MORE ZIMBABWE CIRCUS!

MORE ZIMBABWE CIRCUS!


Over time, I have written several "in depth" articles about the Zimbabwe Circus. One was published in the recent issue of THE BARNES REVIEW. A copy of that article and the others are featured on these pages.

While it is not difficult to find a reason to make fun of the Eternal Dictator, Robert Mugabe, the problem is very real for a couple (white farmers) blind-sided by this tyrant. It seems the Daily Mail, a British Newspaper, ran a lengthy article on this and we are sharing it here.

The link is:

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426266/White-Zimbabwean-farming-family-driven-land-make-way-black-British-doctor.html

Here is the article:

'This is too much for me': Zimbabwean farmer's wife evicted from family home by black British GP reveals 'thugs' have been terrorising her for months

• Phillip Rankin and his family have farmed in Zimbabwe for decades
• Their farm has been taken from them and given to Sylvester Nyatsuro
• Mr Rankin was handcuffed and dragged away from the property last week
• Police have 'taken over the home' and are 'stopping them using the farm' 
• New owner originally from Zimbabwe but now works as GP in Nottingham

By Hugo Gye for MailOnline

Published: 06:04 EST, 1 February 2016 | Updated: 06:21 EST, 2 February 2016

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The wife of a Zimbabwean farmer evicted from the family plantation by a British GP wept today as she described the trauma of losing everything they own.

Anita Rankin, who has farmed the tobacco fields with husband Phillip for thirty years, said she could no longer cope with the campaign of intimidation from 'thugs' employed by the GP, who is said to be friends with Grace Mugabe. 

She told MailOnline: 'This is actually too much for me. This has been going on for months. The people have not behaved well towards us.

'They would come to the kitchen door and stare at us and they made so much noise. It was a very tough situation and it went on and on.

'We don't know where we will live or what we will do. I am born and bred on a farm. I don't know town life. And I only know Zimbabwe.' 

The Rankins were handcuffed by police and dragged off their land so it could be claimed by Sylvester Nyatsuro, a black British doctor who runs a weightloss clinic in Nottingham. 

Scroll down for video 

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Occupied: The couple say police have taken over their home and stopped them working on the farm

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Family: The Rankins are now staying with a relative around 15 miles away from Harare

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Owners: British doctor Sylvester Nyatsuro and his wife Veronica have been given a farm belonging to a family of white farmers in Zimbabwe

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The property in northern Zimbabwe was stormed by police officers, who have since taken over their home and even confiscated their tractor when workers tried to continue efforts to grow tobacco, and the stress of the situation has made Mrs Rankin ill.  

She and her husband are now staying with their son Barry in Harare as they contemplate how to claim back the £300,000 tobacco crop they planted and move on with their lives. 

The deserted farm was eerily quiet on Tuesday morning, apart from the sounds of the settlers - one of whom was armed with an AK-47.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of carefully planted tobacco is being allowed to wither in the sun, while a once-loved garden blooming with flowers goes untended.

A handful of workers can be seen in the distance trying to salvage the Rankins' expensive crop.

The Rankin family has no property beyond the farm and had borrowed a huge sum of money - £400,000 - to finance this year's crop and manage debts from previous years.

Son Barry said: 'We paid the workers their January salary [on Monday], but as for next month I just don't know. I don't know how we will manage any of this.'

Barry, 33, began to work for his father in 2010 and then built a new house on the farm for his wife and three young children.

Dr Nyatsuro, who is supposedly linked to the Mugabes through his wife Veronica, apparently turned up at Kingston Deverill in September with a government document saying that he was now the rightful owner of the land.

Two dozen settlers then moved into a nearby cottage and caused problems for the family, according to Mrs Rankin, 54, who has three children with her husband.  

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Tobacco: Mr Rankin invested £300,000 in his current tobacco crop which will be ready for harvest in August

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Home: The Rankins pictured on their tobacco farm in the Centenary district of northern Zimbabwe

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Couple: The pair were born and brought up in Zimbabwe and have lived on the farm for decades

The family said their home is now under guard by seven members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police who have prevented workers from using the tractor.

Officers are sleeping on the floor inside the empty house and have even removed some of the doors from the property and loaded them on to a vehicle. 

Dr Nyatsuro, 45, is originally from the African country but has lived in Britain for at least 15 years, and is now in charge of his own GP practice.

He and his wife Veronica, who is reportedly travelled to Zimbabwe on January 26, were allocated the Rankins' farm under Robert Mugabe's controversial land seizure laws which allow the state to take the property of white people and hand it over to 'indigenous' black Africans. 

Barry, speaking from his new home in the capital Harare, described how the family thought they had 'survived' after they held onto their land in the initial wave of confiscations by the Mugabe regime.

He hit out against the eviction, saying it 'doesn't make sense' that a wealthy professional who lives in the West should be given property by the government.

'As a family we are absolutely gutted,' Mr Rankin told MailOnline. 'We have been turfed off of our land and there's nothing we can do about it. We are devastated.

'It was our business - but more important than that, it was our home. We have never owned anything other than the farm and that's gone in one weekend.

'My parents have been working on the farm for 35 years. I grew up there. Those years have not all been hunky dory, we have had our ups and downs like any family, but we thought the farm would always be there. 

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Distress: They say the situation has made Mrs Rankin ill and they have nowhere to go

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Farmers: Phillip and Anita Rankin, pictured, have been forced off their land in ZImbabwe 

In the early hours of Friday morning, 20 police officers dug under the fence surrounding the family's home and knocked on the door before carting away most of their belongings and taking them to a derelict warehouse.

They then handcuffed Mr Rankin and took him to a police station before later releasing him to stay with relatives.

Barry added: 'We have had 16 years of land acquisition in Zimbabwe and we thought we'd survived - we didn't see this coming. We thought we had ridden our way through it, we thought we would be alright.

'I don't know what we are going to do. I can't even think beyond tonight.' 

Slamming the decision to give his land to Dr Nyatsuro, he added: 'It doesn't make sense to me, how a doctor who lives in the UK can come and take our land.

'Land requisition was supposed to be for the landless, for the people who didn't have anything. I thought it was for the people of Zimbawe with nothing, not for wealthy British doctors who do not live here.

'But what do I know? I don't know the law, I'm just a simple farmer. My parents have farmed tobacco over four decades, it is all we ever knew.'

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Property: Dr Nyatsuro and his wife live at this £700,000 home with five bedrooms outside Nottingham

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Practice: Dr Nyatsuro runs The Willows Medical Centre in Nottingham, a medical and slimming clinic

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Farm: The couple have been given the farm in the Centenary district of Zimbabwe owned by the Rankin family

'It is every family's dream to pass on their property onto their children. My parents were going to give it to me, and I was going to pass it on to my children and their children after that.'

A tobacco expert, who asked not to be named, said Northern Tobacco, which represents British American Tobacco in Zimbabwe, tries to ensure that all farming it finances in the country is grown on land which remains in control of the original owner.

'They don't want to buy tobacco from stolen farms,' he said, predicting that the Rankin's tobacco would be taken away when it is cured, and will be bought by another company for sale.

Phillip and Anita Rankin both have British ancestry but were born and brought up in Zimbabwe, employing more than 40 people at Kingston Deverill.

Dr Nyatsuro has been practising as a doctor in Nottingham for at least 15 years after moving to Britain from his home country, and he describes his nationality as British in official documents.

He runs a GP practice, The Willows Medical Centre, and is a specialist in helping patients lose weight.

The doctor lives with his wife and their three children in a £700,000 five-bedroom home outside Nottingham. Mrs Nyatsuro has been rumoured to be related to Mugabe's wife Grace, but she has denied this.

Last year he launched the Zimbabwe Diaspora Skills Network, a charity which aims to use the expertise of Zimbabweans living abroad to boost healthcare and other services in the poverty-stricken state.

He was previously director of Midlands College Limited, a company which provided training for dental nurses and was the subject of a compulsory winding-up order in 2010. 

The couple have denied using violence to enforce their claim to the Rankins' farm, saying that they were allocated the property by the state in accordance with normal legal procedures.

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Policy: Robert Mugabe, pictured with his wife Grace, has enforced a series of land grabs taking the property of white farmers and giving it to black Zimbabweans

At the time that news of their claim to the farm came to light last year, Dr Nyatsuro's clinic was targeted by protesters accusing him of collaborating with the Mugabe regime.

Mrs Nyatsuro said that the couple were 'under siege' and claimed they had received death threats, insisting that none of the Rankins' allegations were true.

A protest by supporters of the Rankins is set to take place on Friday, with around 50 people expected to take part.

Among them will be Rose Benton, 70, from Zimbabwe Vigil, a group that aims to promote human rights and democracy in Zimbabwe. She criticised Dr Nyatsuro for trying to move in on the land.

Mrs Benton, who is originally from Zimbabwe but lives in London, said: 'He is a British citizen and a GP – it is pure theft what is happening. He is someone who is living and working in England but he is behaving in a thuggish way.

HOW MUGABE'S LAND GRABS LED TO VIOLENCE AND POVERTY

Robert Mugabe's policy of 'land reform' has been running for 16 years, with 90 per cent of white farmers in Zimbabwe seeing their land taken and given to black people instead.

The government insists it is necessary to reduce the whites' economic dominance which dates back to the colonial era - but opponents claim it is a tyrannical and unfair process which bears little relation to justice.

The white farmers, many of whom have occupied the same plots for decades, were removed from their homes without compensation and often suffered violence from police during the evictions.

Around 20 farmers and their workers died during the first wave of seizures, which contributed to the country's economic collapse as Zimbabwe's skills base was hollowed out and the amount of crops produced tumbled.

The policy also led to allegations that Mugabe's cronies were more likely to be given land than genuinely needy citizens.

Some suggested that the reforms were instigated as a way of distracting from the government's failure to implement true democracy in the decades after the end of white rule, with Mugabe presiding over a series of rigged elections and ruthlessly quashing political dissent.

But the policy instead made the regime less stable, with Zimbabwe's economic troubles causing the collapse of the local currency after a period of damaging hyperinflation.

Roughly 300 white farmers were left in possession of their land, but last year the policy of confiscation seems to have started again, threatening the last remaining holdouts such as the Rankin family in Centenary. 

'It is double standards that he is supporting Mugabe but living here. At the moment (in Zimbabwe) if you are connected to the government you can go round stealing other people's land.'

Mrs Benton's husband, Dennis, 74, also a member of the group, said: 'The Rankins were born in Zimbabwe… and now a British doctor who has lived here for 15 years and has no intention of going back can steal this farm when the crop is still in the ground.

Neighbours of the couple described the doctor as 'a perfect gentleman' who would never want to cheat anyone else.

'He is an exceptionally nice man and a perfect gentleman,' one local resident said. 'You couldn't meet a nicer guy.

'Veronica keeps to herself but she's nice too. They moved in here around 2006, I believe. They've always been approachable.'

The neighbour added that the couple had spent less time at their Nottingham home recently as they stepped up their charity work in Zimbabwe.

Dr Nyatsuro's lawyer today denied that his client had clashed with the Rankin family, claiming that the farmers had not been able to prove that they are the rightful owners of the land.

He also insisted that the doctor's political connections were not responsible for his being given the farm, saying 'any Zimbabwean has a right to benefit from the land reform programme'.

Fungai Chimwamurombe, a Harare-based solicitor, told MailOnline: 'The government's position is that the farm was acquired over a decade ago.

'At various court sessions we attended with Mr Rankin and his lawyer, they failed to show the legal basis why he was occupying the farm.

'It is our understanding that the minister of lands offered our client the land because they believe it is state land and it is up to Mr Rankin to prove otherwise.

'The issue here is not between our client and Mr Rankin because he is only a third party who applied generally for land years back. He was on the waiting list for a long time and was offered this state land on the strength of his application.'

The lawyer added that Dr Nyatsuro did not know that the farm was occupied by the Rankins until he went to take possession of the property allocated to him by the government.

He said: 'It is our understanding that many Zimbabweans regardless of political affiliation benefited from the land reform programme.

'We are not aware of their relationship status with the president... any Zimbabwean has a right to benefit from the land reform programme.'

Mr Chimwamurombe claimed that the ownership of the farm had not been finally settled because police told Dr Nyatsuro that he could not immediately move in.

The Foreign Office has expressed concern over the seizure of the Rankins' farm and suggested that it 'did not follow the process as described by the constitution'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426266/White-Zimbabwean-farming-family-driven-land-make-way-black-British-doctor.html#ixzz3z0vzl2EZ
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Does this kind of insanity need any further comment?

Posted by the Blogger

ROBERT MUGABE: THE ETERNAL TYRANT!

ROBERT MUGABE: 
THE ETERNAL TYRANT.

Two places that always fascinated me were Rhodesia and South Africa. Maybe it is because I have friends there, maybe I am fascinated by the many tribes that live there. Maybe it is just that Africa is the "Dark Continent" as it was known for so many years. Maybe it is that Africa is a classic example of what happens when primitive cultures and advanced cultures meet and either do not get along....or....that they meet and try to get along. It is often in such situations that evil men plot: they use the primitive tribes that live there and fill them with a sense of omnipotence far exceeding their abilities. This causes guaranteed friction and chaos. Tribalism is truly the bane of Africa.

In the following article I give some examples of what is wrong with Africa. I also give examples of what can be right about Africa under the right circumstances. Robert Mugabe is an example of a continuing disaster. He took a well run prosperous nation and ran it into the ground. He either cannot see he is to blame or he is so ignorant he won't see who is to blame. And he has no interest in correcting his mistakes, only playing the blame game!

The following article was published in THE BARNES REVIEW history magazine for January/February 2016. I hope you find it useful and enlightening.

Below are a few of the same pictures of the Palace at Harare, Zimbabwe in full color. I also feature a repeat of an earlier blog  I titled A Circus Called "Zimbabwe" published here originally in 2015. It was added to several times due to developing news!


A CIRCUS CALLED

“ZIMBABWE”

This is how "King Robert Mugabe" Lives in His Palace! Not too Shabby, Huh?!

     In 1980, “Minority Rule” came to an abrupt end in Rhodesia. The country was one of the most stable and  prosperous in the world at the time with its currency worth more than the American Dollar, with no debt, a positive balance of payments and exporting large amounts of agricultural commodities to the world. It attracted a workforce from many areas in Africa. As Ivor Benson, a leader in Rhodesia cautioned, communists were hell bent on destroying the country and they did, sort of. They had help. Ian Smith turned over the reins of the country to a “Native Ruler,” a communist dictator known as Robert Mugabe. Mugabe was and is a tribalist who put his own people in power, shut out others, arrested opposition politician Bishop Abel Muzorewa and threw him in prison for the simple "crime" of questioning his rule. At the time Muzorewa observed that human oppression under Mugabe was worse than under Minority Rule!  It took about three years to ruin the formerly prosperous Rhodesia. Today, after 35 years of this despots shenanigans, the country is dead broke, its currency worthless and its people impoverished. Now they use either the South African Rand as currency, or the Euro (the European currency) and of course, the US Dollar. On November 16, 1982, George Bush, Senior who was then US Vice President, attended a state dinner in Mugabe’s honor in Harare (the renamed former capital of Salisbury) and gushed “…I want to acknowledge that I stand in the presence of a genuine statesman, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe. His stature in the world is well established, highly respected, and it will be more formidable in the years to come……” And more, “I do want to say on behalf of the Reagan Administration that we support the policy of reconciliation to which you have committed yourself…..We have supported your country because its success is consistent with US principles and US interests…shortly after President Reagan took office my government pledged nearly one quarter of a billion US Dollars in new aid. America has not only avowed its faith in Zimbabwe, but proven it.” At the time, I watched this tragic sideshow with great misgivings, knowing pretty much what was coming! Bush’s moronic statement is almost unbelievable! Since then, former minority farmers were killed, robbed, had their lands stolen and re-distributed to natives, who of course, often left their land lie fallow. They knew nothing of running prosperous farms. The result was that formerly Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe collapsed like a house of cards: all with the help and duplicity of the West. To this day, the loony 90 plus year old, very physically healthy Robert Mugabe continues to rule as dictator and still blames the previous minority government for all of HIS created problems! I suppose it is fair to say that since Mugabe’s people have barely been out of loincloths for 100 years, little else could be expected! But we are not supposed to say things like that!

     Fast forward to July 2015 and what do we find? “Cecil” The Lion King is killed by an American trophy hunter in Zimbabwe! Like Lemmings plunging into the sea to commit suicide because their numbers are too many, the Elite Press and the so-called social media in the West opened the floodgates of the asylum, threatening the hunter with loss of his business, his life and whatever else these morons can get their hands on!

     As reported on Yahoo! News, a Zimbabwean native put it best, “What Lion? Are you saying that all this noise is about a dead lion? Lions are killed all the time in this country," said Tryphina Kaseke, a used-clothes hawker on the streets of Harare. "What is so special about this one?" Lions kill people all the time. So do Crocodiles and other wild beasts. Where is the outrage then? Often the natives who live there lack the means to defend themselves (Gun control?) and are left at the mercy of the natural world. Those who live in boxes called houses, in rows of boxes called cities have absolutely no clue as to what life is really like in the dog eat dog world of Africa! Now it seems the Circus that is Zimbabwe wants to extradite the American for killing a lion?! It would be comical if not for the realities.

     Yes, I enjoyed the Lion King Movie, so did my family. It was a great show. But that’s what it is, a “show!” And while it is too bad the "wrong lion" was killed, it had no way of knowing he was unsafe outside a national park at the time with no sign stenciled on his butt that read “Don’t shoot me!” Suddenly the agenda becomes clear: now they want to ban "trophy hunting" because of this! The poor folks of Zimbabwe need all the foreign currency they can get, so the effect is to ruin everybody in the process. All because of a few agenda driven morons in the so-called civilized world! What is even more bizarre: where were these self-righteous characters, when Mugabe was murdering his opposing tribes and looting the formerly prosperous farmers who provide livelihoods for ALL? Well, they were quiet as church mice, of course!

     Recently a Zimbabwean immigrant to South Africa was knifed to death in PUBLIC and the event broadcast to the world media in all its gory nature. Where were these critics then? Not so much as a PEEP out of them!

     I recall an editor of a newspaper in Nigeria a few years ago, who was concerned about lack of schools kept open, lack of working electricity, lack of running water and lack of everything a civilized country needs to function asked in an editorial TWO absolutely electrifying and forbidden questions: Why is it that Africans cannot do this for themselves? Do we need to have a “Minority Government” come back to save us??! Some agreed and others condemned him! But, HE was thinking, something not popular these days.

     For about ten years I have had a dear friend in South Africa. I cannot even mention his first name here out of respect for his safety. But we became friends partly because as he said; I was "the first American he had met who understood the basic problem in Africa is Tribalism!” In fairness there are others, but the Elite Media will never mention it! He hated Robert Mugabe with a purple passion that can best be described as tribal and I will not quote here what he actually said! It is simply too explosive to print! He graciously shared with me thirteen digital images showing the splendor in which Robert Mugabe lives in his royal palace in Harare. I have reproduced four here. While he basks in riches, his people suffer. My friend who sent me the pictures could not identify the photographer, but obviously he was a man with access to the palace and his pictures speak mountains about what is wrong in Africa! My friend is no dummy. He is highly intelligent, has a family educated in Great Britain; he speaks multiple languages including his native ZULU, Afrikaaner and English. He also is an electrical contractor and commodity trader. In other words, a true example of what CAN BE if the effort is made. So long as morons in the civilized countries continue to support despots like Mugabe, there is little hope for Africa. In the meantime, RIP, Cecil, you are being USED by the worst excuses for “humanity!

Bloggers Note: Underlined emphasis of George Bush's comments is added!


Additional comments on August 27, 2015

     CNN reported a GUIDE was mauled to death by a LION in the same park that Cecil called home! He was credited with using all his strength and training to save the people on the lion walk. However, there was no hue and cry for the lion's head because of the killing of a human. As a matter of fact, not a word was heard from the "Hypocrite Corner" regarding his death. No calls for the lion to be brought to justice. No indignation about maintaining parks where people can get killed! It is amazing to see how far people have become removed from reality!

Additional comments October 13, 2015

     CNN and other Elite Media sources report that Zimbabwe has decided NOT to prosecute the great white hunter from America. Is this an example of improvements in Zimbabwe's way of dealing with others? Not likely. It simply means that Zimbabwe cannot afford to LOSE the huge amount of foreign exchange it receives from the hunting business which is a bright spot in the whole circus. In the meantime, a legitimate hunter has been vilified, his family and business threatened by first class idiots. It a simple matter: If you don't like hunting, don't hunt. But making threats and doing intimidation on the scale shown in this whole madcap affair is completely uncalled for.

Harald Hesstvedt Scharnhorst
              Originally Posted 2015

HAS THE WORLD GONE NUTS?

HAS THE WORLD GONE NUTS?

His Royal Majesty Knows Best!

     We live in a world gone stark raving mad. The Loincloth King in Washington shed tears on national television for the alleged deaths at Sandy Hook and Elsewhere, or so they tell me. I do not watch. If I want to see a movie I will rent or buy one. I do not need to have my intelligence sidelined by this amateur-hour show! Yet researchers are saying that the deaths never occurred, that they are psych-ops for gun control. It seems so. Every time there is a “mass shooting” real or fake, there is a screaming effort to create more gun controls. But it has the opposite effect: people are BUYING guns by the scads! Could it be that The Sheeple, that overgrown, overfed, undernourished, basically stupid mass of bodies out there sometimes referred to as the “majority” is finally figuring it out?! That the Loincloth King has no clothes, that government tells monstrous lies and that people need to take responsibility and take better care of themselves? One can hope so, anyway!

     It is hilarious for me to watch: local daily newspapers in the area I live are preoccupied with what I affectionately call "Nigger Day" celebrations (cops and blacks pictured on MLK Day standing together on the front page no less), and other feel-good puff-pieces. But they say nothing about tragic, unnecessary black on black violence which has killed over 330,000 blacks in the last 30 years. Instead they are fawning over the death of “icons” like David Bowie and Glenn Frey the co-founder of the Eagles singing group. Are you kidding me? Bowie represented everything weird and nothing worthwhile. The Eagles did have a nice sounding music style I often played as a broadcaster in San Diego in the 1970’s, but their lyrics were anti-family, anti-women, very pro-drugs and very pro-bad-behavior. What is there about that worth all the ink and accolades? Nothing. It is a side show; a Roman Circus. And it is a lousy one at that. I even saw a piece on CNN today which gushed that finally there is a black super-hero video game on the market! Are we serious? Copy cat, copy cat is that all these morons can do? All is well, say the headlines. But is it?

     A look at Alternative Media economic websites like Zero Hedge reveals that economic rot in its full glory. The Baltic Dry index which measures actual trade in the world has fallen to 40 year lows. Stock Markets around the world are imploding. Wall Mart, who for decades drove mom and pop small businesses out of business selling cheap stuff cheap, is now closing stores by the hundreds. Oil prices have collapsed almost 80% and so have commodities generally. Railroads are hauling very little stuff, and this is of no concern? You have got to be kidding me! Derivatives are on the verge of collapse as there is insufficient money to service them. The Bureau of Labor Statistics deliberately misstates employment numbers. Forty to fifty percent of Americans are on welfare of some kind and the Loincloth King stands on National Television, gives a phony State of the Union address and suggests with a straight face that those who have concerns about the economy are morons, silly or imagining things?

     Boy, it must be nice to live in a world of illusions and delusions! This reminds me of all the hoopla I read about that took place during the so-called Great Depression of the 1930’s when the government and economists tried to put the best spin on everything by suggesting that recovery was just around the corner, when in reality the worst was yet to come! So, it was the Second World War that got the economy going again. I cannot help but ask the salient question: Where will the war be set up and stage-managed now, and who will be our phony, needless enemy THIS TIME? Time will tell….. I won't hold my breath......

Welcome to "Foggy Bottom!"

Harald Hesstvedt Scharnhorst

      January 20, 2016

THE TALE OF THE PEREGRINE FALCON!

THE TALE 
OF 
THE PEREGRINE FALCON!

Sometimes life takes some interesting twists and turns! My family was alone at home one fine summer day about ten years ago, when there came a loud BANG at the picture window! It was so loud that at first our son and daughter thought the window had burst. The only evidence of what might have happened was a few feathers stuck to the window frame!
 The owner of the feathers was not readily apparent, but a look around outside soon revealed evidence of what happened and the resulting problem. 

 A Very Wild Peregrine Falcon had decided on inviting a  hapless, terrified Robin for dinner! The falcon zeroed in on his prey and dive-bombed it at a high rate of speed. Normally the Robin did not have a chance in hell of surviving such an attack.  But as luck would have it, the Robin sought sanctuary in the vicinity of the porch and in the process flew close to the window. The Peregrine Falcon, who was obsessed with obtaining his meal, did not see the picture window because the glass was transparent! So he came down at an obtuse angle and bounced off the window with such force as to completely knock the bird senseless. In the process, the frightened, noisy Robin got away!

About this time the family cat became interested in the free meal so generously made available to him on the ground! He proceeded to attack the senseless Peregrine Falcon! My son immediately saved the falcon by picking it up! Now, the young man was no falconer and did not have falconers gloves, but he found a pair of rather ordinary gloves anyway which would  not provide much protection from the sharp claws of the falcon. But, it was better than nothing!

The bird slowly came back to a state of consciousness. As wild birds of prey are want to do, they become angry easily and this one was ready for combat. It did not occur to it that it was safe, only that it wanted no part of its current position in life! It also was not ready to fly and kept staggering and swaying around like a drunken sailor!

When finally it realized its predicament in close proximity of a human, it became very angry, flapping its wings and carrying on. My son was concerned about the sharp beak and the angry eyes that telegraphed hostile intentions. Finally, he gave the bird a boost with his arm, it took the hint and flew off into the sunset! We never, ever saw it again!

So ends our Tale of the Peregrine Falcon. Fortunately, we have my daughters pictures that tell the story of an unusual occurrence,  best described as a once in a lifetime event!

The stunning pictures are by Inga Hesstvedt
Story by Harald Hesstvedt Scharnhorst

ELITE MEDIA SLEAZE!

ELITE MEDIA SLEAZE!

The Elite Media's Waters run Deep and Muddy! 
(from Blogger's Ektachrome Slide Collection)

      I stopped subscribing to the Elite Media decades ago. That includes so-called mainstream tabloids, newspapers and magazines. There was nothing of substance in them. I also turned off my TV set. I seldom wonder why anymore. They are too full of mundane, unimportant stories, sheer propaganda, reverse discrimination, slanted one-sided stories, destructive and demoralizing anti-American and anti-White propaganda and often just plain filthy garbage. My time is valuable, so I prefer to use it more wisely! There are so many valid substitutes for the Elite Media that there is no need to feel or be deprived in any way!

     The concept of Elite Media Sleaze was driven home to me once again today when a friend invited me to lunch at a local watering hole. We found a copy of the Spokesman Review on the table, the local daily paper published in Spokane, Washington (January 11, 2016). Spokane is the largest city in Eastern Washington State. I looked it over and discovered two things: 1) The sports section was the most prominent part of the paper! Nothing like the “rah-rah” section being the most important! Modern day Roman Circus stuff seems to sell! Unless you are a "fan," there is nothing important there, either! 2) The Front Page Headline dealt with an alleged shortage of applicants for restaurant cooking jobs! Really! Is one to believe that of all the headlines that could run on the front page of a major daily, this was the day’s most important story?? The article reasoned that such jobs were being underpaid. It blamed the "cooking show mentality" they claim proliferates on TV for part of the problem! No wonder subscriptions for daily newspapers are in steady decline across the country. Who the hell wants to read crap like that? It might make an interesting human interest story inside the paper, but splashed across the Front Page as a lead story?? I have  to wonder what kind of Oregano the editor added to his coffee cup! Or maybe it was Arrowroot Powder instead!

     But folks, it gets better! I went to the Opinion Page, and what did I find? A stupid cartoon was featured about the "standoff" at Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon making fun of multi-generational ranchers who are being harassed by tyrannical bureaucrats out to destroy family farms and ranches throughout the west. With the Feds owning 30 percent of western lands they seem to do whatever they want regardless of long standing practices to the contrary. The cartoon showed a man marked BUNDY in jail, demanding chocolate cups for dinner! There is after all, nothing like making fun of legitimate concerns. And that, apparently is a hallmark of this rag that masquerades as a “newspaper!”

     Even more exciting was an article by Leonard Pitts (the pits), a Negro writer with his one-act play, always whining about how lousy things are for blacks or how they are discriminated against on a never ending basis. He was complaining about a female news reporter on Fox News who allegedly sneered that Nobama must have had an onion nearby when he shed those tears on TV. I chuckled at her sense of humor; she may have been right! After all, he keeps his teleprompter handy, so why not an onion for special effects too?! Another anchor somewhere suggested they were “crocodile tears” and cast aspersions on the so-called president’s sincerity. And of course, Pitts calls those types of anchors bad right-wingers! Only lefties like Pitts and Nobama are good guys! This silly charade is pawned off as “news” when in reality it is just a propaganda circus masquerading as such! Considering there is more than just a suspicion that Sandy Hook and other so-called shootings are just psych-ops created by government crisis actors (part of the crazy gun-control push), the "crocodile tear show" by the Loincloth Regime in the White House is pathetic. Where are the crocodile tears for all the innocent dead courtesy of Nobama’s drone attacks around the world, or for that matter victims (men women and children)  in the no-win wars that look more and more like they are run straight from Washington? But don’t say that too loudly or someone may question your patriotism or loyalty!

     So it should be a "no-brainer" to understand why I do not subscribe to the Spokesman Review or any of its “sister” publications. Nothing new to learn there. There was a time when journalists were real ones who actually went after a real story instead of inventing news. So as long as they continue to do that there will be people like me who are fed up with them and go elsewhere for hard news. The Alternative Media on the internet and in print is alive, well and thriving! Small wonder!

Winter Panorama Photo is from Bloggers Collection

Written and Posted by

Harald Hesstvedt Scharnhorst

THE "LEANING TAMARACK RANCH"!

THE "LEANING TAMARACK RANCH"!

One of the fun things about living "in the country" as opposed to living in a city, is that we never know what will happen next. "Mother Nature" is always dealing her hand. Sometimes things happen with a suddenness that surprises, other time things develop over time.

As an example, I have always wanted to install an "archway" near the entrance to our place, but never had the time nor did I see any pressing need to do so! You can imagine my surprise when Mother Nature took a hand in the matter!

We have had a little bit of snow this winter. Unlike many years where it snows and thaws and snows some more and thaws again, this time it pretty much snowed and froze. As a result, the stuff stays on the trees. That takes a toll on spindly ones like this Tamarack (Western Larch) featured in our above photo! It began leaning several weeks ago, and for some reason it bent a bit more. As the frozen snow added up at the top, it gradually continued to bend until it is practically horizontal. It makes an almost perfect archway! The name sort of suggests itself: "The Leaning Tamarack Ranch!"

Now the rule will be to keep an eye on it. The tree will either bend some more or rise again if the heavy weight on top is released by a January thaw. Or it may just be that the trunk has taken all it can stand and will rise no more! Still, it could break like a toothpick and block the way!

If I stop again to record the future progress of the "arch," I will use the same time-tested strategy: always stop just beyond the tree in case it decides to tumble down at such moment in time! While a uniquely decorated vehicle may make a great conversation piece, I will pass on that kind of an opportunity!

I am amazed some enterprising logger happening along has not as yet cut it down. But on the other hand, most will not strain themselves about such things until it makes the ground! At that point, if I get to it first, I will add it to the woodpile for next winters use (for you see, it needs to cure before it burns)!

If there are more developing surprises, this becomes a soap opera in the making......and I will keep you posted!

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And I do need to keep you posted...as the leaning arch has now reached the ground! It is surprisingly agile and may stick around a while. Or it may not. We had some more snow, then some rain so this thing is pushed as far as it can go for now. It has provided us with some amusement, as you can imagine!

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Well, it was bound to happen. The plow truck came by and the operator decided to end the sideshow by cutting down the Tamarack. It was quickly reduced to a few long sticks. When I got there later on, I took a chain saw to the pieces and made firewood out of it all. It made a welcome little addition to next years wood pile! It was nice of him to spoil all my fun! On the other hand it was becoming a hazard to the little traffic we have, so his decision was a sound one. 

In examining the downed tree it was obvious why it leaned and could not come back up. Instead of the tree rings being centrally located, they were very much off center, which contributed to the weakening of the tree, causing it to lean. The inside looked a bit "punky" (pithy) to that only added to the instability!

One thing is sure, it made life interesting around here for a few days! Since winters are usually quiet anyway, a little excitement hurts not at all!

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"Snow Crystals" from Bloggers Collection

Posted by 

Harald Hesstvedt Scharnhorst