Elite Escapism

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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Major Hoople
Major Hoople
Member
1 year ago

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.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Major Hoople
1 year ago

I liked the one about Russians planning to sabotage windmill farms in retaliation for nord stream

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
1 year ago

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

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
1 year ago

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.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
1 year ago

Ding meet Bat…

Clearly, more money is needed for digital security.

Apex Predator
Apex Predator
1 year ago

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… Read more »

usNthem
usNthem
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

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.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Apex Predator
1 year ago

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… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  3g4me
1 year ago

“he even throws in Rod Dreher for good measure!”

Roddie probably is pissed that he wasn’t contacted and asked to denounce someone.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Apex Predator
1 year ago

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’… Read more »

cg2
cg2
Reply to  Apex Predator
1 year ago

I think she just likes to hear herself write. Z says more in 8 paragraphs than she said in that 10,000 words.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Apex Predator
1 year ago

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… Read more »

Nick Nolte's Mugshot
Nick Nolte's Mugshot
1 year ago

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.

Pozymandias
Reply to  Nick Nolte's Mugshot
1 year ago

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!

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
Reply to  Pozymandias
1 year ago

This Ponzi scheme is so ingenious that it could go on forever!…or maybe not…

Compsci
Compsci
1 year ago

“…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… Read more »

Pozymandias
Reply to  Compsci
1 year ago

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”… Read more »

Mike
Mike
Reply to  Pozymandias
1 year ago

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.

Alone in the northeast
Alone in the northeast
1 year ago

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?

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Alone in the northeast
1 year ago

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”.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Bourbon
1 year ago

“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.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Steve
1 year ago

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.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Bourbon
1 year ago

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”.

Anti-Gnostic
Anti-Gnostic
Reply to  Alone in the northeast
1 year ago

Yes it is. The neo-cons will never get over great-great Uncle Moishe being relocated to the Pale.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Anti-Gnostic
1 year ago

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?

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
1 year ago

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.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Ploppy
1 year ago

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].

Getthemoneyfromtheseskels
Getthemoneyfromtheseskels
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
1 year ago

“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… Read more »

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Alone in the northeast
1 year ago

Think of it as the GAE’s all-out attempt to create, “Our Greatest Ally, v 2.0.”

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
1 year ago

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…

Winter
Winter
Reply to  pyrrhus
1 year ago

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… Read more »

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Winter
1 year ago

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.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Winter
1 year ago

Ostei

They are wild animals.

With designer clothes and overpriced sneakers.

Never forget that.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Winter
1 year ago

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… Read more »

george 1
george 1
Reply to  pyrrhus
1 year ago

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.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Alone in the northeast
1 year ago

A quick perusal on Wikipedia of Victoria Nuland’s biography is informative. Emphasis on her recent ancestry, and the nations they came from.

Anon
Anon
1 year ago

“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

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Anon
1 year ago

That’s spot on and why this moment is so dangerous.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Jack Dobson
1 year ago

(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)

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Anon
1 year ago

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.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  KGB
1 year ago

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.

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
1 year ago

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.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Hemid
1 year ago

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.

Owlman
Owlman
Reply to  Anon
1 year ago

The man sounds like an adult. His words, compared to our child-propagandists …. speak for themselves.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
1 year ago

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… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 year ago

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.

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  Jack Dobson
1 year ago

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.

B125
B125
Reply to  Jack Dobson
1 year ago

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.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Jack Dobson
1 year ago

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”

NoOneImportant
NoOneImportant
1 year ago

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

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  NoOneImportant
1 year ago

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.

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
1 year ago

“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),… Read more »

Anti-Gnostic
Anti-Gnostic
Reply to  Captain Willard
1 year ago

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.

Anti-Gnostic
Anti-Gnostic
Reply to  Anti-Gnostic
1 year ago

*geographic sorting

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Anti-Gnostic
1 year ago

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green openly calling for a national divorce.

JR Wirth
JR Wirth
1 year ago

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.

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
Reply to  JR Wirth
1 year ago

Had King Louis dressed in drag, he might have pulled it off haha. So they may well blend in …..

William Corliss
Member
1 year ago

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 —… Read more »

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  William Corliss
1 year ago

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.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
1 year ago

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… Read more »

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  3g4me
1 year ago

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.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
1 year ago

Important reference: puregas.org

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
1 year ago

Wild Geese: error in first link. Sorry.

pure-gas.org

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  3g4me
1 year ago

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

Andrew
Andrew
Reply to  3g4me
1 year ago

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.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Andrew
1 year ago

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.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Andrew
1 year ago

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.… Read more »

Jack Boer
Jack Boer
Reply to  Andrew
1 year ago

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.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Andrew
1 year ago

i can get 90 octane ethanol free gas in florida. not available in cali. has it’s own hose and nozzle too.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  Andrew
1 year ago

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.

Pozymandias
Reply to  3g4me
1 year ago

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… Read more »

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  William Corliss
1 year ago

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.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
1 year ago

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.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
1 year ago

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… Read more »

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
Reply to  Jack Dobson
1 year ago

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… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Captain Willard
1 year ago

Captain Willard: Your second paragraph summation of US foreign policy is brilliant. Stealing and sharing that.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Captain Willard
1 year ago

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.… Read more »

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
1 year ago

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… Read more »

jpb
jpb
Reply to  Jack Dobson
1 year ago

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.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  Captain Willard
1 year ago

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… Read more »

C matt
C matt
Reply to  Jack Dobson
1 year ago

Interesting. Chinese see bribes as binding the recipient, and possibly misunderstood that GAE politicians go by “no honor among thieves.”

RDittmar
Member
1 year ago

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. 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… Read more »

Glenfilthie
Glenfilthie
Member
Reply to  RDittmar
1 year ago

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.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  RDittmar
1 year ago

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.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  KGB
1 year ago

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

Jannie
Jannie
Reply to  RDittmar
1 year ago

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.

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
Reply to  Jannie
1 year ago

I would agree, had they not just gotten finished shutting the nuclear plants in Germany. Meanwhile they are reopening coal mines lol.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Captain Willard
1 year ago

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.

jpb
jpb
Reply to  Jannie
1 year ago

Electric cars makes sense if the oligarchy sees depopulation as the answer to the end of the USD timeline.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  jpb
1 year ago

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.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Jannie
1 year ago

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.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  RDittmar
1 year ago

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.

UsNthem
UsNthem
1 year ago

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…

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  UsNthem
1 year ago

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.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 year ago

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.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

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.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  Jack Dobson
1 year ago

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.

UsNthem
UsNthem
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 year ago

They must be doing something right as I see they’re on both the ADL and SPLC s*** list…

Glenfilthie
Glenfilthie
Member
1 year ago

Apropos of nothing at all…Putler just pulled Russia out of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.

I’m sure it’s nothing at all…

TomA
TomA
Reply to  Glenfilthie
1 year ago

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… Read more »

jan
jan
1 year ago

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.)

Chet Rollins
Reply to  jan
1 year ago

> 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.

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
Reply to  Chet Rollins
1 year ago

Chet, admit it – you’ve been listening to Bronze Age Pervert haha.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Chet Rollins
1 year ago

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).

fakeemail
fakeemail
Reply to  jan
1 year ago

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.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  fakeemail
1 year ago

Never attribute to unconsciousness that which may more reasonably be imputed to malice.

anon
anon
Reply to  fakeemail
1 year ago

” 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.

TomA
TomA
1 year ago

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… Read more »

Felix Krull
Member
1 year ago

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.

Lucius Sulla
Lucius Sulla
1 year ago

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… Read more »

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Lucius Sulla
1 year ago

having a car (Prius) that gets 60+ MPG is impressive engineering.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  karl von hungus
1 year ago

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!

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Lucius Sulla
1 year ago

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.

Lucius Sulla
Lucius Sulla
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
1 year ago

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… Read more »

Dan
Dan
Member
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
1 year ago

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.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Lucius Sulla
1 year ago

I’d take a VW Golf hot hatch over any Camaro or V8 abomination, any day.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Marko
1 year ago

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.

karl von hungus
karl von hungus
Reply to  Paintersforms
1 year ago

my gti was the funnest car i ever owned. on city streets it was all you would ever need power wise.

Mike
Mike
Reply to  Lucius Sulla
1 year ago

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.

Steve
Steve
Reply to  Lucius Sulla
1 year ago

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.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Lucius Sulla
1 year ago

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.

Brandon Lasko
Brandon Lasko
Reply to  Lucius Sulla
1 year ago

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

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
1 year ago

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… Read more »

Jannie
Jannie
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
1 year ago

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.

Felix Krull
Member
Reply to  Jannie
1 year ago

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!”

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Jannie
1 year ago

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.

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
1 year ago

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.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Captain Willard
1 year ago

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… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Citizen of a Silly Country
1 year ago

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.

Citizen of a Silly Country
Citizen of a Silly Country
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
1 year ago

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.

Marko
Marko
1 year ago

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… Read more »

Jannie
Jannie
Reply to  Marko
1 year ago

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.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Jannie
1 year ago

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.

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  Jannie
1 year ago

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… Read more »

C matt
C matt
Reply to  Marko
1 year ago

Can’t help but think the premium put on word IQ is due in significant part to loss of manufacturing.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  C matt
1 year ago

“Learn to code!”

RealityRules
RealityRules
1 year ago

“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.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  RealityRules
1 year ago

Decades spent as a professional word-saladist for the establishment pays really, really well.

Götterdamn-it-all
Götterdamn-it-all
1 year ago

Like the French aristocracy of Versailles in the 18th century, our elites are insulated from the reality that their bubble will eventually be popped.

Chet Rollins
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

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.

Jack Dobson
Jack Dobson
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

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.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Jack Dobson
1 year ago

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.

Ploppy
Ploppy
Reply to  Jack Dobson
1 year ago

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… Read more »

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  Ploppy
1 year ago

Correct on both counts.

Götterdamn-it-all
Götterdamn-it-all
Reply to  Ploppy
1 year ago

DeSantis is married to a Jew. Just sayin’.

Federalist
Federalist
1 year ago

HAPPY MARDI GRAS

Felix Krull
Member
Reply to  Federalist
1 year ago

Thanks, and happy Shrovetide.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Federalist
1 year ago

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.

Felix Krull
Member
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

Thanks. I’ll look forward to the dip in beer prices.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

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.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

When my waistline grows, I don’t give up beer…I just give up dinner.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Marko
1 year ago

When I read about all the evils associated with drinking, I gave up reading.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Federalist
1 year ago

Thanks Federalist. Same to you.

But if you want to get Mardi Gras beads from me, you know what you have to do.

Range Front Fault
Range Front Fault
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 year ago

Thanks for my big laugh of the day. Needed that.
Dude! Way visual!

Federalist
Federalist
Reply to  LineInTheSand
1 year ago

I’ll spare you.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Federalist
1 year ago

Now that you mention it, happy Fastnacht Day, too!

imbroglio
imbroglio
1 year ago

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.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  imbroglio
1 year ago

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… Read more »

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Bourbon
1 year ago

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.

Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
Reply to  KGB
1 year ago

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.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Iron Maiden
1 year ago

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 &… Read more »

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Iron Maiden
1 year ago

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… Read more »

Eloi
Eloi
Reply to  Iron Maiden
1 year ago

@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.

Mike
Mike
Reply to  Bourbon
1 year ago

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.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Mike
1 year ago

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.]

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
1 year ago

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…

KGB
KGB
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

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… Read more »

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

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.

THE Vizzini
Member
Reply to  RealityRules
1 year ago

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… Read more »

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  THE Vizzini
1 year ago

“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.

Outdoorspro
Outdoorspro
Reply to  RealityRules
1 year ago

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…

Whitney
Member
Reply to  Outdoorspro
1 year ago

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.

FNC1A1
Member
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

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.

JerseyJeffersonian
JerseyJeffersonian
Reply to  FNC1A1
1 year ago

Read The Bitter Centurian.

Canuck
Canuck
Reply to  JerseyJeffersonian
1 year ago

Do you have a link to it? I did a quick search and it says blog was removed.

cunning linguist
cunning linguist
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

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.

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  cunning linguist
1 year ago

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… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Tired Citizen
1 year ago

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… Read more »

manc
manc
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

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.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  manc
1 year ago

One of many “inflection” points—too many. We seem to always arrive back on our original trajectory. 😉

btp
Member
Reply to  Tired Citizen
1 year ago

If a carrier were to be sent to the bottom of the sea, I would rejoice in secret.

Mike
Mike
Reply to  btp
1 year ago

I wouldn’t bother to keep it a secret. As a country we deserve everything bad that happens. I just hope the elite suffers.

RasQball
RasQball
Reply to  Tired Citizen
1 year ago

Amen.
And I would have questioned their existence;
I might have called them “shadows on the wall.”

Chet Rollins
1 year ago

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.

Member
Reply to  thezman
1 year ago

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.

Andrew
Andrew
Reply to  Pickle Rick
1 year ago

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.

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
Reply to  Andrew
1 year ago

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.

heymrguda
heymrguda
1 year ago

Always liked that quote from the Terminator, although I’ve always thought it applied to the political Left in general.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
1 year ago

“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.

Maniac
Maniac
1 year ago

Joey visites Kiev and snubs Ohio. Pretty much sums it up.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Maniac
1 year ago

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.

ray
ray
Reply to  Maniac
1 year ago

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,… Read more »