Author: Mark Tokarski

Just a man who likes to read, argue, and occasionally be surprised.

Ramblings: Sven Svenson, Dr. Ross McKittrick, Jaws, birds and moral courage

I had to chuckle this morning as I turned to the MMG page for the latest output, a piece called “Who is Greta Thunberg“, written by “Sven Svenson.” Who, I wondered, is “Sven Svenson? Why do people who turn up there wish to remain anonymous? I ask that question knowing that in my one formal encounter with the group, the piece on the McCartney twins, which I had been led to discover by MMG, that I asked to remain anonymous. I became a “Friend in Colorado.”

Why did I do that? In my case, it was not a case of having something to hide, some career to protect. I have outed myself on this blog from the beginning. My theory was that I had nothing to hide, and that even if I did, people would discover me anyway. I had learned before becoming a blogger and using pseudonyms as a commenter that people could always identify my writing style. I do have a voice, such as it is.

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Ringo Starr and Baba Wawa on John Lennon’s death

I am afraid I am all awash in confirmation bias, but I looked at this video of Ringo Starr being interviewed by Baba Wawa (the former Pamela Courson, in my view) for signs of lying, and they are all about. His eye dart. He rarely looks his interviewer in the eye. When it comes to the point where he is supposed to produce tears, he suggests they stop filming.  “Do you want to stop that now” as if tears are coming.

They don’t stop filming and the tears don’t come. He says, tellingly, that “… but I’m sure he’s OK.”

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Amazon goes for golf carts

Back before we left for this trip, I ordered a book via Amazon.com on a Friday, and found it on our door step Saturday morning. I have read the tales of beleaguered Amazon employees who are monitored all day long via tracking devices, and probably fired if they don’t measure up. A strike would be a good thing, set the company back on its heels, force it to be more humane. However, the only thing I have read is that Amazon employees (maybe a thousand) planned to walk off the job in protest to inaction on climate change. I’ll bet that story died in its cradle.

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Thanks for the memories

We are on the Amalfi Coast today, having down time. We are meeting our daughter for dinner later this evening, and the town of Almalfi is just wall-to-wall shops and tourists, so inside is better than outside. So I have been laying here on the bed looking at old photos of the Beatles, trying to figure out the Paul/Mike dynamic.

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Tonypandy

I deliberately left behind on our current trip anything looking like serious reading. Experience tells me that such books will have many unopened miles on them on return. I did bring some light detective fiction, The Daughter of Time, a 1952 book by Josephine Tey. It has been a joy, surprising sections that remind me that I need to read more fiction. I think it was Norman Mailer who said that journalists use the truth to tell lies, while novelists use lies to tell the truth.

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Iconic images are not accidental

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Photos like this are, of course, all over Facebook for the 19th anniversary of the great event. I think it interesting that in the US, the further away from New York City people are, the more likely they believe in  the events of that day. That is the power of TV news. Within the city, if memory serves, there was great skepticism. No one saw or heard a plane.* Those memories were all supplied later.

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The De-industrial Revolution

This is from AB at  Fakeologist, taken from Clues Forum, written by Simon:

…the demolition of two empty towers in Manhattan kicked off a glorious era of enlightenment for humanity at large. The sheer crassness of the 9/11 hoax has awakened millions of individuals all over the world to the pathetic machinations concocted by the sorry little clique of rogue, “supremacist” psychopaths that pretends to rule over the fine people of this otherwise magnificent planet. Mass deception is their chosen strategy to uphold their ill-gained privileges – and it has certainly worked quite nicely for them for many, many years. However, their antics have become painfully transparent in later times – and there can hardly be today any thoughtful person (worthy of this description) who hasn’t started seeing through their self-serving propaganda.

Let 2019 mark the beginning of a new – and genuine – “Age of Reason”.

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Slow news day

I always chuckle when Rick Steves starts out his travel videos (on PBS) by walking up the final four steps if a large stairway, leaving us to imagine he had walked the whole thing and we just caught him as he made it to the top. He did not. Anyway, this is my Rick Steves impression, taken high above Lake Garda in Italy, where we really truly did walk up a bunch of stairs today.

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