According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petard, Pétard comes from the Middle French péter, to break wind, from the root pet, expulsion of intestinal gas, derived from the Latin peditus, past participle of pedere, to break wind. In modern French, a pétardis is a firecracker (and it is the basis for the word for firecracker in several other European languages).

Shakespeare in Hamlet Act 3, Scene 4, has Hamlet use the phrase, “hoist with his own petard,” to mean, “defeated/blown up with their own plan/bomb.” A petard is a small bomb that was once used to blow up gates and walls when breaching them.

The strategy of the elite at the moment is to undermine President Trump by pushing the line that he is under the influence of Russia. Hence impeach him.
There is a nice counter to this, published by Philip Weiss, “Israel Interferes in Our politics All the Time, and It’s Never a Scandal,” at http://mondoweiss.net/2017/02/interferes-politics-scandal/. He says:

“Israel tried to interfere in that 2012 election, as Chris Matthews sensibly reminded his audience recently: Benjamin Netanyahu tried to help Mitt Romney beat Obama. Sheldon Adelson held a fundraiser in Jerusalem for Romney.
Netanyahu didn’t stop there. After Romney lost, Netanyahu came to Congress to tell the Congress to reject President Obama’s nuclear deal. That was an unprecedented interference of a foreign leader in our policy-making, enabled by the Israel lobby; but there were never any investigations about that. Subsequently Chuck Schumer said he was torn between a Jewish interest and the American interest, before voting against the president, and he paid no political/reputational price for it; while President Obama said that it would be an “abrogation” of his constitutional duty if he considered Israel’s interest ahead of the U.S.; for which Obama was called an anti-semite.”

Theodore Kaufman published Germany Must Perish! in 1941, advocating the genocide of the Germans through the sterilization of all Germans. Louis Nizer, in What to Do with Germany, published in 1944, disagreed with mass sterilization but wanted collective punishment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany_Must_Perish!

Following World War II there was the Morgenthau plan (ultimately abandoned at the 11th hour), to deindustrialize Germany, leading to the extermination of 40 percent of its population: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan; http://www.fpp.co.uk/bookchapters/Morgenthau.html.

With Republican friends like John McCain – you know, the “war hero’ who stood against Obama, but really wanted Obama to win because he was black – Trump does not need enemies, but he has them by the truck load anyway.

According to The Washington Post, news we know we can trust (after all, they publish Russian and Chinese communist propaganda: http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-02-19-revealed-the-same-washington-post-that-accused-200-web-sites-of-being-puppets-for-russian-propaganda-actually-takes-money-from-russia.html),  “John McCain Just Systematically Dismantled Donald Trump’s Entire Worldview,”  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/17/john-mccain-just-systematically-dismantled-donald-trumps-entire-worldview/?utm_term=.b919cf7e8a30.

“The life of man upon earth is a warfare, and his days are like the days of a hireling.” Job 7:1-2
France is in flames, as the latest wave of race riots sweeps this Third World Republic. I mean that literally after reading Steve Sailer’s piece, “Le Grand Remplacement” (“The Great Replacement”), at http://takimag.com/article/le_grand_remplacement_steve_sailer#axzz4ZAdOzFGR. France is rapidly being transformed into a non-white Third World country, as is reflected in the vibrancy of the riots: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/paris-riots-black-teen-allegedly-sodomized-police-officer-baton/.

Sailer attempts to give some estimations of this, as the French government thinks that it is racist to keep ascertain ethnoracial statistics and data, contrary to the spirit of la République.

The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has said to the UN General assembly that Japan must improve the living standards of its own people before considering to take in Syrian refugees – in 2016 Japan received 5,000 refugee applications, but accepted 11 people, which is probably about right: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/30/japan-says-it-must-look-after-its-own-before-allowing-syrian-refugees-in.
However, Japan will give US $ 1.6 billion to assist Syrians and Iraqis.
That seems to be a more sensible approach rather than the “feel good’ open border policy adopted in Germany.

Two migrants to Japan out of the first batch, have been accused of raping a Japanese woman: http://www.tokyoreporter.com/2016/02/22/tokyo-cops-arrest-turkish-asylum-seekers-in-gang-rape-of-woman/. This will no doubt harden Japan’s policy, which is a good thing for them.

We need to be paying close attention to how the elites are fighting against Trump, because it gives us an indication of how they would battle, say, alternative financial movements, such as social credit. Of course we already have seen what they have done in the past, with the Alberta experiment, but we have not seen anything yet, as the evil empire strikes back.

First, according to the New York Post (http://nypost.com/2017/02/11/how-obama-is-scheming-to-sabotage-trumps-presidency/), Obama has set up a “shadow government” in a bunker less than two miles from the White House, and has an army of agitators, numbering at least 30,000, working to bring Trump down. Already the Obama shadows worked to destroy former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, using waves of damaging stories, before details about Obama’s Iran nuclear deal was revealed: http://www.collapse.news/2017-02-15-traitors-inside-the-bureaucracy-civil-war-heats-up-as-obamas-sleeper-cells-succeed-in-destroying-flynn.html.

Without cell walls, with open border cells, cells would fall apart and cease to exist. Cell membranes hold cells together and prevent invading organisms from destroying the cell. What is true at the microbiological level, is also true at the macro-sociological level.

Frontex, the European Border and coast Guard Agency, has reports that there has been an overwhelmingly significant drop in illegal immigration in countries which have constructed walls, and strong border defences:  http://reliefweb.int/report/world/frontex-annual-risk-analysis-2017.

To The Age
Is the current 'groundswell' of populist politics really 'far-right', as Paul Blackman thinks? (21/2) Perhaps the right-left terminology is inadequate to define it. Maybe it is a genuine rising up of decent and ordinary people who are fed up with the dishonourably self-serving policies of elites based on financial privilege and nepotism. In this case things aren't so gloomy after all.

The 'collective notion of what we agree upon' was largely shaped by these elites through their powerful propaganda.  What is important now is for people to keep cool heads, engage civilly in public discourse, make careful analyses of what is happening and chart a sensible course into the future that is both wise and compassionate. Let's proceed on that basis.
NJ, Belgrave, Vic

To The Australian
It is good to learn that the new NSW senior secondary curriculum emphasises 'how Western civilisation was shaped' ('Classroom focus shifts to life skills', 21/2), but the ways in which this is to be done arouse some misgivings. Is there to be sufficient attention given to the role of British constitutional and cultural history, surely the most important aspect of our heritage? Is there too great an emphasis on the last 500 years of history at the expense of the civilisations of Greece and Rome, the mediaeval period and the Renaissance? (The new focus on ancient China is to be applauded.)

Yes, it is good to decentralise education at this level, as Kevin Donnelly notes, but are individual schools being given adequate flexibility of choice? And surely the 'Bush legend' is more important to an understanding of Australia's self-image than a focus on any particular politician from the past? Much more interesting too!
NJ, Belgrave, Vic

A supervolcano eruption  destroyed the Roman city of Pompeii, near the coast of the Bay of Naples, in 79 A.D. Now it seems that a repeat is on the way: http://collapse.news/2017-02-07-report-supervolcano-that-could-kill-millions-of-europeans-ready-to-blow.html.The supervolcano is called Campi Flegrei, and is under Naples in Italy. There have been recent seismic signs that the volcano is reawakening and a big eruption will kill millions of Europeans. Clouds of ash could black out the sun, making Europe dark for years, if not a decade. Air travel, probably across the world, at least involving jets, would cease. Media reports say that the eruption could accelerate global warming, which is the religious faith. Actually volcanic eruptions contribute to global cooling, and a volcanic winter would be more of a concern than any hypothetical global warming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_winter.

This has happened in the past. The Lake Toba supervolcano in Indonesia erupted around 74,000 years ago and wiped out over two thirds of the humans existing at the time. Global temperatures dropped 10 C for over a decade : https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/06/scientists_discover_the_trigger_that_could_set_off_a_supervolcano/.

The Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/Not-Just-News/Trending-Now-VIDEO-British-Muslims-chant-USA-you-will-pay-caliphate-is-on-its-way-476196,  reports that hundreds of British Muslim protesters in a rally organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, which is a Muslim group wanting the establishment of a caliphate, chanted: “USA, you will pay, caliphate is on its way.”
A caliphate is essentially an Islamic theocratic state, an Islamic New World Order, under sharia law: http://counterjihad.com/jihadists-dream-caliphate-heres-need-know. So, stopping Muslim immigration in the USA is met by this threat. Trump is confirmed.
Readers may like to read the comments in the JP article, which enjoys freedom of speech that we once had in Australia.

Here, in brief, are some interesting poll results on Trump and Muslim immigration, topics perennially in the news.
First, the firm Remington Research conducted a poll which found that Trump’s executive order on immigration  received 50 percent approval, and 41 percent disapproval. The support across America for the executive order was greater than voter support for the president; http;//washingtonexaminer.com/author/david-m-drucker.
Another poll. This time by emerson college, found that the Trump administration was viewed as more trustworthy than the mainstream news media: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-02-08/poll-finds-trump-administrtion-seen-more-truthful-news-media.

In 2016, an Essential Poll fond that 49 percent of Australians supported a ban on Muslim immigration to Australia (The Australian, February 13, 2017, p. 12) A Chatham House poll of 10,195 respondents, across 10 european states, found that on average 55 percent wanted Muslim migration stopped, and the figure rose to 59 percent for those with secondary qualifications: https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/what-do-europeans-think-about-muslim-immigration.
Food for thought.
Pauline my girl, this is your time, so make the most of it. Next job is to draw the federal government out on how it paid for a Muslim activist (“Islam to me is the most feminist religion”), to tour, what The Australia newspaper describes as “some of the world’s most repressive Islamic regimes,” all at tax payers’ expense. And the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade declined to reveal the costs of this. (The Australian, February 16, 2017, p. 1) Wouldn’t you like to know how much you paid for this from your hard-working tax dollars?

We all know that we can trust our politicians and wonderful organisations, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Why, just the name “United Nations,” drips with moral authority, like ethical nectar!
Some shocking racist types – not mentioning any names – feared that there just might be more than a few “bad hombre” (hombre malo) gangsters in the refugees from Mexico and Central America, which was done as part of the Obama/Turnbull deal for the US to take 1,250 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru.
Don’t worry. A UNHCR spokeswoman said “You cannot be a criminal and a refugee at the same time.”  (The Australian, February 13, 2017, p. 1) Did you hear that Donny Trump, you got it all wrong.

But then I read; “the refugees swap deal inevitably increases exposure to the world’s most dangerous criminal gangs working to spread their extortion and murder rackets around the world. There were reports this year that the notorious Mara Salvatrucha, or MS13, may have a presence in Sydney, after gang graffiti was found in Bondi, in the city’s east, but there has been no confirmation or evidence of gang activity.” Maybe not: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3160206/The-call-sign-one-LA-s-deadliest-crime-gangs-started-showing-face-tattooed-MS-13-members-REALLY-infiltrated-Bondi-local-graffiti-taggers-just-trying-act-tough.html.
As Con the Fruiter, my favourite ethnic, used to say on the TV show the Comedy Company, “coupla days.” Immigration makes all bad things possible.

African American Democrat from Los Angeles, Maxine Waters, who has been in the saddle for 13 terms, doesn’t like Donald Trump one bit. No sir. She wants Trump impeached for, among other things, Trump is “Wrapping his arms around Putin while Putin is continuing to advance into Korea.” Korea? Yes, that is what she said.

Perhaps she meant “Crimea,” but screwed up getting the word out? Maybe, maybe not, but that is a mistake of 4,500 miles. Should the libtards really be making a song ‘n’ dance about Don Trump’s alleged mental state, when we have such “muddled waters” : http://www.dailywire.com/news/13232/muddled-waters-thinks-putin-invaded-korea-joesph-curl?

As outlined in a new book by Peter Turchin, Ages of Discord, (Beresta Books, 2016), the West is entering an age of discord, a time of severe social crisis, the second such age in modern times. It is difficult to predict with any accuracy when, but hit the fan it will. I have already written about how the super-rich see it coming and are using their money to become survivalists, big time; http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich?currentPage=all.

One aspect of prepping often neglected by the survivalist movement is medicine. The usual position taken is that one should attempt to stockpile medications needed, such as antibiotics, blood pressure meds and the like. But, one can only get so much of prescribed drugs, they have a shelf life (longer than that stated on the pack, but still a shelf life), so much of the prescribed medicine will run out in any grid down situation.

My favourite "out there" news story this year is the report (Natural news.com, February 12, 2017), that the evil Dark Lords of the global elite conspiratorial New World Order Illuminati etc. etc., will be staging a “cosmic false flag,” a massive, false, alien invasion. You may think that this has already happened right across the West, but apparently we have not seen anything yet.

In fear, and hysteria, people will beg for world government, even saying, “Please, pretty please, oh Dark Lords of the eternal night, please enslave us, so the evil aliens from Mars, don’t.” I am not sure why one would bother, but there you go.

Reply to JoNova
While your readers will find the recent article on The Managerial Revolution of interest, I would like to point out there were two Australians who, many years ago, warned about the Managerial Revolution in this country.
But first, 2017 is the 100th anniversary of the completion of the East-West railway here in Australia and there is is quite a Story of The Commonwealth Bank in that for Australian readers. But back to the Managerial Revolution.

I wrote an article in 2007 in which I explained to the readers WITHOUT A STUDY OF MAMMON (MONEY) – HISTORY IS BUNK and James Burnham should not be ‘let off the hook’.

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald online (16/2/17) entitled “A costly anachronism: it’s time to evict the NSW governor again” is inaccurate in several instances.
The facts are:  In 1996 the republican Premier, Bob Carr arbitrarily decided that, following the retirement of Governor Rear Admiral Peter Sinclair AC, the new Governor of NSW, former Justice Gordon Samuels,  would live outside Government House and occupy offices in Macquarie Street and retain his position as Chairman of the Law Reform Commission of New South Wales meaning that he would be a part-time governor.

When Rear Admiral Sinclair departed Government House there was a rally organised by members of the NSW Parliament supported by monarchist groups. There was also a line-up outside Government House to peacefully protest at the change. (Monarchists are never aggressive or violent when they infrequently protest).

The Full Bench of the Federal Court of Australia, has invalidated a series of native title land-use agreements across the country. (The Australian, February 8, 2017, p. 1).

The decision in McGlade v Native Title Registrar [2017] FCAFC 10, which overrules QGC Pty Ltd v Bygrave (No. 2) [2010] FCA 1019, threatens mines, gas fields, agricultural projects and other infrastructure projects, with thousands of jobs at stake by the invalidation of around 200 agreements. The decision is set to be used against the $ 16 billion Carmichael coalmine in central Queensland.