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Wed, 27 Oct 2021
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Gold Coins

Money - and how its past may tell us something about its future

dollar bitcoin
What is money, where does it come from and more importantly where does it go?

At first glance, it might appear inexplicable and bizarre that our governments and our rulers have managed to keep their stronghold over the monetary system for 2000 years, especially when one thinks about the countless ways in which they abused that power and used their monopoly to the detriment of their own citizens. It was a mass delusion that facilitated this, a blind belief that they, and they alone, can be trusted with this vital task while looking out for our best interests as well. However, now, as mistrust against our rulers is justifiably deepening, it is becoming increasingly clear that only we as individuals can ensure our best interests and it is only a matter of time before the entire ill-founded edifice comes crumbling down.

Comment: With the increasing probability of a large economic downturn, it may be prudent to research and consider different stores of value than cash in the bank.


Bizarro Earth

New feminist lunacy: 'Januhairy' - female empowerment through armpit hair

Welcome to civilization's backwards march:


More from People magazine:
You've heard about Movember, but what about ' Januhairy'?

Similar to the social movement in November, which encourages men to grow mustaches to raise awareness of men's health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide, Januhairy is a new annual event targeted to women.

Januhairy encourages women to embrace their body hair by growing it out throughout the month. This new craze was started by Laura Jackson, a drama student at the University of Exeter in the U.K. after she noticed a difference in how she felt when she grew out her body hair for a role.

TV

Niall Bradley on PressTV: 'The French People Don't Want a National Debate With Macron - They've Already Made Their Decision'

Niall PressTV Yellow Vests
France has just had its NINTH weekend of revolutionary anti-government 'yellow vest' protests. The Arc de Triomphe in Paris was again the scene of brutal police repression as protesters were kettled, charged, water-cannoned, beaten and fired upon with everything short of live rounds. There were also significant protests against government corruption in cities large and small across the country.

SOTT.net editor Niall Bradley spoke with PressTV - one of only a handful of media outlets covering the events beyond French government handouts - about the authoritarian crackdown against pro-democracy protesters.


Bizarro Earth

School resource officer escorted off property after giving principal ticket for parking in handicapped space

police resource officer school
A school resource officer at an Ohio grade school was escorted off school property after he gave a parking ticket to the school principal.

Police officials in the town of Warren are peeved at the treatment of Officer Adam Chinchic, who reportedly had warned Jefferson School Principal Carrie Boyer numerous times about parking in spaces reserved for the handicapped.

"The officer asked her several times not to park there," [Warren City Law Director Greg] Hicks told Fox-8. "My understanding she was parked in the striped area next to the handicap spot, and that is not allowed. She was told several times. If we allowed that, what would we be teaching our kids."

Bullseye

Environment group calls on Communist leader to probe and shame bear-hunting governor, Sergey Levchenko

Governor Sergey Levchenko
Amid a probe into alleged illegal hunting by a Russian governor, an environmental advocacy group is calling for the leader of the official's party to discipline the man. The governor is accused of gunning down a hibernating bear.

"The high position of the governor and friendly relations to you cannot in this case serve as a shield and an indulgence,"said an open letter sent to Gennady Zyuganov, the leader of the Russian Communist Party, by the All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation (VOOP).

Comment: See also: Hunting season on Russian governor who allegedly killed hibernating bear and told teen to shoot caged boar


Question

Key questions remain unanswered in the 'suicide' of chemical weapons expert, Dr. David Kelly

Dr. David Kelly

Since Dr Kelly’s death in 2003, time has done nothing to dispel the cloud of suspicion that hangs over it.
More than 15 years have passed since Dr David Kelly was found dead in an Oxfordshire wood in one of the darkest episodes of Tony Blair's time as Prime Minister.

The official explanation was that the distinguished weapons expert had taken his own life by overdosing on painkillers and cutting his left wrist, devastated after being unmasked as the source of the BBC's claim that the Government had 'sexed up' the case for the Iraq War.

But since Dr Kelly's death in 2003, time has done nothing to dispel the cloud of suspicion that hangs over the episode. The troubling questions surrounding it have only increased as the years have passed.

Successive governments have refused to allow a full coroner's inquest to be held, fuelling the sense of a cover-up.

I have spent years examining the case and, like some surgeons, barristers, coroners and judges I know of, I cannot accept the official explanation that Dr Kelly took his own life.

Comment:


People 2

The frivolous overuse of the word 'misogyny'

people painting
© Michelle Kondrich for the Boston Globe
Hatred of women is all around us - or so you'd conclude from a lot of recent commentary. Just in the first days of this year, we've seen claims that misogyny is behind questions about whether Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is too "unlikable" to run for president and that a "culture of misogyny" infested the 2016 presidential campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Search for such phrases as "America hates women," and you'll get 7,000 hits - with thousands more for "our culture hates women" and similar phrases.

But does woman-hating really pervade our lives, or is the term "misogyny" getting bandied about too casually?

Genuine misogyny exists in today's world, including in America. It thrives on bottom-of-the-barrel Internet boards populated by "pick-up artists," "Red Pillers" who believe they understand women's true biological nature, and militant "incels" - the self-described involuntary celibates embittered by their own inability to find sexual partners. The far right teems with critics of feminism whose screeds often devolve into general woman-bashing; one leading alt-right ideologue, the psychologist and podcaster Stefan Molyneux, rants against women's right to vote and blames women's choices for most of the world's evils.

Comment: 'America hates women' -- just as 'America is racist' -- is a myth and needs to be tossed in the bin.
Study shows woman in western countries more advantaged than men on average


Books

'Discriminatory on the grounds of gender': Oxford ditches women-only fellowship

oxford university
© Pavel Klyuyev
The Joanna Randall-MacIver junior research fellowship was established in the 1930s for women studying fine arts, music or literature.
Oxford has ended its women-only fellowship after the university's administrators said it breached equality law.

The Joanna Randall-MacIver junior research fellowship, established in the 1930s for women studying fine arts, music or literature, was deemed to be "discriminatory on the grounds of gender" by Oxford's Council.

This is the first time that the university has opened up a historically female-only fellowship to male applicants, and the move has prompted a backlash from previous recipients.

The decision means that other research fellowships could be under threat, including those run by Cambridge's female-only college Newnham. The College say that its women-only appointments comply with the Equality Act.

Professor Elizabeth Cullingford, a Randall-MacIver fellow in the 1970s who is now chair of English at Texas University, said: "I feel pretty strongly that having one or two things that are special to woman aren't going to threaten any great power structure at Oxford.

"The history there is totally male - for years women couldn't even be in the university and couldn't be fellow of a college."

Comment: What will the gender equality feminists have to say about this?


Attention

Germany: Afghan migrant arrested after horrific knife attack on pregnant woman in hospital

ambulance
© Global Look Press / Chromorange / Bilderbox
An Afghan asylum seeker has carried out a horrible attack on a pregnant Polish woman, repeatedly stabbing her at a German hospital. The man was caught by police but his victim had lost her unborn child.

The frenzied attack happened on Friday at a hospital in the town of Bad Kreuznach, near the city of Mainz, where the victim, a 25-year old Polish national was staying.

The attacker was apprehended by police at a local train station after fleeing the scene. Police said the man had come to visit the victim at the hospital, later stabbing her following what they described as a "violent argument" between the pair. His motivations for the assault remain unclear.

After suffering life-threatening injuries, the victim was rushed to emergency surgery, however, doctors were unable to save the unborn child. The woman is now in a stable condition.

Stock Up

Russia's coal exports and production hit 5 year high in 2018

Russian coal factory
© Pexels.com
Russia's production and exports of coal hit last year their highest levels since 2013, according to S&P Global Platts estimates of data from Russia's Energy Ministry.

Russian coal exports increased last year by 3.4 percent compared to 2017, to reach 191 million mt - the highest level since S&P Global Platts started collecting data on Russia's coal industry in 2013.

Coal production also reached its highest level since 2013 - at 431.76 million mt, Russia's production increased by six percent in 2018 compared to 2017.