The surest way to lose an argument is to concede the premise put forth by the person taking the other side of the debate. His starting premise is, at the very minimum, not harmful to his argument. Most likely, he starts with a premise that makes his conclusions inevitable. It would be insane to start from a premise that must lead to a contradictory conclusion. If you concede his premise without considering this strong possibility, you are sure to lose the debate.
This is why it is always good to be wary of people who claim to support your argument, but who insists upon conceding the premise of your opponent. Either that person is stupid or they are trying to undermine your argument. This has been the history of conservatism in America. They concede the premise to the Progressives, while claiming they can win the argument against the Progressives. This was famously observed by Robert Lewis Dabney a century ago.
Victor David Hanson has a post about Ukraine that is a good example of how the so-called conservatives concede the moral high ground. He opens with what is best described as a gratuitous assertion. “Americans want an autonomous Ukraine to survive. They hope the West can stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strangulation of both Ukraine and NATO.” No evidence is offered in support of this assertion, because no American outside Washington cares about Ukraine.
His third sentence is even more divorced from reality than the first. “Most Americans oppose the notion that Russia can simply dictate the future of Ukraine.” The truth is, most Americans do not care about this part of the world in the least. Russia could turn Ukraine into a nuclear testing zone and most Americans would only care if it made for some interesting video. Otherwise, Ukraine is down there on the list of concerns with land management in Uzbekistan.
What Hanson is up to here is making the old neoconservative case for endless intervention in the world. That case has been built on the claim that Americans care about the world and Americans will support the costs of meddling in the affairs of far away places like Ukraine. Neoconservatism has always rested on a manufactured consent of the majority. This appeal to the will of the people provides the moral authority for endless intervention in the world.
When the premise of the debate is that the American people care deeply about the territorial integrity of our ancient ally Ukraine and they are committed to stopping our ancient enemy Russia, there is only one plausible conclusion. The to-ing and fro-ing he goes through in that post is just window dressing. If the people demand the safety of Ukraine and define that as the rejection of Russian interests along their border, America has no choice but to be enmeshed in this conflict.
The rhetorical sleight of hand does not end there. Hanson makes clear that this conflict would be over if Putin respected Biden and his team. You see, despite the bellicose language from Team Biden, they are appeasers. Their tough talk about Ukraine is really just a coded surrender of Ukraine. Everyone knows that only one man in human history was ever appeased, so when you think about it, Ukraine is the Sudetenland and Joe Biden is this generation’s Neville Chamberlain.
The argument here is totally bonkers, but it is the natural result of conceding the premise of empire. Once you accept that America has a right and duty to arrange the world to reflect the current values of American elites, there is no conflict too small or too far away that does not demand intervention. In fact, Americans must naturally demand intervention, as to do other wise would be to let evil triumph. This is neoconservatism tarted up with some populist sounding handwringing.
This is why non-interventionism is seen as a bigger threat to the current order than a nuclear exchange with Russia or war with China in the Pacific. To accept the fact that there are some places around the world that are not the business of the American empire opens the debate about the limits of empire. Once we accept that there is a line beyond which it is immoral for us to go, the debate is about where to draw the line and neoconservatism has no argument for this.
Further, if we concede that Russia has legitimate interests in Ukraine, rooted in their history and culture, then we must concede that history and culture exists as something other than social constructs. In other words, to take the claims of Russia seriously is to question a fundamental premise of the current order. This is where it becomes plain that American interests in Ukraine have little to do with reality on the ground and everything to do with the prevailing morality of Washington.
This is why the neoconservatives insist that the American people have a strong interest in protecting Ukraine. If they can make that the premise of the debate, there is never a reason to question the endless meddling in the region. The debate is about how to meddle in their affairs, not whether we should meddle in the region. The former serves the interest of the neocons, while the latter excludes them from the debate, something that needs to happen sooner rather than later.
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Spicy, why do they hate Russia so much? I’m genuinely curious. Max boot, the obvious psychopath, aside. What gives?
1
If you look at a lot of them, their parents or grandparents left Russia. It seems to be personal.
8
Stalin offed their favorite Jew, Trotsky. Remember: an attack against (((one))) is an attack against (((all))). :-))))))
5
Russia + Belarus + the Ukraine = the largest white Christian country in the world, they can’t allow this to happen
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Recovering neocon here.
The old Soviet Union was a horrible place, although by the 1980s way less so than it had been. I have trouble believing the current edition of Russia is worse. What’s more the breakup of the USSR did little for the average Soviet Joe- although it did enrich the oligarchs and especially the government hacks that emerged from the chaos. (the Baltics might be a exception, but I don’t really know)
The notion of a free Ukraine is preposterous- it’s been in Russian orbit since when, the Middle Ages?
It seems to me that the Putster wants a “Finlandized” Ukraine. I dunno if that’s good or bad. I do know it’s not, as I’ve observed before, worth the bones of one Iowa National Guardsman. (HT to Otto) Besides we need the guard here at home to protect our leaders from the Groypers and Proud Boys and others regularly besieging the Capitol.
5
2
American Leftist propaganda notwithstanding, everything indicates that things are better for the average Russian now than under the late USSR. But this wasn’t true in 1995, and it may not have been true in 2005, at least not in some ways. But now average Russian incomes are as high as they have ever been, ditto life expectancy, and living standards in the big cities are approaching western levels, although not in the smaller towns or countryside. Most of this has happened in the last 15 years – it’s no wonder that Putin has genuinely high levels of popularity among ordinary Russians, doctored polls notwithstanding
1
Free Ukraine. How about a free California?
1
I suspect people in the “Inner Circle” want Cold War V2, Electric Boogaloo for all those neat weapons systems and money to fund them.
The War on Terra, I mean, Terror, turned out to be a bust.
We can’t fight China, they have all our debt and sell us all of our trinkets.
Russia it is. 👍
4
They MIC gravy train has already begun.
The prime on my contract just received a $750 million, IDIQ contract for product.
Nice work, if you can get it.
Got in an argument with some guy over what right did we have in interfering with a Russia to Germany pipeline. His only retort was “Trump blocked it and Biden allowed it!” After I said Trump was wrong, he shut-up.
Right now the moustache guy analogies are flying fast and furious.
1
The Russians don’t want to invade the Ukraine, wars are expensive and almost never go as planned
The compromise the Russians would be happy with is a federal Ukraine, this would keep the Ukraine independent but since the regions would have veto over NATO membership Washington is against the idea also, this would strip power from Kiev, so the elite will resist it at all costs
I see the same situation in the US, the elite in the capital want to rule over everyone and everything
Bobby Lee was right
“The consolidation of the states into one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it.”
19
Isn’t this another consequence of the holocaust narrative? The empire uses the holocaust narrative to justify interference in anything anywhere, in order to prevent another holocaust.
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More Wilson’s mad desire to “make the world safe for democracy” than a Fancy Feast narrative, since both ethnicities are Slav.
3
Pickle, and just who pushes for “democracy”? The same cabal whom Wilson so greatly regretted.
Not only the Holocaust, but invading any country anywhere. (Except for the US, which invades countries for human rights and liberty you see.) It’s not anudda Treblinka, it’s anudda Austria.
4
“Well, you know what happens when white people stand up for their racial interests…”
****
The kindest, most humane deportation programme ever.
Except, the miraculously “disappeared” walked over the Polish border, where Stalin suddenly gained soldiers without rifles or uniforms? What, did the broke USSR ship their needed farmhands to the front without arms?
Then they came back to rape Berlin and every shiksa they could grab. Vengeance is their God.
These are the people from the land of tyrants. Their gangster culture appreciates resolute strength and iron will. That’s why they’ll back down if you stand up to them.
If Uncle Adolf- a man so kind he became a vegetarian, dogs loved him- had pulled a Rhineland Meadows on the 375,000 *uden in Germany, they would’ve adored him as they did Stalin, who killed the leaders but left the slave camp and secret police administrative opportunities intact.
There would’ve been AH statues instead of Ho…err, Victory Memorials in every Western city.
We would’ve has schoolbooks promoting Facism, too. The Rotfront, the Goebbels, the Eichmanns infiltrated the NS in case it won. They wanted to be astride the strong horse.
I used to read VDH off and on, but his wishy washy-ness on salient issues and the neoconservative bent just got tiresome. These people are totally divorced from normal American reality. To actually write that Americans deeply care about the fate of Ukraine is ludicrous. Sure, let’s get into another freaking shooting war – this time with someone who can shoot back, big time. I swear, with people like this representing “conservatives”, there is no hope.
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Hanson is a Scandi. That’s what you’re picking up on.
2
I guarantee 80% of Americans could not find Ukraine on a map.
6
LOL, welp, if you were a kid of my generation and grew up playing Risk, you sure as hell know where it is.
That and Kamchatka.
6
Heh. Played Risk religiously with my extended family. The most used catchphrase while playing was “Ukraine is Weak”, referring to this classic Seinfeld scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teSXcJlpMl8
3
Hahahaha LOL
Like, totally excellent, dudes
Americans of a certain manly disposition common to soldiers know it as a mythical place pretty girls come from.
When Russian prostitutes (and quasi-prostitutes) were still under the mistaken impression that Americans hated them, they’d always lie and say “Ukraina.” Trained at the factory, apparently. My friends and I would use “Ukrainian” when saying “whore” was too vulgar.
Because VDH is wrong, the whores don’t lie anymore. “Rossiya” is better advertising.
Trump’s greatest accomplishment. He made some lies obsolete.
2
1000 upvotes for Ukrainian beauties
My GODS let’s open the immigration gates
I mean, if our gals want something REALLY important to b*tch about…
I wearied of Hanson complaining that “California is becoming a third-world country” as if it was just a random happening, like a drought. Republican leadership is never going to call out the crimes of the Democrats. They are too similar to the Republicans’ own crimes.
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Thank you, Z. Is there a more fatuous blowhard in existence than V.D. Hanson? I think not. He of course regards Sherman as the greatest general of all times and all peoples (an almost sexual delight in his celebration of Sherman’s pillaging in Georgia and SC), and sneers at Robert E Lee and Confederate soldiers. Which tells you everything you need to know about this dreadful neocon horror.
His “evolution” to a sort of populism is amusing. Ole VD (who claims to be a “traditionalists” came to support Trump was the “real deal” after talkin’ with some farmers in California. The simple rustics admired Trump which convinced VD that DJ was OK. Hence his resignation from national review. Like a truffle-sniffing pig, he knows where the readers are going. A genuinely vile human being.
12
> . “Americans want an autonomous Ukraine to survive. They hope the West can stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strangulation of both Ukraine and NATO.”
At best, they trot out a survey full of loaded wording like “60 percent of Americans says they support intervention in Ukraine to stop aggressive military action by Putin”
Okay, are those sixty percent telling their kid to enlist? Are they calling congress demanding intervention? Or, did they just respond yes and turn on Netflix without thinking another thought about Ukraine after replying to the poll?
Even if a majority gives lukewarm support on paper as an abstraction, that’s not near enough for a full military operation, and when even a dozen bodybags come home these same NPCs will turn on a dime and not even acknowledge they REALLY supported the war.
5
Yeah that 60% is what Zman refers to as manufactured consent. What about reality here at home where a majority of Americans want real immigration reform and immediate policing and push back on the invaders at the southern border. When is that going to happen when we know a majority want it? Too late , I know.
Hansen, neocons and all of the current administration’s traitors have no interest or concern for the issues Americans really care about.
As far as Ukraine goes, most of these people are in deep with the corruption and crime as much as the Bidens are.
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David: As a Californian, an academic, and then a National Review writer, what possible contact has Hanson had with real Americans? He’s lived amongst the leftist loons, Mestizo immivaders, and Juice neocon pseudo intelligentsia his entire life. I fully concede he knows far more about military history than I do – and I don’t particularly give a damn. On the existential crisis facing the White race and Western Civilization, Hanson is awol. He’s of no use to me.
7
Fences at the Capitol but not the border says it all.
2
Given the history of what Soviet Communism did to Ukraine, I can see why Ukranians (at least western Ukranians) might not want to be part of Russia, but why this is any of our business is beyond me. Russia has dominated Ukraine for at least five hundred years, without it affecting our national security, or even the security of Europe, in any way I can see. Communism was obviously deeply dangerous, but Putin has renounced that in no uncertain terms, regardless of what lies the neocons tell, and us antagonizing Russia over Ukraine is far, far more dangerous to our security than even a full-blown Russian invasion of Ukraine would be. The hatred of some members of the US elite to a white, Christian country is looking like the best explanation so far.
20
Reported that Florida national guard (reserve?) units were in The Ukraine showing our “allies” how to use man portable bunker buster rockets.
Waiting to see when the Russians will send advisors to Mexico to advise their allies in similar methods.
11
Seeing that the Cartel is fully militarized- they fired ‘los manyas’ street hustlers and hired Contras and Mexican Army professionals to replace them- you are scaring the living sh*t outta me.
2
I don’t personally care if the Ukraine is part of Russia or not. Yakutsk hunters, more closely related to American Indians than to Sct Petersburgers like Putin, are part of Russia and the primary effect on the hunters seems to be that they can hunt bears and wild boar with a Baikal slug gun instead of a spear. But it is a very important question whether it is worth increasing the risk of having America and Europe nuked to ensure that Ukraine is or is not, part of Russia. I have very strong opinions that that is not worth it.
But Z is right, this is about elite hatred of Russia. Whether that goes back to progroms 120 yrs ago (personally sceptical of that), a 1950s mindset in need of an update, lost business opportunities for the Davos gang or outraged incredulity that there are laws protecting Russian children from sex change ‘therapy’, I’m not really sure.
I think China is a real threat. Russia should be wooed as an ally. But that requires actually wanting what’s in America’s interest. Terribly uncouth in DC these days…
14
In what way is China a threat to the people of the west?
I mean in a detail way.
The threat to the west is from their own globohomo govts and that is many orders of magnitude more than china.
What is china going to do import millions of third worlders and destroy your homeland?
3
2
They are pushing fentanyl into the US, they are stealing technology, trading unfairly to wreck what’s left of American industry. And they’re providing a society model that globohomo seems to want but I certainly don’t.
Globohomo is the primary enemy that is true. How much globohomo/Davos is in cahoots w the CCP I dont know. But human nature being what it is I do not want a group so alien to become history’s greatest power. That would not be good for us.
10
2
The CCP and GloboHomo had a modus vivendi wherein they would be bellicose toward one another but the grift would keep on keepin’ on. Then Xi told the Tribe “no.”
3
Fentanyl into the US?
You think the CCP is doing this?
I assume you know about the massive coke importation by the US IAs via Mena/Colombia/Bush/Clinton, the Heroin from the Golden triangle by the CI_A in the 70s when they took over the French csrtle routes, or the routing of Opium up from Afghanistan. You think this is different?
Industry has been given away by the US and corporations en masse for decades. The CCP did not kidnap them and get them to send all the manufacturing overseas for 30 years. The US’s own politicians did it to them.
For some one as intelligent as yourself I am astounded you can’t see the China cold war for the new scam it obviously is.
4
2
trumpton, they were producing mountains of fentanyl that they were perfectly able to keep off Chinese streets but somehow could not ‘prevent’ from being smuggled into the US. Did they have accomplices stateside? I mean, the ‘elite’ traitor class wants to kill the country so….sure…
They, unlike Russia, still consider this man a role model
https://newcriterion.com/issues/2019/10/leninthink
And, they are an ENTIRELY different branch of the HBD tree. Do you still not see why I am not entirely thrilled with them becoming the overbearing hegemon.
If we were a little smarter about things, I imagine Putin and his poker buddies in the Kremlin would nod at such thoughts. But right now globohomo is pushing him into Xi’s loving arms.
3
1
We are already run by a different branch of the Tree, or have you not noticed the overunning of your country?
I ask again what more damage could China being a world power do to the average person in the West that is worse than now? I don’t mean it would be hypothetically bad, I mean concretely.
China cares about Taiwan and the South China sea. I don’t give a shit what they do in their sphere of influence.
I am more concerned about internal civil wars from mass invasion and being a second class citizen in my own country than whether China retakes Taiwan.
3
1
Also, there are good reasons the Chinese having been buying up North American farmland and food processors like Smithfield.
First, I’m so friggin old that I remember when VDH was a certified Progressive, and later watched him make the slow transition to middle-of-the-road and then born-again conservative after his family farm was adversely impacted by illegal immigration. Like so many marque neoconservatives, he hides his true purpose behind a facade of erudition and esoteric historical trivia.
But VDH is genuinely knowledgeable about military history (particularly the ancient Greeks) and an admirer of effective military tactics. If you really want to shut him up and put him in his place, just mention tactics that actually work and it scares the bejesus out of him. In particular, suggest a rebirth of American fighting spirit combined with 4S & focus and he shits his pants. So much for the faux bravado of an academic.
20
What’s 4S? Did you mean 4 F, ie that he dodged Vietnam?
Go back into the archives. There’s a serialized tutorial there. Simple, secret, solo, and spontaneous. It’s the only way to be sure.
2
Ahh right, my old CIA training is getting a little rusty lol
1
Hanson is fairly weak on immigration considering what he has personally witnessed and been through related to it. I don’t believe he supports expelling most illegals. He was lukewarm on eliminating birthright citizenship for years. He still got fed up with National Review and quit writing for them, just to give you an idea of how bad they are.
6
Pushing for nuclear war to enhance one’s position on the DC cocktail circuit. Human language is inadequate to describe such behavior.
8
Moran: No worries; there are sure to be commenters here singing the praises of Hanson, who they’ll insist is terrific ‘except for ‘x’ blind spot.’ Sorta like the ones who still think Sailer’s done so much heavy lifting even though he’d as soon go maskless as to espouse pro-White policies.
In Hanson’s case, despite his writings mourning the loss of California to the Mestizos (while refusing to acknowledge that genetics>culture), he’s still living in 1980 and Americans are all rooting for Ronnie. And while I’ll prepare for various other hardships or catastrophes, nuclear war is not something I particularly want to consider or plan to survive, so I choose to ignore all the bellicose buffoonery.
As usual, the headlines are utterly uninteresting and unrelated to real life. I’m far more interested in (and far more uplifted by) watching the truckers blocking roads, maneuvering around police, and honking horns in Canada. And it makes me joyful that the RCMP can’t get any towing companies to help them remove trucks in Alberta. Go, Canada! Please don’t back down, I need something to smile about and root for!
22
Everything you said here, particularly about the tow trucks telling the RCMP to piss off.
9
The Canadians are showing more moxie than Americans. Who knew? Although I think I read there is an American convoy in the works. Still and all, the Canadians took the lead. I can’t help but wonder if their elections have not been rigged for years with the recurring selection of that clown Castrodeau (he looks just like him – I believe the stories about Margaret gettin’ jiggy with it in Havana).
6
The Canadians have to keep the pressure up.
Trudeau is nothing more than a WEF regional manager that has abdicated.
6
I was worried about the tow trucks, thank you!
But heck, they’re all (former) truckers too, as well as mad, rough, cynical, over-regulated, and wildly independent. Sleep is unknown to them.
2
Fook Aboot and Find Oot
4
How ABOOT that, Trudeau??!
Your Canadian spelling is irreproachable lol
1
The rest of the planet has been conned into thinking that Canadians are overly polite pussies, but some of the best snipers in the world come out of western Canada. You’ll know that things are getting serious up there when people start disappearing and no one talks about it. I guess that’s a version of being polite. And something like 90% of the country is wilderness, so good luck looking for a body.
1
VDH is one of the good guys. I would never have an unkind word to say about him. He just happens to be wrong about this.
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Many widows disagree.
11
1
I thought the Iraq and Afghanistan adventures were legit at one time myself.
I will give VDH kind of a break, he is an old boomer who grew up within civic nationalism.
He still has some common sense in some areas.
Foreign policy is not one of them.
5
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A person only has to be wrong once to be declared evil and an enemy of the people forever. In this day we are fortunate that there are so many fools who can’t hide their evil eye. I think it has to do with arrogance, pride, and basic innate stupidity. They don’t breed Cloud People like they used to.
3
The Cloud People got dumber and lazier and lied so much that at least seventy or so percent of the populace would like to eat cheeseburgers, swill beer, and grow fatter while they watch them roasted alive on Pay-Per-View.
4
VDH is a person who just can’t let go of the Cold War.
PCR is a former Cold Warrior who clearly understands just how insane this whole situation is.
3
VDH was the biggest booster of the Iraq and Afghan wars, and got rich and famous off the jingoism. He’ll never let that go until a Russian ICBM lands on his barn.
14
VDH and those types need to know this is possible. They believe everything is a video game where only the Dirt People die and they thrive in an expanded empire. He and that ilk are psychopaths.
8
And for 40 years, there has been a constant drone of the neoconnery on the nightly news and Sunday morning talk shows, implying that you are the lowest of the low if you do not care about . Swaziland. Or the Seychelles. Or whether women have access to birth control at the South Pole. And Joe Citizen has kept quiet about his not giving a good goddamn about any of those places or their residents because he has been programmed by the Idiot Box to be terrified of being seen as “just a horrible perthon!”.
5
Putin should present a map that illustrates the first targets of a nuclear exchange with the United States. Obviously, D.C. and NYC would be the first and second vaporized. The Ruling Class has not had skin in the Empire Game since ’45. and very little then, and operates under the delusion only the smelly Dirt people will die if this goes full bore. After all, the Ruling Class benefits from open borders and offshoring trade and BadWhites suffer, right? These people are as infantile as they are insane, and the knowledge of their likely deaths is about the only thing to get their attention. Throw in a threat of a biological weapon with a really nasty flu slamming down hard on the Acela Corridor and they would be offering up their spouses and children for gang anal rape by the Red Army.
We will all suffer, of course, if this goes hot, but these evil pigs need to understand they will suffer the most first. It is a shame we have to share a polity with these types, and preparation should be made for separation if they cause Armageddon and there is anything left to make a home.
10
Why Ukraine?
Post WWII, the US set up the IMF (and other NGOs) and has used it very effectively to expand influence and power.
The basic thrust is this: the IMF agrees to lend billions to developing countries; most of the money is spent on contractors provided by Western nations (they reap the immediate profits), then the nation is on the hook for billions in loans.
Conditions can be onerous. IMF will demand political changes, economic changes (local subsidized jobs must give way to cheap labor, for example), subsidized energy costs, privatization of government controlled assets (so the West can take them over in all but name), etc.
The US already destabilized the Ukrainian government to replace their President with someone more willing to deal with the rapacious west. The Ukraine is famously corrupt: in the long run, this all might be good …. but it’s not like the West is some sort of “white hat”.
China has taken the playbook from the West and repackaged it as the “Belt and Road” initiative to great effect. No one trusts the West (the US, especially) anymore.
TLDR; There are no “white hats” here. Nations have interests, not morals.
8
The IMF and World Bank were the Bretton Woods version of today’s Larry Fink/FedReserve ESG extortion.
1
Sorry, edit:
Blackrock/FedRes
You know, the Cloud People have absolutely failed in their vax mandate narrative. The only places people still give a sh@t are Democrat-controlled states and cities. They still feel that need to take over and tell everyone what to do under the point of a gun, so what are they trying to do?
The best I can surmise is that they’re going to ramp up this Ukrainian Thing up to the max, then accuse all Americans against their actions to be collaborationists, traitors and appeasers. Then they’ll haul out Garland {(((Garfinkel)))} and his merry tribe in the Justus Department, go after them like motherf@ckers, and milk their new narrative to the max.
I still wonder why would anyone do this? Most Americans can’t find Ukraine on a map, and really don’t care anything about that sh@thole unless it involves their children getting sent over there. A good narrative needs a convincing sob effect, and it’s hard for anyone to cry about a place that’s even more crooked than any Northeastern U.S. state. Maybe the Cloud People. narrative factory has collapsed like the rest of the country, and people haven’t figured that out yet.
15
There is precedent for what you wrote: World War I. Most Americans opposed it, so the Empire’s gestapo arrested unsavory opponents first and people fell into line. I do believe these monstrous pigs would do exactly what you wrote.
Again, these evil bastards cannot conceive they would die first and most horribly in a nuclear exchange. That point needs to be driven home to them, and, yes, that will be met with more oppression.
11
There’s one problem that set has to begin with. They have lied so much and been caught up in everyone of them that at least half of the country doesn’t care about anything they have to say.
And that half is armed to the teeth and not very happy about anything.
I wonder how long it will be before The Mother of All Narratives blows up- when people figure out that the Scamdemic vaccines are designed to weed out the old and the weak. If that ever happens then what may happen here will make the beef between the Hutus and Tutsis look like an Ironton, Ohio Friday night bar fight.
10
Go check out the trucker-farmer resistance at the Montana-Alberta border crossing.
It’s coming.
4
Wild Geese: Watching the Alberta truckers confront the police was immensely cheering for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnTvSjd_iaI
1
It’s wonderful to see but I fear in the aftermath the truckers will be “marked men”, facial recognition will deprive them of any future employment, and they may even be arrested and jailed trying to cross back through whatever borders they have to, to get back home. Perhaps we can smuggle them back. A better way would have been to park the rig, declare positive for covid, stay home for a couple months, and don’t demand anything, just let the kernel of an idea begin to percolate in the minds of the oppressors. Once there was no food in the stores and no trucks running ANYWHERE I bet they would get the idea..
The “culling effect” is showing up in the “all causes” death records. Not getting near enough publicity. Basically, last I saw, estimates were that the typical individual dying of Covid had less than a year of expected life.
What we are not sure of is whether this can be turned around if we concentrate (appropriately) on protecting the oldsters en masse and do a better job in the nursing homes and hospitals wrt this cohort.
From the UK ONS figures.
The difference for men was -8 weeks and for women it was +0.5 days.
given the average age was 82.4 years.
Credit where credit is due:
America let the major combatants slug it out until the US entered in force in WWI, and in WWII for Europe. Then the US came in to mop it up and dictate terms favorable to a rising and ambitious US empire.
Now…we seem to be chomping at the bit to bleed ourselves out in every minor conflict everywhere in the world. It’s insane.
1
There, perhaps, is the point: Putin has been starving out the Ukrainian mobsters who think raping Russia’s finances is their god-given right.
According to a researcher who backtracked Russiagate to its seeds, Trump was just collateral damage. The =original= purpose was to paint Putin as Trump’s lackey, so he’d lose power in Russia and those Ukrainian mobsters could go back to business as usual.
If said mobsters are completely neutered, there goes one of the Biden cash cows… and who knows how many other Congressional fingers are grasping for those bribes.
5
Here in Hochulstan the ghoul in Albany is trying to snesk permanent face panty rules in at an emergency rule-making session.
Putin should start using the Great Gate of Kiev as intro music before he walks up to the podium for a speech like Jerry Lawler did in pro wrestling. The neocons heads would explode.
6
It must be a boomer thing…
I was having coffee during a business meeting the other day and my boomer opposite mentioned how sick of Brandon he was and the democrats. They were distracting the country from real threats like….Putin.
I didn’t know what to say except, “Sure.” since we had business to do. The thing is, I think people of the older generation have an inner compulsion to show off their knowledge of foreign affairs coupled with a down-home bred steely resolve not to back down. These colors don’t run etc. Yet it’s the most superficial knowledge, at best on the level of Fox news. The guy I was speaking to wouldn’t be able to tell you where Kiev was on a map but was convinced that V. Putin was an active threat to the country.
VDH is about the same but with a little more intellectual polish. The day cannot come soon enough that their opinions are met with open mockery.
12
Boomer here. Agree that many in my age cohort are unfortunately obsessed with Russia, Putin, and etc. I keep asking them what interest the US has in a border dispute in eastern Europe; still waiting on an answer.
10
Better Red than Dead! has taken on a whole new meaning.
1
The US national interest in the Ukraine is that David Frum’s great-grandmother was raped by a Cossack.
Also its an opportunity to skim the foreign aid budget.
Tucker took a couple of the cucks to task Monday night for their war-mongering with Russia. I think even the Fox News viewers do not want a war with Russia. You can probably even reach Boomers when you point out all the warmongering rhetoric is coming from the worst of the foreign “elite” of the US.
Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part. But it is becoming near impossible if you pay even the slightest attention to ignore that the “elite” holds us all in utter contempt.
3
Lefty Boomers are also shaking their fists at Putin. Because he is an alpha, because he doesn’t aspire to be part of the West, and because he is a throwback to certain types we learned about in the mid-20th century. And lastly because New York publications tell them to hate him.
“In fact, Americans must naturally demand intervention, as to do other wise would be to let evil triumph”.
Most Americans don’t believe in true evil anymore. Oh, sure, they believe there is a word called evil, but, when they are capable of calling a living fetus a “clump of cells”, that word becomes an elastic blanket that covers whatever someone in charge wants to destroy. Most Americans still think the US is the “good guy”. But, the US stopped being the good guy in 1861, and everything since is just jingoism and tyranny cloaked in self-righteousness.
8
I say 1965, when the Laurel Canyon culture revolution broke our culture, Vietnam broke the dollar, Civil Rights broke the Constitution, and mass vaccination broke our fertility.
5
Addendum: my wife had eight sisters and a brother. She was born before 1965, as was I, with five kids the average for our pre-1965s.
White people commonly had five or nine children families.
How common is that today?
Our males have lost their body mass, body hair, testosterone, sperm counts, and foreskins.
All after the enemy’s victory in WWll.
War means take their territory and their females, and enslave or decimate their males. This is the Oldest Law, even the wolves, birds, and voles understand it.
9
“All after the enemy’s victory in WWll.”
The real brainfuck kicker is that you’ve been taught to believe that is YOUR victory and that you must defend what it represents at all costs.
1
Don’t forget mass welfare programs that forced you to subsidize your own defeat.
1
Most Americans are too dumb to understand how deeply true evil is entrenched in their nation, beginning with Sodom on the Potomac.
2
“The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst. It rejects even the assumption that human creatures could espouse a philosophy which must ultimately destroy all that is good and decent.”
― J. Edgar Hoover
2
It’s a price negotiation.
The small hats wanted to stick their beak into the Russian natgas supply to Europe. Soros staged the Orange color revolution, and then the privateer Agencies pulled a Rotfront Gladio in Maidan to install a puppet regime of bignoses as the gateway.
Nordstream 2 is 760 miles long, at a cost of 11 billion dollars for completion. It would double Russia’s sales to the EU. It would also bypass Kyiv and the Burisma Biden gatekeeper company there.
Ruthless Industrial Kapitalism at its finest. Examples are the British alternative to the German Berlin-to-Baghdad railway in the 30s, or Cheney’s upset of the Mideast to prevent Iran’s north-south alternative to the ailing, defunct Baku-Ceyha pipeline.
6
Plus, Putin wanted to shake the rust out with a full mobilization.
F**k Around and Find Out, Admiral Tranny. The rainbow flag shall not fly over Moscow.
10
In 20 years I’ve gone from neocon to wanting to see our armies humiliated by Putin.
The Ukraine situation really is about imposing international drag queen story hour, protecting Hunter Biden’s graft, small hats settling old scores, and conservatives wanting to fight for “freedom” in any country but our own.
I want the USA to lose in the most humiliating manner possible.
19
It is incredible, when you stop and think about it. Lots of people have made this journey. I said last night on the Cotto show that I think most people think our rulers need to be taken down a few pegs. A carrier on fire would do that.
12
And again they never bear the cost.
As much as I agree, seeing potentially hundreds of sailors getting torched as a lesson to safe and secure psychos is going to mean nothing.
They need to suffer personal consequence. I can’t see a way that happens currently.
8
If someone wanted to shut down North America, all they need to do is take out the portion of the GPS constellation providing coverage.
Sudden removal of GPS precision timing and positioning means rapid bye-bye to telecoms, Internet, finance, transportation, and power.
2
Generals learned from Viet Nam that having an endless parade of coffins being filmed nightly on the media spurred effective anti-war protests.
Miraculously, the press has now accepted 100% that it is somehow “disrespectful” to film those images today. Talk about a complete takeover of the press.
Maybe a carrier going to the bottom of an ocean with nothing to film won’t do it anymore. What a g-damned shame.
1
It is an incredible transformation. I grew up a Reagan kid who was thrilled by Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
Fast forward 40 years, and my eyes are wide open to how everything that I oppose and every policy that hurts me has come from this country’s government, media, academia institutions. Not Moscow, not Beijing.
So yeah, I’m rooting against what is still called America.
1
Bingo! Meanwhile, Russia is going to build another pipeline to China….https://www.upstreamonline.com/production/russia-planning-new-gas-transit-pipeline-to-china/2-1-1156035
3
Ukraine is really about the role of the US in Europe, not about Ukraine, which is a failed state wherein the CIA installed a US puppet who pays off the Bidens. Ukraine produces mainly agricultural goods (which we have in abundance here) and weapons (which we have also in abundance). It has no economic value to anyone really. In fact, when compared with Taiwan, which indeed is pretty important to us, it’s just ludicrous how much attention it’s getting from the Globo elite.
Europe is slipping from our control. The whole Iran sanction failures demonstrated this in spades. The NATO hard-liners are making a stink, but the European business community wants to do business with Russia. To Trump’s credit, he recognized this fact and at least suggested that they should pay for their own defense if they didn’t want to take direction from us on foreign policy.
So our Elites are trying to save NATO and US influence in Europe by creating a crisis in Ukraine. The Europeans are really having none of it, as the German shipment of helmets to Ukraine indicates. Amazingly, we borrow money from China to lend it to Ukraine to prevent Russia from selling gas to Germany, so instead Russia sells the gas to China while Germany buys the gas from Qatar, so then we have to build military bases in Qatar with money Qatar lends us.
It’s just laughable and will only be sad if we all get blown up in the process.
13
Orban’s recent 5 hour meeting with Putin to secure cheap Russian gas for Hungary is a pretty solid tell just how fractured Europe is at present.
5
“Our”?
Otherwise, quite astute and brilliant comment. For all intents and purposes, “Old Europe” (actually “New Europe”) has told the United States to piss off. I predict the first bases to be expelled some time in the next few years.
1
” Americans want an autonomous Ukraine to survive. They hope the West can stop Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strangulation of both Ukraine and NATO.” No evidence is offered in support of this assertion, because no American outside Washington cares about Ukraine.”
There is some truth in what VDH says. Do I want an autonomous Freedonia or Ukrainia to survive? Sure. Doesn’t mean I would do much other than offer moral support.
Do I care about the geniocide of Uyghurs? Course I do. Doesn’t mean i’m going do much about it other than moral support. Maybe avoid products made by their slave labor.
Uyghurs, Ukraine, Freedonia, sorry, we wish you well but we can’t help.
5
It’s like I tell my wife with regards to “rescue dogs”: I hope they make it, but I, personally, cannot save them all.
5
The point I take wrt Ukraine—and that I admit is a weakness I need to overcome—is that we are responsible for their situation. When the USSR collapsed, we were hell bent to secure their (Ukraine’s) nukes. In doing so, we made promises as to their national security that we could not keep—nor perhaps ever even intended to keep. Keeping one’s word is a hold over from better times and another demographic.
2
1
Old honor codes among men can be a weakness in a world that rewards treachery. I find that painful as well. I think we need to learn how to think like our enemies. Whether we can keep our souls if we do learn how to think like that I do not know.
2
Certain (((tribes))) maintain their honor codes for and among their people, and cast them aside for those outside their tribe.
The way forward is to determine who are your people, maintain and exemplify honor among them, and be prepared to advance your people’s interests using any means necessary outside of your people.
Bingo. Your word goes to your own.
Leave your “virtues” at the door, pick them back up after you win.
“Lose one’s soul”. Yes, that is a worry. However, perhaps a necessary sacrifice for our progeny *not* to lose theirs.
Victor Davis Hansen is a snake. He has always been a snake and he cannot help himself. He is a lowly reptilian neocon. He’s not dumb and he is well educated.
Even when he’s complaining how his farm and his town have been ruined by third world immigration, it’s not because they are fundamentally incompatible with Western Civilization, it’s because there hasn’t been enough intermarriage or because it’s been too fast.
Anyone who could sit in on conference calls or even in-person meetings with the likes of David French and the scoundrels of NRO and not be fired is not someone I can respect.
13
VDH is a neocon, civnat. If by “snake”, you mean devious and false, then I disagree. He is consistent with his nature. Nothing wrong with that, nothing right either. VDH is just one of any number of thought leaders on the Right. That’s why “we” call ourselves the DR—to distinguish ourselves from them.
I have most of VDH’s published works. His writings were instrumental on my thinking process that eventually led here. Why others—VDH fans—have not progressed further than VDH I can not say, but I’m not ashamed of having read his works. I no longer follow VDH closely, because I already know what he is going to say in any particular situation (as Z-man has astutely pointed out today). My time is short and better spent elsewhere.
8
Mexifornia was one of the books that put me on the track to the dissident right as well. I hear that VDH has updated it but haven’t looked into it It is a pity that VDH is so far from reality on the American Empire. He’s a professor of classics so he’s got to know something about the fate of empires.
2
I wouldn’t say UC Santa Cruz alumnus means well educated.
3
lol. Good point. How have you managed to avoid punching Kevin Williamson? If the answer is that you’ve never wanted to punch Kevin Williamson, then we have a problem.
1
Perfect Post. This is a perfect example of why I’ve been so animated against Hanson for so many years. His false intellectualism is a gateway drug to neocon propaganda. His version of conservatism is just fancy rhetorical flourish sitting on the decomposing corpse of 1980’s GOP politics. Especially in California, where’s he’s invited to speak to 80 year olds at GOP events.
6
Between the fertilizer plant fire in Winston-Salem and Putin banning ammonium nitrate exports for two months I’m wondering if I should go pick up one of the remaining chest freezers atthe local Lowes.