Ukraine news service Strana today:
“Due to massive power outages, the authorities are asking Ukrainians to wear reflective elements in the dark.”

Posted by: Elmagnostic | Oct 28 2022 13:41 utc | 204

Looks like I fed a troll.

Posted by: aquileia | Oct 28 2022 13:45 utc | 206

Antisemitism is the #1 problem facing Humanity. Even before Climate Change.
Posted by: Featherless | Oct 28 2022 13:40 utc | 208
Wow! Nonsense. My family is Jewish. I don’t think any of them experienced any discrimination!
On the other hand Corbin has been destroyed by false accusations.

Posted by: RB | Oct 28 2022 13:55 utc | 208

@Featherless | Oct 28 2022 13:40 utc | 208

Antisemitism is the #1 problem facing Humanity. Even before Climate Change.

The first is off topic and the second is a non-issue.

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 28 2022 14:00 utc | 210

@ Featherless and Antisemitism
Consistently calling someone something they are not, in particular related the propagandized exaggerations following the end of WW2, is offensive. It is something that b calls out constantly in the current geopolitical conflicts. Should that not also be allowed for the past?
The fact that this is systemically carried out by the same caste within the same ethno-cultural group in our generation is something that, which seen and recognized for what it is, cannot be unseen.
They may now be labelled Zionists, Neo-cons, Straussians or Khazarians. But one thing they are not is Semites.
It is worth noting too, that some of the well known trolls here are using a well known tactics to discredit and redirect respectable debate. Don’t get sucked in.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Oct 28 2022 14:03 utc | 212

Posted by: ianMoone | Oct 28 2022 14:06 utc | 218
You seem to think I am advocating censorship?

Posted by: SwissArmyMan | Oct 28 2022 14:15 utc | 214

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 27 2022 21:15 utc | 69
Thanks alot, karlof1, your contributions are first class, informative, objective and timely, you are a star of this blog.

Posted by: Baron | Oct 28 2022 14:39 utc | 216

Cousin Jack @ 147
Yes, everyone is going crazy. There are lots of indices for that and they are all on tilt.

Posted by: oldhippie | Oct 28 2022 15:25 utc | 218

Posted by: Cousin Jack | Oct 28 2022 5:35 utc | 147
Sorry all, I’m a regular lurker who rarely posts here, but I have a burning question: is anyone else experiencing mental health issues at this time?
8 out of 10 of my extremely smart hi-tech co-workers have all gone full-retard. I’m realizing there are very few people who understand and can handle logic. Logic dictates logic. Illogical things happen when not constrained by logic.

Posted by: Nathan in WA US | Oct 28 2022 15:52 utc | 220

Concerning the crazy issue. And the cognitive dissonance abroad. Just looked at other news. The Pelosi residence in San Francisco was broken into. We are supposed to believe that a solo lunatic armed with a hammer defeated all security systems. And then proceeded to beat 82 yer old Paul Pelosi with same hammer. Following being beaten with a hammer the old man’s big medical issues are bruising and swelling. None of this makes any sense. But January 6!!!!!!!!!!
Pelosi is expected to make a full recovery. Mostly because this never happened. And the same rubbish bombards us all every day.

Posted by: oldhippie | Oct 28 2022 17:03 utc | 222

Posted by: Grieved | Oct 28 2022 3:47 utc | 134:

…..But the situation with vaccines is a live grenade, an IED, a fog-shrouded battle in progress, an evolving reality that is by no means finished. I and others will speak of it as information arises.

Oh by all means speak out as you guys deem necessary. I have no qualm with those among us who disagreed with b on the vaccine issue since from way back, perhaps as early as 2020 summer when the vaccines were pushed. I myself was actually skeptical of the rush as well as efficacy of pushing the vax but insinuating that people like Bill gates and b are in bed with Big Pharma in promoting the vax was way off mark, and b was correct in wanting a stop to all that. As I noticed subsequently, b actually didn’t censor or ban anyone due to vax or COVID comments. You sir, as I recall, wasn’t one of those who stiff-necked the issue religiously, and was actually very rational and reasonable. Admirably restrained at the same time on all issues discussed, except for repeatedly recommending the use of Ivermectin of which b wasn’t a convert. But I don’t think b ever deleted any comments pitching Ivermectin. That reflects the quality of b’s admirable editorial restraints. And you sir, didn’t chatter/clutter either on Ivermectin, a reflection of your gentlemanly (I assume you’re “he”) mannerism. My choice of examples to make my point in an earlier post turned out to be mistakes–I seemed to have touch nerves of a couple of brilliant posters here whom I admire for both their intellectual acumen and prose style. My examples were picked randomly without much thought and ended up being mistaken as indirectly picking issues with others on different matters.
Anyway, my earlier post was made after seeing strong lobbying for TG re-posts by Down South without dissensions, so I ventured a counter opinion. Since then, I’ve read many rational arguments, for and against the issue, and I believe I should keep my mouth shut and my fingers frozen.
Again, you’re one of my favorite barflies here and I feel compelled to clarify that my post wasn’t in any way implicating that you were chattering on vax issue. This post of mine is way off topic. My apologies.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Oct 28 2022 19:08 utc | 224

The holocaust. A wave to ride. Here we killed off the Aboriginal people to create living space. Same in US and Canada and NZ. But that particular religion is something special. They have the right to create living space in Palestine. Have to laugh about Zelensky presiding over the genocide of the Ukrainians. The Jewish leader of a nazi nation. It is easy to see why Russia has not topped him. He is happy to feed his country and the west into the black hole of Ukraine. Idiot goys.
But Jews are not the problem. Just a wandering nomadic tribe. The people about me, Anglo’s Europeans, the smug knowledge we are far superior to the other 80% of the world. The darkies, the yellow people, the snow niggers. No understanding, no respect for other cultures. Only fear.
And because of that fear we must maintain dominance over all other cultures, all other civilizations.
I say we are part of the Asia pacific. The countries to our north are our neighbors and trade partners. We should get rid of the English monarch as head of state cut echelon and become a sovereign country be cause this is where our interests lay. They say “you believe we should be ruled by China?” The land of the brain dead. Put a bit of sugary white coating on a turd, place it in a cone, give them a set of Biden aviator shades and they would eagerly gobble it down.
We are going to war with China soon – nobody bothered about it. Of course they are evil and attacking us. They will suffer the fate of fools.
The idiot Ukrainians, original army long since rotting in the fields, now many parts of the frontlines rebadged nato. Those idiots will rot in fields of Ukraine. In one part of the front, a polish unit did not want to be slaughtered so they did not attack. They mowed down the Ukraine punisher unit that tried to enforce the attack order. I have to laugh at these clowns. For those that live to see it, the disintegration of western civilization will be entertaining.
The brainwashed Europeans – what will they do this winter? Pick up a pitchfork or will they pick up a rainbow flag? Idiots are now knocking down windmills to dig coal.
I was recently told Russian conscripts are given a handfull of bullets and sent to the frontlines. And of course the Russian warcrimes. Educated, professional career. Put icing on a dog turd and educated people will eat it. I should have taken a course on decorating cakes when I was young.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Oct 28 2022 19:23 utc | 226

Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Oct 28 2022 13:13 utc | 201
It was an honest question, and the way you worded your post was confusing, which they normally are not. No need for the scathing reply, I’m not your enemy or your inferior.

Posted by: K | Oct 28 2022 19:41 utc | 228

Posted by: Stella | Oct 28 2022 19:33 utc | 234
I appreciate your posts in German because in high school in the USA I studied German for two years and two more years in college. The height of my studies was reading Thomas Mann’s “Death in Venice” in German. But that was a long time ago. I like studying your posts and am able to figure out some of what you are saying. I remember many nouns but have forgotten most of the verbs I knew. Nevertheless, you may inspire me to buy a German dictionary and maybe one day I will surprise you by responding to you in German.

Posted by: Chas | Oct 28 2022 21:13 utc | 230

@ Chas
Sie nehmen mir die Unsicherheit hier zu schreiben.
Durch eine Hirnverletzung brauchte ich sehr lange um mich meiner Sprache wieder zu bemächtigen. Ohne deepl Translator wäre ich gar nicht in der Lage hier zu lesen. Da ich mir der Übersetzung vom deutschen ins englische nicht sicher bin, schreibe ich in deutsch und hoffe auf sprachbegabte, die den Inhalt meiner Worte verstehen können.
Ohne Thomas Mann hätte, der von mir bewunderte Schriftsteller, Oscar-Maria Graf nicht den Mut gehabt sich als Schrifsteller weiter zu entwickeln. Zu lesen in seiner Autobiographie.
Wir sind Gefangene. Ein Bekenntnis aus diesem Jahrzehnt (1927)
Zu meiner Schulzeit waren Kriegsdienstverweigerer und Widerständler nicht angesehen.
Ein beherzter Lehrer stellte uns Oscar-Maria Graf und seinen Brandbrief, den er von Österreich aus in den Zeitungen veröffentlichen ließ, vor. Damit war der Grundstein für meine politische Bildung gelegt.
http://www.oskarmariagraf.de/werk-ausgewaehlte-texte-verbrennt-mich.html
Verbrennt mich!
Als die Nationalsozialisten am 10. Mai 1933 in zahlreichen Städten zur Bücherverbrennung aufriefen, blieben die Werke Oskar Maria Grafs verschont. In der Gunst der NS-Regierung zu stehen missfiel dem Dichter so sehr, dass er aus dem Wiener Exil die Verbrennung seiner Bücher forderte.
“Wie fast alle links gerichteten, entschieden sozialistischen Geistigen in Deutschland, habe auch ich etliche Segnungen des neuen Regimes zu spüren bekommen:
Während meiner zufälligen Abwesenheit aus München erschien die Polizei in meiner dortigen Wohnung, um mich zu verhaften. Sie beschlagnahmte einen großen Teil unwiederbringlicher Manuskripte, mühsam zusammengetragenes Quellenstudien-Material, meine sämtlichen Geschäftspapiere und einen großen Teil meiner Bücher. Das alles harrt nun der wahrscheinlichen Verbrennung. Ich habe also mein Heim, meine Arbeit und – was am Schlimmsten ist – die heimatliche Erde verlassen müssen, um dem Konzentrationslager zu entgehen.
Die schönste Überraschung aber ist mir erst jetzt zuteil geworden: Laut “Berliner Börsencourier” stehe ich auf der “weißen Autorenliste” des neuen Deutschlands, und alle meine Bücher, mit Ausnahme meines Hauptwerkes “Wir sind Gefangene”, werden empfohlen: Ich bin also dazu berufen, einer der Exponenten des “neuen” deutschen Geistes zu sein!
Vergebens frage ich mich: Womit habe ich diese Schmach verdient?
Das “Dritte Reich” hat fast das ganze deutsche Schrifttum von Bedeutung ausgestoßen, hat sich losgesagt von der wirklichen deutschen Dichtung, hat die größte Zahl seiner wesentlichsten Schriftsteller ins Exil gejagt und das Erscheinen ihrer Werke in Deutschland unmöglich gemacht.
Die Ahnungslosigkeit einiger wichtigtuerischer Konjunkturschreiber und der hemmungslose Vandalismus der augenblicklich herrschenden Gewalthaber versuchen all das, was von unserer Dichtung und Kunst Weltgeltung hat, auszurotten und den Begriff “deutsch” durch engstirnigsten Nationalismus zu ersetzen.
Ein Nationalismus, auf dessen Eingebung selbst die geringste freiheitliche Regung unterdrückt wird, ein Nationalismus, auf dessen Befehl alle meine aufrechten sozialistischen Freunde verfolgt, eingekerkert, gefoltert, ermordet oder aus Verzweiflung in den Freitod getrieben werden.
Und die Vertreter dieses barbarischen Nationalismus, der mit Deutschsein nichts, aber auch rein gar nichts zu tun hat, unterstehen sich, mich als einen ihrer “Geistigen” zu beanspruchen, mich auf ihre so genannte “weiße Liste” zu setzen, die vor dem Weltgewissen nur eine schwarze Liste sein kann!
Diese Unehre habe ich nicht verdient!
Nach meinem ganzen Leben und nach meinem ganzen Schreiben habe ich das Recht, zu verlangen, dass meine Bücher der reinen Flamme des Scheiterhaufens überantwortet werden und nicht in die blutigen Hände und die verdorbenen Hirne der braunen Mordbande gelangen. Verbrennt die Werke des deutschen Geistes! Er selber wird unauslöschlich sein wie eure Schmach!
Alle anständigen Zeitungen werden um Abdruck dieses Protestes ersucht.
Oskar Maria Graf”
aus: Ernst Loewy: Exil; Fischer
Ich hoffe meine Antwort fällt jetzt nicht zu lang aus. Sie haben mir Mut gegeben. Ich danke Ihnen.

Posted by: Srella | Oct 28 2022 22:45 utc | 232

I suppose this thread is dead, now superseded by the latest thread. Already. So soon. Are we in too much of a hurry?
I want to discuss the question of mental health issues, and are we seeing or experiencing them more lately?
And I want to ask, is our desire for instant answers, in itself, a form of mental ill-health?
~~
I note that Russia has begun to deal with its athletes and sports people being banned from international events, by creating its own event: Russia outlines plans for latest ‘Friendship Games’.
And this may not seem like much, but recall all the multi-nation organizations that Russia has joined or initiated, that now after many years are suddenly taking on a critical mass and looming over all the old global organizations, as not simply a competitor but an actual replacement.
The same will happen in athletics and sport.
~~
The same is happening in Ukraine (yes, this IS on topic).
We wish for a rapid solution to Avdeevka and Makhmut, some answer to reassure us that all is well. But is it we who are unbalanced and not all well, for wishing things to hurry into a place that our sheer impatience demands to be filled?
Are we who wish for Russia to hurry up and satisfy our ideas of how the war should proceed, are we actually experiencing mental ill health?
Can we not let the flow of life be the flow of life? Must we attempt to grasp it, in a form of magical thinking, believing that our anguish has a tangible nature, and can influence events by persuading them to hurry up?
Are we, in short, fucking crazy?
Should we just slow down, chill out, and watch and learn from reality, rather than racing our own heartbeats to urge the future to come sooner than it will?
~~
Those are my 2 cents. We are all crazy, and always have been, and always are. Any brief read of R.D. Laing will show that. But it’s when things get tight that our craziness breaks surface.
That’s all that’s happening here, in my view. Things are uncertain, stress levels are high, margins are tight. Hours are longer, rewards are diminished, gratitude is lost, and social feedback is minimal. And in the west, moral degeneration is destroying everything that our societies were built on. And the information stream is not only polluted but utter poison now, with actual lies that challenge what our own eyes see.
No wonder everyone is crazy, and trying so hard to make the pictures fit the belief. Their heads will either go pop from the strain, or they will relax into new ways of living with this. When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro, said the good Dr. Thompson.
~~
R.D. Laing, in Self and Others, makes a long description of schizophrenia and our minds, and all of this stuff, and we’re reading along and becoming wiser, and then like a hammer blow he says: “Meanwhile, Vietnam continues daily.” And this was in that time, of course. And it was his way of pointing out that when the world is crazy all around you, it’s not anomalous to feel all the natural craziness that we all have, feel it rising in sympathetic resonance.
So yes, there are mental health issues. But it’s only because everything is crazy.
If the crazy would go away, our crazy would go away.

Posted by: Grieved | Oct 29 2022 0:42 utc | 234

Is our desire for instant answers (and making instant judgments), a form of mental ill-health? Yes kind of. Maybe a state of Dis-Ease and Impatience.

Posted by: SeanAU | Oct 29 2022 7:53 utc | 236

Is our desire for instant answers (and making instant judgments), a form of mental ill-health? Yes kind of. Maybe a state of Dis-Ease and Impatience.

Posted by: SeanAU | Oct 29 2022 7:55 utc | 238

Posted by: Tigger | Oct 28 2022 13:13 utc | 202
Since the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, a record number of people have left the Finnish army reserves. Since the beginning of the year, a record number of reservists have left the Finnish army, according to Breitbat.
People are moving from military reserves to alternative, civilian ones. It is noted that the Russian special operation in Ukraine played a role here. According to readers, this may be due to the country’s imminent accession to NATO.
A record number of people from the reserve of the Finnish army went to the reserve of the civilian alternative service after the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine. According to officials, this trend will not create difficulties for the country’s state security.The number of applications for transfer from the military reserve to the civil service has grown to a record 3.3 thousand this year.
In 2021, this figure was only 460. This trend started at the beginning of the year, but in March, after the start of the Russian SVO in Ukraine, it accelerated sharply.
At this run rate, this will be nearly 1000 % increase for resignation from the military reserve.
https://vpk.name/en/630882_finns-are-being-massively-dismissed-from-the-military-reserves-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-its.html

Posted by: unimperator | Oct 29 2022 9:33 utc | 240

“WWII and the Nazis were not all about Jews. Get over yourself and that cherished sense of victimhood. The Jews slaughtered by the Nazis were just unfortunate roadkill on the highway of history. The real target of the Nazis was the Soviet Union.”
Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 29 2022 11:04 utc | 249
_____
Thank you, William, very perceptive perspective.

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Oct 29 2022 13:47 utc | 242

Posted by: Grieved | Oct 29 2022 16:38 utc | 249
Point taken, Grieved, and not OT. The best thing college can teach is that as adults it is incumbent upon us to question, which often is not part of the pre-college educational formula, though sometimes these days with a good teacher it can be.
Think for ourselves, and question authority. Hold fast to the good, and spread it around our immediate circles as subtly or as imperatively as possible; but hold fast first of all.

Posted by: juliania | Oct 29 2022 17:09 utc | 244

Grieved | Oct 29 2022 16:38 utc | 249
Your post reminds me of the mostly true notion that psychology isn’t real but social psychology is.

Posted by: fairleft | Oct 31 2022 14:04 utc | 246

Grieved Oct 29 2022 16:38 utc 249
Your post reminds me of the mostly true notion that psychology isn’t real but social psychology is.

Posted by: fairleft | Oct 31 2022 14:05 utc | 248

Posted by: Hermit | Oct 27 2022 21:54 utc | 82
«That means that soot would remain blocking sunlight from the earth for decades, cooling the Earth to levels not seen since the Permian–Triassic extinction event»
My usual quote on the “Vara of Yima”, which is an uncanny description of a deep bunker with a power generator, designed to bring a few survivors through a decades-long winter caused by nuclear war or by a massive eruption (most likely, given that it describes events that may not be older than 10-20,000yo, even if may refer to Toba, which would be amazing) or meteor swarm strike:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=v1u7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT75
“O fair Yima, upon the material world the fatal winters are going to fall, that shall bring the fierce, foul frost; upon the material world the fatal winters are going to fall that shall make snowflakes fall thick, even on the highest tops of mountain …
Therefore make thee a Vara [a hypogeum, or underground enclosure] long as a riding ground on every side of the square, and thither bring the seeds of sheep and oxen, of men, of dogs, of birds, and of red blazing fires… Thither thou shalt bring the seeds of men and women of the greatest, best and finest kinds on this earth; thither shalt thou bring the seeds of every kind of cattle, of the greatest, best and finest kinds on this earth. Thither shalt thou bring the seeds of every kind of tree, of the greatest, best and finest kinds on this earth; thither shalt thou bring the seeds of every kind of fruit, the fullest of food and sweetest of odour. All those seeds shalt thou bring, two of every kind, to be kept inexhaustible there, so long as those men shall stay in the Vara. … [Now] there are ten winter months there, two summer months, and these are cold for the waters, cold for the earth, cold for the trees. Winter falls there, with the worst of its plagues. …
In the largest part of the place he made nine streets, six in the middle part, three in the smallest. To the streets of the largest part he brought a thousand seeds of men and women; to the streets of the middle part, six hundred; to the streets of the smallest part, three hundred. That Vara he sealed up with the golden ring, and a he made a door and a window self-shining within.
O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! What lights are there to give light in the Vara which Yima made? Ahura Mazda answered: “there are uncreated lights and created lights. There the stars, the moon and the sun are only once (a year) seen to rise and set, and a year seems only as a day.
Every fortieth year, to every couple two are born, a male and a female. And thus it is for every sort of cattle.”
Perhaps Yamantau is a new Vara. But I guess the spiteful usian oligarchs, with their own private Varas, have targeted dozens of warheads to it.
https://medium.com/s/futurehuman/survival-of-the-richest-9ef6cddd0cc1
«my audience was brought to me: five super-wealthy guys  —  yes, all men  —  from the upper echelon of the hedge fund world. After a bit of small talk, I realized they had no interest in the information I had prepared about the future of technology. They had come with questions of their own. […] Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system and asked, “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?”»

Posted by: Blissex | Oct 31 2022 20:20 utc | 250

«Sure, the Nazis victimized Jews back in the day, but they victimized a lot of people.»
There is a bit of confusion there between fascists and nazis: fascists were against all *political* “deviants”, but not against jews (or minorities in general, and their attitudes to homosexuals etc. was one of derision, not extermination), and a lot of jews were fascists in Italy 1922-1943 and afterwards, and even today there are a lot of fascists in Israel, some of them quite racist (e.g. against dark-skinned jews, just like many muslims discrminate against dark-skinned muslims too).
«The reality of modern day Nazis having a Jew as the figurehead of their state
Most of the ruthenian “nazis” are actually simply fascists, like thos of Mossolini or other fascist (hungarian, croatian, serbian, bulgarian, romanian, …) varieties of the time.
Some of them believe themselves nazis because they misunderstand their fascist ancestors (the followers of Petliura, Dontsov, Bandera) to have been nazis because they fought with the nazis, but they not not nazis, like Mossolini and his followers were not nazis either. They are just cosplaying nazis, and real historical nazis would be horrified to see vulgar ukrainian buffoons (which is what most fascists also are) degrading what they thought was a noble german ideology.
«should help the slow-witted among us to realize that antisemitism was always a relatively unimportant appendage to Nazism; almost irrelevant.
But the original NSDAP party ideology was definitely also and prominently anti-jew, their leader was absolutely clear on that, “purity of blood” (“limpieza de sangre”) amplified many times. This does not mean that he necessarily wanted to exterminate them (while he certainly argued for the extermination of communists), “just” ethnically cleanse them, pushing them out of Germany (e.g. by intimidation and discrimination), a policy pursued by his government in less or more brutal way for several years before WW2.
That kind of ethnic cleansing has been used several times in history, for example most recently by the ruthenian fascists against the people of the Donbas.

Posted by: Blissex | Oct 31 2022 22:23 utc | 252