By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with In response to a question about the year ahead in a recent seminar, I said I had no hope — that we struggle in politics because it’s our moral duty, not because we calculate there might be, or will be,  a greater benefit than cost in the outcome. Counting of that […]

by Editor - Friday, December 26th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Pejorism is the idea that the world is getting worse so you should prepare yourself, your house, your country, your army. Meliorism — the opposite idea that the world is getting better, that time and history are on your side, etc. — has been so powerful for so long that it […]

by Editor - Friday, December 26th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with For the time being the Trump Administration and its allies conduct their war against Russia on the high seas, outside defended territorial waters, against ship targets which are unarmed, threaten no resistance. This is piracy, effective if the sight of the skull-and-bones flag triggers fear, shock, immediate surrender. In the Caribbean […]

by Editor - Thursday, December 25th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with The official record of three conversations President Vladimir Putin (lead images, right) had with President George W. Bush (lead images, left) in 2001, 2005, and 2008 has just been released in Washington. This follows a federal court lawsuit to compel the US National Archives to speed up the declassification process which […]

by Editor - Wednesday, December 24th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with In the International System of Units, hertz is a unit of frequency for measuring the number of times a repeating event occurs per second, like waves, cycles or vibrations of pitch, sound, or electrical current.  The common multiples are kilohertz, megahertz, and gigahertz. Merz is the unit measuring the number of times German […]

by Editor - Monday, December 22nd, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Blowing the shofar, the Jewish ritual ram’s horn, has traditionally been the signal to start an attack or a war, and also to celebrate victory at the end of a war.   In the lead picture, two rabbis, Eli Schlanger (left) and Yossi Friedman (right) blew the shofar above Bondi Beach in […]

by Editor - Sunday, December 21st, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with There’s a line in Shooting the Past, a 1999 film by the London filmmaker Stephen Poliakoff, in which the leading character, who runs a large historical photo archive, asks whether it is possible for a photograph to capture a lie coming out of the mouth of a liar. The character isn’t […]

by Editor - Wednesday, December 17th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with President Donald Trump wants to turn the Indian Ocean (lead image) into a zone of deterrence against war. That’s to say, he aims to deter anyone from objecting to, resisting or defending against his terms for the wars (and ceasefires) US forces are currently fighting against Yemen, Iran, Sudan, and through […]

by Editor - Sunday, December 14th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with Anthony Hughes was in such a hurry to open and shut the British Government’s case against President Vladimir Putin for the Novichok chemical warfare attack in England in 2018, he failed to tie the top button of his shirt. This was also a precaution against choking on what Hughes recited as […]

by Editor - Friday, December 12th, 2025
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By John Helmer, Moscow  @bears_with As all cricket and football followers know, the British are bad losers.  They blame the other side or the umpire; they stampede inside the stadium, then they riot outside. They believe their cleverness is in getting the media to portray their defeats on the battlefield as feats of heroism. That’s been […]

by Editor - Wednesday, December 10th, 2025
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