The net is posing the autocrats and bureaucrats quite some inconvenience

Opening with a notice concerning blogger (as many remember him) Chris Langan-Fox, otherwise known as Amfortas online, who died on Christmas Eve.

His son sends the link to the Requiem Mass HERE which commences at midnight Sunday GMT. Should you wish to see a presentation on Chris's life and times, his son is preparing that over the next few weeks. Details as and when.

.o0o.

And so to today's post, remembering that yesterday's is actually up at Unherdables substack.

.o0o.

While those 200 Iranians killed so far by the heavy mob are genuinely orphans of liberty, we here are left in our homes ... for now ... do you think Granny Harmer will refrain from calling out the invaders on us?

Now he's trying to coopt the equally corrupt Carnal in Canada and Albumin downunder in a three way assault on Musk:

Possibly this sort of thing, not just the Granny Harmer in bikini is one reason the unhinged one is so down on Musk:

At the same time, we need to exercise some caution online with whom we're rushing to embrace, just because they're occupying the goody's corner in a fight ... take for example this lot:

They might just be genuine, who knows, they're saying the right thing, yet if you go to their site, all you get is a black screen with a panel asking you to give your details and presumably buy them a coffee ... what for?  For simply taking what we say and reposting.

Is that not what we do as well ... repost? True but we attribute, Julia and I, plus we ask for no money, plus enough is known of our output ... we're known-knowns.  Plus I simply do not trust slick, shiny sites, oriented to raking in the shekels.

Also, one of the giveaways with all these "protests" of the paid, bus them in type is the prepared, identical thousands of placards.  Interview them and they've not a clue about the finer details.

And yes, I did look up Drew Pavlou ... seems a Greek Aussie with parents arriving in the 50s.  Elon?  Known-known, for good and not so good, depending on your stance.

Remember that old adage about "... angels fear to tread".  Please do due diligence on sources before embracing them.

On the loonies occupying all key roles in western society today

Not sure which news to lead this post with this Saturday morn ... maybe Granny Harmer ... or our own issue, both Julia and I, of some toerag flagging us and Blgr auto-deleting posts, or on the flurry of posts around the west just now on Woke left wimmin, or on Iran updates, maybe about the doings in Congress ... there's also one on PMQs in parliament.

The main part of this post has been taken down by my lil ole self at midday today and is now up on substack.  I'll do a proper post here tomorrow morning.

Because Hollywood Wants To Squeeze Every Last Drop Out Of A Popular IP

Asking existential questions in the 'Guardian'(at least the columnist is appropriately named):

 

There was once a time when Hugh Jackman Wolverine cameos made a sort of sense. Bursting out of a cell in full Weapon X gear, massacring half a bunker, then vanishing, in 2016’s otherwise pretty forgettable X-Men: Apocalypse. Telling potential recruitment team Magneto and Professor X to, er, go fuck themselves while propping up a bar in 2011’s X-Men: First Class. Even popping up via archived footage from X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2018’s Deadpool 2. These were cameos we could accept: quick, self-contained sideshows that understood the sacred rule that such things ought to be fun and brief. They also arrived at a time when Jackman didn’t yet carry the weight of 25 years of audience investment.

And hadn't just kicked his long term wife to the curb for a younger model. 

Last week, in an appearance on the BBC’s Graham Norton Show, Jackman revealed that he has banned himself from saying no to future appearances as the surly mutant. “I am never saying ‘never’ ever again,” he said. “But I did mean it when I said ‘never’, until the day when I changed my mind. But I really did for quite a few years, I meant it.”

Because now he needs to pay the alimony?  

Cameo Wolverine has been done to death, and the only reason for him to make an appearance in Marvel’s next major episode would be if he was somehow pivotal to its events.

Marvel are moving on, though. 

There’s an argument that the more Marvel leans on Jackman for cheap dopamine hits, the less power he has left. Each new appearance devalues the last.

Ever diminishing returns is a Hollywood trope, isn't it?  

West Midlands police

While there are serious allegations of dereliction by this police force:

... it's not as if the West Midlands does not have form ... they have a long history ... this was from a ggl AI search:

The primary "scandal" involving the West Midlands Police in the 1970s was the extensive misconduct of its Serious Crime Squad (SCS), which led to numerous wrongful convictions, most notably that of the Birmingham Six.

West Midlands Serious Crime Squad Misconduct 

The West Midlands Serious Crime Squad was formed in 1974. While initially perceived as an effective, elite unit, it developed an insular culture and engaged in systemic malpractice to secure convictions, particularly in high-profile cases. 

Key aspects of the misconduct included:

• Fabrication of Evidence and Confessions: Officers were found to have fabricated or tampered with witness statements and confession notes. Forensic evidence (Electrostatic Detection Apparatus, or ESDA) later showed that suspects often signed blank pages onto which incriminating statements were later written.
• Physical Abuse and Torture: Allegations were made that officers used violence and "plastic bagging" (partially suffocating suspects with plastic bags) to extract confessions.
• Denial of Legal Access: Suspects were routinely denied access to solicitors until a confession was obtained.
• Mishandling of Informants: The squad relied heavily on unreliable "supergrass" informants and was alleged to have abused payments to them.
• Management Failures: The squad suffered from poor management, a lack of oversight, and a culture that encouraged shortcuts to achieve high performance, which senior management was aware of but failed to adequately address. 

Notable Wrongful Convictions

The most famous case linked to the squad in the 1970s was the Birmingham pub bombings of 1974. The six men convicted (the Birmingham Six) maintained their innocence and alleged police brutality and fabricated evidence. Their convictions were eventually overturned in 1991, years after the SCS was disbanded. 

Another major case was that of the Bridgewater Four, convicted in 1978 for a murder during a payroll robbery. Their convictions were also later overturned, in 1997, due to police corruption, including a forged confession. 

Aftermath

The SCS was eventually disbanded in 1989 by Chief Constable Geoffrey Dear after growing allegations and an independent report that detailed systemic abuses. An investigation by West Yorkshire Police led to internal disciplinary actions against a small number of officers, but none faced criminal prosecution for their actions within the squad, a decision that attracted widespread criticism. Over 60 convictions involving the SCS have since been quashed on appeal.

......

Interesting that West Yorks escapes but Brummieland doesn't

... that's one for further exploration

... look for "common purpose", "fabian communism"

... Tavistock and Chatham House for starters.

Predictable

... plus there are lessons here for readers to see for themselves. For that reason, this is a good cautionary tale.

There are two admins at OoL ... Julia and myself.  She takes care of the overall, plus comment moderation, I look after the tech side.

As part of that, I expressly agreed with the host that there can be nothing misleading allowed to stay up ... fully agree with that. Sometimes we might run something, or a reader might, which turns out not to be initially, factually, completely so ... this happens on X a fair bit, resulting in a "community note".  However, I've seen a "community note" to a "community note", disagreeing with the first "community note".

To my mind, that's fine, however ludicrous it seems, as it enables readers to see different angles. The one exception is that if something has been thoroughly debunked over a long period, e.g. Net Zero, then it gets short shrift at sane sites such as OoL, Julia's or ours across the way ... sites where we do deep dives, do our homework before mouthing off.

Uh huh.  So what's the issue?  This is:

Now, there's zero point arguing with them as it's a bit like someone trying to get justice for DJT.  So Letitia James flags it, on the phone to Obama, the case is heard in NYC by Jack Smith, with a handpicked anti Trump jury.  Hardly justice, is it?  Zero percentage for the defamed and that's the case with all issues today, e.g. the raped girls seeking justice or the vaxx injured and dead.

So, moving past that ... that post has clearly gone forever ... the more important issue is the toerag or toerags who "flagged" it to a known-known unjust committee and once again, truth bites the dust.

Now, moving even further along, Julia is a libertarian, I am a "classical liberal" in the sense of freedom afap but if there is a clear enemy trying to harm us or in blig terms, a hostile troll ... well it's insanity to allow them. Yes, so there are two readers only on permamoderation, put there by me, plus I request you use a moniker, not Anon by itself, or Unknown. Occasionally the Blgr comments mechanism plays up with that, so it's a fluid situation.

The libertarians and classical liberals can argue this point until the cows come home. It still doesn't alter the situation that some toerag flagged the post and I was given no say, except by kangaroo court or star chamber.

On the other hand, this is a known-known, par for the course ... we makes our choices, we takes our chances.  And we can never be free of trolling.  Just one more thing ... if by some chance anything happened to OoL, you know where Julia blogs from, you know where I do. Keep your eyes open, dear sane reader.

If the people themselves are ecstatic, does that count for nothing?

Seems good reading tactics for any of us to firstly note who's saying it and give a score as to their bias ... just because it's Woke establishment Uniparty MSM ... there might be the occasional snippet which escaped others but by and large ... avoid that lot.

With unknowns, also beware of empire building "new media" types, faux "right" trying to get you to buy them a coffee. They're not involved in truth except as a commodity as part of their burgeoning media empire, as they see it unfolding on your money.

At the same time, out and out trolls abound ... they speak of "Democracy", "The People", taxing "wealth" ... dead giveaway. They want rancour, slanging matches online, bggr up any understanding by us, have us at each other's throats.

So keep eyes open for snippets, almost never delivered in organised fashion in "journo pieces" ... avoid slick "journo pieces" like the plague.

Take this one for example, via NOWP, our Steve:

Is Nick Shirley’s Somali Exposé an Astroturfed Diversion For Special Interests? | https://armageddonprose.substack.com/p/is-nick-shirleys-somali-expose-an

All right, apply all the caveats you've learnt, do due diligence on the writer(s) but by the same token ... interesting viewpoint when combined with this from X:

There's certainly a major game going on and players are keeping cards close to the chest, whilst engaged in subterfuge behind and beneath it.  Maduro?  Sure there are major questions ... bemusing when establishment types suddenly come out about "international law" ... utter bollox.

Yet what are Donny's true motives?  Oil?  Precious minerals?  I can't help thinking it might be all of those, plus his mania to make the US militarily fearsome again, economically too. Crowds of Venezuelans worldwide are an added bonus.

What should we think of the unbridled delight of Venezuelan people?  Well ... first question is ... is the footage real or like all the faux footage of Them?  Paid actors bussed in etc.?

Let's say the Venezuelans in general are delighted, let's say it does bggr up the drug trade a bit, or at least puts it under US letter agency control ... well I for one am forced to go with the Venezuelan people on this one.  Sure it's not cut and dry, sure the people have been fooled before ... look at Reform voters ... but the thing we cannot get past is that they really are the people of the land, the sovereign "owners" of the land.

I don't mean in tricky dicky laws ... yes, we know that Them run it all. I mean in terms of right and wrong.

Ripping Off The UK Taxpayer For Africa!

Almost £1 million of taxpayer cash is being spent on compiling an archive of African films in a ‘reparatory justice’ project. The UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) is paying £850,000 for scholars to explore Africa’s ‘audiovisual heritage’.

Shouldn't take long!  

A further £250,000 is being provided by Oxford, King’s College and Liverpool universities, which are leading the work.

All the virtuesignallers are there with their hands out... 

Scholars also aim to ‘repatriate’ footage currently kept in the ‘Global North’ so that it can be more easily seen by people in Africa. They will take the archives on tour in Africa to ‘sites of encounter with young African creatives’.

I hope when they get to Nigeria they opt to travel by train rather than road. 

AHRC, which hands out £70 million a year in grants, is a subsidiary of UK Research Innovation (UKRI) which is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

No, it's funded by the poor bloody longsuffering taxpayer, actually. 

William Yarwood at the TaxPayers' Alliance added: ‘At a time when families are being squeezed from every angle, pouring almost £1 million into an academic project involving “decolonisation film archives” is staggeringly out of touch.

Which isn't a shock to anyone, but how to stop this drain of our taxes...? 

The dilemma for those Reform/Advance/Rupert inclined at the ballot box

First a bit of housekeeping. Both Julia and I, though close, are still independent to the point we run separate full-on blogs, which do take work, plus we both have a daily presence on X, exchanging banter all day. Grandpa I was in touch with recently and he's more or less retired, the moreso after what the NHS did to his late wife.

I'm not happy that comments of yours can be hours before approving and a few times I've been caught out myself, being tied up in Unherdables biz. I do come into Orphans a few times over the day as it has its own regular reader/commenter base but of course there's also overlap. We try.

...

And so to this thorny topic ... whom to vote for, assuming we'll still be voting next time, given the Fabian, WEFer, EU notion that we're now post-democracy and the blackshirts and white robes are gathering in every town and village to go door to door to slaughter, while the weaponised constabulary go door to door, even through upstairs windows, to arrest and incarcerate.

Having said that, we antiWoke, antiUniparty folk who still pay taxes do have dilemmas regarding voting, should there still be this thing called voting.

In my case, within walking distance of the polling station, there is now extant danger ... gangs of marauding cultists gathered to attack "whites" or "infidels".  They are real, I've seen them, they are marauding, we hear the horror stories as well. Govt answer? Postal vote, after doing the digital ID bit. No way for me ... never have, never will.

Let's imagine I do get to the polling station on an uncancelled polling day and have a ballot paper in my hand, knowing that whatever box I put an X in, this is is/was a solidly red rosette area. To whom should be given the single, solitary X (leaving aside all the fraud, inc. the Electoral Commission?

Well, it depends, does it not, on just who the candidates are. After skipping over any Uniparty LibLabConGreenSocialist names, we're left with the others. One or two are independent, sometimes regulars on the paper but largely unknown to me.  Then come the crucial names ... Reform, Advance, whatever Rupert's one is called. Were there a Jess Gill Women's Safety Initiative lady there, by chance, I'd certainly look at that name to vote for.

Why even turn up?  Well I feel I should, esp. given Starmer in power with 20% of the vote, everything a lie.  The dilemma is summed up by this lady, a very middle middle class taxpayer, in middle England:

Against that is that chap:

Trying to put Rupert in prison by lying and us not liking that, not trusting the cabal at the head of Reform is "smallmindedness", is it?  Just that?  Given this:

Then we need to consider other aspects, inc. Tice and bird in Qatar.

We really do have a dilemma ... and that's before the Tommy factor.

If Someone Doesn't Record A Song Called 'Pink Platypus' To The Tune Of 'Pink Pony Club'

....then I've lost my faith in humanity.

Cody Stylianou thought he saw a huge trout. But, skimming just below the surface, it was moving differently than a fish would. The creature surfaced and, amazed, the Victorian fisher reached for his phone. Swimming in front of him was a pink platypus.

Here come the scientists to cast cold water on a charming concept, though: 

After Stylinaou shared footage of the monotreme, commenters online speculated that it could have been a rare albino platypus. But the biologist Jeff Williams says it is just lighter in colour than what most would expect. “Platypus do vary a lot in colour,” the director of the Australian Platypus Conservancy says. “And this one’s at the extreme end of the light ones. It’s not one that we consider should be added to the list of albino and leucistic ones.”

Oh Jeff, where's your soul...? 

Street scenes in different countries

Greetings on New Year, readers ... Julia spoke for both of us last evening.

We tend at Orphans to run mainly Britcentric fayre but do mention events in other places. Thinking what to put up this morning, what crystallised in the blurry NYD brain was why not post just a few street scenes, including those in Iran, which is the main news coming out at 7:30 a.m. GMT.

Going to post some Brit, one Amsterdam and one Tehran scene below. At Unherdables, I'll expand the Iran situation as a separate post.

Our isles over the past few days

Amsterdam overnight:

Tehran last few days:

Have a wonderful New Year, dear readers ... you are much appreciated.