All eyes are on Mariupol. As of Wednesday night, over 70% of residential areas were under control of Donetsk and Russian forces, while Russian Marines, Donetsk’s 107thbatallion and Chechen Spetsnaz, led by the charismatic Adam Delimkhanov, had entered the Azov-Stal plant – the HQ of the neo-Nazi Azov batallion.

Azov was sent a last ultimatum: surrender until midnight – or else, as in a take no prisoners highway to hell.

That implies a major game-changer in the Ukrainian battlefield; Mariupol is finally about to be thoroughly denazified – as the Azov contingent long entrenched in the city and using civilians as human shields were their most hardened fighting force.

zelensky

The interviews with terrified, distraught people on buses out of Ukraine with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and images of bombed-out homes behind them, are very hard to watch.

We’re watching scenes resonant of some of the worst crimes in history, live, in full colour, that used to be seen only in newsreels of a grim, monochrome past.

BY Alan Kohler

Kohler’s rant in Italics

Bold comments by Gus

There is a growing interest in evolutionary models of human adiposity. Frequent reference has been made to ‘thrifty genes’ or ‘thrifty phenotypes’, referring to a variety of metabolic or behavioural traits that in one or the other way imply frugality in the expenditure or storage of energy. However, there is confusion over how the strategy of thrift has been incorporated into human biology. 

The phrase of the week – albeit battling for space with “Ash Barty retires” and “I haven’t been at Hillsong now for over, about 15 years” – has been “cost of living”.

It promises to be big again next week, featuring in the budget argy-bargy, and then running strong all the way to the looming federal election.

“Cost of living” automatically comes with the prefix “soaring” or at least “rising”. It is universally reported as a terrible thing.

But while nobody seems to want the cost of living to be higher, it is official policy to push inflation higher than it has been for a decade.

Bit tricky to have one without the other.

With a rainbow sticker reading "Make Kyiv Queer Again" proudly branded across his rifle, Andrii takes to the front line in the north of the capital each day.

Identifying as pansexual — which means he is attracted to all genders — the 26-year-old had no hesitation joining Ukraine's Territorial Defence Forces on day one of Russia's invasion. 

Far from his life as a psychotherapist, Andrii is out to protect the streets where he grew up and to fight against the "social-political oppressive machine".

"We're in danger, of not only imperial Tsar reign, there's also a damn lot of sexism, racism and tremendous homophobia coming to us from the east," he told the ABC. 

friday

2021.3 years of praying to Mary and to Godot in its three godototological forms — result: nil improvement of the mafia behaviour: Check the world history… But as usual the dedicated believers in miracles (sheep), apparitions and visions, but "NOT in superstitions, god forbid please", are encouraged to pray once more and more and more... As Einstein suggested, stupidity is repeating the same experiment and expecting a different result... I would agree with this, except on the delusional, the political and the economic front. We repeat the same mistakes but we SEE different results, because we can lie to ourselves with an unequal brilliant bullshit...

Anyway:

Theological significance of Act of Consecration explained 

American movie star Sean Penn is laying down the law with the organizers of the Academy Awards, threatening to destroy his Oscars if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky isn’t invited to participate in Hollywood’s biggest annual event.

Speaking from Warsaw on Saturday night in an interview with CNN, Penn said his understanding was that a decision had been made not to include a message from Zelensky in the awards show. He called for others to join him in boycotting the event if Ukraine’s leader isn’t asked to speak.

Here comes China

Kiina Tulee. Oletko Valmis?

Niin kuin mailmassa on Jin ja Jang, (陰 ja 陽, 阴 ja 阳, ☯) niin on ihmisen selviytymisessäkin olemassa kaksi toisilleen vastakkaista tapaa: ekonomistinen (raha) ja moraalinen (etiikka). Näitä ei pidä sekoittaa keskenään.

– Erityisen merkityksellistä on ymmärtää Jin’in ja Jang’in olemassaolo juuri nyt, kun sivilisaationa olemme siirtymässä Kiinan maailmanvaltiuden piiriin.

– Tähän siirtymään ei sotaa tarvita. Meidät on kasvatettu alistumaan ja geeniperimämme tukee samaa.

We will start with the (somewhat accidental) compassionate side of history when the world was ablaze under Hitler. This also should explain that Jews are not all Zionists nor all support Israel. Meanwhile, the Rise of China is creating a major upheaval in the Western nations that have been used to control other nations and are on the warpath to dominate the world. We have explored this in various instalments but for the moment we shall stay on the narrow path of niceness... until the yin and the yang of "morality and money" becomes a corrupt wrecking ball rather than a cooperative alliance of forces.

The legacy of exile: The Jews of Shanghai

The story of a man who started a new life in China, and a daughter whose life has been shaped by his persecution.

Scott Morrison has again taken a swipe at Anthony Albanese's recent transformation as he declared "leopards don't change their spots even if they change their glasses".  

The Prime Minister on Tuesday doubled down on his comments that unlike the Opposition Leader he was not trying to pretend to be someone he is not as he made a pitch to Western Australian voters while visiting the state. 

Mr Morrison referenced a speech Mr Albanese delivered last week in which the Labor leader said, if elected as Prime Minister, he would take his lead from Bob Hawke, who led the nation between 1983 and 1991. 

Mr Albanese said he also was in agreement with comments former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard had made about economic reform.

China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 had huge ramifications for the global trading system and in shaping the events that have led to today’s U.S.-China trade war, explains author Paul Blustein in his new book, “Schism: China, America, and the Fracturing of the Global Trading System.” But Blustein, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, argues that the Trump administration actually poses a bigger threat to the system with its decision to “flagrantly violate” WTO rules.

When philanthropy is accused of jeopardizing democracy

explain

During his much-advertised "major" speech in Poland, the American president praised Ukraine's fight against Russian troops carrying out a special military operation on its territory and called on the West to prepare for a long confrontation between democracies with "autocracies".

US President Joe Biden did not call for regime change in Russia during his speech in Warsaw on 26 March, a White House official has stated after POTUS said that "this man cannot remain in power", referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The story of humanity is mostly related between conquests and victims. In this division of events, victims of wrongdoing are often perceived to have elevated moral character compared to non-victims and especially to their “oppressors”.  There has been quite a few psychological experiments about how victims also disclose their narratives in regard to "justice restoration” which often is abuse of status designed to blame others. 

At the level of ethnic groups, and entire population having been victimised and being victimised, we can see how the narratives have been distorted to apportion blame to what or whom led to the victimisation. One of the groups that has managed the “victim status” with brilliance has been the Jews. 

If you believe the Western media including The New York Post, Putin will retire on this glorious boat. With all the "intelligence" agencies of the West after his blood (not to give a single pint to the Red Cross, mind you), his real boat would be more like a navy destroyer with unmatched weaponry. And his "Castle" as described by Navalny would be more like a bunker with all mod comforts, about 1,000 metres below ground, near the north pole. 

But it's worth the tour...

This yacht makes a Bond villain’s boat look like a dinghy. 

morons

Western media and cultural figures have long compared the US’ official enemies to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Most recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been the target of such attacks, which have dramatically increased since the Kremlin launched its special military operation in Ukraine last month.