Defence policy is in Νεφελοκοκκυγία

 Hi All,

Much to my delight I have learned something new today and that is that Cloud Cocko Land was first thought up by the ancient Greeks, which  according to Wikipedia,  was Νεφελοκοκκυγία (Nephelokokkygia) or Cloud Cuckoo Land- as a place, but like Atlantis functions as an allegory because : 

"Cloud cuckoo land is a state of absurdly, over-optimistic fantasy or an unrealistically idealistic state of mind where everything appears to be perfect. Someone who is said to " live in cloud cuckoo land " is a person who thinks that things that are completely impossible might happen, rather than understanding how things really are."

And this dear reader is exactly where our current crop of generals and politicians reside. The generals live there when they call for conscription (the draft) in the belief that our country is anything like the generation of my grandparents who served in world war 2, when things like patrotism and the Royal Family were taken for granted by all political parties, rather than the self-loathing of the elites toward British history, the Empire, woke etc etc that we have today, especially given  that to self -identifying as a 'patriot', is bad and seen as right wing extremism. Woke has another victim.

But don't worry, our politicians say, we are a great power and we have the nukes! Yet exactly how this is going to get Russia out of Ukraine or stop them is a mystery. I cannot see any British government using nukes in a first strike capacity and not one against a nuclear armed state like Russia. The nukes, as the generals will tell you, is only credible if it is backed up by conventional power as well.  Yet this conventional power does not exist : the RAF is more concerned with not employing 'posh white men' (there's the dam busters gone and don't mention their Labrador's name) , the army is down to 70,000, destroyers have gyms were missiles should be, frigates are being desposed of because there are no personel to man them and because of costs it is rumoured one of the aircraft carriers (which are frequently breaking down and don't have aircraft on them) might have to be sold because of budget cuts.  What happened to the nation that built an empire which once covered a quater of the globe, abolished slavery and brought civilisation- science, medicine, technology- to the corners of the Earth? 

In short the military and political leadership are living in cloud cucko land. In one hand they wish to pump up the talk of Russia as another Hitler or Kaiser and the necessary Churchillian resolve to confront with force if necessary this foe. On the other hand, they act- rather than rhetorical Churchill-  as if we are living in a utopian era of international goodwill,  by driving the defence forces into second and third rate status.

 Put simply Britain is engaging in Churchill like rhetoric, but backing this will 1930s appeasement style spending. But even by the late 1930s, Britain under the arch -appeaser Neville Chamberlain, at least began the process of rearming for war, whereas in today's era we are neither engaging in appeasement (and thus keeping defence levels low) not rearmament. It is the worse of both worlds.

 So if we do end up in this war against Russia or even involve ourselves in another Korean war or a war with China (or horrifically all 3 wars at the same time) we would suffer a massive defeat. To be sure these wars would be allied wars, but the reality would be we would quickly be shoved out of them because of lack of manpower or equipment and thus be more of a liability than an asset  and maybe even see our '1905' moment abroad and at home  (a la the Russo -Japanese war and subsequent Russian revolt against the Tsar). 

During the dark days of the early part of world war 2, three men (one of them to be a future Labour leader)  - a socialist, a liberal and a conservative -  wrote 'Guilty Men' under the pseudonym "Cato". The polemic described the folly of British policy during the 1930s, the failures of the war so far and how Britain was woefully unprepared for war in 1939. The essay identified 15 'guilty men' who were held responsbile for this debacle. One wonders who the guilty men are going to be this time around, if as seems likely we are to end up in another great power war, but the list is probably going to be long. 

War, is War in sight? Conscription, Kangaroo Court and much more...

 Hi All,

What a week it has been! 

First we have the ongoing war in Gaza and today's subsequent rulings from the Kangaroo Court in the Hague, by a state which is not even capable of giving its own citizens basic stuff like water, against a state whose very purpose was to prevent another genocide of the Jewish people, now accused of the blood libel of, er, genocide. 

This week also saw the close of the Davos get together of the great and good .Switzerland is a nice country and it was there that the head of the most powerful bank -JP Morgan, Chase & Co - Jamie Diamond shocked a few lefties with his suggestion that Trump had been right all along on a lot of things.

In America we have had the clearest indication yet that Trump is almost certainly going to be the nomination of the GOP for POTUS... although mabye he won't be on the ballot in certain blue states (confusingly in America blue is the left colour and red is the right colour. This is no different to how Americans drive on the wrong side of the road. Go figure ).  Now many people in Europe don't get it, but they are starting to because America is going through the same thing Europe did and to a lesser extent still is, going through namely mass illegal immigration on the Mexican border. What is not really reported here is that the Blue states are getting a dose of their own medicine, with many of the illegals being bussed into those same 'sanctuary cities' that now claim they don't want them and can't cope. Who would have thought that millions of economic and poor migrants crossing a border - illegally- for a welfare cheque would cause any problems to the host country, eh? Maybe a wall wasn't such a bad idea? 

The foreign policy thing we can also take from this is that there are real threats Trump would pull out of NATO, which means the Yanks might not be coming , to reverse the old song. 

Which leads us to the next bit of news : is war (In Europe) in sight? I first assumed that this was because of a lack of news, but no it is serious. Estonia, Sweden and Germany had all been talking this up, either by leaked documents on assumptions of a war in 1-3 years and then it hit us on Wednesday. In Britain there is talk by the Chief of Staff to bring back conscription (the Draft to Americans) because of the outlook for a wider European war. American generals have been warning in public for the past couple of years Britain is no longer the military power she once was.

That is chilling stuff, given that Britain has only drafted civilians into her forces during 2 world wars, although even with the meat grinder of the trenches, it was Kitchener's volunteers who made up the bulk of troops before conscription was introduced, first for unmarried and then married men. But while the government was quick to backtrack, its seems that there is a greater acceptance that some form of remarmament is necessary as it was in the 1910s and later 1930s. The problem is that HM Treasury sees things differently and has been happy to enforce a 'gutting' of the Defence Forces over the past 30 years. This has to stop. We cannot just rely on the nuclear deterence. Who believes that the UK would nuke Russia if the Baltics were invaded? No-one. Because anyone sane enough would point out Russia would destroy the UK with several missiles. 

What is needed is a build up of the military - not cutting it even further- to do our part in the defence of Europe, which is ultimately a defence of our Kingdom as well, but it is better to 'Duke it out'  in the Baltics than in Newcastle, Glasgow or Belfast. There are a few signs of this, in the new Type 83 Destroyer (in reality a Cruiser), because things like the navy have a lot of trendy weapons that have been defensive and not offensive. We need to see the armed forces in 'beast mode' and we need to see more than a handful of these new Cruisers being built, which will require investment in new shipyards or a revivial of shipbuilding in the tradtional areas such as Newcastle, Belfast, Glasgow, Bristol etc.

Why then is there great chatter about war being in sight? My feeling is that it is not just unease about whether America will stay with us, but also because it is widely deemed that Ukraine's offensives have failed and that the country is on the brink, along with this allies are doubting whether sending over aid is worthwhile with the US Congress concluding 'no' and if Trump is elected then that is it and Ukraine will be forced to split herself into 2 . The timeframe in the German documents allude to this fact and intelligence analysts have been watching the war intently. The amount of weaponary that is being used. The 'force multipliers' that our arms manufacturers have been producing were costly and fewer than what we had before, but were supposed to be x times as powerful. This may or may not be the case, but it is illuminating that these force multipliers might not be all they are cracked up to be. Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallance said the 'cubbard was bare' and then America was forced to send its old cluster munitions with a gaffe by Biden that America was running out of its high end missiles- with lead times (the time it takes to produce) of years. So if this year is the year Ukraine has to capitulate and the generals probably know this, then the next target are the Scandinavian -Baltic states, all NATO members or allies. Hence the urgent talk of military buildups or worry over war. 

But we shall see...

In the meantime Shabbat Shalom!

Iran vs Pakistan : How will the left cope?

 Hi All, 

As if the middle east conflict (or should I say conflicts) can't get any stranger, we have had over the past couple of days Iran now attacking Pakistan and now Pakistan retaliating against Iran. To those who do follow the politics of the area, it should come as no surpised. Geopolitics and religion almost caused an Perso-Afghan war last year and Afghanistan is well with Pakistan's sphere of influence or at least both the Taleban and Pakistan have a common foe in Iran.  In that I think I would echo Kissinger 'Pity they can't both loose'. 

But I digress as this is about how leftists are going to process a conflict which shows us how complex international relations can be, rather than a simplified 'black and white' or 'good vs evil' way of looking at how states interact with each other. 

The Iran-Pakistan conflict  will prove to be a problem for leftists who are in their comfort zone when in full enraged mode at Israel/Jews and then a good olde bash at America and self loathing of themselves as the collective west . Even America/UK trying to protect shipping lanes verses Islamic terrorists can be dreamed away as being  because of western colonial imperialism. Now the Houthis or Ansar Allah-' the Party of god' - say 'Death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews and victory to Islam'. Not nice, but ok as they are just one of many groups who have one thing in common with the far left : hatred of the west. 

But what about when its Muslim on Muslims, 'duking it out', as the Americans would say. That's going to be more difficult and like Syria, expect radio silence. The thing is Iran is the world's largest Shia state, but Shia islam is 10% of the total, so you might expect a left whose theory is based around whoever is the most oppressed group is the one worthy of support to go for Iran. Plus Iran is a transgender paradise, having the largest number of trans people in the world (in truth, this is because of homophobia as they forcibly operate on gay people to 'change' them into the opposite sex, rather than tolerate homosexuality as a 'thing').

Except that Pakistan is mostly Sunni and most of the Muslims in the UK come from the Pakistan-Indian sub continent, but are seem as the oppressed minority in the UK (at least by the left, seeing Islamophobia everywhere). So the best thing to do in such circumstances is for the left to go absent without leave. Besides which there isn't Jews/Israel involved, so any conflict between Pakistan and Iran will simply be on the fringes of the left's world, rather than anything like demos to central London, pages of condemnation in the Guardian and biased reporting on the BBC or Sky News,  South Africa taking either of them to  the Hague, show trials and Kangaroo courts.

Ballots and stopping Trump

 Hi All,

You no longer have to be a conspiracy theorist on this one. No I'm not referring to the idea that the US goverment has aliens or alien space craft at area 51. I am referring to the idea that there is a conspiracy against former President Trump. It isn't a theory or something shadowy. It is being fully cheered on by a mixture of democrats, mainstream media and political appointees to do everything they can to stop Trump from being re-elected. Everything from left leaning states (even if Trump was 100% clean, they'd probably find a car parking ticket and use that to throw him in goal for 1,000 years) to Federal inditments have been thrown at Trump, with collective fines and gaol terms of hundreds of years each. Everthing but the kitchen sink and that may follow soon. The latest being the attempts by Colarado and other left leaning states to not put Trump of the ballot for the Primaries, let alone the 'general elections*'. 

What is interesting is what the response of the Supreme Court will be. You see when the Supreme Court overturned Roe Vs Wade, it did so on the basis it was up to the indivdual states to decide what to do with abortion, thus it was not a Federal issue. Likewise elections in America are the perview of the States and not the Federal government- even Federal offices themselves. Given the Supreme Court mostly follows the common law idea of Precedent, it will be interesting to see if they will be willing to back Trump on this one and overturn the long standing Precedent that elections are a state matter. 

As for not having a major candidate on the ballot across all states, this has happened before. But that was in 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was elected. He wasn't on ballot in Southern States and still won the election... which started succession and civil war.

[*Primaries being the way the parties elect their candidates for office in America, not just President, you basically registed as eith Republican, Democrat or Independent  and then get to vote to choose  the candidate for the actual office, then there is a seperate election for that office itself, although there varients, but this is it in simplist form,, by contrast in the UK it is party members who vote for Parliamentary candidates, not conservatives voters and the Labour party has the bloc votes of Unions as well as individual party members]. 

It's NATO time Jack

 Hi All,

Quick video with current NATO members and when they joined :

Meanwhile back in the Hauge

 Hi All, 

Well, we all know what a Kanagroo Court is or as in 1940s Germany  a Volksgerichtshof. 

This show trial brought by South Africa,  is not the first time Jews have been forced to defend themselves against outrageous accusations, via desputations, blood libels and Talmud burnings,  with what seemed like a legit authority actually having and giving a  forgone conclusion : Jews are guilty because they are, what more do you need than that?  .... so no further comment from me!

No, Not this again!

 Hi All, 

As it is the festive season and because it was mentioned in the comments a post or two back... was Jesus Jewish or Palestinian. The real reaction to this should be a 'face palm' because whatever you believe, it is clear from the Christian religious text themselves  that the narrative is contained within a 'Jewish' setting and not some mythical Palestine of the 1st Century AD (or if you prefer 'CE', a silly thing which I can't see the point of) . Palestine did not ever exist as a state, maybe as  a region, but that was not until the Romans put down the Jewish revolts and decided to call the place 'Syria Palestine', the name being taken from the Philistines of the Bible and deliberately used a name change in order to punish and take revenge on the Jewish people. 

But I think it is time for some humour to explain this , via Israeli TV: 

Today's stream of conciousness : Darth Vader and Ebenezer Scrooge

Hi All,



As I often like to get started with a ‘stream of consciousness’, I thought I would put a brief bit of my daily stream here:

We have recently had the festive season, to wit there is usually multiple versions of Dicken’s ‘Christmas Carol’. I also watched the ‘star wars’ films and noticed how they complemented the festive Christmas Carol. While at first glance it would appear that what is a mid-Victorian moral/social commentary and what is an epic space fantasy have nothing in common. But the crux of the 2 stories is the same, which is that of redemption. It is not just that the ‘good guys’ win, but that the ‘baddie’ in both is redeemed, that is ‘bought back’.

Thus Scrooge is initially a ‘good’ individual who even falls in love, but eventually looses that and his scruples, being twisted into a bitter, evil man. At the end of Christmas Carol and its variants, it is often conceived that Scrooge is a changed man for good, which is true. But more specifically Scrooge’s transformation is one which sees him go back to the person that he was at the beginning of his years, that is he is ‘brought back’, or redeemed.

Likewise Darth Vader, the antagonist of Star Wars, was originally Anakin Skywalker, a hero and all out good guy who was also in love and was eventually, for various reasons, twisted into a monster. Yet Vader is redeemed or brought back to being a Skywalker, by the love that he has for his own son, Luke, who is being killed by the even more evil ‘Emperor’. In saving his son, Vader once again becomes the ‘good’ Anakin Skywalker, but at the cost of dying, which Luke desperately wants to stop. Vader’s last words to Luke is that ‘he already has’ (saved Vader) is telling.

Discuss.

Happy New Year!

 Hi All,

A wet, windy and gale force wind Happy New Year to you all!

Any resolutions and have they done the travel/holiday/go to the gym/loose weight adverts yet on the TV? 

(I've cancelled the TV license after my disgust with the BBC reporting on Gaza, so I'm not actually watching it. The downside is I can't watch the 'old' Dr Who on 'I player'. But I have enough to keep myself entertained anyways)>

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

 Hi All,

Happy Christmas everyone!

[And i'm glad i'm not one of those whose Sunday is seemingly to be perpertually being in supermarkets. Can people cope with them being closed for... a day?!]

Shabbat Shalom!

 Hi All,

Shabbat Shalom and open thread as usual!

Latest BBC Controversy

 Hi All,

Well I can see the funny side of this latest controversy from our national (and direct taxed imposed upon us to access any tv) broadcaster :

I have to say it is amazing how this person can flip to the professional monotone once she realises she is on camera. But for me this is pretty much my reaction to the latest Dr Who series.... lol,.

Happy Hannukah !

 Hi All,

HAPPY HANNUKAH!

What's the point?

 Hi All,

Just in case you were worried- we're all okay. 

But it is just that everytime I think (or Sarah for that matter) about writing something, either we get distracted or simply can't be bothered. But hopefully we can now. 

Which brings me to this one. Dr Who is back for the 60th year and they have several specials, having in desperation brought back the original show runner from the reboot Russell T Davies and arguably the most popular of the new Whos, David Tennant as the 14th Doctor, before another actor takes over. 

Am I going to comment on the show and the first special? 

I did watch it and the answer is no. I also incidentally watched bits of the Jodie Whitaker era and thought I'd try this one about. But I've come to the conclusion that for me Dr Who -as with many other beloved franchises- is now dead to me and I won't bother. I'm semi interested that on the BBC- I player that they have every single episode of Dr Who- i.e. the old series- to watch. But right now Dr Who stopped being Dr Who at the end of the Capaldi era. The Jodie Whitaker era was trash because the total change in the show's canon and mythos, not just the gender swap which caused a lot of people to stop watching it and be called bigoted etc, which was made worse by the force fed 'wokeness' or as they call it the 'message'.

 The special on Saturday night doubled down on the wokeness and it simply isn't for me anymore. This is a long journey, but it has been going on for a while and in fact has happened to other sci-fi franchises such as Star Trek, Star Wars and thing like the MCU. Go woke and go broke as they say and the money made/viewing figures reflect that, but for whatever reason they have been taken over in a bloodless woke coup. If you dissent you are cancelled and called a bigot and that's putting it midly .I cannot be bothered with arguing over it anymore because 'it'  is- in  any case the prize the woke leftists have  now got- and what they are applauding are shells of their former selves as the wokeness drove stories but the stories themselves and their characters were so bad, so lame and so overpowered that any of the old successful franchises are simply not worth watching . It is like taking over a stately home and trashing it, but still thinking that they are magnificant works of art, but have been turned into lifeless husks which no-one outside the bubble cares. No one watches them or buys the merch.

What can be done is that rather than lamenting the demise of a once great franchise, like Gibbon and the Fall of Rome, is to be positive and create your own sci-fi, music and other such 'counter cultural' stuff. Well if the Daily Wire can do a production of Snow White, why not? 

The not so nice part of the protestors

 Hi All,

For the past couple of weeks, London and other cities have been flooded with 'protests' against Israel- note no-one held mass demos when Jewish people were being butchered in the pogrom- and this is the sort of thing that's been going on and what the media fails to report. It's saddening and scary at the same time  :

Latest 'news' (from the impartial BBC)

 Hi All,

Factual news from the BBC - as ever- or is it a pardoy account? Who can tell the difference? 😀

Bennett tells the BBC like it is

 Hi All, 

After 2 weeks of spewing out pro-Palestine propaganda, finally, finally,  it is about time someone , in this case the former Prime Minister of Israel, took the smug lefty BBC to task ! 

Adon Olam

 Hi All,

Lord of the Universe. Two different tunes, great hymn.

Translation: 

The Lord of the Universe who reigned before anything was created. When all was made by his will He was acknowledged as King. And when all shall end He still all alone shall reign. 

He was, He is, and He shall be in glory. And He is one, and there's no other, to compare or join Him. Without beginning, without end and to Him belongs dominion and power.

 And He is my G-d, my living G-d. to Him I flee in time of grief, and He is my miracle and my refuge, who answers the day I shall call. To Him I commit my spirit, in the time of sleep and awakening, even if my spirit leaves, G-d is with me, I shall not fear.

Amen

Shabbat Shalom!

A week of pain

 Hi All,

Today is apparently, according to terrorists Hamas,  supposed to be a day of 'global rage' against Israel. Unfortunately I have better things to do than attack a small, great country of my heritage and I have no time to follow suggestions by child butchering, evil maniacs that the Waffen SS would approve.  

The shocking reality has come out this week and it was worse than we thought. Not only old and young, women and men were slaughtered or taken as hostages, but also children . Yes children: burned alive or beheaded, often as their parents were forced to watch as these terrorists gave their sacrifice to Moloch, which seems to be the 'real' deity of Hamas. 

What evil! 

The Israeli defence minister referred to these terrorists as 'animals', but that is wrong. A tiger will kill and tear things to shreads, but it has no malice or evil  in doing so as it is acting on a base instinct of food or survival, in other words it has no agency or capacity to go beyond that which makes its biological makeup. Human beings can and do have the free will to be good or evil (at least in Jewish tradition). These Hamas terrorists are not 'base' or 'human' animals as they are capable of choosing good or evil and they have deliberately and wilfully chosen the path of  evil and an evil which has seen more Jews killed in 24 hours than that since the holocaust- 1,300 dead and thousands more wounded- with 200 hostages being held in god knows what hellholemas terrorist. Hamas terrorists are clearly a modern version of the Nazi Waffen SS Einsatzgruppen, who were tasked with specifically killing any Jews they encountered and often in a brutal fashion. 

Israel has every right to declare war in such circumstances and both President Biden and Prime Minister Sunak have been resolute in saying so. Unlike the BBC, our Prime Minister has taken sides,  attended Synagogue with the Chief Rabbi and made a moving speech (below) and both Parliament and Downing Street have been lit up in the colours of the Israeli flag. The US has sent in a Carrier Battle Group and even the UK, normally an 'Arabist' country, is reinforcing the military bases on Cyprus with several warships being sent to the eastern med, to help enforce the blockade of weapons and aid is being sent to Israel.

Also Douglas Murray gives us his support on the current crisis and notes we should treat Hamas like ISIS (which is true) : 

Unfortunately the 'usual suspects' have, like rats up a drainpipe, appeared to deliever their usual mixture of crap &  the celebration rallies of the butchering of Jews, refusing to acknowldge the slaughter of Jews or even that this was a wicked event, rather people of this ilk justify it as either 'well it's been a long time coming and is deserved because of the occupation of Palestine' or 'well what about the Palestinian children [Who've been killed]' These people haven't grasped this fact - 

1) In what way is it ever justified to deliberately burn to death and behead children, to murder men and women, girls and boys? To paracutte into a music festival and begin to massacre people?

2) Israel uses rockets and bombs to defend her civilians, Hamas use their civilians to defend their rockets and bombs. Thus Israel does not deliberately seek out children to kill, but Hamas does. Israel does not wontly kill civilians, but Hamas hide their weapons in Mosques, hospitals and other areas that they known, under laws of warfare shouldn't be used. As for cutting off the power and aid to Gaza, where is the condemnation of Egypt which does also have a border with Gaza and also blockades Gaza. Why does Egypt not want to take in fellow muslim arab refugees? 

3) Israel has persistantly agreed on the idea of 'land for peace', even before the creation of modern Israel, with the acceptance of the UN plan, a plan which the Arabs rejected and despite winning against the odds in every other war Israel has been forced to fight, the Arabs continued in their refusal for peace. These pro -palestinian groupies suggest that Israel should simply give all of this up, but where is the honest partner for peace? Do they know that the idea of a settlement via Hamas is for all Jews to be killed or exiled from our homeland and that Palestine free from the river to the sea is a Palestine without Jews?

Then there is  The  BBC - to whom I have now cancelled our license fee- refuses to call terrorists, terrorists because to do so would mean 'taking sides', strange given that under UK law Hamas is a terrorist organisation. 

To end is the following prayer :

Acheinu Kol Beit Yisrael

'Our brothers and sisters the whole house of Israel, who are in distress and captivity who wander over sea and over land — may God have mercy on them, and bring them from distress to comfort, from darkness to light, from slavery to redemption, now, swiftly, and soon. And let us say: Amen.'

Shabbat Shalom!

Israel under attack

 Hi All,

"I say to the L-rd, “You are my God.”
Hear, L-rd, my cry for mercy.
Sovereign L-rd, my strong deliverer,
you shield my head in the day of battle.
Do not grant the wicked their desires, L-rd;
do not let their plans succeed."

Psalm 140

So we are almost at the end of the Jewish 'high holidays', which began with New Year, then Yom Kippur, Sukkot and today Simchat Torah, which is by tradition a day of celebration. I was looking forward to coming back to blogging, but now there is the news from Israel. 

 The terrorists of Hamas, bankrolled by Iran,  have been responsbile for what some are saying is Israel's '9/11' or in another way a  massive murderous pogrom against Israelis, foreign visitors and members of Israel's minority communities such as the Bedouins. 

 Hamas  fired 5,000 rockets, attacking by sea and by land, the bloody brutal killing of people on the streets and in their houses,as the streets run with blood, so far 300 murdered and 1,600 injured. Then there is the  taking of hostages- including women and children- parading them around in Gaza like they are in a slave market with it all put onto social media for the world to see.  I  think of my brother, sister in law, neices and nephews who live there and pray for their safety and our collective resolve against these savages. 

There will doubtless be some form of backlash here in the diaspora as Israel merely seeks to defend itself and her citizens against these barbaric animals, but then this would happen whatever the context, but the context here is that Hamas are an exestential threat toward Israel and the Jewish people. It also gives a window as to what would happen if Israel either surrendered the West Bank or suffered defeat. Let us pray that this does not happen and that Israel will prevail!