News Round-Up
- “On the sexual atrocities Hamas committed on October 7th” – We cannot ignore the depravity of the October 7th attacks or what they mean for women, writes Alex Berenson on Substack.
- “2023 has exposed the moral depravity of the radical Left” – Jews, women, the working class – leftists have betrayed everyone they once claimed to speak for, says Tom Slater in Spiked.
- “How Hamas weaponises victimhood” – Also in Spiked, Frank Furedi says that Hamas are the masters at weaponising victimhood.
- “Broken codes of conduct” – In Taki’s Magazine, Theodore Dalrymple takes delight in the Harvard President’s plagiarism kerfuffle while scolding the ever-expanding power of the bureaucratic state.
- “The Elgin Marbles weren’t stolen – Greece is just exploiting our weakness” – In the Sunday Times, Jonathan Sumption argues it would demean the British Museum and its universalist mission to return the Elgin Marbles.
- “Five-day work from home deals for pampered civil service mandarins” – Hundreds of civil servants are on full-time ‘home-working contracts’ and do not go into Whitehall at all, reveals the Mail on Sunday.
- “The year the pandemic ended: A retrospective” – On Substack, Eugyppius reflects on the year when the Covid circus finally packed up its tents in Germany.
- “Senior lawyer drafting Rwanda Bill told Rishi Sunak it would not work” – A senior lawyer who advised on Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda Bill warned ministers that it was far from guaranteed to protect deportation flights from legal challenge, reports the Telegraph.
- “Revealed: Rishi Sunak’s secret talks to bring back Dominic Cummings” – The Sunday Times recounts the story told in Dominic Cummings’s latest blog of his meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss a return to Downing Street.
- “Delors and Thatcher clashed, but their visions combined might now save Europe” – Vladimir Putin has proven Margaret Thatcher’s fears right, yet only a united Europe of the kind envisaged by Jacques Delors can bring him to heel, writes Charles Moore in the Telegraph.
- “Jacques Delors destroyed the European Left” – Jacques Delors enabled the populist Right, says Thomas Fazi in UnHerd.
- “Jacques Delors was the father of Brexit – without the U.K., his vision is turning to reality” – Jacques Delors dreamt of a unitary, centralised European state. This is what the EU is now fast becoming, argues Dan Hannan in the Telegraph.
- “Biden won’t run, Labour won’t win a landslide, Middle East may find peace” – In the Telegraph, Janet Daley gives her optimistic predictions for 2024.
- “Military shuns heat pumps in favour of cheaper cutting-edge electric boilers” – The military is shunning heat pumps and instead warming soldiers’ homes with electric boilers that cost less to run, according to the Telegraph.
- “Net Zero is about to get even more painful” – Few would challenge the need to decarbonise – eventually. But our current approach will be economically ruinous, says Annabel Denham in the Telegraph.
- “U.S. university chancellor sacked for vegan porn videos” – A U.S. university chancellor has been sacked after it was discovered that he had filmed vegan-themed pornographic videos with his wife and posted them online, according to the Telegraph.
- “Have Ireland’s Gen Z been duped?” – For Gen Z, talk about ‘choice’ and ‘equality’ seems particularly cruel given many of them will spend their 20s and 30s living in the box room upstairs, says Donal Horgan in Gript.
- “Why are theatres so cowardly?” – Good luck finding a play that criticises the NHS, remarks Lloyd Evans in the Spectator.
- “Straight men at fault for Hollywood failures on diversity, says Sofia Coppola” – According to Sofia Coppola, Hollywood is failing to produce diverse cinema because “99% of the people giving money in film are straight men”, reports the Telegraph.
- “The American Museum of Supernatural History” – By embracing indigenous superstitions, the West’s great science museums are abandoning their mission to educate and compromising their scientific integrity, warns Elizabeth Weiss in Reality’s Last Stand.
- “Facebook censors podcast hosted by pro-Israel Arab” – Facebook has removed a pro-Israeli post by an Arab commentator, reports the Telegraph.
- “Federal Government operatives and Soros money behind plot to keep Trump off ballot” – The public-private model used for censorship is now being used to undermine U.S. democracy, says Alex Gutentag on the Public Substack.
- “Not with a whimper but a bellow…” – Mark Steyn discusses the ban on Trump from running in Maine’s election, drawing unfavourable comparisons with Russia.
- “When the Bernsteins hosted the Black Panthers” – The Leonard Bernstein biopic, Maestro, skips a key chapter in his life, which is fortunately resurrected in a new documentary about his nemesis, Tom Wolfe, says Gregg Kilday on the Ankler Substack.
- “Non-crime hate incidents are deeply sinister” – On Free Speech Nation, Andrew Doyle takes issue with the police’s recording of ‘non-crime hate incidents’, an authoritarian, Orwelllian concept.
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“Few would challenge the need to decarbonise – eventually. But our current approach will be economically ruinous, says Annabel Denham in the Telegraph.”
She should get out more!
‘She should get out more!’
No better way to advertise your ignorance and stupidity than opening an article with this:
“Few would challenge the need to decarbonise – but our current approach will be economically ruinous”
So it is not Co2 it is carbon. The lack of research is staggering.
Journalists such as this are downright dangerous because they keep pushing the climate change bad storyline. Our climate has always changed, it is NOT a problem. Furthermore she hi-lights her ignorance by allocating the problem to carbon. What sort of carbon might that be I wonder?
Stupid doesn’t come close.
‘I can’t be the only one who thinks it’s deeply sinister and authoritarian to have the police recording lists of citizens who have committed wrongthink.’@AndrewDoyle_Com calls out the College of Policing for pushing the Orwellian concept of ‘non-crime hate incidents’.
No, Andrew, you are not alone. You have very few admirers among the political class however! I think it deserved an exclamation mark.
They’re unlawful, two home secretaries have said they must stop, and yet gov.uk has guidelines about data retention on NCHi.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/non-crime-hate-incidents-code-of-practice/non-crime-hate-incidents-code-of-practice-on-the-recording-and-retention-of-personal-data-accessible
The blob at work, an omnishambles of a government, or both?
“How Hamas weaponises victimhood” It was well known that Hamas would/will continue to attack Israel and what their tactics would be. This was written in 2014: ‘Hamas narrative: Israel commits war crimes, indiscriminately killing Palestinian civilians. The Palestinian people support Hamas unconditionally, even if that means risking civilian lives. It is the Palestinian people’s religious and national duty to serve as human shields, in order to serve the resistance and support its cause. Israel’s early warning messages prior to an airstrike are psychological warfare.’ ‘Hamas 2006: “The citizens will continue defending their pride and houses and will continue to serve as human shields until the enemy will withdraw.” 2014: “The fact that people are willing to sacrifice themselves against Israeli warplanes in order to protect their homes, I believe this strategy is proving itself. And we, Hamas, call on our people to adopt this practice.” 2014: “Hamas despise those defeatist Palestinians that criticize the high number of civilian casualties. The resistance praises our people…we lead our people to death…I mean, to war.” ‘Hamas is an Islamist militant group based in the Gaza Strip, which has been designated by the US, the EU and other countries as a… Read more »
Interesting then that in the intervening years the Israeli regime took control of the flow of funds to Hamas from Qatar.
https://m.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Netanyahu-Money-to-Hamas-part-of-strategy-to-keep-Palestinians-divided-583082
Good idea.
‘In addition to levying taxes on Gaza’s businesses and residents, Hamas imposes unofficial fees on smuggled goods and other activity, for a combined income of up to $450 million per year. Hamas also has real estate and other investments around the globe, despite international restrictions, and uses cryptocurrency to mask some of its transactions.
Some of it may be fully illegal. A small portion of its budget seems to come from smuggling in South America, including drug smuggling.’
‘Data from the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing of Israel (NBCTF) in the Ministry of Defense……..some of which are being published here for the first time, indicate that the body that is at the forefront of Israel’s fight against the financial strengthening of terrorist organizations, imposed economic sanctions – seizing and freezing – funds and assets amounting to approximately NIS 3.76 billion (over $1 billion) since it was established in 2018.’
CTECH 271223
It was a good idea if the intention was to keep Hamas well-funded. There’s been plenty criticism before and after October 7th of Netanyahu’s support of Hamas as a result.
Indeed. ‘I think there was broad recognition that the situation in Gaza was pretty awful,” former CIA Director John Brennan said. “There needed to be some flow of funds from somewhere [and] Qatar had the financial wherewithal to do that.” Neomi Neumann, former head of research for Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, said that “we didn’t find any other way to finance this and we didn’t want a humanitarian crisis.” But from the start, she said, “We knew that it was so problematic.” Israel and others had started a crackdown: ‘In August 2020, U.S. authorities seized millions of dollars and more than 300 cryptocurrency assets linked to groups, including Hamas, as part of a series of terrorism-related actions. The Treasury Department’s latest sanctions targeting Hamas operatives include a Gaza-based virtual currency exchange, Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company, and its operator used to collect small-dollar donations. ‘In 2021, Israel seized several cryptocurrency wallets, including Buy Cash, believed to be controlled by Hamas. At the time, Elliptic, a research analytics firm estimated those wallets had received more than $7.7 million in crypto.’ This, obviously, has now intensified: ‘European countries, some of which make a distinction between Hamas’ political and armed wings,… Read more »
Or intentional because these people are influenced by other factors and have different objectives from those advertised.
Without concrete evidence of ‘different objectives’, it is impossible to say.
Hanlon’s razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
Governments use terrorist organisations when it suits their own ends. It is therefore reasonable to entertain the idea that it is not solely a mistake or madness.
Hitchen’s razor: “What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence”
Examining all options is legitimate regardless of any attempt to limit this to what may be a false choice because “[Insert name]’s razor” is quoted.
“No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle unless that testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavours to establish”
Yes this perma-victimhood is beyond tedious. And what exactly is special about the ‘Palestinians’ anyway when it comes to their suffering? What about the myriad other conflicts and persecuted people suffering greatly around the world? When’s the last time anyone marched in protest against the ongoing genocide of the Kurds, for instance? But Palestine get special ‘V.I.P’ treatment because their situation involves Jews? Really? Insane. Sorry but you don’t get to simultaneously play your victim card while you continuously call for the genocide of your neighbours. Just STFU already! If you genuinely wanted peace you’d act like you did, yet you demonstrate the opposite. I think this post sums it up; ”It’s time for Palestinians to be held accountable for the society they have built. They have built a racist jihadist society that celebrates Hamas rapists who want to exterminate ethnic minorities. Palestinian society is more far right than anything the Ku Klux Klan could achieve. It’s time to start talking to Palestinians like they’re adults and not simpletons. It is unacceptable for them to continue seeking the genocide of Jews and the destruction of Israel. It is time for them to grow up and to be told to grow… Read more »
The Palestinians have much in common with the Jews it seems. Who or what is it that is really keeping these people in opposition?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/must-jews-always-see-themselves-as-victims-1639277.html
https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/columnist/362748/beyond-the-victim-mentality/
and for some reason, this victimhood is reinforced in UK media with stories about a hat being knocked-off a Jewish mans head. It would be a crime to dedicate some column-inches to excess deaths or vaccine injuries when such atrocities are occurring on our streets.
The definition of ‘Palestinian’ is not straightforward so ‘Leekern’ probably generalises more than is useful, would you think? Before 1948, Palestine was home to a diverse population of Arabs, Jews, and Christians. All these groups had religious ties to the area, especially the city of Jerusalem. The land itself was under the control of various empires, such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, and eventually the Islamic Caliphate and the Ottoman Empire. But, concentrating on Hamas: ‘When Hamas took over the Gaza Strip by force of arms in 2007, it faced an ideological crisis. It could focus on governing Gaza and addressing the needs of the Palestinian people, or it could use the Gaza Strip as a springboard from which to attack Israel. Even then, Hamas understood these two goals were mutually exclusive. And while some anticipated Hamas would moderate, or at least be co-opted by the demands of governing, it did not. Instead, Hamas invested in efforts to radicalize society and build the militant infrastructure necessary to someday launch the kind of attack that in its view could contribute to the destruction of Israel.’ ‘The group’s explicit targeted killing and kidnapping of civilians baldly contradicts Hamas’ articulated… Read more »
Met Office Fake Climate Change Models
latest leaflet to print at home and deliver to neighbours or forward to politicians, media, friends online.
“Non-crime hate incidents are deeply sinister” ”I can’t be the only one who thinks it’s deeply sinister and authoritarian to have the police recording lists of citizens who have committed wrongthink.’ Andrew Doyle, of the splendid GB News, is very much not alone. The concept of ‘wrongthink’ is, of course, a symptom of Socialist Fascism: ‘The Fascist conception of life is a religious one, in which man is viewed in his immanent relation to a higher law, endowed with an objective will transcending the individual and raising him to conscious membership of a spiritual society. “Those who perceive nothing beyond opportunistic considerations in the religious policy of the Fascist regime fail to realize that Fascism is not only a system of government but also and above all a system of thought.’ ‘The Fascist conception of the State is all embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism, is totalitarian, and the Fascist State — a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values — interprets, develops, and potentates the whole life of a people. No individuals or groups (political parties, cultural associations, economic unions, social classes) outside the State.’ “The… Read more »
“Straight men at fault for Hollywood failures on diversity, says Sofia Coppola” – According to Sofia Coppola, Hollywood is failing to produce diverse cinema because “99% of the people giving money in film are straight men”, reports the Telegraph. It depends what you mean by ‘failures’. The people funding cinema projects have a different aim to some film directors – mostly they want to make more money than they spend. Sure some money men might see it as making sure they can then afford to fund more ‘noble’ or niche projects or develop the careers of a next generation, but most just want to do what they do and get or stay rich. As such, it’s no surprise that 99% of the people giving money in film are straight men.They’re the successful producers whose projects most appeal to the majority paying public; they have a formula to follow and it’s worked so far. The simple ‘solution’ to this (as if it were a problem) is to get some rich ‘diverse’ person (I don’t think we’re allowed to use the term ‘bent’ to distinguish from ‘straight’ any more) to fund the sort of film they want to see being made –… Read more »
I’ve never seen a film by Sophia Coppola, and I’m certainly never going to watch a biopic of Priscilla Presley, so perhaps it would be unfair for me to brand her a ‘nepo baby’. However, her main complaint seems to be:
‘…she had to cut a scene from her latest film, a biopic of Priscilla Presley, because men did not understand it.
“We lost a scene of Priscilla riding motorcycles when she was eight months pregnant,” Coppola told GQ magazine.’
Because men aren’t interested in motorcycles? Perhaps she should have inserted a scene of Presley smoking a cigarette while 8 months pregnant and see how that went down?
However, it’s apparent that she still got her film made, despite the evil funders. Perhaps she knows it’s a dud and is just preparing the ground to explain away poor audience figures,
So who are these ‘useful idiots’ that make up the bulk of these tedious and troublesome hate marches? Well there’s the idiotic ‘Queers’, supportive of a people who would launch them off the top of a building at the drop of a hat, then there’s the idiotic ‘feminists’, who would have zero rights altogether and play second fiddle to men as pieces of property only in such a patriarchal and misogynistic society. They’re also strangely silent when it comes to sexual violence against anyone who happens to be Israeli or the normalization of paedophilia in Islam, as demonstrated by child marriages being customary. Then there’s the ”highly educated” students, who are so idiotic they don’t even know the names of the river or sea they’re chanting about, let alone much else in the way of historical fact about the decades-long conflict over there. So all in all, I think the cap fits perfectly here, so ”useful idiots” they will always be; ”The main groups that comprise the bulk of organizers and demonstrators who have supported the Hamas barbarism against Israel are: 1) Radical Islamic groups that, like the Islamic Republic of Iran after the 1979 revolution, regard Israel as the “Little Satan”… Read more »
“Who Supports Hamas?”
As highlighted above, Benjamin Netanyahu and those implementing his policies. Perhaps consider Hamas as part of Israeli domestic policy and by association, an extension of UK and US foreign policy?
So Hamas will now be competing with Russia on the world domination tour?
Hamas, Hamas, Hamas…
Sounds familiar.
Israel has lost its “Right to Exist”
It was tenuous at best to buy into an ethnostate built on the blood and land of indigenous people.
The lies, the terror, the ethnic cleansing and what now appears to be an ongoing genocide have ended any right of the Zionist state to exist as it does.
No nation that behaves this way has a “Right to Exist” It has a right to be judged and punished by International Law.
Israel has lost this war, the West has destroyed its reputation by supporting this insane nation. So keep twittering by all means but every day just brings this fake colonial racist enterprise closer to self destruction.
Sure the world recognises Israel, they recognise now what it really is: an abomination to humanity.
Which ‘humanity’ are we talking about.? Care to give us a definition of who is, ‘in your terms’, human, and who is not.?
We are all humans, last I checked.
Dont be wilfully dumb about this. You know what I am saying. You know what it means to behave in a humane way.
Ask me a real question and I’m happy to respond.
You appear to be suggesting that there are two types of human, humane (by whatever definition you wish to apply..) and otherwise. You also seem to be suggesting that only of these has a ‘right’ to exist. Do you not find these thoughts disturbing.? Are they, in and of themselves, ‘humane’..?
I’m talking about the State of Israel not the people in it.
You stated that Israel has ‘Lost its right to exist’
If that is so, what about the Israeli’s themselves.. Have they lost the right to exist..?
No, the state as a Zionist entity has lost its legitimacy as a responsible nation state. The people along with the Palestinians will have to be forced externally to reach a peaceful settlement to share the land.
3 wrongs don’t make a right. I’m not for anyone’s destruction.
“Vaccines may also be administered opportunistically while patients are undergoing sedation for unrelated procedures.”
From health.gov.au
https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2022/04/atagi-advice-on-use-of-sedation-for-covid-19-vaccination_1.docx
Just over halfway down the document.
Words fail me. They shouldn’t, not after almost four years of this dystopia…
Credit to:
https://x.com/DiedSuddenly_/status/1740862918546358368?t=B5rwIL2_DFmsFPZ0bHgyeQ&s=08
The document is from April 2022, after two years ‘of this dystopia’, and does not state or suggest that the vaccines can be administered without consent.
Other than the usual criticism of the vaccines, there’s no reason for your ‘words fail me’ reaction.
Brought to my attention because a medical professional in AU was very recently given a handout specifically reminding him of this “opportunity” afforded them to “help” their patients.
When the patient it sedated, consent is not possible. What planet are you living on, godknowsimgood?
Absolutely 💯 👍
The patient can consent before they are sedated, just as they consent to whatever procedure will be carried out while sedated. It’s not difficult to understand.
There are more than enough legitimate criticisms of Covid vaccine policies without makings things up which aren’t true, which is a distraction from the real issues.
Marcus, if you, or any of the down-voters, had bothered to read as far as the third paragraph of the document from which you quoted the sentence, “Vaccines may also be administered opportunistically while patients are undergoing sedation for unrelated procedures”, you would have read this:
“Informed consent must be obtained prior to each dose from the patient themselves, or, where the patient does not have capacity to give consent, from the parent, guardian or substitute decision-maker. Sedation should not be used as a measure to enforce compliance with vaccination requirements.”
That’s crystal clear.
But why let reality get in the way of a good conspiracy theory?
You read all the terms and conditions when you’re in need of an operation after a car crash, do you? You’re an idiot.
How open to abuse is “substitute decision-maker”?
Don’t ask gkig difficult questions. He/she calls us Conspiracy Theorists and we get oh so offended by that, don’t we?!
Bloody hell. Thanks MAk
You’re thanking MAk for misleading you. The document, from which he has quoted, clearly states:
“Informed consent must be obtained prior to each dose from the patient themselves, or, where the patient does not have capacity to give consent, from the parent, guardian or substitute decision-maker. Sedation should not be used as a measure to enforce compliance with vaccination requirements.”
https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/atagi-advice-on-use-of-sedation-for-covid-19-vaccination?language=en
Just go away, gkig
Berenson’s Evidence “My professional opinion as a writer of fiction and non is that the depravity described in that sentence is unimaginable, in the most basic sense. No one who had not seen it could make it up. Let’s agree it happened. Let’s agree everything the article reports – the soldiers shot in their vaginas, the gang-rapes, the mutilations – happened. (In truth, without looking too hard on Twitteer, one can find descriptions of even worse atrocities supposedly caught on video. I don’t know if Gettleman did not report those because it could not confirm them or because he believed he didn’t need to make readers’ stomachs turn any further.)” God what a gullible moron Berenson has become on this issue (like all the DS Israel flag waivers like Eldred and Young). No who could make up such atrocities? Who could detail the horror which conveniently smokescreens a rolling genocide right in front of our faces? Hmmm that could never happen right? Israel could never fabricate emotionally charged “evidence” and find So the reason there is no Forensic evidence is because of Jewish burial practice? And there is only eye witness testimony of these dark savages taking a break from… Read more »
I remain skeptical about what you’re claiming, A Y M.
Fair enough.
Try a Listen to this Grayzone analysis of the original NYT article with an open mind and balance out what convinces you.
https://youtu.be/BXdCd8VPo4g?si=uI46bHxzcZFJa_Gi
By all means exercise critical reasoning but Hamas itself provided a great deal of the date stamped evidence:
‘Videos spread online by Hamas, some of which were later removed, provide evidence of abuse of women and girls. The videos showed the individuals who were assaulted-some of whom were alive while being filmed, some who had already died and some who were in an unknown state being paraded through the streets of Gaza.’
https://www.phr.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/5771_Sexual_Violence_paper_Eng-final.pdf
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/18/israel/palestine-videos-hamas-led-attacks-verified
‘Analysts at the research groups Bellingcat and the Centre for Information Resilience geolocated several of the videos, and CNN independently confirmed their locations and geolocated additional footage. CNN reviewed dozens of videos and is publishing only snippets of longer footage that illustrate key elements of the attack.
One set of videos shows the full journey of a single Hamas fighter into Israel: from a dramatic early-morning border crossing, to a rampage of violence through an Israeli kibbutz, to his apparent death after being shot by an unknown assailant.’
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2023/middleeast/hamas-attack-body-cam-videos-invs-dg/index.html
Are you seriously using Bellingcat as a reliable source? And CNN and the CIR?
These are all organs of the corporatist/security state.
Here is Greenwald’s well researched analysis of Bellingcat
https://youtu.be/eohCKyQGrH8?si=K_DkbueDCjbmL-iL
Realistically, 7th October cannot be the day that keeps on giving. There’s only so much a group of men can do in the space of a few hours.
““Net Zero is about to get even more painful” – Few would challenge the need to decarbonise – eventually.” B0ll0ck$.
Internal disputes again?
Happy New Year.
A different department, a different policy, perhaps: https://www.gbnews.com/news/military-heat-pumps-electric-boilers-project If that story is true, it looks like the MoD doesn’t agree with the BEIS; what a surprise.
I’m guessing, but it looks like a back door modification project. After all, if they are building new housing for the military they would just not install water heating central heating kit with gas boilers, and just using off peak electric directly rather than using storage tanks to store heat, if they’re sensible. Mind you, it reminded me of something I was taught decades ago at primary school: IF is the largest word in the dictionary.