This is part of Conrad Black discussing America Gone Mad.

No one could foresee that, just 30 years after the hammer-and-sickle was hauled down over the Kremlin and Russia reverted to the European borders that it had held when it was only the Grand Duchy of Muscovy 400 years ago, the international Left would have taken over the conservation and ecology bandwagon and manipulated the leading capitalist countries into a savage assault on their own economies to reduce carbon emissions. No one could have anticipated that some African Americans would have celebrated their emancipation and the elevation of an African American president by lionizing antiwhite extremists and producing policing policies that have facilitated a vertiginous spike in violent crime in America.

Even two years ago no one could have foreseen that the Chinese would inadvertently release a virus which the entire Western world would obligingly respond to by shutting down almost their entire economy for a year and increasing the money supply by 30 percent—producing an economic upheaval that will linger for a long time. And there is no precedent for the completely avoidable and shaming debacle of the American defection from its own alliance and helter-skelter flight from Afghanistan, leaving thousands of desperate people of many nationalities who had relied upon the United States, to fend for themselves against the new terrorist regime that seized power there (and $85 billion of U.S. military hardware along with it).

No one could have foreseen that the egregious chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley—who appears to have been stuffed into his over-decorated tunic and bears more evidences of military distinction than victorious five-star combat generals George C. Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, and Dwight D. Eisenhower combined—would promise his Chinese analogue that he would warn him if President Trump intended to attack China, that he agreed with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that his commander-in-chief (Trump) was insane, that he would proudly help institute “diversity, equity, and inclusion” lessons in the Armed Forces, and that he would inform a congressional committee while under oath that he had warned Biden about the dangers of his Afghan policy (warnings the president professes not to have received).

And this is how he ends.

Despite my substantial agreement with their concerns, I vigorously attempted to defend the American interest. The best I could do was to remind them that the United States was the most successful country in history and always worked out its problems and that even after three more years of this ramshackle defeatism, a nation as great as America could quickly be restored to its traditional confidence and solidity. I was not entirely persuasive: my knowledgeable British and European friends not only do not think America is back, they think it has gone mad.

I just think its leadership has sold out to the Chinese who must be amazed at such an array of traitorous scum at the top of the American political system.

Maybe he’s just trying to be funny, but he did say it: Putin Warns Wokeness Is Destroying The West: It Happened In Russia, It’s Evil, It Destroys Values.

Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed during a speech on Thursday the far-left woke ideology that he said is causing societal ills throughout the Western world, saying that it is no different than what happened in Russia during the 1917 revolution….

“We see with bemusement the paralysis unfolding in countries that have grown accustomed to viewing themselves as the flagships of progress,” Putin said during an event where he spoke for a few hours. “Of course, it’s none of our business or what is happening, the social and cultural shocks that are happening in some countries in the Western countries, some believe that aggressive blotting out of whole pages of your own history, the affirmative action in the interest of minorities, and the requirement to renounce the traditional interpretation of such basic values as mother, father, family, and the distinction between sexes are a milestone … a renewal of society.”

Putin said that Western nations had a right to do whatever they wanted to do but that “the overwhelming majority of Russian society” rejected these new ways of thinking.

And if you have any doubts about how serious he was, read it through. His level of disgust with what is going on is near on identical to my own.

If Covid really were a deadly disease that might strike anyone down at any time, no one would forget to do everything they can to prevent infection. The reality is that pretty well everyone in our governing class understands that it is pretty well all a pretence with virtually no danger whatsoever to their lives and health. There is some, but it’s minimal. You are far more likely to be in a fatal car crash than to die from Covid. 

So the picture is from this story: Premier Daniel Andrews probed by police over possible mask breach. They take us for fools, and in that they may be onto something. Like with this in the US: ‘Squad’ member Rashida Tlaib is branded a hypocrite for dancing MASKLESS at indoor wedding in ‘substantial’ transmission area after scolding anti-masker Sen. Rand Paul.

Same woman who was overheard explicitly stating it is only a joke: ‘Squad’ Member Rashida Tlaib Admits Masks Are Political Theater, ‘Just Wearing It’ For Cameras. Just like at Obama’s 60th birthday party: THEY LAUGH AT YOU: Obama and Liberal Elites Spotted Maskless at His Swank Birthday Gala on Martha’s Vineyard as Rest of the Country Hunkers Down in Pandemic.

Everyone knows this is true: List Of 30 Studies Showing Face Masks Are Useless Against COVID-19. But you will do as you are told, so Daniel Andrews will face a $400 fine.

Are we stupid, or are we stupid!