Anne Frank and the paradox of human nature: idealism and harsh reality

Alamy stock photo

“Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.” —Anne Frank, born 12 June 1929.

If this sentiment — and many others like it in her writings — is tragically naïve, we must first remember hers was an extraordinarily gentle and innocent spirit. Though demonstrably wise beyond her years, she was still but a child. Such words should be read not as a mirror of reality, but as an aspiration.

The stark reality? Bloody hell no, people are most certainly not inherently good. ‘Goodness’ is not innate in humans, it must be taught — arguably the central aim of child-rearing — and one person’s ‘good’ often clashes with another’s. It is why laws are necessary, and prisons equally so. At heart, humans are wicked, but reason compels us to suppress those baser instincts for society to function. When these restraints fail, the social contract is broken and all manners of tyranny and depravity are allowed to play out. This is what happened in Nazi Germany, and is playing out today in the former United States.

One thing, however, is beyond dispute: the Nazis were pure evil, and their modern ideological heirs are no less so. Somewhere in this world right now is an Anne Frank, and the cycle of senseless death and suffering continues without mercy. —Arthur Newhook, 12 June 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X-TWITTER, and at the same handle on FACEBOOK. BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. REDDIT - https://www.reddit.com/r/StopTheIdiocracy/new/. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

Two dead in Israeli embassy massacre. As the gunman screamed 'Free Palestine' during his arrest, America's moral bankruptcy has been laid bare

AFP/Getty

VIDEO VIA BBC NEWS—the moment the Washington DC Jewish Museum shooting suspect is detained

Every remaining reasonably minded individual in the former United States who continues to value Israel and the Jewish people as friends—Democrat, Republican, or otherwise, all dwindling in number—must, at this very instant, forcefully reaffirm their unwavering solidarity. Antisemitism is running rampant across the political spectrum, and it is rapidly becoming perilous for Jews to merely exist in this dying nation. The West as a whole is being consumed by the same ancient hatred that birthed the Holocaust. Europe has been gradually succumbing to its Islamised hordes for the past two decades, yet until very recently America offered a safe haven, its populace overwhelmingly in support of Israel’s right to exist. A dramatic shift has undeniably occurred: a dark energy has taken root in hearts and minds. 

Increasingly, America’s useful idiots applaud as antisemitic mobs, or lone gunmen as was apparently the case in this incident, render the streets unsafe for Jews. It is 1938 replaying before our eyes. God will ensure that the former United States and its people are punished as severely as ordinary Germans were in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War; not solely for betraying the Jewish people, but for abandoning every value and tenet they ever purported to hold dear. Judgement invariably befalls nations that forsake the guardians of civilisation. —Arthur Newhook, 22 May 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 on X-TWITTER, and at the same handle on FACEBOOK. BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. REDDIT - https://www.reddit.com/r/StopTheIdiocracy/new/. THREADS - @arthurnewhook. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The American people (far too many of them, at least) continue to blatantly and deliberately emulate Nazi Germany, with antisemitic incidents soaring to a record high.

Photo: Neo-Nazis on a highway overpass on the I-40 near St. Louis, Missouri. Shared by Reddit user rojowro86 in the r/StLouis subreddit on 5th October 2024. (https://www.reddit.com/r/StLouis/comments/1fwx5n0/nazis_on_i40_wtf/)

‘Antisemitic incidents in the US surge to a record high’ {BBC 6 October}

Whether it was before (a debate for another day, obviously we weren’t always saints), America in 2024 is undeniably becoming a blatantly and openly evil, repressive, and antisemitic nation. Beyond being a bloody outrage and a national disgrace, it personally repulses me to the point of feeling physically ill. It is also terrifying beyond the comprehension of those of us who grew up in times of greater peace, prosperity, and personal liberty (pre-9/11). For years, I have endured intense prophecies of a neo-Nazi state, and it is all coming together just as I envisioned. People continue to so gravely disappoint me. Remember, the numbers cited by the ADL are just what has been reported. Think of how many more incidents that have not been reported, likely multifold. #Murica is rapidly becoming the new Nazi Germany, to be made official on November 5.

Recent headlines:

East Coast dockworkers have suspended their strike until January and are returning to work - Those who hoarded toilet paper now appear rather foolish, especially since paper goods were not among the affected commodities. {AP 3 October}

Residents in areas devastated by Helene still scrambling for drinking water and basic necessities, a week after the storm. {AP 4 October}

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: ‘They can control the weather.' - She’ll be re-elected to her seat in a landslide, and a great many Americans immediately and without question buy into any right-wing conspiracy theory, no matter how implausible. MTG is the face of #Murica in 2024. {Mediaite 4 October}

President Biden during press room briefing appearance, on the upcoming election: ‘I’m confident it will be free and fair. I don’t know whether it'll be peaceful.’ - It will not. {NPR 4 October}

Trump returns to Butler County, PA: the site where his ear was so badly wounded (yet now miraculously healed) back in July. {BBC 5 October} 

Copyright 2024, 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.

#DDay 1944: The liberation of Europe from Nazi tyranny commenced with the Allied invasion of occupied France

Allied soldiers on the eve of the D-Day landings, Normandy, 1944. Photo: Getty Images.

Today, we commemorate all those who stormed the Normandy beaches on the 80th anniversary of the pivotal event in the 20th century. Their bravery and sacrifice secured a period of relative peace, prosperity, and stability that lasted up until recent years. I fear a conflict of this scale and with such perilous consequences will have to be fought again. And I worry that this time, #Murica might not be on the righteous side. Heaven help us all.

Copyright 2024, 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.

National suicide: Fascism is staring us right in the face, and much of #Murica is oblivious while many more embrace it

America is on a path of gradual national suicide, and within a year, it will meet its final demise unless significant changes occur urgently. The looming threat of a one-party, Fascist, and theocratic dictatorship with echoes of Auschwitz's horrors is imminent. It can happen here, and most Republican officials and lay people are outright begging for oppressive rule. The desire for fascism in these United States is beyond palpable, revealing mean-spiritedness and willful ignorance on a scale I have never known in my 46 years on this rotten earth. 

Despite the fact that we have a sane and capable president, somehow he is hated and resented. The widespread lack of respect for the president from seemingly all sides is appalling, and I have reached a point where I genuinely want to see President Biden assert himself forcefully and instill the fear of God into all those who would have their fellow Americans live in constant fear - the ones deemed bad Americans by #Cult45, so roughly at least half of the overall population of men, women, and children (yes, they will happily kill children, their ‘pro-life’ bonafides notwithstanding.) Give the Fascists a small taste of their own medicine, for we have no other choice if we are going to survive. We are in a cold civil war, soon to turn hot if #Cult45 is not brought down within the next ten to twelve months. This is war.

Americans today appear to actually crave chaos, tyranny, economic turmoil, betrayal of allies, and overall degradation. So long as they are endlessly entertained and the people they do not like are being punished, a majority will lovingly embrace authoritarianism on an epic scale. My faith in fellow Americans perished in 2016, and eight years later, it is abundantly clear that we, as a nation, have embraced pure evil. Americans can no longer be trusted on the world stage, at least not for a long time to come and likely never. By all means, though, keep allowing #Cult45 to trigger us and to set the terms of engagement every single time out. Keep on attending every single fight one is invited to by the trolls and goons. The United States of Entertainment is almost certainly f**ked, but hey, isn't that Taylor Swift great? Our priorities are so out of whack and people better start to take seriously the dire threat staring us in the face, and to realise that the enemy is us. #SeriouslyAnnoyed #Biden2024OrDeath

Copyright 2024, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social, and @arthurnewhook on POST and THREADS.

#OTD 1923: The infamous Beer Hall Putsch unfolded in Munich, a foreshadowing of what is happening to #Murica today

Bundesarchiv

#OTD 1923: The infamous Beer Hall Putsch unfolded in Munich, a Nazi coup d’etat bid against the Weimar government, quelled by the next day. Yet, its chief plotter, Adolf Hitler, was foolishly sentenced to but five years in prison, and freed after a mere nine months. No need to recount what followed, for we all ken the horrors that came to pass when this madman seized power in 1932. Or do we? For in our dear #Murica today, a leader who, in office, too led a failed coup, yet faces no true justice for his sedition and treachery, at most, a mere slap on the wrist. Clearly, America and much of this world hath not well heeded the lessons of history. Willful ignorance and malice that led so many in Germany to embrace Hitler, and the same holds true today in America with Donald Trump and his adherents. In 2024, cast thy vote as if thy lives and nation hang in the balance, for truly, everything is at stake this time.

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and @arthurnewhook on POST and THREADS.

The Munich Agreement in our time

German Federal Archives

#OTD 1938: The vile and genocidal Munich Agreement was inked, as Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler did conspire and scheme to barter away Sudetenland's soil devoid of the Czechs' consent. This treachery paved the way for the Nazi invasion of Poland and World War II’s direful morass. In our time, voices too numerous clamor, both near and far, urging Ukraine to yield to Putin and Russia vast amounts of territory. Many doth point their fingers at Ukraine’s gate, laying blame at their door of fate, and whilst they extol Putin, the murderous dictator in his might. Assuming, in their feeble and faithless way, the American folk return Donald Trump to the White House in 2024, a perilous chance looms that America will align with Russia in their ongoing grievous design upon Ukraine. Let us, then, extend gratitude to President Biden and his steadfast stance in valiant defence of Zelensky and Ukraine; instead of ceaseless grumbles and cries about the financial cost, for history warns that appeasing dictators is a path always lost and far more costly. As the Great Man stated in his blunt refutation of Chamberlain, ‘you chose dishonour and you will have war,’ and that is the foolish path America hath found itself on now. I am simply astounded by these times we must endure, and what people's tragic folly and malevolence does obscure. It is likely this wretched state will worsen ere the dawn that will dispel this endless night and bring forth hope reborn.

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on X, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and @arthurnewhook on POST and THREADS.

A solemn day of remembrance in memory of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, eighty years-ago

AFP/Getty Images

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier connects the dots and calls out Putin as the modern-day Hitler while speaking at the ceremony marking the anniversary. The world must pay heed. #NeverAgain #StopPutin #StandUpForUkraine {BBC 4/19}

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.

‘(T)he worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.’ President Biden versus an American public that has lost faith in its own country, its institutions, and in truth, common sense, and empathy for oppressed peoples

John Farallo/Deviant Art

No reason to wonder why many Americans hate Joe Biden, and no need to identify who those Americans are, we all know. Obviously, there is the matter of Mr. Biden having served as second-in-command to the black guy for eight years (never have been a fan of the latter myself.) More to the point, Joe Biden is committed to a liberal democratic global order that these people feel has oppressed and failed them (not that any of them know what life would be under the alternative, having forgotten the words of Churchill - ‘democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.’) Joe Biden will not kiss Vladimir Putin’s ass as his predecessors did, and nationalist populists see Putin as a symbol of lost manhood and Christian virtue (I see neither in the s.o.b., but behold the power of propaganda and gaslighting.) The radical left merely sees Putin as a bulwark against American imperialism and predatory capitalism, and turn a blind eye to the corruption, the human rights abuses, and so forth (what a sad lot they are, the flip side of the same coin as the nationalist populists.) And Joe Biden removed the precious orange god from power – which is why the mainstream media has so viciously turned-on Joe Biden; they want Trump back because he is better for their bottom line, and the welfare of the country be damned. 

And Trump’s fans simply cannot comprehend that millions of fellow Americans were (and remain) disgusted by Donald Trump’s words, actions, and overall lack of integrity and humanity. It really is kind of baffling how devoted they are to this guy, until one considers that they see him as their protection against the rest of us. After all that has been said and done, there really is no point any longer in any other explanation for popular discontent. We are being reminded that human beings are tribal creatures, and will reject the evidence of their own eyes and ears. Instead, they stand with those offering (false) comfort and reassurance of their natural instincts when they feel threatened by the world around them. The very essence of populism, and an example of why I hate populism. The German people rallied behind Hitler in the ‘30s, and tribalism is why Russians are rallying behind Putin now and are not questioning his motives for invading Ukraine. Reason and evidence are never going to penetrate this wall. There is no point in trying to convince anyone to change their minds, and any pretense I ever had of being able to change minds - about anything at all – disappeared a long time ago.  Many years. Nothing I post is with the intention of reaching the unreachable, but rather to help those invested in truth, reality, and sanity (or relative sanity; hey, we all lose our s**t sometimes, lol.) One can ‘lead a horse to water, but one cannot make him drink.’ As long as the earth turns and as long as human beings live on it, these maladies will remain. And as long as I’m cursed to be here, I will stand in opposition to all forces – far-left, far-right, anywhere in between – who believe they will achieve their given ideas of paradise on earth by bringing Hell upon the earth. President Joe Biden is a relic of a better time and place, an unlikely leader for this strange era in American life, and I am grateful we have him, for however long we have him. Once he is gone, well, let’s not even contemplate any further right at this moment.

‘Russia’s deputy defense minister says Moscow has decided to “fundamentally… cut back” operations near the capital and another major city to “increase mutual trust” at talks aimed at ending the fighting.’ Translation: They got their asses kicked. (AP 3/29)

At least 5,000 dead in Mariupol, including over 200 children. (Ukrinform 3/28)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

America’s president shows steady leadership as Russia’s president wages genocide against the Ukrainian people and unimaginable horror plays out; meanwhile, the American people cry about gas prices and play the blame game. Insights and headlines from another week of war in Ukraine

AP

Working to prevent World War III is a delicate operation, and President Biden is displaying proper leadership during this crisis. Not that very many Americans seem to appreciate it, but thankfully we have a leader who is not going to put fickle public opinion ahead of the lives of the Ukrainian people and global security. Sadly, I’m afraid Ukraine and other vulnerable nations will not be able to count upon America’s help in the future, and Americans are going the way of the Russians. Decaying, mean-spirited, heartless, soulless nationalists and Fascists. I support President Biden because he is essentially the only one standing between us and tyranny, even as most of our fellow Americans and their political idols embrace it. Once he is gone, America is going full-on Nazi, and the world will be an even more dangerous and unpleasant place than we already endure. 

I am sensing that most Americans are starting to become annoyed with having to pay attention to the situation in Ukraine, and only want to bitch about gas prices, illegal aliens, and made-up controversies such as Critical Race Theory or the 2020 presidential election being rigged. We can't even be bothered to any longer take precautions against a deadly virus, and shrug our soldiers at nearly one million dead from said virus. We are not a good country, Americans are not good people anymore, by and large, and can no longer be counted upon by anybody.

It is not Americans who fight for freedom anymore - indeed, too many Americans no longer really know what ‘freedom’ actually means. Instead, they embrace mindless populism. Populism is a disease. It is at once a narcissistic belief in one’s superiority, and a persecution complex of never measuring up to others around them. Populism is one desperately screaming, ‘you will respect my willful ignorance, or else.’ Desperate to never be anything other than an idiot, and willing to commit genocide to protect their stupidity. That is where we are at, as is Putin’s Russia. In both cases, it is not going to end well. Russians and Americans really no longer matter, aside from the damage they can and do inflict upon the world: It is the Ukrainian people who are either going to save their nation, Europe, and the world from its most nefarious menace, or they will perish trying. This is their 1776. Слава Україні. Via the New York Times -

WASHINGTON — President Biden will announce sanctions this week on hundreds of members of Russia’s lower house of Parliament, according to a White House official familiar with the announcement, as the United States and its allies reach for even stronger measures to punish President Vladimir V. Putin for his monthlong invasion of Ukraine.

The announcement is scheduled to be made during a series of global summits in Europe on Thursday, when Mr. Biden will press Western leaders for even more aggressive economic actions against Russia as its forces continue to rain destruction on cities in Ukraine.

In Brussels on Thursday, Mr. Biden and other leaders will announce a “next phase” of military assistance to Ukraine, new plans to expand and enforce economic sanctions, and an effort to further bolster NATO defenses along the border with Russia, Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said on Tuesday. (Read more)

Maximilian Clarke/Story Picture Agency

Mariupol reduced to ‘ashes of a dead land.’ The scary thing is, up until now this has been a very pro-Russian city. The vast majority of residents are (or were) Russian speakers. Yet, Putin chose to punish the city the hardest of all. Pure evil (The Guardian 3/22)

‘Ukrainian forces fought off continuing Russian efforts to occupy Mariupol and claimed to have retaken a strategic suburb of Kyiv on Tuesday, mounting a defense so dogged that it is stoking fears Russia’s Vladimir Putin will escalate the war to new heights’ (AP 3/22)

Putin has used Belarus to attack Ukraine from its north, and he sought to use Belarusian soldiers as ‘cannon fodder,’ with the Belarusian dictator’s total compliance. Belarusian railway workers have put a major dent into these nefarious plans, destroying vital rail lines from Belarus into Ukraine (EuroMaidan Press 3/21)

Russian troops fire grenades and bullets at peaceful demonstrators against occupation in the city of Kherson (Sky News 3/21)

‘This is what they call the “operation of denazification.”’ One of the saddest stories yet from this unjust war: 96-year-old Holocaust survivor killed in Russian strike on the city of Kharkiv (CNN 3/21)

This man is a true hero, in a world that persecutes heroes and they are few in number: Opposition leader Alexei Navalny found guilty of ‘fraud,’ sentenced to nine additional years in prison (NPR 3/22)

‘The U.S. and Ukraine have knocked back Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to falsely frame the narrative of his brutal war, but they are struggling to get a more accurate view of the Kremlin’s invasion in front of the Russian people’ (AP 3/22)

China crash is ‘unprecedented’ given Boeing 737′s stellar safety record, says aviation analyst (CNBC 3/22)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Yuri Gagarin, Tchaikovsky, and vodka: Opposing Putin’s war of aggression on Ukraine without losing perspective, common sense, and humanity

Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. Getty Images

Am about as anti-Russia as it gets, and I would be in favor of removing Russian nationals - those without U.S. citizenship and have not sworn loyalty to America - from our borders while this war on aggression on Ukraine continues. Certainly, few are in the mood to celebrate much about Russia or its history, but can we focus our anger on Putin and his enablers and not on historical figures with no connection to the modern slaughter, please? I’ve seen blurbs about the music of Tchaikovsky being removed (or at least the idea discussed) from the programs of certain orchestras. Russian vodka has been from store shelves all over the place. Believe it or not, some Russians in history have made great art and achieved major milestones, just as multitudes of Germans did long before and long after the Nazi period. Remember, prior to said era, the United States went through a shameless period of anti-German hysteria in World War I, where absurdities like effectively forcing Americans to change their German surnames and renaming sauerkraut as 'liberty cabbage' occurred. Judging by the harrowing state of American society today, that populist idiocy and mass ignorance which are documented daily, I am not certain we have learned very much from those days. It should be possible to the fight the Russians and shame them without losing all perspective and reason, but it will never be possible: Precisely because base human nature is so tribal, so ignorant, and so self-defeating. 

(VIDEO) Putin’s aggression against Ukraine severely divides the Orthodox Church – the majority religion for Russians and Ukrainians alike, Kyiv being the ‘Jerusalem’ of sorts of the faith – with Moscow Patriarch Kirill backing Putin and the slaughter of millions of Ukrainians

Not just the far-right shilling for Putin: The far-left is falling for Russian propaganda on Ukraine. Amazing how much alike the two extremes are in their zealotry, their brainwashing techniques, and never-ending conspiracism. Enemies of humanity always pose as liberators, whichever direction they come from

Kremlin spokesman moans that it’s ‘unacceptable’ and ‘unforgivable’ that President Biden accurately described Vladimir Putin as an obvious war criminal, as the entire world can see for themselves. It’s not so much they think we’re ‘stupid,’ rather naked bullying and gaslighting

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Invading Ukraine will be Putin's downfall, and Russia will go down with him

Belarusian soldiers are refusing to fight Ukrainians. There are numerous reports of Russian soldiers surrendering or otherwise going AWOL. Many of these soldiers are barely being fed, and the Russians have had numerous logistical issues in carrying out this invasion. Putin is decimating his own military. But a wounded animal is a dangerous one, and it is unspeakable what he may resort to. Scorched earth. When Hitler knew the war was lost, he issued the ‘Nero Decree,’ ordering all German infrastructure to be destroyed (scuttled by Albert Speer.) Putin will do the same to Russia in due time. And that time may be near.

The Daily Beast/Instagram/AP

Francis Fukuyama: ‘Russia is heading for an outright defeat in Ukraine;’ ‘Putin will not survive the defeat of his army’ 

Pregnant woman smeared by Russian propaganda as a ‘crisis actor’ gives birth in Mariupol hospital bomb shelter

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Germany steps up in the fight against Putin, reverses ban on weapon sales to Ukraine and announces it will support SWIFT banking restrictions on Russia

AP/Christoph Schmidt/dpa

At this time 80 years ago, Germany was the aggressor. Today, it is arguably the leader of the free world; a peaceful, prosperous, and responsible nation. Could Russia ever make that same transition? There were high hopes at the end of the Cold War, but those have been gradually shattered as Vladimir Putin came to power and set about restoring the empire. Germany’s redemption was due, in large part, to the strong character and work ethic of the German people (full disclosure - I am of German blood, so I may be a little biased.) While I do not wish to entirely disparage the Russian people, I’ve seen scant evidence over the years that they possess those same qualities that allowed Germany to successfully rebuild. Indeed, it has been 30 years since the fall of the Soviet Union, but Russia remains a despotic and largely impoverished backwater whose only leverage comes from its large geographic size, its military might (re: nuclear weapons), and its cunning, evil mastermind dictator. Associated Press - 

VIENNA (AP) — In a significant shift, the German government said Saturday it will send weapons and other supplies directly to Ukraine, which is fighting to keep Russia from invading its capital city. Germany is also ready to also support some restrictions of the SWIFT global banking system for Russia, officials said. 

Germany’s chancellery announced Saturday evening that it will send 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 “Stinger” surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine “as quickly as possible.” 

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a turning point. It threatens our entire post-war order,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement. “In this situation, it is our duty to help Ukraine, to the best of our ability, to defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s invading army.” 

The news came shortly after the German economy and climate ministry said in a Saturday evening statement that Germany is allowing the Netherlands to ship 400 German-made anti-tank weapons to Ukraine. The government has also approved the shipment of 9 D-30 howitzers and ammunition originally from Estonia. 

Germany had long stuck to a policy of not exporting deadly weapons to conflict zones, including Ukraine. As recently as Friday, government officials said they would abide by that policy. (Read more)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Anti-Semitism on the rise in ‘Murica. Louisville, KY: Jewish mayoral candidate narrowly escapes assassination attempt

Reuters/USA Today Network

Echoes of Nazi Germany are all around us. In Louisville, KY, an unidentified gunman opened fire at the campaign offices of a Jewish mayoral candidate, who was present and managed to evade the bullets. This was just one individual, apparently acting alone (at least as far as is known), but oppression and tyranny is not the exclusive domain of governments and organized institutions. In Nazi Germany, Hitler and company liberated large segments of German society to freely express their various hatreds, and many individuals committed crimes against Jews, gipsys, and other outcasts without direct orders from authorities. We are increasingly seeing the same effect in America in the years since Donald Trump has been a political cult leader. Nobody has been more effective at blowing those various ‘dog whistles’ than Trump, and even as he has been deposed from high office, the fallout is only just beginning in earnest. All Jews in America would be wise to take all precautions, and to alert the world to what is coming. Via Algemeiner - 

A Jewish Democratic mayoral candidate in Kentucky was left miraculously unharmed after multiple shots were fired at him in his campaign office on Monday morning. 

Craig Greenberg, who is running for the post of mayor in Louisville, Kentucky, was guided to safety along with members of his staff by police officers after an unidentified gunman opened fire at around 10:15 am. None of the shots hit Greenberg, though one bullet did pierce his clothing. 

“We consider ourselves very fortunate,” Louisville Metro Police Chief Erika Shields said at a press conference following the attack, the Courier Journal reported. 

Shields said that a motive behind the shooting was yet to be established. (Read more)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Stehen Sie mit der Deutschen Welle: Putin’s war on the freedom of the legitimate news outlets takes an ominous turn, as Germany’s largest news outlet is thrown out of Moscow

DW

Unlike the loud, sensationalistic propaganda organs that comprise nearly the entirety of the news media in basketcase countries like Russia and our own United States, certain European countries still have real news organizations that inform without bells and whistles, and without corporate slant or partisan bias. In my opinion, there is no finer example than Deutsche Welle. I watch their English-language service via YouTube, along with France24 and BBC World News, and the difference between these outlets and the likes of Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, and Russia’s RT is night and day. One informs and enlightens; the others kill brain cells. By and large, Americans today possess little ability to differentiate propaganda from actual journalism; or, if they do, they prefer the noise and confirmation bias. And have Russians – being only thirty years removed from the fall of the Soviet Union – ever known a time when they were fed anything but propaganda and gaslighting from their state-controlled media outlets? Germans learned a very hard lesson in the 1940s and really took it to heart, and therefore one finds they are a more intelligent, moral, and productive people who possess critical thinking skills and humanity. Russians remain the brutes they always were, and the action the Putin regime is taking toward Deutsche Welle is an age-old tactic of tyrants. Free thinking people who value truth and knowledge must stand with DW, and against the likes of Putin, Trump, and all those who would have us live as unquestioning lemmings as they rape their land and people for their own aggrandizement. Chancellor Scholz will be visiting Moscow soon, and how he handles Putin is going to be a major test of his new leadership. He must demand Moscow reverses this decision. Via Deutsche Welle themselves, and thank you to them for their wonderful service -  

Russia on Thursday said it was closing the Moscow bureau of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and revoking its employees' accreditations in the country. 

The Russian Foreign Ministry also said in a statement that it would "terminate the satellite and other broadcasting (output) of Deutsche Welle" on Russian territory. 

Russia had earlier criticized a German regulator's ban on German-language programming by Russia's state broadcaster RT as an attack on freedom of expression and freedom of the press. 

The Russian government said it was planning to initiate a procedure to label DW a foreign media outlet performing the functions of a "foreign agent," a designation that carries additional government scrutiny. 

Moscow said it would also ban officials involved in restricting the broadcasting of RT in Germany from entering the Russian Federation. (Read more)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

A nation ‘susceptible to a narrative of national humiliation by enemies both internal and external.’ Trump and his cronies in the GOP must be stopped, starting yesterday

David McNew/Getty Images

Be alarmed, be vigilant, speak out. Or else everything we have will be taken from us, including all of you laymen marks who have been supporting this nationalist populist agenda. Trump's supporters are nothing but pawns who will be stabbed in the back in the end, but until then they can always be reliably counted on to support any campaign against designated political and racial enemies. Via Jason Stanley, Yale University professor -  

The contemporary American fascist movement is led by oligarchical interests for whom the public good is an impediment, such as those in the hydrocarbon business, as well as a social, political, and religious movement with roots in the Confederacy. As in all fascist movements, these forces have found a popular leader unconstrained by the rules of democracy, this time in the figure of Donald Trump. 

My father, raised in Berlin under the Nazis, saw in European fascism a course that any country could take. He knew that US democracy was not exceptional in its capacity to resist the forces that shattered his family and devastated his youth. My mother, a court stenographer in US criminal courts for 44 years, saw in the anti-Black racism of the American legal system parallels to the vicious antisemitism she experienced in her youth in Poland, attitudes which enabled eastern European complicity with fascism. And my grandmother, Ilse Stanley, wrote a memoir, published in 1957, of her experiences in 1930s Berlin, later appearing on the US television show This is Your Life to discuss it. It is a memoir of the normalization years of German fascism, well before world war and genocide. In it, she recounts experiences with Nazi officers who assured her that in nazism’s vilification of Jews, they certainly did not mean her. 

Philosophers have always been at the forefront in the analysis of fascist ideology and movements. In keeping with a tradition that includes the philosophers Hannah Arendt and Theodor Adorno, I have been writing for a decade on the way politicians and movement leaders employ propaganda, centrally including fascist propaganda, to win elections and gain power. 

Often, those who employ fascist tactics do so cynically – they do not really believe the enemies they target are so malign, or so powerful, as their rhetoric suggests. Nevertheless, there comes a tipping point, where rhetoric becomes policy. Donald Trump and the party that is now in thrall to him have long been exploiting fascist propaganda. They are now inscribing it into fascist policy. 

Fascist propaganda takes place in the US in already fertile ground – decades of racial strife has led to the United States having by far the highest incarceration rate in the world. A police militarized to address the wounds of racial inequities by violence, and a recent history of unsuccessful imperial wars have made us susceptible to a narrative of national humiliation by enemies both internal and external. As WEB Du Bois showed in his 1935 masterwork Black Reconstruction, there is a long history of business elites backing racism and fascism out of self-interest, to divide the working class and thereby destroy the labor movement. 

The novel development is that a ruthless would-be autocrat has marshalled these fascist forces and shaped them into a cult, with him as its leader. We are now well into the repercussions of this latter process – where fascist lies, for example, the “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen, have begun to restructure institutions, notably electoral infrastructure and law. As this process unfolds, slowly and deliberately, the media’s normalization of these processes evokes Morrison’s tenth and final step: “Maintain, at all costs, silence.” (Read more)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.