Baffled European

Blog

  • A touch of the vapours

    Miasma theory. I’ve got to hand it to RFK, he is creative. With hindsight, we were warned. A few weeks ago, he was advocating raw milk in a tasting session. There are cranks and quacks who reject Pasteur’s germ theory, I know that, but I never dreamed that this would ever form the basis of US healthcare. And yet here we are.

    The idea is that rotting organic matter produces bad smells and vapours which are the cause of disease. This is wrong, but it does have some utility – they are coincidentally the source of germs, so getting rid of the vapours will also get rid of the germs. It doesn’t go any further than that, but it is a good start.

    Typically, RFK doesn’t even seem to understand that part of it. His focus is on nutrition and the idea that illnesses are caused by a poor diet and food additives. Measles can be cured with vitamin A. Medicine is all a con pushed by Big Pharma. He thinks sugar is a poison, but isn’t going to do anything about it. HIV does not cause AIDS. Cancer is caused by 5G masts. I thought they caused covid, but what do I know? He’s not doing anything at any rate.

    It’s all so bizarre. He rejects all the stuff that works. He replaces them with discredited nonsense, but then does nothing. What is going on?

  • I always fill my ballroom

    The success of stopping ICE from hassling agricultural and hotel workers only lasted a couple of days before being reversed. Also by presidential decree. The strong and decisive leader just keeps being pushed around by everybody around him. Maybe he doesn’t even remember what he ordered yesterday anymore.

    It’s total chaos. There’s not even any pretence at order or consistency. These orders are backed up with threats of violence for anybody who doesn’t comply with whatever the regime is demanding at this precise second.

    But there are happier matters to report. When he’s not off playing golf, the president is tweeting deranged nonsense about the lovely new flagpoles he’s had installed in the White House garden.

    That’s just the first step in his improvements. He’s getting rid of Jackie Kennedy’s rose garden and having it paved over to form a patio. Apparently, the grass causes a problem for women wearing high heels. It’s almost as if he’s a feminist, aside from that rape he did.

    Next up is a magnificent, beautiful new ballroom to be built in the grounds of the White House. Somehow this is going to cost a staggering $100million. I’m guessing that for once in his life, he’s not using cheap non-unionised labour, sub-standard building materials and flouting safety regulations at every step.

    Luckily, he can get away with this in a period of peace and stability, like what we have now.

  • Keystone Kops

    I don’t know how else to put this, but US cops are not very good.

    They went in all gung-ho in the first wave of unrest in LA. I sort of got that, they wanted to show who was boss and don’t mess with us. However, the way they kept getting surrounded by protesters and then having to fight their way out with plastic bullets and tear gas, that shouldn’t happen at all.

    For all the criticisms you might level against European police, they do seem to have some idea of strategy and tactics. They are the ones doing the surrounding and they stay in charge. The USAians appear poorly trained and incompetent by comparison. Not to mention the hyper-aggressive attitude, like berserkers. It’s as if they did a couple of lines before heading out.

    The NoKings demonstrations were peaceful, amazingly so considering the vast numbers of people present. An MSNBC reporter was present, broadcasting about how there was no trouble, when the police suddenly, for no apparent reason, began firing at the crowd, causing the reporter and everybody else to scatter.

    Then there was the time when the LAPD and the LASD decided to corral a group of demonstrators. But without any coordination. This resulted in the sheriffs opening fire on the police with rubber bullets. The police responded with tear gas against the unmasked sheriffs.

    One thing was certain. The demonstrators were to blame for the injuries to all these officers.

  • The most powerful minority ever

    For a fleeting moment, it looked like a sliver of sense was about to insert itself into the immigration mania in the USA. A proclamation announced that farm and hotel workers would not be targeted for deportation. Both these sectors are being hit hard by the ICE raids and they are desperate at this time of the year.

    I’m guessing Brooke Rollins, the SoS for Agriculture, managed to get the president’s ear for long enough to get relief of some kind in the matter. The affected employers are typically Republican and they don’t want to antagonise their own voters too much.

    With all the conflicting interests in the White House, this could not last long. A long missive on Truth Social soon appeared, ordering the entire federal government, including the Pentagon, to begin mass deportations in cities. Although from the president’s account, this was almost certainly written by Stephen Miller. He tried to copy his master’s rambling incoherence, but it’s difficult to do. And I’ve tried.

    There’s no secret to this anymore. They are explicitly targeting “Democrat Power Centers”. That is, cities controlled by Democrats. All with black mayors, coincidentally. This policy has already caused such a reaction that the regime finds it necessary to call in the military. So now they escalate the situation further. It is tantamount to declaring civil war.

    Their justification for this? Trans. Nothing these people say makes any sense at all anymore.

  • Fortunate son

    I didn’t think I’d enjoy watching coverage of the military parade in Washington, but it was quite entertaining.

    Mainly, there was the satisfaction of watching the Commander-in-Chief looking bored and uncomfortable. It was 29°C with humidity of over 80%, really unpleasant. He didn’t even look grateful for his birthday present which cost $45million.

    The music came as a surprise. Usually you expect marching bands, but this was a collection of instrumental versions of rock classics thumping out of a PA system. It seems so incongruous, especially with Vietnam-era anti-war songs. It must have taken him back to the good old days of his youth when he would so eagerly have joined up to fight, but for his debilitating bonespurs.

    When there was no music, there was eerie silence. Just the squeaking of tank tracks. The military seemed to be going through the motions. As if nobody there wanted to do it, so they were deliberately putting in a poor performance while following orders to the letter. I imagine Pete Hegseth will be blind upset at how it’s all turned out.

    Not too many people watching. Empty stands. Crowds along the route were sparse. The party afterwards was poorly attended and low energy. Get the gays to organise the next parade, they know how it’s done.

    Looks like everybody was at the NoKings demonstrations. Huge crowds for those all over the country. Give the people what they want.

  • Too good to be true

    It was only a month ago that a group of Afrikaner refugees fled the white genocide in South Africa for the safety of the USA. Maybe it’s a little too soon to find out how they are getting on, but the early signs are that some of them might be feeling regret at their choice.

    The far right never tire of telling us about the red carpet treatment rolled out to asylum seekers. Four-star hotels, houses, cars, phones – these people are showered with generous gifts and all at tax-payers’ expense, while ordinary hard-working folk etc etc etc. It turns out those stories aren’t true.

    They’ll probably sort themselves out in the fullness of time, but with no job, no transportation or communication, poor accommodation, it’s not the best start. No health insurance either. At least they had that while they were being oppressed back home.

    They can’t just go back home either. Not that simple now they’ve applied for asylum elsewhere. In any case, most people in South Africa are unimpressed by their actions. Even the Afrikaner groups reject the “white genocide” claims.

    This was all a stunt by the racists in the White House. Something they could use to attack the South African government. Well they’ve done that, and they’ve done their trademark press conference ambush on Ramaphosa. These Afrikaners have found out that they are expendable and that they shouldn’t trust a conman.

  • More inhumanity

    There has been an uprising by prisoners in the ICE detention facility in Newark. About fifty inmates pushed down an interior wall after meals were hours late again. This is the place where the mayor of Newark and two Representatives were refused entry, which did raise suspicions about what ICE might be hiding.

    It was not the first complaint about food. Inadequate, poor quality meals are provided irregularly. There is serious overcrowding, showers are scalding hot, family visits are cancelled abruptly without explanation.

    None of this should be surprising. Miller is demanding 3000 arrests per week, an insane number that the existing infrastructure cannot possibly support. The system has gone into overdrive, like some faulty machine that endlessly stamps out items but nobody can switch it off. They keep loading new people in faster than they can get them out. And they just keep on doing this. There is no voice of reason at any point in the chain that is saying stop.

    Earlier this week, two Representatives attempted an unannounced inspection of an ICE facility in New York, as is their legal right. Again, they were refused entry. It’s a fair bet that there are similar appalling conditions at this place and indeed everywhere around the country. ICE knows that the law counts for nothing in the USA and they can do whatever they want as long as the country is run by gangsters.

    These conditions will not improve because nobody in power wants them to.

  • All quiet on the western seaboard

    I doubt this was the plan, but it’s working. They sent a bunch of armed thugs out onto the streets of LA to bully and harass the population, provoking a riot (or something similar). In addition to the excitement of riot police, this gives them the pretext to activate the army, however illegal this might be.

    They are planning similar ICE operations in several other cities, all of them coincidentally controlled by the Democrats. This should cause mass civil unrest all over the place, all under the pretext of enforcing law and order. At the very least, it will feed the lust for violence that the far right crave. Best case would be some sort of martial law, where they can gain complete control over “enemy” areas. Helpful for the elections next year.

    There’s not much going on. The mayor of LA has ordered a partial curfew, which is being observed. So much for lawless chaos and disorder. The National Guard are out in force, surrounding federal buildings to protect them from… nobody.

    All those soldiers are there voluntarily. Commanding officers allow individuals to opt out of such duties. This is good. On the other hand, it means the army now has lists of soldiers who have no problems in going out and performing “police actions” among the general population. This could come in handy in the future.

    Meanwhile, the Commander-in-Chief is touring military bases, doing his campaign speeches, the usual. It’s going well.

  • Make America Dishonest Again

    With his long history of medical lunacy, there were question marks over RFK when he was appointed. In order to be confirmed by the Senate, he promised he would not change the CDC vaccine advisory panel. This is a group of independent doctors and practitioners who provide expert advice on the subject. RFK sacked them all a couple of days ago.

    Much outrage about him breaking his promise, threats of impeachement, etc. It won’t make any difference, just another data point in his anti-science stance. Not to mention the fundamental dishonesty of the entire regime.

    He released a report two weeks ago for his Make America Healthy Again project. Within hours, it was obvious the report was AI generated. Non-existent references, inaccurate sources, misrepresentation of actual papers, the usual AI stuff. There were even a few tags from OpenAI left in there. Nobody could be bothered to remove them before publication. It doesn’t matter.

    What’s the point? Do they believe AI is accurate? Quite possible. They are not in any position to judge the content, they have no idea.

    But really, it’s a cargo cult. We all know the routine: the government commissions an expert report and then acts on its recommendations. We also know the flaws in this, but there is at least some connection to reality. RFK is going through the motions, keeping up appearances, but on the basis of total garbage.

    Further reports on autism and trans will follow soon.

  • The idiot box

    There is a debate across Europe about allowing children to use mobile phones. Banning them from schools is the demand, or one demand at least. I don’t know enough about the issues and it doesn’t apply to me. I’m quite happy for others to do what they think best.

    However, I do remember a similar moral panic in the 1980s. People were concerned about children watching television. What they watch. How often. Parents were advised to monitor their children’s viewing habits. It rots the brain, you see.

    The only source of information that the president of the USA understands is television. As a former game show host, this is only natural. He has appointed dozens of Fox News presenters to important positions in the government. Daily security briefings in the White House are performed in Fox News style, with advisers pretending to be TV presenters. And now we have the LA disturbances – great television.

    So should we ban children from using mobiles? Should we ban them from watching television? I think the evidence shows that the overwhelming majority of people are fine. They understand the difference between the real world and what they see on a screen, and they behave accordingly.

    Unfortunately, there are those who become addicted, and are unable to function normally, as a result of the distorted view they have of the world. I don’t know what to do in such cases, but they should never, ever, be allowed to become president.