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Fire

Best of the Web: Notre Dame Cathedral worker claims Paris' largest church was DELIBERATELY set on fire

Notre Dame fire
The famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris is on fire, with one worker claiming that the blaze was deliberately set.

The roof of the historic building has completely collapsed.


"The cause is not yet clear, but officials say it could be linked to renovation work," reports the BBC.

However, TIME columnist Christopher J. Hale tweeted, "A Jesuit friend in Paris who works in #NotreDame told me cathedral staff said the fire was intentionally set."

Comment: See also:


Cross

Flashback Best of the Web: Saint-Sulpice in Paris was DELIBERATELY set on fire - ANOTHER attempt to set church ablaze was made 3 days prior

saint-sulpice
Paris' second-largest church was DELIBERATELY set on fire last month
According to the latest available information, accidental cause has been ruled out by investigators one day after the Saint-Sulpice church fire in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Investigations are continuing

In the aftermath of the Saint-Sulpice fire, the investigators have already drawn some conclusions. Our sources say that the incident began Sunday at around 1:30pm, at an entrance to the church overlooking Palatine Street in the 6th arrondissement, and that its cause was "human" and "deliberate."

"The near-disaster occurred close to a spot where a homeless person's clothes were stored - though this person was not present at that time," said our source. This same source stated that "accidental origin of an electrical or technical nature, or negligence, have been discarded."

"It's now a question of whether the perpetrator is someone who isn't all there in the head, or has some sort of mental instability. There are known homeless persons who come often, but they are typically peaceful," comments another source.


Comment: Saint-Sulpice church remains open. But after what just happened to Notre Dame cathedral, for how much longer?

Something is clearly going on here. Notre Dame is Paris' largest church (cathedral), and Saint-Sulpice is its second-largest.

We're not aware of any further information from officials in France about what took place at the Saint-Sulpice. It's as if they caught someone doing it, discovered who they were, then covered up for them.

Given this precedent just three weeks before Notre Dame, it's reasonable to suspect that it too was deliberately targeted.

Manufactured 'clash of civilizations/religions', anyone?


Blackbox

Best of the Web: What If Mainstream Media's Message About Putin Was Delivered in Orwell's Language?

war is peace orwell
The West is under attack by Putin; he is at war with us and wars demand extreme measures. Putin's influence is spreading: everywhere he is nibbling away at the foundations of democratic society. He is the dictator of Russia; still evil, still an empire; Russians are genetically driven to co-opt and penetrate and gain favour: it's who they are and what they do. Russian scum! Putin interferes in referendums and elections all over the democratic world. A world that, for no good reason except his own needs, he calls his enemy. When his bots swung the US election and made his puppet POTUS, the world community began to wake up to the threat. Putin is bent on restoring the USSR and, until he can, he assembles an empire of losers, basket-cases and rogue states. When the weather is cold, we should fear him more. Putin's whole existence depends on having an enemy and we are that enemy. We must defend against Putin's threat to democracy; he threatens our democracy because he hates democracy and he fears democracy. We must defend against these multi-faceted, aggressive, unacceptable, bullying, continual and sinister attacks on the Rules-Based International Order which our democracies uphold. (Added to which, he's short and can't hide the fact and that makes him a megalomaniac.)

I humbly offer a few proposals so that we can better defend our precious heritage of democracy against his attacks.

Fire

Flashback Best of the Web: Coincidence? Fires destroy 3 old Orthodox churches in New York City, Sydney and Melbourne on Orthodox Easter Sunday


Comment: Notre Dame Cathedral being completely destroyed this Holy Week reminds us about a series of major fires during Easter three years ago...


Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St Sava
© gettyThe charred remains of the roof of the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St Sava, which went up in flames in Manhattan, NYC, on May 1st.
Investigators in three cities are looking into large fires at Orthodox churches that occurred around the religion's Easter celebrations and caused widespread damage.

The blazes in New York City, as well as Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, caused only minor injuries, according to multiple reports.

The New York City conflagration on Sunday at the Trinity Chapel Complex that was host to the Serbian Orthodox Church in Manhattan produced dramatic images of flames shooting through windows that filled social media.

FDNY investigators haven't given any indication yet what started the blaze, reports CBS New York. Only the church caretaker was injured when he rushed in to try and put the fire out, which began shortly after parishioners had wrapped up Easter celebrations at the cathedral.



Comment: Curiously, the Valaam monastery in Russia also caught fire on Easter Sunday, 2016.

The British Daily Mail came up with a conspiracy theory: Catholics around the world conspired to torch these churches because they're upset at the Orthodox Church for blocking the canonization of a Croatian Cardinal suspected of collaborating with the Nazis.

With no evidence provided, this rather sounds like someone was 'blowing smoke'. There could, however, be more to this cluster of events than symbolic connection...


Airplane

Best of the Web: UK police: 'Drone' that shut down Gatwick Airport for days last December 'could see what was happening on runways, was eavesdropping on radio communications'

gatwick airport drone ufo
© GettyUK military deployed equipment at the airport to 'catch' the 'drone' but it evaded them every time
The drone attack that caused chaos at Gatwick before Christmas was carried out by someone with knowledge of the airport's operational procedures, the airport has said.

A Gatwick chief told BBC Panorama the drone's pilot "seemed to be able to see what was happening on the runway".

Sussex Police told the programme the possibility an "insider" was involved was a "credible line" of inquiry.

About 140,000 passengers were caught up in the disruption.

The runway at the UK's second busiest airport was closed for 33 hours between 19 and 21 December last year - causing about 1,000 flights to be cancelled or delayed.

In his first interview since the incident, Gatwick's chief operating officer, Chris Woodroofe, told Panorama: "It was clear that the drone operators had a link into what was going on at the airport."

Comment: Yes, it was a 'drone' alright, a really OUT THERE one with intelligence beyond our ken!

See also:


Eye 1

Best of the Web: Chelsea and Julian are in jail. History trembles

Assange book arrest
© RuptlyJulian Assange being removed from the Ecuadorian embassy
Tonight both Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange are in jail, both over offences related to the publication of materials specifying US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and both charged with nothing else at all. No matter what bullshit political and MSM liars try to feed you, that is the simple truth. Manning and Assange are true heroes of our time, and are suffering for it.

If a Russian opposition politician were dragged out by armed police, and within three hours had been convicted on a political charge by a patently biased judge with no jury, with a lengthy jail sentence to follow, can you imagine the Western media reaction to that kind of kangaroo court? Yet that is exactly what just happened in London.

District Judge Michael Snow is a disgrace to the bench who deserves to be infamous well beyond his death. He displayed the most plain and open prejudice against Assange in the 15 minutes it took for him to hear the case and declare Assange guilty, in a fashion which makes the dictators' courts I had witnessed, in Babangida's Nigeria or Karimov's Uzbekistan, look fair and reasonable, in comparison to the gross charade of justice conducted by Michael Snow.

Comment: See also:



Road Cone

Best of the Web: 26 electricity poles in a row collapse on a street in Seattle for no apparent reason

seattle power poles
© Ellen M. Banner / The Seattle TimesTwo people were trapped in their car, center, for more than an hour after 26 power poles came crashing down on East Marginal Way on Friday afternoon. The two were discharged from the hospital late Friday.
The more than two dozen power poles that collapsed near the Museum of Flight on Friday underwent a "full inspection" three years ago, and showed no risks of a mass failure, said Debra Smith, the recently-hired CEO of Seattle City Light.

Some were replaced in 2016 as a result, some were due to be replaced within five years, and others had many years remaining, "but there were none that were outside of the identified life span," Smith said in an interview Saturday.

Engineers this weekend are examining the 26 snapped wooden poles for clues, and walking East Marginal Way South to determine how and where to rebuild lines west of the huge roadway, she said.

City Light doesn't have an explanation yet about why any of the poles suddenly toppled at 4 p.m. Friday, causing a domino effect where not just one but an entire row snapped.


Comment: To be clear, it's not known whether they fell sequentially, as 'domino effect' suggests. They may have come down simultaneously!


Comment: Ok, now that is weird.

Some kind of power surge? Perhaps not via the power grid per se (which utilities and companies would have noticed), but from the atmosphere? From below ground? But then why would such an externally-sourced surge snap strong wooden poles in the same manner along a discrete, specific area?

An eyewitness in this King 5 Seattle News report describes seeing "a flash of light" and hearing "an explosion" just before "they all came tumbling down..."


This ABC News report includes footage from people's camera-phones, recorded shortly aft it happened. The weather doesn't look particularly windy, though there could still have been a super-brief meteorological micro-burst moments before...


Here's CCTV footage of the moment it happened. It is overcast, raining, and somewhat windy, but the trees in the background don't move as much as one might expect during the intensity of a micro-burst:

Also notice how, in the second angle CCTV view, beginning at 00:35, there's a flash, followed by the pole in view beginning to keel over. Note also that it broke right at its base, at ground level...

More info from another Seattle Times report:
Meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Seattle said there were no Boeoi strikes in Western Washington on Friday.

There was a decent burst of wind accompanied by moderate rain earlier in the day, but nothing particularly alarming, said Carly Kovacik, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.

Around 16,500 customers in South Seattle, Tukwila, Burien and White Center lost power as a result of the incident, but power was restored to all but 300 of them by 6 p.m., according to Seattle City Light. Some Boeing offices in the area lost power, White said.

David Drum, a structural engineer who works at Boeing, said he left his office around 4:15 p.m. and saw at least 10 poles on the ground on the west side of the street.

"It was really dramatic. Really dystopian. The poles were snapped. They hit the ground with enough force and splintered," he said. "It must have taken a lot of force to do what I saw."
Indeed, it's as if some powerful EM force bent everything - power poles, street signs, a couple of trees, street lights - over, in one direction and on one side of the street.

Also, Seattle City Light power company has announced that an unnamed "third party" will be conducting an "independent" investigation into what happened. Hmmm...

It's very interesting that Boeing HQ is located nearby... in fact, it's located RIGHT THERE!

boeing seattle power poles
Rough location of downed power poles in red. Known Boeing, Inc. facilities marked in yellow...
The mile-long stretch where these poles broke corresponds more or less exactly with the stretch of East Marginal Way in Seattle where Boeing offices, hangars and testing centers are located. Boeing Field airport, named after the founder of the major airplane and weapons company, runs parallel to this stretch of road...

Boeing's run of bad luck continues...


Chess

Best of the Web: Jordan Peterson and the new chivalry

knight
Image excerpted from The Vinkhuijzen Collection of Military Uniforms (1940).
In his recent appearance at Liberty University, Jordan Peterson delivered this verdict on the dominant attitude toward masculinity among our society's elites: "I don't think we do a very good job at the moment of encouraging men. We have this idea that there's something intrinsically oppressive about the patriarchy and about masculinity in general. And I think that's nonsense. I think that strong, honest, truthful, courageous men pursuing noble goals is of great benefit to everyone, male and female alike." Members of the student audience applauded loudly, little knowing that not 10 minutes later, a scene would unfold in which Peterson would have an opportunity to match action to words.


By now, tens of thousands of people have seen the clip of the desperate young man who slipped past security to rush the stage and appeal to Peterson for help. The high-definition video feed was cut, but amateur footage shows Peterson leaving his seat and following David Nasser, Liberty University's Campus Pastor, to engage. Nasser assures the troubled boy that he is "in the right place," telling security to stand down while he leads the audience in prayer. As the student collapses in sobs, Peterson can be seen kneeling down to put a calming hand on his heaving shoulders. After the student is escorted offstage, the video feed comes back up as Nasser and Peterson return to their seats. Peterson seems shaken and visibly moved to tears.

The whole vignette plays out in less than two minutes. Yet it affords an opportunity for reflection - by shedding light not only on the specific nature of Jordan Peterson's appeal, but also on the larger question of what masculine virtue can and should look like in the modern age.


Quenelle - Golden

Best of the Web: Russian envoy to UN accuses US of causing Venezuela's dire economic situation

venezuela inflation
Is the US government/deep state responsible for causing this?
Russia's ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia has accused the US of causing "billions of dollars" of damage to Venezuela ​since 2013 and said Washington "artificially provoked" a crisis to overthrow the legitimate government.

Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on Venezuela on Wednesday, Nebenzia said the Trump administration was "picking the pockets" of the country while at the same time calling "for urgent assistance to the Venezuelan people."

The comments come as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's access to nearly €400 million ($451mn) in cash, citing the chaos which has unfolded since opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself rightful president in January.

It is not clear whether the IMF will formally recognize Guaido, but an economic advisor for the opposition leader told Bloomberg that the IMF was safeguarding the funds and they would be available again when Maduro's "usurpation" ends.


Comment: Well now, this is interesting.

The Russians are saying that the US government, not 'socialist dictator' Maduro, is substantially responsible for Venezuela's dire economic situation.

US/Western credibility is finished if the Russians can a.) prove this to be so, and b.) communicate it to the Global South/East.


Gold Seal

Best of the Web: Post-Mueller Putin Derangement Sydrome

putin time magazine cover
© Time Magazine
The West - its governments and its governments' scribes - are obsessed with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Obsessed" is probably too weak a word to describe the years of impassioned coverage, airy speculation and downright nonsense. He is the world's leading cover boy: military hats, Lenin poses, imperial crowns, scary red eyes, strait-jackets, clown hats; anything and everything. He's the avatar of Stalin, he's the avatar of the Tsars, he's the Joker, he's Cthulhu, he's Voldemort, he's Satan. He's the palimpsest for the New World Order's nightmares. Putin is always messing with our minds. He weaponises information, misinformation and sexual assault accusations. Childrens' cartoons, fishsticks, Pokemon and Yellow Vests, "Putin's warships" are lurking when they aren't stalking; "Putin's warplanes" penetrate European airspace; "Putin's tanks", massing in 2016, massing in 2018, still massing. His empire of rogue states grows. All Putin, all the time.

In an especially imbecile display in 2015, Western reporters (unable to find his website) thinking he hadn't been seen for several days started a contest of speculation about coups, death, wars, plastic surgery, secret births and other nonsense; when he "re-appeared", the story went down the Memory Hole.

For some reason, Americans personalise everything. In meetings with US intelligence agencies I was always fascinated how they would reduce every complicated reality to a single individual. But it isn't Saddam, or Assad, or Qaddafi, or Osama, or Aidid, or Milosevic, or Maduro, or Castro or any of the other villains-of-the-day, it's a whole country: these people got to the top for good reasons. Removing the boss makes some difference but never all the difference. They go but they never leave a Washington-friendly country behind and Washington does it all over again somewhere else. This peculiar blindness drives Putin Derangement Syndrome and has infected everybody else.