Week17 Links

 From the Z-Man: 

 Two items stand out in this week's podcast - DeSantis vs Trump and the death of philosophy. Since they got away with it in '20, the Democrats will win the White House again in '24, regardless of who the Republicans nominate or how the voting goes. So the question becomes; which (Republican) candidate will cause the greatest (negative) reaction to that result when they lose? Like Z-Man, my money's on Trump. 

He also has some thoughtful things to say about Christianity. Regardless of whether you are a theist or an agnostic like me, there's no denying that Christianity played a pivotal role in the creation of the modern world. And, IMO, it's the decline of Christianity that's driving its destruction. 

https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=29771
          

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If you don't know, vote "No"

"The onus is on nobody else but the Albanese Government to provide this strong evidence (for a 'yes' vote) which they are failing lamentably to do. As Alan Jones famously and 100 per cent correctly re-iterated almost daily in 1999, “If you don’t know, vote No”."  

https://politicom.com.au/how-to-defeat-the-voice/
               

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"So, why do we fight?

Historically, men have been prepared to fight, to endure hardship and torture, and to die for their nation precisely because their nation was their extended family. A family that looked like them, possessed a common history, culture, and crucially, a common ancestor.

Now our country hates us, is actively marginalising us and replacing us. The American military is losing recruits because the American government has similarly marginalised White men, and Australia’s military will have the same problem. The assumption that so-called “new Australians” will fight for this country in a time of crisis is simply wrong. For this reason, the West’s security was fundamentally undermined the moment our borders were opened to mass replacement immigration."

To make this article relevant here, replace "American" with "Australian".

https://xyz.net.au/2023/04/biggest-defence-review-since-ww2-to-fight-china-white-men-ignored/
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"De-Dollarization" is gaining traction and momentum. The Dollar's position as the global reserve currency is the keystone in the global American empire's hegemonic arch. Anwar Gadhafi and Sadam Hussein were both eliminated because they threatened this position, by offering to sell their oil in exchange for other currencies. It's one thing to bully small nations that lack the military clout to stand up to to them, but the Russian Federation is a "peer" (or near-peer) opponent and confronting them on a battlefield would reveal what much of the world already suspects - that the imperial military is a "paper tiger" and incapable of winning a "real" war. Why do you think the Pentagon has been dragging it's feet, getting advanced weapons like the Abrahams tank and the F22 and F35 fighters into action in Ukraine? It's because they'll be exposed for the useless, Platinum-plated boondoggles they actually are. Good only for shooting up goat-herders, armed with AK-47s. But by weaponizing the Dollar and stealing Russia's foreign reserves, the empire has made the same mistake Hitler did, on 11th December 1941. History doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme.  

"The defining moment – the actual trigger leading to the Fall of the Hegemon – was in February 2022, when over $300 billion in Russian foreign reserves were “frozen” by the collective west, and every other country on the planet began fearing for their own dollar stores abroad. There was some comic relief in this absurd move, though: the EU “can’t find” most of it."

https://thecradle.co/article-view/24080/de-dollarization-kicks-into-high-gear

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Another one for the "Trifecta of Failure" * file:

"The spectre of power failure is haunting Europe as Britain and Germany demonstrate that modern societies can’t run on wind and solar power. Wind droughts are the fatal flaw in the system and one can envisage a future book titled How Wind Droughts Destroyed Western Civilisation. Think about the consequences of a system blackout if Net Zero policies are pursued to the bitter end in Western Europe and Australia…"

If only engineers ran things, instead if ideologues. 

* More expensive, less reliable (than Coal) and results in no measurable reduction in CO2 emissions. 

The endless wind drought crippling renewables | The Spectator Australia