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Saving Ukrainians from Themselves

The Suicide Offensive Continues

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@DDgeopolitics

AFU offensive on the Zaporozhye front continues : Tanks and armored personnel carriers are coming, the most powerful artillery battle is thundering

▪️ After a breakthrough attempt, equipment explosions and losses, AFU has introduced several armored groups and continues to try to advance near the town of Orekhiv.

▪️AFU continues suicidal attacks towards Rabotino, Kopani, Belogorye (Работино, Копани, Белогорье) and other localities in the Pologovsky district.

▪️The AFU infantry is rushing, it is being mowed down by artillery, snipers, mortars and by the Russian motorized infantry.

70 and 291 regiments with the assistance of reconnaissance troops and special forces continue to actively destroy the attackers.

▪️ The army aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces strikes.

▪️The intensity of the AFU offensive actions in some areas begins to decrease and stop due to AFU losses.

▪️Artillery is working very actively on both sides, the rumble along the front is terrible.

▪️The radio airwaves are still massively filled with commands of Russian Army and AFU units. There are clouds of helicopters in the air.

Generally in Zaporozhye direction as of now:

AFU is being strangled by Russian artillery and aviation, there were a lot of explosions on mines. There is a fight going on.

AFU’s attack on this direction is choked.

On the Road to Serfdom ?

Like, Totally Orwellian: ‘Government Surveillance Cameras In Every Household’

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Nearly one-third of Generation Z says they’d be just fine with government-installed surveillance cameras in every household under the guise of reducing domestic violence and other illegal activity.
“Would you favor or oppose the government installing surveillance cameras in every household to reduce domestic violence, abuse, and other illegal activity?” asks a new survey from the Cato Institute. Of the responses, 29% of those aged 18-29 said yes.

As the NY Post notes;

In 1791, the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham proposed building a “panopticon” in which people’s behavior could be monitored at all times.
But Bentham’s panopticon was meant to be a prison. A sizable segment of Generation Z would like to call it home.

When it comes to other age brackets, 20% of millennials (between the ages of 30 and 44) also want everyone watched.
Then, wisdom appears to kick in – as just 6% of Americans aged 45 and older were OK with government surveillance in every home.
Broken down by politics, 19% of liberals and 18% of centrists agreed that our daily lives should be monitored by the government for our own safety, while 9 – 11% of those who identify as conservative, very conservative, or very liberal agreed in what appears to be a “horseshoe” issue that unites both ends of the political spectrum.

It’s the middle that has the ethic of old East German secret police — or the KGB.
Maybe that’s not surprising considering the way respectable liberal institutions now run themselves.
From Ivy League campuses to the publishing industry and the digital domains of Facebook, there is an Orwellian sense of perpetual emergency, an irrational fear that misinformation and hate speech will overwhelm society unless every utterance is subject to a censor’s scrutiny.
Even Orwell didn’t imagine Newspeak would require new pronouns. -NY Post

Broken down by race, 33% of black Americans said they’re fine with government in-home surveillance, as did 25% of hispanics, 11% of whites, and 9% of asians respectively.
The question was asked as part of the Cato Institute’s survey on American attitudes on the prospect of a ‘central bank digital currency.’ What’s interesting about that is that 53% of Americans who support a CBDC also support in-home surveillance cameras.

Notably, Americans who support a CBDC stood out in how they think about in‐​home government surveillance cameras. A majority (53%) of Americans who support a CBDC support the government installing in‐​home surveillance cameras to reduce abuse and other illegal activity. This suggests that some of the psychology behind support for a CBDC springs from an above average comfort level with trading some personal autonomy and privacy for societal order and security. -Cato Institute

What’s more, those who view the Federal Reserve favorably are more likely to support a CBDC (duh).
cato2.JPG
Sheep gonna sheep?

Woke Lunacy

Twenty Grim Realities Unearthed By Lockdowns

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Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,

It’s common now to speak of the before times in contrast to the after times. The turning point was of course March 16, 2020, the day of 15 Days to Flatten the Curve, though authoritarian trends predate that. Rights were suddenly broadly throttled, even religious rights. We were told to conduct every aspect of our lives in accordance with the priorities of the bio-medical security state.

Very few people anticipated such a shocking development. It was the onset of a new state-conducted war and the enemy was something we could not see and hence could be anywhere. No one has ever doubted the omnipresence of potentially dangerous pathogens but now we were being told that life itself depended entirely on avoidance of them and the only guide going forward would be public-health authorities.

Everything changed. Nothing is the same. The trauma is real and lasting. The claim of “15 Days” was revealed to be a ruse. The emergency lasted three years and then some. The people and machinery that did this are still in power. The pick to head the CDC has a long track record of enabling and cheering the lockdowns and all that followed.

It’s a helpful exercise to summarize the new things we’ve all discovered in these years. Together they account for why the world seems different and why we all feel and think differently now than we did just a few years ago.

Twenty terrible realities unearthed by lockdowns

1. Surveillance and censorship by Big Tech. The resistance eventually found each other but it took months and years. A censorship regime descended on all major social platforms, technologies designed with the intention of keeping us more connected and expanding the range of opinion we could experience. We did not know it was happening, but we eventually learned of the crackdown, which is why so much of us felt so alone. Others could not hear us and we could not hear them. The regime faces a bold court challenge on many fronts but it still goes on today, with all but Twitter constantly policing their networks in ways that are unpredictably authoritarian. We have ironclad evidence now that they are all captured.

2. Power and influence of Big Pharma. It was April 2020 when someone asked me if the goal of the vaccine produced by the pharmaceutical cartel was really behind the lockdowns. The idea would be to terrify us and ruin our lives until we were begging for shots. I thought the whole idea was insane and that the corruption could not possibly reach this deep. I was wrong. Pharma had been at work on a vaccine since January of that year and called in every form of purchased influence to eventually make them mandatory. Now we know that the major regulators are wholly owned and controlled, to the point that necessity, safety, and efficacy don’t really matter.

3. Government propaganda by Big Media. It was relentless from day one: the major media proved hardcore partisans of Anthony Fauci. The powers that be could tap the New York Times, National Public Radio, Washington Post, and all the rest, whenever and however they wanted. Later the media was deployed to demonize those who violated lockdowns, refused masks, and resisted the shots. Gone was the idea that “democracy dies in darkness” and the “paper of record” replaced by darkness itself and constant propaganda. They showed no real curiosity of the other side. The Great Barrington Declaration itself began as an effort to educate journalists but only a few dared even show up. Now we get it: the mainstream media too is wholly owned and completely compromised. They already knew what to report and how to report it. Nothing else mattered.

4. Corruption of public health. Who in their right minds would have predicted that the CDC and NIH, not to mention the World Health Organization, would be deployed as frontline workers in the imposition of totalitarian control? Some observers perhaps predicted this but implausibly so. But in fact it was these agencies which were responsible for all the absurd protocols from closing hospitals to non-Covid cases, putting up Plexiglas everywhere, keeping schools closed, demonizing repurpose therapeutics, masking toddlers, and forcing shots. They knew no limits to their power. They revealed themselves to be faithful agents of the hegemon.

5. Consolidation of industry. Free enterprise is supposed to be free but when workers, industries, and brands were divided between essential and nonessential, where were the howls from Big Business? They weren’t there. They proved willing to put profit ahead of the system of competition. So long as they benefited from the system of consolidation, cartelization, and centralization, they were fine with it. The big-box stores got to wipe out the competition and gain a leg up in industrial standing. Same with remote learning platforms and digital technology. The biggest businesses proved to be the worst enemies of real capitalism and the biggest friends of corporatism. As for arts and music: we know now that the elites consider them dispensable.

6. Influence and power of administrative state. The Constitution established three branches of government but lockdowns were not managed by any of them. Instead it was a fourth branch that has grown up over the decades, the permanent class of bureaucrats that no one elected and no one from the public controls. These permanent “experts” were completely unleashed and unhinged with no check on their power, and they cranked out protocols by the hour and enforced them as legislatures, judges, and even presidents and governors stood by powerless and in awe. We know now that there was a coup d’etat on March 13, 2020 that transferred all power to the national security state but we certainly did not know it then. The edict was classified. The administrative state still rules the day.

7. Cowardice of intellectuals. The intellectuals are the most free to speak their minds of any group. Indeed that is their job. Instead, they stayed quiet for the most part. This was true of right and left. The pundits and scholars just went along with the most egregious attacks on human rights in this generation if not in all living memory. We employ these people to be independent but they proved themselves to be anything but that. We stood by in shock as even famed civil libertarians looked out at the suffering and said “This is fine.” A whole generation among them is today completely discredited. And by the way, the few who did stand up were called horrible names and often lost their jobs. Others took note of this reality and decided instead to behave by staying quiet or echoing the ruling-class line.

8. Pusillanimity of universities. The origin of modern academia is with the sanctuaries from war and pestilence so that great ideas could survive even the worst of times. Most universities – only a handful excepted – completely went along with the regime. They closed their doors. They locked students in their dormitories. They denied paying customers in-person education. Then came the shots. Millions were jabbed unnecessarily and could only refuse on pain of being kicked out of degree programs. They showed a complete lack of principle. Alumni should take note and so should parents who are considering where to send their high school seniors next year.

9. Spinelessness of think tanks. The job of these huge nonprofits is to test the boundaries of acceptable opinion and drive the policy and intellectual world in the direction of progress for everyone. They are also supposed to be independent. They don’t depend on tuition or political favor. They can be bold and principled. So where were they? Almost without exception they clammed up or became craven apologists for the lockdown regime. They waited and waited until the coast was clear and then eked out little opinions that had little impact. Were they just being shy? Not likely. The financials tell a different story. They are supported by the very industries that stood to benefit from the egregious policies. Donors who believe in freedom should take note!

10. Madness of crowds. We’ve all read the classic book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds but we thought it was a chronicle of the past and probably impossible now. But within an instant, mobs of people fell into medieval-style panics, hunting down non-compliers and hiding from the invisible miasma. They had a mission. They were ferreting out dissidents and ratting out the non-compliers. None of this would have happened otherwise. Just like in the Cultural Revolution of China, these would-be members of the Red Guard became foot soldiers for the state. Mathias Desmet’s book on Mass Formation now stands as a classic explanation of how a population devoid of meaningful lives can turn these sorts of political frenzies into deluded crusades. Most of our friends and neighbors went along.

11. Lack of ideological conviction of both right and left. Both right and left betrayed their ideals. The right abandoned its affections for limited government, free enterprise, and the rule of law. And the left turned against its traditional stand for civil liberties, equal freedoms, and free speech. They all became compromised, and they all made up fake rationales for this pathetic situation. Had this all began under a Democrat, the Republicans would have been screaming. Instead they went quiet. Then the Covid regime passed to a Democrat and so they stayed quiet while the Republicans, embarrassed at their previous silence, stayed silent for far too long. Both sides proved ineffective and toothless throughout.

12. Sadism of the ruling class. The kids were denied a year or two of school in some locations. People missed medical diagnostics. Weddings and funerals were on Zoom. The aged were forced into desperate loneliness. The poor suffered. People turned to substance abuse and put on added pounds. The working classes were exploited. Small businesses were wrecked. Millions were forced to move and millions more were displaced from their jobs. The ruling class that advertised its wonderful altruism and public spiritedness became callous and completely disregarded all this suffering. Even when the data poured in about suicide ideation and mental illness from loneliness, it made no difference. They could not muster any concern. They changed nothing. The schools stayed closed and the travel restrictions stayed in place. Those who pointed this out were called terrible names. It was a form of grotesque sadism of which we did not know they were capable.

13. The real-life problem of massive class inequality. Would any of this have happened 20 years ago when a third of the workforce was not privileged enough to take their work home and pretend to produce from laptops? Doubtful. But by 2020, there had developed an overclass that was completely disconnected from the lives of those who work with their hands for a living. But the overclass didn’t care that they had to face the virus bravely and first. These workers and peasants did not have privileges and apparently they didn’t matter much. When it came time for the shots, the overclass wanted their health care workers, pilots, and delivery people to get them too, all in the interest of purifying society of germs. Huge wealth inequalities turn out to make a big difference in political outcomes, especially when one class is forced to serve the other in lockdowns.

14. The cravenness and corruption of public education. A universal education was the proudest achievement of progressives one hundred years ago. We all assumed it was the one thing that would be protected above all else. The kids would never be sacrificed. But then for no good reason, the schools were all closed. The labor unions representing the teachers rather liked their extended paid holiday and tried to make it last as long as possible, as the students got ever further behind in their studies. These are schools for which people paid for with their taxes for many years but no one promised a rebate or any compensation. Homeschooling went from existing under a legal cloud to being suddenly mandatory. And when they opened back up, the kids faced mass silencing with masks.

15. Enabling power of central banking to fund it all. From March 12, 2020, and onward, the Federal Reserve deployed every power to serve as a Congressional printing press. It slammed rates back to zero. It eliminated (eliminated!) reserve requirements for banks. It flooded the economy with fresh money, eventually reaching a peak of 26 percent expansion or $6.2 trillion in total. This of course later translated into price inflation that quickly ate away the actual purchasing power of all that free stimulus dispensed by government, thus harming on net both producers and consumers. It was a great head fake, all made possible by the central bank and its powers. Further damage came to the structure of production by a prolongation of low interest rates.

16. The shallowness of the faith communities. Where were the churches and synagogues? They closed their doors and kept out the people they had sworn to defend. They canceled holy days and holiday celebrations. They utterly and completely failed to protest. And why? Because they went along with the propaganda that ceasing their ministries was consistent with public health priorities. They went along with the state and media claim that their religions were deeply dangerous to the public. What this means is that they don’t really believe in what they claim to believe. When the opening finally came, they discovered that their congregations had dramatically shrunk. It’s no wonder. And who among them did not go along? It was the supposed crazy and odd ones: the Amish, the estranged Mormons, and the Orthodox Jews. How non-mainstream they are. How marginal! But apparently they were among the only ones whose faith was strong enough to resist the demands of princes.

17. The limitations on travel. We didn’t know the government had the power to limit our travel but they did it anyway. First it was internationally. But then it became domestic. For a few months there, it was hard to cross state lines because of the demands that everyone who did so had to quarantine for a fortnight. It was strange because we didn’t know what was and what was not legal nor did we know the enforcement mechanism. It turned out to be a training exercise for what we know now they really want, which is 15-minute cities. Apparently a people on the move are harder to control and corral. We were being acculturated toward a more medieval and tribal existence, staying put so that our masters can keep tabs on us.

18. The tolerance for segregation. Vaccine uptake was certainly disproportionate by race and income. Richer and whiter populations went along but some 40 percent of the non-white and poorer communities didn’t trust the jab and refused. That did not stop 5 major cities from imposing vaccine segregation and enforcing it with police power. For a time, major cities were segregated with disparate impact by race. I don’t recall a single article in a major newspaper that pointed this out, much less decried it. So much for public accommodations and so much for enlightenment! Segregation turns out to be just fine so long as it fits with government priorities – same now as it was in the bad old days.

19. The goal of a social credit system. It is not paranoia to speculate that all this segregation was really about the creation of a vaccine passport system running off a national base, the one they want very much to implement. And part of this is the real and long-term goal of creating a China-style social credit system that would make your participation in economic and social life contingent on political compliance. The CCP has mastered the art and imposed totalitarian control. We know for sure now that major aspects of the pandemic response were scripted in Beijing and imposed through the influence of China’s ruling class. It is completely reasonable to assume that this is the real goal of vaccine passports and even Central Bank Digital Currency.

20. Corporatism as the system under which we live, giving lie to existing ideological systems. For many generations, the great debate has been between capitalism and socialism. All the while, the real goal has passed us by: the institutionalization of an interwar-style corporatist state. This is where property is nominally private and concentrated in only top industries in major sectors but publicly controlled with an eye to political priorities. This is not traditional socialism and it certainly isn’t competitive capitalism. It is a social, economic, and political system designed by the ruling class to serve its interests above all else. Here is the main threat and the existing reality but it is not well understood by either right or left. Not even libertarians seem to get this: they are so attached to the public/private binary that they have blinded themselves to the merger of the two and the ways in which major corporate players are actually driving the advance of statism in their own interests.

If you haven’t changed your thinking over the last three years, you are a prophet, indifferent, or asleep. Much has been revealed and much has changed. To meet these challenges, we must do so with our eyes wide open. The greatest threats to human liberty today are not the ones of the past and they elude easy ideological categorization. Further, we have to admit that in many ways the plain human desire to live a fulfilling life in freedom has been subverted. If we want our freedoms back, we need to have a full understanding of the frightening challenges before us.

Brownstone’s work and influence in this regard is far beyond any that we’ve told publicly. You would be astonished at the extent of it. The times demand circumspection in overt institutional aggrandizement.

We are grateful to our donors for having faith in the power of ideas. We are daily amazed at the ability of passionate and scrupulous writers and intellectuals to make a real difference for the cause of freedom. Please, if you can, join our donor community to keep the momentum going, for the hill is perhaps the steepest we’ve climbed in our lives. We have no “development department” and no corporate or government benefactors: you can make a difference.

Saving Ukrainians from Themselves

And now the Kakhovskaya Hydroelectric Power Station

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The tactics of the Kyiv regime have already been established.

  1. Stage a terrorist attack. 2. Blaming Russia for this. 3. Western media and politicians massively repeat the false version claimed by the terrorists. 4. Western states decide on new political repressions against Russia. 5. Russia weakly fights back. 6. The whole world is at a loss as to whom to believe.

According to this model, the Kyiv regime and the United States:

  1. They blew up the building of the drama theater in Mariupol, while blaming Russia.

  2. Many civilians were killed in Bucha by the Ukrainian forces for cooperating with Russia, while blaming Russia.

  3. Fired at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, while blaming Russia.

  4. They blew up the Nord Stream gas pipeline while trying to blame Russia, which nobody could believe.

  5. Now they blew up the Kakhovskaya Hydroelectric Power Station, while blaming Russia.

Saving Ukrainians from Themselves

The Ukrainian Army is run not by the Generals but by the PR Department

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by Gilbert Doctorow

What can you expect from a government headed by a comic actor named Zelensky? We see the answer to that question day by day in the way the Ukrainian armed forces are carrying out their much-anticipated spring counter-offensive: it is being stage managed by the Public Relations team with scant regard for their cannon fodder army.

Why do I say this? Because each of the latest military setbacks if not outright fiascos of military operations is being covered up by sensational side-shows intended to divert public attention at home and especially abroad from what is going on in the battlefield.

In the past couple of weeks, Zelensky was under enormous pressure from Washington to finally launch the much heralded counter-offensive. Notwithstanding his complaints that insufficient new military hardware had arrived to date and his demands on NATO countries to step up deliveries of tanks and F16 fighter jets, the Pentagon was insisting that the Ukrainians were now well equipped and should prove on the battlefield that this investment by the Americans and Europeans was justified, to prove that they can indeed push back the Russians and free all the occupied territory.

Yet, on the battlefield all that we saw was positional fighting and probing for weak spots in the Russian defense lines. There was no sign of a massive counter offensive until a day ago. What we saw instead were incursions of Ukrainian special forces, mostly said to be mercenaries from Poland and elsewhere, across the border from the Ukrainian held Kharkov oblast into the neighboring RF oblast of Belgorod. And then, about four days ago, we saw the start of a destructive artillery and rocket attack on the border town of Shebekino, where 400 or 600 strikes on residential neighborhoods have been recorded in 24 hour periods. As we now see daily on Russian television, the whole population on the Russian side of the border across from Kharkov city is being evacuated and media there are discussing why their government has not done more to protect the frontier and to hit back.

Of course, if the Kremlin were to do so it would fall into the trap of withdrawing forces from the front lines and weakening preparedness for whatever mass counter offensive may yet lie ahead. But it would be more appropriate to see in the border attacks on Belgorod not a military tactical purpose but a PR dimension, to capture the airwaves and divert attention from the still delayed massive offensive by providing some highly photogenic developments for the news crews.

Today’s number one item on Euronews is the destruction of part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant in the southern region of Kherson to one side of the Dnepr river, with the consequence that water from the reservoir to feed the plant now is pouring out in uncontrolled fashion into the Dnepr. Let us remember that here the right (western) bank of the Dnepr, with the homonymous former capital town of the Kherson oblast, is held by the Ukrainians and the left (eastern) bank is held by the Russians.

Threats to the large Kakhovka reservoir were discussed widely in local and global media more than eight months ago when the Russians abandoned Kherson city and withdrew all forces to the left bank of the Dnepr. At that time already, the Russians anticipated a possible breach of the dam with the consequence of dangerous, life threatening flooding downstream. They pulled back the local population from areas deemed to be most at danger. Moreover, as CNN reminds us, the shutdown of the hydroelectric power plant which ran on water from the reservoir might put at risk the not too distant Zaporozhie nuclear power plant, where critical equipment for its operation run on electricity generated by the Kakhovka plant. So the nuclear danger once again raises its ugly head.

Why was the functioning of the reservoir crippled now and who was responsible, the Russians or the Ukrainians? CNN this morning puts on a mien of objective journalism by saying that both sides are pointing the finger at the other, and perhaps we will never know who is the guilty party. However, that feigned objectivity is phony from the get-go.

To understand unfailingly who unleashed the Kakhovka reservoir to flood the nearby region you have to look further afield to other news of the day coming from the battlefield and that, in turn, directs us to the PR Department of the Ukrainian armed forces. The Kakhovka blow-out was surely meant to divert attention from the results of yesterday’s first Ukrainian attempt at massive attack on the battlefield in southern Donetsk. According to Russian reports, their own Vostok units with assistance from air cover and artillery “destroyed” (the current euphemism for “slaughtered”)1500 Ukrainian “live personnel” (current euphemism for “troops”) and destroyed 17 tanks, including 7 German Leopards, as well as armored personnel carriers and other vehicles and field weapons. This was a scandalous defeat and loss of human life in a hopeless offensive being waged only for the purpose of shaking out more money and arms from the Western sponsors of the Kiev regime. As the stories of flooding near Kakhovka and further downstream are amplified by our media, there is the hope that no one will notice the military defeat.

And what are the practical consequences of a military campaign run by the PR Department? The answer is the shocking loss of Ukrainian men at arms. Yesterday Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who is campaigning against Joe Biden for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in the 2024 U.S. elections publicly announced that approximately 350,000 Ukrainian combatants have died in the area of Russia’s Special Military Operation so far. Judging by yesterday’s massacre during the first big attack by the Ukrainians in the southern Donetsk oblast, the death toll will accelerate in the days ahead. Are any people of conscience listening in Europe or the USA?

Democracy as Mob Rule

Clare Daly, MEP – Ukrainians? Why not Palestinians?

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“And I find it laughable that those calling for arms to Ukraine, never call for arms for the people of Palestine or for the people of Yemen.” – Clare Daly

Uncategorized

The Trip Back Home to the Former US

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From an anonymous comment:

This is a story of returning home to the US after a one year absence. The first part describes the experience the travelers had with the manager at the Spirit Airlines check-in desk and the subsequent letter of complaint to the airline. Even more telling of the state of affairs in the US is Part II.

A country, an economy, a society in a state of widespread breakdown and highly dysfunctional.

Part I

Letter of complaint to Spirit Airlines Customer Service. Flight confirmation: RJ4SPW.

On May 31, 2023, we presented ourselves at the check-in line for flight 338, after having checked in online but not being able to view or print the boarding pass.

The woman at the start of the line asked to see my passport. I showed her the passport, she marked it on her list, then I I asked, why do I need to show my passport in order to get in line to show my passport? There were very few people in line. This is stupid!

Then she asked for my wife’s passport. And I showed her my wife’s passport, and I said don’t you see that we are together?

She marked down my wife’s passport , and we went ahead to the check in.

Meanwhile we were approached by a woman who did not introduce herself but acted like a prison guard, (I’ll call her “the prison guard”) telling me that we have to present our passports to the woman at the line entry, which is what we just did. I said, I just did show her the passports.

The woman acting like a prison guard continued yelling, “listen to me! Don’t interrupt me. You need to present your passport”. I said again, I just did present the passports.

Next she called out to the check-in desk saying “Deny boarding!! deny boarding!” And in seconds a military police pulled us over and started talking to us in Spanish. I said I don’t speak Spanish, I’m a tourist. After that both of them were trying to lecture us for a few minutes, the prison guard woman yelling again and again that we did not present our passports.

Then, I called over the woman at the entry line with the list, and I asked her: “didn’t I present our passports to you ?” She said yes. She checked her list and showed it. “But you called me stupid”, she said. No, I explained to everybody, I did not say she was stupid, I was complaining about the system. And I have every right to an opinion, to my opinion! The system is stupid.

At that point the prison guard woman yelled, “Refund! no flight for you !” We were refunded and out on the street.

The entire event was an unprecedented abuse, totally out of place, unconstitutional and in contravention of the basic rights of travelers. We had business interests to attend to in the US. Besides anything else, such ill-treatment of customers is beyond any justification, norm, regulation. Throwing a U.S. citizen out in the street, in a foreign country, on top of falsely accusing us of some imaginary non-compliance or even discourtesy is a criminal act. The prison guard woman did not even inquire as to what happened.

Part II

We arrived back home in CR kind of dazed. Now, what?

OK, we’re not going to go “home”. We don’t need to go… But, wait a minute, I ordered a lot of stuff which is now being shipped to our house at the Lake, including a new iPad. What’s going to happen? Let’s see what options we still have. — Well, I actually found a different flight, $20+ less, for tomorrow with American Airlines. We have a new plan.

No check in, since we had the boarding pass, but I couldn’t stop myself from telling the guy at the help desk about yesterday’s story with Spirit. “Oh,” he said. “You were the guys, yesterday! and they called the police on you ?! No, they were wrong to do that,” etc. So that was a big story in the entire airport.

At the security check they asked me to take off my shirt. I had a shirt unbuttoned over a colored T-shirt and that was considered a security risk. I pointed out that he had his shirt on. He said, “I am the police and if you want to fly you take your shirt off”. I had to take the shirt off but I got away with telling him, “f’ the police”.

Meanwhile waiting to board our flight, we heard that the guys from Spirit were having a bad day. Due to a “computer glitch” all Spirit flights were cancelled indefinitely (it lasted more than for 6 hours as far as we know). Mayhem, chaos, distress for Spirit passengers across the entire world. God heard my curses for what happened the day before!

We arrived in Charlotte but had to wait almost an hour for the plane to have a gate available. Poor planning is evident immediately.

At the border control we were told that no paperwork was required — They use facial recognition technology. What?! Our guy at the booth is an older man. Thinking that this is a good sign, I tell him right away that facial recognition without our consent is unconstitutional, etc. He says, “so you don’t want to be photographed” ? “Well, how long are you storing these photos, where? I hope the Russians are going to win …” — That’s OK, he says, you can skip that. He then processes our passports and hands us a special yellow card. “Now you go to the office.” Ooops . . . that must have been a patriotic military veteran.

We had no baggage other than small carry-ons, mostly empty. At the “office” two bored lads are laughing. They don’t care. Out we go.

Now the plot thickens. First, we had to go through security screening again in order to board the domestic connection to NY. As usual we opted out of the X-ray/microwave machine (mostly in order to start a whole circus of pat-downs and in order to harass the whole staff, as I actually told them straight up).

We made it through, after instructing all of them that we need a revolution to hang all the criminal elites, starting with the demented president. Interestingly, quite a few agreed.

We rewardered ourselves with an ice cream and headed to the gate. Surprise, though – when we arrive at the departure gate for the connection to New York, there was nobody waiting. Oh! the flight was canceled due to “mechanical problems” – someone claims a flat tire! After a long wait in line at Customer Service, just before midnight, we got our vouchers for the 35 Km taxi drive to the hotel. Every close hotel was already booked by other canceled flights — No getting home today, for a second day.

Our taxi driver, a smart Ethiopian, explains: oh, this is nothing. Two days ago there were like 2,000 American Airlines passengers stranded in Charlotte overnight. Yesterday, there were only 900.

The taxi trip for the two of us alone for the one way, cost the airline over $40, plus the return next day, total, just under $100.

Had a good sleep and a good breakfast, all paid by AA. I should mention, this is South Carolina, and the breakfast room was populated with mostly blacks, mostly obese, oversized fat behinds, whichever way you look around.

In the morning, we called our Ethiopian friend for the drive back to the airport. How does he like life in the US? Oh, yeah, I like it, if you work hard you can make money, more freedom, everything is easy, you know. Really?… Well, yes, it’s true, it’s hard, I used to drive a big truck, an 18-wheeler, at over $2 per mile. Then there was no more work for me. A lot of the big trucks are mothballed. No business. They cannot even afford to maintain the batteries. Too expensive. “Do you have a family?” Yes, and two kids, here is a photo. “Are you not worried?” “I am very worried, I have a lot of responsibility… And, I know, it’s going to get only worse. I do see, the American blacks don’t work, and the country is spending money on Ukraine; why not on the Americans?”

Back at the airport. Security screening again. Same circus. Pat-downs. The guy who pats me down tells me just like the driver: “I know is going to be bad, I follow the events, and the stock market . . .” That reminds me of the famous quip: when your doorman gives you a stock market tip it’s time to bail out . . . This time I test positive for explosives. A different guy pats me down again. Same. Positive. Meanwhile I lecture everyone about the demented elies and why the US is going to be defeated by Russia. But they don’t know what to do with me. I keep laughing. So all of this technology and waste of money on your salaries? For what?

The manager comes. Nice guy. He doesn’t know what to do. He asks me if I would go through the X-ray machine? No way, I say, I opted out, but I offer that I can go through the metal detector. Oh, really, great! Let’s do that. I went through the metal detector like a fish through the water. No “beep.” Meanwhile we have a full staff conference to decide what to do with me. Including now the police chief, another woman.

What to do? I keep laughing, yes, the revolution, that’s what we need. – They let me go.

Finally, we even manage to get on board the plane. We’ll be home soon… Only that, not yet.

Just before take off, the plane stops. Now, what? The captain is very cordial and communicative. There is a storm in the New York area. We have to wait. I check the weather radar in New York on my phone. (That is a sign of the new technological democracy!) Not really. Some small patches of stormy rain, no big deal. I show that to the flight attendant. Look, there are no storms in New York. She snaps back: don’t you trust the captain? No, it is all incompetence, I tell her, as she walks away. Well, not that the captain is incompetent, the incompetence is of the whole country run by “affirmative action” hires – they have to employ minorities and women. Luckily, the captain is one of those reliable white men, and very on-the-ball.

The captain then says we’ll know in an hour whether we can make it within the 3-hour remaining window that allows the returning crew to fly or we need to disembark, cancel the flight or wait for another crew.

At just 1 minute before the 3 hour limit, the captain gets the go ahead, he pushes hard on the throttle and we take off at a blazing speed. And we make it home. End of story.

The moral of the story, coming back to the US after a long absence, we found the country decrepit on several levels, and on the verge of desintegration. Everything is very expensive*. Everybody is grumpy and surly. Incompetence prevails. Minorities are everywhere, all shades of black, brown and Asiatics, most of them sporting a chip on their sholders. Utter decadence in outlook. Young women and even not-so-young, mostly whites!, parading around the airport in short shorts, almost underwear, half naked, as the typical outfit; bad postures, bad bodies, and a lot of “no speak English”.

We found the local economy in grave condition. Prices at the supermarket are between double and triple last we knew. But worse than everything else, everywhere the working class is non-white, non-English. When trying to ask for something that was available a few years ago in the supermarket, they never heard of it. In the entire enormous supermarket we came across only 3 (older) whites. “You moved to Costa Rica?” – “Oh, how lucky you.”

*P.S. A few price comparisons:

A nonstop round flight San Jose to New York a few years ago, around $200. Today over $800. But one can get a discount price for a 1-stop flight at $375, if lucky.

A taxi ride from the airport to our house: 2 years ago = $70. One year ago = $100. Today: $140 and the guy was not happy with my tip of $14.

P.P.S. This is the response we received from Spirit: “I’ve shared your experience with our management team so they can investigate how our team performed and work to improve the service we provide to our Guests.”

P.P.P.S. We were just notified by American Airlines that our bags were delayed and that they will deliver them at no cost to our home . . . Nice. The only problem is that we have not checked any bag, and we are in good order. Thanks.

Western Hegemony's Collapse

How the UK Tries to Recreate its Colonial Empire in Africa

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Russian channel Rybar analyzed the British expansion into Africa.

The most interesting part of the material lies in the current state of Great Britain’s policies towards African continent and how it tried to maintain position after the disband of colonial empire.

▪️In the middle of 20th century British government after the pressure from the US decided to change its format of interaction with the newly formed states. Despite granting them formal independence, Great Britain replaced direct control with an indirect one.

Most of the former colonies did not have any national industries or skilled workers to develop them. Trying to gain something by selling resources was also destined to fail, since the international market was already divided between developed states.

The most logical way for local leaders in this dire situation was to ask its former colonizer and British companies for a help to win some place under the sun. Thus newly formed countries sold themselves to UK and were forced to play by its rules in hopes of gaining access to the international market and develop somehow.

▪️The main British interest in African countries lies in mining, mineral extraction and financial services, since the continent is viewed as a source of raw materials. Thus 88% of all Great Britain’s investments in the region lie in these spheres. Other fields that African really need to improve, like communication and agriculture, are overlooked.

▪️Moreover, Britain maintains a military presence on the territory of about 40 countries of Africa. The UK government justifies its presence by training African personnel, peacekeeping missions and the fight against terrorism.

But all this activity, for the most part, exists only on paper, and the situation of fragmentation and terrorism has not improved at all during the time British “peacekeepers” have been on the continent.

▪️The situation to this day doesn’t look so good. Dependence on Britain persists. However, with the rise of other foreign players in the end of 20th and beginning of 21st centuries, Africa can see some improvements.

Democracy as Mob Rule

Clare Daly, Member of European Parliament

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Clare Daly, MEP: . . .”if you (EU) really cared about Ukraine, you’d be pushing for peace, but the EU hasn’t lifted a finger to push for peace in Ukraine, in fact it’s done everything to escalate the conflict and prevent peace . . .”