A Hive Without A Queen

Note: Behind the green door on the great stone of truth I have a post about my annual trip to the doctor, a post about the Biden crisis that is vexing our beautiful people and the Sunday podcast. Subscribe here or here.


Last week, Ross Douthat wrote a column where he contemplated the reality of the modern president, which probably serves no real purpose to the functioning of the managerial state. He makes some obvious points but then quotes Curtis Yarvin and his brain falls out of his head. The rest of his column is nonsense. This is the risk of reading Curtis Yarvin. Your brain cells begin to die at an alarming rate, mostly as an act of suicide in order to avoid reading Yarvin.

It is interesting how all of a sudden, the kept men of what we call conservatism use Yarvin when they want to sound edgy. There was no need to name drop Yarvin in this post, but Douthat wants his readers to know that every once in a while, he puts on the leather jacket and rides his Vespa without a helmet. Back when Yarvin was Moldbug and had an audience, so-called conservatives had no idea he existed, but now all of a sudden, they are all big fans.

Putting that aside, Douthat raises two valid points with regards to whether the job of president matters. One is the system found a way to work around Trump, thwarting his reform efforts and inserting their shenanigans into his program. With Biden, it is clear that he has been incapable of doing much of anything since the 2020 election, yet the machine has trundled along regardless. That is eight years where the machine of state has operated in spite of the president and without a president.

There is nothing novel about this. America has been a corporate state for a long time and corporate systems are designed to operate leaderless. Large companies often go extended periods with no one in the big chair. Maybe they have a caretaker or maybe it is a committee doing the basics, but the system rolls along until a new CEO is found to sit in the big chair. Often, the process of hiring the CEO is about finding someone who will not change anything important.

If you think back to the end of the Cold War, both parties were set up to prevent an undesirable candidate from winning the nomination. The stakes were too high to risk having a madman with the nuclear codes! Since the Cold War, both parties have tried to select for neo-liberal dullards like Bush and Obama. Look past the superficial and there was not much of a difference between Clinton, Bush, and Obama. Nothing of consequence changed with each “new” president.

That is the main reason the system freaked out over Trump. It was not just that he comes from outside the managerial class, but that he wanted to use the power of the presidency to do things. The people who actually run things were scandalized by the suggestion that an outsider could take the job and make the machine do things they did not want it to do. In other words, the managerial state has been running itself for a long time now and it is what is viewed as normal.

In this context, the twentieth century takes on a new look. The managerial system that emerged with FDR was born in the crisis of war and economic collapse, but it emerged from those times as the moral default. This base assumption that everything could be managed outside of the electoral process slowly gave way to a view that everything must be managed outside of politics. This led to the second phase of managerialism, which is consolidation.

You can probably date that to Watergate. The last president with real power who actually used it was Nixon. He was run out of town, in part, because of the “imperial presidency” claims by the managerial class. As someone noted in the comments behind the green door, this was also when they passed the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act. This handed power to the agencies, rather than the president, with regards to administering spending.

It was also in this time when the media lost its working class character because it was fully professionalized. In the 1960’s the typical Washington reporter was a high school grad, but by the end of the 1970’s they were not just college graduates, but graduates from elite colleges like Columbia. With professionalization came credentialization across the managerial system. What we think of as politics now operates within the corporate structure of the managerial state.

In theory, Congress controls the purse strings, but no one in Congress reads the bills that get voted out of Congress. These are written by staff that work with the agencies and the special interests linked to the agencies. Most of the rules that impact the citizens are crafted in the agencies, away from public view. Thus, we have arrived at a system that not only has no need for a president, but it can run fine without a House or a Senate. All of them could be replaced with code.

Note also that few House or Senate seats are competitive now. About ten percent of seats can go either way in an election. The most common way to lose you spot in Congress is quitting for a lobbying job. Death is the next most common exit. The third way to lose your place is to anger the system. Then you get a well-financed primary opponent and banishment from Washington. It is another reason the system seems to be on autopilot, immune from the voters.

This brings us back to the main question. Not only can the system operate without a president, but it also operates without a Congress. The theater of democracy is not just a pithy expression but the literal definition of our politics. It is just a show that provides a fig leaf for the managerial class. It is not unique to America. It is true of all democratic systems, because in the end, no society can last with the people having a final say on things, so every society has a ruling class.

The solution to this conflict between the ethos of democracy and the reality of human organization is the managerial state. Through this the economic elites run society, but the curtain behind which they stand is the theater of democracy. As America declines, the willingness and ability to maintain this illusion declines with it, thus we go from the theater of democracy to the farce of democracy. The penultimate stop in this process is the theater of the absurd we see emerging with Biden.


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Melissa
Melissa
2 months ago

Sorry to be off topic but regarding patriotism: Last week, I shopped for fireworks to take to a 4th of July celebration. I had no idea what I was doing and I asked two kids for suggestions. These two 19 or 20 year old guys immediately set their cart aside and relinquished their place in line to walk around with me and help me find the best stuff. I wish I could share the experience with their parents but it’s lost to time. Stories of murder and mayhem caused by “youths and teens” abound. Meanwhile, the experience above is an… Read more »

Stephen Dowling Botts, Dec'd
Stephen Dowling Botts, Dec'd
Reply to  Melissa
2 months ago

Disregard this space.

Last edited 2 months ago by Stephen Dowling Botts, Dec'd
Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Stephen Dowling Botts, Dec'd
2 months ago

Dear Melissa,

If you are White and NOT v@xxinated, then are you still young enough to be bursting viable follicles every month?

If the answer to the question is “Yes”, then muh Pμrebl00ded White seed is rather eager to start putting Pμrebl00ded White bunz in your White oven.

SRSLY.

[I’d be hitting on 3g4me, but her husband is a righteously eclectic Bro.]

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Melissa
2 months ago

My redoubt is in an Amish/Mennonite area. The young men I deal with make me feel better about the coming rebuilding. Funny how not being gaslit by society clarifies one’s purpose.

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  Melissa
2 months ago

Great post. Thank you for sharing it. That is the silver lining. Our consciousness as a European people comprised of partilarized local peoples is emerging. Of the course the circumstances for this emergence are unprecedented in scale and gravity. Those young White men are a blessing. The future is us preserving that genteel and open kindness for our folk and using solely within our kind to our significant advantage. Thank you again for sharing this.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Melissa
2 months ago

Aye. For those of us on the DR, the natio has replaced the country in our hearts.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Melissa
2 months ago

Melissa: This is so en pointe. Since we moved to the Ozarks my daily interactions are almost exclusively with White people. Not the wealthiest or the best educated or always with the most functional lives – but unfailingly polite, courteous, friendly, helpful, and doing their best to do a good job. Not having to pay the ‘diversity tax’ in daily life has removed a huge burden from our shoulders, to a degree even we underestimated. I love these tough, independent Scots-Irish whose ancestors came from Virginia and Tennessee and Kentucky, and forged lives in these hills and hollers.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  3g4me
2 months ago

3g4me: unfailingly polite, courteous, friendly, helpful, and doing their best to do a good job

Southron by the Grace of God Almighty.

Salmon
Salmon
2 months ago

Yarvin is the most Jewish man alive when you read his stuff. It’s just pilpul, ten billion words meaning nothing with no solutions other than that he’s dead certain he’s better and more intelligent than you are. I particularly love that he went ahead and named the american power structure “The Cathedral” instead of the dead obvious and far more accurate “The Synagogue”. Funny how that works.

Thomas McLeod
Thomas McLeod
Reply to  Salmon
2 months ago

“The Temple” rolls of the tongue better.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Thomas McLeod
2 months ago

The Temple” might get mistaken for Mormonism.

BTW, the following website indicates that about 76% of all females in Utah, and 67% of all males in Utah, have been v@xxinated:

https://tinyurl.com/24rmwe7m

Utah’s gonna need effectively infinite African migration to get back on its feet.

comment image

Filthie
Filthie
Member
Reply to  Salmon
2 months ago

Moldbug is like Ben Shapiro, Vox Day, Milo or the other talking heads. They can occasionally do a spectacular presentation that really knocks it out of the park. But usually they are just duds that feed of the work of others…

Wiffle
Wiffle
Reply to  Salmon
2 months ago

Exactly. This pre-Jewish thing Catholic was vaguely flattered by his thoughts. However, I knew that to blame all of our current woes on Protestantism was false. Post Jewish thing and finding his real name, he was obviously just intent on blaming all of Christianity for the modern world.
“The Cathedral” was the (or at least a) solution, even by his own thoughts. “The Synagogue” was accurate description of our overlords and the world he described. Not one word about the Jews in all that musing.

Last edited 2 months ago by Wiffle
Hun
Hun
2 months ago

I really hope that Biden stays in the race and wins again. Then they should parade him around as he is progressively unable to speak because of dementia, pooping and drooling all over the place.

Member
Reply to  Hun
2 months ago

It actually would be the best thing for creating a real revolutionary movement, instead of a possible interregnum of four years of Trump’s buffonery. But the Left won’t allow a Trump elected President, so we’ll get revolution from the Left now rather than a right wing one later. Because the politcal right is not revolutionary-yet.

Tars Tarkas
Member
Reply to  Pickle Rick
2 months ago

The right will never be revolutionary.

Hun
Hun
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 months ago

Revolutionary right is verboten even on this blog.

Tars Tarkas
Member
Reply to  Hun
2 months ago

It’s not just that it is verboten, it’s that the right wing is generally not known for the desire for a revolutionary radical change to the political and economic orders. We’re the side who wants a clean and well ordered society (not that we have that now). Who knows how bad it will have to get before there is a hope of a radical right wing movement.

Hun
Hun
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 months ago

I was talking about the revolutionary right inspired by Gabriele D’Annunzio.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Hun
2 months ago

Hun: Revolutionary right is verboten even on this blog.

In fairness to the ZMan, it has to be verboten.

Otherwise the ZMan is gonna end up like Ch@teau He@rtiste.

There are just some topics which you simply cannot poast about on W0rdpre$$, unless you wanna get He@rtiste’d.

PS: Nice Crew DOT Digital keeps adding new members…

Hun
Hun
Reply to  Bourbon
2 months ago

Fair point. That being said, it would be nice if Z, or Pickle Rick, described their idea of what a revolutionary right would look like. Just in theory.
I suspect that there are still many on the DR and even on this blog, who imagine something like the return to the old American ideals, which would not be it.

Wiffle
Wiffle
Reply to  Tars Tarkas
2 months ago

It’s also that people on the right will be more aware that an actual grass roots revolution leaves everyone in a worse place historically. Collapse always works better from the pleb POV. If someone is close to the power structure or wants to climb it, their MMV

Vinnyvette
Vinnyvette
Reply to  Hun
2 months ago

I talk about bloody revolution on this blog all the time. Zero fucks given who’s panties get in a bunch. Most here need to grow a pair. That’s is why its verboten.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Vinnyvette
2 months ago

Vinny, Bro, we love you, Bro.

But we don’t want Z-Man to get He@rtiste’d.

It could take months for Z-Man to recover from being He@rtiste’d; maybe even the better part of a year.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Bourbon
2 months ago

Vinny, Bro, we love you, Bro.”

Well, that makes one…

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Hun
2 months ago

I wonder if the UK and French elections are a harbinger, or a divergence. UK especially. I’m not nearly as engaged as I used to be, so I could simply be ignorant, but I don’t have a strong feeling about this election, and that usually means status quo, fwiw. At the risk of sounding conceited, I have a feeling I’m a wrecker, which is to say, one of those who, when excited, give the right a disruptive oomph. Conservatives don’t have the energy on their own, nor the desire to actually conserve anything, and probably a fear of mixing it… Read more »

Wiffle
Wiffle
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 months ago

It’s impossible to tell if the governments have successfully imported enough foreigners or they have thrown in the towel and are just rigging elections against popular sentiment. It maybe a little of both.
For sure, I don’t expect people to be voting their way out of it.

Martin
Martin
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 months ago

The UK elections turned out as expected. The UK runs a ‘first past the post’ electoral system – the same as the USA. Voter participation was low, the Labour party won a majority of seats. The Conservatives managed to retain over 100 seats which means they are the official opposition to the Labour party in Parliament and that position gives them special privileges. Essentially, this allows the conservatives to re-group and prepare for power in 5 but more probably 10 years time. The anti-establishment (new) party called Reform – taken over by Nigel Farage collected a respectable share of the… Read more »

joey jünger
joey jünger
2 months ago

You’ve hit on a weird paradox at the heart of the anti-Trump phenomenon. As much as they pretend to hate him personally, there’s a problem of how they treated him previously, as perhaps amusing and not-quite-our-sort, but still a loveable kind of déclassé rogue. There’s a video of him, pre-fame, going on “Morning Joe” and being feted while being flirty with Zbigniew Brzezinski’s daughter. It really shows the falsity of that whole world (of which Trump was very much a part and in whose good graces he’d probably like to reclaim his spot.) Their hatred of him seems to stem… Read more »

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
Reply to  joey jünger
2 months ago

Exactly. Trump still wants to be loved. Eventually we’re going to get a Colonel Kurtz (if you will forgive me) who will dispense with the formalities…

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  joey jünger
2 months ago

The solution is collapse. It pains me to say it, and yeah, it’s gonna suck. The good news is the pain will be worth the reward.

WCiv911
WCiv911
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
2 months ago

The good news is the pain will be worth the reward.”

Depends on two unknowns. How bad will the pain be and what comes after. “Reward” or more pain?

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  WCiv911
2 months ago

Good question.
If men learn to say “No”, then reward.

Bourbon
Bourbon
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
2 months ago

Bartleby the Scrivner: “The solution is collapse. It pains me to say it, and yeah, it’s gonna suck. The good news is the pain will be worth the reward.”

The pain will be worth it if and only if you PREPARED beforehand.

Only Preppers will stand a chance of surviving the collapse.

Prepping certainly doesn’t guarantee survival, but failing to prep definitely implies extinction.

How many thousands of rounds of @mmμniti0n did you purchase this week?

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  joey jünger
2 months ago

Jared is busy being the face of Anglo-American-Israeli real estate (finance) interests who’ll soon “rebuild” and sell Gaza. He’s been ironically positioned to be the Trump c.1990 character of…whatever they decide to name their new coastal city. Something obscurely obscene. Are there any murderous tzaddiks left uncommemorated? Ukrainian, preferably. Trump’s early fame was as a villain too, but one who was in the cast. Now he’s a streaker, violating the conceit of the show. He occasionally realizes this, but given any chance—any callback to his comfortable old role—he willfully forgets. He’s old. To assimilate present realities would require him to… Read more »

Maxda
Maxda
2 months ago

RFK Jr. talked about wanting to actually be President by taking back authority from the CIA, FBI, CDC, etc. He was immediately hurled into the void and locked out of the Dem primaries. If he ever gets close to power, he’ll be murdered.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  Maxda
2 months ago

That’s why anyone who runs for office is a psychopath, a narcissist, or terminally naive.

Imagine being a guy who decides to join MS-13 hoping to turn it into a Catholic charity organization. Insane, right? That is anyone who decides to do “public service” and “reclaim our country”.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Marko
2 months ago

Nobody who can get elected in AINO, should.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Marko
2 months ago

Imagine being a guy who decides to join MS-13 hoping to turn it into a Catholic charity organization. Insane, right?”

Yep, an oxymoron if there ever was one since initiation most often involves murder. Blood in, blood out.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Marko
2 months ago

Marko: Very well – and pithily – said.

??what??
??what??
Reply to  Marko
2 months ago

“Imagine being a guy who decides to join MS-13 hoping to turn it into a Catholic charity organization.” What we need it someone willing to wield power in favor of our people even if that person at the top cuts off a few heads. For example with regards to the recent elections in the UK. Imagine if King Charles was a true patriot (he isn’t, but less just imagine he loved England and was bold) Concerning UK elections: Parliament is dissolved by the King on the Prime Minister’s request……After Parliament has dissolved, a royal proclamation is made summoning a new… Read more »

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Maxda
2 months ago

I do believe that’s called a trifecta.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
2 months ago

Also a turkey or a hat trick.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Maxda
2 months ago

I understand there is a precedent for murdering Kennedys who get too uppity…

Epaminondas
Member
2 months ago

We just witnessed the theater of democracy in action in France. Just as the ruling elites do over here, those seats in the French parliament which need to be flipped in an “emergency” were handed over to the far left. But sooner or later, these “elite” bastards will end up outsmarting themselves. Handing a box of matches to children is not generally considered to be wise.

Last edited 2 months ago by Epaminondas
Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Epaminondas
2 months ago

If it doesn’t happen sooner some other way, eventually they will outsmart themselves by becoming the new caliphate. That’s baked in.

ray
ray
2 months ago

“Your brain cells begin to die at an alarming rate, mostly as an act of suicide in order to avoid reading Yarvin.”

I’m thinking you missed your calling as a comedian Z. Starting the morning with a chuckle helps swallow the rest of the day’s bitter pill.

ProZNoV
ProZNoV
Reply to  ray
2 months ago

A Yarvin primer:

“Brevity is the soul

[insert 10,000 words of rambling]

of wit.”

Evil Sandmich
Evil Sandmich
Reply to  ProZNoV
2 months ago

I never got the fascination. Someone linked to one of his dynamite pieces and just felt like being in an ancient pickup taking backroads across an entire state (and not a small one). At least Ron Unz is just overly verbose, he needs an editor to keep “the point” at the point, but that Moldbug stuff often seemed to not have any point at all.

Bloated Boomer
Bloated Boomer
Reply to  Evil Sandmich
2 months ago

Unz isn’t so bad, and I think he deserves some leeway in indulging himself given the benefits he provides, which are free and accessible.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  ray
2 months ago

Here’s the one that cracked me up: “There was no need to name drop Yarvin in this post, but Douthat wants his readers to know that every once in a while, he puts on the leather jacket and rides his Vespa without a helmet.”

Ha!

TempoNick
TempoNick
Reply to  ray
2 months ago

John Gill on Star Trek, except it’s the Zeons in control. You are watching a movie.

https://images.app.goo.gl/TvJpsyFePHXzaXXD9

Last edited 2 months ago by TempoNick
TempoNick
TempoNick
Reply to  TempoNick
2 months ago

^^^ Why is this getting downvoted? The Gill character is Biden 100%. The Zeons (Zions) are the ones being persecuted in that episode! They are the ones doing the persecuting in real time.

Vinnyvette
Vinnyvette
Reply to  TempoNick
2 months ago

Why do you keep asking why you get down voted, better still why do you care? The reason is You are a Trump supporter, and Trump upsets the sensibilities of the panzy ass commentariat here. Especially intellectual light weights Ostei Spumante “clearly a bolshevik” and the resident feminazi Karen.
“If you don’t have any enemies, you are doing something wrong.”

TempoNick
TempoNick
Reply to  Vinnyvette
2 months ago

It’s rhetorical. I don’t really care. It’s amusing that you can get downvoted for something irrefutable like that.

TempoNick
TempoNick
Reply to  Vinnyvette
2 months ago

Null

Last edited 2 months ago by TempoNick
David Wright
Member
Reply to  TempoNick
2 months ago

I remember this often now when viewing Biden. Good call.

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
2 months ago

The shenanigans happening all over the world to stop a real right from taking power is wild. Just look at France, who pulled all the stops to ensure Le Pen would not gain power, going as far as centrist parties colluding with literal communists.

The we have Germany trying to outright ban AfD.

It’s a wild flailing to delay the inevitable collapse of the current order that simply can not hold. Whatever comes after might be worse, but rest assured the new rulers will have no qualms about using hard power to get their way.

TempoNick
TempoNick
Reply to  Chet Rollins
2 months ago

Overreaching on immigration is what brought this about. If they had just respected our cultural and ethnic heritage, they wouldn’t be in this pickle right now.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  TempoNick
2 months ago

I agree with your observation and am forced again to ask, “Why is massive non-white immigration their non-negotiable demand?”

The only answer that can explain their fanatical insistence on massive immigration is that those who rule us hate the traditional population and want to disposes us.

If I’m correct, then the question becomes, “Who are ‘they’ exactly?”

DaBears
DaBears
Reply to  LineInTheSand
2 months ago

“They” are quite literally descendants of the ancient phoenicians who have sucked the life from and even erased other peoples. They hate everybody including themselves. The them they.

TempoNick
TempoNick
Reply to  DaBears
2 months ago

Watch it! We’re all getting too close to “The Jew Thing.” Our overlords aren’t very happy when you point these things out.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  TempoNick
2 months ago

And if the Black Widow would simply renounce her venom…

Mycale
Mycale
2 months ago

This is why I didn’t really care about and was not surprised by the European elections last week. In the UK the population overwhelmingly rejected the government’s policies, and the first thing the new guy said was that they would continue with the policies of the government. In France, the spiteful mutants teamed up to score a PR victory. The GAE bureaucrats in Brussels and Washington DC run those countries. These shenanigans are a way for the bureaucrats to signal that resistance is futile, that they have infinite power. Except, of course, they don’t. The UK and France are still… Read more »

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  Mycale
2 months ago

“In the UK the population overwhelmingly rejected the government’s policies”

I doubt many Labour voters had illusions about the incoming Starmer government. Meet the new boss — same as the old boss. The globalist and the Zionist lobbies in Britain have the country by the balls. Maybe it might have been slightly different if Jeremy Corby were Labour leader. The electoral results were really an expression of dislike for the Conservative governmen, which has been in office for the last 14 years. In every sense of the word Britain is just screwed.

DaBears
DaBears
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 months ago

It’s their women just as with ours. Tell them what they wish to hear and they will let you do anything. They are the deciding vote. We must cut women off from direct access to power or the doom will continue until the apocalypse.

Wiffle
Wiffle
Reply to  DaBears
2 months ago

I’m good with kings again, although the UK has had a lot of long lived queens.

Mycale
Mycale
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 months ago

I feel like your post summed up “the god that failed” really well. “If you don’t like what the guys in charge are doing, vote for different guys that will do all the same things.”

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
2 months ago

“One is the system found a way to work around Trump” The same things apparently happened to Carter as well: the system just worked around him. If the president is willing to go along with the “deep state”, fine and good. Otherwise it drags its feet, finds excuses, or just outright ignores him, One man against a system — it’s just no contest. As I see it an active and energetic president operates as a mediator between the different power centres that constitute the “deep state” — but he cannot take them on collectively. In the case of that worthless… Read more »

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 months ago

For sure. People forget, but the Beltway types were aghast when Carter brought his crapkickers to DC. Charlie Daniels even played at his inaugural ball. Just imagine. That said, he still put a lot of Deep State types in his cabinet (Vance, Brown) because he realized he had no chance of fighting on all fronts. He ended up out of his depth anyway.

TempoNick
TempoNick
Reply to  Captain Willard
2 months ago

Ronald Kessler’s book about the Secret Service I think sheds a lot of light on Carter. The Secret Service seemed to like almost everybody it protected except for, predictably, Hillary Clinton and Nancy Reagan. They also didn’t like Carter much. I don’t think they despised Nancy, but they weren’t fond of her either. Carter they despised.

Last edited 2 months ago by TempoNick
The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 months ago

AA-

Weren’t Nixon and Reagan also widely hated in DC because they were from the wrong coast?

Reagan also had the additional knock of being a governor who was in charge of one of the most important states in the Union.

Member
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 months ago

I think that we all underestimate how much the Cloud People, then and now, have vicious personal hatreds for each other going back decades, because they are all in that small club. Even when Reagan was an actor, he moved in those political circles, even when Nixon was a new player in 1948, he was in that circle, and that circle is small enough for them to viscerally hate each other face to face for years and years.

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 months ago

Nixon was supposedly ousted by the “deep state” (though there’s more than one school of thought about this). Reagan I’m not so sure about — the military-industrial complex must have adored him and additionally he was not a hands-on president, particularly during his second term. I also sense that he managed to wed some kind of populism and patriotism with the needs of the deep state. I think every president learns that to “get along you have to go along.” Or else ….

TempoNick
TempoNick
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 months ago

Reagan talked a good game and I loved him at the time, but he made three critical errors that overshadow much of the good he did: 1) immigration, 2) deficit spending and 3) giving ziocons a seat at the table. Much like Shrub being a decent president but any good that he did was overshadowed by bumbling into Iraq, I think Reagan should also come down a few pegs.

Last edited 2 months ago by TempoNick
The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  TempoNick
2 months ago

Tempo-

Agreed and I would add 4) blanket immunity for companies in the injection business.

I can’t fault him for not having the foresight to see his position of, “Peace Through Strength,” would be tossed out for, “What good is this amazing military if you’re not using it?”

Last edited 2 months ago by The Wild Geese Howard
Vinnyvette
Vinnyvette
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 months ago

The knock against Reagan was he was viewed as a B list actor, who dared to defect from the democrat party. Not because he was formerly governor of California.

Last edited 2 months ago by Vinnyvette
Mycale
Mycale
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 months ago

I was thinking about this yesterday while walking my dog. Clinton brought this massive coterie of freaks, ghouls, and third rate crooks to DC. They came from places like Arkansas and Louisiana, places that the DC natives cannot utter aloud without a sneer. They were not happy with him and did not like him. Yet, by the end of his term, it was Clinton’s town, and it still is. Both him and his wife were fully embraced by the establishment, and those freaks, ghouls, and crooks all became permanent members. They were so fully embraced by the establishment that the… Read more »

Arshad Ali
Arshad Ali
Reply to  Mycale
2 months ago

The Clintons may have been Arkansas hicks but they never vowed or intended to change the status quo a propos the deep state. They may have sneered at him and the hicks he brought along — but these was no hatred. He wasn’t going to take away their rice bowl. Slick Willy was always a chameleon and always willing to “go along in order to get along.” I think — but can’t prove — that one of his signal accomplishments was to join at the hip the Democratic Party and the deep state. The Dem Party today operates as an… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 months ago

Arshad Ali: Excellent points.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Mycale
2 months ago

Mycale-

Look at the Clintons’ alma maters.

Ultimately their deep state credentials are ironclad.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 months ago

Arkansas-Pine Bluff for the bachelor’s and Ouachita Baptist for law school?

AnotherAnon
AnotherAnon
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
2 months ago

Oxford – that’s the ticket to deep state acceptance, no matter the starting material.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Mycale
2 months ago

Clinton’s presidency will be seen, if it isn’t already, as the moment when the South rose again. Money, people, and power have been rushing there since.

Seriously. Cheap third-world labor? Check. Multiculturalism? Check. Free trade? Check. A tottering Union? Check!

Cultural stuff, too. Megachurches (such as they are around here) were just getting started when I was a kid. Young people listen to country music and dress like ranchers and hunters, etc. Not all bad, but undeniable!

Last edited 2 months ago by Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Paintersforms
Reply to  Paintersforms
2 months ago

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fake and gay perversion of the South. I get that, because I’m a Northerner. Joe Lunchpail from the Rust Belt isn’t into finance, real estate, and outsourcing, after all. Or diversity, if he’s honest. He’s really not into that.

But the narrative is there— the New South!

Last edited 2 months ago by Paintersforms
TempoNick
TempoNick
Reply to  Arshad Ali
2 months ago

But you know what, the more they do that, the more pissed off people get. Sooner or later it crashes their system. Maybe not Trump, but if things under the next guy are the same, or maybe even the next guy after that.

AnotherAnon
AnotherAnon
2 months ago

… and Congressional hearings are performance art that are held solely for the purpose of extracting snippets for re-election mailers to “the folks at home”.

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  AnotherAnon
2 months ago

I’m still waiting for Jim Jordan or that squeaky “pit bull” Trey Goudie” to indict someone, have a pension withheld, or get anyone fired.

Still waiting…..

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
2 months ago

The Democrats don’t seem to have much problem getting indictments against people who disrespect their congressional authority (see Bannon, Navarro, Stone et al)

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
2 months ago

I was referring to the dingbats ostensibly on our side; members of the Washington Generals.

Intelligent Dasein
Intelligent Dasein
Member
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
2 months ago

Trey Gowdy left congress 5 years ago, dude.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Bartleby the Scrivner
2 months ago

Bartleby: I’m still waiting for all those fire-breathing, ‘men of the people’ tea party members elected to Congress to help ‘drain the swamp.’ Well, actually not really waiting – I’ve written off the electoral system and muh democracy.

WCiv911
WCiv911
Reply to  AnotherAnon
2 months ago

Yes, Anon, which proves that they know exactly what the people want and they can throw words at it without having to do anything. “Hey GI Joe, didn’t you listen to my speech about this?”

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  AnotherAnon
2 months ago

The Congressional Hearings are the equivalent of the old USSR “show trials” without the punishment phase. As Shakespeare would say, It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
2 months ago

Note also Power Structure buzzwords: collaboration, consensus, conflict resolution, team player, etc. These are concepts for work done by committees in meetings. In such an environment, which became de rigeur sometime after women entered the workforce in force I dare say, there is no room for a strong, decisive, executive leader, i.e. a man. On the contrary, such a thing is frowned upon mightily. This phenomenon scales up, too. As Z says, the presidency is now otiose. AINO is now run by committees of freaks, frauds and femmes. And this piteous outcome has been quite a long time in the… Read more »

Last edited 2 months ago by Ostei Kozelskii
Thomas McLeod
Thomas McLeod
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
2 months ago

The old man and some of his fellow cadre of retired engineers were enticed ($$$$$$$$) out of retirement back in the late 90’s to fix a complete screw up at Boeing that could have sunk the company. First week back some women tried to round everyone up to celebrate someone’s birthday. They were told to get lost and that they were there to work, not to eat cupcakes. The women, of course, complained to HR and the higher-ups. HR was sent down to straighten these old guys out and get them with the program. They told HR to get lost.… Read more »

Intelligent Dasein
Intelligent Dasein
Member
Reply to  Thomas McLeod
2 months ago

Telling someone to “get lost” when they invite you to a birthday party does not sound like proper behavior to me. You could simply politely decline and say you’re too busy right now. There’s no need to be a jerk about it.

Thomas McLeod
Thomas McLeod
Reply to  Intelligent Dasein
2 months ago

Telling grown men they have to drop their work to go eat cupcakes deserves a F off, rather that a get lost. They were, I believe, cicumspect in their reponse.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Intelligent Dasein
2 months ago

Oh, please. You seriously believe the dam’ HR bimbos deserve any respect or consideration? If I had FU money I’d tell ’em to get stuffed as well.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Thomas McLeod
2 months ago

Thomas McLeod: Oh God, this. When my husband puts off his working persona and complains to me about his damned co-workers, this is the sort of stuff I hear. Some little girl in accounting wants receipts (our credit card bill listing charges is insufficient) from his last business trip. He can write a quarter million dollar check, but she wants a receipt for a highway sandwich. He recently demanded (and received) a company credit card for business expenses to avoid this female -brained idiocy.

Intelligent Dasein
Intelligent Dasein
Member
Reply to  3g4me
2 months ago

It’s called SOX compliance. It’s been in a couple of papers, you know.

The policy was not enacted by the girl in accounting, whose most odious duty it is to comply with it. If you don’t like it, take it up with Enron, WorldCom, and the other abusers of the system who made it necessary.

TempoNick
TempoNick
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
2 months ago

You forgot “interagency consensus.” Remember when Vindman thought Trump should be impeached because he dared overrule them?

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
2 months ago

The president still has his bully pulpit. They haven’t been able to take that away (yet). A sincere reformer (were one ever allowed near the presidency) could and would use it to shine the spotlight on the managerial state that operates unconstitutionally, i.e. when the president orders the troops out of Syria, yet they remain, he could use that bully pulpit to make a huge stink about it and call the mutineers by name. But he didn’t. Just to point at one such example. Same tactic could be applied all across the managerial government. Whether or not this would actually… Read more »

Last edited 2 months ago by Jeffrey Zoar
Mow Noname
Mow Noname
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
2 months ago

The regime has taken away Trump’s bully pulpit:

1. Trump gives speech/ press release; and,

2. Press ignores said speech and/ or reports speech as “Trump claims WITHOUT EVIDENCE(!!!) that he likes puppies/ the sun rises in the east/ his speeches are being censured by the regime media…”

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Mow Noname
2 months ago

It’s much easier to do that to somebody who’s not in office than the sitting prez.

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
2 months ago

I have long thought that the core of a reclamation would involve nightly education sessions from the President’s Office. Core subjects: Global History of Slavery and The Occident Ending it The Truth of Civil War, Liberia, American Colonization Society Costs and Demographics of Crime How Campaign Financing and “Primarying” Works and Who Has Mastered That Corrupt Practice Hart Cellar and Population Replacement: A Living History, By The Numbers and Naming Names That would be enough to end White guilt and rouse the Historic American Nation to make the President consciously doing this education and moral restoration work the American Caesar.… Read more »

Bartleby the Scrivner
Bartleby the Scrivner
Reply to  RealityRules
2 months ago

Sounds like a fireside chat.

Magic 8 ball says a plane would fall out of the sky into the WH if such chats ever started from the Oval Office.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  RealityRules
2 months ago

You cannot educate and reason anyone out of a position they believe and back due to decades of clever, non-stop propaganda and their own uncontrolled emotions.

Tired Citizen
Tired Citizen
2 months ago

How anyone could give a shit about who the president is is beyond me. My only interest in Trump is the possibility of him winning despite the shenanigans could be the accelerant that leads to the necessary conflict required to rid ourselves of “the kooks”. Politically it means nothing as no policy will allow to be enforced to do what would need to be done. We are far beyond any political solution so, in my mind, it doesn’t matter in the slightest.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 months ago

If he were what his foes proclaim him to be, I’d get excited. But he has shown the proclivity to fold up and supplicate whenever threatened. Kind of like this “Project 2025” he’s currently distancing himself from. I’d like him a lot more if he embraced it.

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Tired Citizen
2 months ago

The only thing any prez can do that is of real significance is court appointments. Whether those are meaningful enough to bother with electoral politics, however, is debatable.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Ostei Kozelskii
2 months ago

Note the aspect of the Court, and the Fed courts in particular, for the ability to move/change things. The court is exactly what I was thinking about when reading today’s missive. Can we make a managerial argument for them, or is the judiciary somewhat of the exception? Certainly, there is a process of appeals and such until the Supremes, but nonetheless one Fed judge can shut down the whole clown show and the Supremes as—Trump molded them—seem to have run against the managerial tide in a few of the major decisions so far.

Severian
2 months ago

This is why I see “soft secession” as the likeliest outcome over the next 10-15 years, and not outright civil war. Of course, a lot can happen, and the Regime seems determined to enact a Battle of Sedan-type disaster that will force massive political changes… but barring that, I’m guessing state governors will start acting like Andrew Jackson vis-a-vis the Supreme Court: “I see Mr. Chief Justice Marshall has made his ruling,” Jackson is said to have said about Indian Removal; “Now let us see him enforce it.” Or, if you prefer, a fake and gay replay of The Fall… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Severian
2 months ago

Soft secession, over time, is likely for the same reasons that “hot” civil war is unlikely: complacency, apathy, and comfort. Few if any will be willing to take action to prevent the former or instigate the latter.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
2 months ago

Contrast your “soft secession” with Chet Rollins’ comment (It’s a wild flailing to delay the inevitable collapse of the current order that simply can not hold. Whatever comes after might be worse, but rest assured the new rulers will have no qualms about using hard power to get their way.) Discuss.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Severian
2 months ago

The problem with “soft secession”—which I support as the only workable strategy—has always been the ability of the States to wean themselves from the largesse of the Fed’s. In every tête-à-tête conflict with the Fed’s, even smallish ones, the States have folded most often when Fed funds are cut off or rather threatened to be cut off. The Fed’s have their tentacles in every State via the genius of taxing the people in that State and then giving them back a portion as a bribe of sorts for compliance to Fed diktat.

Thomas McLeod
Thomas McLeod
Reply to  Compsci
2 months ago

The Federal Government is more than bankrupt. Either the funds dry up, or the dollar becomes worthless. The, “we’ll cut your funding off” seems like less of a threat than it used to.

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Compsci
2 months ago

The Feds cutting off funding or even threatening to is pretty much a thing of the past. Some recent court decisions related to that. The “left” can thank themselves for it, re: sanctuary states and funding. I agree with McLeod, the dollar is more likely to become worthless than the Feds are to stop supplying it.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
2 months ago

The dollar may become worthless, but until then, or its replacement, the problem remains. I’ve seen no evidence that the Fed’s cannot and do not threaten funding to States. Hell, it’s written into their (Fed) “grants” which States apply for. I’m happy to research such if one can point me in the correct direction.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  Compsci
2 months ago

I don’t see soft secession getting serious until the States come up with their own medium of exchange.

G Lordon Giddy
G Lordon Giddy
2 months ago

Good essay. I had to listen to normies during the 4th holiday tell me how Trump is going to change everything this time around, he has learned his lesson they say. The positive thing is the normies realize something needs to change the negative thing is they believe Trump will actually change anything significant.
I think France on a macro level tells us where our system is going and California on a micro level shows us how it will probably end up in North America.
I would like to be more optimistic but optimism is cowardice in the present age.

Arlen
Arlen
Reply to  G Lordon Giddy
2 months ago

To be an optimist is to pray for a bloody civil war, which is the best possible outcome at this point.

The more pessimistic and likely outcome is a slow quiet decline into extinction.

Filthie
Filthie
Member
2 months ago

“ Often, the process of hiring the CEO is about finding someone who will not change anything important…” That’s an evolutionary development that bears more consideration. Z, the last thing you want is a new age Pepsi kid coming in with all the answers to problems the company never had. When those people show up in a company they destroy them. Stuff like Bud Light happens when you get the wrong power players. I repeat: America does not have a systemic problem.The rules, procedures and checks and balances produced the strongest, most powerful nation in history. You (and all the western… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Filthie
2 months ago

Filthie: Yes, America DOES have a “systemic problem.” Otherwise our magic constitution would have prevented Klownworld. It did not. Ergo, etc.

Filthie
Filthie
Member
Reply to  3g4me
2 months ago

So what will you change to make a system that works?

Hi-ya!
Hi-ya!
2 months ago

he puts on the leather jacket and rides his Vespa without a helmet.

I come for the racism, I stay for the zingers! Totally stealing this…

but seriously, Dave green seems to take yarvin seriously. What is the big problem with him? When I first heard of him, I found his writing too insider, as if you had to spend a long time reading him to understand him, and I didn’t feel like that was worth it.

serious question: what is the problem with yarvin?

Last edited 2 months ago by Hi-ya!
Marko
Marko
Reply to  Hi-ya!
2 months ago

Yarvin is a throwback. In an age where brevity or 5th grade reasoning prevails, Yarvin writes like a guy from the 19th century…he prefers the long-winded to the concise. In this way he appeals to slow readers, akin to slow eaters, who can’t just sit down for 10 minutes and eat something simple; they need to make the food precious.

And Yarvin is precious, and that’s why people like him or dislike him.

WCiv911
WCiv911
Reply to  Marko
2 months ago

Hey now, i’m a slow eater and i’m taking umbrage here! Soooo uncivilized to hurry through a good meal with good food and drink, especially when accompanied by good company and good conversation.

Marko
Marko
Reply to  WCiv911
2 months ago

I like the slow drinking aspect, but as for eating, I’ve always preferred to scarf it down and GTFO

Hemid
Hemid
Reply to  Marko
2 months ago

His initial popularity was among shitlib nerds (because he is one). The post-philosophical left/”left” was turning against them—directly injuring their careers and lives and reveling in it, years before the noooooticers noticed—so they were frantically seeking respectable opposition. Moldbug was wordy, so he must be smart. His old-reactionary referential palette (Carlyle et al.) didn’t signify conservative or fascist, because nerds don’t know anything about any of those guys. His core keyword was (mis-)appropriated from popular nerd discourse, Eric S. Raymond’s cathedral/bazaar distinction between monopoly and enterprise. Under all the verbiage, Moldbug’s message was that everything should be run like tech… Read more »

joey jünger
joey jünger
Reply to  Hi-ya!
2 months ago

Goth Fonzi and Douthat are going to meet for a knife fight at Makeout Point tonight to establish once and for all who’s the real rebel. Their moms won’t let them have real switchblades but they have those novelty combs and can probably scratch each other with those.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  Hi-ya!
2 months ago

Go read Yarvin’s lunatic totalitarian rant about how Beer Flu should have been handled.

It will all make sense after that.

Epaminondas
Member
Reply to  The Wild Geese Howard
2 months ago

Yarvin is MOT. And they stampede easily.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Epaminondas
2 months ago

Acronyms Attack! Please, what is MOT?

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 months ago

Mildewed otter toast?

Epaminondas
Member
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 months ago

Member of the Tribe.

Hun
Hun
Reply to  Hi-ya!
2 months ago

Moldbug wasn’t “too insider”. Most of his writing was pretentious word salad. That was also his appeal, because his fans felt like they are part of a secret club.

Moldbug was a “nazi” and a “racist”, but once it became known that his real name is Yarvin and that his daddy was a jew working in the US foreign service, he was legitimized by Tucker and other respectable conservatives.

Abelard Lindsey
Abelard Lindsey
Reply to  Hi-ya!
2 months ago

Yarvin wrote interesting stuff about 15 years ago. But he largely dropped off the ‘Net around 2012 or so. He surfaced again during spring of ’20 during the lockdowns with truly lunatic ideas like cashing everyone out of the stock market. Then he wrote another piece about a year later that I never read. But apparently it was so far off the deep end that a lot of people who liked the guy wondered about his psychological well-being.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Hi-ya!
2 months ago

From my notes, from Unz: “Occam’s Dreidel strikes again. spin Occam’s Dreidel and let it land on one of it’s sides. it never points in the correct direction. always somewhere else.” “Whereas Moldbug has always sought to conflate Jews and WASPs…” “NRx is a truly desperate limited hangout.” Bedazzle ’em with bullshit, as the saying goes. You get either a few poison pills in a tasty meal, or a few M&M’s to flavor a pile of shinola with these types. Yarvin is there to confuse, a gatekeeper in the same vein as BAP: “‘Bronze Age Pervert’ was ‘outed’ as a… Read more »

Last edited 2 months ago by Alzaebo
roo_ster
Member
Reply to  Hi-ya!
2 months ago

Yarvin moldbug is a jew who writes talmudically like Strauss in an opaque, dense manner to hide that he is pushing Jewish self interest. Yarvin, bap, raw egg nationalist. The stereotype exists for a reason.

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  Hi-ya!
2 months ago

Here are the issues I have with Yarvin. First the good. Yarvin was as far as I know the first guy to begin to mainstream critique of the GAE and to re-introduce ideas by people long shunned and/or forgotten. His ability to admit that America was gone, to describe The Cathedral (managerialism), and bring Schmitt, Burnham, Huntington and others to the fore is a great contribution. Of course, many others have kept alive the more potent critiques and ideas for renewal: Evola; Spengler … … Now for his downsides: He is a merchant plebian who has disdain for the deplorables.… Read more »

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Hi-ya!
2 months ago

“what is the problem with yarvin?”

First of all, his writing is offensively verbose and obscure.

But more importantly, he is an IQ civic nationalist. Like Sailer, he is outside of the current ruling elite, but wants to ingratiate himself to that elite by getting them to bond together over high IQ rather than racial loyalty. Since only white goys are capable of overriding their tribalism, he is setting up a trap for whites, whether that is his conscious intent or not.

If he succeeds, traditional white Americans will still be dispossessed, just the same as now.

RealityRules
RealityRules
Reply to  Hi-ya!
2 months ago

One other thing is that Dave Green takes Yarvin seriously in that he acknowledges Yarvin’s contribution. It is important for us to be serious people. In the end a guy like Yarvin isn’t our guy. That doesn’t invalidate what he has done that is right and truthful and good. Another good example of this would be James Burnham, the source of much of Yarvin’s valid critique and to Yarvin’s credit he credits Burnham for giving him his critique. Burnham was a man of the Left. However, as an insider as The Cathedral or Managerialism was being constructed in the US,… Read more »

Pozymandias
2 months ago

This kind of leaderless managerial mass democracy was installed during a time of unprecedented wealth throughout the Western world and in particular in the US. I don’t think this is surprising because the managerial state is really just a kind of autopilot for nations. Autopilots do just fine about 99% of the time too because most of the time nothing much is happening that would require intelligent intervention. The problems is that the 1% of the time you need strong leadership is usually also the time leaving things in the hands of the autopilot leads to disaster. During the last… Read more »

Thomas McLeod
Thomas McLeod
2 months ago

The end game for a managerial state is to be ignored by the people. Rules, regulations, and laws are ignored once you’re outside the shining city’s walls. This is how the rest of the world, outside the West, lives, and it’s how the West will live going forward.

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
2 months ago

The scale and complexity of Empire make it difficult for any Executive to have a positive impact. This is a feature, not a bug, of the System. Every President since Eisenhower has understood this. We’re now at the end stage wherein the insiders attempt to run things without even observing the formalities of republican democracy. This might be feasible if they were willing to accept even minor feedback from the plebes. But they aren’t.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Captain Willard
2 months ago

If I hear some twit say, “It’s a Constitutional Republic, not a Democracy!!” one more time…

I realize it’s a magical chant, the Boomer version of the Ghost Dance to bring back the buffalo. My heart kind of breaks when I realize it’s being chanted by people who are old, and scared, and can’t think of anything else but to wave a bony fist.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Alzaebo
2 months ago

Alzaebo: Hear, hear!

Barnard
Barnard
2 months ago

Out of 34 Senate seats Real Clear Politics has 8 listed as “toss ups.” That includes Ted Cruz’s seat, which does not appear to be close. The rust belt Democrat seats they are including are polling within the margin of error, but somehow the Democrats will manage to pull them out. The one thing that is surprising is how many members of Congress hang on until death. If they are just playing a part, why not get out of there and enjoy of few years of living high on the hog without having to go to endless meetings, fundraisers, etc.… Read more »

Jeffrey Zoar
Jeffrey Zoar
Reply to  Barnard
2 months ago

Most of them start down that road with a sincere desire to “serve,” or “make things better,” or “make a difference,” or more recently, “change the world.” Because they become corrupted over time, and not all at once, there is likely never a moment when they realize they have become the problem. Even at the end of it all, they still believe they are “doing some good,” and if they gave up their seat, they would be opening the door to some corrupt self serving person. So they hang on, by whatever means necessary. The moral trade offs and integrity… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
2 months ago

I think the civic minded were weeded out by the cynical reality at the very start, and those that went on are afraid of those coming up behind them. They’re trapped, unable to let go and enjoy what’s left.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Jeffrey Zoar
2 months ago

Jeffrey: “Most” of them? I beg to differ. They have to pay to play right from the start. Some are just better liars than others.

Hoagie
Hoagie
Reply to  Barnard
2 months ago

Actually they love going to endless meetings fundraisers etcetera because it gets him away from there shitty families. They’d rather be in the Senate Barber shop than at Sunday dinner with the hag they married. Besides they can grab some pussy on the side and use the government slush fund to payoff the slut in question before the book comes out.

Forever Templar
Forever Templar
Reply to  Hoagie
2 months ago

“On the side”. I don’t know these days, but the few politicians I did close protection work for (not in the capacity of on-site, close-body security), they had blackbooks just for that. Nothing illegal, but screening “Candi” and “SinDy” twice a night for a week straight was amusing.

Brian Turner
Brian Turner
2 months ago

“…Douthat wants his readers to know that every once in a while, he puts on the leather jacket and rides his Vespa without a helmet.””

This line may be better than your remark a few months ago comparing Vivek Ramaswamy to a call center supervisor.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  Brian Turner
2 months ago

I upvoted and found it hilarious too. But to be fair, Vespas are cool in the proper environment.

pyrrhus
pyrrhus
2 months ago

Congress hasn’t mattered much ever, since they can always be bribed or intimidated..The only groups that matter are the bankers and the large industrialists…The last President who seriously interfered with the bankers was Andrew Jackson, who ended the corrupt Bank of the United States..He only escaped assassination on the steps of Congress when the assassin’s gun misfired twice, a near miraculous occurrence…These two groups passed the Morrill tariff, precipitating the Civil War, and pushed America into WW1, another ruinous event for the American population..Fortunately, they haven’t yet decided that WWIII is a good idea…..

Forever Templar
Forever Templar
Reply to  pyrrhus
2 months ago

Fortunately, they haven’t yet decided that WWIII is a good idea…..”

They’re trying damn hard to get a third entry into the franchise, though. The playbook is reminiscent pre-WW2 and getting either Japan or Germany to take the bait. Fortunately, neither Russia nor China have fallen for it. Yet.

btp
Member
2 months ago

This is why the alarm about biden is so weird. Literally, who cares?

Maxda
Maxda
Reply to  btp
2 months ago

It’s theater. The knew he was long gone mentally. Now that they can’t hide it, they’ll make a show of it.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Maxda
2 months ago

What’s most galling is that nobody noticed until the tv told them it was okay to notice.

Forever Templar
Forever Templar
Reply to  btp
2 months ago

I don’t know, about half the American population, a couple of leaders of former combloc countries…most readers, listeners, and posters here?

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  btp
2 months ago

One cares I suppose when one leaves this clown world and travels to another world, perhaps not so clownish. When a Putin speaks of dangerously escalating conflict with NATO and specifically the US and then laments an inability to negotiate peace because he does not know whom to talk to. Yeah, I’d say this is disconcerting in the nuclear age.

Vinnyvette
Vinnyvette
2 months ago

Interesting title Z. Over the weekend i caught a Jason Stratham movie called “The Bee Keeper.” Stratham starts out as literally a bee keeper. But shit happens and he comes out of retirement to kick asses. Turns out he was a retired “bee keeper. Later in the movie Jeremy Iron’s who’s a high level govt / corporate player explains to the presidents son (president is a woman of course) who the president has chaged Iron’s character to act as the kids advisor, that he has upset the corporate / political order, by scamming old people out of all their money,… Read more »

Last edited 2 months ago by Vinnyvette
TempoNick
TempoNick
2 months ago

Your brain cells begin to die at an alarming rate, mostly as an act of suicide in order to avoid reading Yarvin.”

lol, that’s a great line. I’m going to have to remember it to use it. Probably on Instapundit (which I’ve been recently calling Ziopundit) next time I’m reading some Israel simping blog post.

mbradley
mbradley
2 months ago

“…he puts on the leather jacket and rides his Vespa without a helmet”

Can you see the real me, doctor?

alexander scipio
alexander scipio
2 months ago

This ^^ is pretty much identical to the plot line in the excellent book, “The Vicar of Christ.” In the book a new pope USES the power of the papacy to effect serious change. The new pope is an odd duck – American Korean war hero, becomes CJ SCOTUS… then winds up as the pope (no more spoilers in the event you decide to read it). And he blows up the place, draws YUGE crowds wherever he goes… It’s pretty much what Trump is trying to do… Author is a former prez of Notre Dame, as I understand it. HIGHLY recommended… Read more »

Ostei Kozelskii
Member
Reply to  alexander scipio
2 months ago

I always appreciate book and film recs from DRs. We need more of those around here.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
2 months ago

The neat thing about today’s is that it gives a clear picture of a post-democracy world.
Post-feudal, too, since one has no chain of hierarchy, tradition, or loyalties.

NoLabels
NoLabels
2 months ago

Trumpism as absurdism is an underrated strand in the times. It fits the mood and the professionalization apocalypse. I think Brandon is clever to cop the absurdist albeit reckless techniques of his doppelganger. Contrast with Michael Tracey complaining about an encounter initiated with MAGA oddfellows in a Speakers Corner type situation in Bucks County. He said they were cult followers, they said they didn’t agree. He said well this proves it (something Gaza haha) and they said no. Then new Diogenes rends his garments and proclaims his interlocutors mentally ill. Very 2024 scene.

trackback
2 months ago

[…] ZMan says the quiet part out loud. […]

David Wright
Member
2 months ago

If we don’t do something soon to rein this all in, powerful Rightist groups like the Patriot Front will only get stronger. When that happens the real insurrection may come and it will probably be the bloodiest and most brutal in history. If you have watched Nashville news recently you’ll see what I mean.
These guys mean business, look at how they dress for instance.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  David Wright
2 months ago

Don’t tell me. Somebody did a burnout on the rainbow Pride crosswalk again?

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  David Wright
2 months ago

I’ve not seen pictures, but am skeptical of all those folks who “dress the part” for the cameras. LARPers abound. The work of those who truly make change is often dirty and unrewarding and they certainly desired to remain unpublicized in our current repressive environment. For more expert commentary here, see TomA postings.

flashing red
flashing red
Reply to  Compsci
2 months ago

In the war of independence, it may have been that only 30 percent actually fought, but they were covertly supported, fed, armed and had informers among the other 60 percent, truly a “silent majority”..

Apex Predator
Apex Predator
Reply to  David Wright
2 months ago

“Powerful far right groups” like the 50 guys LARPing with their newly pressed 100% wrinkle free Confederate and Colonial Flags. Walking in the middle of the street bothering nobody. They are definitely 100% legit and nobody in that group glows brighter than the sun. If this was a clever attempt at sarcasm I apologize in advance, but my feeling is it wasn’t as you played it way too deadpan. So if it is NOT sarcasm than it is a reminder why glowies continue doing these absurd Patriot Front style things because it strikes “concern” into the heart of normies like… Read more »

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  David Wright
2 months ago

David: They are neither the Feds nor the notsees they are made out to be.

vxxc
vxxc
2 months ago

Nothing you say contradicts Moldbug or Yarvin. Yarvin is to the manor born and possibly the highest ranking Defector since Lucifer, I don’t know what the problem is?
style?
Moldbug aka Yarvin suggested replacing the government with code a decade ago.
it must be style, or an understandable hatred of DC .

Son
Son
2 months ago

And yet, does Z have any writing critical of Yarvin outside of some minor niggles? Please, someone point me to it. How do their ideologies even differ at the root, being anti-democratic and technocratic in nature, imho? The main article of Z I could find felt less like criticism and more like pining for more of Yarvin. It might be popular for conservatives to hitch to Yarvin today but in the manufactured dissident right, it’s seems popular to renounce him for street cred, without ever giving any tangible criticism. And here we are: easy content to consume that feels right… Read more »