In every society there is a gap between the truth the ruling class asserts and the truth the people experience. This used to be a feature of Western criticism of the Soviet economic system during the Cold War. Communist rulers would make claims about their system and critics would compare that to reality. Today, the obvious gap is in the West where the ruling class exists in another world. Over the last year this has been on display when they speak about the war in Ukraine.
Yesterday, the regime sent Joe Biden to visit Kiev, thinking this was going to be a public relations coup on the anniversary of the war. This is the New York Times lead story in which they make him sound like Lenin crossing into Russia. The Washington Post has a very similar story. They even use the same photo. Obviously, much of the content was supplied by narrative men in the regime. The point of these stories is to maintain the sense that victory is at hand!
In reality, Washington coordinated the trip with Moscow so that nothing bad could happen during Biden’s trip. Serious people in the Pentagon, who still have contacts in Russia, made sure the Russians knew Biden was making the trip long before Biden got on the plane to Poland. Those serious people know Russia does not want a direct war with the West. Two days before Biden made the trip, social media was buzzing about it, as word was leaked by both sides.
This public relations stunt was conducted against the backdrop of a policy that has failed at every turn and now promises to end in disaster. No one in the ruling class bubble wants to think about that, so they tell each other stories like this one from one of the Kagan cult members. Another cult member chimed in with this post in the same publication, now operated by the cult. This post in a conspiracy site gave the kooks out in the fever swamps something to discuss.
There is a theme coming from the cult members, which is aimed at maintaining the fiction that animates Ukraine policy. That theme is inevitability. The subtext to these stories is like the quote from the Terminator movie. The neocons are out there. They cannot be reasoned with. They do not feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until Russia has been destroyed. You hear that Europe? Washington will never stop until victory is achieved!
Of course, the reason for this is reality is starting to creep in at the edges, especially among the Europeans. The stockpiles of old Soviet weapons are all gone, blown up on the battlefields of Ukraine. The extra Western weapons have also been used up to the point where many NATO countries no longer have a functioning army. The German army is back to using slingers and berserkers. America is no longer able to provide Ukraine with enough ammunition for the war.
What is going on here is that the people inside the bubble created a glorious story for themselves regarding Russia. The story said that if they could bait the Russians into war, they just had to sit back and wait for Russia to collapse. This version of reality created by the cult was a reboot of the Bolshevik Revolution. This time, war would crack the Russian regime and the heroes would ride into Moscow to finally exact their revenge on their ancient enemy.
That has not happened. In fact, it is the American Empire that is now cracking under the strain of this war of attrition. Western economies are struggling. There is growing unrest in the public about the political class. Meanwhile, the Russians have organized themselves for the long haul. The story Western elites told each other about this war are falling a part, but rather than face reality they fill their minds with more versions of the big lie from the biggest of big liars.
This form of elite escapism is not unique to Ukraine policy. This is the defining feature of our ruling class. When asked about how all of these magical electric cars will be charged, people like Pete Buttigieg just reply with some hand waving or maybe say they will supply more sockets. He has no idea and he has no reason to care, because his world is the world of fantasy. The people running energy policy are just as divorced from reality as the people running foreign policy.
It is not confined to the elites. This is how the managerial class maintains its sense of identity and cohesion. The answer to the primary question of life, who are we?, is supplied by the many narratives that define the managerial class. Whether it is pronouns, support for deviant sexual practices, saying “keev” all of a sudden or any number of affectations, the point is to signal membership in the club. For these people, the answer to the big question is one of the approved narratives.
This is why the neocons have managed to dominate foreign policy. They are expert at creating complex narrative structures that provide simple moral choices for the audience, moral choices that favor their preferred outcomes. In a society that lives by words, rather than deeds, being good with words counts for a lot. Robert Kagan tells one side stories about monsters and heroes, while his wife tells the other side similar stories, always with the same monsters and heroes.
In the fullness of time, Francis Fukuyama’s seminal essay, The End of History, will be seen as the point at which Western elites became untethered from reality. For them, history was always a nightmare from which they could not awake. All of a sudden, the nightmare was over because history was over. What was ahead was whatever their imaginations could conjure. They could hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as they had a mind.
Much of what constitutes democratic politics in the West is the people debating with one another about the precise time their rulers wake from their dream. Surely they will see the folly of making war with Russia. Maybe this event will do it. Surely they will see the lunacy of banning fossil fuels. Maybe now they will see it. So far, nothing has worked, suggesting nothing will work. Elite escapism is now too much a part of what defines the elite, so their can be no awakening from their dream.
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For a few moment’s entertainment, read the headlines at the afternoon edition of real clear defense dot com. They are a lovely collection of Ukrainian war hopium narratives, and are clearly around the bend. They do this every single day. The digital universe has gone a long way to creating a bell jar for this people, where the only truth they know is what’s inside the jar. Reality, i.e., an artillery barrage, is going to crack that jar I think.
I liked the one about Russians planning to sabotage windmill farms in retaliation for nord stream
And where you were wondering about those “died suddenly” incidents, and other suspicious maladies among the jabbed, here is an interesting avenue (Part 1 of a promised 2):
https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/pfizer-knowingly-allowed-dangerous-components-in-its-vaccines-part-1_5060324.html
Well, if you are a military “operator”, this has to be immensely reassuring if you have from time to time nourished any worries about OPSEC:
https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/21/sensitive-united-states-military-emails-spill-online/
Yay, team.
Ding meet Bat…
Clearly, more money is needed for digital security.
Speaking of Elites Escaping. Vanity Fair is currently stumbling and bumbling their way through their first encounter with the “Dissident Right”. It reads like ‘Baby’s First Step out of the Bubble’ but it is comical and also very telling in that way.
Not that I want to give VF any clicks but watching coastal elite supporting journos bumblef-ck their way through why the DR is starting to look more and more like the radical left has a certain comedic value. At the end of the day the radical left wants to tear down then entire edifice for diametrically opposite reasons as we do, but we both desire the same thing. Watching this smooth brain try and puzzle that out, baffled, is entertaining.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/new-right-civil-war
Wow. That was one very weird post. Yowza.
I couldn’t get through it – just more lefty affectatious bulls***. Had to make sure he got the various forms of the F-word in multiple times as usual. However, I will agree that leftards are infesting the formerly conservative rural western states – been happening for a while though, unfortunately.
eApex: Strange article. Referring to a Rockefeller descendant who’s proud of her grandfather for helping turn the US into “superpower” as part of some new ‘right,’ along with something named Srinivasan. And calling Yarvin the “intellectual godfather of the dissident right.” This writer has gotten a glimpse of what some referred to as the ‘alt-lite’ and got his panties in a wad. He’s talking with hedge funders and multi-millionaires colonizing Wyoming and Idaho and Montana, with a city council member named Schechter. He lumps together local Whites who’ve been priced out of the housing market with Mestizo workers brought in by the wealthy to build their log palaces.
He drops the term ‘globo-homo’ and relates it to homophobia while equating wealthy magatards with militia-right nationalists. He quotes Cernovich and Tucker Carlson as dissident right avatars. The terms ‘prepper’ and ‘Christian’ and ‘right-wing’ are thrown around with abandon – and he even throws in Rod Dreher for good measure! Cali and NY transplants, lots of money, lots of people with lots of connections.
The writer has stumbled upon yet one more of the global elite’s not-so-secret ‘bugout’ locations. The inland north west, an area they share with some of the militia right who believe this geographic area can and will be some sort of redoubt.
Personally, I highly doubt that. I wouldn’t consider moving to that area – precisely because of all the people mentioned in this weird article. Too much money and notoriety. Too short a growing season. Any place where globohomo ‘escapees’ are arriving via private helicopter is not the sort of spot I’d pick to hunker down.
The writer is pulling all sorts of unconnected threads and weaving together an incoherent picture of general disaffection with globalism. But the ideas routinely discussed here at Z man – a true home for dissidents – would – to use a term the VF writer would be comfortable with – truly blow his mind.
“he even throws in Rod Dreher for good measure!”
Roddie probably is pissed that he wasn’t contacted and asked to denounce someone.
Yeah, narcissists cannot believe the world doesn’t value them, or their belief systems, and has moved on. This is partially DISSIDENTS IN THE MIST, partially “hey, look at me, hope and change, hope and change!” The fear is palpable that he is no longer hip, no longer relevant, as if he ever were. We’ve had the 68’ers, the 85’ers, and now the 08’ers. God almighty.
The article itself is is a hot mess of confusion, conflation and misunderstanding. The only interesting aspect is there is an acknowledgement, however flawed, of an alien and growing belief system, which in these types’ world has to be crushed and destroyed because they are not and never can be at its center.
My favorite passage:
““I think liberalism has failed,” Stokes said, perhaps echoing the title of the best-known expression of this kind of thinking, Why Liberalism Failed, by the Notre Dame political science professor Patrick Deneen. The book, surprisingly, has even been praised by President Barack Obama, who said he mostly disagreed with its conclusions but noted “an increasing disillusionment with the liberal democratic order” and a worrying “loss of meaning and community” when he recommended it on Facebook in 2018.”
Obama recommended it on Facebook in 2018. That settles it.
I think she just likes to hear herself write. Z says more in 8 paragraphs than she said in that 10,000 words.
I rarely read anything there, but the mere fact that such an article appears in what I’d think a left-liberal venue speaks volumes. Overall, I’d say quite well written.
My favorite quote:
…Riva Tez, who flashed me the butt of a prop pistol in her purse and would later give a keynote speech critiquing the entire idea of liberal rationality. “The world of reason is overrated,” she said. “We’ve been fucked by the Enlightenment.”
I dare say that Ms. Tez well summarizes, albeit rather bluntly, a recurring theme Z preaches.
Although I and others often pay some lip service to them, I grudgingly concede that many of the Enlightenment’s ideas are probably fatally flawed, especially those that advocate a blank slate or that all men (oops, “persons”) are equal.
Liberalism probably has failed. Echoing a thought by the quoted Jon Stokes, a few decades ago one of the then-current Daily Reckoning writers (probably Bonner, Davidson, or Rees-Mogg*) wrote more or less: Democracy has only survived as long as it has because we’ve been able to maintain the peace among those who think that Cheez-Whiz shouldn’t be sold on Sunday and those who think Cheez-Whiz should be sold at all. When the uneasy truces between such factions begin to break down, be it due to one faction assuming authoritarian powers, as seems to be the case now, or merely the atrophy of a hands-off referee, the result will likely be anarchy, civil war or other unhappy outcomes.
*Whose (I think) son was recently in the news (at least the British tabloid version) — seems he’s on a UK terrorist watch list; apparently being a conservative marks flags one as some sort of a radical there these days.
To keep the arms flowing to the Ukraine, Uncle Joe will probably offer to buy the $80 billion of weapons he left for the Taliban in Afghanistan for $160 billion. Of course with the customary 10 % kickback for the big guy.
You may have just gotten yourself a job at the State Dept. That’s the kind of thinking they’re looking for. You could even propose “stage 2” of the plan – buying the weapons back from Russia after they seize them for $320B and sending them to re-arm now depleted Europe. Statecraft!
This Ponzi scheme is so ingenious that it could go on forever!…or maybe not…
“…they will see the folly of making war with Russia.”
How about they see the folly of making war with every Tom, Dick, and Harry on the planet? However, “they” is not solely our elite. It seems to permeate the populace—those who consider such things anyway. In my circle there are still many who think we have the baddest “swinging dick” of them all. Why? The answer is simple, we’ve never had a stinging defeat in any war in memory. Vietnam didn’t do it and the sand war “victories” erased all memory of that war.
I’d say there’s a good chance we meet toe to toe with the Russians on their home turf this year. Maybe that will wake up the Boomers.
On FB I LARP as a “conservative” since they still offer that character type in the drop-down. I’m too tall for “Elf”, and carrying a wand seemed too ghey so I didn’t go for “Wizard”. Anyway, I’ve collected lots of “friends” that I don’t really know but whose profiles scream Normiecon/Boomercon. Lots of flags, eagles, guns, bible verses, etc… Sadly, when they post on anything pertaining to Ukes/Russians it’s fairly typical neocon shit about Putin being a horrible dictator and “our ally” Ukraine. It’s really maddening. I want to slap these people so hard. I’m temped to change my “banner” image to the Russian flag just to watch the unfriending cascade.
Myself, I’m looking for a Wagner Group t-shirt, flag, bumper sticker, whatever. It doesn’t matter, I want to put a thumb in the metaphorical eye of everyone pro-Ukraine.
Forgive my ignorance, maybe the answer is obvious and I’m just missing it.
“and the heroes would ride into Moscow to finally exact their revenge on their ancient enemy.”
I have read Z mention, more than twice, about the Kagan Cult’s ancient enemies/ blood feud. Who are we talking about? Is this another triple parentheses thing? Something else?
Alone in the northeast: “Is this another triple parentheses thing? ”
==========
Neo: What are you trying to tell me? That I can check the “Early life” section on their Wikipedia page?
Morpheus: No, Neo. I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.
https://tinyurl.com/y6hazt3p
==========
In all seriousness, go to a search engine, and look for something like “200 Years Together ; From the Beginnings in Khazaria PDF”.
“200 Years Together ; From the Beginnings in Khazaria PDF”.
Is the 2nd title from the same author? I’m finding too many books that begin with that title.
Steve, here is one copy of the PDF file:
https://tinyurl.com/p6txzcda
The discussion of Khazaria begins on page 10.
===============
If you get curious about Khazaria, then I strongly strongly urge you to learn the 1964 Broadway Musical [and the 1971 Movie] about life in Khazaria:
https://www.alibris.com/moviesearch?mtype=V&keyword=fiddler+roof
The author of the story, Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, aka Sholem Aleichem, was born in the Pereiaslav district of Kyiv:
https://www.bing.com/maps?q=Pereiaslav+Ukraine
===============
Once you do your background reading & movie watching [as above], everything will make sense to you.
Technically speaking, I guess it’s something like “Pereiaslav is a town [?] in the Boryspil Raion county [?] of the Kyiv Oblast state [?] of the nation of Ukraine.”
I would guess that Rabinovich-Aleichem probably grew up about 60 or 75 miles to the southeast of Kyiv proper, on the Dnieper River.
And that area would host your mythical “Anatevka”.
Yes it is. The neo-cons will never get over great-great Uncle Moishe being relocated to the Pale.
Will the angst and thirst for revenge cease when the mentioned psychopaths shuffle off this mortal coil?
Or are their offspring infected with the same desire?
As much fun as it is to speculate that it’s a divine curse produced by rejecting Christ, the more mundane explanation is that the parents transmit their culture to their little Jewlings to be spiteful, greedy, and bloodthirsty.
Ploppy: “the more mundane explanation is that the parents transmit their culture to their little Jewlings”
The even more mundane [i.e. even moar Black-Pill-ish] explanation is that it’s all in the genes, and there’s not a d@mned thing anyone can do about it [short of embracing a very rigid separationism].
“Or are their offspring infected with the same desire?”
I think their offspring have been made weak by wealth and decadence. It’s all they know. I may be wrong, perhaps Soros Jr. is just as evil, but without honing the particular talents his father did during the Third Riech era, is is not likely he is as strong, nor cunning.
Same for the shitter in chief’s kid spawn that is always in the news. Without the connections of his father, he’d be nothing. Or less.
Look at poor James O’Keefe. Whether he was sincere, or ticket-taker is immaterial now. He let a collection of nerds, as despite what the do they remain mouth-breathers, run him out of his own place. Maybe like the Alliance Football folks – a money man comes in as ‘savior’ and they could not tell he was just a Trojan Horse from their competitor, the BLM-NFL?
Think of it as the GAE’s all-out attempt to create, “Our Greatest Ally, v 2.0.”
Which raises again the question of whether our tiny “Greatest Ally” has got a plan to deal with the collapse of their idiot Greatest Benefactor!? If so, they haven’t leaked it…
Good question. But the odd thing about parasites is that they can’t stop devouring their host. Do they care if their host dies? They should. And yet they can’t bring themselves to ease up, even a little.
It makes me think of how blacks act when invading a white area. The neighborhood is all clean and nice and safe…until blacks show up and destroy the very qualities that drew them there in the first place. Neither Compton nor Detroit started out as crime-ridden, ugly hellholes.
The dynamic between the two situations is oddly similar, and yet neither group can bring themselves to self-reflect or curb their worst instincts. Are they driven by greed? Hatred? A simple lack of self-control?
It boggles the mind.
The Finkels destroy from malice, the nuggras from primitivity. The former have a plan–inchoate though it may be–the latter are merely a step up from wild animals.
Ostei
They are wild animals.
With designer clothes and overpriced sneakers.
Never forget that.
The parasitism metaphor is very apropos. Consider that in the natural world, parasites and their hosts only exist because the system is at equilibrium. Usually the parasite is fully dependent upon the host, and if it gained too much power causing the host to die, so would the parasite. It’s quite possible the host could live without any parasites. But on the other hand, it’s possible the parasite puts a natural check on the risk the host, unburdened, too would breed out of control. Natural selection at all times makes sure that all accounts are settled.
No parasite, anywhere, ever said “You know, I think we’d better curb our behavior, or else it’ll end very badly for our kind.”
Well it seems the original plan was to pivot to China. They even had the Potemkin villages built. But, Alas, Xi came along and put a stop to that.
Now it seems as though Plan B was Ukraine. That is not going so swimmingly either.
A quick perusal on Wikipedia of Victoria Nuland’s biography is informative. Emphasis on her recent ancestry, and the nations they came from.
“Millions of people in the West realise that they are being led to a spiritual disaster. Frankly, the elite appear to have gone crazy, and it looks like there is no cure for that.”
Putin 2/21/23
That’s spot on and why this moment is so dangerous.
(I also think Putin did not fully comprehend how batshit crazy the Western leaders have become since he was stationed in East Berlin; he apparently does now)
The silver lining is that he’s subtly reaching out to those of us who understand that our extant spiritual disaster is not of our choosing, and drawing a distinction between our rulers and those of us who blanche at their insanity.
That may be of little solace if he hands out permanent orange afros, however.
I’d be thrilled if he reached out to us explicitly. Overtly sow a fifth column in the West. If nothing else, it would cause the Clouds to befoul their bloomers even more than they already are.
Axiom: Everything is fake and gay.
Ukrainian nationalism was “coded Nazi” not only to bait Russia but to get /ourguys/ to support and die for it.
We didn’t fall for that, so now it’s Jewish—”openly Jewish,” maybe—a Zionist project, it sometimes says. So we’re rootin’ for Putin…
….the same Putin who during BLM-mania called us racist and denounced whiteness, just like an old Soviet. Which he provably is.
Assume he still hates us while saying things we like the sound of.
More likely, what he said during the Peaceful Riots was designed to appeal to erstwhile allies in Asia and perhaps South America. You can’t be a fellow traveler of Cornell’s sociology department and maintain warm relations with the Russian Orthodox Church. I strongly suspect Putin’s true identity is closer to the DR than to BLM.
The man sounds like an adult. His words, compared to our child-propagandists …. speak for themselves.
It would be nice if we could pin all this escapism on the “elites,” for that would suggest the possibility of a ready solution if we could just get them out of the way, but when I get out in the world away from our DR echo chambers, I see it more as a case of civilizational escapism than elite escapism. Most dissent is among the olds, and it is mostly limited to certain “acceptable” forms of dissent. “I’m not a racist but I think we oughtta do something about that border.” Ha. You are not going to find a lot of dissent against ANY regime policy among those younger than 40. Maybe 20%. Which is no more numerous than the number of those under age 20 who identify as LTBGQXYZ
This certainly was true during the depths of Covid. The only real resistance, and it was tepid, came from infrequent Boomers and to a lesser extent older X’ers. Those least vulnerable to any bad effects from the virus–the young–swallowed every policy, even when it changed regularly, hook, line and sinker. Will this hold if the economy takes a catastrophic downturn? I honestly don’t know.
No, there was beginnings of serious resistance to the covid lockdowns just a month or so in. Boomers and Xers were pushing back, protesting, saying it’s time to open things up all ready.
Then the government unleashed the other hand with the Floyd most peaceful protests.
Same with the Freedom Convoy in Canada’s capital. The age of the average participant on the streets was probably 55. There were also a good number of 30-40 somethings, with young children in tow. The attendance definitely dropped off below 35. There were a few young people there, for sure, but definitely not as many. Wouldn’t surprise me if the DR has similar demographics.
The percentage of folks who didn’t see the first problem with turning off the economy and everybody staying home completely blew my mind. I never would have believed it ahead of time.
As I was saying, escapism isn’t just the “elites”
If he weren’t being backed by his co-ethnic neocons, I would call Zelensky delusional for saying the following:
“For us, it is important that China does not support the Russian Federation in this war…if China allies itself with Russia, there will be a world war, and I do think that China is aware of that.”
But given the cadre who is running US intelligence and foreign policy, I believe there is a non-zero probability that he is right. I truly hate these people.
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-732145
Let’s not describe as “delusional” that which can aptly be seen as simple ignorance. The creature in charge of Ukraine is a damn stage comedian, an actor. No better than the majority of our political frontmen. Hell, he even wears a costume when playing his *role* on the world stage, or haven’t you noticed?
Such folk are tiresome in peacetime, but in war or economic turmoil, will prove disastrous.
“Today, the obvious gap is in the West where the ruling class exists in another world.”
It’s exactly like that cheesy Star Trek episode wherein the Elites literally live in a cloud world suspended above this planet while the Untermenschen toil in the mines below. Captain Kirk, like Zman, finds it troubling.
History tells us that systems like this can persist for a long time unless Capt. Kirk shows up. Versailles has been mentioned below by Gotter-dam-itall. But we have also seen the collapse of the Chinese imperial system (Last Emperor sitting in his palace while the country fell apart), the last few Tsars (sitting in St. Petersburg, speaking French at court while serfs starve), Japan pretending the rest of the world didn’t exist until our battlecruisers showed up in Tokyo Bay, the last few Ottoman sultans watching from the harem while the Brits and Russians dismembered their empire.
I would argue that our current condition is the historical norm for late-stage empires. What’s next? The best case for us is a nationalist Kemal-like strongman. The worst is almost unfathomable.
There is a significan cultural and increasingly geographic going on. It’s pretty obvious that States are run by their large, dysfunctional cities and that’s who’s going to be governor, senator or presidential elector. Red State America doesn’t really have a vote above the municipal level. That’s one of those things that can’t go on forever.
*geographic sorting
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green openly calling for a national divorce.
We’re going to have a modern day replay of the arrest of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. If you’ve ever read the story of how they were arrested on their way to Switzerland and their mindset at they were trying to hide out, it reads like a black comedy. Our so called elite won’t be able to blend in when the time comes. They won’t even know as its happening.
Had King Louis dressed in drag, he might have pulled it off haha. So they may well blend in …..
I’ve been engaged on a daily if not hourly basis with the world around me — the world of politics, economics, literature, education — since my teens. The events of the past year, combined with the knowledge of the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, are pushing me toward checking out altogether and spending my remaining time on earth engaged in reading books and other immediate projects. Simply turning my back on all of it, for good, because none of it is true, and spending one’s time being agitated about it — or hoping to bring others to the truth — is laughably futile. Put “Shine, Perishing Republic” above the bathroom mirror and read it every morning.
Speaking of depressing past legislation and executive orders, check out EO 12919 on National Defense Industrial Resources Preparedness, signed by Slick Willie in 1994:
https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Executive_Order_12919
TL;DR – This EO basically allows the wartime Executive to create a soviet of unelected agency heads and imbue it with the power to literally seize everything, including you, in service to a future all-out GAE war effort.
Wild Geese: I learned of that some years ago in the course of my TEOTWAWKI fiction habit. I pick up all sorts of odds and sods that way; of course I always then check things out via multiple online sources.
Add to that Biden’s handlers working with the WHO to have them administer and fully control any future US domestic pandemic response. Plus one woke faction in Minnesota is working to ban gas chain saws and lawn mowers. Shades of California – what happens in one imperial satrapy soon becomes law for all of them, due to multinational corporatism.
A natural follow-on to banning smaller gas tools will be to ban ethanol-free gasoline (because the standard junk destroys the engines of chainsaws or generators). And the people who casually dismiss this as nothing but theatre will not be left to die in peace – by either side. They don’t deserve to.
3g4me-
Yes, I saw the mention of the WHO plandemic treaty being ratified by the US.
I figure that is the legal pretext to station PLA troops in UN drag on US soil. No, the Chicoms aren’t dumb enough to wear those hi-viz blue helmets.
I’m fortunate to live in a town that has 90 octane ethanol-free gas at the pumps. Thanks to your reminder I think I’ll stop and fill up tonight.
Important reference: puregas.org
Wild Geese: error in first link. Sorry.
pure-gas.org
re: pandemic policy, the WHO won’t have any more authority over the several states than the fed govt did….. it becomes a question of how much authority are they prepared to exert
The reason why ethanol is added to gasoline is because ethanol has a much lower gel and freezing point, which helps maintain gasoline’s viscosity in the cold. It’s a tradeoff, not a conspiracy. Of course, pure fuels tend to be less dirty than mixed fuels, but pure fuels also have drawbacks. Pure ethanol, for example, doesn’t burn as readily as gasoline at lower temps, even though it’s more viscous.
Andrew: I never said it was a conspiracy theory. I am not moving somewhere that tends to have extreme winters, and we will need gasoline for various small engines (side by side, zero-turn mower, etc.). According to what I’ve read, ethanol is less than ideal for such engines. It is also yet another excuse for the US to put corn byproducts in everything.
Huh? That certainly may be a side effect of ethanol and a reason it was used in Northern climes, but it is not why it was adopted nationwide and still in use today.
Ethanol nationwide was mandated during the Carter years when the first national gas shortages appeared. It was touted as useful in stretching out our limited and declining national supply of oil. After Reagan changed policy on drilling and expanding production, there was a move to remove the 10-15% mandate, but by then it was too profitable for the corn farmers, really big agribusiness, and Congress did nothing. And here we are today.
Forty percent of the US corn production is used for ethanol production, at a net negative energy transaction. Ethanol is a subsidy for farmers and corporation like Cargill and ADM.
i can get 90 octane ethanol free gas in florida. not available in cali. has it’s own hose and nozzle too.
I’m dubious. The “social good” reason to add ethanol to gasoline was because it reduced emissions. Perhaps that’s even true.
The clear political motive for so doing is it’s a subsidy to the Corn Trust, which is roughly the middle third of the nation.
Any time the government is funding something all one has to do is “follow the money.” This doesn’t mean that no government effort ever achieves a net good*, but that’s not the way to look at things.
*I’m a fan of traffic signals, for example.
Since gasoline starts out at the refinery with exactly zero ethanol I suspect the regime is setting up a nicely profitable late-Soviet style racket in ethanol free gas here for anyone who works at a refinery.
Things like this and the jihad against gas stoves, ICE engines, guns (of course), and whatever their next target is really suggest that their efforts are going to lead to a recreation of the black markets that created the income stream for the 1980s Russian oligarchs.
It’s also an amusing and sad confirmation of the degree to which the younger Hive members lack any sense of just how easy it actually is to make most of the stuff they want to outlaw. This is what you would expect after all from people who can’t use a screwdriver or socket wrench.
I feel much the same. It’s approaching the point that the only thing I believe in is God. All that is touched by human hands in this sordid and deranged age is suffused with falsity and perhaps evil. When one loathes the elites and has contempt for the masses, misanthropy and a sort of withdrawal into metaphysics and history are practically inevitable.
Z Man writes, “This is why the neocons have managed to dominate foreign policy. They are expert at creating complex narrative structures that provide simple moral choices for the audience, moral choices that favor their preferred outcomes.”
This is their fulcrum with which they move the world. And it’s not confined to foreign policy. This is why you may lose your job if you laugh at preferred pronouns, for example.
This is why until their dominance of the media is ended, we are helpless.
First, very well written.
Neocons in the bunker it is. Tomorrow, I think, the UN will take up the industrial terrorism conducted against Nordstream. It will be both kabuki and quite embarrassing for D.C. (note: if it was sane) unless a way is found to shut down the proceedings. In both Beijing and Moscow, the primary focus is how to avoid total humiliation of Washington yet protect their homelands from its madmen. In D.C. the goal is to deny all responsibility and simultaneously claim the sabotage as a great victory. Only one of those two things even approaches sanity.
My take is neither Russia nor China at the outset of the war realized how detached from reality Washington had become. They knew it to be imperialistic, hubristic, and arrogant, but distance camouflaged the delusional dimensions. D.C. really thought Beijing and even Moscow would continue to do business with them while it attacked both, for example. Putin could be memed away, and when that failed, he could be hauled before the Hague and charged with crimes against humanity just like Milosevic.
This war will be remembered as the inflection point for the Empire. It may stagger along for a while in the haze of fantasy, but even and perhaps especially the satrapies in Europe see what the GAE has become. Here at home, those of us who lived through the Cold War find it a bitter pill to swallow that Russia and China are the sane adults in the room and the United States has become the child who thinks he can throw a tantrum and make it all go away. The rest of the world concluded this long ago.
Your point about Fukuyama is a very good one. More than being catastrophically wrong, his fantasy was the cornerstone of a narrative so detached from reality and history that only a child could have believed it–and so the children did and led their empire into catastrophe, ignoring each defeat and humiliation convinced vindication was just over the horizon. The arc of history bends toward reality, it turns out. Sorry, Francis.
Great points Jack. You could understand how the chasm opened between us and the Russkies, given the gradual unraveling of relations in recent years. But it’s awfully hard to explain the Chinese misreading of our plans/intentions, seeing how they have spies everywhere here. This is a massive intel failure on their part, on par with our failure to predict the USSR collapse.
On the other hand, over the course of our lifetime, the US has staggered from Realpolitik (Nixon), back to universalism (Carter), then back to Realpolitik (Reagan), with a pitstop for “open-air bazaar” pimping (Clinton I, NAFTA), back to universalism (W Bush), then back to pimping (Obama). Since Biden has been pimping for 40 years, it’s easy to see how China got confused when he pivoted to “universalism, with just the son and brother pimping”, or something. I’m confused too.
Captain Willard: Your second paragraph summation of US foreign policy is brilliant. Stealing and sharing that.
I think that the Chinese have been a lot more involved in egging on the reality distortion field than you are giving them credit for. Most of the Deep State, WEF, multinational corporations, and such are madly enamored of their governance methods, and cooperation toward the goal of installation of comprehensive societal surveillance and control modeled on the Chinese example seems to have been happening for some little while. And once the Chinese have gotten their foot in the door, they have gone much further in their espionage and influence/information operations than the fulsome fools in the West have realized. Like this, for instance:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trudeau-responds-leaked-csis-files-saying-beijing-interfered-2021-election-support
Lil Justin tries to cover his ass, but he owes his position as PM to this interference in the internal affairs of Canada. Did he know about this before or while it was happening? It would seem as if his smug narcissism got him played like a harp. Also, remember that scene at some international conference where he may have presumed upon his standing in Xi’s eyes, and wound up getting publicly schooled by the exasperated Xi.
Stuff like that makes you go, hmm.
P.S.: The neocons, in their absolute obsession with the Traditional Enemy, the Russians, have been very helpful in diverting attention toward the Russians, and away from the stealthy, truly paradigm shifting progress of the Chinese societal methods’ adoption by the West. Is this by design, or merely through the compulsion of the neocon jevvs? Either way, the misdirection has been effective.
There may indeed be a falling out among thieves element here. It’s so opaque we cannot know for certain. As for Trudeau and Co., as people correctly note here from time to time, all revolutions are from the top down and represent elite factions going to war with one another.
If China has favored one faction over another and the disfavored group feels it has been shortchanged, that very well may have been the catalyst for internal struggles already underway. There at least seems to be an anti-China faction coming to the fore despite the history of blatant bribery. Did the Tribe have a falling out with the old line Puritans over China? I think that’s quite possible and even likely because the Tribe has come to realize China will not take a back seat to it. Also, Israel truly seems at loggerheads with its diaspora co-ethnics here over the Ukraine, and increasingly reaches out to China as well (it has a sordid history of selling the PRC United States military secrets as it is).
The recent comments from former Israeli PM Bennett over how the United States thwarted peace negotiations between Russia and the Ukraine loom large, as did the GAE’s unprecedented threats against Israel when it attempted mediation. I think this has as much to do with China as it does with Russia.
The tribe had a falling out with the Xi nationalist faction of the CCP. China did the deal with the devil for capital and technology, then double crossed the money lenders when they refused to allow the Big Bankers to set up their skimming operation in China. China controls it’s own central bank, unlike most of the rest of the world. The oligarchy of deception got deceived and they are pissed, hence the threats and war mongering.
From what I understand of Chinese culture, bribes are not seen as sources of embarrassment but part of the cost of doing business and cementing relationships. Buying friends is perceived as a source of stability. I would like someone more familiar with China to expand on that point or correct it if they would. I think it is right based on what is relayed to me from friends who conducted business there.
IF that understanding is correct, the Chinese imputed their cultural norms to the GAE, and that indeed was a spectacular failure on their part. Bribing the McConnells and Bidens and Clintons and American corporations proved a temporary situation rather than long-term insurance of peaceful relations.
Whether the above is correct, I’ve certainly been confused and prone to see Five Dimensional Chess to the effect of some modus vivendi between China and the GAE wherein they saber rattle while D.C. conducts a proxy war against Russia and exposes its eastern flank to the PRC for exploitation. That seems increasingly wrong on my part. It is just mafia-style greed where the bribes form expectations rather than relationships and eventually more is demanded and sought.
Great comment, by the way.
Interesting. Chinese see bribes as binding the recipient, and possibly misunderstood that GAE politicians go by “no honor among thieves.”
At the risk of going against Hanlon’s Razor, I really don’t think the push for EV’s involves much delusion on the part of the cloud people. I think they know quite well that most people can’t afford electric cars and there’s really no way to create some vast charging infrastructure to replace gas stations. But that’s the whole point. Can’t afford a car? Tough s**t peasant! You don’t need one. Can’t take your car on a trip because you can’t charge? Tough s**t peasant! You don’t need to take a trip. Stay home and eat the bugs!
Yup.
As that horrible meme on Blab goes… the peasants will be digging lithium ore with their bare hands so that Greta has a proper childhood and doesn’t have to grow up.
I think that’s part of it, but I also think the situation is somewhat akin to the Theranos scam. When Elizabeth Holmes wanted to be be told that her magic machine could test for all those pathologies, her flying monkeys would go behind the curtain and run the tests on normal machines, then come back with the results and claim they came from her hardware.
Something like this happens with green tech. Peter Puffer and others see working prototypes, but remain ignorant to the fact that they can’t be scaled up to mass usage.
Your comment about Holmes’ flying monkeys behind the scenes reminded me of Steve Jobs and the unveiling of the iPhone. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/01/how-steve-jobs-faked-his-way-through-unveiling-the-iphone.html
I think a lot of the push for electric cars comes from Europe, which lacks petroleum resources. Electric cars could somewhat make sense if you have few oil fields but a ton of nuclear energy or coal.
I would agree, had they not just gotten finished shutting the nuclear plants in Germany. Meanwhile they are reopening coal mines lol.
Whatever is said about the leaders of GAE being incompetent unserious people, you can probably multiply x3 for Germany. 80 years ago it transitioned from country to protectorate and I may live to see it disappear altogether. Certainly the people who live there won’t put up any fight against its abolition.
Electric cars makes sense if the oligarchy sees depopulation as the answer to the end of the USD timeline.
Does it? Infrastructure to support it doesn’t just adjust scale to the right size and retain functionality absent the population that made it possible in the first place.
Same goes for China, who produces and sells the gteen tech; they sought market dominance in things that benefit them, such as protective personal equipment for Wuhan covid, high speed trains for the Belt/Silk Road push, a navy for the Maritime Silk Road and deep ocean cargo shipping (currently the province of the US Navy).
What’s more, tech for net surveillance, social credit scoring, and facial recognition-based cashless society.
If anybody knows how to Hive, the ant-people do.
I’ve no doubt that upwards of 90% of clouds fully believe the renewable energy future is imminent and just around the corner, if only they could stop the evil fossil fuel corporations from manipulating the system to their benefit. There are a few who know better, and say so. Larry Fink, Jamie Dimon, to name two. It’s hard to tell which group Buttigieg, Granholm and Biden belong to. I could believe they are too incompetent to know one way or the other, and just say what they are told to say.
I’d love it if one or more of the folks being interviewed in East Palestine would explicitly state something along the lines that the “US government cares more about Ukrainian people and killing Russians than their fellow Americans – they are corrupt, illegitimate and they lie continuously about everything.” That’d most likely elicit a response, though probably just from the FBI or homeland security…
Although they embarrass a lot of people, that is just what the National Justice Party has been doing.
The example that they have been hammering is that our government is quick to house illegal immigrants in four star hotels but won’t provide temporary housing for white mostly Trump voters living in a potential ecological disaster.
As a White, I feel toward the NJP as blacks do toward the Nation of Islam: full of often cringey people who actually do some very positive things for their people. They have been quite impressive in that regard, as has Patriotic Alternative in Britain. While most of us believe electoral politics are a thing of the past, these groups do combine them with direct action, assistance and advocacy.
That is a great way of putting it. I often roll my eyes at the NJP stuff, but they do some good things. I noted the other day that you do not see any groypers going to Ohio to grill the politicians.
Thanks, exactly. If I needed actual help, it wouldn’t be close between NJP and the Groypers. There is a vast difference between delivering bottled water to those without and harassing Charlie Kirk, although street theatre certainly has its role. NJP has shown the way; imagine it with a cadre of sympathetic attorneys and other professionals. Even as we roll our eyes we have to acknowledge the good work and its potential.
The NJP are having an impact (how big I don’t know) with showing up in person in Fargo, Akron, Waukesha, and now in East Palestine and shining the light on those events, when the elites tried to suppress them to some extent, has to be applauded.
They must be doing something right as I see they’re on both the ADL and SPLC s*** list…
Apropos of nothing at all…Putler just pulled Russia out of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.
I’m sure it’s nothing at all…
Reagan bankrupted the Soviet Union with the Star Wars gambit and now Putin is returning the favor. The Russians have working hypersonic missiles that they can mass produce at low cost, distribute across 11 time zones of territory (plus the oceans), and top them all with nukes if they so choose. To accomplish a similar feat, the US would have to spend tens of trillions of dollars it doesn’t have and it would take decades to accomplish (if at all, given the purge of intelligent white guys). Our Military Industrial Complex is about to switch from arrogant highly profitable gadgeteers to third-rate drivers license bureaucracy in a heartbeat, and we will become the laughingstock of failed empires.
God help us if the Pentagon really believes it can win wars with a slick PR campaign like in Ukraine.
Elite escapism is a very polite way of saying violent paranoid schizophrenia. Compared to our current crop of managerial elites, the figure heads of 1970s terrorism (Weather Underground, RAF, Brigate Rosse etc) seem like well balanced and even thoughtful human beings.
(For example, Andreas Baader of RAF fame would never have tolerated foolery like the climate and trans agenda. Like any red blooded male, the man liked fast cars and faster girls way to much for that.)
> Like any red blooded male, the man liked fast cars and faster girls way to much for that.
Frankly, that should be a requirement for office at this point. A basi warlord who gives his followers some of the spoils is far better than what we have now. Our leaders now are people like the odious SBF with all the weird and dysgenic kinks who act virtuous in their bizarre social engineering. I don’t care if you have twenty Ferraris and a harem of women, just give us some of the loot and smash our enemies.
Chet, admit it – you’ve been listening to Bronze Age Pervert haha.
Chet: The basic model of the black preacher, except he doesn’t actually share any of the loot or women. But a la Alzaebo’s insight the other day, his life style enables his followers of the same hue to imagine themselves in his place.
It’s also the historic authoritarian and/or Russian model. Sure, go ahead and enrich yourself – but crush our enemies and let us hear the lamentation of their women. Although whatever will the third world do without White European/Scandinavian sperm to buy (check the major purchasers/users).
I agree that “elite escapism” is too soft a term for what’s going on. There is sadism here. It’s about the elites wrecking everything and hurting people and making their victims pay for their sins. It’s an unconscious (or conscious) strategy of the godlessly vicious.
Never attribute to unconsciousness that which may more reasonably be imputed to malice.
” There is sadism here.” This into a hundred times.
All the silly regulations during the covid scam that went towards removing all the joys from life were definitely not “unconscious”.
It was pure malice aforethought. In the blue states one could almost see the governors and their satraps rub their hands with glee as they banned innocuous pleasures like kayaking alone 100 yards offshore with nobody else on the water.
Even Bongino is starting to crack. He now screeches and preaches that the Biden Administration lies about everything all the time and the Stasi is fully corrupt and cannot be trusted. Hello! That revelation has been obvious for a couple of decades now. You’re a little late to the party pal.
And as welcome as this epiphany is, its not a solution to any problem. You cannot content yourself to just analyze and criticize ad infinitum. Eventually you must deploy some brainpower in service to actual remedies that can make a difference. Even during peacetime, all military organizations continue training and contingency planning. And some, like Russia, spend decades fabricating and stockpiling 152 mm artillery shells because they can accurately predict the Kagan cult’s endgame.
The elephant in the room. There is an existential threat to America, but it does not come from Russia. It is centered in DC. We are being ruled by evil idiots, and that is not going to change by voting harder in all elections going forward. The time will come when hard men must do hard things. Our side must be smarter.
What is going on here is that the people inside the bubble created a glorious story for themselves regarding Russia. T
For extra theater they set off an air raid alarm. Watch the video and see if you can find anyone looking the slightest bit alarmed. The reporters don’t even flinch and the Secret Service detail are utterly unworried. They usually pack the POTUS off to a secret nuclear bunker in Montana when someone lights a firecracker within six miles of the White House.
On the electric car front…
I attended the Chicago Auto Show yesterday. I go annually as I enjoy seeing the new cars, and my young sons look forward to it as well. They make lists of cars they want to see to bring with them and check off. Rest assured none of these are EVs.
The largest exhibit, as measured by floorspace, was something I hadn’t seen before, called “Chicago Drives Electric”. See the link to appreciate the relative size of this exhibit compared to everything else.
https://www.chicagoautoshow.com/about-the-show/show-floor-map/
This exhibit had various electric cars from the major manufacturers you could see and ride around in. The area was a ghost town compared to the Jeep and Ford Bronco exhibits, which were swamped with people wanting to ride for a few minutes up and over hills, side hills, stairs, etc in these beastly vehicles.
So even in Chicago, the people are not captivated by faggy electric carts like the Chevy Bolt, but are drawn in to 4-wheel drive beasts performing stunts.
Also noteworthy is the fact that Ford is introducing a new generation of the Mustang with a redesigned V8 that will get 500hp. Fucking awesome. I was afraid the next generation would spell the end of the V8 and they’d go to a V6 turbo (what Ford markets as “Ecoboost”) or worse, but no, they are still investing in improving the V8 for another model run. Perhaps that is a tell that Jim Farley knows the supposed all-EV future is impossible BS.
Lastly, while I’m not a hatchback guy since I don’t have slanty eyes or a wet back, Toyota had a hatchback with a 3-cyl, 1.6L turbo engine that puts out 300hp. That is impressive engineering. Attaching batteries and electric motors to wheels is not impressive engineering.
having a car (Prius) that gets 60+ MPG is impressive engineering.
My Ford Festiva got 50 mpg without a diesel, was recyclable, had 360k miles when I got rid of it, and cost me $400. Man, I miss that car!
Ford already offers a model of the Mustang with the 2.3L, I4 Ecoboost engine.
They won’t put the 2.7L twin-turbo from the F-150 in the Mustang because it has the power potential and weight reduction to make the V8s less attractive in pure performance terms.
Porsche does the something similar by continually hobbling the mid-engined Cayman’s engine options versus the rear-engined 911 because they know the better-balanced Cayman would run rings around a 911 with the same engine.
I don’t doubt turbo performance. I actually own a 2018 Mustang with the 4-banger turbo. At the time, when I was commuting regularly, I struggled to justify driving a V8 15k miles per year. If I could have predicted the future, I would have bought the V8.
I have been impressed with the performance of the ecoboost, it is very fun to drive, and getting 350 lb-ft of torque out of a 4-banger is outstanding.
But there’s something to the throaty rumble of a V8 that adds to the experience. Plus, the continued existence of V8s is a mild FU to the gaia worshippers.
The F-150 2.7 liter is fine if you just use it for a runabout. If used for any serious hauling or towing, it is seriously under powered. There is no replacement for displacement.
I’d take a VW Golf hot hatch over any Camaro or V8 abomination, any day.
Agreed. Last car was a GTI. Fun, cheap to run. Wish they still made them easy to repair. Pull the front end to replace the thermostat, pull and engine mount to replace the timing belt. Give me a break.
Can’t see myself ever buying a sports car. Wish my Tacoma had an available V8 like the midsize Tundra did, or at least a factory supercharger kit like the 2nd gen Tacoma did. Makes perfect sense for a truck.
my gti was the funnest car i ever owned. on city streets it was all you would ever need power wise.
It’s a shame that the Mustang will be the last relatively affordable ICE muscle car soon. I love the idea of cheapish big V8 powered cars and will probably go the Mustang route when my Challenger is ready for trade in.
Mazda had something similar around seven years ago. They managed to mate the power of a V8, with the economy of a diesel and that resulted in an engine that got somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 mpg on the highway, along with 300hp.
They were talking about it in “Automobile” magazine and lamenting the fact that Uncle Sugar told them not to bother bringing it here because they will forbid it from being sold.
Don’t knock the eco boost. I have a GD Ford truck that lays rubber if I floor it and on the highway averages 27+ mpg at 85 mph—and that’s with the little 4 cylinder version.
I’m glad to hear that Ford is still making and improving upon the Mustang, perhaps their iconic car the last almost sixty years. That somewhat makes up for their trashing the Mustang name by using it for their electric five-door hatchback. Whose numbers have recently begun to multiply here in the East Bay
Don’t forget the debt situation. That’s another reality train heading their way that they just push aside. This year’s deficit is on tract to close to $2 trillion. It was ~$900 million in 2019, i.e., the last normal year.
For now, our rulers will get away with needing the bond market to cough up an extra trillion dollars because everyone is worried about a recession and thus stocking up on cash and treasuries. But that won’t always be the case.
There’s a host of reality trains heading their way, but I think that our rulers still have some time to play make believe. Ukraine will fall, but you can already see the narrative for that: “Russia would have lost but they were willing to throw waves of men to their death to overcome our weapons. Also, the Ukrainians were incompetent, brave but incompetent. If the US ever took on Russia, it’d be a slaughter.”
That will be the narrative, and the neocons will return to trying to undermine Russia.
But you can feel reality starting to close in. You can hear it in the distance. Our ruler ignore the sound, but it’s there.
I think there is something of a schism occurring between the Jewish elites who de facto rule America and their Israeli brethren. Israeli leaders (of whatever political faction) have repeatedly pushed for peace, refused to sanction Russia, and refuse to arm Ukraine. Meanwhile, America’s Jews are simply gung-ho for the Banderite Nahtzees and their Waffen-SS reincarnations.
I think there is something of a schism occurring between the Jewish elites who de facto rule America and their Israeli brethren.
There is. A great opportunity for divide-and-rule stratagems.
“Hello, fellow Jewish people, have you heard about how Israelis treat our Judeo-African brethren? They shame us all!”
Israeli Jews have to live closer to reality than their American cousins. Running a country with your own people is much different than running a country as a foreign elite who hate the people.
It is inevitable that we will be forced to hold Treasuries in our IRAs and 401ks. That will duct tape the problem for a few more years.
Basel III did just that for banks. Granted, this was after the GFC so I don’t think that it was done to safeguard the treasury market but to make sure banks had adequate capital.
The point is that it’s been done before. If I was the feds, I’d require lifecycle funds – which have become the default for 401k plans – to hold more treasuries in their bond allocation. I’d use the same reasoning as they did for the banks – safety.
401k money is absolutely huge and most people just keep the same lifecycle fund when they rollover the 401k to an IRA. This would provide a very nice boost to the treasury market and band aid the problem for awhile.
I can’t see Biden braving the treacherous air raid sirens of Kiev as anything other than a prelude to escalation. It’s not the sort of thing one does when one is about to abandon the field to the Ruskies and make excuses.
Yeah, his visit to Kiev is a bit worrisome. Attaching himself even more to that oncoming disaster is not good. He’s investing too much into this to lose.
My fear is that if the Ukrainian army starts to fall apart in the east, the Americans along with the Poles might roll into western Ukrainian for “humanitarian” purposes to help refugees or something.
In a society that lives by words, rather than deeds, being good with words counts for a lot.
This is the result of the high-IQ peoples conquering the world in the past 500 years. Before then, brains and brawns were coequal in the case of Western Europe and East Asia. Brawns were absolutely dominant elsewhere. Being murderously aggressive was the default path to power, even within those civilizations that valued intellect.
Fast-forward to the Enlightenment era, and we started getting our warrior-statesmen-gentlemen. They’d fight if needed, but they much preferred their Cicero.
Fast-forward to the post-WW2 era, and now we are starting to get people presuming to rule that have never been in a physical fight. Never been in the armed services. How many people in Congress and the Administrative State have been in the military? How many of their sons have? They are all lawyers, not fighters, you see. Or else products of the university system.
Leadership in the West have completely flipped from a (excuse me for the reference) Bronze Age mentality to an effete, tautologous mentality. As the Klingons would say, “You talk your way out of a fight like a HUMAN.” I wonder if this kind of leadership has ever existed in world history, at this scale? Just look at our current Mr. Brawny, General Milley. In another age, he wouldn’t be fit to watch night guard at some King’s relative’s third vacation villa.
Well. Adam Kinzinger has been in the military. I don’t think being a veteran qualifies someone for leadership. Most I know are best at milking the system (PTSD, disability, whatever) and need to be told what to do or they just loaf around.
Whoops, I didn’t mean to sound like military service alone, or being a rumbler from South Boston, qualifies you for leadership. This isn’t Starship Troopers or The Departed and God forbid we only allow the strong & diverse recuits on SSRIs to become leaders, while the good normal people are disbarred.
I feel that way about political candidates who put their military service front and center in their campaign. Look, I’m a veteran. Big deal. I know a ton of veterans I would never want to see in office. What else you got?
As Commander in Chief, I’m not sold on having a veteran there. Sometimes it helps, but it hasn’t seemed to have made much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. My qualifier is this: if you weren’t in the military, you need to at least show a humble appreciation for what they do and the choices they make.
Trump always seemed to really enjoy his time around military types, but also knew he wasn’t part of their “thing”. He was humble and appreciative. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see that Mattis pulled a fast one on him.
George W., on the other hand did serve, but he understood that his service (like the vast, vast majority of us) wasn’t really remarkable. He enjoyed the camaraderie of military folks, especially lower-ranking officers, but never bragged or over-sold his own military service.
Can’t help but think the premium put on word IQ is due in significant part to loss of manufacturing.
“Learn to code!”
“For these people, the answer to the big question is one of the approved narratives.” For these people the big question is, “What do I need to say to get what I want?” In other words, their big questions are petty and small.
Decades spent as a professional word-saladist for the establishment pays really, really well.
Like the French aristocracy of Versailles in the 18th century, our elites are insulated from the reality that their bubble will eventually be popped.
The insularity is impossible to overstate. Look at Ron DeSantis. He is testing the waters for 2024. He recently offered some mild dissent from the war with Russia. It is a good start, but clearly he and his people have no idea what voters are thinking about it. Instead of going hard after the regime for their warmongering, which would set him up as a change agent in the primary, he is taking baby steps. The reason is they simply have no idea what people think, because the normal feedback mechanism has been severed.
We will see this in spades with Trump and the vaccine business. He will run on this thinking it is a great achievement, when most of his audience thinks it was a disaster. Unless there is someone around him with the ability to make him understand reality, he will learn it the hard way when the crowd boos him.
This happened a few times in the 2000 run, and he switched course quickly. Honestly, his rallies are largely a sounding board for him to see what works, since all the other information, like polling, is not nearly as reliable.
It is amazing. Not until public opinion polls showed overwhelming Republican (and more and more, general) opposition to funding the Ukrainian war did DeSantis utter a peep. A best case scenario is caution, the likely thing is detachment from reality.
DeSantis is the GOPe’s boy. He is surrounded by their creatures. And when you consider that, when in the House, he voted for the TPP after years of watching what NAFTA, outsourcing, and the export of our industrial base and the loss of the skillsets, know how, and basic research that these entailed, that vote was a flashing red sign of his lack of historical insight, and character.
Stay in FL, kick Disney’s ass, fight CRT, tranny story hour, and electoral frauds, and do some damn good.
Folks need to realize that any Republican that actively promotes any pro-Israeli policy is one of the bad guys. It’s too easy for them to give an interview where they say “Aw Geez Tucker, I sure don’t like kiddie fiddling” and all the thirsty dirt people flock to their banner hoping that the neocon Jew stuff was just bullshitting to evade getting associated with a mid-century Austrian painter.
Every Republican has to say “I support Israel”, that’s simply the situation we live in. What they don’t need to do is actively pursue such things.
DeSantis and all his anti-anti-semitism laws tell you everything you need to know about him, just like Trump moving the embassy to Jerusalem.
Correct on both counts.
DeSantis is married to a Jew. Just sayin’.
HAPPY MARDI GRAS
Thanks, and happy Shrovetide.
Anyone giving up anything interesting for Lent? I’d love to give up consumption of any and all media and use of electronic devices but the intent is to make an actual sacrifice.
I am giving up beer. From now until Easter it is whiskey only! I am kidding. No booze for me this year.
Thanks. I’ll look forward to the dip in beer prices.
That explains the beer salesmen sobbing outside my window.
A few years ago a fellow up in these parts decided to go 40 days using the diet of a medieval monk. He ate and drank nothing but beer for the entire Lenten season. He didn’t get drunk, just drank at regular intervals each day. I remember the local news doing a story on him near the end and he seemed miserable.
When my waistline grows, I don’t give up beer…I just give up dinner.
When I read about all the evils associated with drinking, I gave up reading.
Thanks Federalist. Same to you.
But if you want to get Mardi Gras beads from me, you know what you have to do.
Thanks for my big laugh of the day. Needed that.
Dude! Way visual!
I’ll spare you.
Now that you mention it, happy Fastnacht Day, too!
If, as is often pointed out, we’ve reached the point where perception is reality, there’s no tension between alternate versions of reality. Ukraine could be absorbed into Russia, for example, and our rulers could proclaim that Russia has fallen and Ukraine has conquered its Russian foe. It would be the narrative truth. Even suicide wouldn’t be deterred as our reality would be that, afterwards, we’d still be alive.
Z: “the point is to signal membership in the club”
This is the fundamental psycho-sociological problem which vexes us.
Some call it “Social Proof”, although there seems to be dissension in the old PUA community as to what “Social Proof” ought to mean.
And whenever these sorts of topics arise, the dark shadow of the Passive Aggressive Industrial Complex will always be cast upon the unbelievers.
Passive Aggressives [j00z, unitardians, quakers, jesuits, etc] seem to have a strong innate sense of what courses of action are most prosperous for the Hive Mind, and what courses of action pose the greatest threat to the Hive Mind.
Then there’s the question of social ladder climbing, and whether all of adult life is simply hominids re-living the tension & anxiety & humiliation & thrill & euphoria & abject horror of the Middle School cafeteria, concerning who gets to sit at the Kool Kidz table, versus who gets banished to the hinterlands, heads lowered in shame, gnawing in disgrace on crusty old school-baked-buns with their fellow nerds & geeks & tards & losers.
Social Proof.
Social Ladder Climbing.
The Psychological Security Blanket [literally a Social Security] which the Hive Mind offers its slaves.
The Sadistic Whip of Social Ridicule & Social Shaming & Social Expulsion with which the Hive Mind threatens its members.
The Frankfurt School mastered the sociological choreography of these phenomena, and now plays its slaves like fiddles.
The Frankfurt School has spent millennia preparing for this moment.
Often overlooked is how effectively these people have reoriented the culture toward making nerds the default kool kidz. Since they weren’t going to ever be capable of joining the alpha crowd, they set about inverting the social hierarchy so that they could sit on top despite not having the moxie to actually excel at anything. The trickle down effects have been disastrous.
Not to mention normalizing degeneracy. It never ceases to amaze me that they could not only popularize cruel and depraved acts throughout the culture, but that they could render people sanctimonious about promulgating them.
Iron Maiden: “It never ceases to amaze me that they could not only popularize cruel and depraved acts throughout the culture, but that they could render people sanctimonious about promulgating them.”
The Sanhedrin have been perfecting their techniques for almost 3000 years, going back to at least the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.
They must have acquired centuries upon centuries of experience in identifying & isolating & mesmerizing & hypnotizing & activating these kinds of NPC personalities.
Who amongst us realized that so many of our neighbors lacked introspection & extrospection & an inner monologue [much less an innate moral compass & curiosity & skepticism]?
The only figure I know of, anywhere close to the heart of mainstream society, who imagined a future like what we are now witnessing, is a crime novel writer, named Robert Crais.
His script for the January 1985 episode of the Twilight Zone, called “Monsters!”, predicted what we’re seeing now.
Monsters!
https://tinyurl.com/47nkv7va
Robert Crais
https://tinyurl.com/3twha26m
PS: Every cynic worth his salt simply has to wonder about the extent to which SSRIs may have been intentionally introduced into the pharmacopeia so as to accelerate the emergence of the NPC personality type in our society.
Boy, I just had an horrifying thought.
What if (((they))) start training the AI Chatbots in the mesmerization techniques?
Could even, say, 35% of all ostensibly Christian teenaged White girls withstand the seduction of an AI schooled in mesmerization techniques, hosted at a site such as Meta or Tik-Tok?
As it is right now, the NPC White teenaged girls whom I know simply cannot put down their iPhones.
Many of them can’t even sleep at night anymore, for fear of missing some ridiculous piece of gossip trivia, hidden deep in the bowels of the internet.
The girls literally hide all night beneath the sheets & blankets of their beds, thumbing their iPhones until their eyes become bloodshot.
If those girls had a smooth suave seductive AI Chatbot best friend to keep them comfy, then God only knows what that Chatbot could be capable of programming those girls to do.
Although I’m supremely confident that Massa Lucifer is gonna want in on the action.
@Bourbon- excellent post. I believe pharmacology (pharmakos even means “spell) has a tremendous impact on mesmerizing the populace. However, I believe you left out technology; the refresh rates of LEDs and LCDs are inherently hypnotic. There is noted brain impact within a few seconds of viewing. Most people are in a highly suggestive state at all times; and when one considers the consistency of the message, the impact speaks for itself: the NPC.
It’s been my belief for a long time that the elite now are just a bunch of psychopaths who never matured out of elementary school. They made up the student council types, hall monitors if that’s a thing and the snitches who couldn’t wait to rat on normals who transgressed even the slightest. Those are the worst people to be in charge of anything. They’re nerds and retards who never were taken outside and thrashed by their betters.
Mike: “They made up the student council types, hall monitors if that’s a thing and the snitches who couldn’t wait to rat on normals who transgressed even the slightest. Those are the worst people to be in charge of anything. They’re nerds and retards who never were taken outside and thrashed by their betters.”
They grew up to be members in good standing of the Passive Aggressive Industrial Complex.
[And my God I hated them when we were in school.]
You know, as recently as 5-6 years ago, I never would have thought I was capable of harboring so much malice and hate for anything as much as I now do towards our ruling class. May God show no mercy on their souls…
It is amazing, isn’t it. I wonder how widespread this is and how fast it is spreading. It is hard to know as there will never be polling on it, but I suspect the shift is very real.
I do too. Signs of it can be seen in your Russel Brand types, who have shed their obedience to the left side of the political spectrum, but there’s really no way of getting a good handle on how widespread it is since we don’t have any organizational structures.
Last week, when they sentenced the Buffalo supermarket shooter, all I could think of is that he won’t be the last one. In fact, the next one is going to happen much sooner than expected. You can’t keep rubbing white peoples noses in cultural shit and not expect the odd one to snap.
This new post by Morgoth is a good illustration of both Z’s post on narrative and the psychopathy of the narrative delivery Zher/Zhimz class.
https://morgoth.substack.com/p/do-english-girls-matter-at-all
When you claim to speak for the marginalized but get paid to lie about rape by foreign invaders you may need to learn to sleep with one eye open.
From the Morgoth post:
“I happened to catch a live stream of Owen Jones, who appears to have hit the wall, both in appearance and in terms of his career. Jones made the somewhat dubious claim that racists had always used the safety of women as a justification for being racist — citing the Klu Klux Klan lynching black men as an example. You’ll notice what is being done here by this dishonest framing. We’ve gone from locals being aggravated by the government forcing men on them who’re trying it on with their underage daughters, to comparisons to the KKK without pausing for a breath.”
Except that the KKK comparison is entirely apt. We know today that black rape, murder and other violence crime rates are enormous compared to other races. The blacks really *were* a threat to the families, schools, communities, businesses and lifestyles of the KKK members.
But the KKK lost and history is written by the winners.
“And for no reason at all…”
People do not “hate” for no reason. It is not something that happens to large numbers of people. The hate is developed through real world experience and injustices.
I never understood why people I know growing up had such a disdain for blax because I wasn’t around them very much until later points in life. All it took was the real life experiences. There was no social media, no news station I watched, nothing telling me I should hate them. They themselves made me hate them.
Like everyone else, I keep waiting for people to wake up, but I fear that when/if they do, it will be too late–their numbers will be too small to exact the proper revenge and threat removal. I was completely surprised at how easily the English men accepted the grooming and rape of their daughters.
If it happens at all, it will probably take something horrible to bring it about. When/if it finally happens though, those hotels full of imported males would be very easy targets…
When I was in high school, a black social studies teacher talked about the change in power structures how people formerly oppressed would rise up and then brutally oppress the ones that ruled over them. At the time I thought uh oh but the next 40 years did not come as a surprise to me. The other thing I was taught in high school is a well fed people will not rise up against their masters.
I was talking to one of my old army buddies the other day – we both served in the Cdn army in the 1970’s – and I asked if our country was still worth fighting for? We both agreed that, thanks to our ruling class, it no long was.
Read The Bitter Centurian.
Do you have a link to it? I did a quick search and it says blog was removed.
With elections now permanently ‘fortified’ in swing states, the ruling class no longer has a check on their power or their deviance. They are acting accordingly.
In addition to that, they’ve also realized that the plebs will do nothing. Big corporations can humiliate their own white male employees and what is he going to do about it? Conservatives love to chant “go woke, go broke!” – except they’re not going broke. The football stadiums are all packed, normies have their favorite brown guy jerseys on, the retailers who now treat whites as scum of the earth are as profitable as ever. Once they realized that they could push all of this with little to no resistance, it was all over. I don’t think they’re afraid of the guns, either. First of all, there will never be a large enough number of “Americans” united to use those guns, and secondly, if they did, they’d just unleash the now woke military on the rebellion and crush it. January 6th prisoner treatment is a warning.
Can anyone really blame the normies? What can you do? If you stand up and resist, you are simply cancelled, your life savings will be confiscated, you’ll be destitute and your children will have zero chance of survival. There is no path to victory without vanquishing the left. That is the only way. Nothing else should be considered.
Tired Citizen: That’s why many of us are withdrawing. I and others may dream of harming the woke, in ways both small and large, but I realize any action would make my life a wasted sacrifice and doom the rest of my family. In that sense, TomA is spot on – wait until things break down, then pick your targets carefully. If they don’t break down quite as quickly as one expects, or one just gets too old, well at least one’s family will be more anti-fragile and better positioned to survive whatever chaos awaits.
I don’t fool myself that I’m going to be in some vanguard or an eagle-eyed sharpshooter, for all that I might dream of being reincarnated as such. In the real world, we’re paying down debt (eliminating any mortgage), reducing monthly cash outflow, purchasing necessary tangible goods, and preparing to enjoy the blessings of a far quieter and more isolated existence. Any pushback or payback I can effect, however small, will be a bonus.
I live in Ohio; the sentiment that “the govt can dump billions on the Ukraine and do nothing for those people in East Palestine” is pretty widespread. Maybe its an inflection point, I dunno.
One of many “inflection” points—too many. We seem to always arrive back on our original trajectory. 😉
If a carrier were to be sent to the bottom of the sea, I would rejoice in secret.
I wouldn’t bother to keep it a secret. As a country we deserve everything bad that happens. I just hope the elite suffers.
Amen.
And I would have questioned their existence;
I might have called them “shadows on the wall.”
The current elite class reminds me of the ChatGPT bot, where saying the gamer word is worse than a city getting nuked in its moral universe. It’s a world of speaking in symbols and incantations that have no relation to anything concrete in the world or any real understanding outside of vapid language games. I’s also all boringly derivative.
Outside of the usual fawning, the Biden visit was a huge dud, and the Ohio disaster has not gone away, no matter how much people are trying to ignore it. Their words aren’t shaping a new reality.
It will be interesting to see if the media suddenly gets a case of amnesia tomorrow when Trump visits Ohio. They obsess over the guy, but I suspect they suddenly no longer know his name.
I wonder what effect it will have on local Normies and CivNats. While I long since have relegated the Bad Orange Man to useless, empty posturing (and the East Palestine trip he’s making reeks of ambulance chasing for relevance and and empty publicity stunt) what I as a dissident think of the BOM’s visit is far less important than the reaction of Eastern Ohio/Western Pa Yinzers to the flagrant hatred of the Dirt People the regime is showing contrasted with the however insincere CivNat posturing of the Bad Orange Man.
As much as I don’t have any use for His Orangeness, the truth is that his visit to East Palestine will be more presidential than anything Biden has done or will do as president. It’s about as close as one can get to saying, “the emperor has no clothes” in this modern political environment. As much as the regime media will try to ignore the visit, it will inevitably be obvious to most people that Biden isn’t a real president.
Biden isn’t a real human being, never mind president. He is a lying scum bag who deserves the worst possible fate one could suffer.
Always liked that quote from the Terminator, although I’ve always thought it applied to the political Left in general.
“Who are we?” is the question the controllers believe they can definitively answer with their digital biometric ID controled by a one-world government.
If only it were that simple.
Joey visites Kiev and snubs Ohio. Pretty much sums it up.
I’m pretty sure The Big Guy doesn’t get 10% from FEMA relief.
That sweet Ukraine cabbage?
Give the man his 10%!
Follow the money.
It is plain ole mockery. The Woke-Fem Junta has completely consolidated power, and what we’ve seen since the Miracle Vax roll-out is a series of demonstrations (Ukraine, Chinee Spy Balloon, sabotage of forests, of food-processing, of railways carrying toxic materials etc.) that signal to us our utter powerlessness. It is extreme vexation on mass scale. This is now their Prime Directive.
At this point, it is all just Yup we will destroy it in front of your faces, whatcha gonna do about it? They want a nation of J6-ers . . . open resistance so they can rationalize the beatings, cages, camps, lockdowns and so forth.