We don’t hear a lot about Wales, but rest assured, it too is facing the twilight of the West, suffering from the same philosophical diseases as everywhere else:
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/11/16/welsh-separatist-leader-wales-turned-into-nation-of-sanctuary-refugees/

“Liz Saville Roberts, who leads the Welsh separatist party Plaid Cymru in Britain’s House of Commons, has called for her small country to become a “nation of sanctuary” for the world’s refugees. “We live on an island of Britain,” the London-born ex-teacher told a BBC Question Time audience. “In terms of managing immigration this is way easier than for many other nations,” she added — although despite the seeming logic of this statement the United Kingdom does in fact have the joint-highest illegal alien population in all of Europe. [Immigration] has become desperately political. Now, forgive me, now, to be referring to Wales again, but this is equally true for other areas in the United Kingdom… 96 per cent of people in Wales were born in the United Kingdom, and yet we hear this same argument there, but we’re dependent so much on people to come in for clinical staff, for food processing, for catering — we’re going to be in trouble if we don’t have these people still coming in,” she claimed, appearing to suggest in the same breath that immigration to Wales is both too limited to be of any concern, and also absolutely vital to the health service and for a steady supply of cheap waiters and factory workers. “Now, I am proud to see that my party would like to see Wales as a nation of sanctuary for refugees,” she added, passing over the fact that the economic migration to Wales which she initially mentioned has little bearing on the question of refugees, which in Continental European countries including Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden remain overwhelmingly jobless. “But I think there is a time now, rather than [immigration] being a political football — and this is a political par excellence of our time, and it is ugly — that we start talking about immigration in terms of these are other human beings, and how we manage with that in the world, rather than using it as an excuse for closing down our doors, becoming more inward-looking, and more turning in ourselves, because I fear for the future if we continue with this narrative,” she concluded. Despite the Plaid politician’s rhetoric, however, the reality is that Britain’s doors have not been closed or even closing for generations, with net immigration currently running at or near record annual highs and the country’s demographic make-up transforming rapidly. Quite how Wales, with a population of just over 3 million, could possibly retain any semblance of identity or even survive economically if turned into a “sanctuary” for tens of millions of global refugees, remains unclear.”

     I flipped through a book left on the desk of the university library here in Melbourne, David Benatar, Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence (Oxford University Press, 2008). It is argued that human life (animals, plants??) always involves some harm of coming into being, and hence, it is better never to have been. We can call this position anti-natalism, and it is not just a thesis restricted to those publishing posh books with a leading university publisher:
  https://www.amazon.com/Better-Never-Have-Been-Existence/dp/0199549265
  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/anti-natalists-childfree-population-climate-change

“In February, a 27-year-old Indian man named Raphael Samuel announced plans for an unusual lawsuit. He was going to sue his parents for begetting him. “It was not our decision to be born,” he told the BBC. “Human existence is totally pointless.” Samuel recently told me over Skype from Mumbai that his is a good life, and he is actually close to his parents. His complaint is more fundamental: he believes it is wrong to bring new people into the world without their consent. He wanted to sue his parents for a symbolic amount of money, such as a single rupee, “to instill that fear among parents in general. Because now parents don’t think before having a child,” he told me. Samuel subscribes to a philosophy called anti-natalism. The basic tenet of anti-natalism is simple but, for most of us, profoundly counterintuitive: that life, even under the best of circumstances, is not a gift or a miracle, but rather a harm and an imposition. According to this logic, the question of whether to have a child is not just a personal choice but an ethical one – and the correct answer is always no. In 2006, the South African philosopher David Benatar published a book which is widely credited with introducing the term anti-natalism. In Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence, Benatar quotes the Greek tragedian Sophocles (“Never to have been born is best / But if we must see the light, the next best / Is quickly returning whence we came”) and the text of Ecclesiastes (“So I have praised the dead that are already dead more than the living that are yet alive; but better than both of them is he who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun”). These quotes suggest that the sentiments at the heart of anti-natalism have been around for a very long time.

     Remember that cartoon Mr Magoo?
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Magoo 
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8GTHXTEvIc

     The Pope is increasingly reminding me of Mr Magoo, “Oh Pope, you’ve done it again!” All with his crazy attempt to climb to the highest moral ground of political correctness:
  https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/pope-is-accused-of-sacrilege-during-synod-on-the-amazon-38687621.html

     Things must be getting pretty crazy, when the big O himself, Obama says, “Hey fellow Globo-commos, slow down a bit, you are moving too fast, and might scare the sheeple”:
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/11/16/obama-signals-concern-about-radical-2020-field/

“Former President Barack Obama warned a group of leftist donors that Democrats must be cognizant of public sentiment going into the 2020 election, taking a veiled shot at far-left candidates like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) by noting that Democrats “have to be rooted in reality.” The former president spoke to a group of liberal donors in Washington, DC, on Friday and suggested that the far-left ideas articulated and pursued by some of the candidates in the Democrat primary could turn away potential voters. “Even as we push the envelope and we are bold in our vision we also have to be rooted in reality,” Obama said, according to the New York Times. “The average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.” Obama refrained from naming a specific candidate, but he, according to the Times, “cautioned that the universe of voters that could support a Democratic candidate — Democrats, independents, and moderate Republicans — are not driven by the same views reflected on ‘certain left-leaning Twitter feeds’ or ‘the activist wing of our party.’”

     City people have their brains basically wired for city things, and lose connection, at a most basic level with nature. That is why some us have this feeling of world weariness living in the concrete jungle, and long for a green lusty luscious jungle complete with poisonous snakes if necessary, and the like, a new Eden:
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-11-16-city-living-causes-brain-stop-recognizing-objects-natural-world.html
  https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.1492

“Ambiguous images are widely recognized as a valuable tool for probing human perception. Perceptual biases that arise when people make judgements about ambiguous images reveal their expectations about the environment. While perceptual biases in early visual processing have been well established, their existence in higher-level vision has been explored only for faces, which may be processed differently from other objects. Here we developed a new, highly versatile method of creating ambiguous hybrid images comprising two component objects belonging to distinct categories. We used these hybrids to measure perceptual biases in object classification and found that images of man-made (manufactured) objects dominated those of naturally occurring (non-man-made) ones in hybrids. This dominance generalized to a broad range of object categories, persisted when the horizontal and vertical elements that dominate man-made objects were removed and increased with the real-world size of the manufactured object. Our findings show for the first time that people have perceptual biases to see man-made objects and suggest that extended exposure to manufactured environments in our urban-living participants has changed the way that they see the world.”

     The U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 20 passed two Hong Kong bills supporting the ongoing pro-democracy protests, sending them to the White House for the president to sign or veto. The House voted 417 to 1 for the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which unanimously passed the Senate a day earlier. The House unanimously passed another version of this bill earlier in October. The Act would require the State Department to review each year whether the city, which reverted to the Chinese rule in 1997, retains sufficient autonomy to justify its special economic privileges with the United States.

  Full Article:  https://www.theepochtimes.com/house-passes-2-hong-kong-bills-in-support-of-protests-to-be-sent-to-president-for-approval_3152754.html

     I surmise why the experts deny Stone Island's beautiful fringing coral reefs in my latest blog post, and comment on The Guardian newspapers unfair review of my first film, you can read it here:
  https://jennifermarohasy.com/2019/11/why-deny-the-beautiful-coral-reefs-fringing-stone-island/

**************
And following is the text:

We live in an era when it is politically incorrect to say the Great Barrier Reef is doing fine, except if it’s in a tourist brochure. The issue has nothing to do with the actual state of corals, but something else altogether.

To The Age         The most important contemporary truth about school reporting practice is that there should not be too much of it ("End-of-year reports are 'old school'", 20/11).  A winding back of over-elaborate procedures is needed, in order to free up teachers for teaching not only the formal curriculum but also other insights, beauties and wisdom particular to each teacher in a relaxed and unpressurised classroom. The promotion of continuous assessment throughout the school year, rather than saving teachers from "avalanches of reports at the end of each term", may in fact only subject them to a continuous, year-long avalanche of assessment duties. And "old school" practice in "days gone by" may have been wiser and more humane than today's stressful reporting fashions.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave

To The Australian         My, what an uncharacteristic tirade from the normally measured and responsible Janet Albrechtsen ("Tuning in to royals' prime-time meltdown", 20/11)! It is ridiculous to claim that the seriously poor behaviour of one prince means the end of the British royal house. The Windsors have survived other scandals and will survive this one. The Queen has very greatly enhanced the esteem in which the monarchy is held and there is a triple succession waiting in the wings (Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince George). Is it a sign of hysteria that we find two notable errors in Albrechtsen's piece: "principals" for "principles" and "incredulous" for "incredible"?    The Crown, in Australia as well as in the United Kingdom, is widely loved by the public, who see that royalty, with its basis in religion, tradition and chivalry, is a great check on the predatory behaviour of so many politicians and the selfish interests behind them.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

     Who would have thought that the once-humble laser pointer, used in lecture theatres across the world, could be used by those getting up to such mischief by protesters in Chile. Hong Kong, well, yes, but Chile, well, that’s a surprise:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/watch-chile-protesters-kill-police-drone-using-hundreds-laser-pointers

“As the protests have raged, the repression unleashed on demonstrators has become increasingly brutal and high-tech. Chile’s protesters, however, have responded with a combination of ingenuity, persistence, and equally high-tech tricks to fend off police attacks. Such was the case earlier this week in footage that quickly went viral on social media Wednesday that appeared to show a police unmanned aerial system (UAS) being disabled as protesters aimed run-of-the-mill green laser pointers—the type available in any Office Depot or Staples—at the law enforcement-grade drone. The video, which NextGov reports first made its appearance Tuesday night on Reddit, shows the drone hovering above a sea of demonstrators as the lasers are trained on it. Soon, multiple other lasers are trained on it and when the drone attempts to escape, the lasers have an almost tractor beam-like effect, forcing the UAS to falter before it helplessly descends to the ground. Laser lights at demonstrations didn’t first appear in Chile. The pointers have had a ubiquitous presence at the raucous demonstrations in Hong Kong, where protesters have also used the lasers to disable surveillance cameras equipped with facial recognition technology. And as Defense Maven reports, U.S. Army Stryker vehicles are also being equipped with laser weapons that would be used to disable and knock out incoming flying drones.

     That title was almost a lesson in grammar, what with the “who” and “whom,” and when to use what. Anyway, this is an interesting one, about who is getting killed buy whom, stated by President Assad, who is a bit more in the know that me:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/assad-goes-red-pill-interview-epstein-bin-laden-baghdadi-liquidated-they-knew-vital

“In a wide-ranging new interview with Russia’s Rossiya-24 television on Thursday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad addressed the death of White Helmets founder James Le Mesurier, who had been found dead Nov. 11 after an apparent fall from a three-story high balcony outside his Istanbul office. Le Mesurier was a former British military intelligence officer and founder of the controversial White Helmets group which Assad has previously dubbed the 'rescue force for al-Qaeda' and his reported suicide under mysterious circumstances is still subject of an ongoing Turkish investigation. In an unusual and rare conversation for a head of state, Assad compared Le Mesurier's death to the murky circumstances surrounding the deaths of Jeffry Epstein, Osama bin Laden and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Assad said what connects these men are that they "knew major secrets" and were thus "liquidated" by "intelligence services" — most likely the CIA, in the now viral interview picked up by Newsweek and other mainstream outlets. “American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was killed several weeks ago, they said he had committed suicide in jail,” Assad said during the Russian broadcaster interview. However, he was killed because he knew a lot of vital secrets connected with very important people in the British and American regimes, and possibly in other countries as well.”

     Kissinger has been around since, well when Adam was in short pants, and he was alpha enough to have as a girlfriend, the most delicious of the Bond girls, Jill St. John, the first American Bond girl. The guy must have something worth saying, apart from his extensive knowledge from his political career:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OU3zLcHcTE
  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/kissinger-coming-conflict-between-us-and-china-will-be-worse-world-wars

“Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger warns that a catastrophic conflict between America and China that will be “worse than world wars” is inevitable unless the two sides sort out their differences. We are in a difficult period now. I am confident the leaders on both sides will realise the future of the world depends on the two sides working out solutions and managing the inevitable difficulties,” said Kissinger. A permanent conflict between Washington And Beijing would be unwinnable and lead to “catastrophic outcome,” he added. “It’s no longer possible to think that one side can dominate the other…it will be worse than the world wars that ruined European civilisation,” said Kissinger. The U.S. and China have been embroiled in a trade war since President Trump began imposing tariffs on thousands of Chinese-made products in a bid to end unfair trading practices.”

     I can just feel it in my bones; with all the problems, the globalists will decide that we are the problem, then release some zombie apocalypse virus, genetically engineered, to polish us off, as Mike Adams sometimes speculates about in his darker moments:
  http://www.alt-market.com/index.php/articles/3998-the-globalists-are-openly-admitting-to-their-population-control-agenda-and-thats-a-bad-sign

“In the late 1960's into the 1970's there was a resurgence of population control rhetoric coming out of globalist circles. Under the supervision of the UN and some related scientific groups, the Club of Rome was formed. A prominent part of the Club of Rome's agenda was population reduction. In 1972 the group of “scientists” under the UN's direction published a paper called 'The Limits Of Growth', which called for greatly reduced human population in the name of “saving the environment”. This effort was directly linked to another agenda – the institution of a global government that could handle and enforce population controls on a wide scale.
The elites had found a new scientific front for their eugenics obsession: Climate science. In the early 1990's the Club of Rome published a book called 'The First Global Revolution'. In it they state:

     At this time of the year, news items get into the “slow news” mode. I was mentally whinging about this while walking to the community centre to get my daily dose of computer time, when I saw a madman walking, in a fashion, and whirling his hands in giant circles, although pure mathematicians would disagree I suppose. Then a voice said: you have two minutes to write a short story. I looked around, but there was nobody there, so it must have been my homunculi, the little man in my brain, whatever, “my” is. So, I, whatever that is, stopped in mid-stride, and took out some scraps of paper, and did this:

“Nigel like to twirl his hands, just like some people, well me, get silent joy out of tearing up paper and neurotically folding the pieces until they disintegrate. Nigel though had a raw disorder which was a psychological condition that caused him to hand-twirl, as if he was some kind of decaying circus performer, ageing politically correct marching person, or one of those strength athletes who spin round Indian clubs for shoulder exercise, or just to smash those who upset them. The problem was that Nigel was a menace to society most of the time. People drinking hot coffee could end up with the boiling liquid on their faces, in their eyes, instead of in their stomachs where it would in the normal train of events cause cancer.  Then there was also the problem of medical expenses, as Nigel went through rotor cuff muscles (it’s in the shoulder) as people go through clothes, the surgeons constantly having to repair failing tissues, all on Medicare.

     If the theme this week here is the madness of modernity, then here is my contribution, which shows that the diversity cult has moved well into clown world:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/political/swedish-police-respond-shocking-rising-crime-levels-inviting-gang-leaders-pizza
  https://summit.news/2019/11/14/swedish-police-respond-to-shocking-rising-crime-levels-by-inviting-gang-leaders-for-pizza/

“Swedish authorities in Malmö, where violent crime and grenade attacks continue to soar, responded by inviting local gang leaders for a friendly chat over some pizza. Yes, really. Explosions in Malmö, which is home to several no go zone migrant ghettos, are becoming commonplace, with the city suffering three blasts in the space of just 24 hours earlier this month. An alarming 29 per cent of residents in Malmö say they have been victims of crimes against an individual. According to Wilhelm Agrell, professor of intelligence analysis at Lund University, the situation is so dire that it threatens the power monopoly of the Swedish state. The vast majority of the unrest is driven by rival drug gangs made up of second and third generation immigrants. Instead of taking bold measures to fight the gangs, Malmö police invited 12 gang leaders, 9 of whom turned up, to have a friendly chat over some pizza. The gang leaders were told that they were “most at risk of being injured or killed,” a sympathetic message which suggested police cared more about their welfare than that of their victims. Malmö Chief of Police Stefan Sentéus later said he “really appreciated” the gang leaders attending the meeting. The whole farce was dubbed “Operation Snowflake,” with critics asking why the gang leaders weren’t arrested. “First, they abuse and rob us, and then we taxpayers pay for their damn pizza!” commented one respondent. Back in 2017, the media attempted to ridicule me for pointing out Sweden’s massive problems with violent crime and integration in no go zone migrant areas. Not so funny now is it?”

     In general, I do not like the Affirmative Right site much, mainly beginning with the name, which immediately links to “affirmative action” in my mind, rightly or wrongly. Then there are articles that to my troubled brain are just plain wrong. But, then there are real gems of articles, sheer magic. Like this one, thrashing the very idea of anthropogenic global warming (AGW):
  https://affirmativeright.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-zombie-theory-of-anthropogenic.html

“Belief in the dangers of AGW has led to the emergence of “climate change science,” an interdisciplinary field that is very different from the natural sciences. Whole regular scientists rely on objective, empirical methods to test hypotheses, climate change scientists, on the other hand, manipulate data to fit preconceived beliefs; they are trained to ignore hypotheses challenging the AGW status quo, no matter how plausible. In the natural sciences, governments fund different avenues of research; in climate change science, only AGW receives funding because it is “politically correct.” Climate change scientists are expected to uncover positive correlations between anthropogenic CO2 and temperature; if they cannot find one, it will have to be manufactured out of thin air. Not only is there no research money for those seeking alternative explanations of climate change, but any attempt at falsifying the AGW hypothesis is considered a kind of heresy.

To The Age         The gist of veteran educationist Ian Hansen's important article ("Self-satisfied private schools have widened the gap", 18/11) is that the gap, in terms of wealth and resources, between independent and government schools has become too wide and is seriously unjust. If this is so, then our political leadership needs to redress the situation. Those of us who taught in independent schools in the 70s, 80s and 90s noticed the change of atmosphere in our workplaces. It is worth asking why it happened. One reason may be that in society as a whole the nature of our ruling elites became significantly less Christian. Another could be the extraordinary change in communication modes made possible by the "information revolution". A third may be the increasing hedonism that seems to have corrupted society. And a fourth may be the obvious subjugation of even the most prestigious schools to acquiescence in "politically correct" campaigns. Moral discernment suffers from all of these.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave

     I don’t have time to read books, and worse, now have no spare money to buy anything, struggling to pay the power bill, let alone get vital medicines to keep me alive. Every day I wait for a cheque to arrive in the post, but nothing comes. Which brings us to the new book on nationalism, since it is much like me, struggling to survive against globalism, while ageing and decaying all at once:
  https://www.amazon.com/Case-Nationalism-Rich-Lowry/dp/0062839640/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

The book is Rich Lowry, The Case for Nationalism: How it Made Us Powerful, United and Free (2019). By way of summary: “Nationalism, of course, is not without its severe critics, and Lowry is at pains to debunk the widespread notion that nationalism is a “dirty word.” He thus seeks to answer various “anti-nationalists” who regard nationalism as nothing more than tribalism or equate it with white supremacy. To all such voices, Lowry says, essentially, relax, calm down, nationalism is a healthy force, synonymous with nothing other than patriotism. After answering critics, Lowry also offers a positive case that revolves around the proposition that American nationalism “in particular is not to be feared.” Whatever ills have in the past infected Europe, America is inoculated by its heritage, the Anglo-American tradition and the Scottish Enlightenment, which brought us “profound respect for the individual and the rule of law and is woven into the fabric of our country.” Far from shunning nationalism, Republicans and Democrats alike would do well to embrace it. Promoting nationalism, for Lowry, entails advancing a number of specific policies. Important among them is limiting immigration: “it is in the nation’s interest to have fewer and better-skilled immigrants coming here. Such a change would promote the economic prospects of Americans and the assimilation of immigrants, both important goals for national health.” Lowry would also step in to the educational arena to combat what he sees as the fissiparous ideology of identity politics, which not only divides Americans instead of uniting us, but also embraces “a hostility to the American nation as such, to its cultural supports, its traditions, and its history.” Above all, Lowry would advance what he calls “cultural nationalism,” which entails promoting all of the things that bring us together as one people, from the English language to our national holidays to our reverence for our Constitution and flag to our civic rites and common traditions and history.”

     The once beautiful city of Baltimore is now a drug/crime-infested cesspool. Everyone knows it, and the present Black mayor says, well, don’t blame me, I did not shoot them, or take their drugs. Right he is:
  https://www.foxnews.com/us/baltimore-mayor-homicide-rate-committing-murders

“The mayor of Baltimore says local leadership isn't to blame for the city's increasing homicide rate, telling reporters on Wednesday he's "not committing the murders" himself. Bernard "Jack" Young, who took office in May, said during his weekly press conference that "there's not any lack of leadership of my part." "That’s what people need to understand. I’m not committing the murders. The police commissioner is not committing it. The council is not committing it. So how can you fault leadership?" he questioned. "You know this has been five years of 300-plus murders, and I don’t see it as a lack of leadership.”

     Few people nowadays are as pro-family as me, but I have to take the sided of the pregnant lady fire fighter who is going out to do her duty when the country side is in crisis. Leave to one side the question of how this towering inferno happened; it did, and fire fighters now have to deal with it.
  https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/13/firefighter-trolled-helping-australia-bushfires-pregnant-11090588/

“A pregnant firefighter has hit back at critics who said she should not be helping fight the devastating Australia bushfires. Kat Robinson-Williams is 14 weeks pregnant and has written a powerful post saying she would not ‘just stay behind.’ Kat, 23, has been given the all-clear by her doctor and said she will continue to help the crisis, which has already claimed three lives. She wrote on Instagram: ‘Yes I am a firefighter. No, I’m not a man. Yes, I am pregnant. No, I don’t care if you don’t like it.’ Kat is the third generation of her family to volunteer with the New South Wales (NSW) Rural Fire Service. She has volunteered with them for 11 years, following in the footsteps of her mother who also fought blazes while expecting. Kat is one of thousands of firefighters battling more than 150 fires that have been raging for a week across a 100,000 hectare area. The expectant mum took to social media after several of her friends told her ‘you shouldn’t be doing this.’ As well as a rebuke, she also posted several pictures of herself in firefighting gear on the way to an incident. Kat told the BBC: ‘I’m not the first pregnant firefighter and I’m not going to be the last one. ‘I’m still in a position where I’m able to help so I will. ‘I wanted to tell them I’m okay and that I’m not just going to stop. ‘I’ll stop when my body tells me to stop.’”