“The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime,” commented British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey on the eve of his country’s entry in World War I. Many feel that the same thing is happening now with the ending of free speech, and they are right. But, maybe there is something else, that the globalist system itself, could be destroyed by the ultimate, merciful act of God.
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-04-01-white-house-warns-emp-attack-could-cripple-electrical-infrastructure.html

“A new warning from the White House has underscored the fragility of our society. As the Trump administration cautions, an EMP attack could easily take down the United States in a single shot. As such, Trump has now issued a presidential EMP order, with the aim of protecting vital infrastructure from total destruction. EMP, or electromagnetic pulse, attacks have been a known threat to the United States for decades. In spite of this, little has been done to insulate the nation’s most vulnerable and necessary structures — like power grids — from being destroyed by such an event. As The Hill reports, the Congressional EMP Commission has been discussing EMPs as a major threat to the United Since since the Cold War. Now, President Trump has issued an executive order to get the ball of national preparedness rolling. Under this new directive, key recommendations of the Congressional EMP Commission will finally see the light of day. The White House reportedly plans on having a “comprehensive strategy on EMPs” ready within the next 12 months. While EMPs have been on the federal government’s radar for at least 20 years, it is only now that we see that risk being taken seriously. As The Hill contends, federal agencies have failed to adequately acknowledge and prepare for a potential EMP threat. Trump’s order directs the secretaries from the Energy and Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security to “develop a plan to mitigate the effects of EMPs on the vulnerable priority-critical infrastructures.” DHS and Energy are also being directed to work with other federal agencies and the private sector to make this plan.”

     This article got me thinking about book burning. Yes, I know with all the censorship we are enduring, that this is a sensitive issue, and that we are duty bound to take the high J. S. Mill On Liberty road, of literary freedom and all that jazz, but …
  https://www.thejournal.ie/poland-priests-books-4570737-Apr2019/

“Catholic priests in a Polish city burned a number of books they claim are sacrilegious over the weekend, including some from the popular Harry Potter and Twilight series. In a Facebook post showing photographs of the public book burning, priests in the city of Koszalin quoted Old Testament passages. They urged believers to destroy the enemies of God, telling them to “burn their idols in the fire”. The post on the page ‘SMS Foundation from Heaven’ shows three priests carrying a basket of books and other items including an African-styled face mask through a church to an outside fire pit. Photographs show priests and two alter servers standing by the fire pit, where other items including a ‘Hello Kitty’ umbrella and a Hindu religious figurine, are also burning. The group that posted the pictures is an evangelical foundation set up to spread Christian message via mobile phone texts. Father Rafal Jarosiewicz from the Koszalin SMS Foundation from Heaven was in the news again last year when he started driving around Poland with a mobile confessional box. One commenter on yesterday’s Facebook post said:

     It would not be end times without the re-emergence of good old fashion pestilence. And, it is back, for another record performance:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-06/mysterious-drug-resistant-germ-deemed-urgent-threat-quietly-sweeping-globe
  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/health/drug-resistant-candida-auris.html

“Last May, an elderly man was admitted to the Brooklyn branch of Mount Sinai Hospital for abdominal surgery. A blood test revealed that he was infected with a newly discovered germ as deadly as it was mysterious. Doctors swiftly isolated him in the intensive care unit. The germ, a fungus called Candida auris, preys on people with weakened immune systems, and it is quietly spreading across the globe. Over the last five years, it has hit a neonatal unit in Venezuela, swept through a hospital in Spain, forced a prestigious British medical center to shut down its intensive care unit, and taken root in India, Pakistan and South Africa. Recently C. auris reached New York, New Jersey and Illinois, leading the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to add it to a list of germs deemed “urgent threats.” The man at Mount Sinai died after 90 days in the hospital, but C. auris did not. Tests showed it was everywhere in his room, so invasive that the hospital needed special cleaning equipment and had to rip out some of the ceiling and floor tiles to eradicate it. 

     This article cited here discusses how the left are now so far Left that if the earth was flat, they would be in danger of falling off the planet. Certainly, the Left today are more extreme than Karl Marx:
  https://www.vox.com/2019/3/22/18259865/great-awokening-white-liberals-race-polling-trump-2020
  https://www.thedailybeast.com/antiracism-our-flawed-new-religion

“In the past five years, white liberals have moved so far to the left on questions of race and racism that they are now, on these issues, to the left of even the typical black voter. This change amounts to a “Great Awokening” — comparable in some ways to the enormous religious foment in the white North in the years before the American Civil War. It began roughly with the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, when activists took advantage of ubiquitous digital video and routine use of social media to expose a national audience in a visceral way to what otherwise might have been a routine local news story. “If there had been no Twitter or Facebook,” Columbia University’s John McWhorter, an early and somewhat skeptical observer of the Awokening, tells me, “Trayvon [Martin] and Mike Brown would have had about as much impact on white thought as, say, Amadou Diallo did.” Pollsters began to see a rapid, sustained change. White Democrats suddenly started expressing dramatically higher levels of concern about racial inequality and discrimination, while showing greater enthusiasm for racial diversity and immigration. (While political disputes around race are often found under the same umbrella as gender and sexual orientation, where attitudes are also shifting, the relatively recent, relatively sudden change that constitutes the Great Awokening is fundamentally about race and its relationship to national identity.)

     With all the feminist sensitivities about every pc issue in the West you can throw a cat at, including throwing cats, surprise, surprise there is nothing much about the sale of  young women in Africa:
  https://www.thedailybeast.com/child-brides-in-africa-are-advertised-on-facebook-and-sold-to-old-men?ref=scroll

“OBANLIKU, Nigeria—Monica, 16, is one of two sisters sold as wives to men who found their photographs on their father's Facebook page and contacted him. She and her 14-year-old younger sister never wanted to get married until they completed their secondary education in Ogbakoko, a small village in Obanliku Local Government Area in Nigeria’s south-central Cross River state. But the teenage sisters fell victims to a culture which subjects little girls, some as young as 10, to de facto slavery through a tradition called “money marriage.” The sisters belong to the Becheve community, a large tribe of 17 villages in Obanliku where there is a long tradition in which young girls—often referred to as “money women” or “money wives”—are sold in exchange for food or livestock or cash, or to settle debts.

     Aussies, the future can be seen in the US of A, once the home of liberty, I think. Witness thought crime data bases for anything the Dark Lords of Mordor do not like:
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-04-06-michigan-government-to-create-thought-criminal-database.html

“Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel …  has decided to launch a full-scale crusade against the First Amendment. According to reports, Nessel is planning to create a “hate crime unit” as part of Michigan’s government, the purpose of which won’t necessarily be to prosecute “hate crimes” – which aren’t a real thing anyway, by the way – but to actually police the speech and thoughts of Michigan residents to make sure they align with official government ideology. By creating a database of people who think for themselves, Nessel is on record as stating that she plans to keep an all-seeing-eye on people who commit “thought violations” – which aren’t real crimes, according to the United States Constitution. “It is important to understand that these are not convicted criminals or people who[m] the state has reason to believe have committed or are planning to commit a crime,” writes Jay Lorenz for FashTheNation.com about the people Nessel is planning to target with her unconstitutional “hate crime unit.” “The new database is specifically designed to target law-abiding Americans,” he adds.”

     Each week the Pope comes out with another plea for infinity migration to end the West, or else champions some politically correct cause contrary to traditionalism. Rather than me calling him out once again, here, let an insider sound off:
  http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/04/03/god-wants-catholic-muslim-fraternity-pope_27fc2325-1708-4b3f-9bcd-fb52eee4bb0a.html

“The highest-ranking African cardinal said this week that the Church risks becoming just another NGO if it focuses on “horizontal” issues like immigration and ecology rather than preaching Jesus Christ. Some Catholic leaders urge the Church “not to speak about God, but to throw itself body and soul into social problems: migration, ecology, dialogue, the culture of encounter, the struggle against poverty, for justice and peace,” said Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah in an interview this week with La Nef. While all of these problems are, of course, important, “a Church such as this is of interest to no one,” said Sarah, who heads up the Vatican’s liturgical office. “The Church is only of interest because she allows us to encounter Jesus,” he continued. “She is only legitimate because she passes on Revelation to us. When the Church becomes overburdened with human structures, it obstructs the light of God shining out in her and through her.”

     After attacking “toxic,” that is white masculinity, the hair removal firm Gillette has moved on to bigger, and hairier things. Let’s just quote this, as it is too difficult to write without shaking hands, or getting hair in my eyes:
  https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/04/05/gillette-venus-ad-campaign-features-obese-trans-models/

“Gillette’s new Gillette Venus advertisement campaign features morbidly obese women and transgender models. The company claims “ALL types of beautiful skin deserve to be shown,” but it has experienced resistance and widespread mockery on social media. An advertisement featuring one obese model for the campaign, Anna, was captioned, “Go out there and slay the day.” “Venus is committed to representing beautiful women of all shapes, sizes, and skin types because ALL types of beautiful skin deserve to be shown,” declared Gillette in a Twitter post. “We love Anna because she lives out loud and loves her skin no matter how the ‘rules’ say she should display it.” The advertisement faced criticism from social media users who claimed Gillette should not be promoting unhealthy lifestyles. “99% sure the woman in the photo is on an anti-depressant and/or statins. I have several loved ones that are obese. I’m all for making ppl feel comfortable in their skin, but let’s not glamorize obesity, please. It is NOT healthy. Supportive is fine. Encouragement is cruel,” commented one user, while another proclaimed, “My uncle died from diabetes complicated by him being obese. Please, don’t promote unhealthy lifestyles and pretend THIS is beautiful.”

“Multiculturalism promotes segregation, stifles free speech and threatens liberal democracy, Britain's top Jewish official warned in extracts from his book published Saturday. Jonathan Sacks, Britain's chief rabbi, defined multiculturalism as an attempt to affirm Britain's diverse communities and make ethnic and religious minorities more appreciated and respected. But in his book, The Home We Build Together: Recreating Society, he said the movement had run its course. "Multiculturalism has led not to integration but to segregation," Sacks wrote in his book, an extract of which was published in the Times of London. "Liberal democracy is in danger," Sacks said, adding later: "The politics of freedom risks descending into the politics of fear." Sacks said Britain's politics had been poisoned by the rise of identity politics, as minorities and aggrieved groups jockeyed first for rights, then for special treatment. The process, he said, began with Jews, before being taken up by blacks, women and gays. He said the effect had been "inexorably divisive."

"A culture of victimhood sets group against group, each claiming that its pain, injury, oppression, humiliation is greater than that of others," he said. In an interview with the Times, Sacks said he wanted his book to be "politically incorrect in the highest order." But Sacks defended his strong support for Jewish schools in Britain, saying the promotion of Jewish education was compatible with integration. Photogenic and outspoken, Sacks is highly regarded in Britain and makes frequent appearances on television, radio and in the national press. His reputation among Britain's 260,000-strong Jewish community is more varied. Ultra-orthodox believers were dismayed by the suggestion in Sacks' earlier book, The Dignity of Difference, that the faith did not contain the absolute truth, according to The Times. In 1997, he outraged many among his more liberal-minded constituents when he criticized the late leader of the Reform movement as a "destroyer of the faith" in a letter leaked to the media. Sacks also raised hackles when, in 2002, he said in an interview that there were many things that happened in Israel that made him "very uncomfortable as a Jew."

     Everyone seems to be taking the theme this week that the elites are mad. Well, let us not forget about a special form of madness, the madness of the “philosophers,” taken broadly as the so-called thinkers who are ever pushing globalism to new levels of madness and badness:
  https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/the-delusional-futurism-of-liberal-world-order-academics_04052019

“Perhaps this is an overly broad generalization, but I feel there is an almost universal feeling among the public that there is something intrinsically annoying about academia. The source of this annoyance is up for debate, but I believe it stems from the image academics project versus the reality of their personal character and intent. Your average university approved academic will say that some people find them distasteful because they are “so smart”, and this makes others envious. I would say it’s the opposite – the average academic is actually quite ignorant, but brandishes a false image of being a genius. This is why I often refer to them as “academic idiots”. Fake intelligence and faux wisdom are like sandpaper to people’s exposed nerves, and the average person is not as dumb as academics think they are. At the top of the fraudulent academic totem pole are what I would call the “academic philosophers”; the gatekeepers, the people who pontificate regularly on the meaning of life and society while living the most charmed life one can imagine. These are people who in most cases come from upper class backgrounds. They have been provided for every waking moment of their existence. They have had every door opened for them by someone else on the path to success, and have experienced little to no struggle or suffering in the whole of their time on this Earth. And yet, they somehow deem themselves expertly qualified to comment on the human condition.

     It seems that the Brexit issue is driving British politicians into the mad house, or at least into the arms of Big Pharma drugs. It is difficult to be so continuously traitorous, as the poison flows freely:
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/04/07/brexit-madness-top-mp-warns-of-rising-mental-health-issues-in-parliament/

“Brexit madness” has overtaken the House of Commons according to one senior MP, warning about the rise in mental health issues among parliamentarians. Education Committee chair and senior Brexiteer Robert Halfon has said that “It feels like the Commons is having a collective breakdown — a cross between Lord of the Flies and One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest.” In comments reported by London’s Evening Standard, the Tory MP went on to say, “People are behaving in ways that were unimaginable even just a year ago, whether they be Remainers, Leavers or in-betweens. The Brexit madness has affected us all”. Mr Halfon is not the only Member of Parliament to express such concerns, with one female MP telling The Sun that parliament had become a “boiling pot of mental ill health”. One male MP was reportedly reduced to tears after finding out he won’t be able to go home to see his children next week, due to the cancellation of MP’s Easter recess. Comments made to a BBC radio programme by Members of Parliament claim Brexit was leading to politicians drinking more and avoiding people. One said it was “taking an emotional toil”.

     Here are some insightful comments critical of present Australian immigration policy, just for a change from me sounding off:
  https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/inquirer/were-the-big-losers-in-this-immigration-numbers-game/news-story/76c7538c9a22b7e4df275186fee52788

“This week the Morrison government announced its intention to reduce the annual cap on new permanent migrants from 190,000 to 160,000. This lower figure will apply for the next four years. The trouble with the announcement is that an effective cap of about 160,000 has been in place for the past two years. It’s a Clayton’s change — the cap change you have when you’re not having a cap change. In combination with other announcements, which will mean even more temporary migrants, the government has decided that the population will continue to grow at a rapid pace, mainly as a result of immigration. Rather than act on a very clear message from the public that the migrant intake should be cut, the government has preferred to appease various sectional interests while pretending otherwise. We should expect better, even of a government in its last throes. The bigger picture is that there has been a significant disintegration of the broad consensus on immigration — you could call it a settlement — that was achieved by prime minister John Howard. This consensus involved strong border protection preventing the entry of illegal migrants while expanding the pathways for legal migrants to enter and stay in the country. …

     Since the days of the gold rush and the wool boom, Australia has always relied heavily on its great primary industries – mining, farming, forestry and fishing and their supporting transport, energy and processing industries. First was the export of hides and tallow, wool and timber. Then came the great discoveries of gold, coal, copper and silver-lead-zinc, followed by exports of wheat, butter, meat and cotton. Luckily the effects of droughts in the rural sector were often moderated by booms or new discoveries in minerals. Today government royalties and taxes on our massive exports of coal, gas, iron ore, nickel, copper, silver-lead-zinc, aluminium and uranium have become the main-stays of the tax-consuming and ever-growing state and federal bureaucracies. These back-bone industries, directly or indirectly, have always paid the wages of most of the workers of Australia.

     Every one of these primary industries must have three things –

To The Australian    There it is, almost hidden away in the twelfth paragraph of Greg Sheridan's piece "The Art of No Deal" (30-31/3): the essential issue at stake in the fight over Brexit. Sheridan notes that a UK choice of a no-deal Brexit, which apparently a majority of its MPs in the House of Commons will not embrace, would "liberate its courts and its life from the dim tyranny of the grossly misnamed European Court of Justice." Unrepresentative and self-interested elites the world over characteristically corrupt the judicial proceedings in their nations to imprison dangerous opponents and stifle effective criticism. Kafka, Koestler, Orwell and Solzhenitsyn in their famous novels all showed this wickedness in action and how difficult it is to get out from under the oppression, once it's in place. The EU has continued this dark tradition. The Conservative Party needs to appoint a clearly pro-Brexit leader and that person needs to call a general election precisely on the Brexit issue. It could function like a second referendum; and how foolish would UK voters be to let go such a golden opportunity of confirming British sovereignty and adherence to traditional freedoms!
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

To The Age        There is more than mere subterfuge in the UK government's manoeuverings in the Brexit confusion ("'Trickery of the highest order': May splits votes to get the deal done"). There is corruption at the highest levels as financial elites, aided by "useful idiots", seek to frustrate the 2016 referendum decision to leave the EU. The EU itself is the creature of those elites, which are globalist rather than nationalist. They are more than willing to stamp on traditional British liberties, via the European Court of Justice, as their real interests are control of populations in order to add to their own power and profits. It is astonishing that a Conservative leader (Theresa May) and a majority of members in the House of Commons appear ready to ensure continued subservience to the EU rather than allow a "no deal" exit. Their behaviour is an anti-democratic disgrace.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

     Parts of the infrastructure of Western cities are falling apart quicker than expected, and the costs of replacement is often too high to undertake, so duct tape patch-ups constantly take place.
  https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/mar/21/marseille-falls-apart-why-is-frances-second-city-crumbling?

“Marseille, France’s second city, is facing its biggest crisis in decades as city-centre residents fear historical buildings that have turned to slums could crumble and fall. Grief and fury spread through the heart of the city after eight people were killed in November when two buildings collapsed near the picturesque old port. Citizens’ protests groups are asking how a city that has spent millions in the past decade on high-profile waterfront museum projects and attracting cruise-ship visitors could abandon residents and architecture to fatal neglect. In 2015, a government report warned that 40,000 dilapidated and dangerous homes were a health or security risk to 100,000 people, many in the city centre, but campaigners say little was done. Hundreds of families in Marseille have been evacuated from flats feared to be unsafe in recent months. Around 1,000 people – many on low incomes – are still sleeping in hotels, waiting to be rehoused. The crisis has highlighted Marseille’s unique makeup. With a population of around 850,000, it is smaller than the likes of Barcelona and Naples, and its diverse society is seen as symbol of modern France. But following industrial decline, a high number of its residents still live in poverty.”

     Is it right wingers? I don’t know; let’s ask MI5:
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/03/21/mi5-number-of-far-right-terror-cases-absolutely-dwarfed-by-the-number-of-islamist-cases/

“The number of far-right terror cases the authorities are faced with is “absolutely dwarfed” by the number of cases related to radical Islam, according to Britain’s Security Service, better known as MI5. MI5 specialises in counter-espionage and domestic security, in contrast to the foreign intelligence-oriented Secret Intelligence Service – better known as SIS or MI6, made famous by Ian Flemming’s James Bond books. The assessment of the relative seriousness of the Islamist terror threat and the far-right terror threat was disclosed halfway through a Guardian report focusing heavily on the latter, later republished by other media outlets including CNN and Microsoft-owned MSN. The left-liberal newspaper led on claims by the far-left HOPE Not Hate organisation, which describes itself as “anti-fascist” and has previously received funding from billionaire open borders campaigner George Soros, that “huge numbers of Britons are among the global audience for far-right forums” online.

     Here is neo-masculinity author Roosh v, presenting a critique of the “natural life”:
  https://www.rooshv.com/the-rejection-of-natural-living?awt_l=DbHeX&awt_m=3hDbnrXM7RcrK0n&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=roosh+autoresponder&utm_source=roosh+weekly+broadcast

“When man moved from the village to the city, he traded bodily suffering for mental suffering, yet the sum of his suffering remained the same. If anything, he has chosen a new kind of suffering that is much harder to solve. It robs him of his sleep, blocks his ability to connect with the opposite sex, and silences the sound of the river. He believes he made a good deal as he sits in his air-conditioned office, but he’s sitting in an air-conditioned office, wondering how he will get his next hit of external stimulation and pleasure. Year by year, he is gradually taken away from anything resembling a natural life, trading it for one of excess, anxiety, and neverending cycles of self-help.

     The UK today, the rest of the West tomorrow:
  http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/cwn/2019/march/they-arrested-him-for-islamophobia-muslim-targets-street-preacher-police-arrest-the-christian

“Britain was once the home of world missions. But today, it's increasingly hostile to the gospel. In the latest episode, London police are under fire for arresting an elderly Nigerian man for preaching on the streets of London. His name is Preacher Olu and he was arrested last Saturday, accused of breaching the peace and Islamophobia. Phone video of his arrest went worldwide on social media. "You can arrest me if you want to. You can arrest me if you want to," the preacher says after police tell him to stop talking about Jesus.”

     Learn to code goes the saying about those displaced and tossed onto the streets. But, there are billions of coders in India going cheap, and doing a good job for the capitalists, so scratch that one. But, there is always the service industry and making coffee. Wait, that one too is going:
  https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Baristas-beware-A-robot-that-makes-gourmet-cups-13708775.php

“In the food industry, it seems, the robot revolution is well underway, with machines mastering skilled tasks that have always been performed by people. In Boston, robots have replaced chefs and are creating complex bowls of food for customers. In Prague, machines are displacing bartenders and servers using an app. In Denver, they're taking orders at a fast food drive through. Robots are even making the perfect loaf of bread these days, taking charge of an art that has remained in human hands for thousands of years. Now comes Briggo, a company that has created a fully automated, robotic brewing machine that that can push out 100 cups of coffee in a single hour -- equaling the output of three to four baristas, according to the company.