBATOR.
Kacey Musgraves with Oh, what a world. Album Golden Hour (2018).
"Modern Country" singer/songwriter from Golden, Texas. Hat tip OutlawDaughter.
Death Squad van Perturbator. From the 2016 album The Uncanny Valley.
Despite his real name, James Kent, Perturbator is a frog. Synthwaver from Paris. Hat tip OutlawSon.
Good night.
MFBB.
"Modern Country" singer/songwriter from Golden, Texas. Hat tip OutlawDaughter.
Death Squad van Perturbator. From the 2016 album The Uncanny Valley.
Despite his real name, James Kent, Perturbator is a frog. Synthwaver from Paris. Hat tip OutlawSon.
Good night.
MFBB.
Sunday, March 27, 2022
SUNDAY NIGHT ARCHITECTURE SNACK: LOUIS SULLIVAN BUILDINGS.
Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924), one of the torchbearers of the Chicago School, has been called both a "father of skyscrapers" and the "father of modernism". He coined the phrase "Form Follows Function". Some projects:
First, the Prudential (Guaranty) Building in Buffalo, New York. Completed in 1896. Sullivan designed it together with Dankmar Adler.
The Wainwright Building, St Louis, Missouri (completed 1891). Also with Adler. Steel skeleton, brick walls, terracotta ornaments:
The Sullivan Center, formerly the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Store (1899), a solo project by Sullivan.
Good night.
MFBB.
First, the Prudential (Guaranty) Building in Buffalo, New York. Completed in 1896. Sullivan designed it together with Dankmar Adler.
The Wainwright Building, St Louis, Missouri (completed 1891). Also with Adler. Steel skeleton, brick walls, terracotta ornaments:
The Sullivan Center, formerly the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Store (1899), a solo project by Sullivan.
Good night.
MFBB.
Saturday, March 26, 2022
ONE MONTH OF WAR IN EUROPE...
By now it's been over one month since Russia's invasion of Ukraine started, and the fact that Europe now lives through its second biggest war since World War Two is no less real than on Day One. Here are some exerpts, courtesy The Washington Post, from an account by "Alex", a 38-year old volunteer with humanitarian aid in Chernihiv, a north Ukrainian town under siege by the Russian Army:
More troubling testimonies here, again per The Washington Post:
Possibly no Ukrainian city exemplifies wanton and senseless destruction more than Mariupol in the south:
But one month of a horrible, unnecessary war has brought us, apart from the upheaval, death and destruction also knowledge...
...it doesn't take professionally trained analysts to conclude that, as happened so often in the past, the mighty Russian War Machine is prone to serious flaws and gross inefficiency. Huge errors have been made, and massive flaws emerged, and this both on the strategic and tactival levels. Russia may still win this brutal contest on account of its superior numbers. But those in the Kremlin cannot fail to fear that the West will conclude that in a war with a peer adversary, the Russian Army would get its balls handed to it on a silver platter.
MFBB.
"From what I understand, they hit the water pipes and cut them off. Almost the whole city was without water for almost two days. Just this evening, the water began to flow slowly, at least in some areas. There is also no heating or electricity in most of the city. The Hotel Ukraine building was completely destroyed by an airstrike. Just last night, three Russian bomber planes hit the city and one was shot down. The humanitarian corridor is still not there. There is no passage via the Kyiv-Chernihiv highway. People who try to leave drive through a very strange and scary route on mud roads toward Anysiv. Many people do not have gas. In the courtyards of houses, people are gathering and lighting fires, cooking some kind of soup in large pots. Because there is no electricity, no gas, no heating. The grocery stores are running out of supplies. Finding meat or dairy is unrealistic. It’s a catastrophic situation with baby food. People bring some things into the city but it is in very small quantities and brought by desperate drivers under shelling along the road. So they bring medicine, baby food and diapers. But pharmacies are empty. The lines are so long, so even if you manage to get to the counter it doesn’t mean you’re going to get what you need there, because it may not just be there. The military still seems to think the city will not be taken. Multiple rocket launchers continue to shell the city. There are many unexploded shells — they are sticking out from the gardens, roofs and in the yards of houses. But on the positive side, since yesterday, our connection and the Internet are getting a little better..."
More troubling testimonies here, again per The Washington Post:
Possibly no Ukrainian city exemplifies wanton and senseless destruction more than Mariupol in the south:
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) March 26, 2022
But one month of a horrible, unnecessary war has brought us, apart from the upheaval, death and destruction also knowledge...
...it doesn't take professionally trained analysts to conclude that, as happened so often in the past, the mighty Russian War Machine is prone to serious flaws and gross inefficiency. Huge errors have been made, and massive flaws emerged, and this both on the strategic and tactival levels. Russia may still win this brutal contest on account of its superior numbers. But those in the Kremlin cannot fail to fear that the West will conclude that in a war with a peer adversary, the Russian Army would get its balls handed to it on a silver platter.
MFBB.
Sunday, March 20, 2022
SUNDAY NIGHT ART SNACK: JOHN LAVERY, CECIL OSBORNE.
Sir John Lavery RA RSA RHA (20 March 1856 – 10 January 1941) was an Irish painter from Belfast, best known for his portraits and wartime depictions.
The Bridge at Grès (1901)
Influenced by Whistler. In 1924 elected to the Royal Academy.
Cecil Osborne (1909–1996) was a self-taught natural painter from Poplar, East London.
Sunday Morning, Farringdon Road (1929)
An echo of Hopper here. Osborne studied in the evenings at John Cooper’s Bow and Bromley Evening Institute classes, and exhibited with the East London Group at Lefevre Gallery, also with NEAC, RA and Civil Defence Artists’ Association at Cooling’s Gallery.
Click on the images to get an unobstructed view please. Good night.
MFBB.
The Bridge at Grès (1901)
Influenced by Whistler. In 1924 elected to the Royal Academy.
Cecil Osborne (1909–1996) was a self-taught natural painter from Poplar, East London.
Sunday Morning, Farringdon Road (1929)
An echo of Hopper here. Osborne studied in the evenings at John Cooper’s Bow and Bromley Evening Institute classes, and exhibited with the East London Group at Lefevre Gallery, also with NEAC, RA and Civil Defence Artists’ Association at Cooling’s Gallery.
Click on the images to get an unobstructed view please. Good night.
MFBB.
Saturday, March 19, 2022
SATURDAY NIGHT JOHNNY MARR, SURVIVOR.
Johnny Marr, ex The Smiths, ex The The, ex Electronic, with New Town Velocity. From his 2013 debut solo album The Messenger.
Arguably one of the greatest British guitarist of the past 30 years. Hat tip OutlawDaughter.
Survivor with Burning Heart. From the album with the soundtrack for the movie Rocky IV (1985).
Chicagoan band formed in 1978 by Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan. The lead singer for this number is Jimi Jamison, who had joined the year before. Burning Heart was a smash hit, peakin at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1986.
Good night, but save a prayer and some money for the Ukrainians.
MFBB.
Arguably one of the greatest British guitarist of the past 30 years. Hat tip OutlawDaughter.
Survivor with Burning Heart. From the album with the soundtrack for the movie Rocky IV (1985).
Chicagoan band formed in 1978 by Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan. The lead singer for this number is Jimi Jamison, who had joined the year before. Burning Heart was a smash hit, peakin at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1986.
Good night, but save a prayer and some money for the Ukrainians.
MFBB.
Saturday, March 12, 2022
STALEMATE IN UKRAINE?
If the past three weeks in Ukraine have proven anything it's that the much vaunted Russian War Machine is still prone to the same old errors its historical predecessors were (in)famous for. As in the past, the Russian military top brass have again shown themselves to be slow learners and fast forgetters. The performance of the Russian army in Ukraine is eerily reminiscent of another invasion of a weaker neighbour possessing numerically far inferior forces - which nevertheless acquitted themselves well. I am talking about the Winter War of 1939-1940, when the USSR invaded tiny Finland, yet got its armies clobbered by small Finnish units almost devoid of armour.
Certainly, what is noteworthy of the conflict is the emerging role of tank busting drones. At the start of the conflict, the Ukrainian military reportedly boasted an altogether modest force of 12 Turkish-made Bayraktar drones, but in three weeks of combat these exacted a heavy toll:
Just like in World War Two, Russian commanders make the same obvious tactical errors time and again, like e.g. lining up their armor in neat rows on obvious avenues of approach. See for yourself the effect of Ukrainian artillery:
But old habits die hard, and among those is the deliberate, blind use of brutal power when things don't go according to plan:
It is hard to fathom how the war in Ukraine - Europe's biggest one since World War Two - will develop from here. The Ukrainian military has shown remarkable resilience, helped in no small part by their sky high morale. That of their adversaries may very well be vastly lower. I suppose even ardent chauvinist Russian troopers will have a hard time kidding themselves that they are fighting for a good cause. Next, while generally armor on both sides is roughly similar, the steady supply of modern, man-portable Western weaponry like the British Javelins and NLAWS, or the German Panzerfaust 3, has the potential to turn into a game changer. It can no longer be denied that these weapons are exacting a heavy toll on Russian armour.
Even so, I fear that in the end numbers will tell the tale. If you put a welter boxer against a heavyweight, the former may initially score a number of successes... but ultimately, the heavyweight will have the upper hand. At some point, Russians forces may elect to bypass Kiev and simply push south, while those at Kherson may advance north. When they join up, they will have bagged an enormous chunk of the Ukrainian military in an area that has seen a mass encirclement before.
A possible scenario thereafter is that the remaining UA forces conduct a fighting withdrawal to the West, where they either may make a brave last stand, or else perform so well that the Russians consider the cost of subduing them simply too high and allow them to keep Western Ukraine. All the while, Putins divisions may have to cope with isolated small pockets and an insurgency behind their backs.
As dreadful as these scenarios sound, I fear that for the West the sending of weaponry and supplies, and maintaining the sanctions, will remain the most it can do. Ukraine is no NATO country, and therefore Article V cannot be invoked. Active military engagement, like e.g. imposing a No Fly Zone, is totally out of the question. As hard as it may be to watch the Ukrainians fight and suffer for their country, under no pretext can a nuclear war be risked - because that's what NATO engagement would inevitably lead to.
We can and should support Ukraine where we can - sending tank busting weaponry, ammo, take in their refugees, lending financial support, fastening the economic screws on Russia, but in the end, out there in the field, I see no other sensible option than that it's the Ukrainian soldier who must bear the brunt of this foul war.
MFBB.
The 72nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade is doing its job in Kyiv region pic.twitter.com/MOjgBpNEm2
— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) March 10, 2022
Certainly, what is noteworthy of the conflict is the emerging role of tank busting drones. At the start of the conflict, the Ukrainian military reportedly boasted an altogether modest force of 12 Turkish-made Bayraktar drones, but in three weeks of combat these exacted a heavy toll:
📽️Ukrainian Bayraktar TB2 destroys Russian BMD #Ukraine #UkraineRussiaWar pic.twitter.com/kruoSziRoY
— MilitaryLand.net (@Militarylandnet) March 10, 2022
Just like in World War Two, Russian commanders make the same obvious tactical errors time and again, like e.g. lining up their armor in neat rows on obvious avenues of approach. See for yourself the effect of Ukrainian artillery:
Very poor tactics displayed by this Russian armored force so close to Kyiv. They're well within range of Ukrainian artillery in Kyiv, they're on an obvious avenue of approach, and they still decided to bunch up like this, leaving them more vulnerable to indirect fire. pic.twitter.com/3ShhyF5OsE
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) March 10, 2022
But old habits die hard, and among those is the deliberate, blind use of brutal power when things don't go according to plan:
Show the world what the Russian Army is doing to Kharkiv.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 12, 2022
🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/x8ZF3dwnq5
It is hard to fathom how the war in Ukraine - Europe's biggest one since World War Two - will develop from here. The Ukrainian military has shown remarkable resilience, helped in no small part by their sky high morale. That of their adversaries may very well be vastly lower. I suppose even ardent chauvinist Russian troopers will have a hard time kidding themselves that they are fighting for a good cause. Next, while generally armor on both sides is roughly similar, the steady supply of modern, man-portable Western weaponry like the British Javelins and NLAWS, or the German Panzerfaust 3, has the potential to turn into a game changer. It can no longer be denied that these weapons are exacting a heavy toll on Russian armour.
Even so, I fear that in the end numbers will tell the tale. If you put a welter boxer against a heavyweight, the former may initially score a number of successes... but ultimately, the heavyweight will have the upper hand. At some point, Russians forces may elect to bypass Kiev and simply push south, while those at Kherson may advance north. When they join up, they will have bagged an enormous chunk of the Ukrainian military in an area that has seen a mass encirclement before.
A possible scenario thereafter is that the remaining UA forces conduct a fighting withdrawal to the West, where they either may make a brave last stand, or else perform so well that the Russians consider the cost of subduing them simply too high and allow them to keep Western Ukraine. All the while, Putins divisions may have to cope with isolated small pockets and an insurgency behind their backs.
As dreadful as these scenarios sound, I fear that for the West the sending of weaponry and supplies, and maintaining the sanctions, will remain the most it can do. Ukraine is no NATO country, and therefore Article V cannot be invoked. Active military engagement, like e.g. imposing a No Fly Zone, is totally out of the question. As hard as it may be to watch the Ukrainians fight and suffer for their country, under no pretext can a nuclear war be risked - because that's what NATO engagement would inevitably lead to.
We can and should support Ukraine where we can - sending tank busting weaponry, ammo, take in their refugees, lending financial support, fastening the economic screws on Russia, but in the end, out there in the field, I see no other sensible option than that it's the Ukrainian soldier who must bear the brunt of this foul war.
MFBB.
Saturday, February 26, 2022
THE UNTHINKABLE HAS HAPPENED: BIGGEST WAR IN EUROPE SINCE WORLD WAR 2.
Putin is a rogue, but until a few days ago, I considered him a rational being, no Ahmadinejad-like nutcase eagerly anticipating the end of the world. Over the course of the past two decades, Russia under Putin emerged relatively prosperous from the chaos of the USSR's demise and the subsequent lawlessness of the Yeltsin-era. I never thought he would want to give all that up. I was convinced the huge troop deployments along the Ukrainian border were just sabre-rattling.
Imagine my surprise then, when he launched a full blown air, land and sea war against Ukraine, the enormity of which I'm still struggling to comprehend. This is nothing less than an old fashioned, WW2 era power and land grab, a callous invasion of a sovereign nation.
And after three days of fierce fighting, it is safe to say that the fighting in Ukraine already represents the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two.
Needless to say, Ukrainians deserve our sympathy, prayers and support. However, I'm stopping short of advocating direct military involvement, which has the potential of unleashing a nuclear war. Ukraine is no NATO country, so Article V cannot be invoked. Sending supplies and even weapons are OK in my view, but troops should be totally out of the question. The World simply cannot risk a nuclear holocaust, no matter how much the Ukrainians deserve freedom and prosperity.
It is therefore with a heavy heart that I post this photograph of Ukrainian soldiers praying before an icon of Our Lady of Pochayiv, Protectress of Ukraine, because for the moment I fear that on the battlefield, the task of repelling the invader will rest on their shoulders only:
Belgium has pledged 3,800 tons of fuel and 2,000 machineguns with ammo. If you live in Belgium, you might also want to channel help via the Ukrainian Embassy:
Useful phone numbers and banking accounts are below, if you want to contribute with humanitarian and/or financial aid:
Spare a moment or two, from the comfort of your house, for thoughts and prayers for Ukraine's brave soldiers fighting it out RIGHT NOW in the cold and the mud, and its citizens sheltering in basements and the Underground. Also, for what I suspect is the majority of their adversaries, simple Russian conscripts told to go fight and die for nothing on orders of a cruel madman.
MFBB.
Imagine my surprise then, when he launched a full blown air, land and sea war against Ukraine, the enormity of which I'm still struggling to comprehend. This is nothing less than an old fashioned, WW2 era power and land grab, a callous invasion of a sovereign nation.
And after three days of fierce fighting, it is safe to say that the fighting in Ukraine already represents the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two.
Needless to say, Ukrainians deserve our sympathy, prayers and support. However, I'm stopping short of advocating direct military involvement, which has the potential of unleashing a nuclear war. Ukraine is no NATO country, so Article V cannot be invoked. Sending supplies and even weapons are OK in my view, but troops should be totally out of the question. The World simply cannot risk a nuclear holocaust, no matter how much the Ukrainians deserve freedom and prosperity.
It is therefore with a heavy heart that I post this photograph of Ukrainian soldiers praying before an icon of Our Lady of Pochayiv, Protectress of Ukraine, because for the moment I fear that on the battlefield, the task of repelling the invader will rest on their shoulders only:
Belgium has pledged 3,800 tons of fuel and 2,000 machineguns with ammo. If you live in Belgium, you might also want to channel help via the Ukrainian Embassy:
Useful phone numbers and banking accounts are below, if you want to contribute with humanitarian and/or financial aid:
Spare a moment or two, from the comfort of your house, for thoughts and prayers for Ukraine's brave soldiers fighting it out RIGHT NOW in the cold and the mud, and its citizens sheltering in basements and the Underground. Also, for what I suspect is the majority of their adversaries, simple Russian conscripts told to go fight and die for nothing on orders of a cruel madman.
MFBB.
Sunday, February 20, 2022
RECOMMENDED READS: "SAVING DEMOCRACY FROM THE PANDEMIC" BY JOHN P.A. IOANNIDIS AND MICHAELA C. SCHIPPERS.
A timely piece, and an absolute must read, brought to my attention via Tijl De Bie, Professor in Artificial Intelligence at Ghent University. Follow him on twitter: @TijlDeBie
SAVING DEMOCRACY FROM THE PANDEMIC
Three years of crisis were used to justify the concentration of powers and suppression of freedoms that must be clawed back
BY JOHN P.A. IOANNIDIS AND MICHAÉLA C. SCHIPPERS JANUARY 24, 2022
John P.A. Ioannidis is Professor of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health, as well as Professor (by courtesy) of Biomedical Data Science and Statistics, at Stanford University.
Michaéla C. Schippers is Professor of Behavior and Performance Management at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, and Director of the Erasmus Centre for Study and Career Success.
MFBB.
SAVING DEMOCRACY FROM THE PANDEMIC
Three years of crisis were used to justify the concentration of powers and suppression of freedoms that must be clawed back
BY JOHN P.A. IOANNIDIS AND MICHAÉLA C. SCHIPPERS JANUARY 24, 2022
"COVID-19 has killed millions and threatened the prospects of democracy for billions more. Since early 2020, the world has witnessed a marked expansion of governmental decision-making regarding health. Lockdowns and curfews were instated in many countries, and many freedoms were taken away under the justification of a major health threat. Health authorities and politicians alluding to or exploiting health authorities acquired extraordinary power to regulate society at large, including the application of mandates. A Freedom House report found that democracy grew weaker in 80 countries during COVID-19, and that in 2020 the number of free countries reached the lowest level in 15 years. Countries that regressed included ones you’d expect like China and Belarus, but also democratic bulwarks like the United States, France, Denmark, and the Netherlands. The United States was listed as one of the 25 countries that witnessed the steepest declines in freedom. Even if the pandemic enters a less threatening endemic phase (as may already be the case in several countries), the legacy of authoritarian measures and mandates may leave behind a more enduring threat to democracy.
Several governments responded to the lethal pandemic by undermining the very systems that were in place to ensure accountability and to protect public health and well-being. No single individual can be blamed for this—it was a systemic problem, as decisions taken by one government or government agency instantaneously affected the decisions of others. But the result was the restriction of basic freedoms and the normalization of scapegoating and exclusion, both historically a prelude to atrocities. While some extreme actions were justified as efforts to achieve otherwise laudable goals (like increasing rates of vaccination), the attempt to isolate vast numbers of people while whipping the general population into agreement on aggressive public health policies probably damaged even these goals.
Some people, organizations, corporations, and lobbyists (or combinations thereof) saw this crisis as an opportunity to establish some version of a desired ideological utopia, which, in reality, benefited only a zealous minority confident in their “truth”, “science,” or whatever name they used to legitimate blind dogmas. In the end, half of the world’s working population suffered financially under lockdowns, creating massive ripple effects. Most people thrive when they can make their own decisions within the boundaries of the law, even during a crisis. But the loss of these basic freedoms was celebrated as a victory for public health, even as the loss of basic freedoms probably made public health outcomes worse in several countries. Many citizens of the United States and other democracies saw their businesses shutter, their life’s work disappear, and were not allowed to visit sick and dying loved ones or to even attend their burials. Younger generations were probably affected most, as students saw their schools close and their social lives thwarted with consequences we won’t fully understand for many years.
A critical mass of people, especially among those hit hardest by the crisis or whose concerns were marginalized by political and health authorities, may eventually conclude that their governments and leaders have failed them. Frustration may be expressed through peaceful, democratic means (voting officials out of office, for example), or through riots and revolution. Across the world, we have already seen instances of both. The outcomes of such social explosions are by nature chaotic and unpredictable.
The worst way to address such circumstances is to double down on trying to replace concrete values like freedom and equality with goals like safety and health under the guise of “science” and the greater good. No reasonable person would question that all of these values and goals are worthy of our efforts. But when they clash (or are portrayed as clashing), democratic societies must make decisions on priorities. Once individual freedom has been downgraded as a priority, it is difficult to ever get back.
In navigating such difficult circumstances, we need to ask ourselves: What kind of society do we want to have, and what legacy do we want to leave behind to our descendants? To stay healthy and thrive, human beings need positive reinforcement, engagement, close relationships, meaning, and a sense of accomplishment. Even if run by benign “experts” or agencies, top-down societies in which decision-making power is concentrated in the hands of a small group of people make it harder, not easier, for people to live these types of lives. It becomes still more difficult when small groups of people also preside over the concentration of wealth and information.
Many billionaires enjoyed a big expansion of not only their wealth but their influence over public decision-making during the pandemic. Some of them are no doubt brilliant human beings, well-intentioned benefactors, and generous philanthropists. But a big part of society’s increasing distrust of authorities has been the sense that elected representatives and health authorities have become too dependent on or susceptible to the lobbying and influence of tech and financial magnates.
Concern about the manipulation of power and influence has also been exacerbated by the performance of media and social media. It is critical in free, democratic societies that media never become a vessel for a single, state-sanctioned, official narrative at the expense of public debate and freedom of speech. The same applies for social media: Removing content considered “fake” or “false” in order to limit the ability of ordinary people to judge information for themselves only inflames polarization and distrust of the public sphere.
This is especially important in the realm of scientific debate. Anyone who believes that it’s possible to cleanse “science” of error through brute force censorship has no understanding of how science works or how accurate, unbiased evidence is accumulated in the first place. The idea of arbitrators who select what is correct and dismiss what is incorrect is the most alien possible concept to science. Without the ability to make errors or make (and improve on) inaccurate hypotheses, there is no science. The irony is that scientists understand (or at least should understand) and embrace (or at least should embrace) the fact that we all float in a sea of nonsense; it is the opportunist influencers and pundits, lacking in any understanding of the scientific method, who believe in the possibility of pure, unconflicted “truth.”
The population at large would benefit more from scientific skepticism (which doesn’t require a Ph.D.) than from the purging of “bias” by spurious information purifiers. Teaching free citizens about the risk of multifarious biases and how to prevent, detect, and avoid them is a job for educational institutions like schools and universities, not for tech companies, billionaires, federal bureaucrats, or online mobs. Being sensitized about bias has nothing to do with conspiracy theories, and may be the best way to diminish the alarming number of followers of conspiracy theorists. Willingness to acknowledge what we don’t know creates space for respect and dignity; pseudoscientific dogmatism only leads to bullying, violence, and repression. This is as true during times of crisis and emergency as it is during periods of peace and prosperity.
Many governments have demonstrated in the past three years that they can summarily impose decisions on free people without their consent, and can even whitewash their actions if they backfire. A balancing force is needed in a well-informed democracy to promote thoughtful discussion and the adoption of cautious and moderate policies, rather than conflicted agendas based on the proclamations of manipulated mobs. Intolerance and humiliation may seem like expedients, but tolerance and scientific humility may achieve even more.
As the pandemic ebbs, the years ahead will help determine whether we as democratic citizens and free people are still capable of making our own decisions, pursuing happiness, and refraining from harm, without falling prey to the authoritarian temptations that have felled democracies in the past."
John P.A. Ioannidis is Professor of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health, as well as Professor (by courtesy) of Biomedical Data Science and Statistics, at Stanford University.
Michaéla C. Schippers is Professor of Behavior and Performance Management at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, and Director of the Erasmus Centre for Study and Career Success.
MFBB.
Saturday, January 08, 2022
SATURDAY NIGHT PAUL CARRACK, MGMT.
Paul Carrack with How Long.
Actually a single from English band Ace's debut album Five-A-Side (1974), of which Carrack was a founding member.
MGMT with Little Dark Age. From their eponymous 2017 album.
American indie rock band from Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 2002 by multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser. Hat tip OutlawSon.
Goede nacht.
MFBB.
Actually a single from English band Ace's debut album Five-A-Side (1974), of which Carrack was a founding member.
MGMT with Little Dark Age. From their eponymous 2017 album.
American indie rock band from Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 2002 by multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser. Hat tip OutlawSon.
Goede nacht.
MFBB.
Friday, December 31, 2021
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2022!!!
It's 2022. Another year has come and gone.
DowneastBlog wishes all its reades of good will the very best for the coming year! Support each other and shy away from negative people. Above all, never stop fighting for what is good and decent!
MFBB.
DowneastBlog wishes all its reades of good will the very best for the coming year! Support each other and shy away from negative people. Above all, never stop fighting for what is good and decent!
MFBB.
Saturday, December 25, 2021
LAUNCH OF THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE.
Today, on Christmas Day 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope, purported to be a hundred times more powerful than the Hubble Telescope, was launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket from ESA's base in Kourou, French Guyana, towards its destination, the Lagrangepoint L2. To view the graphics unimpeded by all my stuff and links to the right, simply click on each pic:
It will now have its designers, its financiers and every space enthousiast sitting on edge as it travels towards L2...a 29-day journey during which much can go wrong!
Once there it is time for commissioning the JWST:
More info here.
Nite!
MFBB.
It will now have its designers, its financiers and every space enthousiast sitting on edge as it travels towards L2...a 29-day journey during which much can go wrong!
Once there it is time for commissioning the JWST:
More info here.
Nite!
MFBB.
Friday, December 24, 2021
MERRY CHRISTMAS 2021!!!
To all my readers of good will, a heartfelt Merry Christmas!
Adorazioni dei pastori (1485), in the Cappella Sassetti in Florence's Basilici di Santa Trinita
MFBB.
Adorazioni dei pastori (1485), in the Cappella Sassetti in Florence's Basilici di Santa TrinitaMFBB.
Sunday, December 19, 2021
RECOMMENDED VIDEO: HOW DOES THE PARKER SOLAR PROBE SURVIVE THE SUN'S INTENSE HEAT AND RADIATION?
Last week the Parker Solar Probe was hurtling though the Sun's corona at speeds sometimes approaching 100 miles per second:
Taking into account how solar radiation can potentially wreak havoc to the ISS's electronics when it is, after all, 150 million kilometers distant, how can the Parker Solar Probe even be functioning, let alone relay back these fascinating images, when it has now come as close as 8 million kilometers? Here are some answers:
MFBB.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe plunged deep into the Sun's corona & passed directly through streamers of solar plasma. The view out the window was...staggering. https://t.co/LLy8fB2dmZ pic.twitter.com/4fWkHIgmlA
— Corey S. Powell (@coreyspowell) December 15, 2021
Taking into account how solar radiation can potentially wreak havoc to the ISS's electronics when it is, after all, 150 million kilometers distant, how can the Parker Solar Probe even be functioning, let alone relay back these fascinating images, when it has now come as close as 8 million kilometers? Here are some answers:
MFBB.
Saturday, December 04, 2021
ROCKET LAB UNVEILS NEUTRON.
Well, unveil...
Neutron, the successor to Rocket Lab's Electron was announced in March already, but on 2 DEC the company lifted the veil on the new launch vehicle's revolutionary characteristics:
Neutron will be a medium-lift two-stage launch vehicle, capable of bringing up to 8 tonnes (17,600 lb) in LEO in a reusable configuration (15 tonnes when the first stage is expended). That's quite a jump from Electron's typical payload of around 300 kilograms. Unlike competitor SpaceX's Falcon 9, the 40m tall Neutron will be built from carbon composites, and use LOX and liquid methane propellant for its new Archimedes engine (which will be mainly 3D-printed).
The rocket's revised design features a tapered shape with a maximum diameter of 7 m (23 ft), standing on four fixed landing legs. Rocket Lab abandoned plans for landing Neutron on a floating platform, instead opting for a return-to-launch-site reusability profile instead. There will be no conventional payload fairing to be jettisoned and recovered at sea, but instead the fairing will be integrated into the vehicle and open like the petals of a flower to release the second stage and payload. While the cheap second stage will be lost, the first stage lands back on earth. Neutron will be launched from MARS, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, on Virginia's eastern coast.Rocket Lab is planning for the first launch to take place no earlier than 2024.
One thing is crystal-clear: Space has become Big Business!
MFBB.
Neutron, the successor to Rocket Lab's Electron was announced in March already, but on 2 DEC the company lifted the veil on the new launch vehicle's revolutionary characteristics:
Neutron will be a medium-lift two-stage launch vehicle, capable of bringing up to 8 tonnes (17,600 lb) in LEO in a reusable configuration (15 tonnes when the first stage is expended). That's quite a jump from Electron's typical payload of around 300 kilograms. Unlike competitor SpaceX's Falcon 9, the 40m tall Neutron will be built from carbon composites, and use LOX and liquid methane propellant for its new Archimedes engine (which will be mainly 3D-printed).
The rocket's revised design features a tapered shape with a maximum diameter of 7 m (23 ft), standing on four fixed landing legs. Rocket Lab abandoned plans for landing Neutron on a floating platform, instead opting for a return-to-launch-site reusability profile instead. There will be no conventional payload fairing to be jettisoned and recovered at sea, but instead the fairing will be integrated into the vehicle and open like the petals of a flower to release the second stage and payload. While the cheap second stage will be lost, the first stage lands back on earth. Neutron will be launched from MARS, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, on Virginia's eastern coast.Rocket Lab is planning for the first launch to take place no earlier than 2024.
One thing is crystal-clear: Space has become Big Business!
MFBB.
Friday, November 26, 2021
RECOMMENDED VIDEO: TIM DODD'S "THE ENTIRE SOVIET ROCKET FAMILY TREE AND HISTORY".
Via Tim Dodd, the "Everyday Astronaut"!
It is but a small booklet, but it is one of the prized possessions in my library: "Three Paces beyond the Horizon". Many years ago, as a High School student having to write an essay about the USSR, I simply wrote the Embassy in Brussels for material and true enough, they sent me a stack of books and pamplets dealing on a wide range of topics - among them "Three Paces...":
It jibes with Mr Dodd's brilliant video. Never underestimate Russian engineering!
MFBB.
It is but a small booklet, but it is one of the prized possessions in my library: "Three Paces beyond the Horizon". Many years ago, as a High School student having to write an essay about the USSR, I simply wrote the Embassy in Brussels for material and true enough, they sent me a stack of books and pamplets dealing on a wide range of topics - among them "Three Paces...":
It jibes with Mr Dodd's brilliant video. Never underestimate Russian engineering!
MFBB.
Sunday, November 21, 2021
RECOMMENDED VIDEO: JARED TAYLOR'S "THE NUCLEAR FAMILY IS WHITE SUPREMACIST."
If you are White and happened to grow up in a stable family, in case you didn't know it yet: you're a White Supremacist!
MFBB.
MFBB.
Saturday, November 20, 2021
ISLAMIZATION OF EUROPE GOING FULL STEAM AHEAD.
Probably nobody but Europe's muslims are more pleased with all the bruhaha surrounding the covid pandemic, since it allows them to inch forward with their efforts to islamize the continent.
In September, in the major German city of Cologne a 2-year "pilot" project was started whereby Cologne's mosques - about 35 - are now permitted to broadcast the adhan on Fridays five times a day. Count on a poco cunt like Mayor Henriette Reeker to have made this possible, "as a sign of mutual respect".
That's Cologne's Diyanet-run main mosque. The monstrosity looks like a hoplite helmet to me, and the minarets like things to stab. Remember what Erdogan said back in 1998:
The next important European city to follow suit with this self-destroying madness was Utrecht in The Netherlands, where a large majority in the Town Council voted in favor of a motion by islamic party Denk to allow muslim women wanting to join police to don the hijab:
Europe, at least Western Europe, is committing suicide as we speak.
MFBB.
In September, in the major German city of Cologne a 2-year "pilot" project was started whereby Cologne's mosques - about 35 - are now permitted to broadcast the adhan on Fridays five times a day. Count on a poco cunt like Mayor Henriette Reeker to have made this possible, "as a sign of mutual respect".
That's Cologne's Diyanet-run main mosque. The monstrosity looks like a hoplite helmet to me, and the minarets like things to stab. Remember what Erdogan said back in 1998:
"The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers…"
The next important European city to follow suit with this self-destroying madness was Utrecht in The Netherlands, where a large majority in the Town Council voted in favor of a motion by islamic party Denk to allow muslim women wanting to join police to don the hijab:
Europe, at least Western Europe, is committing suicide as we speak.
MFBB.
Sunday, November 07, 2021
THE END OF THE MERKEL ERA.
So after 16 years at the helm of Germany, Angela Merkel has left office, giving the reins to Olaf Scholz of the SPD, the German socialists.
For those not following German politics too closely, it would seem that Merkel, during her time as Bundeskanzlerin, proved to be an efficient steward of the German economic locomotive. And her CDU being politically centrist - at least that being the perception - neither foreign nor domestic policies seemed to lean too far to either the left or the right.
However, the following analysis by the Brussels Report's Pieter Cleppe proves that there is more than meets the eye... and it's not exactly flattering for "das Maedchen":
1.) EUROZONE BAILOUTS.
"When Germany gave up its D-Mark, there was a very clear quid pro quo: whenever governments in the Eurozone would get into trouble, they would not be able to count on being bailed out by taxpayers from other countries.
In practice, that’s of course not how things went. For years already before the Eurozone bailout machinery was created in 2010, the European Central Bank had been fueling easy money to banks in Eurozone member states that would have never been able to enjoy the low interest rates offered by the ECB to obtain euro funding.
Banks in Italy, for example, used that money to buy Italian government bonds, which in turn drove down Italy’s borrowing rates. There was little incentive left for governments in excessively indebted member states like Italy or Belgium to implement the necessary structural reforms to generate tax revenue to finance government spending. Eurozone membership was sufficient to keep those bloated welfare states afloat. Similar dynamics were at play all across the Eurozone, long before Greece, one of the Eurozone governments that were being showered with easy money, was suddenly no longer able to refinance its debt. Others, like Spain and Ireland, witnessed a housing bubble and bust, caused by easy ECB cash that had been pumped by local banks into the real estate market, in turn saddling some of these local banks with excessive debt, with the ensuing financial instability ultimately forcing the Irish and Spanish government to request a Eurozone bailout.
The pressure had been building for a while until finally, in early 2010, the Greek sovereign debt crisis erupted, which was followed by three fiscal bailouts of Greece, as well as bailouts of Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus and Spain. Others, like indeed Italy and Belgium, were being bailed out by the ECB.
The German establishment, with Angela Merkel at the helm, could have blocked bailouts, but opted not to do so, despite some severe misgivings, witnessed by a number of high profile Bundesbank resignations in 2011. Apart from endorsing bailouts, Merkel also provided tacit support to the ECB to do “whatever it takes” to keep the shaky monetary union alive."
2.) GERMANY'S ENERGY POLICIES.
"...Most notable is Merkel’s big change of heart over energy policy. A trained physicist, she has always been a supporter of nuclear power, until she got her government to decide to phase out nuclear power, right after the public turned against it following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March of 2011. This despite some more independent thinking greens considering this to be the ultimate stress-test for nuclear.
The result of these policies are that Germany is being plagued by sky-high energy prices for households. Also from the perspective to cut CO2 emissions, Merkel’s approach hasn’t exactly been a great success, given the persistent role of coal in Germany’s energy mix, which is apparently only possible to change by means of importing more Russian gas via the controversial new Nord Stream 2 gas pipe line between Russia and Germany."
3.) GERMANY'S ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS.
"...As mentioned, Germany’s economy did fairly well during Merkel’s time in office. However, the reasons for that were unrelated to Merkel. For one, there were the courageous but unpopular “Agenda 2010” labour market reforms implemented by her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder. His policies managed to really restore Unit labour cost competitiveness had really by the end of 2005, when Merkel became Chancellor, and have remained stable since. This was also due to responsible wage restraint that was agreed between employers and employees.
Secondly, as a result of the ECB’s expansionist monetary policies, intended to keep interest rates as well as the euro exchange rate low, the German export sector profited from an exchange rate that was artificially weak. This helped exporters, but did hurt importers and consumers – a cost that may well be three times as big as compared to the benefits for exporters.
Under Merkel, a minimum wage was introduced, increasing the cost for employers to create jobs and reducing the flexibility that was possible under the system of sectoral agreements, while no proper reform of the pension system was undertaken – despite the massive ageing challenges the welfare state faces. Annual top-ups needed for the state pension system may well reach “well above €100bn by 2031”, compared with €67.8bn in 2018...."
4.) UNDERMINING EU HARMONY.
"...Despite being seen as the “leader of the EU”, Merkel hasn’t made a lot of friends in the European Union. Her Eurozone bailout policies contributed to anger in the North over the request to pay for transfer as well as anger in the South over the conditions linked to those transfers. Both dynamics resulted in greater electoral support for anti-establishment parties.
Also her handling of Central and Eastern Europe leaves much to be desired for. Despite warnings from the French Interior Minister, Merkel’s government opted to push ahead with outvoting Eastern European countries and impose “mandatory refugee quotas” at the EU level in 2015..."
5.) MIGRATION CHAOS.
"...Much has been said over Merkel’s handling over the 2015-2016 migration crisis. To be fair, the “gates of Europe” were wide open long before Merkel made the assertion “Wir schaffen das“, meaning “we can manage this”, going against many in her own party.
The episode reveals another spectacular and panicky u-turn by Merkel. In August 2015, her government was using television adverts to warn people in Albania not to come to Germany as their chances of getting asylum were close to zero. And then, that same month, her government decided to suspend the so-called Dublin rules. This meant that it would stop returning Syrian asylum seekers to their first port of entry in the EU. Suddenly, the “hard line” vanished.
Merkel made the assertion “Wir schaffen das“, meaning “we can manage this”, going against many in her own party. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that a few months earlier Merkel had been sharply criticised for her insensitive response to a sobbing Palestinian refugee girl who begged to be allowed to stay in Germany.
Perhaps her approach after that of taking selfies with refugees to humanise them deserved praise, but the overall effect of her policy was not positive. Again, the suspension of the Dublin rules wasn’t the key factor leading to the great influx, which really began in March 2015. More important was Europe’s failure to close the Balkan route. This only happened in March 2016, which stopped the flow from people from Turkey to Greece and led to a large drop in drownings-at-sea. Many people, both genuine refugees and others, no longer tried to cross from Turkey, which had given shelter to more than 3.5 million refugees..."
6.) ABANDONING TRANSATLANTIC FOREIGN POLICY.
"...Last but not least, Merkel also took steps away from Germany’s transatlantic foreign policy attitudes.
In a profile of Merkel, the Wall Street Journal notes:
“As she is preparing to leave office after her fourth term—having interacted with four U.S. presidents—she has overseen a dramatic increase of her country’s economic dependence on China, pushed through a far-reaching energy deal with Russia, joined France in challenging U.S. political influence in Europe and rejected American demands in areas such as economic policy and Berlin’s openness to Chinese technology(…)
The shift also has roots in the chancellor’s changing views. As a leader, Ms. Merkel gradually became disillusioned with the U.S., a development triggered by the 2008 financial crisis, which she blamed in part on America’s loose financial regulation. Since then, she developed a fascination with China that mixed concern about its totalitarian drift with admiration at its rapid growth and technological progress, according to aides, confidants and her own statements.”
Surely, Merkel is merely following trade flows, which happen to have increased with China, one could object. Then Merkel did actively override concerns of other EU governments on signing an EU investment pact with China at the end of last year, when Germany was chairing the EU Council and in this capacity in the driving seat.
One could also retort that the U.S. are the ones to have distances themselves from Europe and Germany, most certainly under Trump. Then, the WSJ describes how it is “emblematic of the cooling U.S.-German relationship” that “Angela Merkel declined the offer of being Joe Biden’s first call as president. She would be at her cottage, gardening”.
This indicates how it goes deeper than an aversion of Trump....
If after this damning analysis, you still are of the opinion that Frau Merkel was an efficient Bundeskanzlerin who did well for her country, you might want to consider that she was actually VERY LUCKY that her 'subjects' were Germans. If Germany still gives the impression that its economic powerhouse runs smoothly - it's NOT because of Merkels policies but because of the average German, who staunchly wakes up every morning and marches to his or her job. There is no social unrest in Germany like in France (les gilets jaunes), and yet large swaths of the population are worse off than their French counterparts and have every reason to air their concerns loudly. Incredibly, home ownership is the lowest in the entire EU. Scores of employees have to make ends meet with pitiful wages - a LIDL or ALDI caissière sometimes earning as little as 600EUR (or less!) a month. Truck drivers and their handlers delivering goods to my company regularly prove to be far into their sixties - and I assure you that it's hard work. People of that age doing backbreaking work are basically nowhere to be seen in Belgium. But in Germany, it's normal. When about five years ago the age to be eligible for pension was raised to 67 overnight, Germans did not give a peep. In France, Italy or even Belgium it might have caused a revolution. Any success das Maedchen has had in keeping the German locomotive going can be attributed directly to a staunch workforce still adhering to a no questions asked, 'Befehl ist Befehl' spirit.
But perhaps the shine of the Merkel era will lose its brightness sooner than expected. Angela 'Wir schaffen das' Merkel imported close to two million 'refugees'. However, violent welfare seekers from the Hindu Kush are another matter than Belgians arriving in Great Britain in 1914. The BKA (Bundeskriminalamt) just released its annual report and the conclusions are appalling. Far from importing rocket scientists and brain surgeons in 2015 and the years since, Germany let in specialist in completely different disciplines:
MFBB.
For those not following German politics too closely, it would seem that Merkel, during her time as Bundeskanzlerin, proved to be an efficient steward of the German economic locomotive. And her CDU being politically centrist - at least that being the perception - neither foreign nor domestic policies seemed to lean too far to either the left or the right.
However, the following analysis by the Brussels Report's Pieter Cleppe proves that there is more than meets the eye... and it's not exactly flattering for "das Maedchen":
1.) EUROZONE BAILOUTS.
"When Germany gave up its D-Mark, there was a very clear quid pro quo: whenever governments in the Eurozone would get into trouble, they would not be able to count on being bailed out by taxpayers from other countries.
In practice, that’s of course not how things went. For years already before the Eurozone bailout machinery was created in 2010, the European Central Bank had been fueling easy money to banks in Eurozone member states that would have never been able to enjoy the low interest rates offered by the ECB to obtain euro funding.
Banks in Italy, for example, used that money to buy Italian government bonds, which in turn drove down Italy’s borrowing rates. There was little incentive left for governments in excessively indebted member states like Italy or Belgium to implement the necessary structural reforms to generate tax revenue to finance government spending. Eurozone membership was sufficient to keep those bloated welfare states afloat. Similar dynamics were at play all across the Eurozone, long before Greece, one of the Eurozone governments that were being showered with easy money, was suddenly no longer able to refinance its debt. Others, like Spain and Ireland, witnessed a housing bubble and bust, caused by easy ECB cash that had been pumped by local banks into the real estate market, in turn saddling some of these local banks with excessive debt, with the ensuing financial instability ultimately forcing the Irish and Spanish government to request a Eurozone bailout.
The pressure had been building for a while until finally, in early 2010, the Greek sovereign debt crisis erupted, which was followed by three fiscal bailouts of Greece, as well as bailouts of Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus and Spain. Others, like indeed Italy and Belgium, were being bailed out by the ECB.
The German establishment, with Angela Merkel at the helm, could have blocked bailouts, but opted not to do so, despite some severe misgivings, witnessed by a number of high profile Bundesbank resignations in 2011. Apart from endorsing bailouts, Merkel also provided tacit support to the ECB to do “whatever it takes” to keep the shaky monetary union alive."
2.) GERMANY'S ENERGY POLICIES.
"...Most notable is Merkel’s big change of heart over energy policy. A trained physicist, she has always been a supporter of nuclear power, until she got her government to decide to phase out nuclear power, right after the public turned against it following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March of 2011. This despite some more independent thinking greens considering this to be the ultimate stress-test for nuclear.
The result of these policies are that Germany is being plagued by sky-high energy prices for households. Also from the perspective to cut CO2 emissions, Merkel’s approach hasn’t exactly been a great success, given the persistent role of coal in Germany’s energy mix, which is apparently only possible to change by means of importing more Russian gas via the controversial new Nord Stream 2 gas pipe line between Russia and Germany."
3.) GERMANY'S ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS.
"...As mentioned, Germany’s economy did fairly well during Merkel’s time in office. However, the reasons for that were unrelated to Merkel. For one, there were the courageous but unpopular “Agenda 2010” labour market reforms implemented by her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder. His policies managed to really restore Unit labour cost competitiveness had really by the end of 2005, when Merkel became Chancellor, and have remained stable since. This was also due to responsible wage restraint that was agreed between employers and employees.
Secondly, as a result of the ECB’s expansionist monetary policies, intended to keep interest rates as well as the euro exchange rate low, the German export sector profited from an exchange rate that was artificially weak. This helped exporters, but did hurt importers and consumers – a cost that may well be three times as big as compared to the benefits for exporters.
Under Merkel, a minimum wage was introduced, increasing the cost for employers to create jobs and reducing the flexibility that was possible under the system of sectoral agreements, while no proper reform of the pension system was undertaken – despite the massive ageing challenges the welfare state faces. Annual top-ups needed for the state pension system may well reach “well above €100bn by 2031”, compared with €67.8bn in 2018...."
4.) UNDERMINING EU HARMONY.
"...Despite being seen as the “leader of the EU”, Merkel hasn’t made a lot of friends in the European Union. Her Eurozone bailout policies contributed to anger in the North over the request to pay for transfer as well as anger in the South over the conditions linked to those transfers. Both dynamics resulted in greater electoral support for anti-establishment parties.
Also her handling of Central and Eastern Europe leaves much to be desired for. Despite warnings from the French Interior Minister, Merkel’s government opted to push ahead with outvoting Eastern European countries and impose “mandatory refugee quotas” at the EU level in 2015..."
5.) MIGRATION CHAOS.
"...Much has been said over Merkel’s handling over the 2015-2016 migration crisis. To be fair, the “gates of Europe” were wide open long before Merkel made the assertion “Wir schaffen das“, meaning “we can manage this”, going against many in her own party.
The episode reveals another spectacular and panicky u-turn by Merkel. In August 2015, her government was using television adverts to warn people in Albania not to come to Germany as their chances of getting asylum were close to zero. And then, that same month, her government decided to suspend the so-called Dublin rules. This meant that it would stop returning Syrian asylum seekers to their first port of entry in the EU. Suddenly, the “hard line” vanished.
Merkel made the assertion “Wir schaffen das“, meaning “we can manage this”, going against many in her own party. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that a few months earlier Merkel had been sharply criticised for her insensitive response to a sobbing Palestinian refugee girl who begged to be allowed to stay in Germany.
Perhaps her approach after that of taking selfies with refugees to humanise them deserved praise, but the overall effect of her policy was not positive. Again, the suspension of the Dublin rules wasn’t the key factor leading to the great influx, which really began in March 2015. More important was Europe’s failure to close the Balkan route. This only happened in March 2016, which stopped the flow from people from Turkey to Greece and led to a large drop in drownings-at-sea. Many people, both genuine refugees and others, no longer tried to cross from Turkey, which had given shelter to more than 3.5 million refugees..."
6.) ABANDONING TRANSATLANTIC FOREIGN POLICY.
"...Last but not least, Merkel also took steps away from Germany’s transatlantic foreign policy attitudes.
In a profile of Merkel, the Wall Street Journal notes:
“As she is preparing to leave office after her fourth term—having interacted with four U.S. presidents—she has overseen a dramatic increase of her country’s economic dependence on China, pushed through a far-reaching energy deal with Russia, joined France in challenging U.S. political influence in Europe and rejected American demands in areas such as economic policy and Berlin’s openness to Chinese technology(…)
The shift also has roots in the chancellor’s changing views. As a leader, Ms. Merkel gradually became disillusioned with the U.S., a development triggered by the 2008 financial crisis, which she blamed in part on America’s loose financial regulation. Since then, she developed a fascination with China that mixed concern about its totalitarian drift with admiration at its rapid growth and technological progress, according to aides, confidants and her own statements.”
Surely, Merkel is merely following trade flows, which happen to have increased with China, one could object. Then Merkel did actively override concerns of other EU governments on signing an EU investment pact with China at the end of last year, when Germany was chairing the EU Council and in this capacity in the driving seat.
One could also retort that the U.S. are the ones to have distances themselves from Europe and Germany, most certainly under Trump. Then, the WSJ describes how it is “emblematic of the cooling U.S.-German relationship” that “Angela Merkel declined the offer of being Joe Biden’s first call as president. She would be at her cottage, gardening”.
This indicates how it goes deeper than an aversion of Trump....
If after this damning analysis, you still are of the opinion that Frau Merkel was an efficient Bundeskanzlerin who did well for her country, you might want to consider that she was actually VERY LUCKY that her 'subjects' were Germans. If Germany still gives the impression that its economic powerhouse runs smoothly - it's NOT because of Merkels policies but because of the average German, who staunchly wakes up every morning and marches to his or her job. There is no social unrest in Germany like in France (les gilets jaunes), and yet large swaths of the population are worse off than their French counterparts and have every reason to air their concerns loudly. Incredibly, home ownership is the lowest in the entire EU. Scores of employees have to make ends meet with pitiful wages - a LIDL or ALDI caissière sometimes earning as little as 600EUR (or less!) a month. Truck drivers and their handlers delivering goods to my company regularly prove to be far into their sixties - and I assure you that it's hard work. People of that age doing backbreaking work are basically nowhere to be seen in Belgium. But in Germany, it's normal. When about five years ago the age to be eligible for pension was raised to 67 overnight, Germans did not give a peep. In France, Italy or even Belgium it might have caused a revolution. Any success das Maedchen has had in keeping the German locomotive going can be attributed directly to a staunch workforce still adhering to a no questions asked, 'Befehl ist Befehl' spirit.
But perhaps the shine of the Merkel era will lose its brightness sooner than expected. Angela 'Wir schaffen das' Merkel imported close to two million 'refugees'. However, violent welfare seekers from the Hindu Kush are another matter than Belgians arriving in Great Britain in 1914. The BKA (Bundeskriminalamt) just released its annual report and the conclusions are appalling. Far from importing rocket scientists and brain surgeons in 2015 and the years since, Germany let in specialist in completely different disciplines:
MFBB.
Sunday, October 03, 2021
RECOMMENDED VIDEO: ARTHUR WILLIAMS' 'FLYING ACROSS BRITAIN'.
Arthur Williams is a former Royal Marine who lost the use of his legs in an accident, took up flying, and is now a successful TV reporter! To get a taste of his work, watch this fascinating video:
As Winston once said: "Never, never, never give up!".
MFBB.
As Winston once said: "Never, never, never give up!".
MFBB.
Saturday, September 11, 2021
REMEMBERING 9/11.
I've read a lot of "Never forgets" today.
I've barely read "Never forgives".
Over here at DowneastBlog we will never forget, never forgive and we will never be shy to squarely put the blame where it lies:
After 9/11, in an incomprehensible state of collective delusion the West, which should right away have enforced a ban on muslim immigration, rolled out the red carpet for them instead.
Here we are, twenty years later, with the outcome of the Bush Doctrine for 50 per cent a failure and for the other 50 per cent still in doubt, with truly MASSIVE inroads of islam in our countries, no solution in sight, and plenty of fucking TRAITORS in our midst. As a stark reminder of how much the rot has set in at the highest level, consider this disgraceful speech by Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
This... PIG, who was more concerned about 'White Rage' than ensuring the withdrawal from AFG didn't turn into a humiliating rout, manages to NOT disclose who those "They, they, they, they, they" are. What an appalling disgrace for not calling the perpetrators for what they were, ISLAMIC TERRORISTS. The scoundrel should be fired, pronto!
I don't know how it is with you, but I will fight to the death against the islamic takeover of our countries. Islam is a cancer. You either destroy cancer, be it by chemotherapy or radiation or cutting it away... or it destroys you.
I should know.
Save a prayer for the innocent victims of the barbaric death cult that is islam.
MFBB.
I've barely read "Never forgives".
Over here at DowneastBlog we will never forget, never forgive and we will never be shy to squarely put the blame where it lies:
After 9/11, in an incomprehensible state of collective delusion the West, which should right away have enforced a ban on muslim immigration, rolled out the red carpet for them instead.
Here we are, twenty years later, with the outcome of the Bush Doctrine for 50 per cent a failure and for the other 50 per cent still in doubt, with truly MASSIVE inroads of islam in our countries, no solution in sight, and plenty of fucking TRAITORS in our midst. As a stark reminder of how much the rot has set in at the highest level, consider this disgraceful speech by Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
This... PIG, who was more concerned about 'White Rage' than ensuring the withdrawal from AFG didn't turn into a humiliating rout, manages to NOT disclose who those "They, they, they, they, they" are. What an appalling disgrace for not calling the perpetrators for what they were, ISLAMIC TERRORISTS. The scoundrel should be fired, pronto!
I don't know how it is with you, but I will fight to the death against the islamic takeover of our countries. Islam is a cancer. You either destroy cancer, be it by chemotherapy or radiation or cutting it away... or it destroys you.
I should know.
Save a prayer for the innocent victims of the barbaric death cult that is islam.
MFBB.
Monday, September 06, 2021
RECOMMENDED READS: LIONEL SHRIVER'S "WOULD YOU WANT LONDON TO BE OVERRUN WITH AMERICANS LIKE ME?"
Over at The Spectator, a compelling article by Lionel Shriver:
If only London was overrun with Americans instead. If only.
MFBB.
"...In Britain, Migration Watch released two reports this summer whose key findings I will try to present as succinctly and neutrally as possible. In the past 20 years, foreign-born residents of the UK have doubled to nine million, going from 8 per cent to 14 per cent of the population. In tandem, the white British proportion of the population has fallen from 89 per cent to 79 per cent, while ethnic minorities have grown from 10 per cent to 21 per cent. Since 2001, 84 per cent of UK population growth has been due to immigrants and their children, rising to 90 per cent since 2017 — the majority non-EU.
More than a third of UK births now involve at least one foreign-born parent; in parts of London, 80 per cent of births are to foreign--born mothers. Indeed, non-UK nationals are disproportionately concentrated in British cities. The majorities of London, Slough, Leicester and Luton have an ethnic minority background. About half the births in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Cambridge are to foreign mothers.
Unsurprisingly, then, a third of British school children are already from ethnic minorities; in 20 years, ethnic-minority children will constitute more than half the students in state schools. As of 2018, 90 per cent of immigrants were under 45. That means the ethnic transformation of the UK, whose white population is far older, is destined rapidly to accelerate.
Even delivering those dry statistics feels dangerous. As for their implications, none of you readers is supposed to care. In particular, white Britons who greet those figures with anything short of delight know perfectly well to keep their traps shut. The lineages of white Britons in their homeland commonly go back hundreds of years. Yet for the country’s original inhabitants to confront becoming a minority in the UK (perhaps in the 2060s) with any hint of mournfulness, much less consternation, is now racist and beyond the pale. I submit: that proscription is socially and even biologically unnatural.
We are a political and territorial species. Although Pollyannas push us to regard ourselves as members of one big happy human family, we compulsively clump into groups. These groups claim territory and, under normal circumstances, defend it. For westerners to passively accept and even abet incursions by foreigners so massive that the native-born are effectively surrendering their territory without a shot fired is biologically perverse...
If only London was overrun with Americans instead. If only.
MFBB.
Sunday, September 05, 2021
SUNDAY NIGHT ART SNACK: ALFRED DE BREANSKI SR. (1852-1928).
Alfred de Breanski Sr. was a British landscape painter who made a name for himself with exquisite renderings of rural England, Scotland and Wales. Influenced by John Constable. He was born in 1852 in Greenwich, England, and went on to exhibit his works at the Royal Academy in London from 1872 until 1918.
Banks of Arrochar
The Borrowdale Pass from Derwent Water
As good as it is, imho not his best work yet, but I include it since it brings memories back from my all too short summer holiday in July in "the Heart of Borrowdale". I stayed in Scafell Hotell, whence I climbed Great Gable.
MFBB.
Banks of Arrochar
The Borrowdale Pass from Derwent WaterAs good as it is, imho not his best work yet, but I include it since it brings memories back from my all too short summer holiday in July in "the Heart of Borrowdale". I stayed in Scafell Hotell, whence I climbed Great Gable.
MFBB.
Saturday, September 04, 2021
RECOMMENDED VIDEO: HOW BIG IS THE UNIVERSE?
Realizing we are far less than a speck in an infathomably large universe helps us to put some things in perspective.
Good night.
MFBB.
Sunday, August 29, 2021
SUNDAY NIGHT ART SNACK: JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY (1738-1815).
I'm very sorry for being AWOL for so long, but it's been a rather rough couple of months lately. Health is status quo though.
Copley was an Anglo-American painter, a Boston, Massachusetts native, who already had a well-established reputation in New England when he moved to England in 1774, never to return (not that he didn't want to). With the work below, "The Death of the Earl of Chatham" (1781, oil on canvas), he made his name as a history painter.
The Earl of Chatham was William Pitt The Elder, Prime Minister of Britain in the middle of the eighteenth century, and the architect of Britain's victory in the Seven Years War (1757-1763). Copley's paiting evokes the moment right after Pitt's collapse on 7 April 1778, during a debate in the House of Lords on the American War of Independence. The painting's title is a misnomer though, as Pitt died over a month later in his home in Hayes, Kent.
MFBB.
Copley was an Anglo-American painter, a Boston, Massachusetts native, who already had a well-established reputation in New England when he moved to England in 1774, never to return (not that he didn't want to). With the work below, "The Death of the Earl of Chatham" (1781, oil on canvas), he made his name as a history painter.
The Earl of Chatham was William Pitt The Elder, Prime Minister of Britain in the middle of the eighteenth century, and the architect of Britain's victory in the Seven Years War (1757-1763). Copley's paiting evokes the moment right after Pitt's collapse on 7 April 1778, during a debate in the House of Lords on the American War of Independence. The painting's title is a misnomer though, as Pitt died over a month later in his home in Hayes, Kent.
MFBB.
Monday, May 31, 2021
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY 2021.
DowneastBlog wishes its American readers a Happy Memorial Day!
I have referred to these brave men before, but I feel compelled to honor them again: Pfc. Thomas Tucker, Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, and Spc. David Babineau.
You can argue that these men did not fight for our freedom, that the US Army had no business in Iraq. I don't agree. For better or for worse, the US is the world's policeman. Personally, I think it's the former... I shiver at the thought that China would fulfill that role, e.g.
The US Armed Forces execute the strategy the government decides upon to 'act' as that policeman. Just like policemen sometimes die in the line of fire, it is inevitable that the chosen strategy, whether good or bad, will result in losses: KIA, WIA, MIA... The losses on that fateful day in 2006 involved a.o. Tucker, Menchaca and Babineau. Remember them and pray for them also. It's a given that their relatives and loved ones still suffer.
MFBB.
I have referred to these brave men before, but I feel compelled to honor them again: Pfc. Thomas Tucker, Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, and Spc. David Babineau.
You can argue that these men did not fight for our freedom, that the US Army had no business in Iraq. I don't agree. For better or for worse, the US is the world's policeman. Personally, I think it's the former... I shiver at the thought that China would fulfill that role, e.g.
The US Armed Forces execute the strategy the government decides upon to 'act' as that policeman. Just like policemen sometimes die in the line of fire, it is inevitable that the chosen strategy, whether good or bad, will result in losses: KIA, WIA, MIA... The losses on that fateful day in 2006 involved a.o. Tucker, Menchaca and Babineau. Remember them and pray for them also. It's a given that their relatives and loved ones still suffer.
MFBB.
Sunday, May 30, 2021
RECOMMENDED READS: 29 GREAT CATHOLIC MATHEMATICIANS YOU SHOULD KNOW.
In the West, we have been told ad nauseam by our Moral Betters that Christianity is anti-Science.
Nothing is further from the truth, and as time goes by, more and more authors and historians discover the vast contributions made by the Christian faith to the exact sciences. A good book to start with re this topic is Freely's "Before Galileo".
The overview offered by The National Catholic Register's Angelo Stagnaro lists a number of individuals, both Men of the Cloth and catholic laymen, which may surprise you...
Be sure to check out No. 3, Blessed Ramon Llull.
MFBB.
Nothing is further from the truth, and as time goes by, more and more authors and historians discover the vast contributions made by the Christian faith to the exact sciences. A good book to start with re this topic is Freely's "Before Galileo".
The overview offered by The National Catholic Register's Angelo Stagnaro lists a number of individuals, both Men of the Cloth and catholic laymen, which may surprise you...
Be sure to check out No. 3, Blessed Ramon Llull.
MFBB.
Monday, May 24, 2021
APPALLING NEW US ARMY RECRUITMENT VIDEOS.
I have been keenly aware of the inroads leftist shenanigans have made into the US military, so the following woke nonsense should not have come as a surprise.
Except they did. "The Calling" is a series of five animations centering on the paths that led the following individuals to join the Army:
Let's check out the Emma animation. Watch and weep.
Holy shit. And I thought the 70s campaign "The Army wants to join you" was bad.
Per Senator Ted Cruz, a comparison between this woke madness and a Russian Army recruitment video:
Apart from the ludicrous, warm and fluffy non-content, there's something else that's striking in the 5 'The Calling' animations. Can you see it?
Because last time I checked, the US was still a majority White country, although granted, democrappic politicians are doing their damnedest best to end this sorry state of affairs ASAP.
Well, dunno if you noticed it or not, but the makers of 'The Calling' seem to have completely overlooked an interesting recruitment reservoir i.e. young White Caucasian males. Please out there, can someone tell 'em? BEHOLD however!!! Rumour has it that the grand majority of said males are still heterosexual, so if they belatedly realize there's still this as yet untapped manpower reservoir, they should proceed to enlist them with the utmost caution.
MFBB.
Except they did. "The Calling" is a series of five animations centering on the paths that led the following individuals to join the Army:
Let's check out the Emma animation. Watch and weep.
Holy shit. And I thought the 70s campaign "The Army wants to join you" was bad.
Per Senator Ted Cruz, a comparison between this woke madness and a Russian Army recruitment video:
Holy crap.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 20, 2021
Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea.... https://t.co/8aVFMW98NM
Apart from the ludicrous, warm and fluffy non-content, there's something else that's striking in the 5 'The Calling' animations. Can you see it?
Because last time I checked, the US was still a majority White country, although granted, democrappic politicians are doing their damnedest best to end this sorry state of affairs ASAP.
Well, dunno if you noticed it or not, but the makers of 'The Calling' seem to have completely overlooked an interesting recruitment reservoir i.e. young White Caucasian males. Please out there, can someone tell 'em? BEHOLD however!!! Rumour has it that the grand majority of said males are still heterosexual, so if they belatedly realize there's still this as yet untapped manpower reservoir, they should proceed to enlist them with the utmost caution.
MFBB.
Saturday, May 22, 2021
RECOMMENDED VIDEO: WHEN BRITAIN RULED THE SKIES.
From the BBC documentary "When Britain ruled the skies", on the astounding performance of the British aeronautical industry in churning out breathtaking an innovative aircraft in the first decades of the Cold War:
The same theme is explored in Empire of the Clouds, an excellent book by James Hamilton-Paterson. Highly recommended!
MFBB.
The same theme is explored in Empire of the Clouds, an excellent book by James Hamilton-Paterson. Highly recommended!
MFBB.
Sunday, May 16, 2021
RECOMMENDED VIDEO: OPERATION CHASTISE ANIMATION.
OTD, or rather, On This Night in 1943, 19 Lancasters under the command of Wing Commander Guy Gibson took off from RAF Scampton to attack several Ruhr dams which were crucial for hydro-electric power. It was the beginning of Operation Chastise;
Check out this exerpt from the 1955 movie The Dambusters:
MFBB.
Check out this exerpt from the 1955 movie The Dambusters:
MFBB.
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