(1014) Morning all … chores this morning, back inside again, wind chill factor out there. Two days running very little on X, usually should at least be US news. Now, either X is restricting what is seen (and there were harsh words spoken yesterday by many) or else there is just fatigue with people. (1103)
10. The Prince
I can only return, yet again, to the chapter in my long book entitled:
… take a glance at the picture of a Dorian Gray type and reflect on why I’d nominate him as the aC for the purpose of the story. If the book had gone on, Barron would have made his enteance at some stage but it didn’t … so he didn’t.
9. Moo corner
Just now, we have a surfeit of Moos, so will run them at 9, 13, 19 … last evening, there were not enough items to reach 19, a great pity.
… via pete. It’s audiobook and only audio, which presents some obstacles for HQ. With films, it’s better they’re embedded, not just linked back, as it cuts out ads. However, this one refuses to embed, which means it’s on YT and is therefore ad-ridden, unless you have your own mechanism to prevent that.
That’s the gamut we run every time we bring in outside content, chaps and chapesses.
(0446) Not a lot to report. Dark still, in ok condition here, starting the rounds. Surfeit of films, dearth of poltics so far, thank goodness. (0735)
5. Consequences
(Also at OoL, at Jstack and on X.)
First off … in 1984/5, Yuri Bezmenov, Soviet defector, gave an interview on “demoralisation” of a society, the word used in a broad sense, from loss of moral compass to a feeling of helplessness down the track.
He said that producing such a result in a society was the result of long planning and it crosses generations, to the point that once the disease gets into families, schools, media, entertainment, the judiciary, medicine … there’s no coming back.
He added that people reach a point, esp. on the Left, where they can be presented with “authentic information” and those people are then unable to reason, to draw valid conclusions, to see that their behaviour has consequences.
Contrived, handed down non-reality, disguised as wisdom, or in other words … narrative … replaces real reasoning, mental health plummets and behaviour involves deep depression at core level, interspersed with lashing out.
One consequence for this girl below was set in motion long before the actual incident. For a start, what on earth was she even doing on her own? Part of the answer appears further down here. She simply had not adjusted to new societal realities. Just as with Iryna on that subway train. No concept of danger whatever. But much “independent, strong woman” about it … cue disaster in 2025/6.
Or this:
Or this:
Or this:
Consequences. One who did understand it played for the other side … he was referring to love/hooking up but it applies just as much to societal changes overall imho.
4. At Lord Toby’s TDS today
3. Steve at 1331
Iranian-Backed Houthis Poised to Join War Against US and Israel as Early as Monday
Iran Threatens to Wipe Out Middle East Water Supply Including Desalination Plants After President Trump Issues Brutal 48-Hour Ultimatum
Trump Installs Columbus Statue at White House, Restoring Monument Destroyed in 2020 Riots
Budapest’s Spring Of Discontent: Foreign Powers Align To Topple Hungary’s Leader
American B-52 Bombers Are Now Dropping Heavy Bombs On Targets In Iran
Before Rotherham, Birmingham Already Knew (essential reading)
French Election: Socialists Secure Paris, LePen’s Populists Make Historic Local Gains
Much more.
2. Quite like this lady
… but she can’t face harsh truths as diggers, ferreters and castigators can … and even we have things we can’t face either. Still, she seems Everywoman to me in a non-offensive way:
She’s Reform, as many others who saw hope are, struggles to handle Rupert’s “agricultural” manner, hometruths, wants everything back nicely nice, as it was. Not just you, sister, but it’s not going to do it by itself.
1. DAD at 1331
a) The death of Lionel Jospin brings back into focus the career and personal life of this former Prime Minister, a major figure on the French left between 1997 and 2002. Discreet about his private life, he divided his time between Paris and the Île de Ré
b) ‘Free Tina!’: Trump calls to release imprisoned county clerk convicted in 2020 election case.
c) AfD cracks Western Germany, doubles support in Rhineland-Palatinate Election.
d) Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni conceded defeat Monday in a referendum on judicial reform but said she would not resign.
(JH: I’d be interested to know what exactly Italians rejected.)
“The round table is one of the oldest techniques for manufacturing consensus among people who would otherwise have no reason to agree with one another. Cecil Rhodes formalised it. The Royal Institute of International Affairs and the Council on Foreign Relations institutionalised it. The Bilderberg Conference perfected it.
The underlying method is older than any of these, and the pattern — once recognised — is visible in nearly every major policy shift of the past century.
No single group of participants ever sees the whole. Each group endorses one piece, genuinely and in good faith, understanding only the piece in front of them. The pieces integrate — across convenings, across decades, across continents — into a unified architecture that none of the individual participants designed, intended, or understood. The compartmentalisation is what makes the system invisible.
The moral cause at each stage is what makes it politically untouchable. And the Chatham House Rule, present in every instance, ensures that the public can never trace the institutional outcome back to the private convening that produced it.”
11. DAD’s analysis of France’s municipal elections
Now that the dust has settled, the Municipal Elections show France is stuck in same old patterns. Limited success for the Right; disaster for the Centre; tears for the Left.
The second round of France’s municipal elections on March 22 confirmed a familiar pattern: Low turnout, fragmented politics and little real change in major cities.
Voter participation reached 57.8 per cent, down four points compared to 2014. Far from being a surge of protest, the fall may reflect a growing sense of distance from local politics.
The reason I recently contacted my first true romantic partner at the age of 15 (I was 15, I hasten to add, probably she was thereabouts too) was partly, as she recently said “it’s intriguing”. But a second reason is that I’ve been exploring (of late) western eras and was trying to place our summer romance in the context of what was going on before, what happened later.
What I came up with was that we were right at that western timepoint when it began its swift descent away from 50s romance and into human dealings being sleazy and druggy, heavy metaly, the music now big complicated sounds, much windbaggery, not much fun anymore in that innocent way. Just big, super-serious ideas, without the life experience to give them depth.
There was another pre-wartime era in some ways similar to the 50s and I don’t mean the 20s, whose jazz we watch on Sundays here … no, I mean the 30s, during the depression, maybe up to just before America entered the war.
But it was not just that factor … it was that American film had come out of Silents and was adjusting to sound, also color, plus the Hays Code, plus Prohibition … and that’s where my links come in, as part of the review (south of the video below):
An IMDb review of this “Republic” movie (1hr 14mins):
“The Spanish Cape Mystery may be formulaic and clichéd, but that’s doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad. In fact, I had quite a bit of fun with it. The plot is just what you’ve come to expect if you’ve seen a number of these mystery films from the 30s. Ellery Queen goes on vacation (if you’re staying next to a detective on vacation, head home) when a series of murders breaks out nearby. One odd aspect of the murders is that all of the victims were found wearing their swim clothes. Once Queen (finally) starts to investigate, it’s not long before a killer is unmasked.
When I say the movie is formulaic and clichéd, it’s filled with things we’ve all seen a thousand times in movies like this: a crotchety old patriarch, a house full of relatives trying to secure their inheritance, a beautiful young daughter for our detective hero to fall for, a bumbling local sheriff who can’t seem to get anything right, and suspects galore. But somehow it all works. The movie is nicely paced and at 73 minutes, events unfold quickly. The acting is overall better than I expected.
Highlights for me included Helen Twelvetrees (what a revelation) as Queen’s love interest, Harry Stubbs who plays a bumbling sheriff as well as anyone I’ve seen, and Berton Churchill as Queen’s judge friend. In fact, I thought Donald Cook in the main role of Ellery Queen was the weak link. He’s too bland. Decent production values for a 30s era B-quickie, nice sets, and some interesting dialogue make this one a fun, late-night film. Overall, a very strong 6/10 from me.”
This review deserves a look too, to place the film in context:
http://queen.spaceports.com/Movie01.html
I should say this third review is necessary to paint the picture of the times, of life in Hollywood, in America just then:
The plot avoids real life for most people during the grim depression days and that was the whole point … the atmosphere of these films is upbeat, almost screwball comedic, wisecracking, not grim … and in our own grim days right now, just before the crash and civil war, it’s a welcome relief from the dark, depressed 40s movies or the angst ridden 50s films.
Then we get into the communist with the illuminist wife … the Roosevelts and the way they took in all of America except for maybe 15% of thinkers … McCarthy, John Birch versus CoFR.
So yes … last night, I was lost in that era, then the late 60s, early 70s … and fell asleep before the grim 2018 to 2030.
b. Tommy was at Mar-a-Lago this weekend. Personal invite. That lad gets around now he’s in America, and free to interview other folk who’ve gone there for similar reasons..
(0744) Morning all. Wall to wall poisoned cloud cover out there. Dislocated night here, noticed at one point DAD posting quite early, Toodles asked a question, I “rezonked”, woke again just now. I’ll answer that question here at WP a bit later, once I can work out a way to. Plus puzzling comment from Andy.
Plus, I have about four tabs open on the other browser, there is a time limit because the different firms are playing games. So … must attend to those tabs first, concerning the film later today, else I’ll lose them. Soon, readers. (0949)
5. This one is from downunder
4. This was about a riptide or undertow over in America
… it was a clip of a swimmer dragged out, returned by massive, concussive waves, rinse and repeat:
3. Steve at 1330
Democrats Rattled After California Sheriff Seizes 650,000 Ballots in Election Integrity Crackdown
Jesse Kelly and Author Joshua Lisec Discuss Communism’s Evil Tactics – “Communism is An Anti-Christian Set of Tactics for Gaining Power Over Other People”
Saudi Arabia Expels Iranian Diplomats Over Aggression Against Kingdom
Massive Escalation. 22 Countries Have Joined Forces On Iran. It has started.
You Won’t Believe What B-52 Bombers Just Did to Open Strait of Hormuz
COVID Inquiry Finds Lockdowns May Have Cost Thousands Of Lives (recommended)
Essex Police Pause Facial Recognition, But Why Was It Rolled Out at All?
Kremlin Proposed Intelligence Swap Involving Iran to Halt US Aid to Ukraine, Sources Say
Much more.
2. Replying to two of our stalwarts
Toodles:
Yes, that cryptic post about the two Webb men and talk of letter agencies … I can’t go insecure or “in plain” on highly insecure media, Toods, sorry bout that. The two are not directly connected, but they are via third party … an agency.
Andy:
Bit of a puzzle, this one, Andy:
“The first item on lockdowns. I cannot believe that this was intentional.”
Refers to Steve’s first at 1330. Now, do you mean you can’t believe they would do such a thing or is it just used as a standard expression? Because many of us on this side of politics put nothing past these bstds and we have receipts. For example, the October 2018 conference at Johns Hopkins, through to the plan’s rollout, to the Canadian/Wuhan connection, to pharma poised (Hancock) to the big stick enforcement (remember Polly on Bitchute)?
1. DAD at 1330
a) France – Second Tour Election Results. (JH: Hoping DAD will analyse and give us the summary.)
b) Roubaix municipal elections 2026: mortar fire in several streets and Algerian and Palestinian flags waved in front of the town hall, after the victory of David Guiraud (LFI).
c) Five of the six lambs in the flock of sheep that had been installed for three years to maintain the meadows around the Château de Mursay in Échiré were stolen during the night….
d) I cannot remember where I found this photograph….
