Silly Coronation Stunts

I watched the coronation of king Charles III on TV on Saturday. It was a longwinded affair with much pomp and circumstance, so I watched it only with half an eye. I don't think I missed much by not watching every minute of it.

Most people interviewed in the streets were enthusiastic about the event, but some were against it. They held up #NotMyKing signs and shouted angry slogans, which reminded me of the #NotMyPresident signs people waved about after Trump's victory back in 2016.

While it's understandable that people find a coronation ceremony less than convincing as far as political legitimacy is concerned, I find the #NotMyKing gang no less silly. They have figured out that a king has no legitimate power outside his private domain, but they haven't yet figured out that a president has no legitimacy either. The inauguration of a president is also a mystic affair. It too is void of any support in natural law.

Some of the protesters claimed that England's constitutional monarchy was a form of totalitarianism, which I found particularly stupid. The king has limited powers, and as far as totalitarianism is concerned, we have by now ample evidence that democracy doesn't protect anyone against it. The lockdowns in the West were as totalitarian as it gets, far worse than what was seen in Africa and other supposedly less free places.

What people don't realize is that #NotMyKing and #NotMyPresident movements are types of controlled opposition. The idea behind them is that the state itself is legitimate and that only the figureheads are lacking in legitimacy. People fight each other over figureheads, but the state remains unaffected. The state apparatus doesn't care one way or another as long as it remains intact.

This is the insight expressed in the film The Leopard that I finally got round to watch a few days ago. The aging price is fully aware of the futility in trying to change anything through strife. His only concern is for his family and their assets, and he navigates perfectly through the bloody revolution. While people kill each other over political trivialities in Palermo, the prince moves out of the way. When the dust settles, he returns to his palace. When asked which side he's on, he tells everyone that he's with the majority. He's one of the good guys.

The social contract

Never Ending De Facto Truce

The big Russian winter offensive everyone expected at the end of last year never materialized. Instead, fighting in Ukraine became centred around minor towns and villages. The most notable being the current siege of Bakhmut, which has been ongoing for months.

This has led to an apparent draw in which neither the Russians nor the Ukrainians have gained anything. The lack of spectacular battle scenes to telegraph around the world has also created the impression that the war is contained, and that it's fought at a moderate level, with moderate casualties and material loss.

This impression has been further strengthened by western media which assures everyone that Ukraine will win the war, provided we send them the weapons and munition required to continue the fighting.

The result of this is that any calls for western mobilization has fallen on deaf ears. The narrative simply doesn't support it. Why risk our sons and daughters in a war that the Ukrainians will win anyway, provided we keep sending them money to buy military gear?

From a strategic viewpoint, this is exactly what Russia wanted to happen. By drawing things out in time and refraining from doing anything spectacular, they've avoided an escalation of the war. Foreigners aren't rushing in to fight shoulder to shoulder with the Ukrainians. Instead, they are sending money and hardware into what is pretty much a black hole.

Bakhmut is surrounded on three sides. There's a single road leading into the town from the Ukrainian side, and soldiers and military equipment is being poured into battle through this road. However, nothing is coming out of the town, except dead and wounded soldiers.

Now that spring has come, we'll see less fighting going forward. Bakhmut is likely to fall to the Russians, and that will be the end of hostilities for now. It may even be the end of the war.

The Russians made it clear from the start that their concern was only with the safety and security of their Russian brothers living in the eastern regions of Ukraine. Now that this landmass has been secured by the Russians, their strategic goal has been accomplished, and the ideal outcome would be for the fighting to stop.

With the West unwilling to accept defeat, the Russians are unlikely to secure a peace deal. However, there's another strategy that can be employed which will reduce the fighting to nothing over time. It requires no written document, nor any acceptance of defeat by the opponent. It can be employed unilaterally, and has no expiration date.

The strategy is called "tit for tat", and is used as much in civil life as in military operations. The idea is that aggression by one side is immediately met with a fierce and targeted response. In the case of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Russians will respond to any counter offensive with fierce artillery bombardments of known positions. However, it there's no counter offensive, there won't be any hostility coming from the Russian side either.

This strategy is known to be effective in encouraging peaceful coexistence when applied all the way down to single soldiers and civilians. People refrain from acting with aggression when they know that aggression on their side will be met with a fierce and targeted response. Civil society operates this way, and so does the military.

Russia has succeeded in capturing the disputed eastern region of Ukraine without provoking the west into direct involvement on the ground. They are therefore likely to follow this up with a never ending de facto truce. A few years from now, the Russian-Ukrainian war will be as forgotten as Russia's stealth take over of Crimea. No-one will talk much about it. Civil life will continue as if nothing has happened.

Vladimir Putin

By Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, Link

Captured Revolutions

“Everything must change for everything to remain the same”: pronounced by Tancredi in the novel “The Leopard”, written by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

May 1 was for a while dreaded by the elite. Factory workers were catching onto the various schemes that the elite were using in order to keep them from getting ahead in the world. Everything from social segregation to taxation was being denounced. There were protests and strife. However, this all subsided over the years and May 1 is now largely a day dedicated to pleasant reminiscing.

We are told that the labour movement was a success. All the main issues were resolved to the satisfaction of the average worker, and there are only minor issues left. Parades are victory marches that end up in town squares where politicians hold speeches.

So much has been gained by the labour movement, they say. Yet, taxes are as high as ever, and segregation based on just about any criteria is back in fashion. In reality, nothing much of substance has changed. The progress that has been made is not due to the labour movement, or political action, it's the result of the steady progress made by ordinary people in their ordinary lives.

A similar thing happened with Christianity back in Roman times. It was a truly revolutionary force. But the movement was absorbed by the elite who established what is today the Catholic Church. Rome became Christendom, the emperor became pope, and the empire lived on.

This is how all revolutionary movements peter out over time. The reason for it being a top layer of coordinating functionaries that always seem to find their way into such movements.

Once a layer of experts are allowed to make decisions on behalf of a movement, it's doomed. The inevitable outcome is complete capture by the elite.

The American Revolution was supposed to usher in a government for the people, by the people. Less than three hundred years later, the US is no more free than any other country. Christianity was supposed to bring us directly in touch with God. It quickly became an elite institutions where the Bible itself was restricted knowledge.

The only revolutionary movement I can think of today is the Yellow Wests in France, but I haven't heard much about them lately. They are either in hiding or they've been infiltrated.

There's only one type of movement that the elite truly fears, and that is the leaderless movement. The sort of movement that has many people talking favourable about it, but no coordinating node. Such movements cannot be controlled by the elite.

This is why they fear the true anarchists. People who don't believe that anyone has any right to dictate anything to anyone cannot be subjugated without much force and brutality. But if we focus our energy and our resources on our families and our friends, with no other concern about others than to keep an eye on them in case they do something dangerous to us, we become practically invisible to the elite.

The elite depend on us believing in their authority. If we stop doing it, they lose their power, and things will improve for us all. But this requires a great deal of constraint on our part, because we have to let other people decide for themselves what is right for them. We cannot get rid of the elite if we keep allowing them to interfere in other people's lives.

If something doesn't concern us directly, we must hold no strong opinion on the matter. It's none of our business what someone chooses to do inside their circle of family and friends if there's no spill-over into our circles.

Keep in mind the consequences of insisting on a law that regulates other people's lives. Once that premise is accepted, there's no limit to what that power can be used for, and the elite will come back in full force to wield it against everyone, including us.

Stay focused on the only thing that matters, and suggest that others do the same. Let family and friends know that they are the only thing we care about. Lead by example. Be successful in our private affairs and promote success in others. That's the only thing that matters, and to go beyond that is nothing but a waste of time.

Family

Attrition Warfare on the Offensive

“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”

― Victor Hugo

Almost two years have passed since I started writing about attrition warfare as a strategy for liberty, and as it turned out, this strategy has proven itself effective. It has also become widely adopted due to the network effect, where people communicate informally through friends and family.

Where we used to see defensive positioning, we're now seeing offensives. The virus scare of 2020 to 2022 has subsided, and there's an awareness spreading. The elite don't care about our health, the climate or the economy. They care only for power and the money that comes with it.

Those who stood firm while the elite was pushing forward with their agenda are now sensing opportunity. My older brother has pushed forward with evidence proving that wind turbines are inefficient and disastrous for the environment. He's also presenting evidence related to electric batteries and how polluting and ineffective electric vehicles really are.

His rhetoric would have been quickly knocked down by #Science touting friends only a few months ago, but this is no longer happening. The religion of #Science is on the decline. This fabrication by the elite is no longer as effective as it used to be. As proof of this, all we have to ask ourselves is when was the last time anyone posted #ThankYouScience as part of their status updates.

This illustrates the two separate modes of operation employed by God, aka nature, and the devil, aka clever power grabbing spin doctors. Nature employs unstoppable surges while spin doctors are constantly jumping from one story to another. To see what truth looks like, as opposed to deception, we need only look at news headlines a few years old. Deception doesn't age well, while truth shines bright.

For spin doctors to retain their power over the population, an endless stream of stories must be produced, and truth must be censored. But truth shines so bright that it cannot be censored. To hide the truth, spin doctors would have to not only sensor their opposition, they would have to sensor their own articles as well.

Simply posting two year old news onto our Facebook timeline reveals to all that we were lied to. I see no reason to be more blunt than this, so that's what I'm currently doing. I post these flashbacks about once every month. I'm doing my bit in our fight for liberty, and others are doing their bit. There's no need to coordinate this. The network effect takes care of this without any need for a central command.

Guantanamo Bay detention camp

By Shane T. McCoy, U.S. Navy - (copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Camp_x-ray_detainees.jpg so that the image can be used on Wikinews.), Public Domain, Link

Pivot Towards Former Colonies

The president of Brazil has visited Portugal. The errand had to do with the war in the Ukraine. Brazil has a plan. But it's a lame duck, and everyone knows it. China nixed it a few weeks ago so it won't go anywhere. However, the visit was nevertheless noteworthy.

The most striking aspect of the visit was the endless fawning and flattering that went back and forth between the two Portuguese speaking delegations. There was no end to how much they liked each other, and how much they sympathized with each other's various challenges. They also talk about Portuguese language and culture, and how it deserves a stronger position internationally.

All of this confirms observations I made more than a year ago. Portugal is pivoting towards its former colonies. While nothing of substance has happened yet, it appears that there's a plan B being formed. Should the EU fall apart, Portugal will be quick to establish closer ties with Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and other former colonies.

Once the dust settles after the Russian-Ukrainian war, we might see a large part of east and central Europe pivot east, towards the new silk road being developed by China, Russia and Iran. The influence of the old silk road stretched all the way to Germany and Italy in its days. A similar reach is not unthinkable for the new initiative.

That leaves Spain, Portugal, Holland, England and France once again semi-detached from the primary trans-Eurasia trade route, and these countries will naturally pivot the other way, towards their former colonies.

Europe

By Rob984 - Derived from Europe orthographic Caucasus Urals boundary.svg and Europe on the globe (red).svg., Public Domain, Link

Earth Day

To clearly see that climate alarmism is nothing less than a religion, look no further than the Earth Day manifestation that took place yesterday in London. People dressed up in costumes, banged drum and praised Earth as a deity. Things don't get closer to a good old Catholic carnival than this.

Even my eleven year old son has caught onto the stupidity of it all. "Earth is dying," he says with a wry smile, clearly not believing any of it, despite this now being pushed in schools as #Science. But #Science was also integral in the virus scare that everyone but a tiny minority now realize was a scam, so this trademark is not what it used to be. In fact, anything sold under the #Science brand can be safely dismissed as hyperbole, and this is happening at an accelerating pace.

Climate scepticism is on the rise despite increased efforts to promote climate alarmist policies. People are waking up to the fact that it's all a ploy to tax the public in order to fund inefficient solutions provided by politically connected corporations. Besides, real science doesn't support any of the alarming statements made over the past 30+ years. Readily available graphs and data show this winter to have been one of the most snow rich winters in decades. The Snow Water Equivalent for this winter is two standard deviations above the 1998 to 2011 average. That's a far cry from Al Gore's claim that snow will be a thing of the past.

My favourite webcam at the Hadangervidda plain of Norway shows no lack of snow. There's absolutely nothing alarming going on, and to believe that this will suddenly change over the next couple of years requires religious conviction of the kind manifested yesterday in London.

The climate movement is past its prime, and has now jumped the shark, so to speak. It's all down hill from here. The more effort they put into their fear mongering, the less people will believe it. This too is evidence that 2022 really was a historic turning point. We've entered a new era, and all the institutions built up since 1913, the beginning of the progressive era, will either vanish or be greatly transformed.

Liberty

Primary and Secondary Health Effects

I turned 59 a few weeks back, and it's dawning on me that I can no longer take good health and general wellbeing for granted. This winter was a wakeup call in that respect. I fell down a darkened staircase, I got petty badly beaten up by it, and the recovery was slow. Typical old man stuff in other words.

Things got a little out of whack during the recovery. I got terribly constipated from lack of physical activity, and my libido fell through the floor. It was clear that I had to do something. Nature wasn't going to fix this on its own.

Remedies that work

This is how I rediscovered cumin seeds. Within a few days of taking a pinch of this every day, my digestion was back in order. In fact, it was better than it had been in a long while, which served to prove an important point: With the right remedy, I can turn back the clock as it were. I'm taking my daily dose of cumin seeds, and I feel decades younger as far as my digestion goes.

With this success fresh in mind, I figured it might be possible to regulate my libido in a similar fashion. There might be some food or exercise that can bring me back a few decades as far as sexual appetite is concerned.

As it turned out, I found nothing helpful in terms of food. Testosterone levels are not a function of some food intake. Rather, it's a function of physical activity. I remembered an article I saw some time ago where it was pointed out that the current decline in male fertility rates that everyone is fretting about is nothing more mysterious than a lack of physical exercise.

Kegel exercises

I also found some articles on so called Kegel exercises for men. Unsurprisingly, libido and testosterone levels can be regulated by physical exercise of the hips. Women seem to have figured this out themselves, with twerking being all the rage these days. I strongly suspect that women who twerk experience an elevated libido, and I figured that the male version of twerking might work just as well for men.

As it turned out, it works wonders. However, the exercise is so outlandish that many would rather go for something less effective. Kegel exercises that I found described in articles on the web never mentions the obvious. They prescribe disciplined little routines that are but a shadow of what a truly effective Kegel exercise for men looks like.

The whole point of Kegel exercises, both for women and men, is to strengthen the internal muscles that keep our abdomen in place. These muscles are only vaguely controlled by us at the conscious level. We can for example control our peeing by will. However, the Kegel muscles are mostly automatic. They kick in when provoked. Hence, Kegel muscles are best exercised by vigorous hip exercises such as twerking. And for men, it should be done naked from the waist down.

It's not a pretty sight. But it's very effective. My libido was back in no time, and as with the cumin seeds, I'm feeling decades younger. Some of this may be simply spring weather, which always brings out the testosterone in me, but most of my renewed virility is no doubt due to a few minutes of vigorous male twerking every day.

So, it turns out that I can control my digestion with cumin seeds, and I can control my libido with a few minutes of exercise. This doesn't make me any younger, of course. But it does make me feel younger, and general wellbeing is in the end all that matters when it comes to health.

Simple remedies

I never understood the modern obsession with measurements of blood pressure, cholesterol levels and the like. If a person feels well and happy, he's hardly going to keel over due to any of that, so it doesn't matter what the measurements say. All that matters is whether or not the person in question is feeling well or not. As the saying goes in Norway: if you eat well and sleep well, you will almost never die.

Going forward, I'll have to pay better attention to how I feel, and now that I know that a lot can be achieved with simple remedies, I'm almost looking forward to the challenge. I'll note down what problems I have, and I'll share any remedy I come across.

What I've noticed so far is that little things that were mere nuisances when I was younger have gotten worse with age. The only exception to this has been a pain in my back that I got from a car accident when I was 17. That problem has become less lately, and the only explanation I can think of is that I'm closer to my ideal weight now than I used to be. I used to be a little on the skinny side. Now, with more fat on my bones, my back has improved. I guess that it must be that a little bit of fat helps regulate body temperature, which in turn helps muscles stay relaxed and not tense up needlessly.

Secondary effects

The lesson here is that some things improve due to some other improvement. Putting on some weight has been good for my overall wellbeing. It calms my nerves. It makes me feel stronger and happier. A secondary effect of this  has been that my bad back improved.

As for the cumin seeds, there seem to be some secondary effects of those as well. I've had a fungus problem with my skin and toe nails ever since my late teens. It was for a long time a minor problem. But it was nevertheless impossible to get rid of, and the problem has been getting worse over the years. However, the cumin seeds seem to have had a positive effect on this. The problem hasn't gone away, but my most fungus infected foot has improved.

A more obvious secondary effect of cumin seeds is that I no longer have any trouble with haemorrhoids. This problem, which I've had since my late twenties is pretty much gone, which goes to show that the cumin seeds really have made me younger by several decades when it comes to general wellbeing, at least in this particular case.

With my digestion improved, I feel less bloated, and my belly has flattened by a notch on my belt.

Feeling great

A secondary effect of some rigorous twerking a few minutes a day is that this works up a pulse. It's similar in effect to a short sprint. The heart pumps a little stronger. There's a bit of a sweat. Afterwards, I feel thoroughly refreshed and relaxed.

The exercise has also helped further flatten my stomach. It has taken down one more notch on my belt, making the total reduction a full two notches from my most bloated and unwell past.

Higher testosterone levels also have the rather obvious effect of making me a better bedfellow for my wife. I'm also more appreciative of the lovely young ladies that I see on the street of Porto. I'm in better shape and I feel better.

All of this has been achieved with a minimum of time invested. We're talking a few minutes a day, so it's a clear winner as far as strategy goes.

Conclusion

My thinking is that any remedy that doesn't give any noticeable effect within a few days isn't worth our attention. Remedies should be convenient and easy to do. They should be agreeable with an immediate or semi-immediate feedback of wellbeing, and they should be natural and cheap.

This strategy focuses entirely on wellbeing. It excludes by default any medicine that is administered merely because of some measurement made in a doctors office. It also embraces Placebo as a friend rather than a foe. If something works, who cares if it's only in the mind?

When looking for remedies, it makes sense to look for the most obvious solutions first. In my case, I knew from years ago that cumin seeds work wonders. I also knew that libido sits in the hips and is related to exercise. I've simply applied what I've known for a long time. All that it took to bring this knowledge back was some pondering and some internet searches.

Feeling good