Can France resist tribalism?

Albert Camus agonised over his divided country

Algeria haunts France as Ireland haunts Britain. The spectres of its history have proved just as hard, or harder, to confront. Imagine, for example, that the Bloody Sunday killings of January 1972 had taken place not in Derry but around Parliament Square. Imagine that armed security forces had killed not 14 peaceful protestors but an estimated 200. Imagine that many bodies were then dumped into the Thames from Westminster Bridge. Imagine, too, that this state atrocity had been dropped into a pit of denial that lasted for half a century. And that a British leader’s eventual, modest admission that these events had been “inexcusable” still provoked howls of outrage.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inFrance

US intelligence errors helped build myth of Nazi Alpine redoubt, says historian

A US spymaster inadvertently helped the Nazis develop one of the most effective disinformation campaigns of the second world war by spreading rumours about Hitler’s plans for a Where Eagles Dare-style Alpine redoubt, a historian with access to classified US military records has found.

The myth that the Nazis were amassing weapons and crack units of 100,000 fanatical soldiers in the spring of 1945 for a last stand in the Austro-Bavarian Alps was without any basis in fact but had a powerful hold on the imagination of American and British military leaders, who feared it could prolong the war for years.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWW II, WW II History

The Complicated History of Jews in America

Judah Benjamin

The Jewish historical narrative in America has, for the most part, been written and shaped by the great wave of Jewish immigrants that arrived in our nation around the turn of the 20th Century. That this wave has had a huge impact on American life and culture is undeniable. But it is not the entire history of Jews in America—far from it. Jews arrived on the heels of the earliest American settlers, primarily making their homes in Charleston, South Carolina, which was a religiously tolerant city, welcoming various Protestant sects, Catholics, and Jews alike. Today that seems common enough, but it certainly wasn’t in the 1600’s, especially in the Massachusetts Bay Colony where even many Protestants were not welcome, much less Catholics and Jews.

This is an interesting piece, religious tolerance in the Confederacy? Who knew!

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAnti-Semitism, USA

People are dying, but not the ones you think for the reasons you think

While the mainstream media, at least in 2020, tracked deaths with the fanaticism of an insurance company, they’ve always lacked accuracy. That’s why it matters when a major American insurance company, which is in the business of accurate data about deaths, announces that Americans in the 18–64 age bracket are dying in unprecedented numbers. The same data suggest that these aren’t COVID deaths, which makes them much more sinister.

OneAmerica is a major insurance company located in Indianapolis with annual revenue of around $2 billion and total assets of around $74 billion. This is not a fly-by-night internet “insurance” company.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA, WTF?

Woman strips down to her underwear to use her dress as a facemask at ice cream store in Argentina

This is the moment a fearless woman entered an Argentinian ice-cream parlour in her undies because she wanted to use her dress as a face mask to be served.

The bizarre scene was filmed in the city of Godoy Cruz in the western Argentine province of Mendoza at around 10.40pm on January 1.

In the CCTV footage, a father and his three daughters are seen approaching the counter to place their order as the woman enters the parlour, apparently in her undies.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China eats weird animals disease", WTF?

Israeli military to roll out all-women combat platoon – reports

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is reportedly creating a new women-only combat unit for religious female soldiers who want to serve on the frontlines but have “modesty” concerns about being in close quarters with male troops.

Beginning in March, the military will assign conscripts from women enlisting for combat roles into the new platoon, which will be established within an existing, mixed-gender border defense unit, according to the Times of Israel. The IDF said the move to allow more women to serve in fighting units was based on practical considerations and not a “social agenda,” according to the Times.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

Lockdown has destroyed the Australian spirit

This once easy-going country has become illiberal, mistrustful and divided.

Australia is currently ranked 104th in the world for coronavirus deaths – a victory of sorts in the eyes of the laptop class which now runs much of our lives. Yet the cost of this achievement is incalculably high and the damage to civil society may never be fully repaired. The ever-changing list of petty edicts has tugged at the threads of the social fabric in countless ways, and Australia is a less companionable country as a result.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China eats weird animals disease"

CAIR Files Discrimination Lawsuit Against Missouri Gun Range

“Islamophobia” is reaching epidemic proportions in Old Joe Biden’s America: the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Independence, Mo. law firm of Baldwin & Vernon filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday, claiming that Frontier Justice, a gun store and firing range in the Kansas City suburb of Lee’s Summit, discriminated against a Muslim woman, Rania Barakat, when it wouldn’t allow her to use the range while she was wearing her hijab.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Islamophobia", CAIR, Islam's 5th Column, Islamization of the West, USA

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes found guilty on some fraud charges

Holmes was unanimously found guilty of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She was found not guilty of four more charges and the jury could not reach a decision on three additional fraud charges.

She faces up to 20 years in prison for each charge, though it’s likely they would be served concurrently. A sentencing date hasn’t been given and it’s not clear if she will be placed into custody immediately in the meantime. Court watchers have said it’s likely Holmes will appeal.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCrime

Breaking: Mount Everest Is Racist!

Team of nine black climbers attempt to scale Mount Everest to tackle the peak’s ‘intentional lack of access for black people’ and mountaineering’s ‘colonial history’

A team of nine black climbers is attempting to scale Mount Everest to tackle the mountain’s ‘intentional lack of access for black people’ and mountaineering’s ‘colonial history’.

The Full Circle Everest Expedition, which climbing leader Fred Campbell described as ‘the first all black and brown expedition to the highest place on earth’ in an Instagram video, is hoping to change the future of mountaineering.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in#BlackLivesMatter, Batshit Crazy Progressive Racists

Tara Henley: Why I quit the CBC

‘To work at the CBC in the current climate is to embrace cognitive dissonance and to abandon journalistic integrity’

For months now, I’ve been getting complaints about the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where I’ve worked as a TV and radio producer, and occasional on-air columnist, for much of the past decade.

People want to know why, for example, non-binary Filipinos concerned about a lack of LGBT terms in Tagalog is an editorial priority for the CBC, when local issues of broad concern go unreported. Or why our pop culture radio show’s coverage of the Dave Chappelle Netflix special failed to include any of the legions of fans, or comics, that did not find it offensive. Or why, exactly, taxpayers should be funding articles that scold Canadians for using words such as “brainstorm” and “lame.”

As bad as we thought.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCBC, CBC Scandals