… When asked how Russia can claim that it is fighting to “de-Nazify” Ukraine when President Volodymyr Zelensky is himself Jewish, Mr Lavrov said: “So what if Zelensky is Jewish.”
“The fact does not negate the Nazi elements in Ukraine. I believe that Hitler also had Jewish blood,” adding that “some of the worst anti-Semites are Jews.”
A FRIEND in Moscow, passing by a university library, found boxes full of books being removed. They were from the English literature department, with classic authors and titles facing the chop.
Among them were JD Salinger and Somerset Maugham, and virtually all of the books had long been available in Russia, even during the latter days of the USSR.
This is, undoubtedly, cancel culture. Finding themselves in a war against the West, with the Anglo-Saxon powers constituting the most vocal supporters of Zelensky’s Ukraine, classic English-language literature is an obvious target.
We freaked out, but there was never any evidence to back it up.
Back in 2018, a friend visited me from out of town and wanted to show me some of the YouTube videos he and his friends had been watching. I quickly realized that he had gotten into alt-right content, and was now viewing it on my own YouTube account. Some of the videos, for example, featured Disney musical clips dubbed over with lyrics about how Trump would restore White power. Having read the media reports of YouTube’s algorithmic radicalization, I was immediately worried that my YouTube recommendations would from now on be full of Nazi propaganda.
Seemingly unending waves of violence plaguing Muslim communities worldwide is a wakeup call to stand firm against incitement, as well as against those who make excuses for the murderous attackers
I believe most residents of the predominantly Bedouin city of Rahat, as well the residents of the predominantly Arab city of Umm Al-Fahm, when they say they condemn and abhor the criminal elements plaguing their community.
I also believe the residents of the city of Malmo in Sweden, the majority of whom are Muslims, as well as the residents of northern Nigeria – again, mostly Muslims – who are often victims of attacks the Boko Haram terror group.
Stuffing people who need drug or mental-health treatment into free or low-cost housing has proved disastrous.
To residents of San Francisco’s Sixth District, the deplorable conditions of single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels are no longer a great shock. In the Tenderloin, Civic Center, and South of Market neighborhoods, where most of the approximately 70 SROs are located, these city-run buildings have been terrible for as long as most can remember. And they’re getting worse.
“Ukraine and its allies, including London, are threatening Russia for the last 1,000 years, to move Nato to our borders, to cancel our culture – they have bullied us for many, many years.”
That is what Yevgeny Popov, a member of the Russian Duma (parliament) and an influential TV host in Russia, told the BBC’s Ukrainecast on 19 April. “Of course Nato plans for Ukraine are a direct threat to Russian citizens.”
His views were both surprising and enlightening as to the very different narrative put out by the Kremlin, compared to the way it’s viewed in the West. To European and Western ears, these pronouncements sound almost unfathomable, even amounting to a blatant disregard for carefully documented evidence. Yet these are just some of the beliefs held not only by Kremlin supporters in Russia and across the wider population there but also in several other parts of the world.
Fifty years of encouraging closer economic links with Beijing has proved misguided
At the start of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in early February, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin stood shoulder to shoulder to declare the two countries’ “friendship without limits”. In a 5,000-word statement meant to highlight their unbreakable bond, the pair sought to exploit what they believed to be the terminal decline of the West. Their intent was to make the world safe for autocracy.
Since then, world affairs have not evolved as the pair expected, to say the least. Europe, the US and their allies around the world have come together in support of Ukraine. The old global system the two autocrats had been so dismissive of is fighting back. Putin’s Russia has become a pariah in the global system, and Xi’s China will have to bear the consequences of committing to support it.
On the revealing double standards of the woke left.
Discrediting a thinker’s broad worldview or legacy by discovering some statement from the distant past revealing him or her to be a bigot by today’s standards is a depressing degeneration in our intellectual life. It speaks of a compulsion to moralize rather than to understand, to shut down rather than expand debate.
Picasso was morally monstrous; but his painting is transcendent. And if you cannot disentangle the two, you are attacking a key liberal principle: that ideas and works of art should be considered on their merits, and not on the virtue or vice of their proponents.
h/t LK
Research has found the president’s ally may be behind pro-Kremlin propaganda on a bizarre variety of platforms
A Russian troll factory has spread lies about the war in Ukraine across social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, according to research commissioned by the government.
Boris Johnson and other world leaders have been targeted as part of a Kremlin disinformation campaign which, it is suspected, has been orchestrated by a close ally of President Putin.
The troll factory was trying to manipulate international public opinion in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, researchers found.
A nationalistic reliance on duff remedies has led to Covid incarcerations
The first country to experience Covid-19, and the one that invented the defence strategy known as lockdown, is the only country still practising it. But the Chinese form is so much harsher than the British version, it is almost misleading to use the same term. In Shanghai, the biggest city now enduring the experience, millions have been physically barricaded into their homes, some crying out that they are starving. Those reporting infections are forced into vast quarantine camps. Vital office workers have been confined to their skyscrapers, sleeping at their desks for over a month now.
In the month since Russia’s retreat from Ukraine’s north, the capital Kyiv has seen a frenzy of high-profile visitors: 11 prime ministers, Austria’s chancellor, the U.S. secretaries of state and defence, its House speaker, the UN secretary-general — even Hollywood star Angelina Jolie.
Canada has not sent even a cabinet minister.
Junior’s still working on his costume.
Failed robbery becomes an instant piñata party pic.twitter.com/EsWZJvXMJs
— Steve Inman (@SteveInmanUIC) April 30, 2022
OTTAWA — The last time federal Conservatives were picking a leader, their race was transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than two years later, they are at it again. But this time, the race is happening during what appears to be the end of Canadians living under government-imposed pandemic rules.
The events of the past 25 months, from when the health crisis first landed until now, are shaping the contest for who will lead the Conservative party after Sept. 10.
Preschool teacher says she “loves taking every oppurtunity” to break down gender stereotypes and discuss all the genders including nonbinary pic.twitter.com/4QQ4efDLDs
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 29, 2022
Oh no, according to the news release, this is going to be the mother of all “studies.” That means millions of meaningless words.
I don’t need an ADL “study” to explain the rise in anti-Semitism
Alarming? Yes, the spike in anti-Semitism in the US and around the world is alarming. The reason for it is simple; the erosion of Judeo/Christian values.
There, that’s the story. Period. So you don’t need Jonathan Greenblatt and his ADL …Anti-Defamation League…to pursue the question with a “study,” and not just any study.
