As readers know I am a critic of China, but a fair one, not someone driven by pathological hatred. Thus, all criticisms must be based on facts. Hence, consider the outrage that liberals are exhibiting over China sentencing  drug smuggler Robert Schellenberg to death, for conspiring to smuggle 222 kilograms of methamphetamines from China into Australia. Western critics in Canada are saying that this is a payback for Canada prosecuting chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou. Well, so what if it is? China is quite within its rights to make its own laws and police them how they see fit, and surely we do not want these drugs in Australia. If we don’t like it, and I don’t, then stay out of China, and most of all, don’t do drugs. It is simple; if one objects to Chinese buy ups, then you cannot then impose such standards upon China, that is actually “racist” and discriminatory. Hence, I support China executing the drug dealer, and making whatever laws it sees fit for dealing with Westerns in its own country. Now we know where we stand.  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/schellenberg-china-drugs-sentence-death-1.4977808 

     Longer term readers will know that I am an ex-Catholic, one that has fallen away because of the political correctness of the present Pope. A few Catholic readers have kindly sent letters, saying that I should not despair, that this will all pass, and things will eventually get back to normal, like any trial in life. Thank you for this, I sincerely hope it is true, and that this Pope does not do irreparable damage to the Church. I am not the only person experiencing this “dark night of the soul”:  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/01/16/analyst-popes-sagging-popularity-signals-fading-trust-in-globalism/

“The approval rating of Pope Francis declined all over Europe during the course of 2018, a new analysis observed Wednesday, in large part because of his ever-less popular pro-immigration stance and other globalist positions. Among German Catholics, the pope’s popularity plummeted by a staggering 20 percentage points in one year, notes analyst Francesco Galietti, who runs the political risk consultancy Policy Sonar, and with Francis at its helm, the Catholic Church as a whole also suffered a drop of 9 percent in its approval rating among the same constituency. In Italy, as well, support for the Argentine pontiff waned in 2018, Galietti observes, with surveys indicating that the pope’s approval rating fell by five percentage points over the course of the year, from 77 to 72 percent. Francis’ decreasing popularity in Italy has been offset by growing popularity for the reigning populist, Eurosceptic government, and in particular its most charismatic member, interior minister Matteo Salvini.

     The new class say that the information tech highway is all clear and that no-one has placed landmines on the tracks. Ask Google though what they have got up to under the cover of electronic darkness:  https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/01/16/google-youtube-search-blacklist-smoking-gun/

“In sworn testimony, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Congress last month that his company does not “manually intervene” on any particular search result. Yet an internal discussion thread leaked to Breitbart News reveals Google regularly intervenes in search results on its YouTube video platform – including a recent intervention that pushed pro-life videos out of the top ten search results for “abortion.” The term “abortion” was added to a “blacklist” file for “controversial YouTube queries,” which contains a list of search terms that the company considers sensitive. According to the leak, these include some of these search terms related to: abortion, abortions, the Irish abortion referendum, Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and anti-gun activist David Hogg. The existence of the blacklist was revealed in an internal Google discussion thread leaked to Breitbart News by a source inside the company who wishes to remain anonymous. A partial list of blacklisted terms was also leaked to Breitbart by another Google source.”

     Here is all the recent news fit to print on what is happening with the much used chemical, Roundup. First spray is that  Monsanto released ghost-written papers dealing with the safety of this chemical, which is a scientific no-no:  https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-12-09-monsanto-released-ghostwritten-papers-safety-of-their-pesticides.html

“The academic journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology has issued corrections to articles that it published reviewing glyphosate’s safety. According to the corrections, Monsanto failed to fully disclose its involvement with five articles printed in the journal entitled, “An Independent Review of the Carcinogenic Potential of Glyphosate.” Not surprisingly, the articles concluded that the chemical was not likely to cause cancer in humans. It turns out that the review was written by experts overseen by a consulting firm that Monsanto hired. In a rare “expression of concern,” the journal’s publisher, Taylor & Francis, admitted that the authors of the review didn’t explain why they were not transparent when the article was submitted and went on to outline some of the wrongdoings. This confirms what Natural News and other independent news outlets – not to mention many Roundup Cancer attorneys – have been saying for many years: Monsanto ghostwrites science and deceives the public to make it appear as though its top-earning herbicide does not actually cause cancers like non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

     Last year the generally Left Polity Press published the book  by Salvatore Babones, The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism, and the Tyranny of Experts. Dr Babones is an America academic with an position  in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney. What is of interest to us is the central thesis of the book, that there has been a potential conflict between liberalism and democracy throughout the Western political tradition. At present, liberalism is on the rise, if not out of control, but he does see merit in the presidency of Donald Trump in stopping the overwhelming influence of liberalism, and turning the pendulum back towards democracy. The subtitle of the book mentions the tyranny of experts, and here the central conflict between liberalism and democracy gets murky, because the technocrats are neither liberal, nor democratic, but, as I see it a sui genesis power group. The politically correct liberal is guided by fanatical ideology, but the technocrat is concerned solely with social control and the smooth operation of the social control mechanisms. However there is an alternative position that should be considered:  https://www.counter-currents.com/2019/01/trump-vs-the-tyranny-of-experts/#more-89408

“Babones is correct that modern liberalism requires deference to expert (or pseudo-expert) authority. The people are the passive recipients of those rights the experts deem them to possess. As the domain of rights expands, experts end up making more and more of the decisions in an ever-increasing number of the most important aspects of public life: economic policy, criminal justice, what’s taught in schools, who’s allowed to enter the country, what diseases will be cured, even who will have the opportunity to run for elective office. The areas reserved to expert adjudication seem only to expand. Previously depoliticized domains rarely return to the realm of democratic determination. University instruction, medical research councils, disaster relief agencies, courts of law and (in America) the Federal Reserve Bank are just some institutions financed by government (i.e., taxpayers) but protected from democratic political oversight. In every case, the rational is that only those with the relevant professional expertise should be permitted to make decisions effecting such institutions.

     I previously covered the story about water being “discovered” on the moon, but here is an earlier story that I forgot to write about sooner, about water being discovered on Mars, and how there is a conspiracy angle to the story, which immediately causes my shell-like ears to prick up:  https://www.rt.com/news/447139-mars-water-ice-images-esa/    https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-07-26-nasa-announcement-of-liquid-water-on-mars-confirms-reporting-for-years.html

“After years of denial, NASA finally admitted in 2015 that “liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.” NASA said at the time: “It took multiple spacecraft over several years to solve this mystery, and now we know there is liquid water on the surface of this cold, desert planet.” It will be interesting to see what remarks they make about the discovery of a persistent body of water on Mars – if they even acknowledge it at all. Experts say the new findings should put the debate over the presence of liquid water on Mars to rest for good. It’s something that Natural News has been talking about for many years, with Mike Adams commenting in articles and interviews about NASA’s politically motivated cover-up of the existence of water and life on Mars. Natural News has written about the discovery of microbial life on the planet in 1976 with the NASA Viking lander, something the agency scrambled to explain away by calling the instrument’s integrity into question. Nevertheless, onboard gas chromatography backed up the findings – although that was covered up, too.”

     Now the corporates are showing their true colour, namely red, and openly engaging in the cultural wars. Where better to start then to attack men where it hurts, namely, the face:  https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/01/14/pg-urges-men-to-lose-their-toxic-masculinity-in-gilette-razor-ad/

“Proctor & Gamble is urging men to shave their “toxic masculinity” in a new ad for Gillette razors. The ad shows men fighting, cooking barbecue, and verbally harassing women, interspersed with news reports about the #MeToo movement. A new ad from P&G razor brand Gillette encourages men to reexamine themselves and the way that they raise young boys. The ad, which is called “We Believe: The Best Men Can Be,” is essentially a two-minute broad generalization about the way that men act and think.”

     Here is an insightful article discussing various “signs” which are now occurring that should give any thinking person pause, to well, to think. Plagues of locusts, that sure is Biblical, and things like the shifting of the Earth’s magnetic field, must have a divine sign, if my geological theology serves me well.
  http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/signs-of-the-times-a-plague-of-locusts-hits-mecca-and-earths-magnetic-pole-is-experiencing-a-sudden-shift_01142019

“A massive swarm of locusts plagued Mecca, Saudi Arabia, earlier this week, prompting authorities at Islam’s holiest site to launch a cleaning operation to remove them. Videos posted to social media showed the insects swarming around cleaners and worshipers in the city’s Grand Mosque, where millions of Muslim pilgrims congregate every year. “Specialized teams have been directed to work in the fight to eliminate these insects,” authorities in Mecca said, according to the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news site. “We have harnessed all efforts available to speed up the eradication of the insects in the interest of the safety and comfort of guests of God’s house,” the authorities said.”

     Most of us writing at this site on the race/immigration issue are pretty pessimistic about the survival prospects of the West, if mass immigration continues. But we are not the only ones, and Italy while in the past being at the German level of terrible, is now leading the way back to sanity:   https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-14/europe-could-collapse-over-migration-says-italy-pm-salvini-insists-paris-berlin

“Italy's Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, said on Monday that the European Union risks collapsing unless it is able to find common ground on mass migration. "If we continue to stall without a shared path, we risk bringing down the European building," Conte remarked at a press conference discussing a recent meeting in Rome with European Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos. Avramopoulos also met with Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who has led the country's tough stance against NGO-operated migrant transport ships across the mediterranean to Italian ports. Salvini, speaking with RAI's Tg2 bulletin, Salvini knocked France and Germany for "dictating legislature" over the past decade, adding that he and his allies in other EU countries "want to change Europe, not destroy it," reports Bloomberg.”

Susan Rennie engages in much special pleading to try to justify a change of date for Australia Day ("Darebin not anti-Australia Day, just January 26"). She claims that the City of Darebin Council is "simply opposed to celebrating our national identity on a date that is not inclusive and respectful of First Nations peoples." In reality the council seeks to change Australians' sense of that identity and, eventually, the very nature of our constitution and political order. 

If the British government had produced a deal that involved a genuine Brexit, it would have gained acceptance in the House of Commons this week, possibly by a similar margin to that by which May's motion has been defeated; and there would be no crisis. It seems clear that the government has been captured by pro-EU forces and corrupted. This is the latest stage in the deceit that has been worked on the British people since the "Common Market" strategy of half a century ago.

The growing Saltbush Club has announced a national campaign to support Australia’s immediate withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.

The new group aims to prevent ratification or local enforcement of the Paris targets and taxes.

Despite Judith Ireland's scepticism ('Nothing sacred to see here', 19/1), Australia Day has now indeed become 'a precious national celebration.' It is an important ritual festival supportive of traditional Australia which is under siege from those who seek to undermine its culture and political order. The majority of Australians recognise that 26 January 1788, marking the constitutional beginning of our nation, is a significant date which should be annually honoured with gratitude to our forebears.

Your editorial "Crunch time for Brexit deal" (15/1) correctly states that the UK's House of Commons must honour the 2016 referendum decision to leave the EU. Unprovable claims that a majority of the British people would now vote to "Remain" should be ignored. Devious attempts to secure a second referendum or sabotage a "no deal Brexit" should be rejected as dishonest. Scare prophecies of what a "no deal exit" would involve should be resisted as lacking credibility.

         I have been dabbling with the thought of getting acupuncture for my bad back, lumbar spine arthritis, but I also have high blood pressure, given my advanced age and being constantly overweight. I saw this article about how acupuncture could help with high blood pressure, and it just might be worth a go.

         Way back in 2016, both Charles in Florida, and myself in hot Australia, covered the election fraud issue, where the Democrats openly cheated. Now they are moving to make that open cheating simply part of the system, so that they will rule their dumb subjects forever, or at least until the collapse occurs, wiping them all out:

         Epigenetics is the study of the effects of environmental factors upon genes. Genes basically produce proteins that are encoded into the body, as the building blocks of life. It was once thought that the central controlling mechanism of the cell, now known as the cell nucleus, did not have its heritability qualities affected by environmental factors. Not so:

         Many of us lament the fact that immigration to the West is having ill-effects that is undermining the sustainability of civilisation. Here is one exchange illustrating this point, where Ann Coulter demolishes Trump:

         It would be the stuff of a “great” adventure movie; a group of terrorists, who by definition must be Nordic blondes, maybe Germans, hack into the US power grid and threaten to bring it down. A group of multicultural heroes assemble, and save the day, after having sex with all the blonde female villains, who then turn “good,” so that obese people can go back to playing video games. Anyone out there interested in a film script for this potential blockbuster?

         There could be some excitement on the horizon to liven up the rather boring life of Earthlings. Nothing like a good old fashioned alien invasion by little green men, to spice things up. Let me explain.