Couldn't resist this last shot....
Walt, Poor Len Canayen [and Ed.! Ed.] wish all our readers
a Happy(er) New Year 2021.
Thursday, December 31, 2020
VIDEO: Anus horribilis 2020: Noted in passing (Music)
Ed. here. 2020 is almost over, thank God, truly an Annus Horribilis if ever there was one. (I know my Latin but Walt insists on leaving the headline as he wrote it.) We were going to combine Sports and Music in one last segment of our yearend review, but Poor Len Canayen got a bit carried away yesterday, so we had to leave Music for today.
I don't write much about music and musicians, partly because so much of modern/contemporary "music" is shit. Rock'n'roll, for instance, ceased to exist (IMHO) with the "British invasion" of 1964. So to write about that genre is to look back 60 years or more, which we do today as we note the passing of Richard Wayne Penniman, better known as Little Richard, who took his last bow on 9 May 2020, aged 87.
In 1986, Little Richard was among the first to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and received a lifetime achievement Grammy in 1993. He needed none of these and the many other awards or hall of fame citations he received to tell him who he was or what he had achieved. He knew that all along. He won't be forgotten.
Little Richard was the self-proclaimed king of Rock'n'roll. His first big hit, "Tutti Frutti", released in October 1955, was wild gibberish -- almost like a "holy roller" speaking in tongues -- from a voice like we'd never heard before. Was this the future of music? Frank Sinatra, Pat Boone, Bobby Darin and the others suddenly became the past! With a few others – Fats Domino, Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly – Little Richard laid down what rock’n’roll was to be like.
Born in Macon GA 5 December 1932, into a Seventh-day Adventist family, Little Richard, learned the piano and sang gospel in the local church choir, something I can relate to personally. (I could never figure out why we Catholics couldn't have a few of those jumpy, toe-tappin' tunes.) Kicked out of the family home at age 13, he performed in medicine shows before hitching to Atlanta, where he signed to RCA Records in 1951.
He didn't develop his own unique style, though, for another four years. His piano work, crucial to his sound, was limited to hammered chords and a kind of tuneless riffing, but with that megaphone voice, falsetto squeal, bursting energy and powerhouse band, his songs -- "Long Tall Sally", "Rip It Up", "Ready Teddy", "Jenny Jenny", "Lucille", "Keep A-knockin'" and many others -- became not just classics but powerful influencers on singers who followed, whether they acknowledged it or not.
The highly influential singer-songwriter John Prine, whose career spanned five decades, passed away on 7 April 2020, due to complications from Covid-19.. He was 73. His musical style was a sort of crossover of folk and country, with a bit of rock added in. It was his lyrics, however, which defined him and made him the voice of the baby boom generation.
John Prine wrote about the problems of everyday life, about loneliness, the elderly, victims of the Vietnam war and those abandoned by the American dream. He did so with a blend of poignancy, anger and sudden bursts of humour. So he would sing about an injured soldier leaving Vietnam with a morphine addiction "with a purple heart and a monkey on his back", about Christmas in prison, and a letter to an advice columnist, "Dear Abby, Dear Abby … My fountain pen leaks, my wife hollers at me and my kids are all freaks."
In 1999 he released In Spite of Ourselves, an album of duets with female country stars including Iris DeMent and Emmylou Harris. You'll find some tracks from that album, along with "Souvenirs" (my favourite), here.
John Prine won four Grammy awards, including a lifetime achievement award in 2020. John, if you're reading this from wherever you are, please accept the first Wally ever awarded to a musician. You sang so much of what I wanted to say.
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Anus horribilis 2020: Noted in passing (Sports... well, Hockey)
Ed. here. 2020 is almost over, thank God, truly an Annus Horribilis if ever there was one. (I know my Latin but Walt insists on leaving the headline as he wrote it.) Here is the final (no kidding) segment of our yearend review, saying farewell to some people in the sports and music fields -- really just subsets of the entertainment field -- who deserve a final tip of the toque.
Tank youse, Walt. A number of NHL players, past and present, died this year. Some were famous, some not. Among the latter was
Fred Sasakamoose, who died on 24 November 2020 at the age of 86, five days after being hospitalized with Covid-19.
Regular readers of WWW will know that Walt and I [and Ed.! Ed.] are huge fans of Canada's team, the Montréal Canadiens. Henri Richard, one of the greatest players ever to wear la Sainte Flannelle passed away on 6 March 2020.
We're going to do sports first, which for us means hockey. Is there any other sport? Poor Len Canayen already weighed in with his Sports Highlight of the Year, but that wasn't an obituary, so over to you, Len to tell us about... well, you tell it.
Fred toiled in the minor leagues for six or seven years, playing just one season for the NHL Chicago Blackhawks. He appeared in just 11 games in the 1953-54 season, taking 6 minutes in penalties and scoring 0 goals and 0 assists -- 0 points in all.
So why is the passing of Fred Sasakamoose worthy of note? Well sir, he was the first First Nations (Americans read: Native American) player to suit up for an NHL team, and that was back in the `50s, before anyone heard of indigenous rights or diversity. And before SJWs started demanding that the Chicago team change their name and lose Chief Blackhawk from their logo.
That's what the NHL says, but real hockey fans will ask: What about George Armstrong, who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs for two games in 1949-50, and again for a remarkable 20 seasons, 1951-71. I always thought "the Big Chief" was an Indian (as we called them in those politically incorrect days), but the distinction seems to be that he was not a treaty Indian, whereas Sasakamoose was born in Debden SK which is the headquarters of the Big River Cree First Nations band government. That makes him an "official" First Nations person.
No matter. Hockey was pretty much a white man's game in those days and it wouldn't have been easy for Sasakamoose (or Armstrong) to be accepted and travel with his team to places like, say, New York or Boston. But he did it, and inspired others to follow in his footsteps... errr, skate grooves. Well done.
He was called "the Pocket Rocket" because he was the younger brother of the legendary Maurice "Rocket" Richard. Some said he was drafted by the Habs because of the family connection, but he proved the skeptics wrong, starring with les Glorieux for the entirety of his 20-season professional career. He won 11 Stanley Cups as a player, the most in the history of not just the Canadiens but the entire National Hockey League.
In the league's centennial year of 2017, both Richards were named among "the 100 Greatest NHL Players" of all time. Henri shared the ice with many of the Canadiens' greatest stars: Jean Béliveau, Jacques Plante, Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion and Dickie Moore. He succeeded Béliveau as the Habs' captain in 1971.
Other than the Canadiens' junior team, Henri Richard never played for another team during his career.
"Because of the age difference, I didn't think it would be possible but I played with my brother for five years [1955-1960]," he told the Hockey Hall of Fame. "Maurice used to say that if I hadn't been there, he wouldn't have played that long. Some people say it was destiny, but I just think I was in the right place at the right time. That was a great team. There were so many great hockey players. I wouldn't have said it before, but now that it's all over, I thought winning like that was normal."
And so it was, during those glory years. It is the success of the Canadiens of Henri Richard's era, and of the Pocket Rocket himself, that gives us here at WWW hope for the future. Maybe this year will see the Stanley Cup return to Canada after a long absence. That would make Henri happy. His brother too.
A fond look back at Fred C. Dobbs, scourge of the lamestream media
Liberal group-think dominates the lamestream media of the Excited States of America, and Canada is just as bad -- worse, now, with the passing of Christie Blatchford and Allan Fotheringham.
And there are those who say that, even at his best, Dr Foth was not really anti-establishment, but more of a court jester poking fun at the Powers That Be, from inside the charmed circle of the liberal elite.
His jibes were indeed tepid, compared with the vitriolic savagery of my favourite Canuck political commentator, Fred C. Dobbs, the Bard of Beamsville.
Ole Freddy was the alter ego of the late Michael Magee, a part-time radio and TV personality and full-time fan of the sport of kings, based in Beamsville ON. And yes, there is such a place. You can look it up.
While we were writing yesterday's piece, Ed. looked through one of Fred's two published works, The Platinum Age of B.S. (Van Nostrand Reinhold 1981) and found some comments on the Canuck controlled media which are even more to the point now than they were 40 years ago.
It's a funny thing in this country, but nobody really wants to talk, nobody wants to get out there and tear strips off the government anymore. Everybody wants to suck up...everybody's just cowed into keeping their yaps shut....
In Canada, I think if we had a Watergate situation the fix would be in with the Toronto Star, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Maclean's magazine. These is the big three media knee-jerkers in the English language in this country.
[They] would really not want the great, wonderful, golden image of the Liberal Party of Canada to be tarnished in any conceivable way. Because, after all, this image is as great, as bright and aas shiny as any kinda galaxy could ever be if it come along and upstaged the eclipse of the sun. I mean, the arrival of the Liberals for these poor bastards is like the Second Coming.
There's a climate of fear among broadcasters, there's a real fear of the CRTC [the Canadian equivalent of the FCC], that muddling, meddling government quasi-regulatory body that they see as a group of people really interfering with their right to do what it is they want to do. And it's kind of a valid argument against government interference in our lives; there's far too much of it.
This is what the Trudeau government gang really do stand for, cuz they passionately believe that unless they run, organize, regulate and produce everything that goes on, it ain't going to be up to some peculiar standards they imagine exists.
The Platinum Age of B.S. was the sequel to The Golden Age of B.S. (Gage, 1976), both long out of print. If you're a Canadian and want to see what Dr Foth called "the Natural Governing Party" get the disrespect it richly deserves, try to get your hands on Fred's books. Try your local library, but don't be surprised if they don't have them. As for his radio and TV broadcasts, those tapes have been erased, wiped clean. Wonder why....
If you're American and wonder what relevance this has to you, just reread that passage. Where Fred says "Liberals", substitute "Democrats". For Toronto Star, CBC and Maclean's magazine, substitute, New York Times/Wapo, CNN and Time magazine. They're all the same! Ask yourself, now that Dr Hunter S. Thompson and George Carlin are no longer with us, is there anyone left who's willing to stand up and say the liberal elites are full of BS?... Anyone?...
Footnote: The "Trudeau" to whom Fred refers is not Blackie McBlackface, the current Prime Minister of Canuckistan, but his father, Pierre, who began the destruction of Canada way back in 1968 and was still in power when Freddie was writing. That in itself tells you all you need to know about the Canaadian sheeple.
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Anus horribilis 2020: Noted in passing (media)
Walt wanted to do "sports and music" second, but I'm going with journalists today because only two who died in 2020 rate a fond farewell, so this will be a short piece for a Monday morning.
One such was columnist and author Allan Fotheringham -- aka "Dr Foth" -- known for his biting satirical commentaries aimed at the rich and the powerful, who died in Toronto on 19 August 2020.
Maybe not. What Ed. just wrote might get me started on the sad state of the Fourth Estate in the quasi-free world, particularly the broadcast media, particularly in the Excited States of America and its branch plant in the Great No-longer-white North. [He means Canada. Ed.] We don't call them the lamestream media for nothing.
Reporters? Journalists? Ha! Just a bunch of typists and cut-and-pasters turning out mediocre liberal propaganda sweetened with a veneer of "celebrity" and entertainment "news" to convince the (North) American sheeple that everything is just fine -- especially now that Sleepy Joe Biden has been pushed into the White House under cover of night -- when in reality our society is disintegrating before our very eyes. You can see it (if you open your eyes!) but they can't... or won't.
Now that I've got that off my chest, let's note the passing of two journalists of the old school -- both of them Canadian -- who will no longer be letting the air out of the tires of the liberal establishment.
For 27 years, you weren't considered a member of the Canuck establishment unless you had been pilloried in Dr Foth's column on the last page of Maclean’s magazine. Such was his genius that he got invited to all the best parties and, some would say, became himself a member of said establishment.
Allan Fotheringham was born on 31 August 1932 in the middle of nowhere -- Hearne SK -- just down the road from Lilac. His career began with a regular column at the University of British Columbia's student newspaper, the Ubyssey. (The incomparable historian cum storyteller Pierre Berton also wrote for the Ubyssey at about the same time.) Fresh from university, he was hired as a reporter and columnist by the Vancouver Sun.
He began writing his weekly Maclean’s column in 1975, and is credited with making Maclean's the only magazine customarily read from back to front. He was known for his cutting sense of humour, often aimed at prime ministers and lesser mortals. His more memorable political nicknames include "the jaw that walks like a man" for PM Lyin' Brian Mulroney, "Natural Governing Party" for the Canadian Liberal Party, and the "Holy Mother Corporation" for the Canadian Broadcorping Castration (as I call it).
Mr Fotheringham was a regular panelist on the CBC TV programme Front Page Challenge. Like Christie Blatchford (see below), he became more conservative in his later years, and wrote columns for the Toronto Sun until 2000. In 2001, when his column was moved to an inside page of Maclean's, he left in a huff to become a columnist for the Globe & Mail. His syndicated column appeared in 20 newspapers until his retirement in 2007.
Many of his columns were collected into a series of books, beginning with Collected and Bound (1972), then Malice in Blunderland, or, How the Grits stole Christmas (1983); Look Ma — no hands : an affectionate look at our wonderful Tories (1986); Capitol offences : Dr. Foth meets Uncle Sam (1989); Birds of a Feather: The Press and the Politicians (1999); and Last Page First (2001).
Allan Fotheringham's last book was an autobiography, Boy From Nowhere - A Life in Ninety-One Countries (Dundurn Press, 2011), which Walt recommends. Maclean's marked his passing with a column filled with some of his memorable jibes under the headline: "Allan Fotheringham was loved, revered and loathed but never ignored." That's exactly why I find him an inspiration as I continue with WWW.
She started at the Globe and Mail in 1973, as Canada’s first female sports columnist. (I mean she was a female who wrote about sports, not a columnist who wrote about female sports.) She moved to the Toronto Star in 1977 as a features and news writer. They say a conservative is a liberal who just got mugged. Perhaps Ms Blatchford got mugged at the Red Star, for she moved to the right(ish) Toronto Sun in 1982, and finally to the newly launched National Post in 1998.
Over the years, Ms Blatchford's award-winning work covered sports, war, the courts, crime and much more. In recent years she focused more heavily on political commentary. She wrote columns and appeared in videos that displayed both her conservative views and her hard-nosed attitude. In her last column in the Post, published on 22 October 2019, she expressed her bewilderment that Justin Trudeau was re-elected Prime Minister of Canada.
For her sins of political incorrectness, she was much maligned by the PC police and social commentariat, but readers loved her -- 1000s sent cards and best-wishes when her cancer diagnosis was revealed -- and her vox populi is missed, not least by her colleague Rex Murphy. See "Christie Blatchford was hard as a rock, soft as a teddy bear and Canadians will miss her", in the National Post, 12/2/20. Sub-head: "She was instinctively kind, had an alert and well-exercised radar for the plight of the underdog, the 'little guy,' the person or group never near the head tables of life."
Further reading: Agent 3, who knows a thing or two about what happens when you get caught in the "justice system" [Is dis a system? Mr Natural] recommends Christie Blatchford's Life Sentence - Stories from four decades of court reporting -- or, how I fell out of love with the Canadian justice system (especially judges) (Doubleday Canada 2016).
Footnote: The estimable Rex Murphy is younger than I am, but still old enough and conservative enough to be considered a curmudgeon -- one of trhe last of a dying breed. Last June, some of his younger and more liberal "colleagues" at the Notional Pest attempted to get him fired for having the temerity to deny the existence of systemic racism in Canada. In spite of the baying of the PC hounds, the NP's editor still gives Mr Murphy his space. Walt says: Don't let `em get to ya, Rex. I don't want to be writing your obituary next year!
Monday, December 28, 2020
Nashville explosion: Nothing to see here, folks ???
The story so far. Big bang rocks Nashville as Christmas Day dawns. White RV demolished near AT&T transmission building. That and 40 other buildings damaged. Power outages plague Nashville. Electronic communications disrupted across five states.
Human meatballs found inside smoldering remains of white RV. Cops/FBI/CIA posit suicide "bombing" but clueless on motive or choice of target, also fail to explain how a bomb inside an RV could do that much damage. Walt suggests another possibility. See "Some awkward questions about the Nashville explosion" (WWW 26/12/20) and "James Bond & the Electromagnetic Pulse" (WWW 27/12/20. Includes videos.)
The less-than-esteemed tabloid paints the deceased as a member of the tinfoil hat brigade who was "heavily into conspiracy theories." Since the 5G telecommunications network was introduced, claims have been made that it's a tool to spy on Americans (Herro, Huawei!) and that it has fueled the spread of Covid-19.
OK, let's suppose those claims are baseless (Right, Huawei?), and that Mr Huawei was indeed nutsy-kookoo to think that taking out one transmission facility would save Nashville/the country/the world. Still open is the question of how he did it. Which brings us back to the first paragraph and the possibility suggested by Walt that he used an EMP.
EMP? Wozzat? Try to keep up please. EMP = electromagnetic pulse generator, a very powerful version of which was used in the fictional James Bond movie Golden Eye. Well... themovie is not entirely fictional. EMPs are real, and can be purchased online for less than $200. Check out this l'il gem.
I note that this particular model is shown as "sold out". But there are others. And of course you'd need a lot more power than that provided by a 24-volt battery. A "computer consultant", even acting alone (???) should be able to figure out a way to tap into a gigantic power source, such as might be found in... wait for it... an AT&T transmission centre. Just a thought.
Anus horribilis 2020: Noted in passing (movies and TV)
Ed. here. 2020 is almost over, thank God, truly an Annus Horribilis if ever there was one. (I know my Latin but Walt insists on leaving the headline as he wrote it.) Here is the first segment of our yearend review, saying farewell to some people who in some way made this world a better place, and who will be missed....
Dame Olivia De Havilland, born 1 July 1916 in Tokyo (! to British parents), died 26 July 2020 at the age of 104. She was one of the last surviving cast members of Gone With the Wind (1939). We all cried when the saintly Melanie Hamilton died. Dame Olivia's touching performance earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress.
Sir Sean Connery, born in Scotland (and don't you forget it -- Scotland, not "England" or "Britain"!) 25 August 1930, died on Hallowe'en, 31 October 2020. His five-decade-long movie career was dominated by the role of James Bond, being the first to bring the role to the big screen and appearing in seven of the spy thrillers. Bond fans will remember that much of the action in the first and last films took place in the Bahamas, and that was where Sir Sean died peacefully in his sleep.
Alex Trebek, the genial host of the long-running TV quiz show Jeopardy!, died 8 November 2020 after a long and courageous battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Answers: George Alexander Trebek, Sudbury ON Canada, 22 July 1940. Questions: What was Alex Trebek's real name? Where and when was he born?
Actor and comedian Gerald Isaac "Jerry" Stiller, born in Brooklyn NY 8 June 1927, died on 11 May 2020. Those who remember him best as the eccentric Frank Costanza on Seinfeld, may be surprised to learn that Mr Stiller was a classically trained actor and author, as well as a comedian. He spent many years with his wife, Anne Meara, as part of the comedy duo Stiller and Meara.
We begin with two stars of the silver screen.
She was nominated for that award three other times, and won twice, for To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949). Her impact on the movie industry extended far beyond her acting ability. Her court victory over the notorious Hollywood studio system -- still referred to as "the De Havilland decision" -- changed irrevocably the way that actors would be treated by studios.
Sir Sean's acting career spanned seven decades and he won an Oscar in 1988 for his role in The Untouchables, in which I thought he was rather miscast. Other films included The Hunt for Red October, Highlander, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and The Rock. But his best, IMHO, was The Man Who Would Be King, in which he co-starred with Michael Caine as soldiers of fortune whose karma caught up with them in faroff Kafiristan (a real place, actually.) "Peachey never let go of Danny's head..."
Now to the smaller screen....
Mr Trebek became the host of Jeopardy! in 1984, reviving the show after it had been off the air since 1979. His reassuring presence helped make the answer-and-question game show an entertainment institution, watched daily by millions of fans around the world. In 2014 Mr Trebek set the Guinness World Record for most episodes hosted by the same presenter in 2014.
He won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host seven times between 1989 and 2020 for his work on Jeopardy!, which TV Guide ranked in 2013 as No. 1 on its list of "60 Greatest Game Shows". Mr Trebek continued taping episodes of Jeopardy! throughout his fight with pancreatic cancer, with his final shows taped just a week before his death.
Mr Stiller saw a late-career resurgence starting in 1993, playing the father of the feckless George Costanza on the popular sitcom, a part which earned him an Emmy nomination. The year Seinfeld stopped producing new episodes, Stiller began portraying another eccentric -- Arthur Spooner -- on the CBS comedy series The King of Queens, another role which garnered him widespread acclaim.
Considering the kind of year 2020 has been, it's a pity Frank Costanza wasn't here to lead the Festivus "airing of the grievances". I'll try to keep the tradition alive on WWW.
Still to come: "Noted in passing (sports and music) and (print media)"
Sunday, December 27, 2020
VIDEOS: James Bond & the Electromagnetic Pulse
Sorry to interrupt our yearend review again, but it has come to Walt's attention that there are some who consider the idea that the explosion(s) which rocked Nashville on Christmas Day were caused by an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), rather than a simple stick of dynamite or other device a suicide bomber* might use, a bit farfetched. One reader has even suggested that such a WMD doesn't exist outside of a sci-fi writer's imagination!
Just in the nick of time, Agent 3 has come up with evidence that the existence of EMPs was known, talked about, and written about at least a quarter-century ago. Indeed, it is the basis of the plot in the James Bond movie GoldenEye, released in 1995.
Here's the IMDb synopsis: Years after a friend and fellow 00 agent is killed on a joint mission, a secret space based weapons program known as "GoldenEye" is stolen. James Bond sets out to stop a Russian crime syndicate from using the weapon.
And here's the official trailer.
A new YouTube channel called Movie Fun has the entire film, divided into 15 parts. Even with Pierce Brosnan playing James Bond, it's pretty good. Lots of action and more-gorgeous-than-usual Bond girls. *** (3 stars). But if you're only interested in learning about the EMP, go to Part 5. The part you want to see begins at about 5:45.
What just happened there? The question is answered in the following part, about one minute in.
Now I ask you... Don't you think it possible that an explosion which damaged 41 buildings in Nashville and caused power outages and communications disruptions across TN and four neighbouring states might have been caused by just such a device?
But wait! Another piece of the puzzle was revealed today. * Authorities said the man suspected of setting off the "bomb" -- they're still calling it that -- died in the explosion. Investigators said they used DNA to identify the remains found at the scene as those of a Tennesseean named Anthony Quinn Warner. The FBI said it also matched the RV's vehicle identification number to a registration belonging to Mr Warner.
There's still more. Public records show that Mr Warner had experience with electronics and alarms, and had worked as a computer consultant for a Nashville realtor. Just like "Boris", the computer geek who programmed and controlled the EMP in the movie! He had been linked to the "bombing" since at least Saturday, when federal and local investigators converged on a Nashville home linked to him.
Investigator have yet to uncover any motive for the "bombing", nor have they figured ouot why Mr Warner selected the location, which was not far from a large building occupied by... wait for it... AT&T. The explosion disrupted phone service and police and hospital communications in several southern states. Could be Mr Warner was unable to pay his bill, but I think there must be more to it than that. What do you think?
UPDATED: Anus horribilis 2020: So farewell then....
Ed. here. 2020 is almost over, thank God, truly an Annus Horribilis if ever there was one. (I know my Latin but Walt insists on leaving the headline as he wrote it.) We continue now with our yearend review, saying farewell to some people we liked who have shuffled off this mortal coil, and will be missed....
HRH Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain, Ireland [really? Ed.] and her other realms and territories, on the left in the photo, will be 95 next April. Some think she is taking ibogaine or something to keep from dying just to spite her jug-eared son Charles, Prince of Wales, from becoming king, and his second wife Camilla "forever a duchess".
Before we get to that, let's start with three on whose death you might want to make book on for 2021.
You can probably get 5-2 on Elizabeth, shorter on her seldom seen husband, Phil the Greek. 10-1 on Charles.
The Democrats and other never-Trumpers who are breathed a shallow sigh of relief when, in the week hours of November 4th, Mr Biden emerged from his Delaware hideout to say that he was confident that before dawn enough votes would be found to elect him. And so they were.
Another world leader ["One World", shurely. Ed.] still in the land of the living is Jorge Bergoglio, aka Francis, Pope of Rome. At the beginning of his possibly illegitimate papacy, the Humblest Pope Since Saint Peter (TM) said that he expected his reign to be a short one. That was nearly 17 years ago.
Also rumoured to be still alive (although not seen in public recently) is Sleepy Joe Biden. To those who call him "President-Elect", Walt says "Not yet!"
Then came the challenges, and now the fear is that he will die before he can be sworn in. Better for everyone, the lefties say, if he makes it through the inauguration ceremony, and then succumbs to a heart attack or other "natural cause" [like falling up the stairs from his basement? Ed.], leaving the Oval Office to that well-known Indo-Jamaican, Kamala Harris.
Odds on Joe pegging out before January 20th are 20-1. Thereafter, 5-1.
Another world leader ["One World", shurely. Ed.] still in the land of the living is Jorge Bergoglio, aka Francis, Pope of Rome. At the beginning of his possibly illegitimate papacy, the Humblest Pope Since Saint Peter (TM) said that he expected his reign to be a short one. That was nearly 17 years ago.Traditional Catholics, who believe that Jorge-Francis religiously says three stupid things every morning before breakfast, are hereby reminded that it is a sin to pray for the death of a pope, or anyone for that matter. Praying for God's will to be done is, of course, another matter!
And we can pray always that Saint Michael the Archangel will defend us in the day of battle, and by the power of Almighty God cast into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Further viewing, added 29/12/20: "Will Pope Francis resign? Dr Taylor Marshall responds to the rumour"
Ed. here. Walt seems to have lost sight of the theme of this post, which was supposed to be, errr, obituaries of people we liked. Check in again tomorrow.
Anus horribilis 2020: Walt's Newsmaker of the Year
Ed. here. 2020 is almost over, thank God, truly an Annus Horribilis if ever there was one. (I know my Latin but Walt insists on leaving the headline as he wrote it.) Sorry for the interruption yestereday evening. We return now to our yearend review, to present the coveted Wally Award to the Newsmaker of the Year. May I have the envelope please? ... And the winner is...
The sun hadn't even risen (out here at least) on The Morning After, when the "Resistance" began. How many times have you seen this iconic photo, or read the slogan "Not my president!" since then?
Further reading: "CNN: 'Our Ratings Are Only Tanking Because Trump Is Killing Off Viewers By The Millions'", Babylon Bee, 26/8/19. Satire from the pre-Covid daze!
Well who did you expect? Sleepy Joe Biden, the all-but-invisible "President-elect"? Do an analysis of the amount of time and space given by the meeja to the contestants in the fraudulent election for the Presidensity between Hallowe'en and Christmas, and you'll see that Still-President Donald J. Trump is the winner, leaving Old Joe waaaay up the track.
The lamestream media has been preoccupied with The Donald for at least five years. First there was speculation over whether or not he would throw his hat in the ring. Then there was the great debate over whether to take his campaign for the Republican nomination seriously. Should they put it in the political news or the entertainment news. Still news, right?
Then Mr Trump was nominated, and the controlled media had to start taking him seriously... although not respectfully. The minute his candidacy for othe Highest Office in the Land became official, the anti-Trump campaign began. Suddenly America's media were filled with rumours, speculation, disinformation and outright lies. (Hello, Russian conspiracy!)
But the media storm of scorn didn't matter. In an election which was a model of fairness and honesty compared with V.2020, the American people chose as their leader a man after their own collective heart.
If you search YouTube, you can still find dozens of videos of the astonishment and humiliation of all those "exports", "analysts", pollsters and other pundits -- not forgetting "celebrities" -- who had to eat generous helpings of crow, live and on the air, when it became apparent that the horrible, politically incorrect "Orange Man" was going to become the 45th President of the United States. But that was only the beginning!
The anti-Trumpers went... and remain... stark staring bonkers in their refusal to accept the fact that Donald Trump won the 2016 election, became President... and still is President.
Our own Agent 17 offered to bet that President Trump wouldn't finish his term. And the Swamp -- the Democrats and the Washington establishment -- did their damndest to make it so. Remember the impeachment farce?
That didn't work either, so here we are, with just over three weeks of the Trump presidency remaining, and the same fake news media -- for that's what they are -- less concerned with predicting the shape and direction of a Biden administration than with guessing how President Trump might contrive to remain in office.
Will Old Joe's inauguration be forestalled by another appeal to SCOTUS? A declaration of martial law? A military coup? Or some kind of divine intervention? (Remember what happened to Pope John Paul I!) Check the fake news outlets -- CNN, MSNBC, Fox, CBS, ABC, CBC, any of them! -- today and see if that's not what they're talking about. That, dear reader, is why Still-President Donald J. Trump is Walt's Newsmaker of the Year!
Saturday, December 26, 2020
Some awkward questions about the Nashville explosion
We interrupt Walt's yearend review to ask innocent questions re the news out of Nashville. In case you were sleeping off the Christmas cheer and missed it, Metro Nashville police officers responded around the dawn of Christmas Day to a report of shots fired in the downtown Nashville area.
When they got to the scene, they encountered an RV blaring a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes, which it did. Fortunately police evacuated nearby buildings before the blast. Law enforcement officials have said since shortly after the explosion occurred that they believe the blast was intentional, but have not talked publicly about a target or motive except to suggest the possibility of a suicide bombing.
The obvious questions are: (1) Was this a terrorist attack? Suicide bombings are a stock-in-trade of a certain kind of terrorist.
(2) What sort of terrorist(s) am I talking about? Let's not jump to any conclusions. There are two other questions worth asking.
(3) What was the point of giving the 15-minute warning? Wouldn't your typical Islamic terrorist want the attack to be a surprise, so as to kill as many "infidels" as possible?
(4) How is it that the detonation of a single car bomb somehow damaged 41 (count `em, 41!) buildings, caused power outages, and disrupted communications services not just in Nashville but in Louisville KY, Knoxville TN, Birmingham AL, Atlanta GA, Gallatin TN and South Charleston WV?
The President of Technology at T-mobile tweeted today, "We continue to see service interruptions in these areas following yesterday's explosion. Restoration efforts continue around the clock & we will keep you updated on progress." he said in a tweet Saturday.
And believe it or not, Governor Bill Lee asked the White House -- yes, the TRUMP White House -- for federal assistance due to the "severity and magnitude" of the impact of the explosion.
I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but let me just throw out [Watch your language. Ed.] the suggestion that the Nashville explosion, was either a test to see how much damage a sophisticate device could do OR the premature detonation of a number of such devices, linked by the Internet, set to go off a bit later on Christmas morning, when all the good Christians would be in church. Just sayin'....
DISTURBING FOOTNOTE ADDED AT 1945: Dr Suzanne Pearson, who I met some years ago at a conference organized by the late Father Nicholas Gruner, used to talk about electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons, which she (and many others) could be used to damage or destroys the electronic systems in an object by means of damaging current and voltage surges.
EMPs have been around for a century or so, and you can buy an EMP generator online for under $200. According to a 2013 article on the ExtremeTech website, North Korea has these weapons and could use them to produce a blast like this.
Even a small EMP could do a lot of damage, and would account for the power outages and disruption of electronic communications observed in Nashville. Makes you think, eh.
Anus Horribilis 2020: Poor Len Canayen's sports highlight of the year
Ed. here. 2020 is almost over, thank God, truly an Annus Horribilis if ever there was one. (I know my Latin but Walt insists on leaving the headline as he wrote it.) We continue our yearend review with a comment from our National Sports Editor, Poor Len Canayen....
Let me turn, then, to what I consider the Sports Highlight of the Year. On February 22nd, David Ayres, the Zamboni driver at a small arena in Toronto, suited up for the NHL Carolina Hurricanes after both their goalies were injured in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Tank youse Hed. I `ave a bit of a problem here since you gave me da title of National Sports Editor, because you never made it clear which national sport I was supposed to report on. Different countries have different sports, eh. Canada has two -- the national winter sport (ice hockey) [Is there some other kind of hockey? Ed.] and the national summer sport (lacrosse), which is like hockey but more violent. Or at least that's the way it used to be.
And the American national sport is... what... baseball? The rest of the world plays games like soccer (which they call "football" for some reason) and cricket, which are incredibly effete and boring. So which sport am I supposed to cover?
OK, I'm gonna do the one I know best, the only one which might be considered a natural for a blog named Walt Whiteman's World.
But first, a word about two American "national" (by name) sports -- National Basketball (as in NBA) and National Football (as in NHL). In terms of fan interest and revenue, those leagues have had the worst year in history, and will probably have another such in 2021.
The leagues and the lamestream sports media (hello ESPN!) blame Covid-19 for their tanking ratings. I don't see that. With large swaths of North America under varying degrees of lockdown, common sense says there should be more people staying at home, hiding from the dreaded Kung flu, with nothing better to do than watch TV and, errr, the other thing.
What, then, is the reason why fewer Americans [and Canadians! Ed.] are watching basketball and football, and baseball too? Dare we say that it could be because fans are fed up with the anti-American demonstrations performed by some non-white players and their "woke" colleagues, not to mention the sports media.
This year it became a "thing" to "take a knee" during the (alleged) singing of the Star-Spangled Banner, to protest the horrible injustices of slavery, colonialism, racism, discrimination yada yada yada. It's more fashionable now than at any time since the Vietnam war to diss the flag of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands. Patriotic Americans have noticed, and have reacted predictably and appropriately.
How did that happen? Well, the NHL requires the home team -- Toronto, in this case -- to provide an emergency goaltender in the unlikely event of injury to either team's starting and backup goalies. The standby goalie gets paid a few bucks and gets to watch the game. But on the night of February 22nd, both of the Hurricanes' goaltenders (James Reimer and Petr Mrazek) were injured, so David Ayres entered the game at 8:41 of the second period, after signing a one-game contract.
Wearing a Maple Leafs t-shirt under his equipment, he allowed goals on the first two shots that he faced before stopping the next eight shots on goal, along with recording a shot on goal of his own (!) to help seal a 6–3 win for Carolina. He thus became the first emergency goaltender to record a win in NHL history! He also became the oldest goaltender (at 42 years, 194 days) to win his NHL regular-season debut.
Ayres was cheered to the rafters by the Toronto fans, and named first star of the game. He kept his game-worn jersey and game puck, and donated his game-used goalie stick to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Had he signed a Professional Try-Out Agreement he would have been paid $500 for the game, but Ayres said after the game that under the terms of his contract he was not paid. Hurricanes' forward Sebastian Aho said teammates pulled together and gave Ayres a little bit of money.
Following the game, the Carolina team announced that they would be selling T-shirts with Ayres' name and sweater number (90), with royalties going to Ayres and a portion of the proceeds being donated to a kidney foundation of Ayres' choice. But wait, there's more! Ayres was invited to sound the siren at the start of the Hurricanes home game on February 25th, which was declaired "David Ayres Day" in the City of Raleigh.
The NHL and its players have agreed on terms for a 56-game season to start on January 13th. It looks as if almost all 31 teams will be playing in their proper cities and arenas, probably without fans, but you can bet that, in Canada at least, hockey-starved fans will be put TV ratings through the roof!
My favourite Montréal Canadiens look to have been strengthened greatly by some smart off-season acquisitions by GM Marc Bergevin. Moreover, because of the realignment of divisions forced by that old debbil Covid-19 and the closure of the US-Canada border, the Habs will be playing in an all-Canadian "Northern Division". So I'd say they, and Canadian fans should be set for a memorable 2021 season... maybe even a Stanley Cup!
Coming next: Walt's pick for 2020 Man of the Year. Does Walt have a surprise in store for you? Probably not...
Walt reviews the Anus Horribilis 2020 - Part 1: The Dempanic
Ed. here. 2020 is almost over, thank God, truly an Annus Horribilis if ever there was one. (I know my Latin but Walt insists on leaving the headline as he wrote it.) In the 11+ years of WWW, we've never attempted a full-on yearend review, but Mr Whiteman has ordered me to make space for a number of things he wants to get off his chest. This will probably take at least two posts, so let's begin....
Without doubt the top story of this horrible year is Covid-19, aka the Corona Virus. Influenza, in various mutations, has afflicted humans since Adam was a little boy. I blame the lamestream media for turning an unusually virulent variant into a full-on worldwide made-for-media horror show, hyped way beyond what the nature of the beast deserves.
Nowhere was that more the case than in the Excited States of America, where the Democrats, never-Trumpers and the lickspittle controlled media saw their chance to blame the disease on President Trump, thereby subverting and overthrowing his theretofore-successful administration.
Whether they will succeed or not remains to be seen, but to judge the extent of the media manipulation of the latest of plagues God has sent to chastise wicked humanity, let's compare Covid-19 with the Spanish flu which raged around the world just 102 years ago. Lasting from February 1918 through April 1920, the pandemic of 1918 -- the deadliest in history (including the present pandemic) -- infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide, about a third of Earth's population at the time.
Worldwide, the Spanish flu killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims, including some 675,000 Americans, out of a population of around 103 million. Around 25% of the American population was infected. Of those infected, roughly 2.625% died. That's all.
With vaccines being rolled out -- the result of Operation Warp Speed, led by Vice-President Pence (lest we forget!) -- the Covid-19 infection rate should be, at worst, 10% of the US population of 331 million. And with modern medicine, the death rate will likely top out at no more than 1.5%. Do the math! That's under half a million, still a horrendous figure but nothing like as devastating, proportionately, as that of the Spanish flu. So could everyone please calm down!
While I'm at it, can I ask why it's OK to rfefer to the 1918 flu as the "Spanish flu", when it appears to have started in the good ole US of A. The first known case was reported at a military base in Kansas on 11 March 1918, and it is thought that American doughboys took it to France, and thence to the rest of Europe and parts of Asia. The news was suppressed in the newspapers of the World War I allies, but reported in neutral Spain, and that's how the disease came to be called the "Spanish flu".
The corona virus appears to have originated in Wuhan, China. That's what comes of eating bats! So why is it politically incorrect to call it "Wuhan flu", "Chinese flu" or "Kung flu"? Must be because the term "Kung flu" was used by Still-President Trump, thus making it "racist". All part of the plan to create the Dempanic as a cover for an attack on our civil liberties, including freedom to worship, to speak and even to think.
Take heart, dear reader. People, including all of us here at WWW, are starting to get vaccinated. And don't you dare not get your shot! Remember the drowning man who wouldn't get in the boat God sent him! By this time next year, please God, the pandemic will be over and we can start to count the cost of making a big fuss over something that wasn't, in the overall scheme of things, such a big deal.
Coming next: Poor Len Canayen's sports highlight of the year.
Thursday, December 24, 2020
Wishing you a Happy and Holy Christmas
Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men of good will.
St. Luke 2:14
Walt, Poor Len [and Ed.] wish you
a Happy and Holy Christmas
Your invitiation to join in the "Christmas - Theophany" services streaming online from Saint Elias Ukrainian Catholic Church
This Christmas season, most of the Liturgies and other worship services at Saint Elias Ukrainian Catholic Church in Brampton, Ontario (Eparchy of Toronto) will be streamed online on YouTube. Observed dates are according to the Gregorian calendar, beginning today, Christmas Eve, with the Royal Hours at 0800 EST.
The Vesperal Liturgy is at 1500 EST, and the Vigil (Compline and Matins) at 2000 EST. Click here for links. The pastor of St. Elias, Mitred Archpriest Roman Galadza, is the celebrant. God bless him, and God bless you as you unite yourself in prayer with all who believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, whose nativity we celebrate.
Христос Раждаєтся!
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
VIDEO: 9 suspicious things that happened during election night
Anyone who argues that the swamp rigged the November 3rd election to steal it from Still-President Trump is dissed by the lamestream media as being a crank, nutbar, racist, Nazi yada yada yada. Even some Republicans and (true) conservatives who should know better have been forced to STFU. Other seemingly sensible people, including a few Dumbocrats, say that, yeah, there were "some incidents" of fraud or other "irregularity", but nothing serious enough to overturn the result.
Yet doubts -- reasonable doubts -- persist. Poll after poll shows that around half of respondents believe that something crooked was done, and don't believe that Sleepy Joe Biden won the presidensity fair and square.
Why do they think this? What happened on election night that would provoke suspicion? Here's a list of 9 strange things that occurred in the wee hours of November 4th and thereafter, compiled by Patrick Basham, director of the Democracy Institute.
1. Late on election night, with Trump comfortably ahead, many swing states stopped counting ballots. In most cases, observers were removed from the counting facilities. Counting generally continued without the observers. [Walt observed that's what happened in the 2008 election in Zimbabwe, which confirmed the re-election of dictator Comrade R.G. Mugabe.]
2. Statistically abnormal vote counts were the new normal when counting resumed. They were unusually large in size (hundreds of thousands) and had an unusually high (90 percent and above) Biden-to-Trump ratio.
3. Late arriving ballots were counted. In Pennsylvania, 23,000 absentee ballots have impossible postal return dates and another 86,000 have such extraordinary return dates they raise serious questions.
4. The failure to match signatures on mail-in ballots. The destruction of mail-in ballot envelopes, which must contain signatures.
5. Historically low absentee ballot rejection rates despite the massive expansion of mail voting. Such is Biden’s narrow margin that, as political analyst Robert Barnes observes, "If the states simply imposed the same absentee ballot rejection rate as recent cycles, then Trump wins the election."
6. Missing votes. In Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 50,000 votes held on 47 USB cards are missing.
7. Non-resident voters. Matt Braynard’s Voter Integrity Project estimates that 20,312 people who no longer met residency requirements cast ballots in Georgia. Biden’s margin is 12,670 votes.
8. Serious "chain of custody" breakdowns. Invalid residential addresses. Record numbers of dead people voting. Ballots in pristine condition without creases, that is, they had not been mailed in envelopes as required by law.
9. Statistical anomalies. In Georgia, Biden overtook Trump with 89 percent of the votes counted. For the next 53 batches of votes counted, Biden led Trump by the same exact 50.05 to 49.95 percent margin in every single batch.
At the end of Mr Basham's article in The Spectator, he writes: It is particularly perplexing that all statistical anomalies and tabulation abnormalities were in Biden’s favor. Whether the cause was simple human error or nefarious activity, or a combination, clearly something peculiar happened. If you think that only weirdos have legitimate concerns about these findings and claims, maybe the weirdness lies in you.
But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more! Mr Basham didn't mention Michigan. Simone Gao posted this shocking video on her Zooming In channel on November 8th. Let's call this one Number 10.
How many more stories like this are there? Perhaps 1000s! Individually, perhaps, they only account for a few thousand fake votes. But add them up and you have enough to tip the election to the establishment's preferred candidate.
Doesn't it seem to you, dear reader, that the swearing-in of "President-elect" Biden should be put on hold until all the pieces of the fraud jigsaw puzzle can be put together? Let's see if SCOTUS will have the intestinal fortitude to call a halt, or at least a "pauses" to let the truth come out!
Sunday, December 20, 2020
VIDEO: Keep the Faith! Michael Matt interviews Bishop Schneider
2020 has been a pretty awful year for traditional Catholics and political conservatives, not just because of the corona virus and the resultant economic challenges, but because of challenges to our faith in our political institutions and in the Church Herself. It would be easy to become disillusioned and downhearted. But we must not!
Source note: If you click on the link, you will find that it takes you to Remnant TV, the channel established this fall by The Remnant. Some (but not all) of Mr Matt's videos may still be found on YouTube, but who knows when they will be removed by the lefties in charge.
In this video, recorded at the recent Catholic Identity Conference Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper, interview Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Astana (Kazakhstan), who encourages us to keep the Faith, and hold fast to our hope and trust in the Lord.
Dear readers, I encourage you to bookmark Remnant TV and check regularly for new releases. Tens of thousands of people like Bishop Schneider, Michael Matt, and, yes, Walt Whiteman, remain committed to the Christian Faith and Christian social values. Let us remain united in our faith and in fight for the social kingship of Jesus Christ! Stay strong!
Saturday, December 19, 2020
VIDEO: Could President Trump invoke the Insurrection Act to force a redo of the election? Update from Epoch Times' Roman Balmakov
Since the theft of the 2020 election, we've run a couple of videos by The Epoch Times' Roman Balmakov -- see Thursday's post -- which have been well received. He speaks fast, yes, but his analyses are clear and informative.
Here's the latest, in which Mr Balmakov discusses the possibility that Still-President Trump might invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807? What would happen if he did so? And is the Insurrection Act tantamount to Martial Law?
Also discussed:
* The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government may remove illegal aliens from the 2020 Census count.
* Georgia is now conducting a state-wide signature audit of all mail-in votes.
* A hand recount in Michigan confirmed that Antrim county falsely reported their results on election night.
Looks as if, just when a lot of us were starting to accept the inevitability of a Biden-Harris presidensity -- don't kid yourself that Sleepy Joe is really going to be in charge! -- things are starting to get interesting again. Don't lose heart! And do stay tuned!
Friday, December 18, 2020
UK court: free speech encompasses the right to offend
Britain's Daily Mail reports just now on a November decision of the court in the case of Regina v. Scottow. The appellant, Kate Scottow, from Hitchin in Hertfordshire, had been found guilty earlier this year under the 2003 Communications Act of addressing Sterfanie Hayden, a "transgendered woman" as a man, and calling him/her a "racist" and a "pig in the wig."
[I don't know which personal pronoun to use here. Ed.] Hayden, 47, reported the online remarks to the Old Bill, who duly arrested Miss Scottow at her home in front of her daughter, 10, and son, 20 months. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson later called the arrest and prosecution "an abuse of power."
District judge Margaret Dodds didn't see it that way, convicting Miss Scottow (a self-described "radical feminist") last February, and handing her two-year conditional discharge plus "compensation" of £1,000 ($1350 in real money).
Presiding over Miss Scottow's appeal, Lord Justice Bean [Was he "Mr Bean", before his elevation to the bench? Ed.] and Mr Justice Warby said, "Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having." They added that "free speech encompasses the right to offend, and indeed to abuse another."
Mr Justice Warby explained that the relevant parts of the Communications Act "were not intended by Parliament to criminalise forms of expression, the content of which is no worse than annoying or inconvenient in nature." He also suggested that the prosecution had been an "unjustified state interference with free speech."
Lord Justice Bean said the appeal illustrated the need for decision-makers in the criminal justice system to have regard to issues of freedom of speech. The judgment from two senior members of the judiciary will set a precedent for future cases involving freedom of speech.
The vindicated Miss Scottow told The Daily Telegraph, "It was necessary to enshrine one of the most fundamental rights of every living being in a democratic society – the right to freedom of speech that is now routinely attacked..."' But [Whatever, Ed.] Hayden said, "This is... a kick in the teeth to the entire LGBT community." Walt sez a kick in a more southerly body part would not have been out of order. Is that offensive?
Thursday, December 17, 2020
VIDEO: 2020 election update from Roman Balmakov
One video is worth 1000 words... or 10,000. Here's the latest from Roman Balmakov of The Epoch Times. Here's what's included:
- A judge ordered the release of half the inmates inside Orange County jails. But the local sheriff will not comply.
- In Nevada, the Appeals Court ruled in favor of religious freedom, and struck down rules which limited church attendance.
- In Pennsylvania, a Republican group is again asking the Supreme Court to take up their case.
- A new report shows that, on average, any county which adopted the Dominion Voting Systems moved 2 to 3 percentage points towards Democrat presidential candidates.
What can I say except... once again... the fat lady hasn't sung yet. [What about the fat ladies on The View? Ed.] Stay tuned!
Note to Ed.: Haven't you heard of the latest form of political incorrectness -- fatphobia? Seriously. Accusations of "body shaming" apparently weren't specific enough.
Keep your mind alive! Free online courses from Hillsdale College
The slug-fest between Sleepy Joe Biden and Still-President Trump drags on. We're now in the 14th round (see yesterday's post about Sidney Powell's suit in the Supreme Court), with President Wannabe ahead on points. While we wait for the champion to rise on the count of 8, there are other, completely different things worth noting and passing on to you, dear reader.
One such, of which Walt is reminded by Agent 35 (thanks!) is the existence of Hillsdale College, an educational institution separate and apart from the liberal mainstream, dedicated to learning, character, faith, and freedom. For more than 170 years, Hillsdale has promoted “the diffusion of sound learning” as the best way to preserve the blessings of civil and religious liberty.
Hillsdale College has a real bricks-and-mortar campus, but also offers free, not-for-credit, online courses, taught by college faculty and patterned after the education offered on the Hillsdale College campus. They aim to provide students with an education that pursues knowledge of the highest things, provides insight into the nature of God and man, forms character, and defends constitutional government.
An excellent example, and very relevant to the current unpleasantness, is "Introduction to the Constitution". If you follow the course, you may be able to form your own opinion -- not that of the lamestream media -- as to the correctness... or otherwise... of the SCOTUS decision on the Texas challenge. If that doesn't work, try "Congress: How It Worked and Why It Doesn't"!
Two more course offerings worth considering are "Western Heritage: From the Book of Genesis to John Locke", and "An Introduction to C.S. Lewis: Writings and Significance". Any educational institution that offers courses of that sort gets Walt's Gold Seal of Approval!
The courses are free, many of them sponsored by philanthropical organizations such as the Trzcinski Foundation, but you will be invited to lend your support to the college -- a worthwhile cause, for sure.
Please remember... if you subscribe to Imprimis (see below), sign up for an online course, or donate, and they ask you where you heard about Hillsdale, tell `em Walt sent ya!
Recommended reading: Agent 35 and Walt recommend Imprimis, Hillsdale College's free speech digest. Published online monthly, Imprimis is dedicated to educating citizens and promoting civil and religious liberty by covering cultural, economic, political, and educational issues, with content drawn from speeches delivered at Hillsdale College events.
First published in 1972, Imprimis is one of the most widely circulated opinion publications in America, with over 5.6 million subscribers. Check out these very timely articles: "A Sensible and Compassionate Anti-COVID Strategy", by Jay Bhattacharya, of Stanford University, and/or "Facing Up to the China Threat", by Brian T. Kennedy, of the American Strategy Group. Read and learn, folks; read and learn.
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Back to SCOTUS! Sidney Powell launches voter fraud challenge
Some folks just won't give up... and a good thing too! The Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear the Texas challenge to the results of the rigged 2020 election, effectively ruling against the argument that states could not change the voting rules by executive order or judicial fiat. So much for Pennsylvania.
That brings us back to the question of whether Sleepy Joe Biden will be made 46th President of the Excited States of America as the result of massive, massive voter fraud in (at least) Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and... wait for it... [Why wait? Ed.]... Georgia.
But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more! The Kraken contains official Georgia elections records that prove the Dominion Voting Systems program's "inability to repeatably duplicate creditable election results." In other words, official Georgia election canvassers could not rely on Dominion Voting Systems software to count the vote because it couldn't repeat the same vote totals twice. Here's part of Ms Powell's 42-page submission to SCOTUS.
15. The Interim Report shows multiple grave problems with the accuracy and vulnerability to hacking and evidence destruction of the Dominion Voting Systems (“Dominion”) machines used in Antrim County, Michigan. The report is relevant to each of the Related Cases because each of the states in question uses Dominion equipment. The Interim Report vindicates the lengthy opinion and order of Judge Amy Totenberg in Curling v. Raffensperger, 2020 WL 5994029 (N.D. Ga. 10/11/20), which found “extreme” and unacceptable security risks in the Dominion system. Compelling evidence and expert analyses show convincingly that the results of the Dominion system cannot be trusted and should not have been certified.
16. The findings in the Interim Report are consistent with the expert testimony provided by Mr. Ramsland regarding Dominion’s vote manipulation in the Petitioners’ November 25, 2020 complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (the “District Court”) (R 450; 2438), and with his testimony in the Related Cases. Mr. Ramsland concluded in the Georgia case that, for the State of Georgia, “at least 96,000 mail-in ballots were fraudulently cast,” and “136,098 ballots were illegally counted as result of improper manipulation of the Dominion software,” id., each of which is several times larger than former VicePresident [sic] Biden’s margin of victory in Georgia (10,457 votes). Similar anomalies exist in the Related Cases. Among other things, the Complaints in the trial courts and the Petitions to this Court in each of the Related Cases all seek prospective injunctive relief requiring a similar forensic audit of Dominion voting machines.
17. The Coffee County, Georgia Board of Registration and Elections refused to certify the machine recount election returns on their Dominion systems “given its inability to repeatably duplicate creditable election results.”6 The results of the machine recount report were internally inconsistent and could not be reconciled and were inconsistent with both the election night count and the hand audit.7 The Coffee County BRE analysis confirms the findings of the Interim Report, cited above, that ballots going to adjudication can be changed on a wholesale basis by the operator with no oversight, controls or accountability, an extremely serious vulnerability.
Any scientist will tell you that the results of any test or experiment must be replicable to be credible. The same applies... or should apply... to the counting of votes in the most important presidential election since the Civil War. Let's hear SCOTUS disagree with that one!
Trivial footnote from Ed.: The kraken is a legendary sea monster of gigantic size and cephalopod-like appearance in Scandinavian folklore. According to the Norse sagas, the kraken dwells off the coasts of Norway and Greenland and terrorizes nearby sailors by its sheer size and fearsome appearance. "Kraken" also happens to be the name of the new Seattle franchise in the National Hockey League. And that explains the image. Got it?
Monday, December 14, 2020
VIDEO: "The Birth of a Nation" (full) - a lesson for our times?
Just about 100% of the reviews you'll read for D.W. Griffiths' masterpiece, The Birth of a Nation focus on the racism, pro-South bias, "glorification" of the Ku Klux Klan, yada yada yada. There is no dbout about the bias, but there is also no doubt that the events depicted are real, a cautionary tale about what happens when you turn society on its head.
In another masterpiece, The Civil War, film-maker Ken Burns quotes a freed slave as telling his master "Bottom rail on top now!" As the film shows, the aim of many radical abolitionists before, during and after the Civil War was nothing less than to make downtrodden black Americans rulers over the privileged whites. To do so, they used rigged elections (in which whites were disenfranchised), mob violence, and occupation of southern cities and states by the federal army.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The KKK was undeniably racist, but would not have come into being were it not for the necessity of defending southern society and, dare we say it, civilization, in a country which had descended into chaos. Watching The Birth of a Nation may make some people uncomfortable, but it would be foolish to let the political incorrectness blind us to the realities of the culture war which America experienced then... and now.
President Woodrow Wilson is famously rumored to have responded to the film with the remark: "It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true." His published works as a historian are closely aligned with the film's negative portrayal of Reconstruction. Some of his writings are even quoted onscreen in certain prints of the film.
Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it. (George Santayana)
Also worth watching (and free of bias!) Mississippi's War: Slavery and Secession, a production of Mississippi Public Broadcasting, 2014.
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