A protester is arrested by Los Angeles Police Department police officers in front of the Los Angeles Federal Detention Center, in Los Angeles, California, the United States, June 8, 2025. (Photo by Qiu Chen/Xinhua)

California: States’ Rights – No Secret Police Act – “Bans” ICE Face-masks! (21.3.2025)

In a statement Saturday, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin denounced the new laws signed by Newsom as “despicable” and “a flagrant attempt to endanger our officers.”

Legal experts said the measures may offer limited protection to immigrants and will likely face constitutional challenges from the federal government.

Kevin Johnson, an immigration law professor and former dean of the UC Davis School of Law, stated that the legislation may have a marginal impact on federal enforcement operations.

He noted that a 2018 California law restricting immigration arrests at superior court buildings did not stop the Trump administration from detaining people at courts this year.

“The federal government is going to continue doing what it’s doing, in one form or another,” Johnson said. “I do think the legislation gives some hope and optimism to communities that feel under fire, vulnerable and basically hated by the federal government.”

Russia: The Enigma of the Asiatic Giant Shigir Idol (Большой Шигирский идол) – Where Ancient Russians Really Seventeen-Feet Tall? (12.3.2023) 

I have heard a number of Slavic academics stating that they believe that some of the patterning on the exterior of the Great Shigir Idol constitutes a written ‘language’. If correct, this finding would constitute the world’s ‘oldest’ written language! I am not adverse to this idea and I believe such a suggestion requires further investigation! Based upon the mythology of the Ugrians, Natalia Chairkina sees in these images a reflection of a vertical model of the universe logically divided into the Upper, Middle and Lower worlds (similar to the ‘trigram’ and ‘hexagram’ of the Chinese book ‘Classic of Change’) – which accommodate seven spheres of empty space. Archaeologist Peter Van Petersen of the National Museum of Denmark has suggested that the idol may have served as a warning at the border of a forbidden territory to scare off invaders or undesirables – or to test the courage of an individual or group. A number of Archaeological experts also note the similarity of design with the monumental stone ruins in Göbekli Tepe in Turkey (which is of a similar age). As many of the marking are both difficult to see and ambiguous in design – it is currently very difficult to produce a definitive interpretation. The best policy is for everyone to ‘look’ at this remarkable structure themselves – and up their own mind. Conventional science has already proven its improbable age! Let’s follow Lenin’s example and sit in our kitchens and ‘think’ great thoughts!