The RPI Challenge

The Chinese regime is doubling down in its “zero covid” strategy. In recent weeks, new covid cases have been detected in several cities. In a world of the more-contagious omicron variant, this is to be expected. But what has been the Chinese state’s response? It’s more of the same. Lockdowns, travel suspensions, and more. NBC reports: Tianjin, which detected China's first community spread of Omicron on Saturday, is rolling out a second round of mass testing on its 14 million residents on...

Seems like almost every day now the mass media are blaring about the need for speech on the internet to be controlled or restricted in some way. Today they’re running stories about Joe Rogan and Covid misinformation; tomorrow it will be something else. The reasons for the need to control online speech change from day to day, but the demand for that control remains a constant. Some days it’s a need to protect the citizenry from online disinformation campaigns by foreign governments. Sometimes...

Russia-bashing is a bi-partisan activity in Washington. Both parties think it makes them look “tough” and “pro-America.” But while Republican and Democrat politicians continue to one-up each other on “risk-free” threats to Russia, they are increasingly risking a devastating nuclear war.It’s all fun and games until the missiles start flying. And in this case we are risking total destruction over who governs eastern Ukraine! Has so much ever been risked for so little?The problem with all this...

For a time, astronomers debated whether Pluto should be considered a planet or not. I have no views on this matter. None whatsoever. My knowledge of astronomy is rather limited. I know that the moon is up there somewhere. I still think that the Earth is flat; except for a few mountains and valleys it sure looks that way to my naked eye. But I’m willing to take everyone’s word on this issue. I don’t want to appear too stupid. This pretty much exhausts my knowledge of astronomy. So, how will I...

As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them. ~ Leviticus 26:36 The hospitals throughout America are stressed and stretched thin. No, unlike during other times of the pandemic, there is not a flood of people coming in with blood clotting and respiratory distress. According to...

Democracy will not protect us.If the era of COVID Mania has showcased one thing about democracy, it’s that the system we were brought up to worship and instinctively defend is no guarantor of our rights whatsoever. Far from securing our liberties, pure or representational democratic systems — as the foundation of over 100 governments — has instead been used in this era as a cudgel to impose totalitarianism on the masses. "Democracy versus Autocracy, that is the choice", says the guy who is...

In the late 1990s the US military-industrial-media complex lobbied the Clinton administration to extend NATO. The sole purpose was to win more customers for US weapons. Russia protested. It had offered to integrate itself into a new European security architecture but on equal terms with the US The US rejected that. It wanted Russia to subordinate itself to US whims. Since then NATO has been extended five times and moved closer and closer to Russia's border. Leaving Russia, a large country with...

Being a purveyor of pessimism is one way to further your career. Predict doom and anything short of doom that happens after that is a blessing, a miracle. And you can be either a saviour or a genius – take your choice. The UK government has consistently been served with worst-case Covid scenarios from modelling to justify ever more restrictive measures. For much of the pandemic, the government and its advisers have cited projections of cases and deaths, each more terrifying than the last, and...

“One lesson of recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it’s sometimes very difficult to get them to leave.” The level of hubris-laced ignorance it would take an ostensibly intelligent, well-informed individual to make such a statement, in public, in an official capacity, goes beyond political parody. And yet, there was the American Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, uttering those words at the tail end of a press statement where he questioned the legitimacy of Russia’s dispatch...

The year 2022 started with Kazakhstan on fire, a serious attack against one of the key hubs of Eurasian integration. We are only beginning to understand what and how it happened. On Monday morning, leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held an extraordinary session to discuss Kazakhstan. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev framed it succinctly. Riots were “hidden behind unplanned protests.” The goal was “to seize power” – a coup attempt. Actions were “coordinated...

I wanted to take a moment to recognize Novak Djokovic and his heroic defiance of the COVID regime, lending his enormous platform and status to the millions of people around the world who have been denied their unalienable rights in the name of a virus. You would never know it by his disposition, but “Djoker” has an amazing rags to richer story, and he’s well aware of how governments can cause great human suffering. Growing up in war-torn Belgrade, Djokovic had to learn to play tennis in...

In defense of regulatory mandates during oral arguments, the following words were spoken by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor: “Why is a human being not like a machine if it’s spewing a virus?” For her, it is a simple matter: regulatory impositions rule the machine world so why not the human one too?  The question came across to listeners (millions heard these arguments for the first time) as shocking. How can anyone think this way? Human beings carry pathogens, tens of trillions of them....

If ever a critical diplomatic negotiation was doomed to fail from the start, the discussions between the US and Russia over Ukraine and Russian security guarantees is it. The two sides can’t even agree on an agenda. From the Russian perspective, the situation is clear: “The Russian side came here [to Geneva] with a clear position that contains a number of elements that, to my mind, are understandable and have been so clearly formulated—including at a high level—that deviating from our...

A recent Washington Post/University of Maryland poll found that 34 percent of Americans think violent action against the government can be justifiable. This view is held by 40 percent of Republicans and 23 percent of Democrats. The result may seem surprising since leftists have been responsible for much of the recent politically-motivated violence, and many Democrats have called for violence against Trump supporters. However, the cultural Marxists appear to have (temporarily) ceased using...