A recent article: Erina Brown et al, “The potential for a plastic recycling facility to release microplastic pollution and possible filtration remediation effectiveness,” Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.hazadv.2023.100309, has hammered some more nails, plastic ones, into the deep green coffin of recycling plastics. While is sounds like a good idea to do this to “save the environment,” in cold hard reality, recycling is a failure. Not only does most plastic not get recycled, once collected, but the process of recycling, involving industrial washing to remove gunk, also removes, believe it or not, plastic particles, which then as microplastics enter the environment, and do more harm that otherwise. As well, even though there is a lot of plastic in the ocean, cold but cuddly sea creatures are adapting to it, and making comfortable homes in the odd plastic drink container. Clean-up operations are disturbing this new micro-ecology, which is utterly shocking, at least for environmentalists.

https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-05-10-recycling-plastic-worse-environment-than-throwing-away.html

The UK has delivered long-range cruise missiles to the Ukraine. Supposedly the missiles do not have the range to strike Moscow, but are still capable of striking deep within Russia, hitting strategic locations. The UK government “has received assurances from the Ukrainian government that these missiles will be used only within Ukrainian sovereign territory.” Of course, they know that President Zelensky, the man who dances so well in heels, will do the right thing here and keep his word; would he lie to you? That is the faith of the Western liberal progressive regime. But, too bad if some Ukrainian military operative did not get the memo, and blasts away anyway. One must ask: how long will the Russian bear continue to put up with being prodded with a red-hot poker?

https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/do-they-actually-want-world-war-3

While the woke of the YES side in the Voice Referendum like to say that a NO vote would give the world a good reason to make Australia wear sack cloth and ashes for its white racial colonial sins, the counter is to cite the treatment of minorities in communist China, icon of the Australian woke Left. In particular, the neo-Buddhist religion, of Falun Gong has been subjected to a vicious crackdown since 1999. It has been regarded as a threat to the Chinese Communist Party, and hence something to be eliminated. Thousands of practitioners were arrested and subjected to abuse. Just how bad this was shown in the  the American Journal of Transplantation by Matthew Robertson, a Ph.D. student at Australian National University, and Dr. Jacob Lavee, the founder and former director of the Heart Transplantation Unit at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel. They found that organ procurement on an “industrial scale” was occurring, involving the extraction of organs from still living prisoners! This has not been refuted, and others have confirmed this. Thus, it hardly makes sense to condemn Australia for exercising a democratic right to vote, in a world where this genocide goes on, with the silence of the same woke Leftoids who would condemn us, but turn a blind eye to their icon of communism China. People in glass houses should not throw stones.

https://brighterworld.mcmaster.ca/articles/analysis-killing-prisoners-for-transplants-forced-organ-harvesting-in-china/#:~:text=China%20is%20the%20only%20country,known%20as%20forced%20organ%20harvesting

Victor Davis Hanson is also worth a read, writing profound material. While one take is that the US, and much of the West, is descending into anarcho-tyranny, discussed in another article here at the blog today, but another position upon this state of social decline and decadence, is to compare the contemporary world with aftermath of the French Revolution. While the liberals wax lyric about the French Revolution being a democratic revolution, it was anything but, with thousands of innocents being murdered in a great regain of terror. As Hanson notes, this revolution, apart from its murderous aspect, was nihilistic regarding culture as well, if not outrightly insane: “The months of the year themselves were renamed, the days of the week renumbered and relabelled. Statues were toppled, first at night, later in shameless daylight. Place names were erased and renamed. The original revolutionary heroes were not to be mentioned; their uncouth successors deified. Money was printed to “spread the wealth”—until it was worthless.

Murderous cancel culture ran unchecked. Yesterday’s French revolutionary became today’s counterrevolutionary—and tomorrow’s decapitated.”

The US is showing the direction that the deadly brew of diversity, multiculturalism, multiracialism and woke, as applied to law enforcement, is producing. The term describing this is “anarcho-tyranny,” state oppression from above, but social chaos and violence from below. The same things can be seen in Europe, perhaps to a different degree, but few places can match the sheer cultural collapse of American cities, or at least the diverse ones. New York, San Francisco, Baltimore and Chicago, to name a few have become cesspools of crime; New York saw major crime up 22 percent in 2022; Baltimore had a homicide rate of 58.27 per 100,000, while St Louis, Missouri, beat that at 64.54 per 100,000. Democrat DAs go easy on diverse crime, so shoplifting has gone through roof, and the roof would be taken to, if it as not nailed down! Hence shops lock up even mundane products such as Spam, or simply close down shop as is occurring in Baltimore.

The recent example of Jordan Neely, shows where things have gone. Neely was reportedly threatening people on a New York City subway. He reportedly said, “I’m not taking no for an answer,” “I’m ready to go back to jail,” and “I’ll hurt anyone on this train.” He was tackled to the ground and put in a headlock, not a choke, by a white guy. Later, as with George Floyd, while in police custody, Neely died. Now, said white guy is facing charges for possibly murder. In a sane society this would be regarded as a clear act of self-defence, but not so in New York. It shows the world, just how bad things can go, and the tremendous mistake America has made.

Jeff Costello, an American, has given a fair expression of the meaning behind the coronation of King Charles. He rightly sees this as more than being about an individual, but as a symbolic set of acts, full of meaning and history. As we know, from American history, there is not much love of republicans for the constitutional monarchy, yet, with all the problems of the highly politicised, if not totally corrupt, presidency, Americans should rethink their antagonism. As Costello says, “This was a moment to face ourselves and see just how silly and vulgar we are. It was a moment to be humbled. This is one of the most important functions of tradition, and of the representatives of tradition, such as the royals: to remind us of greatness, of something greater than ourselves, so that we feel a call to rise, to be better than we are, to be worthy of our history, and to make our ancestors feel a little less nauseated when they look down at us, from wherever they are. It was the most beautiful ceremony I think I have ever witnessed (again, rivalled only by the Queen’s funeral) — and, to my surprise, it was also quite emotionally moving.”

Costello does not consider the wider Christian aspects of this, but what he says was a good start for an American, especially the point about seeing things greater than the individualism of liberal consumerism. As the philosopher David Stove wrote in his book Cricket Versus Republicanism (1995): “IT PASSES MY understanding how anyone with even a grain of sense can feel pleasure at the prospect of a republican Australia: an Australia, that is to say, even more "base, common and popular" than it is now. Anyway, I am myself for the British connection. In my World XI, Britons - Shakespeare, Purcell, Newton, Hume and Darwin - would be the first five picked. Either to the British exclusively, or to them more than to any other nation, the world owes, and Australia especially owes, whatever it has of scientific knowledge, sober philosophy, stable government without oppression - and cricket.

Our great trading partner, and beloved icon of the Australian Left, communist China, jailed more journalists than any other country, which is quite an achievement considering that journalists would have a presumption to tread very carefully not to upset emperor of all men, Xi. Reporters without Borders ranked communist China behind only North Korea, a fellow communist buddy, for freedom of the press, meaning, no freedom of the press. But, communist China was one of the biggest exporters of propaganda. Indeed, it has most of the woke Left in the West well prepared to do its work, and even Joe Biden has been seen as a Chinese asset. So, things are going just swell for the communists. For the time. The reverse of the Cold War phrase goes through my mind: “better dead, than red.” 

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/press-group-china-biggest-global-jailer-journalists-99097434

How does one cope with dealing with the sheer amount of information that needs to be processed? Here at the blog we have a number of journalists and writers, spending hours each day to deliver content that covers much of the territory of much larger blogs like Zerohedge.com, and Natural News.com. Often, we are ahead of the curve, getting a story out before them. A one-man show would be struggling to do this, even working 24/7. But, even with a division of labour, the amount of information is still a challenge to deal with. It is suggested by A Midwesterndoctor.com, that selectivity is therefore unavoidable as shown by the “cocktail party effect,” where in a crowded room with multiple conversations, one may zero in on mention of one’s name, which seems to imply that some neurological filtering mechanism is at work. The good doc identifies the neurology of this, but there is controversy about the exact mechanism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_party_effect

The common pattern behind almost everything considered at this blog, is social control by the globalist elites. The war on meat is an example of this agenda. Meat has been a vital part of human diet from the dawn of time, and if one goes by evolution, meat eating was responsible for the development of the large size of the human brain. But now, unlike anything anticipated by pre-World War II social critics like George Orwell, meat eating is being attacked on the grounds that meat has a high carbon footprint, and must therefore be banned. The closing down of Netherlands farms, for alleged nitrogen outputs, is part of this madness.

The World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic treaty, is part of a dark web of strategies to create a one world government, using health as the main weapon, which has now been integrated with climate change, since the medical authorities now accept climate change as a global health issue. The core approach is “One Health,” defined as “an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems,” as they are “closely linked and interdependent.” As concepts are left vague and elastic, there are concerns by critics that by surrendering health autonomy to WHO, national sovereignty will disappear as well, leading to a “global takeover of everything.” It is easy to see, given he broad concept of Health adopted, that most aspects of society and the economy can be seen as “health issues,” broadly defined. Independent journalist and researcher James Roguski, sums it up: “Basically, it’s capitalism, it’s corruption, it’s an abomination from a health perspective. Let’s just throw money at pharmaceutical companies, build out the infrastructure in these nations and, if you’re making tons of products locally, you’re going to be able to convince the local government to stick them in people’s arms or shove it down their throat.

“And none of it really has shown to be of any health benefit. It’s damage to people’s health.”

It is a significant historical event, I think future historians of the Catholic faith will document; Josef Seifert, has published an open letter addressed to the cardinals of the Catholic Church. In the letter, reproduced bellow, he calls on the bishops of the Church to resist Pope Francis’  heterodox actions, “destroying the foundations of faith and morals.”

The Pope signed the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” the Abu Dhabi document, with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar. The document states that “[t]he pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings.” This, Professor Seifert argues, amounts to apostasy, the abandonment of Christian faith, as uniquely true, and acceptance of religious and cultural relativism,  and is a more serious flaw than even the Pope’s woke, globalist political proclamations over immigration. It goes to the heart of the problem of Pope Francis.

There is an interesting take given by various philosophers to the relationship between the transgender movement and transhumanism. As philosopher Max More has said: “Transhumanists want to apply technology to overcome limits imposed by our biological and genetic heritage.” “Transhumanists regard human nature not as an end in itself, not as perfect, and not as having any claim on our allegiance.”  “Rather, it is just one point along an evolutionary pathway, and we can learn to reshape our own nature in ways we deem desirable and valuable.” 

“By thoughtfully, carefully, and yet boldly applying technology to ourselves,” said More, “we can become something no longer accurately described as human – we can become posthuman.” See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xIQgBXw9-o

Dr Robert Malone, in a hard-hitting piece, has written that it is time for the US, and by implication, other nations, to exit from the World Health Organization (WHO). The first step is to not sign the pandemic treaty. WHO is a UN organisation, that has the same one world goal as the UN. As Dr Malone points out, the agency is effectively controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, as shown over the Covid plandemic, where WHO did not adequately investigate China’s role in releasing the Covid-19 virus, and acting to spread it. The WHO has faithfully done the bidding of communist China, with the lockdowns, masks and vaccine mandates, pushing for the experimental mRNA vaxxes of Big Pharma being advanced for mega-corporate profits. And, those sympathetic to the CCP model of society, such as Bill Gates,  endorsed the CCP approach, seen as a shortcut to globalisation.

Dr Mercola has put together a comprehensive case that the Ukrainian War has been a disaster, and will become more of a disaster. Leaked documents have revealed that the opposing forces are in a deadlock, and thus, the war will be protracted. At the moment there is concern that a severe nuclear accident could occur at the Zaporizhzhia plant, where the surrounding area has been evacuated. It is speculated that the plant has been primed by the Russians with explosives that could be set off in a false flag if Russia loses the present battle. The battle lines are now clearly drawn, with the US and UK having already sent 97 special forces to the Ukraine, presumably in active fighting, or organising it.

The chances of a nuclear exchange increase the longer this conflict continues, since the commitment made will make it impossible for either side to back down. Certainly, Putin will see this through to the end.

We need to keep an eye on this, as we are still under the tyranny of the mainstream financial system, until, of course, the globalists are defeated, and an alternative social credit foundation is erected. The immediate concern though is the instability of the US banking system, with almost half of America’s 4,800 banks facing the possibility of collapse. And, the problem is that the fear leading to a banking collapse is highly contagious, and in the age of cyber banking, people are not needing to line up at the banks for withdrawals, facing the old-time “go slow” methods to slow them down, but deposits can be withdrawn at click of a keyboard, or touch screen of a mobile phone.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/half-america-banks-already-insolvent-133000968.html

While most Australian doctors whimped out in raising any objections at all to the Covid narrative, the excuse being that they would be barred by the medical authorities, there is some truth to this. Dr. Jeyanthi Kundhasan an anaesthetist and perioperative physician from Victoria is an example. She was sacked by one employer for merely asking for a risk assessment for the Covid shots, which seems quite a reasonable thing to do. Dr. Kunadhasan then joined the Australian Medical Professionals Society (AMPS), a union of doctors in Australia who actively opposed mandatory Covid vaccination. She conducted various research activities and spoke at an anti-lockdown rally. And, bingo, she was under investigation, and her medical license was up for review, which continues now.

Hence there is good reason why doctors were shy in speaking up, but that does not exclude the vast majority who have been, and are, active advocates for Big Pharma.

A new poll conducted by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, found tht a majority of Americans reject the idea that gender can be different from sex at birth, a core premise of the gender agenda, as we call it. For American adults, 57 percent believed that gender was determined by sex at birth, against 43 percent who thought that, as with the trans ideology, gender could differ from one’s sex at birth. And, the majority of respondents, between 62 and 66 percent, believed that males who identify as transgender girls and women should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports.

While these are figures of a numerical majority, notice that there is a large minority who support the present trans ideology, something which would have been unheard of even a decade or so again. It will be interesting to see what happens with these numbers over the next few years.

US-Brazilian researcher Ben Goertzel, a leading AI guru believes that it is a good thing that artificial intelligence will replace 80 percent of jobs in the near future. “I don’t think it’s a threat. I think it’s a benefit. People can find better things to do with their life than work for a living… Pretty much every job involving paperwork should be automatable.

“The problem I see is in the interim period, when AIs are obsoleting one human job after another… I don’t know how (to) solve all the social issues.”

Germany is a test case for the next big refugee push in The Camp of the Saints Great Replacement. The West supposedly caused climate change, and infinite harm to the Third World, most of whom would not be alive anyway without Western technology and industry. But, no matter. Those affected by climate change will, in Germany as a first cab off the rank test case, be open to join the refugee club. According to UN and other globalist estimates, this number will be around 1.2 billion by 2050, and increasing, so that the entire Third World will be moving to the West, if the globalist get their way. That will collapse the West anyway, so that everyone will be equal in the rubble and ruins of modernity. Maybe, just maybe, we may see some spirit of resistance once reality bites.

https://www.zurich.com/en/media/magazine/2022/there-could-be-1-2-billion-climate-refugees-by-2050-here-s-what-you-need-to-know#:~:text=Here's%20what%20you%20need%20to%20know,-Climate%20change%20%7C%20Article

As part of my coverage of health issues hereat the Alor.org blog, I have written about the youth mental health crisis. This was going on before Covid, but Covid intensified it. While the crisis is real, there is also another point of view, expressed by an anonymous academic below, that a culture of incentives has evolved around mental disabilities, and psychological problems such as anxiety. It is possible to get all matter of concessions at university, for example, if one falls into this camp of the “disabled.” The unpopular point is made that there is now an incentive for having a mental health crisis, thus inflating the numbers of the genuinely ill.

https://dailysceptic.org/2023/05/09/the-truth-about-generation-snowflake-is-even-worse-than-we-feared/