What’s wrong with me? Am I getting soft in my old age? Why didn’t I think about recommending cancelling the welfare of climate protesters, rather than indulge in vain fantasies about medieval torture and the flames of damnation? Simply starving to death is a tried and proven way of ending dissent, for, after all, this is essentially what the Left are, and will, do to us deplorables:
  https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/peter-dutton-suggests-cancelling-welfare-of-climate-protesters/11572370

“Peter Dutton has proposed scrapping the welfare payments of climate change activists who break the law. Speaking to Ray Hadley on 2GB radio this morning, the Home Affairs Minister called on the public to actively shame protesters who are "putting lives at risk". This week, 10 Extinction Rebellion protesters have been charged over two separate acts of protests that delayed traffic through Brisbane CBD. When asked whether protesters who received government benefits should have their welfare payments removed, Mr Dutton agreed. "Well I agree, Ray," he said. Mr Dutton said the public should 'name and shame' climate protesters. "People should take these names and the photos of these people and distribute them as far and wide as they can so that we shame these people. "Let their families know what you think of their behaviour." Mr Dutton also lashed out at vegan activists who raided farms in April, and the three pro-refugee protesters who briefly occupied the roof of his electorate office in 2016. "We should push back because these people are a scourge," he said.

     Tennis legend Margaret Court has waded into the battle over trans athletes moving into women’s sports, and she has hit the ball real hard into their court:
  https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2019/12/30/tennis-great-margaret-court-decries-transgender-athletes-lgbt-rights-as-of-the-devil/

“Australian tennis great Margaret Court hit out at transgender athletes on Sunday and branded the teaching of LGBT rights as “of the devil.” The 77-year-old, who won a record 24 Grand Slam singles titles, made the comments while giving a sermon at her Victory Life Church in the Australian city of Perth. Addressing the issue of trans athletes competing in male or female sports, the Christian pastor said: “You know with that LGBT, they’ll wish they never put the T on the end of it because, particularly in women’s sports, they’re going to have so many problems.” She also claimed children as young as seven were beginning to change gender, adding: “It’s so wrong at that age because a lot of things are planted in this thought realm and they start to question, ‘what am I?’ “You know, even that LGBT in the schools, it’s of the devil, it’s not of God…” Court is known as an opponent of gay unions and stated in the past that lesbianism on the women’s tour has a corrupting influence on young players, as Breitbart Sports reported. Twelve-times grand slam champion Billie Jean King last year called for Court’s name stripped to be from the Australian Open showcourt in Melbourne because Court’s views on sexuality, including the claim that “tennis is full of lesbians”, are offensive to her.”

     Can you believe it? The Epstein globo-paedo footage, of the evil beast in his well-earnt cell, has gone missing due to an error. What!
  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51053205
  https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/09/jail-video-of-jeffrey-epsteins-first-suicide-attempt-was-deleted.html

“Surveillance video from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein's first suspected suicide attempt was destroyed by accident, prosecutors say. US prosecutors say the jail mistakenly saved footage from the wrong cell. Epstein, a convicted sex offender, first tried to kill himself in July last year, then hanged himself in jail in August while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty to abusing dozens of girls, some as young as 14. Soon after Epstein's death, in August, two of the CCTV cameras outside his cell had malfunctioned and were being examined by the FBI, US media reported. Epstein was found semi-conscious in his prison cell with injuries to his neck on 25 July. After this incident, he was placed on suicide watch. Eventually, Epstein was moved to a different cell, where he died on 10 August. Two prison guards have since been accused of failing to check on him during this time and falsifying records to say that they had. There have been ongoing questions over the July recording, which was initially deemed missing and then was said to have been located by jail staff. A letter filed by Assistant US Attorneys Jason Swergold and Maurene Comey said "the footage contained on the preserved video was for the correct date and time, but captured a different tier than the one where Cell-1 was located", New York City media report. "The requested video no longer exists on the backup system and has not since at least August 2019 as a result of technical errors." The request for the video was made by a lawyer for Nicholas Tartaglione, a former New York police officer who shared a cell with Epstein in July and is charged with homicide in an unrelated case. The attorney argued the video could show his client had acted "admirably", possibly helping Epstein.”

     It was only a matter of time before they destroyed James Bond 007, because, well, a macho symbol had to go:
  https://www.counter-currents.com/the-importance-of-james-bond-order/

     Yes, 50 years of great entertainment, gone. I remember working in the school holidays to get some pocket money to go see a Bond movie. Gone. This video by aggro film critic, the Critical Drinker, slams the forthcoming über politely correct Bond movie. It is worth one last sad look. Say goodbye to a friend, who now sails to wherever it is true fictional heroes go when dead.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol8E-cPOhdA

     I have been covering the vast sell-off of Australia’s water resources, done in the driest continent on Earth, stricken by long-lasting droughts. Hard to believe, but true, once a nation loses its sense of identity and is deracinated:
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7884855/Queensland-town-runs-water-Chinese-company-given-green-light-extract-water-area.html?ico=pushly-notifcation-small

“A drought-ravaged town has run out of water just weeks after a Chinese company was given the go-ahead to run a commercial water extraction facility in the region. Stanthorpe in Queensland's Southern Downs is now fully dependent on 42 truckloads of water a day brought in from a dam 60km to the north. The local dam for the town of 5,000 people has dipped to just 11 per cent of capacity, with those living in Stanthorpe limited to 80 litres of water per person a day. Southern Downs Regional Council tightened the water restrictions last month just one day after approving the development of a mining operation 40km away at the Queensland border town of Cherrabah. The 'full-time water carting' from Connolly Dam consists of 1.3 megalitres per day and mayor Tracy Dobie said the operation is the biggest of its kind by an Australian local government. 'We've now commenced full trucking of water. There's 14 trucks doing three trips a day,' she said. 'Council promised the community we would not run out of water. 'The initial stages of water carting went extremely well and without incident. We will now move to full-time water carting to provide water to the Stanthorpe Region.' Remaining local reserves will be kept back for emergency use.  Despite the water importation, the 80-litre restriction will remain in place - four times less than the average individual water consumption of 340 litres per day according to Riverina Water.”

     Beatles fans, of which I am not, tend not to like Yoko Ono, whom they blame for breaking up the fab four, as if they would not have broken up soon anyway, given their inflated egos. Anyway, Meghan Merkle has been compared to Yoko Ono. That I think is unfair to the screaming Japanese conceptual artist, who merely took Lennon where he was going anyway, while Markle, an actress who did numerous sex scenes in her film, endangers an entire institution, which could have national, if not international significance, for the survival of the monarchy.
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/01/09/royal-family-deeply-disappointed-and-hurt-by-harry-and-meghans-announcement-report/
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/01/09/farage-prince-harry-let-side-down-compares-meghan-wallis-simpson/

“Playing the Yoko role is former Suits actress Meghan Markle — aka Princess Pushy; aka the Duchess of Sussex. Playing the Lennon role is former bad boy heartthrob Afghanistan vet helicopter pilot turned bleeding heart, henpecked pantywaist Prince Harry. Playing the rest of the Beatles are the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince William, Kate and all the other royals quite understandably concerned that if this nonsense carries on for much longer it could be the end of everything. Obviously, in this particular tiff, the majority of British people are very much Team Beatles rather than Team John ‘n’ Yoko. This is partly because most of us support our Royal Family, a bastion of traditional values and a unifying force in times of national celebration and crisis. Mainly, though, it’s because we can’t stand Princess Pushy. As I may have hinted in my last piece on the subject – Princess Pushy Go Home! – Meghan Markle is a dangerously and unnecessarily divisive figure. We don’t mind that she is an actress: the Royal Family has accommodated plenty of those in its time from Charles II’s mistress Nell Gwynne onwards. And we’re certainly not bothered that she is ‘black’. No one even noticed Meghan was of mixed-race heritage until she and her supporters kept banging on about it, as though she were the first ‘person of colour’ the extremely cosmopolitan and well-travelled Royal Family had ever met. Rather, it’s that ever since attaching herself to Prince Harry she has tried to push the Royal Family and, by example, the whole country in a direction that the vast majority of us find utterly repellant. Meghan’s ideological role model is Woke Hollywood: the kind of hypocritical, spoilt, identity-politics-obsessed, whiny, needy, thin-skinned, crass, cry-bullying, virtue-signalling cesspit that Ricky Gervais so deservedly mocked at the Golden Globes. She could have kept her woke politics to herself – that would have been the sensible thing, especially in the early days of her marriage, so as to allow the British people to get used to her. This is the usual quid pro quo when you marry into the Royal firm: in return for your newly elevated social status and your freebies (like Meghan’s multi-million-pound grace and favour cottage on the Queen’s estate in Windsor) you accept that you have certain duties, one of which is not to come across like an entitled gold digger.”

     Greenies are anti-coal and oil in part because they believe that techno-industrial civilisation can kick over with renewables. This is their ultimate faith, since only a minority of environmentalists accept that industrial civilisation should be abandoned. However, renewables cannot power the modern world, as the utter failure of renewables as a replacement energy source in Germany shows:
  https://www.technocracy.news/renewables-were-never-meant-to-power-modern-civilization/
  https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-failure-on-the-road-to-a-renewable-future-a-1266586.html

“The so-called Energiewende, the shift away from nuclear in favor of renewables, the greatest political project undertaken here since Germany's reunification, is facing failure. In the eight years since Fukushima, none of Germany's leaders in Berlin have fully thrown themselves into the project, not least the chancellor. Lawmakers have introduced laws, decrees and guidelines, but there is nobody to coordinate the Energiewende, much less speed it up. And all of them are terrified of resistance from the voters, whenever a wind turbine needs to be erected or a new high-voltage transmission line needs to be laid out. Analysts from McKinsey have been following the Energiewende since 2012, and their latest report is damning. Germany, it says, "is far from meeting the targets it set for itself." Germany's Federal Court of Auditors is even more forthright about the failures. The shift to renewables, the federal auditors say, has cost at least 160 billion euros in the last five years. Meanwhile, the expenditures "are in extreme disproportion to the results," Federal Court of Auditors President Kay Scheller said last fall, although his assessment went largely unheard in the political arena. Scheller is even concerned that voters could soon lose all faith in the government because of this massive failure.

     Why is Trump being impeached merely for the Democrats hating him, even being the migrants’ best friend, while Hillary Clinton, who endangered national security by her lack of security with official emails, is free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise.
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/01/10/years-later-more-illicit-hillary-clinton-emails-emerge/

“It has been more than three years since President Donald Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, but all of Clinton’s emails at the center of the email scandal that plagued her failed presidential campaign have still not seen the light of day. But on Friday, conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch announced the FBI produced 37 new pages of Clinton emails demonstrating she mishandled classified information and used text messages for official business as well. Judicial Watch announced in a press release on Friday: Judicial Watch today released 37 pages of new Clinton emails recently found by the FBI that show former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used her unsecure, non-government email to transmit classified information. The new emails also show Clinton used text messages for government business. The documents, produced to Judicial Watch after a review by the State Department, include 13 new Clinton emails. The State Department did not provide information about where the emails were found; why they were not previously produced; or if additional records are anticipated. Last month, a Justice Department attorney could not tell a federal court judge how and where the FBI discovered the new cache of Clinton emails. The State Department previously claimed it had produced all releasable Clinton emails, including emails recovered by the FBI that Hillary Clinton tried to destroy or withhold.

     No doubt many of us Christians are world weary from the constant battles against the forces of darkness, death and degeneracy, and would like to withdraw from it all. Well, in America, this is being tried, and shows the way forward beyond the nation state, where each group founds their own “ethnostate,” be it based on race or religion. Rather than be ruled by the myth of diversity, this regime’s ideological justification for global capitalism, people would seek homogeneity:
  https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/01/retreat-christian-soldiers/603043/

“Half an hour down the highway from Topeka, Kansas, not far from the geographic center of the United States, sits the town of St. Marys. Like many towns in the region, it is small, quiet, and conservative. Unlike many towns in the region, it is growing. As waves of young people have abandoned the Great Plains in search of economic opportunity, St. Marys has managed to attract families from across the nation. The newcomers have made the radical choice to uproot their lives in pursuit of an ideological sanctuary, a place where they can raise their children according to values no longer common in mainstream America. St. Marys is home to a chapter of the Society of St. Pius X, or SSPX. Named for the early-20th-century pope who railed against the forces of modernism, the international order of priests was formed in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church’s attempt, in the 1960s, to meet the challenges of contemporary life. Though not fully recognized by the Vatican, the priests of SSPX see themselves as defenders of the true practices of Roman Catholicism, including the traditional Latin Mass, celebrated each day in St. Marys. Perfumed with incense and filled with majestic Latin hymns, the service has an air of formality and grandeur. To most American Catholics under the age of 50, it would be unrecognizable. …

     It will probably not happen in Australia, which is likely to simply wither on the vine, but the US seems to be heading full throttle into Civil War 2.0. If so, looking at the vast human dung piles, literally in the case of San Francisco, Chicago and Baltimore, that US cities have become, I wonder how the population will eat, even if they have the money? After all, everything is trucked in to cities, and truckers do not want to be killed, or even have scratches on their precious rig, let alone bullet holes:
  https://www.survival.news/2020-01-06-truckers-coalition-warns-of-supply-chain-crisis-cities-war-zones-disruptions.html

“The Executive Director of the Small Business in Transportation Coalition (SBTC) — known as Truckers.com — has issued a stern warning about a “super supply chain crisis” that could severely disrupt trucking and transportation operations that bring supplies to all U.S. cities. James Lab issued a Dec. 17th press release in which he warned of “nationwide riots that will impede truckers’ ability to make deliveries of products for Americans’ consumption.” Those supplies include food, fuel, medicine, ammunition and other supplies on which Americans depend each day. This warning was issued a few weeks before President Trump’s drone strike on Soleimani — an event that many believe might set off activation of radical Islamic sleeper cells that have been embedded in U.S. cities, awaiting orders to strike critical infrastructure and cause mayhem. According to the SBTC’s press release, the authoritarian gun confiscation push of tyrannical Democrats in Virginia could, all by itself, “quickly escalate into armed conflict reminiscent of the Civil War.” As the announcement also states: Lamb fears the conflict… in Virginia could escalate and spiral out of control.

     I don’t know if the death penalty by being drawn and quartered presently exists for criticising any aspect of vaccination, so just pretend that you have not read this:
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-01-09-vaccines-spread-infectious-disease-fully-vaccinated-children.html

“A new peer-reviewed scientific paper published in the journal Tropical Diseases, Travel Medicine and Vaccines has found that the DTaP vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (whooping cough) is causing children who receive it to become more prone to contracting whooping cough later on in life. According to the study, children who receive the entire DTaP series of vaccinations are up to 15 times more likely to contract whooping cough at the five-year mark following these jabs compared to unvaccinated children, completely obliterating the myth that whooping cough outbreaks are the result of “anti-vaxxers.” As it turns out, the vast majority of children being affected by pertussis outbreaks are vaccinated children, which some health authorities are reluctantly admitting. Even so, pro-vaxxers are insistent that all disease spread is caused by unvaccinated children, despite the fact that science continues to prove otherwise. What’s more, the DTaP vaccine, along with many other vaccines, fails to provide permanent protection against disease – assuming they provide any protection at all. As reported in the same aforementioned DTaP study, pertussis antibodies experience a “rapid decline” in as little as 2-3 years post-vaccination, “often to pre-vaccination levels.” Even though antibody levels alone “are not necessarily indicative of waning immunity,” this same study goes on to explain, “in this case given the higher risk of infection after aP (acellular pertussis) vaccine with time, it is strongly suggestive of it.”

     The Pope has given a speech equating violence towards women as equal to profaning God. I am not sure theologically about this, but agree that violence towards women is very bad, perhaps not the greatest sin, but still a terrible evil.
  https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pope-francis-equates-violence-women-profaning-god-68016422

     But we saw the real nasty side of the Pope when he slapped a woman’s hand, who was holding his hand too long. Look closely at the video to see how mean this is, for he should have been able to withdraw his hand without assaulting the women.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzDcjPBhkw4

     Here is the latest arrow shot oi the cultural war over carbon: that fat people produce too much carbon.  I thought at first, from flatulence, although I am skinny and eternally passing wind, sometimes in embarrassing situations, if I still had any pride. No, it is resource consumption:
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7813435/Obesity-contributes-extra-700-MILLION-tons-carbon-dioxide-year.html

“Obese people generate an extra 700 million tons of carbon dioxide per year than those with 'normal weight', according to a new study. Research from The Obesity Society has revealed that obese people account for about 1.6 per cent of all man-made greenhouse gas emissions. This is due to a combination of higher metabolic rates and the environmental impact of both producing the food and the increased fuel required to transport obese people, according to the researchers. The society used greenhouse gas emission data, demographic data, and obesity prevalence statistics to estimate that obesity is responsible for 20 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions compared with people of a normal weight. Increasing average body size of people on Earth may further challenge attempts to reduce man-made carbon dioxide emissions, they say. 'Our analysis suggests that, in addition to beneficial effects on morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs, managing obesity can favourably affect the environment as well,' said Faidon Magkos, corresponding author of the paper and nutritionist at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. 'This has important implications for all those involved in the management of obesity.'

     Here is another good article in defence on eating red meat, in a world where the nutritional content of plants has diminished for a variety of reasons, including long-term cold storage of vegetables:
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-12-21-diets-and-bone-health-can-eating-red-meat-prevent-multiple-sclerosis.html

“According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, about one million adults over the age of 18 in the U.S. are affected by MS. Experts claim that risk factors for developing MS also include environmental factors such as low sun exposure, low vitamin D, and poor diet. However, evidence that links diet with MS risk remain inconclusive. (Related: Multiple sclerosis can be mitigated by making healthy lifestyle changes.) “Previous research suggests that a Mediterranean diet can help to reduce the risk of certain health issues, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia and improve overall life expectancy. However, there is inconclusive evidence to suggest a Mediterranean diet also reduces the risk of developing MS,” said lead author Lucinda Black, from the School of Public Health at Curtin University. Because of this, researchers from Australia aimed to examine the associations between a Mediterranean diet and the risk of a first clinical diagnosis of CNS demyelination. To do so, the research team gathered and analyzed data from the Ausimmune study, a multicenter, case-control study that examines the environmental risk factors for CNS demyelination. Data from this study included 282 cases of people with MS alongside 558 healthy control subjects. Black and her team used the alternate Mediterranean diet score (aMED) to measure the participants’ adherence to the diets, with 9 being the highest adherence and 0 being the lowest.

     Across Europe there is an epidemic of church vandalization. Why is this occurring, as it did not happen in past decades? What has changed the equation?
  https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/epidemic-of-crib-vandalism-hits-italy

“Hundreds of Christmas cribs have been smashed, burned and vandalized across Italy in a binge of violence unparalleled in recent memory. Statues of the Baby Jesus and the Holy Family have been beheaded, stolen or hanged — in one shocking incident even impaled on an iron pole in a public square. In the town of Ivrea, near Turin, firefighters were called to extinguish a blaze in the church of San Maurizio on Jan. 4 after a 46-year-old woman with a history of arson set fire to a crib near the altar. The fire destroyed valuable paintings and frescoes, as well as two antique painted tables and the covering of the baptismal font. The perpetrator confessed to the crime, even though she said she was unable to explain why she did it. Meanwhile, on the same day and in the same town, another arsonist set fire to a crib in the church of San Salvatore, destroying the altar linen. The two churches are near one other, close to the historic city center. Edoardo Cerrato, bishop of Ivrea, called for acts of reparation and an investigation, noting that "we have seen beheaded figurines of the Child of Bethlehem and His Most Holy Mother" in other parts of Italy. "The investigation will perhaps identify the perpetrators and understand the motive behind what, for now, can be seen as desecration of sacred images and churches," he said.”

     China is beginning its movement south, and is now in confrontation with Indonesia. Will Australia simply dissolve in the New World Order that is fast approaching?
  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-china/indonesia-deploys-fighter-jets-in-stand-off-with-china-idUSKBN1Z61AM

“Indonesia’s air force deployed four fighter jets to the South China Sea on Tuesday in a stand-off with Beijing after Jakarta protested over a Chinese violation of its exclusive economic zone. The stand-off began in mid-December when a Chinese coast guard vessel, accompanying Chinese fishing boats, entered waters off the coast of Indonesia’s northern Natuna islands, prompting Jakarta to summon Beijing’s ambassador. The issue has soured Indonesia’s generally friendly relationship with China, its biggest trading partner and a major investor in Southeast Asia’s largest country. Fajar Adriyanto, the air force spokesman, said four F-16 jets had been conducting flights over the islands, though he also played down fears of any confrontation with Beijing. “They’re doing standard patrols to protect our sovereign area. It just so happened that they’re patrolling Natuna,” Adriyanto said. “We don’t have the order to start a war with China.” The South China Sea is a global trade route with rich fishing grounds and energy reserves and China claims most of it based on what it says is its historic activity. But Southeast Asian countries, supported by the United States and much of the rest of the world, say such claims have no legal basis. On Monday, Indonesia said it was mobilizing fishermen to the northern Natuna region and had deployed several naval ships.”

     Don’t despair Peter West, and our other Catholic readers, there are still some high-ranking Catholics who are standing their grounds against the modern madness, attacking the new age religion of climate change:
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/01/07/polish-bishops-rally-behind-prelate-who-dissed-greta-thunberg/
  https://dzienniklodzki.pl/abp-marek-jedraszewski-ostrzega-przed-ekologizmem-i-greta-thunberg/ar/c1-14681911

“The controversial archbishop Marek Jedraszewski from Krakow again raised controversy. This time he indignated the environmentalists with the interview he gave for Republika. He stated that environmentalism was a "very dangerous" phenomenon, and criticized Greta Thunberg's listen. "This activist becomes an oracle for all political and social forces. This is contrary to everything that is recorded in the Bible, beginning with the Book of Genesis, which explicitly mentions the miracle of God's creation of the world, "said Republika on Christmas Eve on Television. He also emphasized that according to the Bible, man was supposed to make his land a subject and he is someone who rules over the earth. The contradiction of the opinion of the former metropolitan of Lodz and fascinated by ecology of Pope Francis was noted by, among others priest Wojciech Leman-ski from Lódz "The Pope talks about ecological sin, and the archbishop talks about the heresy of ecologicalism. The Pope meets Greta Thunberg, and the Archbishop mocks Greta, "wrote Fr Facebook Lemanski. One of the boats didn't last. She wrote a private letter asking for papal intervention and sent it as a registered letter to the Vatican. Now waiting for an answer. Archbishop. Marek Jedraszewski managed the Lódz church in 2012-2016. Even then he became famous for his controversial statements. During a meeting with young people in Pabianice, he warned that in 2050 white people will be shown in Europe in reserves. However, it was only after moving to Krakow that he began to regularly attract media attention. On August 1, during the homily on the anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, he warned of "rainbow plague" or LGBT ideology.”

     The arrogant sods from Hollywood sit back and fire away contempt for the deplorables who pay out their hard-earnt money for some crumbs of entertainment. But for once, one of trheir own has unloaded on them, while they were a captive audience, and it is delightful. Enjoy:
  https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50983253
  https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ricky-gervais-golden-globes-monologue-gets-political-1266308

“From the moment Ricky Gervais walked on stage at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, it was clear he was taking no prisoners. "If you win an award tonight, don't use it as a platform to make a political speech," he advised the stars during his opening monologue. "You're in no position to lecture the public about anything, you know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg." Several winners ignored his advice completely (more on their speeches in a sec), but that didn't stop the British comedian going all out as he fronted the ceremony for the fifth and apparently final time.”

     This one occurred before Christmas, showing the sheer absurdity of modern art.
  https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/see-you-after-jail-guys-art-world-stunned-after-man-eats-120000-banana-duct-taped-wall
  https://trad-news.blogspot.com/2019/12/a-true-artist-would-have-eaten-duct-tape.html

“On Friday, we reported on the latest bizarre milestone in the "art" world, when a banana duct-taped to a wall sold for $120,000 at that excess-liquidity conclave of ultra-rich and other wannabe poseurs known Art Basel Miami Beach. Worse, a second banana duct-taped to a wall also sold for $120,000. Yet even worse than that, a third banana duct-taped to a wall is expected to sell for $150,000 and so on. Then on Saturday, at around 1:45pm, the art world was shocked when a random man, allegedly a performance artist, ate said duct-taped banana that sold earlier this week for $120,000. New York-based performance artist David Datuna ate the banana early on Saturday afternoon in front of a stunned convention full of "art" lovers most of whom had no idea whether they were witnessing even more "art", of just some clueless rando eating the world's most discussed "art" exhibit, the gallery told the Miami Herald.”

     With war with Iran becoming increasingly likely with each missile attack, the big question is whether this will escalate into World War III, with China and Russia jumping into the big brawl. Some think, maybe:
  https://www.asiatimes.com/2020/01/article/could-china-take-irans-side-in-a-war-with-us/

“The next question is, how will regional powers react to a US-Iran war? China and Russia already seem to have answered that question via their war games in the Gulf of Oman last week, and the signal to the US is that Iran is not isolated and has powerful allies. Indeed, last year retired US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor already warned that a war with Iran could draw in China and Russia. Currently, China’s reaction is to urge both Iran and the US to maintain calm and de-escalate tensions, and closely monitor the situation. Beijing does not want war and needs Mideast stability to pursue the Belt and Road Initiative Eurasian integration plan. It has large stakes in Iran’s stability: It is the largest buyer of Iranian oil, China is Iran’s largest trading partner, and Iran is a key geographic node for the BRI. Up to now, China has tried to balance its relationship with Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Middle East and set up a firewall between the two, although Iran is more significant in China’s strategic calculus given the fact Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf countries are still under the US security umbrella and host US military bases. China is also against further Western-sponsored regime change in the region, and Iran is an important partner in counterbalancing US hegemony and the drive toward a multipolar world. ‘It’s about China’