Thank you, Canada—for standing firm against the new Nazism, for this victory of reason, and for honouring my great-uncle’s sacrifice

Carney leads the Liberals to victory: a triumph of sanity—and a resounding rejection of Trumpism. {AP 29 April} 

Canada holds profound significance for my family—from sheltering Loyalist ancestors (17th-century Puritan stock) post-Revolution, to my Yorkshire-bred 5th great-grandfather fleeing industrial upheaval in early 1800s England. It also protected a portion of my German forebears (most of my Germanic ancestry comes through my paternal grandmother—God rest her soul—who was fully German and Danish. Yet my grandfather's lineage proves equally fascinating—originating from the same region of modern Baden-Württemberg as my great-grandfather, my grandmother's father who settled in New Jersey with his family as a young boy in the 1890s; somehow, I doubt my grandparents ever knew this, a strange twist of fate).

Canada is in my blood. Though I've only visited Quebec and Ontario, I pray to someday muster the energy and wherewithal for that ten-hour drive to Prince Edward Island—to finally walk my ancestors' homeland, that is if average Americans will even be permitted to visit Canada going forward. Not a given, but I digress.

My great-grandfather, Oswald, born in 1903 near Dundas, Kings County, PEI, left for Boston in 1920—joining family and countrymen who'd settled in Lower Mills since the 1870s. Thus explains my now-unfortunate residence behind enemy lines in these former United States. From all accounts I ever heard, Oswald died a miserable and probably abusive drunk in 1965 (and his son, my grandfather, the same in 1989). I knew his widow, my dear great-grandmother Caroline, d.1988, and the primary source of my Puritan/Loyalist lineage, God rest her soul. But it would be Oswald’s younger brother—whom he'd only known as an infant and likely never recalled—that gave his blood for Canada. The family's profoundly unsentimental nature—the whole lot were/are bipolar, myself included—meant I uncovered my great-uncle's wartime deeds through research, not relatives. Precious few survive today, and neither knew nor cared—nor ever will.

My great-uncle Sidney Ulysses (b.1918, Kings County, PEI; pictured above, full name withheld for privacy), a lieutenant corporal, fell on Normandy's shores with the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, 9th Infantry Brigade, in the fight against Nazism on 7 June 1944 (click here for an excellent documentation of the unit’s actions on 6 June, and of their specific mission in the massive invasion). He rests at Reviers Canadian War Cemetery, having given his life for our freedom.

Any embrace of right-wing totalitarianism anywhere dishonours his sacrifice. Thank you, Canada, for honouring his memory and rejecting Fascism's resurgence from across your southern border.

Arthur Newhook, 29 April 2025, Massachusetts Bay Colony.

P.S. Go Maple Leafs, Go Oilers. First all Canadian Cup final in 36 years, this is the year to make it happen. The Bruins are not in the playoffs, and #Murica does not deserve a Stanley Cup this year.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X-Twitter, and at the same handle on FACEBOOK. BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Educator essentially forced to flee across state lines following far-right intimidation: a requiem for New Hampshire's lost peace and beauty

Ellen Edersheim/New Hampshire Division of Travel and Tourism Development

The Guardian 24 April: Meet the new American refugees fleeing across state lines for safety

A New Hampshire educator has fled to Vermont after being doxxed and intimidated by far-right extremists—a disgraceful outcome for a state I once cherished. My childhood memories of the White Mountains and Lakes Region paint it as the safest, most idyllic place imaginable. Yet on recent visits—no more than five times in the last decade, despite living about 30 miles south of the state line—I’ve found its natural beauty enduring and some of the trappings remaining, but its social fabric increasingly reminiscent of Tennessee or West Virginia.

Historically conservative but tolerant, New Hampshire once welcomed all comers without celebrating ignorance. That seemed to change when a certain orange demagogue injected himself into national life, compounded by fentanyl and opioid crises ravaging this rural jurisdiction. Though it narrowly backed the Democrat in 2024’s presidential election, the trend is clear: another Democratic victory is improbable—assuming the party even gets the chance, and regardless of how catastrophically Trump and the GOP govern.

How tragic to witness New Hampshire—my childhood sanctuary of granite peaks and glassy lakes—degraded by opioid epidemics and performative bigotry. That an educator must flee newly emboldened extremists speaks volumes.

I shall state plainly: rural America (the decisive majority of it, do not come barking at me if one is a free-thinking liberal in Buttf**k, Arkansas, or Pigs**t, Oklahoma) must be held accountable for enabling an aspiring autocrat and his Christofascist movement. Their perpetual victimhood narratives—blaming others for crises mostly of their own making—can no longer be indulged. This ‘silent majority’ act has festered too long.

Rural white America’s cultural collapse is almost completely self-inflicted, yet its consequences are national. History shows our weakness: after the (first) Civil War and during the Civil Rights era, we prioritised false unity over justice. The reactionaries were contained for a few decades, but that was never going to hold. The second Civil War is coming, and if the Confederates are to lose again, this time they must be forever eradicated and never allowed to reemerge as they were with the end of Reconstruction and the dawn of the Jim Crow era. I am not convinced the Confederates will lose the next time, though, and I’ll leave it at that. Rest in Peace, New Hampshire as I knew it.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X-Twitter, and at the same handle on FACEBOOK. BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Breeders' bonus: the former US considers paying women $5,000 a head to create future climate refugees

stock photo

ABC News: Trump administration looking at $5,000 'baby bonus' to incentivise public to have more children

$5,000 payments to women in the former United States to have babies? Let’s consider: (at least) 8.2 billion people already strain a planet of dwindling resources, amid unprecedented societal destabilisation. Yet this regime proposes to—at staggering public expense—artificially inflate the population, exacerbate the national debt (despite the GOP’s current austerity posturing), divert funds from healthcare and education, intensify housing crises, and reduce women to reproductive vessels. All so these unwanted children can inherit a world of climate catastrophe and mass impoverishment. A masterstroke from these natalist fanatics, let me tell you. Frankly, it’d be preferable to pay the majority of today’s Americans—demonstrably unfit to parent—*not* to procreate.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

The US State Department plans to close its foreign disinformation office—another gift to Putin, another act of treason disguised as the defence of ‘free speech’

Jeremy Pelzer/Cleveland dot com

{The Guardian 16 April} Trump administration shutters US office countering foreign disinformation

They can scarcely claim this decision serves national security interests, nor can they provide any remotely rational justification for such reckless action, but they do very successfully peddle grievances. Yet again, as we witness literally every single day in this hellscape, rank-and-file 'conservatives' will support whatever this regime does, no matter how fundamentally it contradicts the national security principles they once valued during the years of the War on Terror, as long as it continues to nourish their endlessly pathetic persecution complex.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Pennsylvania governor’s residence torched by arsonist following Passover weekend

AP Photo/Marc Levy

AP: Suspect arrested in arson fire that forced Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, family to flee residence

As far as I am concerned, this is what the majority of the American people voted for and approved, no matter how hard they may protest otherwise, and trying to pretend otherwise is futile at this point. A broken empire in severe economic decline, probably too large and unwieldy for its long-term survival, and one which is inhabited by millions of dangerous and resolutely ignorant lunatics who have embraced far-right governance even after their specific cult figurehead had already proven himself an abject failure the first time he was granted the office of the presidency, shall produce mass violence and depravity. For the record, while VP Vance has issued a generic statement condemning the attack, as of this hour I do not see that either the tawny marionette Trump or the shadow president—the South African—has said anything at all. And maybe that is just as well. With every act of homegrown terrorism, the blood of these acts is on the hands of all those who have nurtured and fostered the revival of a culture of grievance, self-pity, white supremacy, Jew-hatred, and anti-intellectualism run amok.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

American women are fleeing the institution of marriage faster than rats from a sinking cruise liner—and who could possibly blame them?

American women are fleeing the institution of marriage faster than rats from a sinking cruise liner—and who could possibly blame them? The average American male is nothing more than an uncouth, slovenly buffoon with the emotional intelligence of a dim-witted teenager and the manners of a baboon raised by wolves.

Half of them are one minor traffic incident away from homicidal rage. Simultaneously, they worship a geriatric property developer with a synthetic coiffure as their paragon of masculinity. It would be utterly laughable were it not for the tragic consequences we are enduring.

Not that today's young women are without fault, mind you—many harbour expectations so fantastical they'd make a Disney princess blush with embarrassment. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of men are either seeking companionship abroad or embracing monastic solitude. I cannot say I blame them, either; after seven failed relationships over the decades, I am now happily one of their number.

The most promising development in all this dreary societal collapse is that Americans are finally questioning whether the whole marriage-and-reproduction charade is worth the bother, breaking free from societal expectations.

The stark truth—which, even now, many steadfastly refuse to acknowledge—is that despite this catastrophic deficit of collective intelligence, we continue to propagate our species with reckless abandon. This beleaguered orb now groans under the weight of at least 8.2 billion human parasites—likely far more if those Finnish researchers I posted about in the past few days are correct.

In my birth year of 1978, the global population was less than half today's grotesque figure. Yet somehow civilisation managed to function without the additional four billion mediocre contributors to our species' dubious legacy!

A dramatic population decline might be precisely the remedy this suffocating planet requires to recuperate from our incessant pillaging. One need only examine European history—after the Black Death eliminated approximately half the population, a veritable renaissance of prosperity followed in the decades and centuries after. Humanity desperately required a major reset then, just as it does now.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Like the thugs and toadies they are, Trump and Vance endeavour to intimidate and denigrate Zelensky, within the confines of the Oval Office and before the scrutiny of live cameras; accuse the Ukrainian leader of wanting to start World War III

AP: A transcript of Trump and Zelensky's Oval Office argument

This is the most reprehensible and abhorrent spectacle I have ever witnessed emanating from an American President and Vice-President. The Musk regime has transformed the United States into an adversary of Ukraine and a confederate of the genocidal megalomaniac in Moscow. It would appear that the majority of Americans sanction this position if the persistent lamentations regarding financial assistance to Ukraine during President Biden's tenure serve as any barometer. I am profoundly revolted by, and mortified for, the citizenry of this wretched nation; they have facilitated this fascistic phantasmagoria.

Had the American populace harboured the sort of sentiments in the 1930s and '40s that they presently exhibit (and indeed a minority did, though nowhere approaching today's preponderance, and certainly not including the President of the United States), they would have been proffering justifications for Hitler whilst attributing culpability to the Jews, Poles, and others for their own subjugation. This is not the nation in which I was reared, nor one in which I wish to reside, and were I possessed of sufficient financial resources, I should depart from this moribund cesspit with unprecedented alacrity.resources, I should depart from this moribund cesspit with unprecedented alacrity.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handle on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Headline from Politico—and I shan’t even dignify it with a link: Musk tells Germans to get over ‘past guilt.’

What the living f**k!? My predominant heritage from England—which is to say, an Anglo-Saxon and Celtic mutt, the former being Germanic in origin and also long-dominant in the UK, and the latter absorbing at least traces of Germanic influence over the centuries—alongside my notable and relatively recent ancestral ties to Germany and Denmark via grand-grandparents (and a grandmother from Ireland on my maternal side, but that and some Scottish lineage just mixes in within my inherent Celtic influence via England. My majority blood and my soul are Anglo-Saxon, and I most identify with England and Germany). So, that long-winded introduction aside, I am unquestionably well-positioned to comment as someone of predominantly Germanic descent. Our people, as a collective, committed an unforgivable atrocity against humanity during the 1930s and 1940s, an offence so grievous that it cannot and should not be forgotten.

In the broader expanse of history, those decades were but moments ago—mere blinks in the eye of time. “Get over ‘past guilt’”? We’ve scarcely even begun to atone for the immeasurable wrongs inflicted upon the Jewish people. That was no ordinary crime; it was an act of calculated, incomprehensible hatred—one that demands a reckoning far beyond what has yet been achieved.

You, sir, who dismiss this history with such cavalier arrogance, demonstrate an unforgivable ignorance of the weight of these events. The world has long been teetering on the brink of chaos, but now the descent appears inexorable. World War III looms perilously close, and yet such callousness persists. It is utterly maddening, to put it mildly. - Arthur Newhook, 27 January 2025

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Speaking directly to Trump-worshipping ‘Christians’ here, though I know I am rather shouting into the void

photo: Apu Gomes/Getty Images

A quote from a friend on Facebook regarding your kind: “Their credibility to even discuss the gospel now falls on deaf ears.” Trump and his handlers—most notably the now-reigning cybernetic puppet master, Elon Musk—are using you Christofascists to destroy Christianity and what was once known as ‘conservatism’ from within. Your witness, such as it is, is worse than worthless: it is an abomination. 

I am hardly a good or pious Christian, though I do profess Christ as saviour; if I lived in the country of my blood, England, I would be more likely to be found at the local pub than Sunday service (alas, I live in #Murica, where we have neither proper pubs, nor much of anyone worth speaking to, so I am found in neither setting). To the point, if God has granted both me and millions of others who do not wear our faith on our sleeve the discernment to see through this charade, then it tells me that thou art falling for a deadly deception: The Great Deception! 

Furthermore, while it still sounds fantastical, I do not entirely dismiss the possibility that Elon Musk may be the Biblical Antichrist. Given the strangeness of this man and the bizarre present circumstances, we cannot completely rule it out. At the very least, he is consciously presenting himself as a would-be Antichrist, and he is sowing near-apocalyptic chaos and destruction. 

American Christianity was thoroughly corrupted long before Donald Trump and Elon Musk entered politics, but now I consider that it may be inexorably heading for the ash heap of history, doing what the Romans never could—destroying itself from within. And for what? The privilege of hating your neighbour with official sanction? It is long past time for you rank-and-file Trump supporters and professed Christians to get all of this through thy thick skulls; and I suspect at least some of you recognise this obvious truth, but go along precisely because you are granted said sanction. Hatred is thy true God, Christianity is just an effective cover and a weapon to be wielded against your designated enemies. 

If this describes you, then congratulations, you are everything that is wrong with this country and our world. The flip side of the same coin as the Islamists who blew up the Twin Towers and have caused so much suffering across the planet for decades. Same circus, different clowns, and every bit as unfunny and deranged. - Arthur Newhook, 24 January 2025

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Off with his head: the preeminent responsibility of Alex Jones in forging the present, fascistic state of affairs in what were once the United States of America

photo: Mike Segar/Reuters

The springing up of our present societal rot in the former United States can be traced to the 2000s, wherein the figure of Alex Jones emerged as a pivotal architect of mass delusion. Through personal introspection, I must confess a season of susceptibility to his rhetorical wiles, specially from 2006 through approximately 2010. His discourse did ever boil down to reductionist notions positing that the government is out to poison your bloody cornflakes, and all of our leaders are Satan worshipping child molesters holding Black Mass in every town hall basement from coast-to-coast.

The subsequent vicennial period witnessed the spread of such intellectual toxicity throughout the American consciousness, ensnaring not merely those predisposed to violent proclivities and superstitious predilections, but furthermore corrupting previously rational actors within the societal framework. We may now see why we live in a post-truth age, and we deny not the truth that the majority of the American people are primal and wicked in their ways. 

Resolving this societal schism shall require catastrophic bloodletting and the ultimate dissolution of the current political system. The sole worthy idea ever to come from the execrable Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene is her proposition regarding ‘national divorce’—allowing the bifurcation of the republic into separate sociopolitical entities. One such entity, likely to predominantly encompass the South and Midwest, shall pursue its backward and deranged vision, whilst the other shall preserve higher learning, clean water, first-world medical facilities, and other hallmarks of actual civilisation.

As for the aforementioned Jones, it is no hyperbole when I say he ought to be swinging from the gallows for having poisoned the collective well as he has. Few have wrought more harm upon this former constitutional republic in all its history, and I would not care to be in his place on the day of judgment for all the riches in the world. I’d rather face the Spanish Inquisition with a hangover. - Arthur Newhook, 24 January 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

The Muscovites' nascent comprehension of Trump’s perfidious nature portends grave ramifications all around

photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty

“(A)cting like a hooligan that hasn’t gotten a beating in a long time.” Russian state television pundits have expressed their dismay—to put it mildly—over Trump’s threats of tariffs and further sanctions should Putin fail to withdraw from Ukraine promptly. While I endorse the imposition of stringent economic measures against them, the Russians are having to come to terms with the fact that Trump is loyal to neither man nor cause, and will turn on anyone at the slightest provocation. The Russians, as any scholar of history would recognise, truly detest being made to appear foolish, and will not hesitate to exact violent retribution upon those who dare to humiliate them. Nazi Germany found this out, in an exceedingly brutal and inhumane manner. 

Trump’s supporters among the American public are focused on domestic matters and are willing to tolerate any action he takes, provided it results in the suffering of fellow Americans. However, the Russians will not be so accommodating of such duplicitous behaviour, and this will likely exacerbate the pain and hardship inflicted upon the Ukrainian people—though, of course, this is of no consequence to Trump, whose sole aim is self-aggrandisement as ever. I repeat, the people of #Murica have no bloody clue what they have wrought by returning this s**tbag to power; and they shall steadfastly refuse to ever acknowledge, even when the nukes start flying, so blinded are they by their unbridled malevolence against their countrymen and their inherent lack of intelligence and character. To the bitter end, they will scapegoat fellow Americans, immigrants, and global Jewry before they ever admit their colossal errors. - Arthur Newhook, 23 January 2025

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Doomsday Eve: paying a lamentable tribute to President Joe Biden

I had hoped that President Biden might make a bold, decisive move in his final hours in office, but such an action does not appear forthcoming—at least not as far as I can discern, though I admit to being in something of a stupor on this lamentable day. To the utterly fatuous Democrats so enamoured with Kamala that you gleefully led the entire nation off a cliff, and to the bloody #MAGA fanatics, heed this: I shall never be persuaded that President Biden would have lost the 2024 election. At the very least, Pennsylvania would not have slipped from his grasp. No number of armies nor a million wild horses could force me to believe otherwise.

I am convinced that the media, the Democratic Party, and assorted malcontents convinced themselves he was unelectable and, in so doing, created a self-fulfilling prophecy by denying him the opportunity to prove otherwise. While I deeply regret that Mr Biden permitted this to transpire, he is, after all, a very old and weary man who likely longs for rest.

Thank you, Joe Biden, for your service to a nation both ungrateful and undeserving. And may those who discard you today soon find themselves wishing you back—and they undoubtedly shall.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

An ‘impressed’ Bill Gates recently dined with Donald Trump—imagine the cognitive dissonance this must provoke among the millions of deluded antisemites and assorted conspiracists who regard Gates as the devil and Trump as their saviour

Photo via Sky News

{The Hill 17 January} Bill Gates on Trump meeting: ‘Frankly I was impressed’

Bill Gates discloses that he dined with Trump recently and emerged from the encounter ‘impressed’—a revelation that ought to leave any swivel-eyed conspiracy loon clutching their pearls in utter disarray. Verily, something frightfully peculiar and sinister is materialising amongst the plutocratic elite, as they increasingly align themselves with the #MAGA circus. What will follow in this parade of absurdities? George Soros showing up with a Trump rosette? 

Perchance, these billionaire magnates and their broods have been threatened—no doubt, a tactic the new regime is employing against the mere millionaires and assorted public figures, and shall more overtly be applied against the general public in short order. Yea, thou—the common herd of #Murica, many of whom didst cast thy lot with this madness—are next for the treatment. 

Yet, the uppermost echelon of wealth—the proper top-drawer of Elon, Gates, Bezos, and so forth—likely face no physical peril. Rather, they have now discerned that Trump is a remarkably easy mark, as malleable as theatrical putty in their skilled and cunning hands. President Biden has warned us, take heed. - Arthur Newhook, 18 January 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Further reflections on President Biden’s valedictory admonition to a nation both ungrateful and woefully benighted regarding the perils of oligarchical dominance

Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

{Sky News 16 January} Biden warns of an ‘oligarchy’ of wealth and power threatening US democracy

If one has previously dismissed the statements of President Joe Biden, it would now be most prudent to lend thine ears with grave attention. Verily, it strains belief that the millions of cult followers of Donald Trump remain steadfast while Elon Musk, with his coffers of gold, increasingly asserts his dominion over their #MAGA realm. Trump has been reduced to a supporting role in his own circus, yet few of his acolytes have reconciled themselves to this reality, and many simply never shall—their unparalleled capacity for self-delusion having long been proven the stuff of legend. 

It is all, quite frankly, implausible. Begrudgingly to their credit, a small minority of the cult are displaying a glimmer of sense by openly opposing Musk’s usurpation (notably Steve Bannon and Laura Loomer), while others desperately cling to a façade of unity and feigned enthusiasm—a masquerade most transparent. The majority of the Trump lemmings, however, maintain a telling silence on Lord Elon, their muteness betraying an unspoken unease.

President Biden’s words stand as a stark warning—not merely to Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg but also to the common folk of #Murica. Without naming names, Mr Biden cautioned that the American people’s cherished golden idol is powerless to stop the oligarchic takeover and the systematic erosion of their constitutional republic by a tiny elite. 

If the glaring truth of Trump’s complicity in all of this from the outset has not yet dawned upon his adoring masses, it likely never will. There does remains a faint possibility that they might be persuaded when confronted with the reality of who truly wields control—though whether they can be reached in this manner is, at best, uncertain. Plutocrats view humanity as expendable resources, to be exploited and discarded at will. A nation of sycophants grants them this licence through blind, unquestioning devotion to a bargain-basement demagogue, but the time to ask hard questions is long overdue.

#Murica, you unholy rabble: you remain either perilously unaware or actively complicit of the dire consequences of reinstating Trump—who, lest we forget, has long been under the influence of Vladimir Putin, one who is now in full-fledged partnership with Lord Elon. President Biden hath offered wisdom to those with wit to comprehend. Mark these words: many who scorn Joe Biden today shall one day lament their folly.

Gratitude is owed to President Biden for delivering what may prove to be the most momentous presidential declaration since President Ronald Reagan’s iconic Berlin Wall address. The burden now rests upon the ever-shrinking segment of the American public who still possess wisdom, common sense, and humanity to recognise the stakes and sound the alarm. As for the vast multitude, I place zero faith in them to act with wisdom. The now-former United States of America is in full-on suicide mode, and the odds are greatly stacked against those not abroad what used to be the ‘Trump Train’, but is now more like the Elon Express to Hades. - Arthur Newhook, 16 January 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Biden warns of oligarchy as the US declines. Like Ike's military-industrial complex warning, it shall be ignored. America's last decent chance is gone

Reuters

{AP 15 January} Biden warns in farewell address that an ‘oligarchy’ of ultrarich in US threatens future of democracy

President Biden’s valedictory address, with its cautionary warning of oligarchical encroachment, merits comparison with President Eisenhower’s prescient ‘military industrial complex’ omen in his departing speech in 1961. Just as with Ike, this admonition shall also fall on mostly deaf ears.

In my 47 years, I have observed the United States’ transformation from the globe’s preeminent bastion of prosperity and liberty—albeit one not unburdened by rather serious contemporary issues or by its historical transgression, yet always moving in the right directions—to a nation in inexorable decline. One characterised by growing impoverishment, frightful violence, intellectual regression, social retrogression, and authoritarian tendencies. In layman’s terms, the American lot have gone quite mad.

Poor old Mr Biden, I submit, tried his best to stop the rot, but there is no turning back. Beginning on 11 September 2001 and with each passing day since—accelerating greatly with the onset of COVID-19 in 2020—the nation has embarked upon an unrelenting descent into Third World status, a hell on earth. President Joe Biden was America’s last chance at salvaging anything decent. I am not ascribing infallibility to the man, for he has made mistakes (most notably acquiescing to his backstabbing VP and party, and then having to watch his usurpers fall flat on their faces in the general election). No matter, he remains a man of integrity and competence who served admirably despite having to contend with a proudly ignorant, hate-filled, superstition-filled, self-entitled, morally degenerate electorate.

Let these knaves stew in their own broth, as they so richly deserve! Thank you, President Joe Biden—along with Jimmy Carter (who departed office when I was but a toddler) the most noble and upstanding US President of my days. - Arthur Newhook, 15 January 2025

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

US Supreme Court appears keen to restrict online porn. Foolish theocratic crusaders dominate, and civilisation's future is grim

{Vox 15 January} The Supreme Court seems eager to curb First Amendment protections for porn

To one degree or another, the individual jurists on the theocratic US Supreme Court appear keen to restrict adults’ access to online pornography—a right mess brought about by tiresome moral busybodies on the left pushing their social agenda rather too vigorously, which has rather predictably catalysed a reactionary movement culminating in millions embracing the sort of far right, antisemitic rot that those of my age rather naively thought had been permanently vanquished with the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Now, the moral crusaders of the right—who vastly outnumber their ‘progressive’ counterparts, are dreadfully well-embedded in the local/state governments and among military and law enforcement, and whose capacity for armed force is demonstrably superior—are pursuing an absolutist agenda. All vestiges of measured discourse and temperance appear irretrievably forfeit for at least the next quarter-century. The mechanism by which future generations might recover these essential qualities—to put this particular Humpty Dumpty back together again— is a total mystery to me. My gut says future generations will dwell in caves like savages, having quite forgotten how to work a can opener, let alone possessing the knowledge and wherewithall to rebuild anything resembling civilisation. - Arthur Newhook, 15 January 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

A flagrantly kitsch novelty act from the 1970s has become the centre of controversy following their decision to perform in Washington, D.C., at the Trump inauguration

{The Mirror 14 January} Village People respond to anger over Trump's inauguration performance

An utterly ghastly 1970s musical novelty act has been enlisted to perform at the tangerine puppet’s spurious inauguration, promising to 'bring the country together.' What absurdity is this? Were the #Murican citizenry not such nostalgia-obsessed simpletons with execrable taste, the Village People—a group comprised, quite literally, of cosplayers—would have been consigned to the dustbin of history by 1982, never to assault mortal ears again.

Lest I seem unfair, I say this as one who operates a venture dedicated to historical reminiscence, albeit one that prioritises cultural artefacts of genuine merit and good taste. Yet here we are in 2025: a country so bereft of meaningful contemporary culture, so disdainful of intellect and value, that it endlessly recycles every dreadful trend of yesteryear. And now, the Village People—of all the ridiculous choices—are cast as ambassadors of national unity.

Unity, however, is patently impossible in this fractured age and unlikely to manifest within our lifetimes. So what preposterous notion is this, anyway? Moreover, why do the ‘Manosphere’ acolytes not question why their orange-hued messiah is so enamoured with a group so closely associated with the homosexual community? (Indeed, his campaign has used Y.M.C.A. as a rallying anthem since this frightful circus began in 2015.)

To cite another regrettable cultural relic of the 1970s, these United States have ‘jumped the shark’ repeatedly in this Trumpian era of decline and ens**ttification. When, if ever, will this descent into complete farce reach its end? Is there no bottom to this spiral? Apart from baseball, Friday night lights, and a handful of lingering noble pastimes, the only aspects of American life worth celebrating are now dead and buried. #Murica—my pet name for this grotesque parody of the country I grew up in—is an abomination of cringe-worthy proportions.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

America's final week of democracy: as GOP and Musk prepare fascist takeover, a lament for missed chances to prevent this dark fate

Well, this is it then—the final week of what is left of the United States. About to trade what passes for democracy these days for some proper fascist nonsense. Last gasp of the Democrats holding any sway in Washington, I expect. Won’t see them back in power in my lifetime.

Prepare thyselves for grave overreach by the incoming regime and its Republican confederates in Congress and state legislatures; the GOP shall run absolutely bloody riot in the coming months. Steel thy hearts for widespread calamity: civil unrest, food shortages, economic collapse; on top of ever-worsening and more frequent natural disasters. Anticipate that the unelected dictator, Elon Musk, along with his figurehead president—believed by the witless masses of this wilfully ignorant land to wield true authority—to deepen every crisis, without fail; as Trump did in the chaos of his first disastrous reign, and as this unholy pair hath done again and again, leading up to their accursed coronation.

The final week, indeed. If only justice had held firm, and this felon, Trump, had been cast into chains. If only regulators had interceded to thwart Elon Musk from spending $44 billion on Twitter. If only a Vice-President had prioritised the welfare of the nation above self-serving ambition, had not betrayed the President, and had refrained from embarking on a farcical and hopeless campaign in a land that reviles those who share her visage and believe her to be a Marxist. If only the Pollyannas among us had not ensnared us with false hope and led us astray. If only President Biden were not so long in the tooth and still possessed the vigour to fight.

We had a good run, I suppose. - Arthur Newhook, 12 January 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

TV ads mirror America's growing anti-intellectualism—a society that scorns reason and celebrates ignorance, ripe for charlatans

Bloody hell, these accursed TV ads are one day going to drive me away from watching most any sports, or anything else on television, period. Mind you, it says all that needs to be known about the state of things: advertisers know full well their craft—holding up a mirror to society and then forcing it down our gullets. And what a pitiful, foolish, and infantile reflection it is. 

Look at the state of us. Take a look around and see what doth stir folk to excitement these days. Absolute rubbish! Anything requiring half a brain cell, and the masses of #Murica turn away, unbothered and unmoved. To varying degrees, Americans have ever harboured disdain for intellectualism, yet never in my years—nay, perchance never in the annals of US history—hath this contempt burned so fiercely as in the past decade of Donald Trump being the central character in this Shakespearean tragedy. A nation of wilful ignorance and base spite, bereft of logic, reason, intelligence, empathy, or honour, shall ever prove easy prey for charlatans and scoundrels. It is futile to ask when this lamentable state of affairs will come to an end, for should anyone attempt to bring it to a close, the American people will fight tooth and nail to preserve that which they hold most dear—ignorance and unearned pride. Hence, why Donald Trump is about to be (figurehead) president once more.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Boris Johnson slams Vladimir Putin's imperial dreams, while the right-wing in US betrays Ukraine and kisses Putin’s ring

AP/Reuters

{Sky News 12 January} Boris Johnson brands Vladimir Putin a 'f****** idiot' over alleged imperial ambitions

Boris Johnson colorfully denounces Putin as a dullard of the highest order for his vainglorious dreams of imperial restoration - Beyond Ukraine itself and the sphere of Russian dissidents, none stands more steadfast in support of Ukraine than Boris Johnson. Though his character may bear other blemishes, his resolve on this matter is unassailable. 

Yet mark ye well: Putin is no mere fool—nay, a cunning serpent, more like. Methinks what Boris is getting at is that Putin’s lofty ambitions, akin to castles raised upon shifting sands, must surely crumble. While the tyrant may sow death and misery without end, victory shall forever elude his grasp.

Even in the wake of the bloody and shameful betrayal by the American people, and with the incoming regime in Washington poised to drastically alter the course of US policy, yet shall the brave souls of Ukraine stand firm. They shall fight, tooth and nail, to prevent the resurrection of the Soviet Union—a grim and dark chapter of history that must never again be inscribed. 

To put it mildly, it is quite rich that those who now all themselves ‘conservatives’ in the US, who once held opposition to the Soviet menace as sacred as Holy Writ, are now hell-bent on lending their aid to Master Putin in his designs to resurrect the very spectre they and their forebears spent decades striking to vanquish. 

Do not presume to tell me, #MAGA zealots, that ‘Russiagate’ was a mere hoax. No, it is both real and ongoing. The stain of blood is upon thy hands, and all thy protestations shall not wash them clean.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Trump escapes with not so much as a token reprimand in the sentencing for the ‘hush money’ trial

 

BBC 10 January - Trump avoids prison or fine in hush-money case sentencing

‘Unconditional discharge'. Quite the most preposterous verdict in the annals of this mad realm. Trump is sentenced merely to bear the ignoble brand of 'convicted felon' for life, and nothing more. No proper punishment for the scoundrel—not even a paltry fine! Perhaps a weekend in the clink to enforce a semblance of humility? Nay, not even so much as that. Our 'justice' system has descended into an outright farce. Justice Juan Merchan's courage failed him and he could not summon the resolve to impose even the slightest penalty. How he can bear to face his own reflection after levying such a spineless and laughable ruling, I truly cannot fathom. Verily, it defies all reason, but so does most everything else happening around us in #Murica.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

A plea directed at the overlords of social media to abolish the 'laugh' emoji, alongside an exhortation for adults to cease using emojis entirely—indeed, to abandon behaviour reminiscent of schoolyard bullies in its entirety

Allow me to say this to one and all: if I had my way, every one of the social media platforms—starting with blasted Facebook—would chuck out that damned 'laugh' emoji. It is nothing but a tool for sneering at people, tearing them down, and stripping away their humanity. And do not consider for a second that Zuckerberg, Elon, and the rest of that wretched lot know not what they are doing. Of course they know—they’re the masters of pandemonium, the very architects of destruction.

Social media users? Do not get me started. Most of them are lemmings, gleefully marching to their doom, following these tech overlords straight into the flaming pit. This lunacy must cease forthwith, before we have got rivers of blood in the streets—mark my words, that is precisely where we are headed if this carries on.

Another thing—are you not supposed to be grown adults? Bloody adults! So, for heaven's sake, STOP USING EMOJI! Yes, I mean every damned word of it. Laughing at people—real people—who have lost everything to fires, floods, wars, or whatever else the world throws at them? What's wrong with you? Were you not taught as a child that kicking someone when they're down is the lowest of the low? Judging by what I am seeing, we've got precious few proper grown-ups left these days.

If you are one of those smirking sods indulging in this vile nonsense, let me spell it out for you: there is something rotten in your head and black in your heart. Huge swathes of society are beyond saving now, and this is exactly what a crumbling civilisation looks like.

So do us all a favour: grow up—properly this time—and, more importantly, find a shred of humanity in that shrivelled excuse for a soul of yours.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

President Biden, Sir Keir Starmer, Chancellor Scholz, President Macron, and their counterparts must act decisively within the coming days to avert a global calamity, in the person of Elon Musk

Reuters

Frankly, setting aside the demoralised denizens of #Murica, I harbour some doubts regarding whether Donald Trump fully grasped the implication of his entanglement with Elon Musk (the tawny marionette merely heeds the directive of his handlers). Indeed, I contend the entirety (or near-entirety) of our political establishment—including President Biden and his administration—together with other world leaders and governments, possessed scant awareness of the peril now manifesting with unsettling immediacy in the person of Elon Musk. 

By contrast, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping were undoubtedly cognisant, and Musk hath since become their unequivocal collaborator. President Biden, Sir Keir Starmer, Chancellor Scholz, President Macron, and their counterparts must act decisively within the coming days to avert a global calamity. This is neither jest nor hyperbole—we have been infiltrated! #Murica

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Elon threatens the United Kingdom, and NOW is the time to put a full stop to this madness

I can scarcely marshal coherent thought—such is the magnitude of my astonishment and anger at this moment in time. President-elect Musk and his ignominious orange marionette, acting in concert with other shadowy forces (Putin), are now brazenly threatening to invade and annex not merely Canada and Greenland, but also the United Kingdom. And how do we in America respond? By somnambulating into submission, placated by the (false) promises of cheap fuel, eggs, or whatever trivial justification prompted so many to cast their ballots—so they thought—for Donald Trump. And what, I ask, is President Biden doing in response? Assert your authority whilst it yet remains, Mr President! Arrest Elon Musk forthwith—he is a menace to humanity and a terrorist. Should any American dare to lay hands upon Great Britain, I shall defend my ancestral homeland to the very death! God Save the King, you fascist pigs!

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.