[NYP] The heartbreaking mass shooting at the Annunciation Catholic Church on Wednesday has brought the issue of transgenderism once again to the forefront of American conversations.
Robert Westman was an unwell boy who, in 2019, decided he was a girl and officially changed his name to Robin.
Westman was a minor at the time so his mother, Mary Grace Weston, signed the application.
This is the second such attack by a transgender person on a Christian school.
[Erick Erickson] Everything has a political angle now. The left gets worked up by a jeans ad. The right gets worked up by Cracker Barrel removing both the cracker and the barrel from their logo. Red and blue, colors on the light spectrum and in nature, are now political. A 23-year-old transgender gunman killing children is political. The prayers offered are maligned as useless. It is all political.
My radio show is, when aired live, midday. I intended to talk about the Democrats and crime and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik convincing President Donald Trump we need 600,000 Chinese students in our universities. I had a humorous soundbite from Secretary of State Rubio begging Trump to issue an executive order banning Saturday weddings during college football season. Instead of all that, I had to narrate over an evil act.
While that was happening, my daughter, in college, was texting. She was barricaded in a classroom with an active shooter on her college campus. The students had moved a chair to the door handle to make it difficult to open, and were contemplating moving the bookcases. Unlike the events in Minnesota, the events on her college campus were inspired by a phone call that turned out to be fake. A series of such calls has plagued college campuses around the nation in the past week.
Through it all, news of the shooter came out. He had transitioned to female. He had used a picture of Jesus as target practice. He had written "where is your God now" on the gun magazine and "kill Donald Trump" on the barrel. He was depraved. He became another transgender shooter at a Christian school, having barricaded the children into a church at mass and begun firing through the windows.
I gave the Mayor of Minneapolis a pass for scoffing at people offering prayers. Children in his city just died. He was under stress, and his emotions were raw. People online excoriated him. He needed some grace to grieve and be angry. I gave him no such pass when, in the evening, he went on CNN to condemn those who might attack the transgender community. Were the shooter a Trump supporter, you and I both know he would be blasting the president and his supporters. The Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, just a year ago, wore a trans-rights t-shirt with a knife on it that implied using violence against those who oppose the trans-community. The transgender murderer had a sticker on his manifesto implying the use of violence to defend the trans community.
Posted by: Grom the Affective ||
08/29/2025 04:21 ||
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#1
Were the shooter a Trump supporter, you and I both know he would be blasting the president and his supporters.
#4
People are running out of patience with hate, folks are subject to what they are told. The narrative of the left is hate Trump, hate God, they don't deserve to live. I blame the pandering and narrative driving press. Unfortunately, until we have a catalyzing event, this will continue.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/29/2025 10:42 Comments ||
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#5
I quit being Lutheran as Minnesota is in control of that sect and it's now fully woke.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Malek Dudakov
A view from Russia.
[REGNUM] Transgender madness continues to divide American society. Sometimes it leads to serious tragedies. This is what happened in Minnesota.
There was a so-called "shooting" (mass shooting) at a local Catholic school.
It was arranged by a transgender person who was obviously mentally unstable. He did not hide his liberal beliefs, coupled with his hatred of the current government, represented by Donald Trump.
A Minnesota criminal carried out a "gender change" from male to female back in 2020. He targeted the school where his mother worked.
In his manifesto, the shooter criticized Trump, Elon Musk and Israel.
In Minneapolis, where the tragedy occurred, the crime situation remains very problematic. It was there that the BLM pogroms began in the summer of 2020, after which the decision was made to sharply reduce the police force.
The night before the shooting was very tense due to rampant crime, so there were few available police units. They arrived late to the scene of the shooting and were unable to stop the murder of children.
The shooter eventually committed suicide - he apparently had long had suicidal tendencies and had already mentally said goodbye to life. The criminal was "inspired" by other school attackers - both in the US and in Russia.
The Democrats in charge of the state immediately placed responsibility for the tragedy on Trump and the Republicans, who, they say, are creating an “atmosphere of hatred” in the United States towards sexual minorities.
Minnesota declared itself a “transgender sanctuary” back in 2023 and passed laws that could lead to prison terms for discrimination against them.
Moreover, the current tragedy is far from the first case of terror by “special people”.
In 2023, a similar crime occurred in Tennessee, which was one of the first states to begin restricting the corresponding “subpoena.” In response, one of the transgender people attacked a Catholic school and killed several children. In this way, he allegedly protested against the “infringement of rights.”
And in Colorado, they managed to arrest another transgender person who wanted to start shootings in several religious schools and churches at once.
The detainee tried to assemble a bomb and print a weapon on a 3D printer. In his stash they found a lot of anti-Trump propaganda and even the Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels.
But at least it's all coming to light: During Joe Biden's presidency, the US government has tried to ignore any cases of violence against transgender people.
Although even then, law enforcement agencies recognized them as one of the main radicalized groups of the population in America. They have mental problems en masse, which are then exacerbated by the use of hormonal drugs. Therefore, these citizens can suddenly break down and organize something like an attack on schools.
However, until very recently, transgender people have not received as much attention from law enforcement as, for example, radical Islamists or far-right neo-Nazis. Now the situation is clearly starting to change.
The White House is already characterizing what is happening as a campaign of terror against Catholics. For many in Trump’s team, it has personal significance, too, as they include many conservative Catholics, including current Vice President J.D. Vance.
And in the six months since Trump's inauguration, the American government has begun to gradually tighten the screws on the transgender lobby.
The first thing trans people did was ban them from serving in the US Armed Forces. Although they had previously been lured there by the opportunity to undergo free gender reassignment surgeries at the Pentagon's expense. Then the Trump administration also canceled federal subsidies for hormone therapy.
This immediately hit the finances of many hospitals specializing in gender reassignment surgeries. They began to close - in the spring and summer of 2025 alone, several dozen children's institutions oriented towards transgender people went bankrupt.
There have been many scandals surrounding such medical institutions, where hormonal therapy was actively imposed on minors, often without taking into account the opinions of parents. In some states, such as California, doctors were even prohibited from telling parents that their child wanted to change their gender.
Doctors who perform surgeries to change it admitted that it is a very profitable business for them. After all, the procedure itself costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then the person becomes addicted to very expensive hormonal drugs for life.
Many are later disappointed in their choice, faced with acute health problems. Children are the first to be hit, as they are stuffed with special puberty blockers that prevent them from growing normally.
But in “democratic” states, the transgender agenda begins to be introduced from a very early age – sometimes even to first-graders as young as six or seven years old.
In the "republican" states, a major campaign has been launched to ban sex change operations on minors. Just this year, the US Supreme Court made a landmark decision that allowed individual states to restrict transgenderism among children. About two dozen American states are already striving for this.
The attitude of society, tired of the promotion of racial and gender ideology, has also changed quite significantly.
Currently, most Americans perceive transgender people in a negative light, and their lifestyle is considered immoral.
Two-thirds of the US population opposes gender reassignment surgeries for minors and transgender participation in women's sports. Trump's team has already promised not to issue visas to America to "trans" athletes.
In the States, there have been numerous scandals over how they won women's competitions, such as running or swimming. They may have lower testosterone, but their muscle structure still distinguishes former men from female athletes and gives them a significant advantage.
At the upcoming 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, we will certainly see real battles around the possibility of transgender people participating in competitions.
American big business also sensed which way the wind was blowing and became less active in sponsoring the radical “agenda.” This year’s gay prides (the international LGBT public movement is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) faced a shortage of funds due to the outflow of corporate sponsors.
On the contrary, many big brands like Nike have started to release more family-oriented ads. Disney is ditching transgender characters in its upcoming films.
The pendulum of public sentiment has swung in the other direction, and now the opportunity to use gender reassignment as a kind of social lift is closing.
This should quite predictably lead to a reduction in the proportion of transgender people in the US population. Although it will be quite difficult to reverse the processes that have been running for 10-15 years. Over the past decade, the number of those who have undergone gender reassignment has increased by 1000% among boys and by 4400% among girls. A multi-billion dollar industry has already formed around them.
Big Pharma corporations make a lot of money by getting Americans hooked on hormonal drugs.
In the past, the same process was used to push painkillers and antidepressants, which led to the current drug crisis in the United States. It kills 100,000 Americans every year. The consequences of the transgender crisis will probably be no less dire.
However, Trump's team is determined to go all the way in this matter, realizing that public opinion is on their side. It is not for nothing that the White House recently announced a campaign to improve the health of Americans.
And the current wave of transgender violence only adds to the arguments of those who want to curb the racial and gender rampage in the United States.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
[ColonelCassad] A mass shooting at a school in Minneapolis.
A ghoul killed two children, aged 8 and 10, wounded 17 more people (14 of them children), and then committed suicide.
The attack was carried out by a transgender anti-Semite. According to American media, the killer's name after a gender change is Robin Westman.
On his weapon, which he photographed before the attack, were the inscriptions "6 million (Jews killed in the Holocaust) are not enough", "Israel must fall", and a call to kill US President Trump.
The famous ghoul killed himself. The plot sounds like another season of the TV series "Fargo".
Of course, this episode will be used in the domestic political struggle in the United States. Trumpists will now be able to point out with even more arguments that Trump is doing the right thing by expelling transgender people from the army and government agencies, and the Democratic Party will be accused of creating the ground for domestic terrorism and anti-Semitism (which is especially valuable, given the accusations of Trump and Co. of close ties with Israel).
They can also, if they wish, draw parallels with those characters who tried to kill Trump on the basis of "ideological hatred." So this story will certainly hit the Democrats. And the transgenders that have spawned under Biden will be suppressed even more actively.
Opening and closing presented here. Recommended tactics can be read at the link, which all you military amateurs and professionals can much better judge than I.
[NewsMax] The Regime of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro Is Facing 'Choke Points of Collapse'
Three U.S. warships, a nuclear submarine, and a Marine detachment are sliding into the Caribbean. By themselves they cannot bring down Nicolas Maduro, but they can blockade ports, choke resupply, and cripple the refineries and substations that keep his state on life support.
This is not mere signaling; it's escalation.
Across Venezuela’s border, Gustavo Petro has suspended extraditions, voided arrest warrants for drug lords, and bound Colombia's institutions closer to Caracas.
Maduro now speaks openly of uniting both militaries — a narco-political axis taking shape in real time.
To wait is to let that axis harden.
To act while Venezuela’s forces remain brittle and fuel-starved is to strike when the cost is lowest and the effect most decisive.
On paper the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, assessed at around 120–130,000 active personnel, retain the appearance of a conventional military.
In reality, they are hollow at the core, structured more to preserve the regime than to defend the state. The Army makes this clearest.
Armored and mechanized formations are concentrated not along viable approach corridors but in the Maracay-Valencia axis, positioned to secure the capital region.
The T-72B1V fleet, delivered by Russia, constitutes the notional strike force, with legacy AMX-30Vs still lingering in reserve.
Yet sanctions, spares scarcity, and accumulated maintenance debt mean that a meaningful fraction of these inventories is non-mission-capable at any given time.
Even the serviceable hulls remain effectively tethered to central depots and to a road network where a single collapsed bridge can immobilize entire columns.
In the Llanos the mismatch between equipment and terrain is even starker: tracked armor bogs down in seasonal floods, wheeled vehicles are restricted to a thin lattice of paved roads, and maneuver becomes canalized for months at a time.
The lived geography of Apure’s plains ensures that hydrology immobilizes Venezuelan forces more reliably than any opposing fire plan.
The Air Force, though more visible in parades and flyovers, suffers the same structural fragility. Its combat wing rests on three pillars: Su-30MK2s at Barcelona, an aging cadre of U.S.-supplied F-16A/Bs at Maracay, and Chinese K-8 trainers sometimes pressed into light-attack roles.
The Su-30s were meant to symbolize a leap into modernity, yet sustained flight operations consume tons of fuel per hour and depend on refining and distribution systems that Venezuela cannot keep reliably online.
The force also lacks modern enablers: there is no publicly evidenced AWACS, no reliable tanker fleet, and no robust spares pipeline.
Even when Russia provides episodic support, availability rates remain low. What exists on paper is not what can be flown in the air.
Fuel is the ceiling that defines all. Each Su-30 patrol demands steady kerosene throughput that the Paraguaná refining system — Amuay and Cardón — can rarely provide.
For years the complex has lurched from fire to blackout, forcing shutdowns that ripple into prolonged aviation-fuel scarcity.
As a result, the Air Force is constrained less by pilot hours than by refinery uptime and trucking stability.
The Navy has collapsed still further, reduced to little more than a symbolic flotilla.
The Mariscal Sucre frigates lie inactive, with one dismantled entirely, while the service relies on Guaiquerí-class OPVs and smaller Guaicamacuto-class patrol craft.
These vessels can show the flag, interdict smugglers, and participate in sovereignty displays such as the recent Guyana crisis, but they lack the sensors, magazines, and depth of a combat fleet. They float, but they do not fight.
The deeper pathology is political.
Under Chávez and Maduro the officer corps ballooned far beyond operational necessity, with promotion tied to loyalty rather than competence.
Procurement became a form of patronage: Russian armor and Chinese systems arrived in impressive quantities on paper, but sustainment pipelines never matched the headlines.
Units routinely cannibalize vehicles just to keep a few operational.
Western platforms — most visibly the F-16s and Italian naval systems — were orphaned by sanctions, while Russian technical support arrives episodically and is directed toward prestige systems.
The result is a force of symbols without depth: fleets that cannot regenerate, designed less to fight for the state than to guard the regime center.
Beneath these institutional distortions lies the more elemental vulnerability of logistics. Venezuela’s constraint is not manpower or hardware but the fuel required to move and sustain them.
Civilian rationing has long since penetrated the barracks: in 2019 Lara capped purchases at thirty liters per week, Caracas later limited subsidized sales to around 120 liters per month, and border states like Zulia and Táchira have faced recurring outages.
In conclusion:
Collapse can be measured against thresholds.
If the Su-30 fleet drops below four flyable aircraft, nationwide air defense becomes irrelevant. If refinery throughput remains under 80,000 barrels per day for 45 days, Caracas faces unmanageable fuel shortages.
If blackouts in Caracas extend beyond ninety-six hours, colectivos abandon regime duties to protect their families.
And if convoys across the Urdaneta Bridge are interdicted for 10 consecutive days, Zulia’s brigades become combat-ineffective.
These are not abstractions but empirical markers of systemic unraveling — the military, infrastructural, and social strands of the Venezuelan state collapsing in sequence.
#2
...Read How To Make War by Jim Dunnigan and Austin Bay - it's a SUPERB explanation as to how things work in war.
One thing they discuss is the concept of a Police Army - a force with reasonably modern equipment and firepower that is intended more to keep the locals quiet than actually do anything, you know, military. Early 80s Argentina - the one dumb enough to take on the UK - is the classic example. Venezuela is in the same vein, and adding Colombia to the mix just means more targets.
And FWIW, I think this is just to get Nicky's attention. His response so far has been exactly what I would have expected. But if we send a CVBG - or even an LHA with a squadron of F-35s - then we're not kidding around.
#3
I did joint exercises with the Venezuelan navy in the 90’s before Chavez. One of their two main ships had an engine issue that meant it could only go half speed. It had been like that for several years. I don’t think that their equipment will be in better shape today.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/29/2025 6:52 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I wonder what the Trump admin's reason for putting massive pressure on the fragile Maduro regime is.
#6
I wonder what the Trump admin's reason for putting massive pressure on the fragile Maduro regime is.
I have heard tales of small time piracy against yachts. And then there are the submarines full of cocaine headed for the American market.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/29/2025 13:08 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Nice little exercise to push your 'stuff' to the edge. See what actually will move and stay in one piece. Nothing tests 'penciled in' status reports more than real world events. When the Soviets went in against the upstart Czechs in '68, half their gear was strewed from their bases to the border. We saw the later Russian attempt to take Kiev.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] In the Volgograd region, no events were officially announced to mark the anniversary of the deportation of the Volga Germans. Descendants of the deportees called these events a tragedy that broke the fates of many families.
As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, in October 2021, the descendants of the repressed said that even 80 years after the deportation of the Volga Germans from Volgograd, the question of the validity of the actions of the Soviet authorities remains open. Some of the deportees, after returning, found their homes occupied and settled in other territories, said members of the German community in the village of Verkhniy Yeruslan in the Volgograd region.
The Autonomous Republic of the Volga Germans was liquidated in the second month after the German invasion of the USSR. On August 28, 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree on the resettlement of Germans living in the Volga region. According to this decree, about a million people were sent to Kazakhstan, Siberia and Central Asia, others were mobilized into labor armies. The deported and mobilized Germans died en masse from exhaustion, disease and unbearable working and living conditions.
The Chairman of the Committee for Information Policy of the Volgograd Administration, Maxim Banov, in response to a request from the "Caucasian Knot", reported that, as of August 25, "no applications for approval of any events dedicated to the memory of the victims of the deportation of the Volga Germans have been received by the Volgograd Administration from public organizations or citizen initiative groups." The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was also informed at the Old Sarepta German Culture Museum-Reserve (Volgograd) that they will not be holding any events dedicated to this mournful date.
It was not possible to obtain information from the public organization National-Cultural Autonomy of Germans of Volgograd, as their phones were not answered.
Volgograd historian Andrei Kudinov believes that events dedicated to the victims of Stalin's repressions and deportations have been "not in favor" in Volgograd in recent years.
"It is not only unacceptable, but also unsafe to talk about the topics of repression, Stalin's terror, and deportations lately. It is easy to fall under some justification of extremism or Nazism. If earlier the city and regional administration itself organized events in memory of the victims of Stalin's terror, then recently nothing like this has happened," said Andrei Kudinov.
A "Caucasian Knot" correspondent interviewed the descendants of German colonists deported from the Lower Volga region in August 1941. The journalist was interested in the answers to the questions: have the Russian authorities provided and are providing assistance to organizations and the descendants of the repressed themselves, are there any payments.
Nadya Horn is a descendant of Volga Germans. She currently lives in Germany. She moved to Germany with her family with the status of "late migrants". Her family members left Russia gradually - in different years. The first ones left in 1993.
"My entire family lives in Germany. We have never received any assistance from the Russian authorities. In Germany, we received assistance upon arrival, but the later the move, the less compensation," Nadya said.
Alina Liberman told the journalist that she does not know about German organizations in Russia. Her grandfather, who was deported, did not receive any payments from the Russian government. "My grandfather has the status of rehabilitated, no benefits. He says that he himself did not apply anywhere due to his character. Perhaps he could have received. At least, I heard that it was possible at one time. Neither I nor my grandfather know about such organizations, but a long time ago (about 30 years ago) a German woman I knew went and found out something about rehabilitation, benefits, etc. Again, my grandfather is not sure whether it was a public assistance organization or just some kind of government agency," the girl said.
Elena Emrikh has also recently been living in Germany. She told the journalist that, according to her mother, relatives in Russia receive compensation payments of about 2,000 rubles per month. Her mother also has a rehabilitation certificate.
"And sometimes free admission to museums or a discounted ticket. They return 50% of utility bills. And they pay for travel around Russia once a year, wherever you want, but on trains," the girl said.
She knows of two major organizations of Russian Germans, which she believes are the most well-known and influential among her diaspora: the International Union of German Culture (IUCN) and "specialized associations, including the German Youth Association (DJA)."
The girls told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about the tragedy of their families during the years of deportation. Elena Emrikh collected information about her ancestors from stories of relatives, she also made inquiries to archives. Elena's grandfather, Nikolai Aleksandrovich, was born in 1930 in the city of Marksstadt (since 1942, Marx) in the Saratov region. After the publication of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the resettlement of Germans living in the Volga region on August 28, 1941, the Emrikh family (mother Robert Anna Ivanovna and five children) along with the general mass of their compatriots was deported to Siberia - to Tomsk.
"My grandfather was 10 years old at the time. Unfortunately, their mother fell into an ice hole while crossing a river and died some time later. Three of the five children were taken to an orphanage, which was located in the village of Aleksandrovskoye in the north of Tomsk Oblast. As for my great-grandfather (grandfather's father) Emmerich (original form of the surname) Aleksandr Andreevich, all that is known is that he was taken by NKVD officers in 1938 (he was repressed as an enemy of the people). He most likely died there, and his grave is unknown," Elena said.
On August 2, 1955, Alexander Andreevich's daughter Elizaveta (born in 1926) filed a request with the state security agencies, trying to find out the fate of her father, Elena explained. The woman received the following response: "Emrikh Alexander Andreevich was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment on August 5, 1938, and his whereabouts are unknown." What the great-grandfather was convicted of, what charges were brought against him, how he died - the family never received answers to these questions.
Nikolai Aleksandrovich told his granddaughter that when he was already an adult, before his rehabilitation he reported monthly to the NKVD department in Tomsk. At that time, he did not have the right to leave the country, she said.
"There is even a document that he signed, stating that he understands that it is forbidden to leave the place of exile, otherwise - 20 years of hard labor. According to documents from the archives, we had a slightly different surname. The NKVD shortened it. For example, the surname was originally Emmerich. And the names were slightly different - German. Grandfather's older sister Emrich Elizaveta and her husband, Mikhail Weber, were allowed to leave for Kazakhstan due to illness (after rehabilitation)," Elena said.
Elena's mother (born in 1955) and her aunt Svetlana Nikolaevna (born in 195) were rehabilitated. The aunt recalled that it was difficult for her to adapt to school with a German surname. "They called her a fascist. By the way, my distant relative is still being bullied at school, called a fascist," the interlocutor was indignant.
Nikolai Aleksandrovich lived in Tomsk all his life, including after rehabilitation. He was buried there. Since Elena's grandfather had three children and seven years of education, the question of higher education did not arise. He was a worker at the Tomsk flour mill. Nikolai Aleksandrovich worked there almost all his life. His wife (Elena's grandmother) was Russian. Since she was the only daughter, there were practically no relatives. "Grandmother kept her maiden name when registering the marriage in order to avoid a mark in the NKVD commandant's office," Elena noted.
"It is surprising that, having overcome many difficulties and humiliations, my grandfather Emrich Nikolai did not want to leave for Germany after rehabilitation. It is probably difficult to start all over again. And the German language had already been forgotten," Elena Emrich concluded her story.
Chelyabinsk native Alina Liberman lost her parents early. From the age of 10, she was raised by her grandmother Nelly and grandfather Lev. Alina's grandfather Lev (Leo) Schil was born in 1936 in the village of Gebel (Ust-Gryaznukha). Now this village administratively belongs to the Kamyshinsky district of the Volgograd region. Lev was not the firstborn in the Schil family. The first children died during the famine in the early 1930s. When Stalin issued a deportation decree, the Schil family - father Ivan (Johan), mother Kristina and newborn brother Alexander - were sent to the village of Cherlak in the Omsk region.
"People were transported in the train like cattle. It was cramped, there was not enough food. My great-grandmother was in the last stages of pregnancy then. She gave birth to Uncle Sasha in September already in Cherlak. What it was like for her to be pregnant with a young son in her arms in that train, it is scary to even imagine. Grandfather remembers those days when he first found himself in a completely Russian-speaking environment. He did not know how to talk to the local children, how to find out the name of the dog from the owners. But gradually, imperceptibly for himself, he mastered the new language and began to use it freely," said Alina.
Soon, Alina's great-grandfather, like other adult men and women, was sent to a Trudarmiya labor camp. Alina's great-grandmother managed to avoid this call-up, since her youngest son Sasha was a baby. At that time, there was a regulation: if all the children in the family reached three years old, then both the father and mother were taken to the Labor Army. "So my grandfather's cousins, aged three and five, were left in the care of neighbors for a long time. It's fortunate that decent people helped the girls survive, and both parents returned alive after the war," the interviewee noted.
The head of the family was mobilized into the Labor Army, Lev, his brother Alexander and mother remained in the village of Cherlak, the three of them. They lived in a roommate's house with a single woman, with whom they worked and helped each other survive during the difficult wartime.
"They fished, felled trees, prepared firewood to keep warm and feed themselves in the Siberian frosts. There were almost no men left in the village, and the women did all the work themselves. Later, the Shil's lived at the village hospital - great-grandmother worked as a cleaner, receiving a roof over their heads, bread, food. Grandfather, as a child, also worked - looked after the head doctor's horse: harnessed it, took it to pasture, drove the cart when the doctor went to patients' homes," Alina said about the life of her ancestors in Siberia.
Her great-grandfather Ivan spent three years in the Labor Army in the northernmost point of the Sverdlovsk region. She assumed it was a logging camp. The conditions there were "horrible, especially in winter." In the pre-war years, her great-grandfather worked as a collector: he traveled to Russian settlements, and could speak and write Russian. This helped him get a job as a clerk in the camp, and saved him from hard labor. He managed to survive and stay healthy.
"During his exile, my great-grandfather met a young woman, Dina, who was also in this camp. They began a relationship. When the war ended, and then the labor exile, my great-grandfather was able to return to his family. He was released on December 31, 1945. By that time, Dina had become pregnant, and their relationship continued. They both ended up in Chelyabinsk. My great-grandfather found his wife and children, moved them from Siberia to the Urals, and managed to get a room nearby so he could continue to take care of his sons. Of course, the Shiel family was destroyed, my great-grandmother was in despair over her breakup with her husband, but, as my relatives say, she never blamed him. She said that the war was to blame for everything, and humbly accepted this reality. But at first, she would simply come home after work, lie down and could not get up," Alina said.
Alina's grandfather, brother and mother lived not far from her father and his new family. The father did not abandon his sons, he brought money and food. Lev helped his father with the shoemaking business - together they sewed slippers and took them to the market to sell. This is how Lev Shil earned money for his first suit, which he wore to school.
"After Stalin's death, restrictions were gradually lifted for Germans. My great-grandfather and his family moved from Chelyabinsk first to Kazakhstan, where his second wife's relatives lived, and then to Kalmykia. My grandfather had reached the age of conscription by that time and was incredibly happy that Russian Germans were allowed to serve in the army on an equal basis with other citizens. This conscription was the first for young people of German nationality, which is why it was truly special for my grandfather. They also abolished the humiliating checks on residence. Now it was possible to move more freely between cities. Previously, in order to visit relatives in Kopeysk (a city adjacent to Chelyabinsk), it was necessary to obtain permission. Now my grandfather could calmly visit his uncle and his family," Alina said.
Alina Liberman and Elena Emrich emphasized that after rehabilitation, the ancestors were not allowed to return to their former places of residence for a long time; all lost property - houses, lands - remained in someone else's ownership.
The Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On the resettlement of Germans living in the Volga region" did not correspond to the then current Constitution of 1936, believes lawyer and expert in international law Roman Melnichenko.
"According to the Decree, it was prescribed: "to resettle all Volga Germans", that is, the rights of a certain national group were diminished. According to Article 123 of the Constitution: "Any direct or indirect restriction of the rights of citizens depending on their racial and national affiliation is punishable by law." That is, the Decree contradicted the Constitution, and the Volga Germans should be legally considered illegally repressed," the lawyer explained.
The logic of the Decree itself, according to Melnichenko, does not stand up to any criticism and is presented by a logical chain of three links. First, there is reliable information that there are saboteurs among the Volga Germans. Second, the Volga Germans do not inform the authorities about the saboteurs. Third, if there are sabotage, then our agencies will in response destroy all the Volga Germans indiscriminately.
"The conclusion is that in order to save the Volga Germans from the Russian punitive organs, they must be evicted. This is such Jesuit logic," Roman noted.
"It is significant that from the standpoint of international law, this eviction was not an offense, since only peaceful citizens of another state who fell under occupation enjoy international legal protection. The Volga Germans were citizens of the USSR and could not count on international protection," concluded Roman Melnichenko.
[American Liberty] To blame a company for being partially owned by BlackRock is to mistake how modern capital markets function. BlackRock’s business model is built on exchange-traded funds. An ETF is designed to replicate a stock index by owning small shares of nearly every company in that index. This is not a matter of choice in the ordinary sense. If BlackRock manages a fund tracking the S&P 500, it must purchase and hold shares of every company in that index. That means BlackRock owns stock in roughly 85—90% of all public companies in the US, with average stakes of less than 10%. The companies have no say in the matter. They cannot reject BlackRock as a shareholder, nor can they prevent their shares from being included in index-tracking funds. Ownership in this sense is automatic, structural, and unavoidable.
For this reason, when one learns that BlackRock owns shares of a given company, that fact alone says nothing about the virtue or vice of the company itself. The company is no more complicit in BlackRock’s ideology than a grocery store is responsible for the political beliefs of the shoppers who buy milk from its shelves. The company’s board and management do not invite BlackRock in. They simply exist in a marketplace where the largest asset manager in the world happens to be a nearly universal shareholder. Confusing this structural fact with moral culpability is a category mistake.
The real issue lies elsewhere. BlackRock’s influence does not stem from controlling boards or directly managing companies. BlackRock does not, as a rule, take board seats. Its power comes from how it votes its shares. Even a 9% block can swing outcomes in a shareholder vote, particularly in a climate where many proposals hinge on slim margins. When BlackRock aligns its votes across thousands of companies, it can impose a sweeping ideological agenda across the entire economy. This is precisely how ESG, environmental, social, and governance mandates, have been injected into corporate America.
The harm of ESG begins with the nature of the metrics themselves. ESG is not a neutral set of financial criteria. It reflects subjective judgments about environmental policies, social initiatives, and governance structures. A company might be penalized for producing affordable energy from fossil fuels, or for failing to meet arbitrary diversity quotas, regardless of whether those practices maximize shareholder value. This diverts resources from profitability into politically fashionable projects. Instead of focusing on innovation, efficiency, and customer service, companies are pressed to produce reports, hire consultants, and redesign operations to meet ESG targets.
#2
They could certainly short a stock knowing the timing and possible negative impact of a damaging ad campaign that they championed. If the stupid rebrands continue, somebody will be shorting.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/29/2025 6:59 Comments ||
Top||
From May, but I think the analysis still holds. Key bits:
[DanielSpeaksUp] This may be the first “genocide” in history in which the population GREW significantly larger.
The Palestinian population in Gaza grew significantly since October 7, 2023 according to data from the CIA World Factbook. This includes the time period of Israel’s defensive war against the Hamas terror organization: which terror apologists (falsely) call a “genocide.” Indeed, this may be the first “genocide” in history in which the population grew massively larger.
Published by America’s Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA World Factbook shows a population in Gaza over the past three years of: 2022: 1,997,328; 2023: 2,098,389; and 2024: 2,141,643. This indicates a growth rate in Gaza over the past year of 2.06%, which is more than double the US growth rate during the same period, at only 0.98%.
How is it possible that Gaza’s population grew so much over the past year?
Quite simply because Israel has been so incredibly cautious in its defensive military campaign against Hamas, and has provided such an overwhelming amount of humanitarian aid, that the number of people who died in Gaza was actually LESS than the number of new babies born. In fact, in Gaza, both birth rates (26.8/1000) and life expectancy (75.5 years) remain among the highest in the world, even during the current conflict.
…Argument: The vast majority of casualties in Gaza are women and children.
Reality: No. Updated figures from Hamas’ “Gaza Ministry of Health” reveal that most casualties in Gaza were actually men of combat age. Independent and Israeli analyses have always shown this to be the case, and now, even Hamas figures agree.
This means the widespread myth that most casualties in Gaza are “women and children” is supported by…literally nothing.
Argument: Over 50,000 people died in Gaza, making it one of the most deadly conflicts in history.
Reality: The Hamas terror organization, which is notoriously unreliable, claims a figure around that scale. Even if accurate, that number is far less than other conflicts in the region, such as Syria (over 650,000), Yemen (over 230,0000), and Afghanistan (over 270,000). In fact, the number of casualties in Gaza is so low that it is less than Gaza’s birth rate during the same period. Indeed, the civilian to combatant casualty ratio in Gaza is the among the lowest in human history for a conflict of this type, nine times less than the UN published global average, and experts note that Israel has set an entirely new standard for the level of care that is possible in urban warfare.
Argument: Death toll in Gaza is similar to the Holocaust on a per capita basis.
Answer: No. Throughout the six years between 1939 and 1945 the Jewish population of Europe decreased by over 60% and now, nearly a century later, the world Jewish population still has not fully recovered. (The global Jewish population on the eve of the Holocaust in 1939 stood at 16.9 Million, versus today, at only 15.8 Million.) By contrast, the Palestinian population in Gaza is among the fastest GROWING in the world, even now, during the current conflict.
Argument: The attacks of October 7 were the equivalent to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and an example of “resistance” which is permitted under international law.
Answer: No. Though we have written this numerous times in the past, it bears repeating: October 7, 2023 saw the largest murder of Jews since the Holocaust, as the Hamas terror organization, along with Palestinian civilians and U.N. staff, invaded Israel, killed over 1,200 people in approximately six hours, and took 251 hostage, all while committing mass torture, beheadings, and mass rape.
The pace of murder in that six hour period is hard to comprehend: had Hamas continued to kill at that rate (as it had intended), then by today, the death toll in Israel would would have reached over 2.7 Million - an even faster pace of killing than that achieved by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
#2
There is likely an influx of military aged men, reporters and other stupid people. Some it is probably lying.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/29/2025 7:04 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Ismail Al-Dahdouh and Zaki (Zakaria — the actor in the BBC documentary later exposed for its deep ties to Hamas) boast about food and luxury in northern Gaza, despite reports of the area suffering the highest level of famine. pic.twitter.com/IreSpuyBag
— GAZAWOOD - the PALLYWOOD saga (@GAZAWOOD1) August 29, 2025
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
