Monthly Archives: January 2021

Cheer today gone tomorrow

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Maine Coon - Cat Lovers Show Melbourne

Newsitem: On 13 January 2021, the chair and CEO of Saputo Inc. announced that “Coon” cheese was to be rebranded as “Cheer” cheese, the new name scheduled to be launched in July 2021. This is what I wrote when they first had this thought: Cultural inappropriation. Utter vandals. They have absolutely ruined their brand for no reason.

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Must say, when I arrived here from Canada back in 1975 I was quite astonished then to find Coon Cheese on sale. A North American impossibility both then and now but an absolutely nothing-at-all here in Australia. It is just the name of a cheese, named after the man who invented the blend, and a cheese that I happen to like very much. Different words in different cultures. You just get used to boots and bonnets. It’s the Australian way, which means it is our way. I could add that the main clothing brand in Canada is Roots, which definitely would not work out in Australia.

Let me go even further. When our latest pussycat joined our household – eight years ago – turned out she is a “Maine Coon” which is a breed of cat whose name no one seems to bat an eye at, neither here nor in North America. She is, after all, a Maine coon. Let me continue with three letters to the editor at The Oz the other day.

I fail to understand why Dr Stephen Hagan would spend so much time and effort on an issue such as Coon cheese (“Era ends as Coon cheese name cut”, 25-26/7). As a person who has worked in outback NSW and Queensland as well as living and working out of Port Augusta in South Australia and travelling to site work in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, I have seen the plight of remote Aborigines first hand. There will be no Aborigines in Port Augusta doing high-fives or cartwheels over the renaming of Coon cheese.

Hagan spent the first seven years of his life in a camp outside Cunnamulla in southwest Queensland before moving to a new house in town. Being a high achiever, he attended boarding school in Brisbane and, among other things, went on to become one of Australia’s first indigenous diplomats. He then became a lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland — good on him, a great career. It would seem, though, that Hagan’s circle of fellow activists and like-minded colleagues are not in sync with the real needs of Aboriginal people in the areas I have mentioned.

Shane Porter, Elanora, Qld

Ignoring the merits of the decision by a Canadian company to change the name of a well-known Australian product, it is worth noting Aboriginal activist Stephen Hagan’s ironic call not to let “conservative social commentators dictate their narrative on what is right and wrong”. Arguably, this name change is an example of another, and ascendant, brand of activists dictating their narrative on what is right and wrong.

David Finch, Forestville, SA

According to the genealogy website Ancestry, there are several origins of the name “Coon”. Anglicised Gaelic — “O’Cuana; Anglicised German – “Kuhn”; Anglicised Dutch — “Coen” or “Koen”. A whole lot of people to chase down because of perceived racist names. Then, of course, we have the 35 people listed in the Australian White Pages with the name “Coon”, plus their families.

Racism is a sad blight on civilisation and should not be accepted in any form. Sadly, I think pursuing dreamed up racism is counterproductive and aligned with the conjured up targeting of statues and monuments because someone thinks that these commemorate things that today we regret.

Peter Strauss, Mt Eliza, Vic

It is why I think Australia is the last sane place left in the Western world. As a dinky-di Aussie-Canadian, let me just suggest the name should be left as it was.

Promoting “hatred, division and madness”

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Went looking for the source of CurrencyLad’s story on Craig Kelly and found this. There really are some fruit loops out there.

Malcolm Turnbull slams Murdoch media for sowing ‘hatred, division and madness’

Malcolm Turnbull has blamed Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and other media outlets for promoting “the hatred, division and madness” that prompted the US Capitol attack last week.

In an opinion piece in Crikey, the former Australian prime minister has called for Murdoch’s media empire to “be brought to account”, and asked businesses to reconsider advertising with the company’s outlets.

Malcolm Turnbull on Q&A, 9 November 2020.
 Malcolm Turnbull on Q&A, 9 November 2020. Photograph: ABC TV

Turnbull wrote:

Until a few weeks ago Fox News’ relationship with Trump was like that of a state-owned broadcaster in a dictatorship: flattering the great leader, supporting his friends, denouncing his allies, covering up his failures.

Fox News has promoted and exacerbated America’s deep social and racial divisions, supporting Trump’s exploitation of them at every turn.

And when the election result was clear, Fox was once again in the forefront supporting Trump in his claims of election fraud, undermining Americans’ faith in their electoral system.

Murdoch did not directly dispatch the mob as Trump did, but his media, more than any other, amplified the narratives of hatred, division and denial that made the mob possible.

I have been with Trump and Murdoch and the power relationship was all too obvious. Trump was deferential, almost obsequious, to Murdoch. In fact when Trump and I first met he wanted Murdoch to join our bilateral discussion. I told him I wouldn’t do that – something Murdoch did not appreciate no doubt.

Freedom of speech must never mean freedom from responsibility.

I had been told he still shows up on the ABC and this is definite proof. He apparently once led the Liberal Party of Australia.

Harming people in the name of helping them is one of mankind’s favourite pastimes

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I love this.

President-Elect Joe Biden delivered his first major national address since the Electoral Count was certified Thursday night; calling on “everyone at the top” to pay “their fair share” so we can rebuild and rescue the American economy. “What I just described does not come cheaply… We simply can’t not afford to not do what I’m proposing,” said Biden. “Even Wall Street firms have reinforced the logic. We must invest now, boldly, and smartly,” said Biden. “Asking everyone to pay their fair share at the top so we can make permanent investments to rescue and rebuild America is the right thing for our economy,” he added.”>thisthis:

President-Elect Joe Biden delivered his first major national address since the Electoral Count was certified Thursday night; calling on “everyone at the top” to pay “their fair share” so we can rebuild and rescue the American economy. “What I just described does not come cheaply… We simply can’t not afford to not do what I’m proposing,” said Biden. “Even Wall Street firms have reinforced the logic. We must invest now, boldly, and smartly,” said Biden. “Asking everyone to pay their fair share at the top so we can make permanent investments to rescue and rebuild America is the right thing for our economy,” he added.

A Keynesian solution to a bloated government. Pure genius.

And don’t worry, Mitch, it won’t last, but in the meantime: Poll: 91% of GOP voters still with Trump … McConnell worried?. The Republicrats will fix it, but until then:

A poll taken after the Capitol Hill rioting that Democrats blame on President Donald Trump reveals that more than nine out of 10 of his supporters would still vote for him – results that could spell disaster for Republicans such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who have supported efforts to impeach the president.

The favorable Trump numbers relayed in a Washington Examiner report revealed the findings of pollster Frank Luntz – numbers that reportedly should have many Republicans who sided with the Democrats very concerned.

“Despite their criticism of his conduct since November 3rd and last week, 91% of Trump voters say they’d still vote for him if another presidential election were held today,” Luntz tweeted Monday.

Will also add this: POLL: Few blame Trump for Capitol riots. But all the media, all of the leaders of the Senate and House on both sides, and the President-elect and the V-P elect do, so what does a poll result have to do with anything. The left never debate among themselves, they just listen for instructions and then immediately sign on. Whatever the mantra of the moment, that is what they will say.

Even I occasionally disagreed with PDT but then no one is perfect, least of all me

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Since it seems everyone wishes to abandon Donald Trump, why should I not point out that I had once criticised him myself: Now to some basics. This was published on April 11, 2017.

I was willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt over what he was up to in Syria, but if he actually intends to put America on a path to war over the use of chemical weapons in Syria then he had better go to Congress before he takes another step. 

My point was that making an issue of the means by which Assad murdered his citizens was a pretty low-grade issue, more sentimentality than hard-bitten policy. Yet the reality is that there must be an emotional element in every political decision. In fact, I think of Trump being often driven by sentiment, which is often what got him into trouble with others, but almost every element of that personal sentiment worked for me, such as the decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem.

Sadly, having had one or two reservations about the occasional policy here and there will now be replaced by following the decisions made a president for whom there will be one or two moments of agreement with the rest a wasteland of political horrors.

You can’t agree with anyone all the time. And with Biden-Harris, I won’t disagree all the time. But unless there is some kind of miracle in the offing, the years ahead look like they are going to be awful.

Vive la résistance

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This is from Instapundit.

ROGER SIMON: Should the Real ‘Resistance’ Start Now?

Literally within minutes of the 2016 election of Donald J. Trump, his opponents took to the streets declaring themselves “The Resistance.” Some of us, myself included, considered that an act of what the “woke” like to call “cultural appropriation,” indeed an extreme—I would even say obscene—one. CA is a term, many will recall, applied to those insensitive souls who allegedly steal from another group for their own gain or amusement, as in fraternity boys donning sombreros and drinking margaritas for Cinco de Mayo. What was appropriated back in 2016 was something quite serious—“La Résistance”—the clandestine and highly-dangerous underground movement to subvert Nazi Germany’s control of France during the Second World War. Although an astonishing number of younger Americans have little or no knowledge of the Holocaust, I would imagine most readers of this outlet realize that Germany’s takeover with the Vichy government’s compliance resulted in such events as the notorious July 1942 night time roundup in suburban Paris of 7000 Jews, including 4000 children, before they were shipped off for extermination. Comparing that to the election of Donald Trump really is obscene, and also wildly anti-Semitic, unless, of course, you think saying nasty things about your opponents on Twitter is the equivalent of Auschwitz. Many of our supposedly “progressive” friends evidently did, overwhelmed by a delusional case of moral narcissism all out of proportion to reality, allowing them to “act out” in the most self-aggrandizing manner, identifying with the true heroes of “La Résistance” when there was no discernible threat to them whatsoever. Indeed, what actually happened to the daily lives of our liberal friends during the Trump administration was next to nothing. Until COVID came along, they got to enjoy the lowest unemployment virtually ever, including minorities, with actual wages going up for the lower classes for the first time in years, a booming stock market, lower gas prices through energy independence, peace in the Middle East and peace in general. They weren’t censored in any way and maintained control of most of the media, entertainment, and the schools throughout. Yet still they raged. But to continue with the French analogy, what’s going on today is “toute autre chose,” entirely different. The now victorious left is attempting to erase the right, to drive it out of existence forever. We see signs of this everywhere, from the clearly fascistic actions of Big Tech in destroying upstart Parler on grounds of hosting some violent posts (something they themselves have been doing for years) to ridiculous virtue signaling like Macaulay Culkin signing on for having Donald Trump’s cameo removed from “Home Alone 2.” Communist Chinese-style “social credit” controls are being instituted across our economy with the likes of Master Card, PayPal and Stripe canceling conservative groups that protested the election and automated business email systems doing the same. In many ways this is more effective and dangerous than the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution because we are so reliant on technology now and because it is so sub rosa. No need for prancing around in dunce caps. An individuals’ access to his or her daily needs can be turned off with the click of an invisible mouse. American versions of “Good Germans” are coming out of the woodwork as many are beginning to live in fear of what this could do to their lives. Others have been asked to recant or soon will be. The traditional Republican Party politicians have been of little help, disconnected, as many, maybe most, are from their rank-and-file. So is this time for a new, and more justified, “Resistance”?

As Caroline Glick writes, Biden is continuing the left’s shopworn tradition of comparing conservative Republicans to National Socialists: Goebbels and the New American Terror.

What purpose did it serve for President-elect Joe Biden to liken Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) to Adolf Hitler’s top propagandist Joseph Goebbels? In response to a question about the two Republican lawmakers following remarks on January 8, Biden said, “I was being reminded by a friend of mine…when we’re told [about] Goebbels and the great lie, you keep repeating the lie, repeating the lie.” Although Biden’s comparison was imperfectly stated, it was clear enough to follow. He was saying that the lawmakers’ efforts to challenge the Electoral College votes from disputed states was a Nazi-like effort. By speaking this way, Biden did many things at once. First, he whitewashed Goebbels’ barbaric crimes. Goebbels was the chief architect of totalitarianism in Nazi Germany and one of the lead architects of the Holocaust. In his literary warning about the fragility of freedom and the allure of totalitarianism, 1984, George Orwell demonstrated that total control over a society is achieved through total control over the information its members can see. Goebbels implemented this in Nazi Germany. As Hitler’s propagandist, Goebbels exerted total control over information. He ensured that Germans would view Hitler as their infallible savior. He conditioned them to view Jews as subhuman vermin, to be exterminated like cockroaches. And he made them believe that all Germans who didn’t accept what they were told were enemies of the people. Goebbels achieved all of these things by blocking public access to accurate information while inundating the Germans with images and words that repeated and amplified his monstrous lies. Goebbels’ success in controlling information was the necessary precondition for all he and his comrades unleashed on Jews, and on humanity as a whole. The second thing Biden did by comparing Hawley and Cruz to Goebbels was to whitewash the unspeakable crimes of Nazi Germany. After all, if merely questioning certain election returns is the moral equivalent of Goebbels’ “Big Lie,” then the Big Lie was actually no big deal. The third thing Biden did by comparing Hawley and Cruz to Goebbels was set them up for what Orwell referred to as “un-personing”—or in today’s culture, “canceling.” Obviously, if Cruz and Hawley are Goebbels, then all right-thinking people must work to silence them and remove them from positions of influence in the Senate and larger society. As if on cue, shortly after Biden said what he did, Senate Democrats began debating whether to censure the lawmakers. Senate Republicans, for their part, began discussing the possibility of denying the two members cherished committee assignments. According to Senate officials, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is leaning toward denying the two their subcommittee chairmanships—thereby removing them from the line of seniority.

As Glick writes, “A sense of foreboding and fear now grips millions of Americans—and, indeed, conservatives worldwide. Unless something is done quickly by those who wield power to restore freedom, it is impossible to see a happy end to this story.” #Unity!

He hasn’t even gone and I already miss Donald Trump

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Folks,

I’ve consistently said throughout the course of the past year that the American people have never shied away from being able to deal with the truth.

From big cities to small towns, too many Americans are barely scraping by, or not scraping by at all. The need to act is clear in the lines at food banks, the small businesses that are closed or closing, and the growing number of Americans experiencing homelessness. After nearly a year of the public health crisis, our nation remains in this dark winter of the pandemic and facing a deep economic crisis.

So I want to reiterate something: My first 100 days won’t end COVID-19, but we can slow the spread, save lives, and get back to our lives with our loved ones.

Today, I am proud to share my American Rescue Plan with you, the first step of an aggressive, two-step plan for rescue, from the depths of this crisis, and recovery, by investing in America, creating millions of additional good-paying jobs, combatting the climate crisis, advancing racial equity, and building back better than before.

Our emergency legislative package will take bold action to change the course of the pandemic, build a bridge towards economic recovery, and cut child poverty in half.

Here are a few highlights:

  • Mount a national vaccination program, contain COVID-19, and safely reopen schools, including by setting up community vaccination sites nationwide, scaling up testing and tracing, eliminating supply shortage problems, investing in high-quality treatments, providing paid sick leave to contain the spread of the virus, addressing health disparities, and making targeted investments to meet our goal of safely re-opening a majority of K-8 schools in the first 100 days.
  • Deliver immediate relief to working families bearing the brunt of this crisis by sending $1,400 per-person checks to households across America, providing direct housing and nutrition assistance, expanding access to safe and reliable childcare and affordable healthcare, increasing the minimum wage, extending unemployment insurance, and giving families with kids and childless workers an emergency boost this year.
  • Support communities that are struggling in the wake of COVID-19 by providing support for the hardest-hit small businesses, and protecting the jobs of the first responders, transit workers, and other essential workers we depend on.

I know this year has been difficult for us all. I’d love if you would share with me how COVID-19 has affected you and how this relief plan would impact your life.

SHARE YOUR STORY >>

It is evidently clear that beating back this virus and reviving our economy are intertwined. We are in a race against time, and absent additional government assistance, the economic and public health crises could worsen in the months ahead. Schools will not be able to safely reopen, and vaccinations will remain far too slow.

Together, I know that we can combat this virus by investing in America. And in the coming weeks, I’ll lay out in greater detail my economic recovery plan to invest in America, create millions of additional good-paying jobs, and build back better than before.

Remember, this is just the start. We will execute a whole-of-government effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thank you for reading. Mask up, and stay safe.

President-elect Joe Biden

“The markings of an organized operation planned well in advance”

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A Congress windows is seen destroyed, two days after Pro Trump's demonstrators protest against Joe Biden's certify as US President-elect, today on January 09, 2021 in Washington DC, USA. (Photo by Lenin Nolly/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

None of this should come as a surprise: I Saw Provocateurs At The Capitol Riot On Jan. 6.

The deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol bore the markings of an organized operation planned well in advance of the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress.

  1. A small number of cadre appeared to use the cover of a huge rally to stage its attack. Before it began, I saw from my vantage point on the West Front of the Capitol what appeared to be four separate cells or units:
  2. Plainclothes militants. Militant, aggressive men in Donald Trump and MAGA gear at a front police line at the base of the temporary presidential inaugural platform;
  3. Agents-provocateurs. Scattered groups of men exhorting the marchers to gather closely and tightly toward the center of the outside of the Capitol building and prevent them from leaving;Fake Trump protesters. A few young men wearing Trump or MAGA hats backwards and who did not fit in with the rest of the crowd in terms of their actions and demeanor, whom I presumed to be Antifa or other leftist agitators; and
  4. Disciplined, uniformed column of attackers. A column of organized, disciplined men, wearing similar but not identical camouflage uniforms and black gear, some with helmets and GoPro cameras or wearing subdued Punisher skull patches.

All of these cells or groups stood out from the very large crowd by their behavior and overall demeanor. However, they did not all appear at the same time. Not until the very end did it appear there was a prearranged plan to storm the Capitol building, and to manipulate the unsuspecting crowd as cover and as a follow-on force.

Meanwhile, do we yet know who shot Ashli Babbitt? Or why she was marked for death even while others are shattering the glass at the front of the crowd before the entrance? Interesting to also note who was taking the video at the moment she was shot: Black Activist Who Filmed Ashli Babbitt Shooting Speaks Out. He was not a Trump supporter.

John Sullivan, a.k.a. Jayden X, is a civil rights activist and crowdfunded video journalist. On January 6th, he donned a bulletproof vest and embedded himself in the masses that President Trump had incited to storm the Capitol. Sullivan scrambled up scaffolding and repeatedly weaved through a crush of rioters to record clashes between the mob and law enforcement. He emerged with a raw, hour-and-a-half frontline documentary of the day’s violent and chaotic events. He captures now-notorious figures from the riot, including the shirtless, face-painted “QAnon Shaman” and the bearded rioter dressed in a grotesquely anti-Semitic “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt. Crucially, Sullivan’s camerawork captured the shooting of 35-year-old mob member and Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, who was killed by the Capitol Police while attempting to clamber through a broken window into the Speaker’s Lobby off the House floor.

Very very odd that he was there, an obvious Antifa member, just then videoing. Meanwhile, do we know the identity of the “protestors” who shattered the glass in front of the Speakers Lobby?  In fact, do we even know the identity of whoever it was who fired that fatal shot that killed Ashli Babbitt and why whoever it was did not fire at the people who were shattering the glass at that very moment who were much closer to him than Ashli was?

Big sibling is watching you

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Link Image

From Watch Nancy Pelosi break her own House rules about gendered language 6 times in less than 10 seconds. And here she is, breaking the rules.

https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1349423079802490882?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1349423079802490882%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnotthebee.com%2Farticle%2Fwatch-nancy-pelosi-break-her-own-house-rules-about-gendered-language-6-times-in-less-than-10-seconds

Melanin supremacy

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This is quite a worrying story: Biden Pick For Civil Rights Chief Promoted Racism and Anti-Semitism at Harvard.

Kristen Clarke, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, advanced pseudoscientific theories of black racial superiority and organized an event with a notorious anti-Semite as a student at Harvard University. Clarke and a coauthor outlined “the genetic differences between Blacks and whites” in a 1994 letter to the editors of Harvard’s student newspaper, which criticized the political scientist Charles Murray’s book The Bell Curve. The genetic difference they identify, varying levels of melanin between whites and blacks, accounts for disparate cognitive abilities, physical power, and even spirituality, the pair said. The so-called melanin theory has no basis in science. “Melanin endows Blacks with greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities—something which cannot be measured based on Eurocentric standards,” they wrote.

Democrats have been perennially the party of racism. Every single member of the Ku Klux Klan was a Democrat with not a single exception. To this day, the colour of a person’s skin is an issue of significance for Democrats. As for instance: Kamala Harris has the right skin color for Joe Biden … and nothing else. Well actually, also because she is a woman. But as the story says:

Joe Biden selected a running mate based on the color of her skin. He rejected other candidates based on the color of their skin. He did this openly and without apology. Think about that for a moment. Let that sink in. In the year 2020, more than six decades after America desegregated public schools, a nominee for president from a major political party brazenly displayed outright racism in picking a running mate.

And this is just where it starts.

Political theatre on the left

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It is all theatrics but the aim is to place an historical asterisk next to the name of the most successful yet most reviled (by his enemies) President of my lifetime: House impeaches Trump a second time.

Suppose there was no Antifa involvement whatsoever in the attack on the Capitol in Washington, how much reporting of such involvement would end up in the media? Why none at all. Now suppose the entire attack had been organised and co-ordinated by Antifa and their allies, how much of that would show up in the media? Funny enough, it would be exactly the same, there would be no reporting of any such involvement at all. The video above is from “Antifa Clearly Led the Attack. That Was Utterly Obvious.”

Yet we already knew that Anitfa had been there, if from nothing else other than the video of the woman being shot to death which was taken by a known member of Antifa. And everyone on our side is perfectly aware that the so-called “riot” had not been instigated by the President, nor had been supported by him.

The left nevertheless continue its relentless attack on truth, of which they care nothing about at all, to implant this memory, in the same way the have made Joe McCarthy their standard for political evil even though everything McCarthy said about communist infiltration into the American State Department turned out to be 100% true. So the riot at the Capitol will enter into that same kind of historical record where the lies that are being spread at every turn by the left and their allies becomes the only “truth” they will be willing to acknowledge.

Yet this is a particularly interesting statistic of the moment: The vast majority of Trump supporters would still vote for Trump if the election were held today.

Despite their criticism of his conduct since November 3rd and last week, 𝟵𝟭% of Trump voters say they’d still vote for him if another presidential election were held today,” Luntz said on his official social media account. Another 4% said they would switch their vote to President-elect Joe Biden, 3% said they would vote for someone else or write in someone else, and 2% said they wouldn’t vote at all.

The question that was not asked was how many of those who voted for Biden would have voted for him had they known then what they know now. The Trump majority in actual votes cast would have been even larger. In this post by the great Jack Cashill, he points out:

With his back to the wall, Trump rallied the last bulwark against this encroaching tyranny, the American people. In so doing, he showed the comically obvious hypocrisy of the Left’s support for “largely peaceful” protests. Although events this past week did not appear to work out as we might have liked, appearances can be deceiving. There were lessons learned, eyes opened. It seems somehow providential that the people’s protest at the “People’s House” occurred on the Epiphany.

There are only around 74 million voters who know they have been cheated. These things will continue to matter. But on this one issue of eradicating Donald Trump from the record, both the Democrats and the Republicans are apparently united.