Going rogue in Ireland

 

Not sure if I dare link to this, since Thomas Sheridan is more angry than usual. In order to play it safe, ahem, note the disclaimer in the bloghead: "Links don´t necessarily imply endorsement". 

My biggest fear right now is that the delta variant will start spreading like wildfire when Europe "opens up", and then its back to square one again, with new lockdowns and more economic dislocation. 

Except that people will be even angrier this time, regardless of whether they are for or against lockdowns. And no, the vaccines don´t work on delta... 

We somehow muddled through 2021 so far, but how long will the "quiet" last? 

Spiking the trees

I have no particular opinion on who is "right" or "wrong" here, but the story is interesting in its own right. Of course, the Biden nominee might as well be seen as a former snitch, not just a "former eco-terrorist"!  

Biden nominates "former eco-terrorist" to head Bureau of Land Management

Biden nominee linked to 1989 sabotage

Oh no, Greta Thunberg was right

 

For some reason, a DW (German public broadcaster) news segment in English about the recent heat wave in Canada and the United States. In a village in British Columbia, the temperature climbed to 47 degrees centrigrade! Climate change or "only" extreme weather?

Jag hoppas att den här krönikören har fel...

Och skiten bara fortsätter...och fortsätter... 

Drömmen om ett slut på pandemin kan krossas

Veckans Strasser

Die Linke vill utesluta en gammal stalinist (och ledande partimedlem) från partiet efter att hon kritiserat "politisk korrekthet" och massinvandring. Nästan bokstavligt talat "Strasser", alltså!

Die Linke vill utesluta PK-kritiker

Wikipedia om Sahra Wagenknecht (på engelska)

Chip supremacy or geopolitical "chimp out"?

The above link is to an interesting mini-documentary made by Bloomberg News about the semiconductor crisis and (above all) its broader context. Bloomberg is a Chinese "asset", and the production is therefore pro-Chinese, although the talking heads pretend hard to be neutral and simply "pro-globalist". 

The world economy is dependent on chip technology, including the production of silicon transistors smaller than a virus (!). The chips are pretty much everywhere: in our mobile phones, in electric toasters, in your car, in American fighter planes, you name it. During the COVID pandemic, a shortage of chips created enormous problems for the car industry. 

The world´s leading producer of transistors is the Taiwanese company TSMC, while the machines used at the company´s foundries are made in the United States. This is a problem for China, since Taiwan is pro-American and will therefore line up with the US in the new cold war between the great powers. However, it´s also a problem for the United States, since Taiwan (seen by Beijing as a break-away Chinese territory) could be invaded by China, a move that would cut off America´s access to TSMC! 

But can´t TSMC simply be replaced, by either China or the US? Not really, at least not without *huge* efforts, since the cost of nano-technology has been steadily rising for the past 20 years or so. Bloomberg claims that it takes a 20 billion dollar investment to build just one transistor production facility, and the plant could be obsolete within five years, making it necessary to operate the plant 24/7 and produce enormous amounts of transistors to make a profit. Very few companies have the ability to invest so much money, making TSMC a near-monopoly at the international level. It *is* a bit scary that one of the most important production sites in the world is situated in a geopolitical hot spot! 

Meanwhile, China has launched a long term strategic plan for chip supremacy, with the Communist government investing over a trillion dollars worth of money to meet this end. China´s leading chip maker, SMIC, is part of a joint venture with the Chinese administration (Bloomberg News seems completely uncritical of this state capitalism). 

The documentary is clearly worried that the COVID pandemic and the Biden administration´s tougher stance on China (mimicking Trump) will hurt globalization. China is producing less sophisticated chips for many American businesses, and its rapidly expanding market is important for other US firms. Also, there are close economic ties between China and Taiwan (despite the tensions). A "trade war" or cold war between Washington and Beijing may disrupt the supply chains even more than the corona pandemic, and an outright military conflict over Taiwan be downright disastrous. Bloomberg News therefore calls for more international cooperation, and so on. 

Despite the inevitable globo-liberal/Beijing alliance slant of this documentary, it´s nevertheless extremely interesting. I was struck by the contradiction between state of the art high tech (the nano-transistors) and the "law of diminishing returns". China is trying to solve the contradiction by its state capitalism, since the fabulous investments in new foundries are only possible if the state de facto commandeers the resources of the private sector (or any resources). On a more philosophical side, let me just note the opposition between humans being a very smart evolutionary cousin to the chimpanzee, and most of human history nevertheless being a geopolitical chimp out... 

Det *finns* en lösning...

Dagens största nyhet? Det finns en annan metod man kan använda (fast den är farlig som fan). Be till Oden, tala om för honom vad Disney (kanske) vill göra, ta fram popcorn, och invänta nyheterna från Hollywood. Exempelvis om en mystisk man med en bredhättad hatt sågs stryka omkring strax utanför stadsdelen innan den attackerades av 100,000 svarta korpliknande fåglar... 

That kind of thing. 

Vill Disney stjäla asagudarna?

You lack the Nooshi Mindset

Alla verkar inte gilla Nooshi. Noll förståelse för den ariska vinklingen, exempelvis. Och den här killen går visst inte att beveka med "attributen" heller. Föredrar Pinochets fräsiga uniformer? 

"Persiska kommunister har Sverige i sitt grepp"

"Framgångsrik marknadsföring av iranska kommunisten Mehrnoosh Dadgostar"

Bästa årtiondet?

 

En av bloggarna jag brukar följa kommenterar ofta poppmusik. Jag brukar ju inte göra det (utom ironiska kommentarer om Mello och ESC, då), men helt utan anledning tänker jag göra det nu. Ovanstående är ett bra exempel (bland många) på den musik jag brukade lyssna på i yngre år. Japp, jag är en tvättäkta 80-talspoppare. Med vissa avvikelser åt eurodisco-hållet (icke exemplifierat av låten här). 

Lite skvaller

Det här är inte en skvallerblogg...utom när det *är* en skvallerblogg. Hübinette tog bort detta inlägg från sin blogg, uppenbarligen efter påstötningar från Virtanen. 

"Min relation till Fredrik Virtanen"

Germanerna kommer!

 

Queer as a ruff

I wrote about the ruff years ago, but here we go again, just for the fun of it. Of course, the ruff (Calidrix pugnax) isn´t a human (Homo sapiens). Some quotes from Wikipedia: 

"Three differently plumaged types of male, including a rare form that mimics the female, use a variety of strategies to obtain mating opportunities at a lek, and the colourful head and neck feathers are erected as part of the elaborate main courting display."

"The ruff has three male forms, which differ in mating behaviour and in appearance: the typical territorial males which have a dark neck ruff, satellite males which have a white neck ruff, and the very rare cryptic males known as "faeders" which have female-like plumage. The behaviour and appearance of each individual male remain constant through its adult life, and are determined by a simple genetic polymorphism. Territorial behaviour and appearance is recessive to satellite behaviour and appearance, while preliminary research results suggest that the faeder characteristics are genetically controlled by a single dominant gene. It was originally thought that the difference between territorial and satellite males was due to a sex-linked genetic factor, but in fact the genetic locus relevant for the mating strategy is located on an autosome, or non-sex chromosome. That means that both sexes can carry the two different forms of the gene, not just males. The female does not normally show evidence of her genetic type, but when females are given testosterone implants, they display the male behaviour corresponding to their genotype. This testosterone-linked behaviour is unusual in birds, where external sexual characteristics are normally determined by the presence or absence of oestrogen."

Translation: the ruff has three genetically distinct forms of males, one of them mimicking the females, and the females have the same genes that create the variation in the males, genes which can be stimulated by testosterone, at which point the females exhibit male behavior...

Mother Nature at her finest. LOL. 

Is this true?

43% of those who "detransition" (attempt to reverse a sex-change operation/process) do it because they change their political views. At least according to this completely unsourced statement on Twitter. I´m just going to lay it out here, anyway... 

Reasons for "detransitioning"

Stanna landet, jag vill hoppa av

Har under en period velat skriva något om "identiteter" utifrån min egen etniska identitet (eller brist på sådan), men jag har kommit fram till att mina åsikter (och kanske mina identiteter också) är så idiosynkratiska, att det knappast skulle tjäna något till att formulera en längre utläggning om saken. Men en kortare går kanske bra?

Jag brukar identifiera mig med ett av mina "riktiga" hemländer (jag är alltså inte född i Schweden), men denna identifiering har aldrig handlat om Identitet med stort I, utan har helt enkelt varit en slags empirisk beskrivning av sakernas faktiska förhållande. Så här i efterhand undrar jag varför jag aldrig fick memot om att det minsann *inte* är detta "identitet" handlar om. 

I nuläget skulle jag gärna vilja identifiera mig som svensk, mest för att jag är kulturellt svensk snarare än Riktiga Hemlandet-isk. Jag talar t.ex. bättre svenska än Riktiga Hemlandiskan, har en ganska begränsad förståelse för den reellt existerande Riktiga Hemlandsreligionen, etc. Tycker kanske inte att Hemlandet alltid hamnat på rätt sida Historien, heller. Problemet är förstås att "svensk" numera betyder Woke, naiv, dront, Die Dummen Schweden, etc. Vet inte riktigt om jag vill identifiera mig med de vita dodofåglarnas sällskap för inbördes godhetssignalering. 

Så rent provisoriskt har jag beslutat mig för att identifiera mig som en multi-racial White, eller som en germanofil Riktiga Hemlandet-person. Germanofil i bemärkelsen den germanska kultursfären från Island i norr till Siebenbürgen i söder, från England i väster till Ostpreussen i öster. 

Men "svensk"? Det vette fan. 

Is there truth in Wokeness?

What does the Woke symbol known as the "Progressive Pride flag" *really* signify? John Michael Greer has a few suggestions... 

Truth in Advertising

Expropriate the globalist traitors, just do it

The so-called deformed workers´ state is certainly behaving very strangely here, but perhaps the Spartacist League could give us a theoretical update of some sort? Meanwhile, I can only conclude that the only thing that can stop a CCP takeover of Amerika at this point is...government intervention. Amerikan government intervention, to be exact. So the only thing that can save capitalism from Communism is socialism? What level of irony is *world history* on, anyway? 

"China´s malign influence in corporate America"

The Advent of the Gábor

 

"The World of the Gábor" is a DW documentary with English narration. This time, DW takes us to Romania, specifically Transylvania, where we get to meet a Roma (Gypsy) community known as the Gábor. Its most peculiar trait is that they are Adventists, which I presume mean members of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Church. Otherwise, the Gábor seem to have a very traditional Roma culture. Almost no Gábor children finish school, the community practices child marriage, and the lifestyle includes nomadism, tribal courts and handicraft production. The language heard is Hungarian, but the narrator claims that most Gábor are trilingual, and also speak Romanian and Romanes (the Gypsy language). 

The documentary follows a 14-year old child bride and her equally young husband. Since the Gábor only marry within their own group, the young couple are relatives (perhaps cousins). They are also extremely fertile, and often have grandkids at the age of 35! The Gábor refuse to work for non-Gypsies, which seems to create problems for the less prosperous among them, who are dependent on welfare hand-outs from the Romanian state (note that this *isn´t* prohibited according to the Gábor ethic). The more prosperous Gábors, by contrast, are *very* rich. They trade in gold, jewels and expensive textiles, even employing Hungarians who make or help value the gold objects. Most of the documentary allows us a sneak peak into the household of a privileged family of this kind. It´s interesting to note that even this seemingly sedentary family group sells its goods by going door to door, or traveling abroad. 

Interesting production, although perhaps a bit too uncritical? Also, the narrator speaks in a very annoying super-British accent, which sounds artificial.  

They don´t believe a word of it

Why do so many people, well, globo-liberals and fake leftists mostly, believe in such positively *crazy* things? There are many possible explanations, the most obvious being that they really are stark raving mad, and that this is somehow connected to the decline of the West, which I suppose drives the ex-privileged layers into a frenzy. However, there is another possible explanation which I (strangely enough) haven´t considered before (perhaps because I´m a "rational Swede" and have an "intellectual" side).

They don´t believe a word of it, stupid.

I think it was Tim Pool, or somebody on his podcast, who half-jokingly half-seriously suggested that more conservatives than liberals believe in the Woke ideology. That is, conservatives assume that the liberals actually believe Woke ideology, while liberals know nobody really does. But if Wokeness isn´t about belief in certain ideological propositions, what is it about then? The answer is simple: in-group identity, social control and power. Neither more nor less. The Wokeness are the shibboleths worn by the people initiated into the club, signalling that they are part of the elect clique. That is *all* it is. Full stop. Period. End of story. 

This neatly explains why the Narrative changes every other week or so - only the initiated and "educated" can keep up with the constantly changing definitions of Woke, and it also allows for some circulation within the clique, as old members who can´t quite catch up are cancelled, while new and younger social climbers get on board. It also explains why certain operators always seem to survive, despite being extremely "problematic", such as the show "The Young Turks" (TYT). Social control *over the clique´s own followers* is another important function of the ever-shifting narrative. Cult leaders often maintain control over their victims by being unpredictable - so do abusive husbands. Same thing here. Nobody is safe. The entire "how many fingers, Winston" 1984 thing is also part of this picture, since a person who is forced to grovel and self-denigrate to get access to the clique, is presumably easier to blackmail. 

It´s interesting to note that according to postmodern philosophy, objective truth doesn´t exist. Everything is just a narrative-driven rhetorical power game. Note how the postmodernists (usually fake leftists) are projecting *their own strategy* onto their opponents, and indeed reality at large!

Certain consequences seem to follow from the above...

The most obvious is that it´s useless to try to argue the ideological propositions ostensibly making up Wokeness. For instance to lecture with a straight face on the non-existence of 71 genders. Nobody really believes there are 71 genders anyway. From this further follows that you can´t be too nice when handling these people. Nice entails rationality, that you somehow assume *they* are rational and can be reasoned with on an intellectual level. Which they obviously can´t. Ridicule, laughter, wide public exposure of the obviously absurd Woke ideas, exposés of the hypocrisy of individual SJWs, human interest stories about victims of Wokeness, or cancellations and purges for the hell of it, seem to be the way to go.

Yes, I know. Some of you knew this already. Now, I know it too. Once you see it, you can´t unsee it...

Galactic News

 

Cyrus Kirkpatrick, the paranormal researcher, strikes again, this time with some speculations about aliens and alien conspiracies. Or rather "aliens" within scare quotes, since he is to some extent inspired by "The Law of One" here. The beings we call "aliens" are really "higher density beings" and might as well be called spirits, souls or perhaps even a kind of humans on a higher level of cosmic evolution (and elevation). They are thus not part of our dimension of reality at all, although we can communicate with them in various ways. The medium showed in this clip apparently uses computers to talk to the "aliens", rather than more classical channeling. Cyrus himself uses copper rods! 

The messages from the other side turn out to be highly contradictory. The medium named Gosia claims that the Nordics or Taygetans (tall blonde aliens with long flowing hair) have broken away from the Galactic Federation. The reason is that the Federation is misusing its power to keep humanity in perpetual ignorance and suffering, in effect stopping us from evolving any further. The Federation looks upon Earth as one gigantic artificial computer game in which all human souls are really players controlled by the program. The game is used by the federated "aliens" to incarnate on Earth and voluntarily go through various negative experiences (!), but to keep the game going, the real humans must remain subjugated to the matrix. Presumably, the Nordics believe this is unethical and wants to save humanity from the intrusive federal power, but it´s not entirely clear how. 

Cyrus´ own spirit-plane contact, Lawrina, denies the info coming from Gosia, suggesting that the Galactic Federation are really the good guys and that the evil power is some cabal closer to home (that is, an earthly or at least Earth-based conspiracy). What is less clear is why the Nordics would claim otherwise. 

Not sure if I believe any of this, but it does show the perils of inter-dimensional news broadcasts... 

Att inte vilja se

"Det finns inget organiserat tiggeri"

"Det finns inga åldersfuskare"

"Sverige har aldrig varit tryggare"

"Migrantkrisen var bra för Sverige, många av flyktingarna är tandläkare"

"Det finns ingen koppling alls mellan invandring och våldtäkter"

"Donald Trump är agent för Ryssland"

"Muslimska kvinnor bär slöja helt frivilligt"

"Trans-kvinnor är kvinnor"

"Kravaller i USA? Vilka kravaller i USA? Antifa finns inte" 

"Att viruset läckt ut från labbet i Wuhan är en konspirationsteori och bör censureras av Facebook"

"Adoptionscentrum är givetvis inte korrumperat på något sätt"

"Förslaget om marknadshyror i nyproduktion är inte ett förslag. Det är bara en utredning"

VI ÄR HÄR

Jag undrar vilka libb-vänster-påståenden som kommer att avslöjas som fräcka lögner nästa gång? Att Joe Biden aldrig valfuskade är väl en stark kandidat, att vaccinet skulle vara ofarligt ett annat. Den som (över)lever lär väl se... 

Och vem ansvarar för Försäkringskassan?

Det som står i den här artiklen är säkert sant, men är det inte regeringen och riksdagen som är ytterst ansvariga? Who watches the watchers?

Något är ruttet på Försäkringskassan

Simply dragonfly

 

MIDSOMMAR??? MITT I EN FUCKING PANDEMI????

 

Shit, asså, kan inte typ Naturen eller universum ändra sig och INTE ha ett knullat sommarsolstånd MITT I EN PANDEMI, hajja. Det, och något med brasor. Och så regeringskris på det. Seriöst!  

Towards a pluralist ontology

Some stray thoughts on ontology (yes, I know, not really my cup of fruit juice, but I´m going to give it my best shot cuz Midsummer Nights Eve or something). 

Outside Christianity (which is dualist), monism seems to be the dominant philosophical trend in Western philosophy. It´s also a position we rightly or wrongly associate with Hinduism (think Advaita Vedanta). Everything must be reduced to, and derivable from, a first principle or Absolute Ground, be it materialist or idealist. There is even something called "neutral" monism, which is neither, but still monist! Monism is still my tentative position. But what if it´s is just plain wrong? Why can´t pluralism be true? Maybe "the world" is made up of two, three, many ontological substances, perhaps infinitely many? I mean, why not? *That´s certainly how the world comes across to our immidiate awareness*. And nobody has *really* been able to reduce everything to just one substance (insert shrieking protests from materialistas here). 

The most obvious argument against pluralism (and dualism) is this: how can substances interact with each other at all, unless they share a common nature at *some* level? Doesn´t that entail monism? Here´s an idea: no, it doesn´t. That´s just a presupposition we have, based on nothing else than abstract philosophizing. Maybe different substances *can* interact with each other, period. That´s simply how pluralism works. Or maybe there are more than one plane of existence. On our plane, everything is connected since everything here really is reducable to one substance. But other planes (which we can access only in a very fleeting and confusing manner) may be made of different substances, once again making the totality of existence pluralist. 

Here is one of my favorites quotes from John Michael Greer again: 

"One of the reasons I value classic occult philosophy is that it stresses just how much higher the Great Chain of Being extends above us. Of course it's possible to transcend the human -- but that moves us one notch up the ladder, not instantly all the way to the top. Mind you, that one notch is an immense, life-changing experience from our standpoint...but from the standpoint of the cosmos, it's a little like moving from a life as a blue-green alga to life as a paramecium. A paramecium has vastly greater capacities than a blue-green alga; it has cilia that enable it to move, and chemical senses that allow it to "sniff" its surroundings; it inhabits a much vaster world than a blue-green alga, and were an alga to suddenly gain the state of conciousness of a paramecium, it would doubtless think that it had risen to the ultimate ground of being. Meanwhile we watch them both through microscopes."

Perhaps most philosophy is just abstract babble (but then, I suppose there could be a kind of World of the Abstract Babble Ideas). We can really be sure of three things only: our experiences of something that looks like a mind-independent outside world, the fact that there is often a mismatch between these experiences, and the fact that we have some kind of "I" doing the experiencing (and mismatching). That´s it. Build your philosophy on this, gentlemen! I happen to veer strongly towards the idea that mysticism is a real experience (it´s certainly *an* experience), but how can the mystic *know* that he is accessing the monistic ground of being (or any ground of being, for that matter), rather than simply going up one step, or even going down a couple of steps? As I said in a previous blog post: "Imagine if you could get access to the mind of a small bird that flies around the world navigating with the help of the Earth's magnetic field. You would probably think you accessed the mind of GOD, yet you just melded with a BIRD BRAIN! Or imagine if you got access to the communication that goes on between trees in a forest, or bees in a hive, you would think you united with the World Soul... Or imagine if a dog or a monkey got access to the mind of a human. They would think *your* mind is divine!". 

What are the consequences of the above? No idea, but here are some possibilities (some of which I can´t say I like): no "objective" morality, no personal god in the Biblical sense, no special place for humanity, no end-point at which we will have "a theory of everything"...but also, in some weird sense, infinite possibilities. Who knows, maybe Jewish carpenters with distinctly Messianic habits can rise on the third day in such a universe, saving whoever wants to be saved?  

Politiskt självmord

Sharia-domstolar nästa? 

Nyckelmening: "Kvällsposten har i en serie artiklar avslöjat att ett parallellt romskt rättssystem, romani krísi, bedrivits i kommunala lokaler i Malmö av Stefan och Marian Wydow, som är anställda av kommunen för att arbeta med romsk inkludering. I en av de romska rättegångarna frikändes en romsk man från att ha våldtagit sin styvdotter".

Lägg också märke till sossepolitikerns direkt bisarra reaktion. 

Jag undrar när feministerna tänker reagera mot denna "mångkulturella" urspårning? Det är okej med slöja, med anti-kvinnlig "trans-rörelse" och med romska rättegångar som frikänner incestuösa våldtäktsmän. Eller tänker feministerna fortsätta att kampanja mot Roosh V eller gängvåldtäkter i New Delhi, samtidigt som de vänder bort blicken från vad som händer i Sverige? 

Det torde vara det verkliga "politiska självmordet"... 

Malmöpolitiker vågade inte stoppa romska rättegångar i kommunens lokaler

Among real men and man-eaters

This is a fascinating documentary about two of the largest and least accesible mines in the world, Ertsberg and Grasberg in New Guinea, more specifically the Indonesian-controlled western part of the island, here called Irian Jaya. The production has an almost entertaining "colonial" slant, with the White Man (or brave Americans with very distinct cowboy accents working for The Great Mining Company) cast in the role of masculine conquerors of Nature at its most hellish. The Natives of the area turn out to live on Stone Age level, and are rumored to be cannibals (although everyone interviewed claims they are "really quite nice"). Don´t watch this if your alma mater was a left-liberal community college! 

That being said, the engineering feats of the blancos (and the occasional Indonesian) *are* impressive. The mines in question are at an elevation of about 18,000 feet (circa 5,400 meters), being literally situated on top of mountains. The hills in turn are surrounded by dense jungle and swampland. Roads, seaports, pipelines and airstrips? Non-existent (until the mining company needed them and built them). The old mine at Ertsberg used a large aerial tramway to get workers and equipment up the mountain, while the Grasberg mine has an almost crazy road system crawling up the hillside. The enormous trucks used at the mine must be taken apart into smaller pieces and transported up the mountain, to be re-assembled at their end-destination. 

While the Ertsberg mine was depleted long ago, the Grasberg ditto is still operating. It´s the world´s largest gold mine and second largest copper mine. It´s worth is estimated to 40 billion dollars! 

The documentary also mentions a notorious hoax, involving the Canadian exploration company Bre-X, which claimed to have found an even bigger gold deposit in Borneo (also on Indonesian territory). When the fraud was exposed, Filipino geologist Guzman (who had worked for Bre-X) was found dead and the death declared a suicide, but one of the guys interviewed in this documenatary almost jokingly says that Guzman probably got away and is enjoying his money somewhere in the Philippines! 

Things *not* mentioned here, but found on Wikipedia, include the salient facts that the mines have been attacked by a local armed independence movement (yes, our old friends from the OPM), and that several strikes have broken out among the workforce. 

I´m sure leftist environmentalists would love to hate the Grasberg operation, if they even know about it. Unfortunately for the local Young Greens, in order to de-carbonize our modern economies, we need vast amounts of copper. And Grasberg is the second largest copper mine in the world, remember? 

There is no way around this: if you are an idealistic Green who thinks electric cars will save the world, you are just as responsible for Grasberg as the most based cornucopian. You own it now. This is yours. Unless, of course, you want to go back to the Stone Age and live like the Papuan Natives, in a 40,000-year perennial state of tribal war and cannibalism... 

Vad hade hänt om Trump gjort samma sak (avsnitt 3 675)

Tänk om Trump hade gjort samma sak... 

Men okej, har inte orkat kolla CNN:s reaktioner. Cuz reasons. 

USA stänger ner "shiitiska" medier

Trump happened

I don´t know who this blogger might be, but probably a libertarian or libertarian leftist. He analyzes the rifts on the US and British left over Trump, siding with Glenn Greenwald and other leftists or left-liberals who have been accused of "supporting Trump" or "supporting right-wing populism". The blogger believes that this is an distortion of what is *actually* going on: large portions of the left are siding with pseudo-liberal authoritarianism. 

Here is an important excerpt from the article: 

xxxxxxxxx

The problem with characterising Trump as a supremely evil figure is that all sorts of authoritarian political conclusions flow from that characterisation – precisely the political conclusions we have seen parts of the left adopting. Robinson may not expressly share these conclusions but, unlike Greenwald and Taibbi, he has largely ignored or downplayed the threat they present.

If Trump poses a unique danger to democracy, then to avoid any recurrence:

We are obligated to rally uncritically, or at least very much less critically, behind whoever was selected to be his opponent. Following Trump’s defeat, we are dutybound to restrain our criticisms of the winner, Joe Biden, however poor his performance, in case it opens the door to Trump, or someone like Trump, standing for the presidency in four years’ time.

We must curb free speech and limit the free-for-all of social media in case it contributed to the original surge of support for Trump, or created the more febrile political environment in which Trump flourished.

We must eradicate all signs of populism, whether on the right or the left, because we cannot be sure that in a battle of populisms the left will defeat the right, or that leftwing populism cannot be easily flipped into rightwing populism.

And most importantly, we must learn to distrust “the masses” – those who elected Trump – because they have demonstrated that they are too easily swayed by emotion, prejudice and charisma. Instead, we must think in more traditional liberal terms, of rule by technocrats and “experts” who can be trusted to run our societies largely in secret but provide a stability that should keep any Trumps out of power.

(...)

Greenwald and Taibbi talk so much about the role of the traditional media and Silicon Valley because they understand that the media’s professed liberalism – claims to be protecting the rights of women, ethnic minorities and the trans community – is a very effective way of prettifying corporate authoritarianism, an authoritarianism the left claims to be fighting but has readily endorsed once it has been given a liberal makeover.

It is not that the “liberal” establishment – the corporate media, Silicon Valley, the intelligence services – is actually liberal. It is that liberals have come increasingly to identify with that establishment as sharing their values.

xxxxxxxxx

Read the whole thing here: 

What happened to Glenn Greenwald?

The mineral hegemony of China

I´m not sure who the author (Duggan Flanakin) of this article might be (a mining industry lobbyist?), but it seems solid. The blog it´s posted on is a bit weird, though, but that´s for another time! 

Flanakin summarizes what some of us already knew: the United States is heavily dependent on China for its rare earth minerals or REMs. (So is the rest of the world.) Everything from mobile phones to military and aerospace technologies are dependent on REMs. So is any "Green New Deal" scenario featuring wind turbines or electric cars. The latter also needs enormous amounts of copper and other more regular minerals, most of which apparently isn´t mined in the US at present either. Or not enough, at least. The article points out that the most strident proponents of decarbonization (i.e. the environmentalist movement or should I say Green lobby) are also opposed to domestic mining of the minerals needed to sustain the transition to a post-carbon economy. In effect, the Green lobby makes the United States dependent on China! A China that has become more assertive on the world stage lately. No big deal, I suppose, if you´re pro-Chinese, but if you´re Biden and is emulating Trump´s tougher stance on Beijing, probably a potentially very large problem... 

The author points out that China´s dominance of the REM market is part of a long-term strategy, and that it´s the country´s centralized planned economy that made this possible. An intriguing admission, since the author doesn´t seem to be a leftist of any sort, but rather a supporter of more mining by private corporations. 

If the article is right - and I think it is - somebody should take a closer look at exactly who stands behind the Green movement in the United States, since its geopolitical objectives so closely line up with those of the People´s Republic of China. For instance, what role does Michael Bloomberg play in all this? He is one of the top capitalists in the United States, and also an obvious Chinese "asset". Of course environmental degradation and climate change are real, but the movement mobilizing around these issues may simply be a tool of one establishment faction used to beat the other ones into line. 

 A viable alternative to Chinese mineral hegemony

The scramble for lithium

"Lithium: New Gold Rush in the Andes" is a short documentary about the perils of "Green" technology, in this case the "electrification" of the car industry in the developed nations of the world. 

In order to replace all gasoline-driven vehicles with electric ones, enormous amounts of lithium are needed for the batteries. Over half of the world´s lithium reserves are believed to be situated in South America, principally Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. Thus, in order to "save the world from climate change", super-exploitation of these mineral resources is necessary. 

Lithium extraction is impossible without enormous amounts of water, which puts pressure on the wells and groundwater in the arid regions where the mines are situated. The documentary features interviews with Natives in Chile who oppose the mining operation, preferring instead to live their lives like they always have (raising llamas and growing their food locally). Somewhat ironically, the Natives on the Bolivian side of the border *support* lithium mining, while the decision to let a German corporation invest in the region proved controversial in the rest of Bolivia, where many left-wing activists fear foreign domination and increased environmental destruction. Bolivia´s left-nationalist president Evo Morales eventually cancelled the deal, although its possible that the current president Luis Arce (a Morales supporter) might renegotiate it. 

Thus, "Green energy" in Europe and North America actually leads to environmental destruction, political instability and a "scramble for South America". I´m not opposed to economic development, per se. Quite the contrary. However, what makes this documentary on the "white gold" interesting, is that it shows how little has really changed. Previously, it was guano. Then, oil and gas. Now? Lithium, copper and REMs. Throw in some bananas there, too. 

Nor is it clear how this will save the world from climate change, since large scale operations of this kind *are impossible without a modern economy based on fossil fuels*. The Green and climate change movements are simply the shock troops of one wing of late capitalism, the wing trying to make profits on minerals related to electrification... 

Centerpartiet skiter ner sig, Britt-Marie 45 firar med midsommarfika!

Britt-Marie 45 hämnas på Centern via sin svärdotter Nooshi Dadgostar? Senaste beskedet i regerings"krisen". Satt kanske lite långt inne, detta. 

Centerpartiet backar från förslag om fri hyressättning

Veckans Kamikaze

*Var* står den här killen politiskt, egentligen? 

Tobias Hübinette om "The Singapore Grip"

Det svenska stupet

Anders Lindberg (av alla människor) får in några poänger här. Givetvis av högst egna orsaker. Vem är det *egentligen* som "släpper fram Sverigedemokraterna"? Från Aftonbladets ledarsida. 

"Centern gasar på mot stupet i rasande fart"

Trump-like figure becomes Deputy PM in Australia

The Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, also the National Party leader, Michael McCormack, has been ousted by his own party, and replaced by a more Trump-like figure, Barnaby Joyce, who calls for more coal production, a tougher stance against China, and support for family farmers. Apparently, big business in Australia is worried by the move, and the US Biden admin might have some reservations, too. From World Socialist Web Site.  

Ousting of National Party leader highlights political instability in Australia

Veckans Hübinette

Camilla Odhnoff 

Eller kanske Veckans Strasser? Ett citat från Tobias Hübinettes blogg:

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Nu lovar socialminister Lena Hallengren att samtliga (adoptions)länder och samtliga (adoptions)år ska utredas i den kommande statliga adoptionsutredningen som syftar till att gå till botten med korruptionen inom den svenska internationella adoptionsverksamheten. (...) 

Därmed skriver Socialdemokraterna historia under Löfvens andra rödgröna regerings sista skälvande dygn för det är symboliskt att det just är en SAP-minister som idag går ut med detta löfte: 

Det är nämligen värt att påminna om att den svenska arbetarrörelsen och vänstern ursprungligen var skeptisk till eller t o m emot internationell adoption och därmed går det möjligen att säga att ”cirkeln är sluten” som det brukar heta även om mycket vatten har flutit under broarna däremellan.

SAP var då ursprungligen på 1960-talet (liksom f ö även dåtidens V – d v s VPK – som faktiskt var emot internationell adoption ända in på 70-talet) rejält skeptiskt inställd till utlandsadoptionerna vilket föranledde dåtidens adoptionsförespråkare att ibland t o m utmåla svenska staten, myndighetsvärlden, SAP, Erlander och hans olika regeringar och ministrar som varande rasister. 

Så sent som 1969, när genomkorrupta Adoptionscentrum bildades på ett stort möte på ABF-huset i Stockholm, var Erlanders femte kvinnliga statsråd Camilla Odhnoff på plats, som bl a ansvarade för dåtidens invandrings- och familjepolitiken, och lade viss sordi på den annars uppsluppna stämningen genom att hålla ett tal där hon mellan raderna varnade för att internationell adoption höll på att utvecklas till ett ”överklassfenomen” och hon sade förmanande att de svenska adoptivföräldrarna skulle ”rensa ut varje föreställning om välgörenhet” samt tillade att ”tryck aldrig ned barnen i en tacksamhetsskuld”. Odhnoff refererade till att adoptivbarnen hade kommit att bli ”statussymboler” för den tidens svenska övre medelklass och överklass medan internationell adoption hade börjat uppfattas som ett slags ”u-hjälp”, en ”god gärning” och en ”humanitär” handling.

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Hela blogginlägget här: 

Idag skriver Socialdemokraterna historia

Dubbel projicering

Jag har länge undrat över vissa av SJW-arnas "projiceringar". De verkar så jäkla...konstiga. Dessutom undrar jag varför vita "raspessimister" kan finna saker av värde i t.ex. Hübinettes budskap. 

Här har vi kanske svaret på båda problemkomplexen. 

För att citera artikeln: "En grundregel här är att ett woke budskap är ”diametralt motsatt” till den grad att det slår över i sin motsats två gånger. Den postmoderna rödgardisten skyller vita för ”rasism” men är själv rasist mot vita och detta dessutom eftersom han eller hon är bärare av omedvetna rasistiska föreställningar om icke-vita. Nu rör vi oss in på verkligt dialektiska domäner, för dessa senare föreställningar är på samma gång medvetna och omedvetna. Det torde delvis vara därför vithetskritiker som DiAngelo finner ständigt ny publik i vissa kretsar, de känner igen sig i hennes erkännanden om fördolda rasistiska impulser."

Bingo.

Länk nedan.

Antilekten

Astral common sense?

 

Cyrus Kirkpatrick makes a lot of sense here. I´m also positively allergic to the idea that evil and suffering is a "learning opportunity", "the school of hard knocks", "what doesn´t kill you makes you stronger", and all that crap. Was the Holocaust a learning opportunity for the gassed Jews? To take just a very obvious example. (OK, here´s another one: remember that depression you had 15 years ago? Great karmic lesson, thank you Geezus!) The most obvious problem with this position is that it makes God into a devil...

Kirkpatrick believes very strongly that our planet, for reasons he doesn´t discuss, is currently a very shitty and unbalanced place which attracts all kinds of negative spiritual entities that suck the energy of everything living. This suffering and pain is unnatural, and we don´t "learn" anything from it. Instead of keeping Earth in ignorance (so it can continue to be a "learning opportunity" for souls who need hard knocks), we should improve the world for the better. His proposals are not political, but rather spiritual: inform people that we have immortal souls, that materialism is wrong, that we can (and should) expand our consciousness. This will somehow block the demonic entities from infesting our world. Kirkpatrick has a soft spot for psychedelic drugs, which he believes "turns atheists into believers in a matter of minutes". 

It´s interesting to note that the narrator isn´t a Gnostic, but has a very "concrete" and almost "materialist" view of the afterlife (which he refers to as the astral world). He isn´t a Christian by a long shot, but it struck me that his views have a family likeness to Christianity: matter (at least astral matter or imperishable matter) isn´t evil in itself, evil is spiritual and very real, and so are demons, who are presumably a kind of fallen angels. The solution isn´t to become a luminous orb in an ineffable Gnostic pleroma, but rather to spiritually reform our current embodied existence. I admit that I find this guy a breath of fresh air after reading too much New Age literature which claims that evil is an illusion, that the universe isn´t fallen but in perfect karmic balance...and all that bunk about the "learning experience". 

I wouldn´t mind becoming a luminous orb in the pleroma, though. (Not sure what Cyrus has against that?) I offer this clip as a way to, ahem, "balance" the discussions on the metaphysical end of things...

Every day is Ashura, every place is Karbala!

 

Nooshi Mindset

Mitt under en pandemi!!!! Gissa vem som vunnit på regerings"krisen"? Okej, är någon typ missnöjd i det här landet, eller vad? Idolporträttet här ovan är förresten copyright Vänsterpartiet.

Tredubblat förtroende för Nooshi Dadgostar

"Mitt i en pandemi"

En gammal kommunist upptäcker den parlamentariska demokratins välsignelser, LOL. OK, kunde inte låta bli att ge krönikören ett litet tjuvnyp. 

Annars många bra poänger i den här artikeln. 

Visst befinner sig Sverige i kris, men "regeringskrisen" är bara en nysning i ett sjukdomstillstånd som är betydligt djupare (och, missförstå mig rätt, fortfarande relativt milt jämfört med USA eller, säg, 90-talets Ryssland). 

En nysning som dessutom aldrig behövt inträffa om Löfvén hade varit en riktig sossepamp och förvandlat Centern och Liberalerna till sossarnas bitches. Och aldrig "utrett" marknadshyror! 

Bilden här ovan har förresten ingenting med artikeln att göra...

Åsa Linderborg om regeringskrisen

COLLUSION

This is probably true. The United States is trying, perhaps unsuccesfully, to divide Russia and China, while concentrating on confronting the latter *which was exactly the policy Trump and Bannon wanted to implement* before the whole thing got derailed by the Democrat collusion conspiracy bullshit. Time for all the collusion-mongerers to apologize after a little populist struggle session? And if you were one of the guys taken in by the propaganda, I hope you learned something new! As in: fake news, shills, grifters, that kind of stuff... 

US seeks to ease tensions at Biden-Putin summit, as anti-China drive escalates

Hail Saint Germain

 

Oskorei om Hübinette

Den högerradikala sajten Motpol kommenterar Tobias Hübinette. 

Adoptionskritikerna

ÄNTLIGEN

Lägg märke till de "strasseritiska" siffrorna i slutet av artikeln. Lägg också märke till att Kadhammar inte nämner Danmark, där socialdemokraterna blivit "främlingsfientliga". Varför vill han inte nämna det?  

Peter Kadhammar om högervågen

Schools out for summer, schools out forever?

"Hon kallades hemmasittare: Om skolan, tårarna och kampen i hallen" is a Swedish "tell it all" by Nadja Yllner, an award-winning investigative reporter working for the public broadcaster SVT. In this book, Yllner investigates her own family and comes to some startling conclusions. The book tells the story of Yllner´s daughter Lova and her various psychiatric problems. At the age of ten, in fourth grade, Lova became a "homesitter" (hemmasittare), a Swedish euphemism for kids who refuse to go to school due to various psychological issues. She was eventually diagnosed with social phobia. Otherwise, ADHD and high-functioning autism are common diagnoses in this group. 

What makes the book truly shocking is the context. It turns out that between 2009 and 2019, the number of Swedish school children with various "homesitting" diagnoses have become three times larger. That´s a 300% increase in just ten years! The international trends are strikingly similar. Also, the large uptick begins in 2011, when Internet access through mobile phones became common. While correlation isn´t causation, it´s difficult not to suspect a connection of some sort. Having around the clock access to the web either turns many kids into neurotic wrecks, or sharply increases pre-existing problems (for instance with ADHD). 

At about the same time, Swedish schools decided to abolish special classes for children with various problems, instead trying to integrate them into the regular classes. This was hailed as "inclusion" (of course!), but was in reality a way to slash school funding. The special classes were more expensive, since the schools were supposed to employ teachers qualified to deal with problem children. In the regular classes, the special needs children at best had the help of unqualified "assistants". The end result: more disturbances in the regular classes, and a sharp increase in neurotic and depressive children. Ironically, the total costs for society for taking care of all the "homesitters" may in the end become much higher than money "saved" on the schools, but the politicians don´t seem to give a damn. Yllner also believes that modern education is partially to blame for the crisis: young children are supposed to "plan their own education" and "work independently", which many of them simply can´t, and if this is combined with mental problems, the end result is disaster. (It struck me that this new kind of educational style is really also a way to slash funding - presumably less regular teachers are needed!)

Schools which want to help "homesitters" are caught in a bizarre bureaucratic catch 22. They can´t get extra money from the authorities unless they *already* have a program up and running for students with special needs, but who on earth is going to pay for the program in the meantime? Also, if a school officially decides to help a student, they are bound by law to carry out the decision, even if no funding is forthcoming, making many schools reluctant to make such promises in the first place! These bureaucratic bottlenecks are probably deliberate, in my opinion. It also turns out that until recently, the national school agency didn´t even bother collecting statistics of how many students don´t show up for class for one reason or another. Since everything in Sweden is tightly regulated and supervised, this suggests some kind of ulterior motive, although it remains unclear what it could be.

One aspect of the problem not mentioned in Yllner´s book is that the number of children and teens who claim to be "misgendered" have *also* sharply increased *during the exact same time period*, suggesting a connection. Too politically incorrect for this author? Or doesn´t she know about it?

I was struck by the fact that Yllner and her family are extremely privileged, criss-crossing the world on their holidays (Lova is still a teen but has already visited everything from Rome to Kerala). The feeling the reader gets is: if even an upper middle class family like the Yllners can get in trouble with a increasingly dysfunctional Swedish school system, how on earth does reality look like for everyone else?

Another crack in the Image of Sweden...

Jag har lösningen

Jag har lösningen på regeringskrisen. SAP måste bli bättre på att manövrera åt vänster. Inte bara åt "höger" (globo-liberalism). De måste i största allmänhet bli bättre på att vinna val. De som skriker hysteriskt om att "vänstern förenar sig med extremhögern" verkar i brådrasket ha glömt bort att Löfvén faktiskt leder en minoritetsregering...

Fast vill sossarna bli bättre på att vinna riksdagsval måste de kanske gå tillbaka till att vara ett Arbeiterpartei, snarare än dagens Machtpartei. Dessutom ett Machtpartei som knappt kan utöva någon macht...

En av de få socialdemokratiska talking heads on TV som passerat revy i TV-sofforna under "krisen" (vilken kris?) som har kopplingar till arbetarrörelsen är, ironiskt nog, Stefan Löfvén själv. Han har ju faktiskt varit förbundsordförande för IF Metall, eller något sådant.

Vilka kopplingar till arbetarrörelsen har de andra ljushuvudena? 

Frågan är om SAP verkligen kan vända tillbaka. Och om ens *det* är önskvärt, såvida de inte vänder väldigt långt tillbaka. Jag vet inte, 1930-talet, kanske? 

Idag är SAP bara ett parti som eftersträvar kontroll över det märkliga hybridsystem som just nu kännetecknar "senkapitalismen", en kombi av statsregleringar, nyliberalism och vänsterliberalism. 

Och i så fall kommer SAP att försvinna när detta system krackelerar. Vilket det garanterat kommer att göra... 

Höj Lina Stenbergs hyra

Hon är bara avundsjuk på att Nooshan är mycket snyggare. Kanske har hon råd med högre hyra också?

Ledarskribent på Aftonbladet till attack mot Nooshi Dadgostar

Extraval nästa

Hittade inte nassarnas klassiska valaffisch från 1930-talet (den med den blonde pojken som vill stoppa klasskampen), så den här får väl duga istället. Ja, jag är ironisk. Hoppas jag... 

Veckans Strasser (igen)

 

Nooshi Dadgostar är den första personen (och första kvinnan) som blivit utnämnd till Veckans Strasser två gånger i rad. För att ha lagt grunden till en neuropeisk sozial bostaadts-politik, lyder motiveringen från vår tvåspråkiga jury (tvångssvenska + bajerska). 

Problem vid Strandvägen

Problem i Stockholms mest exklusiva kvarter. En av dem som intervjuas är förre moderatledaren Ulf Adelsohn! Lägg förresten märke till de lustiga kommentarerna om rödljusen och hundgården.

Ökad kriminalitet vid Strandvägen i Stockholm

A good day to die hard

 

Guillou trollar Säpo

Jan Guillou trollar Säpo, fast han får ju in en del poänger här ändå... 

Säpos tappra strid mot antidemokratiska skolor

Thomas Di Parodi?

 

Okej att det här var för sju år sedan, men det låter ändå som parodi. *Är* det parodi? 

Demokratitvätt

Demokratin är på tillbakagång. Men...men...världen skulle ju bli bättre när kommunismen föll och ersattes med nyliberalism??? 

That´s where you´re wrong, kiddo.

"Ännu en diktatur demokratitvättar sin smutsiga byk"

(PS. Hanssons rubrik är missvisande, eftersom Iran haft presidentval sedan 1980-talet. Det är alltså inte "ännu" en diktatur som demokratitvättar sin skitiga röv, den islamiska republiken var tvärtom något av pionjärer på området.) 

Don´t go full Blue Anon. Really don´t.

The "45th reason" why scientists shouldn´t let politicking interfere with their science. This nut job uses the recent U-turn on the Wuhan virus to attack climate science. And tomorrow, probably evolution, heliocentrism and the globe earth. Who knows, maybe all medicine will be abolished, as well, in favor of faith-healing through drinking stryknine and handling homeopathic rattle snakes? So, one more time: don´t fucking let politics interfere with your science. Ever. 

"They are lying about everything"

There will be flash wars

 

"The future of modern warfare" is one of the scariest documentaries I´ve ever seen. I somehow assumed, a bit cynically to be sure, that the existence of nuclear weapons made world war *less* likely, indeed, almost impossible. This production, made by the German public broadcaster DW but with most content in English, shows how a nuclear war can start anyway. The reason? IT. Or more precisely, cyber attacks... 

Apparently, many of NATO´s early warning systems against Russian nuclear missiles are vulnerable, since they use digital signals rather than the good old analogous ones. Digital technology can be hacked. Indeed, in a world where everything and everyone is hacked on a daily basis by both state and private actors, it´s difficult to see a situation in which military systems would somehow be exempted from this. Further, the early warning systems are often "multi-task", and are used to track both nuclear and conventional missiles. This means that Russia has a vested interest in hacking them even if they *don´t* intend to start a nuclear war, a move that would then be interpreted by the United States as a preparation for exactly such a war! Thus, an escalation of cyber hostilites between the superpowers could potentially lead to a nuclear conflagration, as both sides misinterpret the purpose of the other side´s actions...

Another thing that could transform the battlefields of the future are "autonomous systems", weapons based on Artificial Intelligence that can operate on their own, without any human guiding them. One example is called "loitering munitions", really a kind of weaponized drones that can fly around autonomously for hours after launch ("loiter"), scanning a wide area for targets, and then destroy it by essentially flying right at it, hence their nickname "kamikaze drones". Israel is a leading manufacturer of this technology, and it was used by Azerbaijan in its recent war against Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The documentary shows some pretty absurd Azeri propaganda clips showing this deadly weapon. Even more problematic are "swarms", i.e. swarms of drones used to confuse or attack the air defence systems of the enemy. Swarms can only be fought by other swarms, and will therefore lead to a new arms race. Since the swarming drones are autonomous, we might even get a situation in which a war escalates with no human imput whatever! This is known as a "flash war". 

Like cyber attacks, drone development is virtually impossible to stop, since drone technology and AI also have a host of civilian applications. Another thing making arms control extremely difficult is that these new weapon systems are "software" rather than "hardware". It´s one thing to control physical missiles, quite another to regulate the programming capabilities of the enemy. The great powers are reluctant to get onboard any control measures. For instance, China opposes "use" of these killer robots, but not their development.

One thing never explained in "The future of modern warfare" is where the microchips come from. I assume drones have such? Is this state of the art technology just as dependent on Taiwan as the mobile phone or computer industries? If so, what happens if China takes Taiwan? Also, can terrorist groups or even individuals somehow get their hands on these drones, and if so, can they learn how to use them? Private actors can certainly learn how to hack sensitive systems... 

As usual, I tend to become "philosophical" when watching stuff like this. Since our problems seem downright impossible to solve, what in heaven´s name are we supposed to *learn* from our human-earthly existence? That the material world really, truly sucks? OK, message recieved. 

If DW is right, I wouldn´t be too surprised if a nuclear war (á la Dr Strangelove) might take place at some point during the 21st century. Perhaps even within my lifetime...