The show this week is mostly about Ukraine, but I did have a few minutes to mention the retirement of Pat Buchanan. In retrospect I should have done the whole show on him, as he is turning out to be the central figure of dissident politics. His valiant revolt against the Republican Party and the conservative movement made it possible for there to be a dissident movement.
Buchanan is an example of necessary failure. His campaigns against the neocons did nothing to change the trajectory of the party or the managerial elite, but that is what many needed to see in order to truly understand the problem. Buchanan was an inflexion point for many of us at the time. Talk to dissidents of my generation and most will point to that time as when they started their journey.
Before 1992, all but a few paleos thought it was possible to work the system as it was advertised in order to change public policy. After 1992 many started to understand why Sam Francis had been right back in the 1980’s when he said that it was impossible to maintain conservative polices or politics within a democracy. You either acquiesce to democracy or you are rejected by it. Buchanan was the test case.
The thing about Brother Pat is he was the right sort of martyr. Lots of people get chewed up by the system, but they tend to use their failure as a reason to throw a pity party for themselves. In small ways they signal that they would be willing to compromise in order to be allowed back into the party. Their ego and pride means more to them than the role that is laid out for them as a martyr to the cause.
Buchanan never did that. He understood the role he was playing and he played it as well as his talents permitted. You always got the sense that he understood that he would never see the new dawn, but that he knew that he may see the signs of it before his days were done. The Good Lord saw fit to grant the man that one small favor in the form of the Trump phenomenon.
Thank you Brother Pat
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This Week’s Show
Contents
- Unity (Link)
- The Fierce Step (Link)
- The Brion McClanahan Show (Link)
- Gangsters (Link)
- Farewell Pat Buchanan (Link)
Direct Download, The iTunes, Google Play, iHeart Radio, RSS Feed
Full Show On Spreaker
Full Show On Odysee
Nice tribute to Buchanan, thanks for it.
18
Nice thoughts on Buchanan and godspeed to him.
14
You know you are vindicated when a blowhard like Trump even feels the need to apologize to you for comments he made a decade ago.
One of the first dips into the dissident side was reading his “The Unnecessary War”. It was a devastating critique of the mythology of WWII, especially FDR’s successful efforts to completely crush Great Britain.
In the new America, every MLK and Rosa Parks statue will be replaced with a Buchanan Statue. We might even rename the streets once the crime is cleaned up.
22
“Buchanan Boulevard, the place where you can stop and ask for directions!”
34
Pat was Sam in “Lord of Light” — he kept losing but the people he fought kept getting weaker as a consequence.
15
Tom Piatak of Chronicles wrote a very good tribute to him.
I quit voting until Trump after Pat’s last run. I have been to many of his rallys and had the honor of meeting him and shaking his hand. I hope he can still live a longer fruitful life, we owe him much.
17
I looked up Pats Wiki page, and it didn’t list any kids. For a traditionalist with 8 siblings, that sure seems strange. Did they try with no success?
2
4
Really? This is a need to know for you?
2
4
Pat’s wife was unable to bear children.
14
Well then why didn’t they adopt? Answer me that. Or fertility treatments.
Ok, I’m done.
19
Jesus, dude, get off it. It’s the man’s wife you’re blabbering about. Have some respect.
14
I’m not surprise, nor concerned. If one can not have genetic prodigy and one truly believes in ones marriage vows as a good practicing Catholic, then a barren marriage is not that disconcerting or surprising.
9
If you have your doubts about “The Blank Slate”, no matter what you might bring to a child”s upbringing, no matter how supportive a guardian you might be, it’s still going to be even more of a crapshoot than rearing your own biological offspring. Adoption is not for everybody, and this highly-charged decision for the Buchanans was their’s and their’s alone.
13
See, this is where the trad religious stuff screws you over when you could instead institute a eugenic forced mating system that would produce an unstoppable army of 6’4″ blonde autist supermen.
4
That’s coming—except that they will be Chinese supermen. And I’m not being factitious.
5
1
Thank you. I didn’t realize it was an unreasonable question.
8
Please read full comment before you assume I am bashing Buchanan – I am not:
I don’t think your question was unreasonable. Buchanan made himself a public figure. One of the qualifications he used is morality and a form of ethnocentrism. Someone who holds those beliefs is suspect when they have no children (i.e. does he really believe this).
Prying further (what’s wrong with her, e.g.) is indecent, but the fundamental question and answer is completely valid.
1
No shame in that. I can hardly bear them myself…
1
1
I totally missed Pat. I was a kid at the time, the mass media at the time made him out to be some laughable clown or spooky creep, and I was wrapped up in life of a young man starting out. Political analysis was done by the experts on TV. I liked Ronald Reagan and cheered for the red team.
I think about it and Dissident right politics should really have started up here in Canada first. Cuck conservatism was an art form here, back in the 80s. It was right in front of my face but I didn’t see it. I suspected some things but to voice them would have been to poke the hornets nest. You are totally right, Z. That guy had courage and strength of character that few will ever see.
18
I’m no Canadian, but I’m married to one, and lived there for a while. Most Americans don’t understand that Canada is a much more foreign country than they think. Far more European than American. From what I saw, Canadians in general (my sample is limited, so apologies if I’m way off the mark) are far more trusting of their government than Americans are. Maybe that’s why you folks have been a bit slower than us to develop a DR.
I sure hope a serious DR does develop in Canada, because God knows you need it.
19
Canada is far more American than European. The culture is 90% American and 10% “We are not Americans!”. Europe and European culture are not even an afterthought in most places.
4
We may be confusing “culture”—as in American culture—with grotesque consumerism and the opposite culture as European. Hard to find any other society quite like ours in any number of negative aspects.
2
Canada is just the United States if the United States only consisted of blue states and midwestern blue states.
5
From what I saw, Canadians in general (my sample is limited, so apologies if I’m way off the mark) are far more trusting of their government than Americans are.
This is true but the main reason for that is that until very recently the average Canadian’s experience with government officials was pretty positive. The typical Canadian civil servant, both provincial and federal, did not – still doesn’t for the most part – act like an enemy looking to find something to nail you on and could, generally speaking, be trusted to do their jobs competently and fairly as befitting a civilized high trust country. My few experiences with UK authorities when I lived there over 20 years ago were also positive – like they were on my side! However, reading US right wing publications for 30+ years and witnessing your customs officers insult & humiliate people at the border gives me the impression that Americans have very good reasons for being more hostile to their government than most Canadians and Europeans.
2
When I was a kid I saw Buchanan on TV at least once a week, being what was then a stock character, the political-chat-show conservative who knows more and can predict better than the rest of the panel. I was too young to have formed that impression myself. It was how he was treated on air by his colleagues. “Sadly, you’re right.”
By the time I could vote they were calling him a Nazi.
4
The Ukrainians supposedly had 6,500 tanks before the war started. Almost all are gone now. Sure they were probably mostly older Soviet era tanks, but a few dozen somewhat better western tanks will make absolutely no difference.
And you are right about the training. I was in an armor battalion in the National Guard, Doing the wrong thing in an M1 (like standing behind the breech) can cripple a crewman really easy. The crews are constantly doing low-level maintenance and they still often need the rear-echelon maintenance.
13
When I was a college kid in the 1980s I used to watch Pat on the PBS show “The McLaughlin Group.” He was always such a gentleman, thoughtful and intelligent and well-spoken, such an incredible contrast to that feral liberal c_nt Eleanor Clift. I read his column religiously and then read his books.
In 1992 and 1996 I was for Pat — I remember the “Go, Pat go!” chants quite well. He was right about NAFTA and right about John Demjanjuk and right about our slavish devotion to Israel and right about World War II. He never wavered in his dedication to the truth and never apologized to the (((aggrieved parties))) for being right. Unfortunately, his attempt to hijack Perot’s Reform Party was a debacle.
In 1984 I was pretty much a Reaganite neocon. By 1994 I was a Buchananite paleocon. Wow, remembering all this makes me realize I am getting old…
25
In my family we still sometimes say the long, drawn-out “Byyyyyyye Byyyyyyye” that John McLaughlin used as his “closing tagline” at the end of every show.
Back in those days, I remember (having grown up in the Washington area) my parents tuning in every week night to the McLaughlin Group at 5:00 (or 6:00? ) p.m. on the local station.
When I see youtube replays of those shows, it takes me right back to my youth, 8-year-old me, sitting on the floor in front of the boob tube, watching the gentlemen argue and debate the merits (or not) of an idea.
Come to think of it, maybe that’s where I got part of my love of debating ideas.
But alas, these days, feewings take precedence and precious few people know how to do this anymore. Sigh.
8
….and the hapless Eleanor (in later years when they needed a token woman) unable to get a word in edgewise.
And when she did, her answers were mealy-mouthed Left-leaning silliness …..
Ah, the memories!
5
That woman never had an original thought and could be depended on to relate, exactly, whatever Clinton talking points were related to her. I always found it amusing when she would mindlessly voice yet another inane platitude and even the other lefty on the panel would get a pained look.
5
Her lack of substance and stupid comments did as much to make young me despise the left as anything I can think of.
6
…and watching Jack Germond (from the Balt Sun if I remember correctly) always talking over his shoulder.
John McLaughlin was a ham. And a former Jesuit if memory serves.
Eleanor Clift – oh man! What a maroon! Constantly in violation of Godwin’s Law.
Those were good times or so we thought.
4
Clift had a face like a fucking piranha, and an attitude to match.
5
Morton Kondracke was my favorite. He looked like he was going to leave after the show and a bully was gonna punch him and steal his lunch money.
1
The only thing I can recall Pat being wrong about (imho) was in respect to backing the GOP. Can’t recall if it was after losing a primary, or wrt a war, or what the specific issue was, but I recall him making his run/argument, losing/being rebuffed, and then saying we should close ranks with the GOP. I can’t fault him for thinking that way, but it would have been better to let the GOP burn sooner rather than later.
What different world it would be if he had won.
5
I remember such “shows” on PBS and other channels as well. Pat Buchanan aside, I now realize that they were simply a carny act to keep the rubes playing the game. I was one of those rubes.
Somehow watching those shows kept me thinking I was a part of the process and therefore had power over political results coming about. When the latest electoral process was over and the inevitable disappointment set in, I watched as they analyzed what went wrong and who did what, and that “we’ll get them next time” if we only do these things…
I prayed harder, tried harder, voted harder. I was a fool. Don’t be like me, I’m a good example of a bad example.
12
1
Don’t castigate tourself too much. At the time, it still seemed an attainable good; and besides, it was heavily advertised. Heh.
4
It’s hard to separate Buchanan’s political trajectory from his Catholic roots. Middle-class Catholics in those days lived under a form of social Apartheid that’s hard to understand from today’s perspective. I grew up in the same area and went to a rival Catholic HS of Buchanan’s. The social barriers to the Republican establishment were pretty strong for guys like us, even though I’m a generation removed from him.
So I think it was easier for him to be a dissident Republican because he had an outsider’s perspective (as “lace curtain Irish”, the term of that era) and a Catholic worldview. He was never really fully integrated mentally into the machine. The Republican elite found him useful for a while and then spat him out.
His big rupture really returned him to his roots, which is good, because he could stop trying to please the country club azzholes and just be his own man. A generation later, we see Brett Kavanaugh, from a very similar background, trying to please everyone too. He has much to learn from Buchanan, as do we all.
24
@Captain Willard
I can totally relate to what you’re saying! Growing up Catholic (and still practicing! Wow! [Don’t forget folks: Benedict was always the real Pope, and Jorge is a NWO f****t interloper that the Freemasons love!])
…and being reminded that we, too, were “lace curtain Irish” and thus “classier” than the others, my Dad (born 1932; gone now) always liked and admired Pat. I think he (Dad) said that he went to Pat’s wedding, back in the day.
Dad & Mom are from Penna, and moved to Sodom-on-the-Potomac (as it is now known) in 1967 when Dad got a steady gubmit job, after getting out of the Army.
Pat is a tribute to both his generation (they don’t make them like that anymore), a true gentleman (as mentioned), and an example to us dissidents that we may have a tough row to hoe, but we might just live to see glimmers of hope that our offspring and grandchildren will realize, and continue to build upon.
13
So I went down a rabbit hole on this topic.
A Saturday Night Live skit (from the 90s) for your viewing enjoyment:
(Dana Carvey, John Goodman, Phil Hartman, Kevin Nealon…).
Filmed 1990
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOLF_D7JVZM
10
Dear Lord,
I forgot how funny that show could be.
3
Yes, in the early 90s it was funny. Hartman, Carvey, Neelon, Chris Farley and even the creepy Adam Sandler. Not preachy. Those guys would never have sung a smarmy song written by a homo Leonard Cohen, after HRC’s defeat at the hand of Trump.
3
1
WRONG!!! You did go down a rabbit hole! You are transmitting to us from an unknown galaxy whose inhabitants will conquer earth in 2024!
4
Well, I feel sorriest for TomA. I guess it’s not the fog; but the salt mines on our future.
3
An absolute laff riot.
2
I came into this because of Buchanan. He wrote well, he spoke well, he had a sense of humor, and most of all he was a gentleman to all around him even if they hated him.
We need more like him in our politics now, maybe a little less hesitant about swinging the sword if we can get our hands on it.
But there is nothing wrong with cutting heads off while being a gentleman about it.
29
Looking back on the early 90s, the media’s treatment of Buchanan then was one of the first examples where I began to notice the almost total power of the media to distort reality.
I had seen Pat on TV a few times and was impressed by his direct speaking and commonsense policies.
But when Pat ran for President, I remember a persistent theme in the media was that he was a bruiser and a brawler. The strong implication was that there was something thuggish about him and that no decent person could ever support him. And it worked. Even though I got a slimy vibe from Clinton that’s who I supported, to the extent that I supported anyone.
Looking back, Pat is one of the most erudite, principled, and decent men who has been on the public stage in my lifetime and the media convinced young me that he was a thug and that I was too cool for him. Sorry Pat.
24
The media smeared Pat as an “anti-Semite” in the same fashion as they did later with Ron Paul.
10
Pat was indeed a gentleman. But underneath that was a genuine toughness that was/is completely missing in so-called “principled conservatives” and the GOP in general .
13
Off topic.
Possible what I consider to be positive news.
Burning platform.
Blinken concedes war is lost
Offering concessions to Russia.
Will Russia believe anything from the empire of lies?
10
Hard to believe anything from the West if what you say is true. How does one reconcile pleas for peace and offered concessions, when simultaneously shipping/promising new weapons systems to Ukraine? This is juxtaposed on a bad experience with a previous “peace” agreement, the Minsk Accords 2014–which has been openly admitted as a faint to buy time to arm and train Ukraine. And here we are now.
4
The article is on The burning platform. Linked to it from American partizan.
Supposedly going to be out through WaPo with all the propaganda spin expected to save face.
I am not a track (abraams)
But something adjacent,
Several of my coworkers have been tapped for Poland support. If the report is true that will likely change. Fortunatly for my a$$ I’m considered essential in conus, at least for now.
I am intimately familier with MIC
Replacement time estimates for geewiz stuff probably are best case. I loved fusa, loath aino.
3
I’ve got a serious question for you. I don’t know what part of the MIC you’re in, but what are you going to do when your job makes you in effect a war criminal? The fruits of your labor will be used to kill Russians defending their country and their people from an evil enemy who seeks to end their way of life. Have you thought about this and what do you intend to do about it?
I’ve already said a couple of weeks back that the people making the HIMARS rockets and launchers in a good world would be on trial for their lives because they put money over good.
Someone, somewhere has to make a stand to derail this lunacy.
3
Reguardless of who does what our boys are ordered to do the shit our politicians get us into. That is a fact. The us military no longer has competent trained people to keep their hightec equipment operational. Thats the way it is If equipment fails our boys pay the price.. there are people like me doing jobs like mine throughout every branch. If fact in every war as well.
That said as an idealist I am against all war.
As a realist
It ain’t going away. Ever. It is part of human nature.
So go ahead put me on trial.
Oh, hell no. President Putin, lawyer that he is by at least part of his training, tried to probe out whether the pretentions of the “Rules-Based Order” possessed any substance, and thus could form some sort of credible structure within which to hammer out a modus vivendi with the GAE that would be accepting of the multi-polar world. The answer has, over time, become starkly clear; it does not, it’s lies all the way down with these mendacious scum.
Putting it mildly, that is unfortunate, but Putin and his people, while often having to work against the stupidity or perhaps even the treachery of the Atlanticist termites in the Russian Federal structures, hearkened to the profound wisdom embodied in the old Latin dictum, “Si vis pacem, para bellum”.
And here we are.
3
Perhaps it’s a stretch: @ Z
But I get the feeling that when you were speaking and putting this together there was a moment of resonance when thinking about all Buchanan had done and been party to. It reminded me of the testament you gave to G. Gordon Liddy and relaying to the audience the time you read his book, rode the lighting (so to speak) and the resulting reaction he gave when you told him as much.
Did you ever happen to meet Pat or perhaps his sister Bay?
5
Thirty years ago, but it was uneventful. I was one of a crowd.
7
I attended a lecture by Bay at the University of Missouri back in 1997. Had to trudge through a gauntlet of protesters denouncing me as a rayciss, natch. Funny thing–I certainly wasn’t one back then, but thanks to their ilk and their policies, I dam’ sure am now.
25
“Funny thing–I certainly wasn’t one back then, but thanks to their ilk and their policies, I dam’ sure am now.”
That’s not an uncommon metamorphosis…
12
Pat Buchanan is the last of “our guys” who was allowed into the mainstream media, after Sam Francis was expelled, and Joe Sobran passed away. Tucker Carlson is the now the closest we have to being our guy, and…well, let’s just say he’s not Pat.
23
After last night? Or CIA, JFK and Nixon? Even UFOs…that’s ballsy.
Tucker is pretty darn fearless; he’s canny enough to operate within today’s constraints. Those can’t be ignored, as the Birchers Sobran, and Pat B. found out.
If anybody can reach across the bridge to Normie, it’s le Tuck, picking up Pat’s flag.
19
1
This article from May 2022 seems to state they’re still building the Abrams in Ohio:
https://www.defensenews.com/land/2022/05/18/army-acquisition-chief-would-welcome-tank-ramp-up-if-congress-funds-it/
It’s possible that the lunatics in charge have redefined the meaning of, “production,” to include refurbishment. I mean, look what they did with, “pandemic,”, “vaccine,”, and “recession.”
It is kind of an odd article because the reported production plans and rates are all over the place.
6
I have received a few e-mails from people who work on tanks telling me that there is new production of the basic tank chassis, but very limited numbers. These things are basically handmade. It is not the production like image we have from WW2. It seems that the right answer is they do build new tanks, but tiny numbers of them, while most work is in refurbishing existing units. That means if you give 30 of them to Russia to use for target practice, they will only be replaced very slowly over time.
8
Yes the Lima Tank Plant is a sight to behold. It is closer to the Joint Strike Fighter manufacturing line than any mass industrial factory.
10
Someone who is usually reliable had an article about the problems and vunerabilities of the Abrams that I read yesterday. It was sobering to say the least, Shermans may do better in the Ukraine now. There were so many maintenance and service issues and vunerabilies that I wouldn’t go into battle in one of those things. This evening I’ll try to find it and link to it.
6
There are probably tank nerds here who can explain this better, but my understanding is that starting with the Abrams, the US military reengineered itself for low intensity warfare. It was assumed that the high intensity warfare we are seeing in Ukraine was a thing of the past, at past for ground forces. As a result, the Abrams is not appropriate for the Ukraine war.
8
Brian Berletic at The New Atlas was a Maine electronic and optical service technician who worked on Abrams.
His opinion is probably more reliable than the new Hymie at WaPo.
7
Odd however. The Abrams was developed during the Cold War and was our answer to USSR forces pouring into Europe in a WWII blitzkrieg. That’s about as high intensity as one can imagine.
5
Our modern military is the product of the Reagan buildup, which was built on the foundations developed after the Vietnam war. I recall watching a lecture by Colin Powell on this topic. He made the point that the junior officers in the later 60’s and early 70’s moved up into the senior ranks in the mid and later 70’s. They brought with them the lessons of Vietnam. An army built to fight tank battles in Europe is not built for the wars like Vietnam.
This is why the American military does not have the best air defense systems or artillery. You do not need these if you are fighting overseas and have air superiority.
6
I thought the thinking was that they would be outgunned and playing defense in Germany and thus the primary specs for the Abrams were to be able to move quickly over a short amount of space and be able to hit the Russian tanks *first* and accurately from further away (which I’m not sure about now but that was the case in GW2) since GAE was never going to be able to beat the Russians in a numbers game.
5
did your sources say if it was cool working on tanks? seems like it would be really fun.
2
1
The CNN article is ridiculous. The guy contradicts himself constantly. NATO is a colossus but it will take up to a decade to rebuild the stockpiles that we’re giving Ukraine. Europe believes that Russia will lose but if we don’t give these tanks to Ukraine immediately, it’s all over.
Another thing that you see in the media and pundits is this idea that Russia is just throwing troops at Ukraine. You can tell that this will be the excuse for Ukraine falling. Sure, our weapons are vastly superior, but the Russians do what they always do which is throw wave after wave of men at the front until they overwhelm you.
It’s a laughable stereotype, but they really believe it. Actually, that’s probably a good thing, since I’d prefer that the West has an “out” when the war eventually turns against the Ukrainians. The more invested the West becomes in the war, the more likely we might do something stupid like move into western Ukraine.
17
The BBC did a study and they determined that the Russians have lost 10,000 men as of December. This squares with Russian official figures and other independent estimates. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/12/09/bbc-investigation-verifies-deaths-of-10000-russian-troops-in-ukraine-a79656
The Moscow Times, by the way, is run by the CIA.
This is one of those example where people in the media never bother checking anything. If it sounds too good to be true, they run with it.
11
MacGregor thought the high end estimate was 17k, tops. But if you look at the maps, the Russians keep letting the Ukes “pocket” themselves, take artillery control of the exit routes from the flanks and reduce at will. Ukrainians have no effective counterbattery capability. One interesting note, since most modern artillery systems depend on radar backtracking of incoming projectile paths, the Russians have gone back to a more passive “Shotspotter” technology that uses microphones and 100’ booms to triangulate Uke artillery. No radio frequency emissions. What was lost is found, eh?
14
Yes, as is the industrial production on a grand scale of munitions. The plan apparently is to send the 200K or thereabouts Poles, backed by the 101st Airborne and several US tank battalions plus air cover into Western Ukraine, thence into Belarus and straight for Moscow. To cause panic and the overthrow of Putin because its always 1991 and the Highway of Death. Political leaders think its that easy. IF we don’t get WWIII out of that on a global nuclear scale, the ISR methods that the Russians now use will maul the US led expeditionary force something fierce, as we don’t have the volume of artillery and missile fire required for that. We have according to MacGregor, an excellent anti-missile missile. Its capable of shooting down incoming cruise missiles and possibly the hypersonic ones. It takes 32 months to build — its so complex and the chips and other things required for it so hard to source that the lead time is yes, roughly 2.5 years.
We simply don’t have the military that can fight a grind-out industrial war of Attrition for 10 years or more; and we never will. Our industrial base is irrevocably gone to China (the FT had an article that said to effect Apple will have to stay in China for the vast majority of its production — no other place has the scale). We don’t have the skilled manpower nor the motivation. We don’t have national feeling for shared sacrifice ala WWII. America is a giant extended stay hotel with open borders and an abiding hatred for the legacy population by the hotel managers. When disaster strikes it will be everyone for themselves.
27
“We don’t have national feeling for shared sacrifice ala WWII. America is a giant extended stay hotel with open borders and an abiding hatred for the legacy population by the hotel managers. When disaster strikes it will be everyone for themselves.”
Well said.
15
GAE is building up the Poles and adding its own token forces in anticipation of sending them in to secure western Ukraine with the intention of turning it into Kosovo 2.0 so they can stalemate the conflict and spend 3 to 5 years building up their forces.
If Putin takes all of Ukraine they’ll do it from Poland.
Vlad and his generals need to be contemplating the possibility they may need to send the First Guards Tank Army all the way to Calais.
5
1
I read about their acoustic systems. It is a great example of how armies evolve.
11
I believe it’s the Norwegian military that has an auto loading howitzer on a truck which drives to any particular location, and automatically extends and fires 4 shells before the first one hits the target. Before the first shell hits, the howitzer has retracted and the truck is in motion to the next location. I would assume this weapon is not susceptible to counter artillery locating—regardless of methods. You might get a proximate fix, but would need drones or aircraft to spot and target.
3
Sound ranging was used in World War I; it’s one of the methods how the Allies discovered the location of the ultra-long range railway gun that was bombarding Paris in the spring of 1918. I’m sure the Russians have improved the technology since that time, but the principle is the same.
5
If it’s metal and it’s moving, between satellite coverage and planes like the E-3 Sentry (AWACS), the US can see it.
Which is why NATO so desperately want air dominance over Ukraine.
The acoustics system is interesting: it reminds me of the “Millennium Challenge 2002” wargames where a US general evaded electronic communication detection using runners on motorcycles to launch a surprise attack that “sunk” 16 ships, including a carrier.
100% certain that Russia and China are well aware that meeting the US toe-to-toe with similar equipment isn’t a good idea, and have been coming up with some real sneaky stuff to counter.
Here’s a thought: Let’s never find out and end this thing, immediately.
9
The reason for the sudden Ukraine fervor in the West is that it is dawning on the political filth that The Ukraine is toast. They’re shitting themselves at being accused of being the cause of the loss by insufficient support.
12
1
I saw an article about Russian human wave attecks that was illustrated by a drone video of 5 Russians carefully scouting an Ukrainian trench system.
I am growing more every day to hate what passes for this country.
26
Before I start listening, I must say that was rather classy of you, Zman.
I may even accuse you of being a gentleman!
8
There is a good reason I’ve closely followed Doug MacGregor’s commentary since the start of the Ukraine fiasco. And he raised the folly of addtional weapons systems, such as armor, HIMARS, Patriot batteries etc early. For all the reasons mentioned. He’s one of the few left around that planned and fought a large scale combined arms armored maneuver battle (73 Easting) as brigade S3 and a field commander. And now you hear our talking heads spouting about “re-taking Crimea”. Pro-tip—historically Russians do kind of suck as expeditionary forces….but on their own ground (and they see Crimea and eastern Ukraine as “own ground”) they are viciously tough. Last I heard, we’ve shot off 7 years of Javelin production, Ukrainians can only match 60k p/day of 155mm firing by Russians with 6k of counterbattery fire. That’s a loser. NATO? I’m surprised the Germans found the keys to the remaining operational Leopards. Most have forgotten that during the Libyan bombing (another fiasco) the Europeans effectively ran out of air munitions after two weeks. The US was cracking open prepostioned stocks to keep them in the air. Doubt those were ever replaced. There is a weird lack of realistic appraisal of the tempo of industrial v. Industrial warfare. We’re not blowing up goatherders in mud huts anymore. But follow the money—all those contractors are seeing a decades worth of replacement contracts for all the munitions we fished out of Fibber McGee’s closet to send over. Though my hunch is, Ukraine being what it is, 40-50% are available on the black market. But that’s another story…
19
I have to admit it has been fun watching the Russians evolve in this war and challenge my assumptions about how this war would unfold. I was surprised they took as long as they did to grasp the geopolitical reality and commit the resources required. Once they came to terms with what was happening, they have evolved quickly. it is a good real-time look at the old line about the Russians. They are never as strong they look and never as weak as they look. That speaks to our own biases as much to their inscrutability.
14
I saw today that Paul Craig Roberts is laying the blame on Putin in the event of a nuclear exchange. His reasoning is Putin has been too hesitant to wipe out Ukraine and get it over quickly before the US could become more heavily involved. The point, as far as I’m concerned, is the government here shouldn’t be involved at all – it’s none their dammed business. Where’s there any upside for the American people in further aggravating the conflict? The answer of course is there isn’t.
14
Putin remembers the West as it was when he was a KGB agent stationed in East Berlin; the Russian ruling class generally is older–Lavrov, a brilliant guy springs to mind as a good example–and recalls a saner, more intelligent West. They did not fully grasp how deranged and unhinged the West, particularly but not exclusively the United States, unfortunately has become and how reckless and dangerous it would prove.
When people like Roberts analyze the current situation, they need to take into account the society where they live is quite different from the one it was only 30 years ago. The United States of 1992 would not have goaded and provoked a war with Russia and it would not have believed a nuclear war was in any way winnable. Putin should have known this, Roberts should realize this.
12
Excellent point. People of Putin’s generation probably don’t realize that, inasmuch as our society is “serious” about anything, it’s serious about implementing the Great Replacement.
Case in point. Today I had a screening interview with a young black American woman whose last name was a dead President and whose first name was Arab. Let’s call her Fatima Wilson. Fatima fumbled immediately and was waiting for me at the appointed time (on the East Coast). After explaining the concept of “time zones” to her we actually had our meeting. She concluded that I was not a hobo or obvious retard and quickly scheduled the real screening with the White Man next week.
Now this is a hard core tech job. There are circuit diagrams and stuff. There’s MATH! So the company had the sense to shuffle Fatima back to get her weave done quickly and we can proceed to talk about the actual job. There’s a hard limit on the amount of DIE you can foist on people where the task is concerned with physical reality and logic based systems that don’t tolerate “that’s racist” as an answer (NaN input error: line 53) Imagine, though if this had been a “policy” related job. ALL the layers of scrutiny might have been Fake Arab Black Xirl. Now imagine FABX pushing tank markers around one of those big battle dioramas you see in old movies. General WilsonX? Um… the actual tanks are much bigger, yes… and don’t worry about that watermelon you dropped on Poland. The actual country is much bigger too.
Помилуйте нас, господин Путин!
5
Jack-
The flipside to PCR’s argument about the slow Russian pace is that Putin and company are well aware they are dealing with totally unhinged people that would be extremely dangerous to provoke.
2
A seemingly underappreciated aspect of Russian strategy, both in the beginning and today, is that they have to be careful about overextending/overcommitting and thus making themselves vulnerable to a NATO counterattack. This has always been a factor in Russian planning (a sane person would think) but I never hear anybody talk about it.
Americans, even PCR, still have this tendency to be thinking of Iraq or Vietnam when they think about strategy. Ukraine is nothing like that.
3
The line I keep hearing about the Russians from the Duran, Berletic, and Ritter is,
“The Russians are slow to saddle and quick to ride.”
Yes, the Russian track record was why folks were so shocked how well their expeditionary force to Syria did to stabilize the situation and keep Assad in power.
5
MacGregor is always worth a listen, wherever he may appear. John Mearshimer is another worthy source, as are the contributors to Larry C. Johnson’s sonar21.com blog. Less famous is Jacques Baud, retired colonel who served in the Swiss Army’s intelligence service and who was a liaison with UN and NATO forces. His posts can be found in http://www.thepostil.com. The Postil is a religious- and philosophical affairs blog that also covers current affairs.
3
Nice take on Buchanan. He not only was vindicated but lived to see many things he advocated become mainstream ideas. Few political and cultural leaders can claim the same.
The “cultural” part of that previous sentence is the most important. Buchanan condemned the anti-White, anti-working class poison that had gripped both his political party and the nation as a whole and resulted in a hollow, cruel, and destructive culture of consumerism and, to call it what it is, hostility to Heritage America. Even though Buchanan’s worldview continues to be a minority position, against all odds much of the ideological trend is in a like direction via different means but toward a similar endpoint. It may never be realized but he led the way.
I was never a conservative but to my discredit had bought into some of its shibboleths, including the idea of comparative advantage, for example. Buchanan caused me and many like me to see the evils of deindustrialization and the immorality of throwing people out of work as part of a theory that conveniently enriched its strongest proponents. It seems the United States may be about to lose a proxy war in an empire-ending, humiliating fashion because it lacks the industrial capacity to fight it. That is karma and Buchanan warned of it. To my credit, I always shared Buchanan’s dim view of imperialism, which the United States totally embraced via globalism at the end of the Cold War. by the time Buchanan wrote A REPUBLIC, NOT AN EMPIRE, there was not turning back to the former.
Buchanan is pugnacious and also graceful, two things seemingly at odds but lovely when paired. You are right. We owe Buchanan a gratitude he does not expect but deserves.
54
Time is on Russia’s side in the Ukraine War. They are grinding down Ukraine’s military manpower and hardware (including what NATO has supplied). And the major battles are occurring in the East, near the Russian border with its short supply lines and secure rear staging areas. Most importantly, the slow simmer makes it politically difficult for NATO to justify direct intervention.
That said, Russia and Belarus are currently conducting joint military exercises which end next week. Once this coordination has been completed, the forces arrayed opposite Poland will be in readiness to prevent a NATO quick strike flank attack. This enables an offensive thrust by Russia which aims to entrap the bulk Ukraine’s remaining forces. And when this happens, its game over. Kiev capitulates.
And none of this is the real story. Once the USA and its EU partners are shown to be paper tigers, the wheels come off and the dollar craters worldwide. Then it’s chaos and crazy writ large. And we may finally get to implement a real remedy to the root problem. Get out of the big city now.
22
1
Quick, decisive Russian success is the sort of thing that could cause the hysterical GAE to go nuclear.
I don’t think the Nuland would have any hesitation about ordering such a strike:
https://twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1618763049007198208
2
Nuland is insane with hatred for Russia and Russians.
2
She sure is proud about that pipeline
2
First comment I found on Anton’s response to ZMan’s, “attacks”, on him.
Someone named Michael said:
“If it was never apparent to you before, this series of articles should make it crystal clear conservatism is not now, and never was, a political movement. That is not to say these questions aren’t important, or worthy of discussion. However, they in no way address actual political issues like immigration, debt, spending, Medicare, trade, war, alliances, election integrity, parental rights, AI, employment, or anything political that concern voters in 2023.
Why don’t our election victories ever amount to policy wins you ask? Probably because the driving ideology of conservatism has no political agenda, just philosophical concerns. Call us anything you want, those of us on the right who have rejected conservatism, believe BOTH philosophical concerns AND policy agendas are possible.”
16
Amen on Brother Pat, Zman!
He confirmed a lot of vague ideas I had, but didn’t find in the party
Better to devote a whole show to him
4
Z, I thought you positioned yourself as being part of the “Dissident Right.” Definitely not in the “right” as in the American sense, but the right in the more general sense.
4
I think that you’re wrong about the coming American deaths bringing a surge of patriotism. I think their efforts to destroy patriotism have borne fruit and these people supporting Ukraine are doing it in such a way that they give nothing up but when they start giving something up, I don’t think they’re going to blame Russia, I think they’re going to be blame our leadership. It might be wishful thinking. It does appear I’m going to be able to find out.
18
Speaking of which;
https://www.csis.org/analysis/rebuilding-us-inventories-six-critical-systems
I came across that while looking for something else. Great podcast by the way, even though if I hear one more thing about that accursed place I’m going to throw myself in wood chipper.
One thing I found enlightening about this podcast was the bit about how we’re not building any new tanks from scratch. We’re too busy throwing money away on the F-35, neat plane that is rife with problems. They should take a page from history and pay attention to the two MIT students that designed a fighter jet from scratch and sold it to General Dynamics – that would be the F-16. Lightweight, highly maneuverable and inexpensive to build, at least when it first went into production.
I saw a special in the late 80’s that had to do with a possible war with the Soviets – I forget who the guy was who was narrating it – but he stated that the next war will be a “come as you are” war, in that all of the modern weapons systems in the west are simply too complex to sustain. Once they run out after the first few weeks, that will be it.
9
All tanks go to, someplace in PA I think for refurbishing. A lot of the computing components in the fire control system are what’s called LRUs, line replaceable units. They’re simply rugged boxes that bolt and plug in for various imputs and functions to get rounds on target. They can easily be removed refurbished with new boards and replaced but I imagine nowadays the stuff is getting smaller and lighter. Wouldn’t be surprised if you could just plug in a ipad and run the system that way.
1
M1s go to ANAD
anniston army depot
In anniston alabama
I assume that Buchanan secretly or perhaps openly detested, the neocons that took over the GOP, even in the first Bush admin. The first negatives I heard about Pat from the right was during the build-up to the first Gulf war in the fall of 90. He made a disparaging comment about the “amen corner” pushing for war. The amen corner was made up of the usual suspects, I think Joe Lieberman, Tom Lantos and other “others”. That comment was taken by the others as anti-semitic and PJB didn’t seem to argue that it wasn’t.
10
The M1 Abram main battle tank is something with which I am familiar. It is indeed a complex piece of machinery; a conglomeration of hydraulics, electronics, computing, mechanics, and firepower into one 72 ton package.
If the poor Ukrainians get them into service by spring I imagine they’ll have to content with what we in Yankee land call mud season. Mud can bind up in the sprocket causing you to throw track and then everyone’s day is ruined. Likewise I’d recommend not encouraging operators to use the battle override. It’s for oh shit moments not fun. It dumps fuel into the turbine (the AGT1500) to get out of Dodge quick but it isn’t healthy or safe for the engine. Also, “starter only” on shutdown to get air flowing through the turbine so you don’t warp or crack the stators by shutting her down hot. And woe to he who must replace a turret hydraulic manifold. Lay on your back in the drivers seat and reach over your head to get it out, but watch for dripping fire-retardant-hydraulic oil, stuff tastes like hell and make you go blind. Lastly, do not remove the “bitch plate” on the NBC system unless you reeeeally need to. They don’t call it the bitch plate for nothing.
The recovery vehicle of which you speak is the M88A2 Hercules. It is a massive tracked vehicle to recover tanks powered by a Detroit V12 diesel with pistons the size of coffee makers.
12
Most of the country, at least the guys, know about the Abrams described in Tom Clancy’s and other book of that genre from the 80s and 90s. In the books there was always plenty of fuel and ammo, the gizmos always worked and there were no breakdowns or service needed. The Russian tanks were numerous but crude and outgunned and did stupid things in battle.
This will be a shock to everyone involved if this isn’t the outcome. If it was me, I’d have a white flag with me at all times.
6
The 1987 novel Team Yankee by Harold Coyle is a good fictional attempt to describe how a company-sized US armor unit might fare in a WW3 scenario set in an alternate late 1980s.
Coyle actually was a Major in the US Army, so he had a good grasp of many details that Clancy wouldn’t.
1
I read Team Yankee and it was a good book, much more realistic than Clancy but still it was written so that the good guys won.
2
Somebody on a local Cr@igs1ist recently sold a V16 Detroit 92.
I shoulda bought it.
I guess you can’t drive the Abrams in Commiefornia.
The nice thing about Pat Buchanan is that you can move past him without having to repudiate him, unlike say Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck.
15
1
Buchanan coined the term “culture war” 20+ yrs ago … and of course today it is a 24-7 affair, now that we are the slide to a one party state. Justin Raimundo (of AntiWar.com) introduced Pat to the crowd in Long Beach. That was an interesting decade or so spell when the antiwar/paleo libertarians allied with the paleoconservatives.
On another note, the PMC Wagner Group has made their own movie. Pretty decent for amateurs and no need to ask if they did their own stunts. Realistic and completely devoid of any sentimental garbage that an American audience would prefer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nlKNjIj2QQ
3
1
strangely they didn’t paint the UKEs as cowards or necessarily evil both sides were portrayed as brave fighters. much more realistic than much of what hollywood puts out
1
The Russian started this war (SMO) under a wrong idea of again reuniting two “brotherly” countries: Russia and Ukraine who were together for 300 years until the dissolution of USSR in 1991.
That’s why the Ukrainian population and their infrastructure were not bombed for about 8 months.
I watched months ago several Russian politicians appealing to the highly placed Ukrainian functionaries to lead the Ukrainian army into Russian arms and thus take a noted place in history.
This supposed brotherhood of 2 slavic people turned out to be a bubble.
Ask anyone who lived both in Russia and Ukraine: Russians and Ukrainians have little in common. Maybe because Ukraine was occupied by the Ottomans in the late 17th century. The Ottomans never were gentlemen to the concurred women.
Growing up in Ukraine the only blonds I knew were ethnic Russians.
It is a known fact that Ukrainians have always hated Russians, Poles, who still lived among them, and of course the Jews.
Over a million Jews murdered in Ukraine 1941-44 were shot by the Ukrainians (Holocaust by bullet), Germans mostly supervised. O, and they preferred to do it with their bare hands.
When the Jews left in the 1990s the pogroms started against the ethnic Russians in Donbass.
Little by little Russian politicians started realising that they are not “brotherly people”. Yes, they are different. Russians are generous and kind people. They only become extremely dangerous when they are convinced that their country is thretened.
Articles started appearing in Russian press describing a newly discovered difference between both people.
And eventually the war turned against Ukrainians themselves, not just against the upper political crust of Kiev.
The friends I have there have only few hours of electricity, water, and some have no heat.
They should pray that Putin does not get REALLY mad at them now that he lost an illusion of 2 “brotherly people”.
6
7
Vlad believed they’d be welcomed as liberators. There is no other explanation for that failed attempt on Kiev from the north early in the war.
3
1
Don’t look now, but our Russian friends seem kind of…uh…pissed about facing down German tanks in Ukraine again:
https://twitter.com/The_Real_Fly/status/1618380112214519814
1
Any idea on why Unz has consistently derogated Buchanan on his own ezine, for years, while publishing him till retirement?