Because France

[urbanoid]

27 minutes ago, Roman Alymov said:

Cossacks are not necesary Slavic - for example, significant part of losses list of 19th Don Cossack regiment (where my grandgrandfather died in 1915) are recorded as "Buddists" (ethnicity was not tracked in Russian Empire  - religeon was, so Don Kalmyks are Buddists). The same with Cossacks of Siberia etc. Overfocusing on belonging to Orthodox Cristian religeon was typical for Dniper cossacks (as they were formed in situation of de-facto civil war between mostly Catholic Polish nobiles and teir mostky Orthodox peasants) - but it is only small part of all Cossacks (now Dniper Cossacks are Kuban' Cossacks as they were resettled by Catherine the Great)

Nobles in the Commonwealth weren't necessarily catholic, plenty of protestants and orthodox too (and some muslims as well). Chmielnicki himself likely was a nobleman (it's disputed, though he claimed he was) and he was orthodox, though he attended a Jesuit college in his youth. His greatest nemesis Wiśniowiecki was a Ruthenian nobleman - also born orthodox and he even attended the same Jesuit college, the difference was that he converted to catholicism there, but he also protected the orthodox faith in his lands (and those were massive). Wiśniowiecki was a prince, normally the Polish noblemen didn't have titles because all nobles were equal by law, but those with Lithuanian/Ruthenian roots were allowed to use the titles of their ancestors. Well, some Polish-Polish noblemen also had titles if they received them from foreign rulers, e.g. the HRE.

Edited July 10 by urbanoid

[urbanoid]

12 minutes ago, Roman Alymov said:

Also, Bandera movement was limited to "new territories" of Soviet Ukraine that were Poland from 1917 to 1940, while "Ukrainias" from, let's say, Kharkov were hardly aware who Bandera is.

OUN operated mostly in Western Ukraine and even there Bandera was just a head of one the factions. At more or less the same time when OUN-B was commiting genocide in Volhynia, they also disarmed OUN-M units, put their members in the camps and killed quite a lot of them. And theoretically both OUN-B and OUN-M were allied to the Germans, who a few months later started recreating OUN-M units.

[sunday]

Thanks, @Roman Alymov, @urbanoid.

[Roman Alymov]

12 minutes ago, urbanoid said:

Nobles in the Commonwealth weren't necessarily catholic, plenty of protestants and orthodox too.

Yes, even some of the most prominent noble families/clans (like Ostrogozhskye, who originated from Kiev dukes) were Orthodox - adding to complexity of constant infighting. In this age, when nations were not yet invented, it was not strange  - as far as i remember, Polish-Lithuanin commonwealth at some point was officially "Polish-Russian-Lithianian commonwealth".

[Roman Alymov]

As migration to Europe via Poland was mentioned:

"The scale of the migration flow through Belarus is amazing:

Lithuanian Border Service: since August 2021, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have displaced more than 100 thousand illegal immigrants from the border. Poland turned back the most border violators – 65,757 people. Lithuania is in the second position, which did not allowed 20,581 illegal immigrants. Latvia, which later faced an influx of illegal migrants, turned back 13,854 violators.

Is there anything to understand here: the flow does not stop - therefore there are ways by which Middle Eastern refugees get into the EU through the Belarusian border." ( https://t.me/historiographe/7974 )

Seems like border services of Poland and Baltic states are sometimes looking other way, probably for some reward....

[urbanoid]

21 minutes ago, Roman Alymov said:

Yes, even some of the most prominent noble families/clans (like Ostrogozhskye, who originated from Kiev dukes) were Orthodox - adding to complexity of constant infighting. In this age, when nations were not yet invented, it was not strange  - as far as i remember, Polish-Lithuanin commonwealth at some point was officially "Polish-Russian-Lithianian commonwealth".

It never fully came into fruition, you're probably referring to the Treaty of Hadiach between the Commonwealth and the Zaporizhian Cossacks under hetman Wyhowski.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Hadiach

The intent of this treaty was to indeed add the 'third leg' to the union. With the third being not 'Russian', but 'Ruthenian'. 'Rusin' (Ruthenian) in those times meant de facto 'Ukrainian', the adjective derived from the word 'Rusin' would be 'ruski' - it wasn't used when describing 'Moskals'. And no, 'Moskal' was not a derogatory term at the time and didn't become until much, much later, even 150+ years after that Mickiewicz wrote a letter 'To my friends the Moskals' which was sort of a homage to the dekabrists as well as other Russians opposing the tsarist rule.

Anyway, the treaty could have never been fully implemented as there was a military intervention by Russia and... things happened.

Edited July 10 by urbanoid

[Roman Alymov]

8 minutes ago, urbanoid said:

It never fully came into fruition, you're probably referring to the Treaty of Hadiach between the Commonwealth and the Zaporizhian Cossacks under hetman Wyhowski.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Hadiach

The intent of this treaty was to indeed add the 'third leg' to the union. With the third being not 'Russian', but 'Ruthenian'. 'Rusin' (Ruthenian) in those times meant de facto 'Ukrainian', the adjective derived from the word 'Rusin' would be 'ruski' - it wasn't used when describing 'Moskals'.

Accordong to https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Великое_княжество_Литовское   . it was comming from full title of Lithuania ("Великое Князство Литовъское, Руское, Жомоитъское" ) and is refered to much earlier events.  You are correct in pointing out that "Руское" (Russian, or "Ruthenian" in Latinized form) was not the same as "Muskovites" ("citizens" of Moskva kingdom - for example, Volga Tatars and Bashkirs were also "Muskovites" while not even Slavic). Back in this age when nations and nation states were not invented, nobody cared much  - as there were no shortage of other reasons to kill people from opposing party, even if they are hardly distinguishable.

[Stuart Galbraith]

1 hour ago, Roman Alymov said:

More over, significant percent of "Ukrainians fighting for Germany in WWII" were not "Ukrainians" at all  - as Soviet POWs with other backgrounds, to avoid starvation to death or exacution, were sometimes volunteering into "Ukrainian" units (since there is in fact no ethnic difference, it was not difficult). It is reality of life  -not all people prefer torturous death to treason.

    Also, Bandera movement was limited to "new territories" of Soviet Ukraine that were Poland from 1917 to 1940, while "Ukrainias" from, let's say, Kharkov were hardly aware who Bandera is.

There was a large number of them turn up on the Atlantic wall facing the allies. Ive also read accounts of German schoolboys saying they had Soviet POW's helping them in Flak batteries.

There was an occasion when one such unit was placed in Holland if I remember correctly, rebelled against the Nazi's and fought a pitched battle for some time. Amazingly some of them actually survived to be liberated by the British. I had a good link on it somewhere, damned if I can find it now. The narrative was they had done enough to avoid being locked up by the Soviets when they went home, but I have to doubt it honestly.

[BansheeOne]

It was Georgians on the island of Texel.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Thank you, that was bugging the hell out of me.

[Roman Alymov]

53 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

There was an occasion when one such unit was placed in Holland if I remember correctly, rebelled against the Nazi's and fought a pitched battle for some time. Amazingly some of them actually survived to be liberated by the British. I had a good link on it somewhere, damned if I can find it now. The narrative was they had done enough to avoid being locked up by the Soviets when they went home, but I have to doubt it honestly.

Probably you mean this story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_uprising_on_Texel

[Ivanhoe]

https://niccolo.substack.com/p/us-state-department-trained-french

Quote

It’s pretty coincidental that a UK publication would turn to a US State Department-trained arsonist for a sober take on what is happening in France.

NSFW warning; the author's Substack name is a bit disturbing. 

[urbanoid]

Let's invite even more thirdworlders, in the name of holy GDP. Who knows, this one may even get life sentence, to spend the rest of his life on French taxpayer's dime.

Quote

Manche: a young woman raped at home by a stranger and left for dead, a suspect arrested

Facts of incredible violence that leave you speechless. An 18-year-old man already known to the police, Oumar N., was arrested on Thursday after a barbaric rape on Friday August 4 in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin (Manche), Le Figaro learned from a police source .

That day, around 8:30 a.m., the firefighters and then the police intervened at the home of a young 29-year-old woman, in the city center of Cherbourg. In a state of shock and naked, she explains to the police that she has just been beaten and then raped at home.

Read also Paris: arrest of a man suspected of having raped a woman passing through the window of her apartment

According to the victim's testimony, a man - whom she had already seen but did not know - broke into her home half an hour earlier. She explains that this stranger hit her repeatedly, in the face and on the body, before raping her several times, in particular with a broomstick.

Doctors diagnosed the victim with perforation of the colon, small intestine, peritoneum and diaphragm, pneumothorax, rib fractures and a high risk of septic shock. Taken to the hospital, the young woman was plunged into an artificial coma. She is currently between life and death, her vital prognosis being engaged.

A trace left on a door

Thanks to the technical investigations carried out on the crime scene, the suspect was confused thanks to a papillary trace left on a door. The assailant had put his hand there while he attacked the victim.

The automated fingerprint file (FAED) made it possible to assign this fingerprint to an individual: Oumar N., 18, already known to the police. This evidence is corroborated by the geolocation of his mobile phone at the time of the events.

Oumar N. was arrested by the police on Thursday August 10 at his mother's home. In police custody, he first denied the facts before eventually acknowledging them laconically. “ The procedure was transmitted this Friday to the public prosecutor's office of Coutances, the pole jurisdiction of the instruction, for the purpose of opening a judicial investigation of the count of rape accompanied by acts of barbarism. Requisitions for placement in pre-trial detention will be taken ”, indicates in a press release Pierre-Yves Marot, public prosecutor of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin.

autotranslated from:
https://www.lefigaro.fr/faits-divers/manche-une-jeune-femme-violee-chez-elle-par-un-inconnu-et-laissee-pour-morte-un-suspect-interpelle-20230811

 

[sunday]

Make impalement a thing again.

[Ivanhoe]

[JWB]

 

[urbanoid]

Quote

A summer among the énarques: In this world nothing goes better with an infinity pool than a virulent dose of anti-Americanism

As an end-of-summer holiday, it was unexpected – and decidedly welcome. “I’ve been loaned a house on a Greek island by this German I do business for,” my friend Charles said. “It is apparently the last thing in luxury. Do you want to come?”

“Let me get my Easyjet and ferry tickets this minute”, I said.

“I’m inviting friends,” he said, “there are plenty of rooms.”

And this is how I spent two weeks with Charles and what turned out to be a party of friends he met in grad school 40 years ago. Charles is an énarque, a graduate of France’s elite government training ground, École Nationale d’Administration (ENA), created in 1945 by General de Gaulle. The plan was to provide the French civil service with a new generation of competent, selfless technocrats in charge of the country’s post-war reconstruction. (Unsaid was that many of their elders had seamlessly administered France under Marshal Pétain, and needed replacing.)

It worked beautifully for the first thirty years or so. To a large extent, France is still coasting on the achievements of that period: trains, motorways, nuclear power, what used to be an excellent State education and health systems, etc. Then ENA’s very success turned the “model” into a symbol of French caste arrogance and privilege.

Out of eight Fifth Republic presidents, four came from ENA (and two of the remaining lot, Charles de Gaulle and Georges Pompidou, got their schooling long before it existed). Ditto one third of Prime Ministers.

Until about ten years ago, one fourth of CAC-40 bosses. The latter is now down to 10 per cent, but that’s because the slack has been picked up by other elitist Grandes Écoles, like Polytechnique, which are similarly entered through a gruelling competitive exam. They require a period in which the graduates work in the public sector, and therefore provide their alumni an unparalleled network in a country where few activities are not overlooked at one stage or another by a thousand-year-old civil service.

As it turned out, I was about to get a glimpse of the network at rest and play in undiluted circumstances.

Soon after he was elected, Emmanuel Macron, class of 2002-2004, said he was closing ENA for good. The following academic year, something called L’Institut du Service Public, to be henceforth known as INSP, opened in the same Strasbourg and Paris campuses, with a good many of the same teachers. There had been a few tweaks to the system, supposedly to make it more egalitarian and inclusive.

That was not in evidence on our house’s guestlist. Everyone was in Charles’s age bracket (60s); everyone knew everyone else, from public and private jobs; everyone tempered the natural énarque’s tendency to viciously criticise everyone and everything in sight with the healthy wariness that prompts you not to fall foul of someone who can damage your career.

Everything is a zero-sum game, as it was at school when someone’s success meant one’s ranking slipped in the entrance and exit gradings, on which one’s entire life — public and private sector jobs, then board memberships and Cabinet posts; income, influence, even marriages — depends for the next five decades. France has not much changed since the days of the Sun King and Napoleon.

That tension remained as a constant undertone under the assumption of bluff good cheer, especially as part of the first-rate gossip sessions: les absents ont toujours tort.

There was talk of the French woman diplomat who allegedly conducted an affair with a major female British politician; of another whose most recent book is described on her Wikipedia notice as “based on stereotypes of French hatred toward Britain” (she was rated highly by my fellow vacationers, who as one berated the Brexit “Leave” vote); of a number of Cabinet members, past and present.

Even though a good half of our housemates had served in conservative (Gaullist) administrations, the banter skewed Left, as the polite conversation on French State TV, radio, newspapers, dinner parties, etc. almost always does.

That is because your average énarque, from climate change to education theories to immigration issues, etc., is conformist by necessity. What begins as protective covering at school and during your first stages (required civil service internships) becomes your unquestioned default position, whether about policies, cultural tastes, even food.

Over the years the same books, movies, even opera productions, have been quoted again and again to me by seemingly very different énarque friends as their “favourites”: they were the ones safe to mention during ENA general knowledge tests.

It is telling that one of the favourites is the 1950s novelist and screenwriter Roger Vailland’s 1956 Éloge du Cardinal de Bernis, an elegantly-written small book on an 18th century French prelate living in Venice, famously libertine (he’s mentioned more often than anyone else in Casanova’s Memoirs), who ended up as a member of the Académie Française.

As a career,  it represents a kind of ideal in a ruling class that enjoys pretend transgression (and acts surprised when it’s revealed to be real) as well as prestigious gongs. But the final touch is provided by the author’s impeccably liberal credentials — Vailland was a member of the Communist Party — which, to this day, makes a reference to a Madame de Pompadour protégé palatable, even cool in Paris.

I should perhaps not have been surprised, then, to hear Charles and his friends express consternation that nobody seemed to be able to make Ukrainians stop resisting Vladimir Putin’s invasion. It was unreasonable, caused the rest of the world undeserved economic hardship, and Ukraine wasn’t a real country anyway. It was entirely the fault of the Americans, using the supposedly non-existing Ukrainians as proxies.

According to this worldview, similar to 1970s slogans at Berkeley and the Sorbonne, NATO’s other 29 members do not count: the organisation is entirely puppeteered by America.

I suggested that America had experience with proxies, in places from Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan: it had worked out so well then that their first reflex this time had been to offer Volodymyr Zelensky a quick exfiltration. Also, a quick look revealed the absence of any US boots on Ukrainian ground.

This prompted a deluge of vituperative anti-Americanism, that the United States were a kleptocracy on par with Putin’s Russia, on and on and on. This was a kind of 1960s Gaullism on steroids, more radical than what most BRICS dare say.

I then made the mistake of mentioning the morality of invading a neighbouring country with tanks, cluster bombs, and DIY torture chamber equipment.

That prompted knowing smiles. How unsophisticated, how primitive! The French elites, left and right, value Realpolitik above all, because it is “more intelligent”. “You can’t be that simplistic”, one suggested, with a tone that said little better could be expected of a journalist. At which point I went to take a dive into the infinity pool. Which was indeed luxurious.

About one third of my holiday companions still work for the French State; the rest undertake various business activities, for two of them hampered by European sanctions against Russia.

It turned out Charles’s so generous German client had also experienced recent frustrations over sanctions. I expect this unknown figure has good hopes that a conciliatory line is being pushed by the best members of the French nomenklatura in their constant encounters with their old school friends. As the “intelligent” and “sophisticated” choice.

Names have been changed. No énarques were harmed during the writing of this column.

https://brusselssignal.eu/2023/09/a-summer-among-the-enarques-in-this-world-nothing-goes-better-with-an-infinity-pool-than-a-virulent-dose-of-anti-americanisn/

[sunday]

Ah, the French deep-state...

I wonder what they think about Soros.

The author. 

 

[Tim the Tank Nut]

from what I can read I don't see anything particularly objectionable in that long series of posts.  I'd that that person is quite correct about the general silence regarding Iran's executions.  Did I miss an obvious point?

[sunday]

18 minutes ago, Tim the Tank Nut said:

from what I can read I don't see anything particularly objectionable in that long series of posts.  I'd that that person is quite correct about the general silence regarding Iran's executions.  Did I miss an obvious point?

No, it was a miss of mine. Seems X now puts a lot of tweets when you link the account of a person.

Remarkable things: Ukr flag, admiration for Boris Johnson, accusations of weakness against Macron on the Ukr thing.

I guess she could be a somewhat partisan source.

[Tim the Tank Nut]

well, it worked out good for me.  I was determined to try to read it without a translator.  It seems that one of us has let his second language skills deteriorate to an unacceptable level.

Time for me to try to slowly rebuild.  I never use it and don't have any real need but I also don't want it to rot away entirely.  If the world ever stabilizes Id like to go back to Europe some day

[Ivanhoe]

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/15/juliette-de-causans-french-politics-digital-edit-posters/

Quote

 

A French politician has been criticised for “misleading” voters by using digital enhancements to give her a youthful glow in campaign posters.

Juliette de Causans, who is running as a candidate in France’s senatorial elections this month, was pictured in recent posters sporting a more Hollywood image compared to her normal appearance.

Ms De Causans is in her 40s but has not given her exact age. In a poster from March this year, she could plausibly pass off as someone in her mid-20s: her skin noticeably brighter, teeth straighter and hair more luscious compared to what appear to be unedited photos of her on Instagram.

 

 

[Stargrunt6]

3 hours ago, Ivanhoe said:

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/15/juliette-de-causans-french-politics-digital-edit-posters/

 

Lol politics as online dating.

[sunday]

Considering Macron is usually touted as non-Left, and this mademoiselle defines herself as environmentalist, and pro-immigration...

[urbanoid]

Quote

France ravaged by migrant rapes as spate of sexual assaults targeting elderly women sweep the nation

Several disturbing attacks have been reported on by French media outlets in the last week, with both young and elderly women targeted

Multiple reports of rapes and attempted rapes by migrants living in France have made local headlines as the continued dramatic rise in sexual assaults and mass immigration shows an undeniable correlation.

French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Friday the demise of a 67-year-old woman who was accosted outside her home in Versailles by an Algerian national on Wednesday evening and then carried forcefully into her home, where she suffered a night of excruciating torture.

The elderly woman was tied up, beaten, and raped by the migrant before successfully fleeing the home and taking refuge with a neighbor who contacted the authorities.

The suspect was arrested the following day after being caught on video surveillance footage at the scene. An Algerian national of no fixed abode, he was found in possession of the victim’s identity documents, bank card, and various stolen jewelry. It was later reported that the man had been the subject of an unenforced deportation order since February 2022.

He offered only a “no comment” to the police following his arrest and reportedly fell asleep in his chair during questioning.

Another elderly woman attacked

Another victim, also 67, also suffered an attempted rape in the French town of Tours on Sunday afternoon, according to the Valeurs Actuelles magazine. A police source told the publication how an intoxicated Sudanese asylum seeker had been interrupted by a neighbor lying on top of his victim with his pants undone. The victim’s underwear had been ripped off and she had been hit in the face.

The 36-year-old migrant, who was reportedly in a regular situation in France pending an asylum claim, was arrested at the scene and his victim was taken to the hospital for minor physical injuries sustained in the attack.

Third elderly woman assaulted

Also on Saturday, the Actu 17 news site reported how a 21-year-old illegal migrant of unknown nationality was arrested following the sexual assault of a 51-year-old woman as she returned to her home in Avignon on Sept. 14.

According to the site, the suspect had been waiting in the hallway of his victim’s apartment as she sought to enter her home when he approached her, told her he wanted to have sex with her, and pushed her against the hallway wall, grabbing her by the neck and kissing her.

The victim’s screams were heard by a neighbor who came to the victim’s aid and forced the attacker to flee the scene.

Young women also targeted

Meanwhile, Le Parisien reported on Saturday the case of a student at the prestigious ESSEC business school who was raped by a Malian national living illegally in France earlier this month.

The newspaper revealed how the student had been walking home from a nightclub on the evening of Sept. 16 when she was accosted by the suspect and pushed up against a car where she was raped.

Fortuitously, the incident was spotted by two police officers patrolling the area in a vehicle who intervened and arrested the man.

During a police interview, the suspect disputed the allegation of rape, insisting the sex had been consensual after having met at the Duplex nightclub earlier that evening.

The 31-year-old migrant, known as Mady. T., was already known to the authorities for a previous allegation of rape at the same nightclub back in August 2022. He was not charged at that time and was subsequently released from police custody.

Authorities were called and tracked down the suspect, who provided investigators with a false name and had no formal identification on him. After identifying the man, police learned he is living in the country illegally.

Gang rape and acts of torture

The same news site also reported on Friday on the arrest of two individuals on multiple counts of gang rape, acts of torture, and barbarity and extortion following the rape of a 30-year-old woman in an underground car park in the French city of Nice last month.

The two suspects, named Adel A. and Mohamed E., were arrested on Thursday after allegedly torturing their victim before forcing her to withdraw money from an ATM, stealing her bank card, and fleeing the scene on the night of Aug. 12.

Police investigators tracked the bank card and found it had been used multiple times in various locations in the days following the attack; video surveillance enabled them to make a formal identification of the two suspects.

Following their arrest, one of the men confessed to using the stolen bank card and claimed his co-defendant had engaged in a sexual relationship with a stranger.

The pair remain in pre-trial detention pending criminal proceedings next year.

Immigration tied to rise in sexual assaults

As France continues to advocate a liberal migration policy, cases of sexual violence have continued to rise sharply across the country in recent years, according to the latest report by the Ministry of the Interior.

A total of 30,780 rapes were reported to authorities in 2021, the most recent year where records are available, up from 22,770 in 2020, and 12,820 in 2016.

The dramatic increase in rapes and sexual assaults coincides with a sharp rise in immigration from North Africa, Africa, and the Middle East.

According to the French interior minister’s office, 48 percent of criminal acts in Paris are committed by foreign nationals, while this figure is 55 percent in Marseille.

https://rmx.news/crime/france-ravaged-by-migrant-rapes-as-spate-of-sexual-assaults-sweeps-the-nation/

Diversity is our strength or something.