Luke Kelly (1940 - 1984) was a founder member and main singer of The Dubliners who were arguably the most popular Irish Folk Band in the world during their heyday of the 1960s. It all began in 1962 in O'Donoghue's Pub, Dublin.
"At the time, Donoghue’s Pub was a very, very quiet pub … civil servants used to be sneaking in from their offices to have small whiskeys and things. Luke Kelly had come home from England and he came into Donoghue's. Ciaron Bourke was studying in the University … he used to play the tin whistle and play the guitar and one night we asked Paddy Donoghue, round about Christmastime, could we play a few tunes. So we played a few tunes. That was it. The music has never stopped in Donoghue's since that day. That was more or less how the whole thing got going—or how the whole thing began."
‘… unanimously agreed on a minimum of three steps: a surprise [bombing] attack against the known missile sites, continued surveillance, and a blockade to prevent reinforcements from entering Cuba. […] The chiefs’ objective was to be in the best position to fight a war, while the president’s aim was to select the strategy that was least likely to start a war. The chiefs assumed that a prompt military response (bombing and invasion) would coerce the Soviets, but the president believed it would provoke them to respond in kind.’
World War Three might well have erupted anyway, had it not been for another restraining hand on the Russian side. Eight days after the above Oval Office meeting, a Soviet submarine submerged near Cuba was being depth-charged by US forces with the intention of forcing it to surface; what the Americans did not know was that the sub had a nuclear torpedo and, thinking that the depth charges were lethally intended, the captain was all for going out in a blaze of glory: ‘We’re gonna blast them now! We will die, but we will sink them all – we will not become the shame of the fleet.’ That decision required the agreement of three senior officers; two were for it, but the world is indebted to the third, Vasily Arkhipov, who refused.
Is President Biden up to handling military hotheads, as the confrontation in Europe intensifies? It is widely thought that his mental condition is deteriorating, to the point where he cannot even command attentive respect in a White House gathering (5 April 2022):
Like Nature, political power abhors a vacuum and we have to worry about who is taking control behind the scenes, and whether as sixty years ago their groupthink is leading us to potential disaster.
Worse still, should the President be officially deemed unfit for his office, is the seemingly weak or unstable people who are next in line to take over the role.
The Sea of Azov is north of the Black Sea, into which it flows. It is vitally important to Russia for trade and her ambition to build a Eurasian Union.
The river Don, running into the Azov, is linked by canal to the river Volga, which empties into the Caspian Sea. The Caspian is bordered by Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Iran - the last also leading to the Red and Arabian Seas. Fifteen years ago the President of Kazakhstan proposed another, bigger canal directly linking the Caspian and Azov Seas and was excited about the growth prospects for central Asia.
The Azov is also important for Russia’s defence, increasingly so since the collapse of the Soviet Union. As one former Soviet bloc country after another joined the European Union and NATO, Ukraine became a ‘red line’ as the last bastion against encroachment by the Western powers. Its eastern region borders the Azov Sea; whoever has mastery of Ukraine has the power to disrupt Russia’s waterborne trade and threaten her sovereign territory.
Quite possibly, from a Russian perspective the hot war that erupted in Ukraine in February is merely the culmination of a progressive thirty-year cold war plan by Western powers to restrict Russia’s regrowth. For all the talk in the mass media about war crimes and wars of aggression, it should be noted that neither Russia nor the US have signed up to jurisdiction by the International Criminal Court. This filthy business has deep roots and assigning blame would open a can of worms, as the American expression goes; not to mention other adventures in North Africa and the Middle East.
Strategically, Russia has always wanted an all-year-round ice-free port to communicate with the rest of the world. It got one in 1945 with the acquisition of Königsberg (now known as Kaliningrad) in what was then East Prussia. It houses Russia’s Baltic Fleet at the port of Baltiysk; but this Russian Federation territory is separated from the motherland by Lithuania and either Latvia or Belarus, depending on the route chosen.
If the Ukraine shooting war manages to avoid turning nuclear, then perhaps time will reconfigure the cat’s-cradle of this modern Great Game. The gradual shrinking of the Arctic ice will open new maritime opportunities for Russia. Further ahead, if global warming continues, it is possible that both Canada and Siberia will become greener as countries to the south begin to parch and populations suffer and migrate en masse. A century from now, the current military confrontation will seem a mere spat by comparison with the northern hemispheric disruption to come.
Lizard Point in Cornwall is mainland UK’s most southerly edge. Here, a few years ago, a fat rogue of a seal called Woody used the back of a boat as his sunbathing platform and capsized it. There are postcards in the gift shop showing him at it again, with what looks like a cheeky laugh.
We asked about him on this visit; he still comes but isn’t here at the moment. He goes up north each year to fight the local seals there in pursuit of a harem and comes back with more scars.
The shop owner says the dominant seal will chase off the other males to enjoy his brides in peace. The ‘beach master’ here is Tom, though the owner’s favourite is Yogi.
YouTube vlogger and old China hand ‘Serpentza’ tells us something new about China’s ‘ghost cities.’ But first a brief overview:
Ordinary Chinese people are now able to save money - something undreamed of a couple of generations ago. 70% of it is in real estate, because other investment vehicles are illegal (e.g Bitcoin) or risky (e.g. the frequently crashing stock market.) Investors look to buy and sell apartments, not live in them. There are some 65 million units standing empty.
The Chinese government supports the property market as a form of savings. Serpentza says it’s worth an estimated $60 trillion, or c. 30% of China’s GDP. So it is a very important element for the government also. To keep the people happy the CCP tinkers with the market, dropping interest rates (even to zero) and adding other incentives, to keep it buoyant.
On the other hand, the government is concerned about the expansion of debt. The property developers buy land and materials and pay their employees and contractors on credit; when the State tightened that borrowing it made the developers insolvent, hence e.g. the crisis at Evergrande, which owes $300 billion.
Oddly to us, the apartments are unfinished. This is not because of a residential property collapse as in the Great Financial Crisis in 2010. Paradoxically, if the owner were to complete his investment apartment its value would actually decrease.
The reason, explains Serpentza, is superstition. If someone buys one of these apartments fully equipped and furnished he will inherit the previous owner’s (or tenant’s) bad karma. For the Chinese this magical taint financially marks down a completed property.
A mild version of this instinct may exist in us, too - how many housebuyers can’t wait to modify their new purchase, however nicely presented, to put their own mark / imprint their personality on it? But in our world, nice houses are worth more than semi-wrecks.
As the trend for mass population movement from Africa and the Middle East towards the UK and Europe gathers pace, perhaps there is something to discuss between us and the Chinese…
We were in the ancient port town of Rye, West Sussex, staying at the Hope Anchor Hotel up a cobbled street at the top of the town. We'd topped off our celebration with some overpriced whiskies in the small bar downstairs.
The weather was beautifully warm - almost too much so for our non-airconditioned room - and so to bed and a heavy sleep.
I very rarely have nightmares, and never one like this. It was blood, blood everywhere, a dream coloured red. It was horrible and felt significant.
When I woke next morning, shaken, I turned on the TV as much to restore banal normality as anything, and got rolling news on a suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena the night before, killing and wounding many children as well as adults.
I don't claim psychic powers, but to me the dream seemed connected; as though a signal had been broadcast, of outrage at being robbed of life so early and unexpectedly.
I remember reading that many people contacted the FBI before the 9/11 attacks, with descriptions and drawings of dreams and visions that troubled them enough to make that effort; it's hard to find links on the search engines now.
Some will hurry to discount all this; but then there are two kinds of explanations: ones where you come up with various hypotheses and test them to see which one fits best; and ones where any explanation will do and no evidence is required so long as it explains away the phenomenon, like putting St Paul's blinding light down to an epileptic fit, despite there being no reference to his ever having had another one before or since.
Anyone who has watched it’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, will have viewed the scene where Jonathan Winters loses it and destroys Ray and Irwin's garage. At one point in desperation Ray turns to Irwin and says “We will have to kill him.” They fail, of course.
This last week has been a bit like that. After my last piece on the WHO it appears many have grasped what is being proposed and have come to the same conclusion. Naturally many who have a stake in this madness have given us a watered down version of the treaty and said it is not yet written in stone.
That may well be, but as the general public have no say in this it will be too late should the ultimate version be put into effect.
Still as a reminder of what we are up against, further statements and videos have come to light.
Remember this as a starter, later to become a classic reverse ferret and we are supposed to believe in the science…
Naturally no one mentions the dubious head of the WHO, one Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, an Ethiopian with a rather chequered past - see under Election Campaign and other matters.
And needless to say he has a close affinity with a certain Klaus Schwab…
Two people I would not trust to run a food bank let alone world affairs, yet world leaders flock to their gatherings.
With the Chinese having a major input and Bill Gates treating the WHO as a subsidiary of his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as he funds most of it, this is not an impartial organisation despite being under the ever more useless United Nations. We have every right to be worried.
Neil Oliver, as usual, sums it up better than most:
The pandemic has certainly afforded these organisations the opportunity to advance their cause while most of the world had other matters to attend to and still does.
From a personal point of view I can see a trend that started near the beginning of the pandemic, and that was the distribution of vaccines by the richer countries to the poorer ones. Looking after our own looks ever more so last year. You can guarantee a ‘fair’ distribution of vaccines paid for by us will be baked into any treaty and signed up to by bankrupt states.
This fair distribution of wealth and everything else is behind the WEF agenda. The ‘you will own nothing and be happy’ phrase touted by Schwab doesn’t sound quite the ramblings of a looney in the Swiss Alps any more rather the beginning of the great reset, whatever that might be. Far too many of our elected leaders seem happy to play ball with unelected individuals, organisations and have them on board.
It will be interesting to see if anyone who is supposed to represent us will actually mention any of this?
Elsewhere the NHS continues its downward spiral with reports of crumbling infrastructure everywhere. Nothing new in this, we are the nation of crumbling or non-existent infrastructure as I pointed out in a previous article. With the vaults empty we can only hope the government does not revive the disastrous PFI initiative in an attempt to look good before the next election.
The Hospital in Kings Lynn not far from here is a classic example of a building not fit for purpose and hasn’t been for decades.
This is one of three local hospitals built in the Seventies to a price! And all have a concrete with a best before date that has long past.
Must be reassuring to lie in a bed post op wondering if the ceiling is going to collapse. Envy of the world, hmmmm!
It beggars belief that without a new hospital very soon bills could come in to this level to maintain the current structure.
“The QEH has been given £20m by the government for urgent repairs. Its roof will cost an estimated £550m to maintain for another 10 years - almost as much as the cost of building a new hospital.“
Like the potholes, putting off the inevitable always costs the taxpayer a lot more.
Bureaucracy has doubled since the outbreak of the virus we are told. With the NHS top heavy anyway in this area, are we surprised? Front line staff meanwhile remain static in a population that is increasing by a minimum of half a million a year with migrants.
They also have had some damning reports on hospitals ‘never’ events which are on the rise. Strange choice of word, 'never', when it keeps happening, but still.
The NHS are also guilty of cooking their own goose. With waiting lists getting ever longer for everything and no sign of an end game, they then advertise for people to come forward with problems such as a possible cancer; they get a large response because they have failed to treat anyone for two years then tell the same people they will have to go on the ever-lengthening waiting lists. True, they are stuffed, but advertising as though one can come forward and get treated when the truth is something else does seem to be a waste of money and just virtue-signalling.
Yes, of course people are coming forward: you asked them to.
It has been yet another good week for the non stop nonsense we call news these days. I finish with Nancy Pelosi, that plastic pneumatic octogenarian still tottering around on six-inch heels who has threatened through her dentures to cancel the trade deal between the USA and our nation if the changes to the NI protocol go ahead.
I am pretty sure she has no idea about any of it other than what she has been briefed on and as there is no trade deal to cancel as they won't give us one anyway she can be ignored for what she is, another addled politician hanging on for what can be leached from the nation.
Two of a kind, how did we get here…?
Perhaps Ray and Irwin were correct, there is only one way out of this as they suggested in the opening clip; but they will have to use the plural.
