Category Archives: Cultural

Four months is a long time in politics

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Watching Andrew Bolt today I shared his concern about the American election. It is astonishing to see the line-up against Donald Trump. Every major news network but one, and even that is now half-hearted. The continuous efforts by various institutions of supposedly higher culture – the arts, the academic world, publishing – among which their one area of certain agreement is that Donald Trump has to go. It is a point of guaranteed friction to discuss Donald Trump with virtually everyone we know, and I never bring him up since it is the near-unanimous belief that Trump is the worst president since time began. And when he is mentioned, no one is ever able to explain just exactly what is wrong with what the President has done, or how Joe Biden, or any other Democrat, will make conditions better but they are determined to see him win. And then there is the Corona Virus, and the deep recession that was brought on to kill it. Not to mention the relentless effort to darken the President’s name through Mueller, impeachment and so much else that can be brought into the story, a story that commenced even during the election in what ought to be seen as the greatest political scandal in American history. And then there is the certainty of a relentless and vicious effort that will be made to steal the election. The effort to subvert the attendance at the Trump rally in Tulsa is just a foretaste of what will be in play on November 3.

So this is where we are, but this is the true political miracle of the moment. In spite of everything, Donald Trump is still more likely to win than not, even though it’s by no means a certainty which it never is in a two-horse race. Let me therefore take you back to the post I wrote on November 1, 2016, A week is a long time in politics.

It’s Melbourne Cup day in an American election year but the election is not today. The constitution determined that presidential elections should be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. I don’t know the official reason why but my guess is that back in 1787 they decided not to have the election the day after Hallowe’en so that everyone could spend the day righting their outhouses and cleaning the soap off the windows. But whatever the reason, it has meant that this year there is another week to go.

In my view, had the election been held today, Hillary would have won. The extra week has the potential to reverse this outcome, as the media are forced to report on the corruption and incompetence of Hillary Clinton, as revealed in the emails released. A week from now, it is possible that enough independents, and even some traditional Democrats, will have become sickened at the thought of a Clinton presidency to allow Trump enough of a margin to win in spite of the certain illegality of Democrat election practice.

And the stories provide nothing new, but with the FBI now saying that the investigation into Hillary is open again, attention is being paid. And this is what even the New York Times, Washington Post and ABCBSNBC are being compelled to cover.

LA TIMES TUESDAY: FBI Investigators had planned to conduct new email review over several weeks. It now hopes to complete ‘preliminary assessment’ in coming days, but agency officials have not decided how, or whether, they will disclose results publicly… Developing…
CARVILLE CRACKS: Asserts FBI, GOP and KGB in Cahoots…
Podesta’s BFF At DOJ Will Be In Charge Of New Probe…
45% say scandal worse than Watergate…
BUCHANAN: Pres. Hillary would go way of Nixon…
Clinton unfavorable rating hits new high…
Pollster: ‘Dam About to Break’…
22 million ballots already in…
CITI: Black swan could throw vote off course…
STUDY: Networks Attack Comey Over Clinton 3 to 1…
TRUMP TARGETS DEMOCRATIC STATES IN FINAL ASSAULT…

And the straightforward fact is that even if elected, Hillary could not govern. These are not placid times, and it is not too much to say that the fate of the West is being decided for us right now. More from Drudge:

BORDER BLOWN OPEN…
ILLEGALS FLOOD IN…
FEDS HIDE NUMBERS…
‘WORST WE’VE EVER SEEN’…
SESSIONS: 817,740 CROSSED LAST YEAR!
Leaked Images Show Illegals Strolling Across Open Border…

Merkel’s Germany descends into lawlessness…
‘Losing control of streets’…

Putin preps army of robots…
Nuke Sub Off Brit Coast…
NATO, Russia to hold parallel drills…

I know enough Democrat voters to appreciate how obnoxiously determined they are to vote for Hillary. We met a woman in a cafe yesterday who decided to join into a conversation I was having with my wife. Her issue. Trump treats women badly. The infuriating reality was that she knew no facts about anything. No facts at all about any of the policy matters that will determine the future of the Western world. We are staring at the fall of the American Republic and she is worried only about the sexual practices of alpha males. No analogy with Bill and Hillary’s enabling would even be entertained. My wife even brought up Bob Hawke and his womanising, but she was determined not to be dissuaded by anything anyone might say.

Yet it really is the policy differences that matter. For a rundown of what those differences are you can go to WHERE CLINTON AND TRUMP STAND – ON EVERY MAJOR ISSUE [which has now disappeared from the web]. Just looking at the list of issues ought to terrify anyone, and then there are Hillary’s policy positions which are inferior to Trump’s in every case.

If the election were held today, Donald Trump would win.

Welcome to Idiocracy

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There are 6.5 million people living in Victoria.

If 10% of the population had the CV-19, that would be 650,000 people.

If 1% of the population had the CV-19, that would be 65,000 people.

If 0.1% of the population had the CV-19, that would be 6,500 people. That is one person in 1000.

If 0.01% of the population had the CV-19, that would be 650 people. That is one person in 10,000.

The actual number of people in Victoria who now have the CV-19 is now 121. That is 0.002% of the population, one person in 50,000.

The trouble is we may be living in an Idiocracy which is why Daniel Andrews is premier. What is an idiocracy?

A dystopian world where mankind has embraced anti-intellectualism, and society is devoid of traits such as intellectual curiosity, social responsibility, justice, and human rights.

And that’s apparently just how we like it. See the trailer for Idiocracy and then think about modern Seattle. Or perhaps we could just look around at our own willingness to lock ourselves up in our own self-constructed modern penal colony (if you will pardon the expression).

And it may not just be us. This is from the US: The blind continuing panic over COVID-19.

With totalitarian Democratically-controlled cities and states across the nation now imposing odious rules requiring the wearing of masks at all times, based entirely on emotion and symbolism with absolutely no reliance on the actual science that says masks are not only useless against a virus like COVID-19, they could be medically harmful to the user, I think it is time to do a little science journalism and illustrate again the absurdity of this situation.

First, the Wuhan flu epidemic is clearly ending, as shown by the graph above. This graph, based on numbers from this site, shows that the disease reached its peak sometime near the start of May. Since then its threat has been declining steadily, until it reached today the lowest number of deaths since March, only 285.

Right now the chances of you catching COVID-19 and dying from it are practically nil, even if you live in densely populated states like New York, where only 14 people died yesterday from the virus.

Second, as predicted by some scientists, the lockdowns, social distancing, and silly symbolic mask use did nothing to stretch out the epidemic or flatten the curve. These scientists, ignored by politicians and the mainstream press, had predicted it would be a seasonal flu, dying out come summer, and that it would last from six to eight weeks, as it has done in every country where it has arrived, regardless of any government action.

That is exactly what the Wuhan flu has done. After eight weeks it is now fading away, like all such seasonal diseases.

Third, the numbers on this graph are certainly inflated. The total deaths in the U.S. assigned to the Wuhan flu as of today is just over 114,000. Based on numerous reports (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), we can estimate that this number is inflated from 25% o 50%.

Personally, it’s nice to know that the Middle Ages have not gone away and we are only moments away from burning our first witches. Of course, we have better lighting and heating, but really, given everything you see around you, how long do you think any of that is going to last?

The current wars

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As for us, we’re off to the movies tonight while we still can. This is from our dummkopf premier:

“It is unacceptable that families anywhere in our state can, just because they want this to be over, pretend that it is,” he said.

“It is pretty clear that behind closed doors … they are not practising social distancing.”

According to the hysterics at the Oz – the headline reads “hotspot state threatens to stall nation’s coronavirus recovery” – the number of active cases in Victoria is 121 [not deaths but active cases] out of a population of 6.5 million.

Meanwhile we are off to see The Current War while we are still permitted to use electricity – proper social distancing will, however, be observed:

Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse — the greatest inventors of the industrial age — engage in a battle of technology and ideas that will determine whose electrical system will power the new century. Backed by J.P. Morgan, Edison dazzles the world by lighting Manhattan. But Westinghouse, aided by Nikola Tesla, sees fatal flaws in Edison’s direct current design. Westinghouse and Tesla bet everything on risky and dangerous alternating current.

Oh my goodness, AC turns out to be “risky and dangerous”. Why weren’t we told?

AND NOW HAVING SEEN THE FILM: Normally they say before some movie about some historic event that it is “based on true events” or something like that. This one went even further into the realm of whimsy by saying that it had been “inspired by” actual events. No point in throwing in spoilers although I do provide some kind of judgement at the end. For the most part, though, I will give some of the backstory via an article about how the movie was put together: How Martin Scorsese Saved ‘Current War’ From Harvey Weinstein.

Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon finally gets to release his version of his long-in-the-making “The Current War.”

The film, about the competition between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, was originally set to be distributed by the Weinstein Company after Harvey Weinstein recut it, much to Gomez-Rejon’s chagrin. To make matters worse, Weinstein premiered the movie at the Toronto Film Festival in 2017.

“It was incredibly painful,” Gomez-Rejon tells Variety. “Because you go up on stage and you’re representing the cast and crew who took this journey with you, and you know deep down in your heart that you haven’t been allowed to give your best. Or you give your best under those conditions and it’s not good enough.”

The film was almost shelved when the Weinstein Company shuttered following sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein.

But on Monday night in New York City at AMC Lincoln Square, Gomez-Rejon premiered “The Current War: Director’s Cut.” “I wasn’t sure the film would ever come out, which was heartbreaking,” the film’s screenwriter Michael Mitnik said….

According to Gomez-Rejon, the most important edit has been a reworking of Benedict Cumberbatch’s portrayal of Edison, whose fierce fight against Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) to ensure the supremacy of DC electric power was softened in Weinstein’s cut.

“I unapologetically let Benedict’s portrayal of Edison go to the dark side, instead of trying to make him likable,” Gomez-Rejon said. “I think you have to trust an audience. And because we let him do that, his portrayal juxtaposed with the work that Michael Shannon does, builds authentic tension. Now you have a movie that’s worthy of that title.”

Spoiler alert: I don’t know if this can be said any longer, but I think I might have preferred the original cut. The film is essentially a face-off between Edison and Westinghouse, with one the good guy and the other the villain. Also could have emphasised just a bit more how creative entrepreneurial geniuses make the world we inhabit. I could also have done without the 21st century neglected-wife theme. And the jumble of events was really irritating – I recalled in a vague sort of way most of them but the crude use of these events to emphasise modern ideologies was a real downer for me. But should you see it? My wife did think it was beautifully filmed. The present version is 30% at Rotten Tomatoes but we both happily watched it to the end (but it was also the first film we’d seen in three months). The 2017 version was 60% for critics and 79% for the audience. The “director’s cut” is not necessarily an improvement.

Anyway, very pleased to be back at the movies, Dopey Dan notwithstanding.

The dumbest generation

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I assume that there are occasionally sensible arguments available to those on the left and especially among those who are working to end the Trump presidency, but so far I have not found a single one. There is a loss of any sense of the possible, an inability to accept that others have a valid point of view and to comprehend things from their perspective. They are worse than two year olds in the midst of a tantrum. I like the video above – “I Am A White Man And I’m Sorry” – since it highlights that no one will ever live in a world of perfection, but also that while black lives matter, and that the world has created havoc on many occasions, the civic culture that originated from within European civilisation has created benefits for the entire world for which there seems little gratitude, especially among many of the descendants of that same European civilisation. Have these people never heard of Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan?

Conversations with Stephen Hicks on Postmodernism and the Nazis

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Conversations with Stephen Hicks on Postmodernism and Nazism. This is the note that came with the video.

It was a great pleasure to facilitate this Conversations (below) between Prof. Stephen Hicks and John Anderson AO back in March. I was in earshot during filming but didn’t hear a thing due to dealing with the wu-flu conundrum. It’s rather exceptional!

Please also read and share my latest article: Don’t Mention This Article on Your Smartphone

Don’t forget to register your interest in Climate & Change: Cooling the climate chaos with Dr. Patrick Moore by filling in this very short RSVP form and please help spread the word of this important event. Dates still a work in progress.

Hope everyone is doing well and managing to press on!

A warm regards from a chilly Melbourne,

Sam McClelland

Director

What a way to earn a living!

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The first one was in Atlanta the other day, the one below was of Floyd George in Minneapolis. What I find more amazing than anything is how patient the police are in both cases. And if you want an understanding of why the police use handcuffs, both are examples why but the one above is more than enough to see the point.

Defend the police. And put all that in the context of this:

Now go on and watch this.

Everyone knows idiots like these

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Via Instapundit, with a couple of comments below.

Sure wish I could meet an intelligent progressive. I’m in my fifties and it hasn’t happened yet. I’ve tried to have conversations with a few self-styled ones. It never takes long to conclude they don’t know much of anything. Not even stuff you would you think they might like literature, art or theater. Science, math, economics; don’t even try that.

Same experience . Amazing. What sets off progressives from others is that it is simply impossible to tell a progressive anything. They have no embarrassment being completely wrong on any particular issue regarding the facts. They have their beliefs. It is really amazing. For example, some years back a progressive younger friend bought a Prius to help reduce the CO2 in the atm. I asked him how much CO2 was in the atmosphere. He said about 20%. This young fellow was university educated, very smart, and a H.S. math teacher. When I told him the truth, (0.35%), he just shrugged off his abysmal ignorance. The facts just don’t matter to these people. On the other had, I know plenty of “blue collar types.” and they actually are much more fact driven than the college educated types. The only conclusion is that the progressives are a cult.

We have created such prosperity and immensely high per capita productivity that even morons survive.

In contrast with acceptable thuggery

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Far-right protesters clash with police in London as Priti Patel slams ‘unacceptable thuggery’. As the sub-head reads:

British Home Secretary Priti Patel has described violent scenes at a far-right protest in London as “thoroughly unacceptable thuggery”.

Here is the definition of “thuggery” at the online Cambridge English dictionary:

violent behaviour that is criminal or antisocial (= harmful to society):
The riots were condemned as “mindless thuggery” by a police commander.

Not quite on par with burning down city centres. Here’s the comment that comes with the video:

Rightwing demonstrators, who announced they would turn out on Saturday to protect London’s monuments from anti-racism protesters, were involved in scuffles with police outside Parliament. In and around Parliament Square, hundreds of people wearing football shirts, chanting ‘England, England’ and describing themselves as patriots, gathered alongside military veterans at the Cenotaph war memorial. The group sang songs in support of rightwing activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who goes by the name of Tommy Robinson. ‘Winston Churchill, he’s one of our own,’ they also chanted, near his statue which last weekend was sprayed with graffiti reading: ‘Churchill was a racist’.

They were also saying things like this:

https://twitter.com/RikkiDoolan/status/1271755653153988609

And just think how bad all this is:

Right-wing activists and football fans who described themselves as patriots met in Whitehall, Westminster and in Trafalgar Square on Saturday to protect historical monuments, including the Cenotaph and a statue of Britain’s wartime leader Winston Churchill, from being vandalised.

Footage posted on social media showed groups chanting at police, holding ‘All Lives Matter’ signs and singing God Save the Queen on Saturday morning.

Other videos showed people throwing bottles and cans at officers, while riot police on horses pushed the crowd back.

Paul Golding, the leader of Britain First, could be seen wearing a ‘White Lives Matter’ T-shirt.

Doesn’t even rate as a football crowd outside a Liverpool-Chelsea match. So this is what the government said:

British Home Secretary Priti Patel described the violence as “thoroughly unacceptable thuggery”, promising the perpetrators would face “the full force of the law”. “Violence towards our police officers will not be tolerated,” she said. Ms Patel also repeated calls for protesters to “go home”, warning Britain was still in the grip of “an unprecedented national health emergency”. “Gathering in large numbers at this exceptional time is illegal. Doing so puts everyone’s lives at risk,” she said.

What she said about defacing statues of Churchill was not mentioned. Compare and contrast with this from a few days before.

Floyd George edition

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My favorite version of “Three men walk into a bar” is, “A natural philosopher, an architect and an astronomer walk into a pub”. Except, it really did happen. Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren and Edmund Halley walked into a pub, had some beers and argued about why the planets moved the way they did. They made a bet, that whoever could solve the problem would win a few pounds (!!). Halley went to see a certain Cambridge math professor for help and Newton told him that he had solved the problem twenty years earlier. Beer, it even helps you solve the mysteries of the Universe!

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