Open Thread - 16 January 2021

pl

Comments

[Patrick Armstrong]

What happens if, in 6-12 months time, a solid majority of the population comes to believe that Trump was the victim of a propaganda exercise on 6 Jan (and before) and that he really won the election by a good majority?

[Deap]

Homeland Security Committee released report: Biden and family found selling US policy for personal gain. Print out the pdf if you want future reference, because this detailed report will probably be taken down and deep-sixed in the next few days.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2021/01/16/homeland-security-committee-releases-report-outlining-biden-family-selling-u-s-policy-for-personal-financial-gain/

[Deap]

Why you need to worry about California, even if you don't like it.

$9 Billion dollars in fraudulent "covid" claims run through the state's incompetent covid payment system. Which is wasting your federal tax dollars, even when you don't live in California:

https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2021/01/16/ca-edd-fraud-has-now-reached-9-billion-with-international-crime-syndicates-in-the-mix-n311115

As I recall, Trump wanted only $5 billion dollars to build the Wall and Democrats refused to give it to him. But $9 billion easy hand-out dollars to ensure a Biden 2020 victory was small change.

[EEngineer]

Pat, I looked up Rumpole of the Bailey after you mentioned it in a post a few days back. A classic from the golden age of British television that was before my time. I'd never heard of it. Any others you would recommend? I've seen Danger Man, The Prisoner, Space 1999, Civilisation (correct British spelling), Dr Who, Fawlty Towers, World At War, and Monty Python. I actually got my introduction to Red Dwarf when I was stationed at Site One.

[turcopolier]

EEngineer

I did? Try "Silent Witness." There are about 25 seasons. The first few had a different cast. Ignore them.

[Fred]

Eengineer,

that was my post. They might be online. if so check the one about him going to Africa.

[The Twisted Genius]

EEngineer,

Look for "All Creatures Great and Small." It's about some veterinarians in the Yorkshire countryside from the 30s to the 50s. The stories are great and the setting is magnificent. It ran for 12 years or so. There's a new series just started by Masterpiece Theater. I've seen the first episode and it's pretty good.

[The Twisted Genius]

I was trying to imagine what would have happened if the BLM protests last Summer breached the White House. I'm pretty sure it would also be seen as an insurrection. Comparisons to the Haitian Revolution would be inevitable. The backlash would probably have led to a Trump victory in November.

[Fred]

TTG,

"Comparisons to the Haitian Revolution would be inevitable."

I can't think of a more inflammatory and bigoted statement than that.

[Deap]

"My Family and Other Animals, was the later work of the young boy featured on the recent BBC series "The Durrells of Corfu", based upon his own experiences. He took his love for animals fostered on Corfu to later become a veterinarian.

Then an author, along with his older brother who wrote the more literary Bitter Lemons. The quirky mother on Corfu, was in fact an alcoholic and ended up quite dissipated after the family's return to England.

So there is another series to explore - The Durells of Corfu - not quite the fix to replace Downton Abbey, but with some charm..

What was that BBC series about the slightly heavy social climbing middle age woman ...Mrs Bucket -make that "Bou-quet" if you please. Great ensemble acting, kind of a British Seinfeld - stretching endearing comedy out of ordinary life with recognizable human foibles..

I also do love Monty Python, but as they sadly say they probably could not even begin to do their brand of comedy in today's cancel climate. Nor do they have the shared cultural references today that everyone could still recognize. Even the Yanks across the pond at the time, had enough shared British heritage to get a lot of it.

[blue peacock]

Patrick Armstrong,

How do you believe "a solid majority of the population comes to believe that Trump was the victim of a propaganda exercise on 6 Jan (and before) and that he really won the election by a good majority?"

The Propaganda Ministry has demonstrated its effective control of the "inner tubes". All contrarian opinion has already been deemed "insurrectionist".

[Deap]

Open - Thread - who in fact "owns" the internet?

A less than respectable spokesperson did offer an interesting perspective about "private industry" high techers using the internet platform - Bezo, Zuckerberg, Gates, Allen, et all.

They are just rail cars delivering cargo. But the tracks are a creation of the US military - the DARPA network. What government rights are retained to control anyone who uses the internet communication network - like Facebook, or Twitter, or whatever. other train cars are delivering goods to their customers.

Why should they get access and why should they prevent others from also jumping on the tracks - money, equipment........???? They had to start from scratch at one time once they saw the benefit of getting on the DARPA track>

Are they in fact vulnerable to continue getting onto the internet stream itself - whatever the heck it is - what is the command and control structure for the internet itself. Does it have a location, a master on-off switch. Ability to put centralized filters on it?

I use the internet, but I have never really understood what the heck it is.

It the internet a "thing" or is it something that now transcends everything, but some people managed to manipulate it for themselves faster and better than others. But it does really belong only to them?

[Deap]

Who owns the internet. Good, simple discussion and it sure is not Zuckerberg or Bezos. They are just skillful users if the internet.

So who owns it? Everybody and nobody. But there are powers higher than the current cancel/censor crowd:

https://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/who-owns-internet2.htm

[J]

MSM calls for “new definition of free speech”

https://off-guardian.org/2021/01/16/a-new-definition-of-free-speech/

Facebook Censors Mexican Cardinal for Denouncing ‘New World Order’

https://www.breitbart.com/health/2021/01/16/facebook-censors-mexican-cardinal-denouncing-new-world-order/#

Bill Gates Buying Up Huge Amount of Farmland While ‘Great Reset’ Tells Americans Future is No Private Property

Feudalism makes a roaring comeback in the name of progress.

https://summit.news/2021/01/15/bill-gates-buying-up-huge-amount-of-farmland-while-great-reset-tells-americans-future-is-no-private-property/

Biden to deploy FEMA, National Guard to set up Covid vaccine clinics across the U.S.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/15/biden-to-deploy-fema-national-guard-to-set-up-covid-vaccine-clinics-across-the-us.html

Germany to Put COVID Rulebreakers in ‘Detention Camp’
Camps. For dissidents. In Germany.

https://summit.news/2021/01/15/germany-to-put-covid-rulebreakers-in-detention-camp/

[jerseycityjoan]

EEngineer:

I was mesmerized in high school by Anthony Hopkins in War and Peace. I have been waiting for him to do something else like it in terms of depth and breadth and he never has, unfortunately. I think many men would enjoy the WWI era flying in Flambards. The Napoleonic era battle scenes of the Richard Sharpe dramas were fascinating to me because they seemed happen in real time with no camera tricks. To think they showed things as they must have been as masses of men moved towards each other in order to fight was a revelation. I don't know how they made themselves do it.

[Seamus Padraig]

@The Twisted Genius | 16 January 2021 at 08:07 PM

I was trying to imagine what would have happened if the BLM protests last Summer breached the White House. I'm pretty sure it would also be seen as an insurrection.

I have a pretty good idea what would have happened in that case: the media would be indignant that Trump failed to go on one knee for the Whitehouse-stormers and demanding impeachment!

[J]

It's sad that Bill Gates has amassed such power, first in seeds, then in farmland, and now the global medical fields.

What is Gates goal in controlling the world's food, as well as the world's medical/vaccines?

https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/one-empire-over-seed-control-over-worlds-seed-banks

The other name that pops up is the Rockefeller Empire, the same Empire that bought both sides of the isle of the U.S. Congress in 1914.

Global Corporate Communism, what is Gates goal in all of this?

The only nation standing in the way of the Global Corporate Communism take over of the world, appears to be the Russian Federation.

[J]

Colonel,

Looks like we will be adding 11 Million more to our citizenship rolls.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-15/biden-to-send-congress-bill-to-legalize-11-million-immigrants-who-lack-documentation

[Artemesia]

I thought Rumpole of the Bailey was the origin/inspiration for "SWMBO," one of the doughty jurist's frequent complaints.
That and his references to classical poetry and literature.
Thanks for mentioning, Fred; reminder of better times in TV entertainment-land.

Chastening thought: it won't be too much longer until another generation -- not our children but our grandchildren! -- will be pointing backward to that "earlier generation" and its quaint forms of amusement. Perhaps tripping down memory lane is one reason why deap's link (Jan 15) to filmmaker Justin Bellucci's tribute to Trump almost made me cry --
https://politicrossing.com/donald-trumps-latest-commercial-is-epic/

(I think it was mostly the music, one of the best renditions of Sinatra's I Did It My Way.)

Of all the negatives about Trump, it's impressive that he somehow kept together the children from multiple marriages, not an easy task; and they're apparently productive (if 'entitled'). One wonders if Hunter will be cleaned up and sober to face the crowds at his father's big day.

[TV]

TTG:
Zero doubt that storming the "Trump" White House by antifa/BLM would be cheered on by the media and their Democrat masters.
And I suspect that the military brass (Milley and company) - good swamp creatures that they are - would have taken their time to respond, if responding at all.

[turcopolier]

Artemesia

Rumpole was quoting H. Rider Haggard in "She."

[Valissa]

TTG, a reminder...

FLASHBACK: Hundreds Of Violent Left-Wing Rioters Smashed Windows, Set Limousine On Fire In Washington DC During President Trump’s Inauguration In 2017; Government Later Dropped ALL CHARGES Against The Rioters
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/flashback-hundreds-violent-left-wing-rioters-smashed-windows-set-limousine-fire-washington-dc-president-trumps-inauguration-2017-government-later-dropped-charges-aga/

[TonyL]

My appology for not proofreading my comment before hitting the Post button!

TTG,

"I was trying to imagine what would have happened if the BLM protests last Summer breached the White House. I'm pretty sure it would also be seen as an insurrection. Comparisons to the Haitian Revolution would be inevitable. The backlash would probably have led to a Trump victory in November."

It would have been an insurrection. And I agreed the backlash woud have led to a Trump victory in November.

Seeing a few comments above, I think it is hopeless to bridge the divide in this country. The assumption seems to be the "Left" will automatically cheers the BLM protesters who became inssurectionists.

[Deap]

If you have an hour and half to spare, and quite frankly one should make the time, this documentary looks into the political games played during the HIV-AIDS crisis in the 1980's.

Meet many of the eact same players we have come to know and loathe today (Fauci-Redfield) playing the exact same games back then, with HIV-AIDS then that they are playing with covid today.

Chilling and very well done - a Canadian journalist went looking for the facts back in 2009 - pre-covid. No political axe to grind.

Whenever Democrats say they are the "party of science and we need to listen to the experts", this documentary should make your brain scream... no!

https://redstate.com/michael_thau/2021/01/17/2009-documentary-featuring-fauci-redfield-mullis-other-luminaries-sheds-a-very-interesting-light-on-this-pandemic-were-perpetually-in-the-middle-of-n311340

Read the comments and see how many others found this to be a very gripping video and once started, you will want to see it to the end. A must-see.

[downtownhaiku]

Have We Already Been Visited by Aliens?
Elizabeth Kolbert January 18, 2021

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/01/25/have-we-already-been-visited-by-aliens

same article, no paywall here:

https://outline.com/XTfKrW