Every year at around this time, Putin disappears under mysterious circumstances. My own explanation is that he gets sent back to the factory for a yearly tuning. Other people have surmised that mothership comes for him and takes him back to his planet for further instructions.

Today, the Red Square was suddenly and mysteriously cleared of all visitors. Heavy vehicles surrounded the Kremlin. People are whispering that Putin has had a heart attack. Not that it would change anything since he’s got a few pretty convincing doubles.

I still maintain the factory checkup version.

The French article that quoted my eminently important opinions on the voting choices of Russian-speaking immigrants refers to me as “la militante” (activist) and “la jeune femme” (young woman.)

The authors did not forget to include my favorite line, “The Russian-speaking immigrants are to US Democrats what undocumented Hispanics are to Republicans.”

Remember the Syrian refugees triumphantly greeted in Canada and paraded around as proof of Canadians’ superiority to evil Americans? Remember also how I said that refugees will be prevented from integrating?

Guess who was right.

From a recent article on what has been happening to the refugees since Trudeau slobbered all over them at the airport:

Some government-sponsored Syrian refugees staying at a budget hotel in Toronto say they feel like they’re “trapped in a prison” without hope due to a lack of communication, supplies and assistance.

. . .

The refugees have been at the hotel for weeks and have no idea when they will be able to leave. Some of the 85 government-sponsored refugees say they’re not getting much help, and would rather go back to their refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon.

. . .

“We’re worried, first of all, that we’re facing a major mental-health crisis if somebody doesn’t start going in there and speaking to them every single day to find out if they are doing OK. For the past week and a half, and in one case there’s a guy who’s been there for a month, and no one has been talking to them.”

. . .

Abu-Rukti added many of those who came with her were getting more help in Lebanon and Jordan.

“They used to provide for their families, but now they feel like they can’t do that and they’re hopeless.”

. . . .

“They’re scared, it must be very scary,” she said. “I don’t expect them to feel gratitude immediately when they’ve come here — they’re really so isolated … their kids are dying to go outside and play and they can’t.”

Notice how fishing for gratitude is the shamelessly declared goal here. The Canadian in question obviously feels super noble and magnanimous for accepting that gratitude will not be immediate.

“I feel even though we chose to come out to Canada and it was something that we chose to do, it was our right and we chose it, however, it’s not what we expected and it’s not what we thought we would come into,” said Abu-Rukti.

“Maybe this isn’t where I should be. Another lady asked to return and the Canadian Embassy said: ‘There is no way you guys can return now.'”

Yeah, I mean, you got to stick around whether you want to or not and be exuberantly grateful in order to please the nice, bored Canadian ladies with nothing else to do but condescend to you. Just like I said from the very start.

This could all be resolved extremely easily: give people their papers, set them up with language classes, make sure they have the amount of money that Canada has officially calculated as necessary per each immigrating adult (I think today it’s $7,500), and leave them be. In short, treat them like all the rest of immigrants Canada welcomes every year.

But don’t lock them up as if they were some sort of rabid animals to be gawked at on regular occasions. It’s shocking that Canada would all of a sudden start imitating Europeans in their obviously flawed approach.

After WWII, there was a massive reshuffling of ethnic groups throughout Europe. In a way, Hitler’s belief that racial “purity” was a good thing won the day. Everybody – including Jews – was more or less stuffed into a specific geographic area that was made as ethnically homogeneous as possible.

Europe stuck to this arrangement for decades, and the result was a lasting peace that was only broken in the areas where ethnic groups were not divided by national borders.

Now it seems that Europeans have decided they are ready to ditch the post-war state of affairs and venture into a greater ethnic diversity. But the historical memory of the war is still strong. Europeans are trying to retain many of the features of the post-war ethnic homogeneity even as they invite a growing number of immigrants.

The result is a creation of “states within states”, ethnic enclaves of disaffected, confused immigrants who are distrusted by the locals and feel alienated from both the old and the new countries. This is not A recipe for producing high crime rates. It’s THE recipe.

Half-measures only produce monstrosity. If you want ethnic variety, you need to embrace it completely and not try to control it through measures that belong back in 1948. There is a great example of the US and Canada where everybody is from someplace else but ethnic ghettos are diminishing, not growing.

Europeans are not managing to make a definitive choice between their post-war hangups and a desire to catch up with North America. Both the American and the post-war European models work. What doesn’t work is a clunky, artificial hybrid of the two. The hybrid model Europe is creating right now is, tragically, likely to lead back to some of the shameful experiences of the pre-1948 Europe.

All Uber drivers in this area have really big, shiny, new, expensive cars. I haven’t yet been in a single Uber vehicle around here that wasn’t an SUV or a Jeep. (Are Jeeps considered SUVs, by the way? They feel different.)

Also, I haven’t had a single non-white driver yet. And I never use Uber to go to St Louis. It’s always to go from St Louis.

This is really not the demographic I thought would want to work for Uber.

Denmark has voted in favor of requisitioning the property of the refugees. The same refugees who don’t get work permits for quite a while.

Inger Støjberg, the country’s Minister of Integration, recognized that the money that the refugees carry will not be able to reimburse the state budget for the costs of integration in any but a purely symbolic way. According to Støjberg, the real goal of seizing the refugees’ money is “to reduce their affluence.” That’s the actual, openly declared goal.

The Danish government is also planning to build enclaves or ghettos outside of the cities where the refugees will reside in culturally homogeneous groups with little interaction with the rest of society.

I think nobody could put this any more clearly: every effort is being made to create an indigent, marginalized underclass that is totally dependent on the government and feels resentful, angry, and incapable of integrating.

I read about this in Spanish but I’m sure you can find English-language sources.

N and I discovered a YouTube channel by yet another Russian immigrant in Canada. And he also turned out to be a very nice, kind fellow who, shockingly, cares about the rights of the disabled and doesn’t like people to get hurt. He told a story of a little disabled boy who was bullied and, in an incredible turn of events, he didn’t find the story funny. Instead, he felt bad for the boy!

This other Russian Canadian on YouTube shared the story of how he was about to beat his daughter, but then he realized that he was now in Canada and maybe it makes sense to do things differently. And he decided not to beat her!

It’s like if you take Russians out of Russia and keep them away for a while, they learn how to be completely normal people.

If you think I’m unfairly tough on Russians, let me tell you that just in the last couple of weeks, the following stories from Russia made a big impression on me. I’ll put them under the fold because the stories are harsh.

Continue reading “Russian Rehab” →

Buckle up, Democrats! Here is our last chance to see O’Malley’s pomposity.

Feel free to comment.

20:25 – it’s impressive how well Bernie relates to young people.

I’m conflicted because I really like Bernie as a person. He’s like an old male version of me. But I know he won’t be nearly as effective as Hillary at winning the election or getting things done after.

20:32 – this is a great format for a debate because it allows candidates to look more human, show their sense of humor.

20:35 – Bernie has chosen a mistaken strategy. He’s enumerating the instances when he was right but failed to achieve anything. Which is precisely what his main weakness is.

20:44 – enough with the age thing!!! Age, schmage, life expectancy is not what it was 100 years before. Today’s 74 is yesterday’s 54.

20:51 – of course, they had to stick O’Malley in the middle or nobody would watch his part. It’s got to be humiliating for him.

21:08 – after Bernie’s sincerity, O’Malley sounds especially fake.

And Hillary has a chance of looking honest and authentic after O’Malley.

21:27 – I’d look phenomenal in Hillary’s beautiful jacket.

21:30 – Hillary gets a question from a rude, fat boy. They are preparing her for a debate with rude, fat Trump.

21:38 – Hillary is prepared for the general election. I can see how each statement of hers can be easily modified for the national stage.

21:41 – Hillary saved Gaza! Sorry, this is just not something I can bring myself to believe. Is this another “I’m in Belgrade under sniper fire” story?

5. At the beginning of their occupation of Germany, Americans exercised a tighter censorship than even the USSR did in its occupation zone. Movies like Gone with the Wind and Grapes of Wrath, for instance, were deemed unsuitable to be shown to Germans.

RIDDLE: can you guess why these specific movies were banned?

It’s very tiresome and disappointing to hear political candidates and commentators throw around as some sort of an accusation, “She (he) is pro-establishment!”

A strong smell of deep psychological problems is wafting off the Daddy issues of the anti-establishmentarians.