VIDEO: Why the weaponized FBI is targeting traditional Catholics

Last November, Most Rev. Joseph Strickland was "fired" by "Pope" Francis from his position as Bishop of Tyler (Texas). His crime? Opposing globalism, wokeism, and the leader of the New Church of the World Order. 

Following an apostolic visitation (a word with some interesting meanins) in September, several of Francis' cronies in the Vatican advised him Francis to pressure "Bishop Joe" to resign. But the good bishop refused to bend the knee! In October he penned an open letter to the faithful saying "[resigning] would be me abandoning the flock that I was given charge of by Pope Benedict XVI." 

On 31 October 2023, at the Rome Life Forum of LifeSiteNews, Bishop Strickland read out a letter (attributed to a "friend") which included the question: "Would you now allow this one [Francis] who has pushed aside the true Pope [Benedict XVI] and has attempted to sit on a chair that is not his define what the church is to be?" The letter also described Francis as an "usurper of Peter's chair" and "an expert at producing cowards". 

Bishop Strickland did not dispute these accusations, and described the letter as "challenging". He then made his own comment that Pope Francis backed the Vatican's "attack on the sacred". He was asked to resign on 9 November, and, after refusing again, was deposed on 11 November 2023.

But the prelate has not been silenced. He continues to stand up and speak up for the True Faith, whenever and wherever he can. Last week he spoke at CPAC at National Harbor Maryland. His subject was the FBI's investigation of traditional Catholics, revealed in hearings before the House Judiciary Committee last fall. See "New Report Details the Extent of the FBI's Weaponization of Law Enforcement Against Traditional Catholics".

Bishop Strickland was interviewed on this and related topics by Breitbart News' Matthew Perdie. Listen carefully as he gives a clear and concise explanation of why the liberals, wokesters, and Deep State have a hate-on for traditional Catholics and other Christians.

Key takeaway (at about the 5th minute):  “The Catholic Church is, and should be, totally opposed to this woke agenda … The Catholic Church should reject [the woke agenda] because it’s a rejection of God. It’s a rejection of who we are: created in the image and likeness of God... [Tyrannical leaders] are threatened by those who stand for the truth and won’t budge."

I know! I know!

 

Speaking of Demented Joe... here's the latest evidence, complete with video, that Brandon has lost the plot: "Biden Calls Xi the Russian Leader, Botches Lincoln Quote, Forgets Obama’s Name in Disastrous Speech", by Kyle Becker, in Trending Politics, 25/2/24.

Thinking Democrats [Oxymoron of the Month. Ed.] know Joe's goose is cooked. It will be interesting to see how many of them mark their ballots for "uncommitted" in tomorrow's Michigan primary.

Just like the Holiday Inn

Turns out that South Carolina is not like Pennsylvania or Arizona. Truckloads of ballots did not arrive in the middle of the night to enable Nikki Haley to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. [Did you make that up? Ed.]

The lickspittle media raced to be the first to declare a result, with ABC the winner, calling Trump the winner at approximately 7:00:09 EST. Here are the final numbers.

President Trump: 451,905 votes (59.8%), winning all 44 delegates to the GOP convention

Nikki Haley: 298,681 (39.5%), winning NO delegates

Ron DeSantis: 2951 votes (0.4%)

Vivek Ramaswamy: 728 votes (<0.1%). 

Walt's percentage of correct predictions (see yesterday's post): .990.

So... no surprises, then. Just like the Holiday Inn. Walt notes two things.

First... the Republican Party belongs to President Trump, whether the RINOs and never-Trumpers (Hello, David Frum) like it or not. Whatever demographic or regional divisions may have existed in the past have been largely swept away. As proof of this, I offer the prospect of Senator Tim Scott being offered the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket.

Second... the Dumbocrats must now be seriiously considering showing President Brandon the exit door, while there is still time [about a minute and a half. Ed.] to find another candidate for the presidensity.

Some Dems are putting on a brave face, saying Demented Joe is the only one who could beat the Orange Man, but the operative word there is "could"... not "will". If you're an independent voter and have to choose between two old white guys with health and legal issues, which one would you trust to pilot the ship of state through the stormy seas that lie ahead. [That's enough metaphors. Ed.]

That brings us back to "Waiting in the wings... or maybe just outside the window?", WWW 22/1/24. Mrs Barrack Hussein Obama would be a plausible candidate, but my guess is that she would only throw her do-rag in the ring once Brandon is tail-lights, and if Deep State has everything rigged so that she couldn't possibly lose.

Ms Haley vows to go on to Michigan and Super Tuesday. Whether or not she is able to find the support -- especially financial support -- necessary to do so doesn't matter. She was effectively cooked -- fried -- last night. After Super Tuesday is when the Democratic long knives will come out. Stay tuned.

To that point: "Democrats would have this election in the bag, if not for Joe Biden", by Colby Cosh, in the National Post, 25/1/24.

"Allahu akbar!" in Vienna

As is well known, there is no prostitution in countries where the Religion of Peace (TM) dominates in law or in fact. Prostitution is haram... dirty... taboo... not good. In other countries, where people are not wise enough to follow the teachings of the Prophet, prostitution and prostitutes must be eliminated. Thus such societies can be cleansed.

That explains the news just in over the AP mojo wire from Austria, where police in Vienna launched a criminal investigation after three women were found dead in a brothel yesterday. (Brothels are legal in Austria.) A witness discovered traces of blood outside the building, located near the Danube River, and alerted police.

"The bodies of the three victims had cuts and stab wounds," said a spokesthingy for der Polizei. Police found a fourth woman inside the brothel, and are questioning her as a witness. The identities and ethnicity of the three victims remains unclear.

A 27-year-old man was arrested in the vicinity of the brothel while carrying a knife, which the cops say is the murder weapon. The man arrested, who is even now helping police with their investigations, is... wait for it... an asylum-seeker from Afghanistan.

VIDEO: Walt predicts the outcome of the South Carolina primary

OK, so it's a Trump ad. Anyone who thinks this is wrong is welcome to put his/her money down. Contact Ed's Barbershop, Fort Mudge. Lifetime pct .989.

Entering the third year of Putin's war on Ukraine

Слава Україні! Героям слава!

VIDEO: People's Party of Canada promises an end to DEI, wokeism

DEI is a joke. Even in Canada, where people are too polite to diss that ideology, at least in public, they make jokes about it in private. "DEI = DIE", "diversity is our strength (NOT)", that kind of thing. 

Absurd though wokeism is, not one of the three major Canadian political parties has the cojones to challenge the DEI ideology promoted by the liberal elites, the loonie left, the academia nuts and their lickspittle media. You might as well call the Liberals, NDP and Cuckservatives the "Uniparty" because, when it comes to political correctness, they're all the same.

The only party to stand up against wokeism and DEI is the People's Party of Canada, whose leader, Maxime Bernier, made his party's stand clear today, in this video. (Cliquer ici pour voir la version française.)

M Bernier was speaking in support of Patricia Conlin, the PPC candidate in the upcoming by-election in the Ontario riding of Durham. Click here to learn more about Ms Conlin and her campaign. Walt wishes her and "Mad Max" all the best.

Trump Derangement Syndrome personified

Agent 9 sent a message to Ed. wondering if something had happened to Walt, because after a flurry of activity at the beginning of the month, there's been almost nothing for a week now.

The truth is that Walt has been shocked and appalled by recent developments in the persecution of President Trump, as the weaponized Democrat judges pull out all the stops to throw a spanner [wut? Ed.] into the Donald's re-election campaign. 

I'm lost for words, so this will have to do.

Further comment seems unnecessary. However...

Noted this morning: A survey of New York Jews reports that 61% of those polled plan on voting for President Trump. That probably includes some bankers, businesspersons and others who have yet to succumb to TDS.

I'll be talking at ya on Sunday, after the South Carolina results are in.

You Can't Fix Stupid Dept.

While we wait for South Carolina to put the last nail in the Birdbrain's coffin (lifetime pct .983), we present an item from Walt's large collection of stories that make one think "Thank goodness I'm not that stupid!" 

Authorities in Colorado have confirmed the death of a 34-year-old local resident four days after he was bitten by one of his two pet Gila monsters. 

Gila monster bites are not normally fatal to humans. But Dr Nick Rivera [Ed. Please check last name -- could be Brandehoff] a medical toxicologist and reptilian expert, told CBS News Colorado that the victim may have suffered an allergic reaction. 

The last human death from such a bite is believed to have been in 1930. That incident "was not even a medical journal case," said the good doctor. "The vast majority of bites cause local swelling and bleeding," he said.Dr Brandehoff added that last week's death "highlights that any venomous animals should be respected". 

The victim reportedly owned two of the carnivorous reptiles. Gila monsters are the largest lizards in the US of A and can grow to about 22 inches in length, according to the Smithsonian Institution. They are named after the Gila River. The creature that bit the unidentificed Jefferson County man last week was a juvenile, only 12 inches long. 

It is illegal to own Gila monsters in Colorado without a licence. Tarantulas are OK though. The animal lover had two of those.  

The Jefferson County coroner's office has performed an autopsy but is conducting additional toxicology testing to determine a precise cause of death. A Colorado Parks and Wildlife criminal investigator told CBS his team had been asked to remove the two Gila monsters from the home.

They will be taken to a "wildlife rehab"* in another state, but the lizard that bit the man will first be transported to a lab at the University of Northern Colorado, where its venom will be extracted and studied to learn more about why its bite led to its owner's death.

* Note from Ed.: I'm not sure what a "wildlife rehab" is. Sounds like somewhere you go to dry out after a wild weekend.

Yes, we gots no Black coffee!

RIP Alexei Navalny, died today from APD

To the extent that there is any opposition to Vladimir Putin, "President of All the Russias (Including Ukraine)", it was led by Alexei Navalny, who died today, at the age of 47, after collapsing and losing consciousness at the a notorious 1K-3 penal colony in Kharp,.north of the Arctic Circle. Here is the last known picture of the deceased, taken on January 10th..

The Federal Penitentiary Service of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District said in a statement that Mr Navalny "felt unwell" after a walk, and lost consciousness almost immediately after returning to his cell. "The medical staff of the institution arrived immediately, and an ambulance team was called," the prison service said. "All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, which did not yield positive results. Doctors of the ambulance stated the death of the convict. The causes of death are being established."

Walt can reveal that Mr Navalny died from APD -- Anti-Putin Disorder. That's what happens when you dare to oppose the all-powerful Putin. 

By far Russia's most famous opposition leader, Alexei Novalny rose to prominence more than a decade ago by lampooning the elite class round President Putin and voicing allegations of corruption on a vast scale. A Kremlin spokesman [There are no female spokesthingies in Russia. Ed.] said Mr Putin was informed of Mr Navalny's death, and that the prison service would look into it "in line with standard procedures." 

Mr Navalny's death is very similar to that of Sergei Magnitsky, whose murder in a Russian prison is detailed in two books -- Red Notice and Freezing Order by his friend Bill Browder, an American-born British financier and political activist. 

Just by coincidence [Walt is not all that prescient. Ed.], we devoted two posts on February 7th to the story of Messrs Magnitsky and Browder, to show what happens to those who defy President Putin and his gargantuan kleptocracy.

See "The lesson about Putin and the war on Ukraine we MUST learn from the murder of Sergei Magnitsky" and "The murder of Sergei Magnitsky explains why Putin invaded Ukraine and why he MUST be stopped!" 

On 17 January 2021, Alexei Navalny and his wife returned to Russia from Germany, where he had been in exile. He was taken into custody immediately, and in just over two weeks was tried, convicted and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. 

The events sparked massive protests that reached to Russia's farthest corners and saw more than 10,000 people detained by police. As part of a massive crackdown against the opposition that followed, a Moscow court in 2021 outlawed Mr Navalny's Foundation for Fighting Corruption as "extremist" -- a word now popular with American liberals and their lickspittle media.

On 24 February 2022, when the Russian dictator sent troops to invade Ukraine, Mr Navalny strongly condemned the war in social media posts from prison and during his court appearances. Less than a month after the start of the war, he was sentenced to an additional nine-year term for embezzlement and contempt of court in a case he and his supporters rejected as fabricated. 

The investigators immediately launched a new probe, and in August of 2023 Mr Navalny was convicted on charges of "extremism" -- there's that word again! -- and sentenced to 19 years in prison. After the verdict, Mr Navalny said he understands that he's "serving a life sentence, which is measured by the length of my life or the length of life of this regime." 

Now his life sentence is over. RIP. 

A documentary called Navalny that detailed his career, his near-fatal poisoning and his return to Moscow won an Academy Award for best documentary in March of 2023. Accepting the Oscar, director David Roher said, "Alexei, the world has not forgotten your vital message to us all: We must not be afraid to oppose dictators and authoritarianism wherever it rears its head."

Indeed.

Seen on the Babylon Bee

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent according to the Roman Church calendar. Walt [and Ed.! Ed.] did go church to be reminded that "thou are dust, and unto dust thou shalt return," while the priest marked us with a sign of our Faith. 

Let's not be silly. Those people you saw marked like this are not extremists or terrorists, although many of them will surely vote Republican in November. They are devout Catholics, and probably patriots too!

That little jape is from the Babylon Bee, of course. Our trusted source of Christian satire also features this one.

"Devout Catholic..." HAH! That's good for a belly laugh right there. You won't be seeing any cross of ashes on Joe's forehead. His handlers have strictly forbidden any such pictures less people think that the cross sends the message that his brain is dead! [You mean it's not? Ed.]

As for Catholic... any politician [or even a normal person. Ed.] who calls himself/herself "Catholic" and yet supports a woman's "right" to kill her baby, is, according to even the liberal Church of Francis, not following the precepts of the True Faith.

Click here to read the accompanying article, from the Bee,.14/2/24. 

Got your election bets down yet?

Ah yes. Less than 9 months from today it'll all be over. Senile Joe thinks he's a sure thing.

Before you go to the barbership to get your bet down, better read this morning's line, from covers.com.

The Donald is the new favorite on the US presidential elections board at -110, with Joe Biden right behind him at +275. Despite facing multiple criminal trials, Trump has destroyed his rivals within the Republican party in the first two primaries and now is expected to beat out Biden, whose administration is struggling with domestic and international issues. 

However, there is a sleeper lurking in the background with former First Lady Michelle Obama now in third place at +550.

Did you catch that last sentence? Maybe Mr Ponnaiya has been reading WWW! See "Waiting in the wings... or maybe just outside the window?", WWW 22/1/24.

VIDEO: How you can help make the voice of Catholic Tradition stronger

We have received an email from our old friend Michael Matt, editor of The Remnant newspaper. Many times in the past WWW has featured one of Mr Matt's excellent videos. The burden of this message is that "Remnant Underground" has struggled mightily to stay (uncensored) on YourTube. But the full, uncut version is available on Remnant TV. Mr Matt explains... 

I founded Remnant TV as part of our larger effort to reach the many millions of Catholics who’d begun to feel disenfranchised by the post-Conciliar Church. Along with one of my nephews and my then-teenaged son, Walter, I established The Remnant’s YouTube channel, which today can boast some 270,000 subscribers, nine hundred videos, and 37,000,000 views.

All was well until the Great Censorship Campaign of 2020 when the Gods of Big Tech – bowing to the demands of their Globalist overlords – elected to cancel free speech in the name of the “health and safety guidelines” established by the World Health Organization. Not surprisingly, Remnant TV’s YouTube channel was summarily demonetized, and it became clear to those who’d remained awake – not woke – that independent thinking was to become a casualty of Cancel Culture. 

And nowhere was this made more evident than on YouTube, where doctors, journalists, critical thinkers of all stripes were silenced by the masked-up champions of a warp-speed “vaccine” and a global lockdown. Initially, Remnant TV’s YouTube channel survived, after a fashion, but we could feel the noose tightening. Our time to go came in August of 2020 when one of my videos went viral. 

It was called, “THE GREAT RESET: Davos & the Plot to Cancel Trump,” it reached millions of viewers, and set up our channel for the purge. Soon thereafter, YouTube deleted my second viral video, “CORONAVIRUS: Globalism’s Perfect Storm” and although we were allowed back after one week, it was clear that the algorithms were now very much stacked against my channel. We were being shadow banned on a weekly basis, and many of our 270,000 subscribers were being kept in the dark when it came to RTV’s regular postings.

With the handwriting scrawled all over the wall, I determined to create a completely independent video platform, which included renting our own Content Delivery Networks (CDN) here at home and also in Europe. This is not cheap, but it’s absolutely essential if we’re to remain out of the control of Big Tech. The success of our privately-funded video platform – Remnant-TV.com – hinged on total independence from Amazon servers, something most alternative platforms use (including Rumble, by the way).

Believe it or not, I faced one surprising challenge: Since Big Tech offers a wide variety of the best bells, whistles, and options in the business, many good people were not eager to leave the mainstream platforms. It became necessary for me to convince my followers to support something not many content creators had even attempted – a completely independent and privately-funded platform. 

And today – three years later and with your support – I am happy to confirm that it worked. Remnant TV can boast ten million views with a functionality and user-friendly application unsurpassed by any other privately funded video player. And for that I thank God and I thank you for making Remnant TV a success.

So today – with the 2024 election year upon us and another Big Tech crackdown looming – I want to ask your help to push this project over the last hurtle. What I need more than anything else is help getting the word out to patriots and traditional Catholics everywhere that Remnant TV is now in a position to provide totally uncensored truth and analysis on its own platform.

So, I’m asking you to recruit at least one friend or family member to sign up for my E-letter. That’s the last piece of the puzzle, but it’s a big one. Because in order to beat the Big Tech algorithms, I need a network of friends to inform as many people as possible of how, when, and where RTV videos are posted. Click here to sign up!

It’s really just that simple, and I know that, together, we can do this! We can unite the clans against the online gatekeepers of this Christophobic New World Order. Please, let’s do this. With God’s help, let’s resolve to go to war in defense of everything that matters most – God, Country, and Family. 

In Christo Rege, Michael J. Matt

Note from Ed.: Here's the latest Remnant Underground -- "AMERICA’S GOT TALENT: Tucker Carlson vs Taylor Swift". We subscribe to the FREE E-letter so we don't miss any. So should you, dear reader, even if you're not a traditional Catholic, because this real news is important, now more than ever. Tell `em Walt sent ya!

 

VIDEO: Education in today's Woke Up America

 

This little ray of light shining into the darkness of liberal America was posted six years ago, while The Donald was President. How are things after nearly four years of having a Dumbocrat in the White House? Any better? It's going to take a looooong time to Make America Great Again.

Thanks to Agent 6 for sending this along.

VIDEO: "i know what the hell I'm doing!" sez Senile Joe

Last night, President Brandon decided [or was told. Ed.] to hold a presser in furious response to Special Counsel Robert Hur's bombshell report targeting his "hazy" memory. "I know what the hell I'm doing!" he snapped. 

Moments later, Senile Joe gave the lie to his own angry statement, calling Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi "the president of Mexico" while discussing aid for Gaza. Yes, we (along with every media outlet in the world) have the video.

The octogenarian President made the fresh gaffe after avoiding prosecution for mishandling classified documents. The special prosecutor, Rober Hur, said Brnadon was an "elderly man with a poor memory", whom no jury would convict. Case closed!

Walt says it's time to stop flogging the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the Excited States of America, and invoke the 25th. Proposed by Congress and ratified by the states in the aftermath of the assassination of JFK, that amendment provides the procedures for replacing the president or vice president in the event of death, removal, resignation, or incapacitation. 

Unlike the 14th Amendment, the 25th has actually been used within recent memory. The Watergate scandal of the `70s saw the application of these procedures, first when Gerald Ford replaced Spiro Agnew as vice president, then when he replaced Richard Nixon as president, and then when Nelson Rockefeller filled the resulting vacancy to become the vice president. 

The only drawback I can see in applying the 25th Amendment in this case is that Camela Harris would become President. But hey, it would all be over in a few months!

Happy Lunar New Year of the Dragon!

Walt and Poor Len [and Ed.] wish

all our Chinese friends and readers*

* We wish to point out that although WWW is banned in Communist China, we have we have Chinese readers in Taiwan, in the huge Chinese diaspora around the world, and (through VPN) even in Communist China itself. Our good wishes extend to the Chinese people... only!

UPDATED: Brandon is NOT stupid! He just talks to dead people, is all

The reference is to Crooked [How about "cooked"? Ed.] Joe's statement last Sunday that, not long after his stolen election in 2020, he had a conversation with "Mitterrand of Germany". Quite a feat considering that François Mitterrand was not “of Germany", but of France, of which he was president from 1981 to 1995. And M Mitterand died in 1996!

But wait (as Vince Offer used to say), there's more! On Wednseday, while recalling past conversations during fundaising events in New York, Demented Joe claimed he spoke with the late German Chancellor Helmut Kohl at his (Joe's) first G7 meeting (as President) in 2021. In reality, Herr Kohl died in 2017. So that's two "lapses of memory" in just one week. Source: Fox News.

This week's gaffes are just the latest in a long string of indications that Brandon is not stupid (QED) but simply suffering from senile dementia, and thus unfit to be President. Not now. Not ever. That's all ye know and all ye need to know. Scraped from Blazing Cat Fur, with thanks.

Further reading: "Special Counsel Finds Joe Biden ‘Willfully Retained’ Classified Docs — but Is Too Mentally Feeble to Prosecute", Breitbart News, 8/2/24. Key Finding: "We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt... It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."

On the same subject, from the Babylon Bee, 8/2/24: "Man Ruled Too Senile To Stand Trial Still Fine To Run Country". 

The murder of Sergei Magnitsky explains why Putin invaded Ukraine and why he MUST be stopped!

As promised earlier today (see previous post, below), here are excerpts (lightly edited) from Bill Browder's Freezing Order, Simon & Schuster, 2022. Thanks again to Agent 5 for sending us this book, which Walt recommends highly.

Although this book is about my fight for justice following Sergei Magnitsky's murder, I can draw a straight line from his murder to Putin's invasion of Ukraine. 

As my team and I ultimately learned from the Magnitsky case, Putin and about 1000 of his people have stolen at least $1 trillion from the Russian state over a 22-year period. Instead of hospitals, schools, roads, and other public services, it was spent on yachts, private planes, luxury villas, and foreign bank accounts. 

Putin knows that if he loses power, he would lose his fortune, he would go to jail, and he would probably be killed. For Putin, losing power is an existential threat. He'll do what every autocrat does when he's worried about his people rising up against him. He'll pull out the dictator's playbook, create a foreign enemy and start a war. 

In 2014, following a rigged election and Putin's widely perceived illegitimate return to the Russian presidency, he illegally annexed Crimea and invaded eastern Ukraine. 

These actions provoked no serious pushback from the West. There were no meaningful sanctions, Russia wasn't cut off from the international financial system, no Western companies pulled out, and there was absolutely no military response. 

Fast forward to 2022. Following the pandemic, Putin's popularity was once again fading. Since he couldn't lose power, and since he knew from experience that there would be no personal downside to another war, from his perspective invading Ukraine made perfect sense. It could shore up his power at home, and there would be no negative consequences for him. 

The war in Ukraine has exposesd Putin. Now everyone is asking: how does this all end? Liberal policy makers, pundits, political scientists, globalists and one-worlders tell us that if Ukraine were to make some concessions to Putin, there will be peace and everything will go back to the way it was. 

These people fail to understand Putin. To truly appreciate where he is coming from, you have to be a criminologist, not a political scientist. He is a scared little man who's stolen too much money and is terrified of the consequences. What he wants -- what he needs -- is to stay in power at all costs. 

Therefore the purpose of Russia's war with Ukraine is simple to be at war. War is his endgame. Ultimately, there are only two ways this terrible situation will be resolved. Either Russia wins the war, or Ukraine wins the war. That's it. 

If Putin wins in Ukraine, then we will be faced with two unacceptable paths, a true military confrontation with a nuclear Russia, or abject appeasement as Putin continues to gobble up more and more countries. We need to avoid this. Ukraine must win. 

Right now, the Ukrainians are doing the West's fighting for us. Like it or not, they are the tip of the spear, and we should give them every bit of assistance. So far, we've given them enough not to lose. But we haven't yet given them enough to win. 

Giving in to Putin will only encourage his imperialism. If a triumphant Putin follows Ukraine with an attack on a NATO country, then we will be at the beginning of world War III -- and the fallout from that will make our current worries about inflation and the future look like a Sunday stroll through the park. 

One big lesson I've learned from Sergei Magnitsky's murder and my ongoing struggle with Putin is that 90 percent of Putin's strength comes from the perception that he is strong. He is not. He knows this viscerally -- it's why he started this war against Ukraine in the first place -- and he is terrified. 

If our leaders could take this lesson to heart and stand firm to deny Putin his strength, then he'd be out business very quickly. I hope we can succeed. We must!

Preview: The lesson about Putin and the war on Ukraine we MUST learn from the murder of Sergei Magnitsky

Bill Browder is an American-born British financier and political activist. He is the CEO and cofounder of Hermitage Capital Management, the investment advisor to the Hermitage Fund, which at a time was the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia. 

On 13 November 2005, the offices of Hermitage were raided. Mr Browder was refused entry to Russia, deported to the UK, and declared a threat to Russian national security. 

Sergei Magnitsky, head of the tax practice at Firestone Duncan, (Mr Browder's American law firm), was assigned to investigate the purpose of the raids. He discovered that while the seized documents were in the custody of the police, they had been used to fraudulently re-register Hermitage's holding companies to the name of an ex-convict. 

Mr Magnitsky was subsequently arrested by Russian authorities and died in prison, having been denied proper medical treatment. Mr Browder calls the death "murder". 

After Mr Magnitsky's death, Mr Browder lobbied for Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act,  a statute intended to punish Russian human rights violators, which was signed into law by President Obama in 2012. The following year, both Mr Magnitsky and Mr Browder were tried in absentia by a Russian court Russia for tax fraud. 

Unsurprisingly, both men (Mr Magnitsky had died four years prior) were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment. This was the first time in the modern era that a dead man had been tried and convicted.

Interpol rejected Russian requests to arrest Browder, saying the case was political. In 2014, the European Parliament voted for sanctions against 30 Russians believed complicit in the Magnitsky case. This was the first time it had taken such action. 

In 2015, Mr Browder told the story of his prosecution and persecution by the Russian state, the murder of his principled young tax attorney, and his dangerous mission to expose the Kremlin's corruption, in Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice. (Simon & Schuster, 2015). 

Freezing Order is a sequel to Red Notice, published by Simon & Schuster in 2022. We'll post Mr Browder's dire warning to the West, excerpted from the "Afterword" to Freezing Order, later today. Many thanks to Agent 5 for sending us not just a link, but the book itself!

Brandon: "My work here is done"

The world's oldest automobile, still running after 140 years

Many thanks to Agent 6 for sending us photos and information on this 1884 motor vehicle, the oldest automobile still in running order. And guess what? It's not an early experiment by Henry Ford. It's French!

This steam-powered "Two by Two" was built in 1884 by Georges Bouton and Charles-Armand Trépardoux, according to plans made by the Count of Dion, who gave it the name "La Marquise" (his mother's noble title). The engine, known now as the De Dion-Bouton, is considered the first high-speed lightweight internal combustion engine. It has since been licensed to over 150 manufacturers worldwide.

In 1887, with the Count himself at the "tiller" (the steering device), "La Marquise" won the first automobile race from le Pont de Neuilly in Paris to Versailles and return, a distance of 20 miles, which the winner covered in one hour and 14 minutes, with an average speed of around 15 mph. A contemporary report said the car reached a straight-line speed of 40 mph!

"La Marquise" has had four owners, staying in one family for 81 years. She waqs restored twice, first by the Doriol family, then, in the early 1990s, by an English collector named Tom Moore. After that last restoration, she participated four times in the London-Brighton race. In 1997, she won the gold medal in the Pebble Beach concours d'élégance.

Most recently, "La Marquise" changed hands at an auction in Pennsylvania $4.62 million (including taxes). Walt wishes her (and her owners) a still longer life!

Hold the presses! Another entry for our Funny Names contest

Here's what Wikipedia tells us about Bartolo "Big Sexy" Colón. He is a Dominican-American professional baseball pitcher, now toiling for the Karachi Monarchs of Baseball United. 

He last played in the US major leagues in 2018, having pitched for 11 different MLB teams: the Cleveland Indians (1997–2002), Montreal Expos (2002), Chicago White Sox (2003, 2009), Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (2004–2007), Boston Red Sox (2008), New York Yankees (2011), Oakland Athletics (2012–2013), New York Mets (2014–2016), Atlanta Braves (2017), Minnesota Twins (2017), and Texas Rangers (2018). He also played for the Águilas Cibaeñas of the Dominican Professional Baseball League (Dominican Winter League) and the Acereros de Monclova of the Mexican League. 

There's nothing particularly funny about Sr Colón's name, but Agent 34 has sent us a couple of newspaper clippings showing that a little imagination can transform a simple name into a LOL headline.

Further entries along these base lines are welcome.

The BIG ballot question in 2024

Almost immediately after he was steered into the Oval Office to begin work as front man for the Obama-Soros Deep State, Senile Joe Biden began rolling back President Trump's immigration policies, which he had assailed throughout the 2020 campaign as "harsh and inhumane."

That was three years ago. And we all know what's happened to America since the borders (north as well as south) were declared open again. President F.J. Brandon now sounds remarkably like the Donald as he presses Congress for "restrictions" (not an outright ban) on asylum seekers. Progressive thinkers are moaning that such measures would be unthinkable if Uncle Joe were still alive.

But no... President Brandon is boarding up the entrance to his Delaware basement against  the expected home invastion by the "undocumented newcomers" he can see marching up the driveway even now. He is under intense pressure, not just from Republicans but from Democrats, including elected Democratic officials in "sanctuary cities" 1000s of miles from the border who are feeling the blowback from Americans angry about the effects of asylum-seekers arriving in record numbers. 

With the 2024 presidential campaign shaping up as a likely rematch between Crooked Joe and the Donald, unlimited and uncontrolled immigration has become Mr Brandon's biggest potential liability.

That's why the Democrats have and the lickspittle media have done the Big 180, and are now pushing a sweeping measure that would expand the President's authority to put strict new limits on border crossings. "If that bill were the law today, I'd shut down the border right now and fix it quickly," Joe said (from his basement) this past weekend.

Meanwhile, President Trump, is eager to rekindle the passions that the wide-open border fueled during his successful 2016 campaign. Corey Lewandowski, his 2016 campaign manager, said, " It has been a message that has resonated not just with Republicans or Democrats, but across the country, because now even those liberal cities, those blue cities, those blue mayors, they're saying we can't handle the crisis anymore and give us help,"

Mr Trump lamented over the weekend that his border message didn't resonate when he ran for reelection in 2020 because he'd done such a good job controlling the border that he "took it out of play." The Dempanic over Covid didn't help either, as the number of immigrant wannabes dwindled somewhat because of lack of job prospects. 

Campaigning in Las Vegas on Saturday, President Trump said, "Literally we couldn’t put it in a speech. Nobody wanted to hear about the border. We had no border problem. But now we can talk about the border because it's never, ever been worse than it is now."

A vote on the supposedly bipartisan bill to reimpose border controls is expected today. Walt wonders if the so-called moderate Republicans will be suckers enough to support the Dumbocrats' desperate ploy to shield Crooked Joe from the voters' wrath in November, thus putting him back in the White House for aother four years or his death, whichever first occurs. Stay tuned.

Groundhog Day 2024

A reader in upstate New York reports that Hellery Clinton did NOT see her shadow this morning, so it looks like we'll have an early spring.

Not far away, a shivering creature emerged from a basement on the Delaware Shore and saw a shadow... not his, though.

Yes, Virginia, there IS a plan to retaliate against Iran

After reading "A sensible view of demands to retaliate against Iran" (WWW 1/2/24), a reader writes to note that Crooked Joe Biden announced a couple of days ago that he does have a plan to retaliate against Iran for the drone strike that killed three American troops. 

However, the soon-to-be former POTUS was reluctant to share details of his alleged plan. He says the Excited States of America will respond in the time and manner of his (Biden's) own choosing. Swell.

Walt's mole in the White House has found some notes scribbled on rolling papers in a packet labelled "Hunter's", outlining the substance of the plan. Here, in cartoon form, is the gist of it.

A sensible view of demands to retaliate against Iran

Most of Walt's readers don't read (or haven't heard of!) the National Post. Founded by Conrad Black, sometime Canadian (when he wasn't busy being Lord Black of Cross Harbour) and arch-conservative, the Post (and its group of Sun newspapers) is the only media outlet in Canuckistan which takes a reasonably balanced view of the world. 

One of the Post group's premier columnists is Kelly McParland, who wrote an excellent piece today on the stupidity of the Excited States of America's entering yet another war in the Middle East. Mr McParland argues that the Republicans who are pressing Crooked Joe Biden to hit back at Iran for the drone strike that killed three US soldiers [How come all three were black? Ed.?] are all but insane to advocate such folly. 

Worse, they are urging a course of action which President Trump has rightly and repeated condemned. I've emphasized Mr Trump's words in Mr McParland's column, which I'm reposting, in a slightly shortened version. (To read the entire column, click on the headline link.) 

Biden pressed to start another 'stupid' war

If you disliked Donald Trump but were determined to say something positive about him, you could always cite his consistent criticism of “stupid” American wars. It’s a position that hits home with a lot of people — Democrats as much as Republicans — who have lost loved ones in distant countries over matters a lot of Americans don’t view as their responsibility to solve.

Trump has been nothing if not consistent on the point.While campaigning for re-election in 2020 he boasted of his efforts to reduce U.S. military deployments overseas and pledged to "keep America out of these endless, ridiculous, stupid, foreign wars in countries that you’ve never even heard of."

He regularly assails the Biden administration over its defence performance — particularly the bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, insists he could end the Ukraine war in 24 hours as president, and says the White House "has brought us to the brink of World War III."

His admirers like to cite his record of having "no wars" during his four years in office — a claim with some merit compared to recent predecessors. One 2017 study concluded that crucial Trump victories in three key states in the 2016 election may have been helped by concern over high casualty rates under previous administrations. All of which makes it a bit odd that top Republicans are loudly demanding the sort of retaliatory action against Iran that history suggests would be an excellent way to start yet another ill-fated U.S. military entanglement....

"The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East. Anything less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward unworthy of being commander-in-chief," said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who is backing Trump’s renewed bid for the presidency. 

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell charged in a statement that "the entire world now watches for signs that the President is finally prepared to exercise American strength to compel Iran to change its behaviour."

He said U.S. enemies would continue to be emboldened "until the United States imposes serious, crippling costs — not only on front-line terrorist proxies, but on their Iranian sponsors who wear American blood as a badge of honour." Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn both fired off tweets insisting the White House aim hits directly at Iran, while Trump himself used the attack to criticize Biden for his "weakness." 

Given the Middle East’s status as one of the world’s most relentlessly volatile regions, Iran’s success in spreading its tentacles throughout the region, the tensions already centred on the bitter confrontation in Israel and Gaza and the growing boldness of Iran’s determination to taunt western powers, it’s difficult to see how yet another one-off U.S. retaliatory effort could accomplish anything other than increasing the danger the region’s many festering hot spots erupt into one giant conflagration.

In other words, just the sort of "endless", "stupid" foreign war that Trump has so often derided, and just the sort of quagmire the mullahs in Tehran would love to see sweep over the region. Chaos and conflict work to the benefit of regimes like Syria’s and Iran’s, helping focus hatred on foreign powers rather than the brutality and repression they inflict on their own people. 

A few quick missile strikes on known Iranian dependents in Syria or Iraq, or even Iran itself, might raise cheers for a day or two in Washington but would be yet another opportunity for Tehran to recruit the sort of fanatics who think spilling more blood is a good reaction to all the blood that’s already been spilled. Jumping impulsively into doomed conflicts is indeed a trait that has brought the U.S. tragedy and humiliation time and again. 

Vietnam was a quagmire. It was far harder for the Obama and Trump administrations to get US troops out of Iraq than it was for the Bush White House to get them in. The US disaster in Benghazi may not have killed Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign all on its own but was certainly a nail Republicans hammered at enthusiastically. And Joe Biden’s rush to flee Afghanistan was a fiasco from which he’s never managed to recover.

It’s easy to understand the temptation to use Washington’s immense military might to strike back at a country that works so hard to bring despair to so many people. But in pressing Biden to risk lives for the sake of a quick headline or two, Republican leaders are demanding a response that’s diametrically opposed to what their favoured candidate has been preaching since the day he entered politics. 

Would they be making the same demand if it was a Republican sitting in the White House, forced to confront the prospects of setting off a regional explosion, complete with body bags being shipped back home? If so it would be evidence they’d learned no more about the dangers of stumbling into foreign wars than the presidents who sent U.S. sons and daughters into Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and came to regret it.