It appears the plan is to fill the time between now and when Donald Trump regains the White House with stories about starting a nuclear war with Russia. First, we got the NATO missiles strikes on Russia, then it was the Russian use of a mystery weapon that should terrify everyone. Instead, the response from NATO is a series of stories about doing even dumber things than the missile strikes. It is as if Western leaders are in a contest to see who can think of the dumbest idea possible.
So far this week we have stories leaking out from Europe that the Brits and French are talking about sending an “expeditionary force” to Ukraine. That was followed by comments from the head of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, suggesting NATO launch preemptive strikes on Russia. All of this is taking place in the looming shadow of a second Trump administration. The Europeans are carrying on as if Godzilla is approaching the continent.
Of course, all these ideas are being floated by people who would urinate themselves if faced with a physical confrontation. Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are ridiculous people who have landed in these positions due to the collapse of their respective political classes. The rest of the European political class is equally silly, but most lack the vanity of these two. Most are like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who seems to cherish being a middling mediocrity.
The question that is never asked is how did it come to this? Surely Britain has better men than Keir Starmer. The UK has a lot of problems, but it still has some of the best human capital on the planet. The same is true of France. This is a country that defined diplomacy in the West. There must be a deep well of talent in the country, despite generations of bad policy making. How in the world did these two feckless nitwits end up ruling these two once great nations?
Obviously, these two men did not arrive on the scene by chance. They were selected and groomed by the political system that rules their countries. They made the right friends, followed the right advice and most importantly, never asked the wrong questions about the current narrative. In many respects, these two men were selected purely on narrative grounds. They filled a role in the story better than the alternatives, so they got the job and here we are on the verge of war.
It is the machine that generates the narratives that makes it possible for so many mediocrities to bubble up to the surface of the system. For example, the crackpot idea of an expeditionary force was not dreamed up by Starmer or Macron. This has been floated by the best thinks tanks in the West. Here is a post from the Center for Strategic and International Studies talking up the expeditionary force. It was written by what the system calls an expert on the topic.
This idea is part of a larger narrative that assumes, like all managerial class narratives, that the world can be set right if the managerial elite simply has the will. That is the themes of this post in The Guardian by one of the UK’s top experts on the war in Ukraine and Russia in general. It is a completely insane post that has no bearing on objective reality, but that is not important. What is important is it tells guys like Starmer that the good guys have the will to make the narrative real.
That post is not written by the typical kook that fills the pages of The Guardian, but by a fellow calling himself James Nixey. He leads the Russia-Eurasia program at Chatham House, which is a prestigious think tank in the UK. In other words, he is a guy people like Starmer will call for advice on Russia. Note that Mr. Nixey is barely qualified to offer tour advice on Russia. His entire life has been about sitting in a room somewhere imagining what life is like outside that room.
This is a recurring theme in Western politics. From top to bottom it is people who are very good at playing along inside imagination land and even better at avoiding anything that resembles real life experience. Generations ago, the Prime Minister would have served in the military and maybe even seen war. Even the more effete politicians could rely on a class of men who understood how the world actually worked. Today such men are treated as skunks at a picnic.
In the fullness of time, the defining characteristic of managerialism will be its boiling off of the capable, independent men in favor or complaint mediocrities. Lacking genuine men of action, the compliant mediocrities search for consensus, which becomes their authority figure and their moral authority. It is why everything that comes from the think tanks and media reinforces the agreed upon positions. The most terrifying thing for a mediocre man is to stand alone against the consensus.
The narratives we keep seeing serve to make manifest the consensus and cast those within the consensus as the white hat in the drama. Much of what seems to drive these mediocre men of late-stage managerialism is moral affirmation. It is why they have all herded themselves off the Ukraine cliff. They care only for being seen at the sincerest believer in the prevailing narrative. For the political class, it means public policy is always a public act of piety.
If the crew of a ship all die at once, the ship does not immediately capsize. It will float around until it runs aground or succumbs to a big wave. On rare occasions it makes its way to land in one piece. That is the West right now. It is a ship bobbing around, crewed by mediocre men who are terrified at the thought of being in charge. Instead, they huddle together inside a consensus and ruthlessly enforce it. To continue the metaphor, they are below decks debating the need for a captain.
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“Generations ago, the Prime Minister would have served in the military and maybe even seen war.”
Mediocrities indeed. Reminds one of a great bit of writing.
From C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man:
“And all the time… In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”
It still amazes me how wise men of old could see and predict our problems when the problems must have been so small in their day that it would be “the good old days” to us.
Indeed. Everything is relative. I could imagine what they’d call a “mediocre man” in those days would be seen in our time as a “great man”. Such is our current decline.
i’ve been reading a number of essays like this lately. may i humbly offer a concise summary of the genre.
A culture too stupid to survive won’t.
Lewis low-balled it. We now have men with prosthetic breasts.
And admirals wearing dresses to cover them up. Madness. Sheerest madness.
The madness seems compounded when one thinks of how the services would have reacted in those days to such perversions. The few “old timers” I’ve known from the military must be spinning in their graves. The stories I’ve been told are so removed from today’s “norm”. It’s like another world—and indeed it is.
Keelhauling springs to mind.
Could it be that men are simply conforming to the presence of women in their ranks?
We know women tend to run on consensus. No woman wants to be held accountable for her decisions and so she builds consensus so that she cannot be blamed for the group’s decision should things not go as planned.
We have no leaders because the system selects for committee men and girl bosses.
Good thought. I have to admit, I’ve begun to think about this more with wife as we grow old. In her case, it’s a complete refusal to make any decision. We cannot go out to a restaurant of her “choice”—because she won’t choose. She will however ask where I’m going when I decide to get lunch out. If I’ve chosen “correctly” she’ll have me bring something back, but will never voice a preference if I ask “where would you like me to go”? Such trivial decisions extend to important ones as well. Currently she has a car that is unreliable—and… Read more »
That’s it, exactly.
BRILLIANT.
I subscribe to a Reddit channel about job hunting. One of the most common horror stories is the endless rounds of interviews story. Someone will reply to a job ad and go through, say 2 rounds of interviews. Then they find that there are actually 6 more or they need to do a couple “team” interviews or a take-home assignment. I’m sure this has nothing to do with women’s notorious inability to make a decision with incomplete information or their desire to offload the decision to some committee or, worse, some kind of “scoring system”. “Well Jones scored really well… Read more »
Could be. It could also be that the interviews are going on long enough for the DEIs who are supposed to get hired disqualify themselves. Much as EEOC hates it, punctuality and reliability can still be factored into hiring decisions.
seem to recall germany initiated attack on russia in the past. also recall german ground was held by russia to maintain safe zone from future attacks. pretty sure germany agreed to never do it again, but here we are. maybe its germany who seeks the return of prussia? as i see it, germany has no integrity and no seat at the table. why does germany maintain a prince of prussia?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Friedrich_Prinz_von_Preussen
further, why the ongoing influx of immigrants to europe? future russian invasion force? if i see it, pretty sure putin sees it. interesting poland still maintains its roots in putting down the nazis.
I hate to be Debbie Downer here, but I don’t think a far better class of men could do much. Not at this late date. Look at the run-up to WWI. For all the blame we can legitimately assign to the Tsar and the Kaiser, the nuts and bolts of it fell on men who might’ve been mediocre in their day, but they’d be titans in ours. The problems were all structural: The Tsar needed to be pan-Slavic to shore up his authority at home after defeat in the Russo-Japanese war and the subsequent revolution. France was still smarting from… Read more »
Yeah, my fear is the train left the station thirty years ago. It is as if the managerial elite feels it needs to be punished and what better punishment than to be incinerated in a nuclear flash? My hope is the punishment is a carrier with a big hole in it from a missile strike. Such an image might be enough to terrify the economic elite into purging the system. or maybe the system merely collapses. Not great, but better than nuclear war.
They do not believe a world governed by anyone but themselves deserves to exist.
Tangentially, they don’t believe a West ruled by normal, competent white men deserves to exist. They’ve done everything in their power to marginalize such men domestically, and seem to be itching to incinerate such folk in the Slavic world as well.
Our political system selects for weaker men and girl bosses by making the process so awful that only the most degenerate would go through it. Who wants a media- and activist-led proctoscopy into their personal life? For the rich guys, they just find a cutout willing to subject themselves to that tomfoolery and sign the front of the checks. Democracy is all about the art of the compromise and that extends to its leadership or lack thereof. Strong, principled people are marginalized since real leaders don’t “lead from behind” like Obama said about Syria, but could’ve been applied everywhere else… Read more »
This. Golden Child psychology is hard to understand from the outside because it is formed in a world that the rest of us can no longer believe in. The search for stupidity, delusional narratives, and a subconscious demand for penance is an attempt at a shared reality, but no, those are second order effects and one vestigial organ. The Golden Child was born in a world where their every whim and desire was given to them. All they had to do was ask, and the Deus ex Machina that managed their reality responded. No matter how feckless or petulant their… Read more »
The managerial elite has absolutely no clue it can die or be killed. The dumber it is the more convinced it is of its immortality, to the degree it even realizes death is certain. The economic elite has late in the day noticed the psychosis, and as you write the question is whether it will move to purge the system. I am not convinced it will. I like Sev’s analogy to WWI but the presence of nukes makes this infinitely worse, and, yes, it is possible to be worse. In a better day, a semi-competent military would engineer a coup,… Read more »
‘In a better day, a semi-competent military would engineer a coup, but the contemporary Pentagon is just as detached from reality as the rest of the managerial elite.’
The Palace Guard is vested in pensions, IRAs and associated holdings.
Nothing mucks up the pension plan quicker than a nuclear war.
That’s a topic for conjecture…I doubt there’s much reputable research on the topic. I’ve read enough “all out nuclear war” scenarios over the years. If one leaves aside the silly science fiction stuff (e.g. mutants, aliens, etc.) the harsh truth is that a major nuclear exchange would be bad for business. As a youth I recall asking my Dad about such scenarios and he said “All bets are off.” What I’ve never seen explored is what about a very limited nuclear war? Clearly that’s a better outcome all things considered, but even if by some miracle a wider war was… Read more »
Putin likely has better options (than nuclear) and is probably a good enough leader to avoid making tragic mistakes. He has Xi on his side. At a minimum, China could provide Russia with enough material support to defeat NATO. China could likely outproduce the rest of the world combined. But they only need to outproduce the hollowed out NATO economies. This would be a great benefit to China and they wouldn’t even have to fight and would put Russia in so much debt that they could count on Russian energy for the next 50 years. With NATO (US) defeated, Taiwan… Read more »
Putin could be left with no choice, though. The psychopaths will determine what happens, unfortunately.
I think a major difference is “mediocre men” in 1913 joined the civil service and military, and today they go into other industries like tech or finance. This leaves the govt staffed with mostly retards or conformists. The hope is that the various Western govts are just theater, while the real Men of Action in the West can either roll their eyes or put a stop to it with a phone call. We can make fun of Macron and Starmer and Biden, but I can’t believe they’re doing anything but LARPing as “statesmen” while global finance and non-Western leaders put… Read more »
There is reason to believe this is true. Sorry I can’t find link, it may have been in The Guardian, it was some publication on that level, in which Boris Johnson was quoted, talking about his actions during the plandemic (this was part of the piling on after he resigned), referring to otherwise inexplicable action he’d taken he said “I had to. They made me.” Without saying who “they” were.
Sure. There’s a folder on everyone, now.
Oh, these days there are plenty of mediocre or worse women in industry as well.
I can think of three of the top of my head that are corporate directors and VPs.
Yet, people still wonder why the F-35 has something like a 15% readiness rate.
Good observation! Z-man is quite correct in his assessment of the men of the managerial class but today that class is staffed increasingly by women who are constitutionally unable to govern effectively. They are even less willing than men to buck the narrative and will go along with even crazy ideas just to fit in with the group. I note that most (not all, certainly, but most) of the Russian and Chinese leaders are still men.
The Chinese got a taste of feminine duplicity and violence via Jiang Qing (Madam Mao) and haven’t made that mistake since
AKA the White-Boned Demon. She was a right piece of work. Incredibly vindictive and petty.
Other evidence for female-driven decline would be collapse of the Tang Dynasty and the Ottoman ‘Century of Women’.
Not that more evidence is needed.
Maybe in this country, but I don’t know about that for the rest of the world. In the rest of the world, the best and brightest generally strived for positions of power within the government. At least that’s how things were traditionally. Not that they achieved anything other than mediocre results, however. A recent illustration of this could be seen with Tucker Carlson’s interview of Vladimir Putin. Whatever his merits, you could see that Tucker looked like a lightweight compared with someone of Putin’s stature. Tucker’s skills are perfectly adequate with the light weights who run our government, but he… Read more »
Yes.
“All we have to do is re-shore manufacturing”
“All we have to do is build 100 nuclear reactors for cheap power”
“All we have to do is repatriate 30 million families back to their home countries and enforce immigration laws”
“All we have to do is tighten spending and address the national debt.”
These are all pipe dreams. With what $$, expertise, or leaders?
“These are all pipe dreams. With what $$, expertise, or leaders?” It’s really the leadership and the *will*. It can be done. Look, Musk is launching rocket ships. Two decade ago, that was the sole purview of NASA. It can be done. Microsoft bought the 3 Mile Island power plant for its electricity needs stemming from AI and Cloud storage. Designs for small “salt” reactors are on the books and one is said to be operational in China. It can be done. The problem is one of will. Of course, it does not help that the country has been (purposefully)… Read more »
Sorry friend, but I must disagree. Saying that ‘will’ makes these things possible is awfully close to Zman’s point how “the world can be set aright if the managerial elite has the will.” One cannot ‘will’ reality into being. It takes power and violence and the materiel to turn will into anything more than wishes.
I get your criticism, I’m not sure I made myself clear. The will I talk about is not managerialism. These things are not “committee” decisions, but one of leadership through strongmen. Musk is one of them. Microsoft I can’t be sure of, only that they broached the taboo of nuke power when in their corporate interest.
The places that traditionally nurtured the strongmen, chiefly the military and corporations, have been thoroughly feminized and taken over by degenerates. So I think this is really the problem of where else we can look. I’d say the only places you find these men today are among the John Galt types**. Musk of course is a good example but Trump is also one. In fact I think this may be a lot of why Trump is so hated. It’s not really what he says or even what he does, it’s who he IS that terrifies them. They look at Trump,… Read more »
Zman was referring more it seems to geo-political realities – i.e., willing Russia’s economy to collapse will not make it happen. If I understand correctly, Compsci is referring more to technical realities – many of which exist (e.g., nuclear power) but the political will to make use of them is not there. If they can print money to fund wars, they can print money to fund deportations.
“Will”? Sorry Compsci, but I have to take 3g’s side here too. For a more earthy opinion, look no further than one of the hardcore unofficial slogans of Alcoholics Anonymous. When an optimistic newcomer thinks he’ll address his drink problem via willpower, a streetwise sponsor would tell him, “Sure buddy! Why don’t you take a package of Ex-Lax and tell me how your willpower works.”
It can now be plainly seen by everyone that giving Paris back was Germany’s fatal mistake
Kruschchev and JFK got out of a similarly sticky situation, perhaps not because they were wiser than the 1914 crew but because nukes motivated them to go that extra mile, or miles??
Part of the reason it worked is Krusch and JFK had a certain level of trust / credibility between them. The ZOG has zero – nay, negative credibility.
There is nothing structurally that compels a confrontation with Russia, China or Iran. There is only the problem Z has identified: An incompetent governing class.
Yeah, I sort of take issue with Z’s blanket assertion that the people in the think-tanks and so on are all dweebs with no connection to reality. That may in fact be true for a lot of them, but the criticism of the intellectual not knowing anything practical has been around since Aristophanes mocked Socrates in Clouds. The fact is that if we look at 1914, the people in charge were far more practical and far more experienced, the professional military men in France and Prussia had all seen combat from the 1870 war, yet they got ten million men… Read more »
Aristophanes was right!
Ehhh…. so a guy like Leibniz was impractical, head-in-the-clouds intellectual dweeb?
Dude only invented calculus…
Kek. Literally. As the Zoomers literally say. Literally.
“…the diesel engines in their trucks and the hydraulic cylinders of their backhoes were all designed by guys who went to college.”
Finish the sentence. “Went to college and then went out and did something with that knowledge.” There’s the key distinction.
To way too many of the cloistered STEM profs, the world effectively stagnated at the moment they earned tenure. Thus the “one funeral at a time” aphorism.
the Brits and French are talking about sending an “expeditionary force” to Ukraine. Let them gather a force of vibrants from the streets of London and Paris, put them on dirt bikes and reenact the Charge of the Light Brigade. I predict victory
it is fun to imagine the Brits and the French dispatching their best cross dressers to the front, but in reality it would be their best units, which are all white men of high character. They would be obliterated in a month.
The sending troops talk shows a concerning level of fantasy in these people.
Yes, believing that long-range missiles will cause the Russians to collapse or Putin to get overthrow is stupid, but, at least, there are actual missiles being launched. The troops quite literally can’t be sent. They have almost no ability to even get them to the front, much less supply them, much less replace their loses.
It’s one thing to fantasize about the outcomes of an action that actually happened; it’s another to fantasize about the outcomes of action that itself is a fantasy.
If they were sent to Kursk, unlikely they would last two weeks, as the Russians have been ordered to take out the trash before Jan.20…but of course, there’s not the slightest chance of that happening…
A drone or precision missile doesn’t care how many times you ran up or down some mountain in Wales or Corsica, or in Western North Carolina for that matter
A month? They are talking about sending 5,000 men to stabilize a collapsing 1,000 kilometer front. Most would be gone in a week. That’s a rounding error in the war right now.
They have this idea that those 5,000 would be a “trip wire” that would give the Russians pause.
Why? Wouldn’t trigger NATO if they are sent. Just lots of body bags.
If they really believe that, then their fantasy is even more rococo than they’re letting on. The Rooskies will heedlessly mash those 5,000 like a rhino treading on a centipede.
I dunno Ostei, they could be right. Clearly Putin has been reluctant to directly provoke the west, even when he’s had ample cause.
If they insert troops into the combat zone then they’re fair game by every possible calculus. Otherwise, they function as human shields, which would effectively embargo all Russia’s offensive ops.
‘but in reality it would be their best units, which are all white men of high character’
Yes, this is the empire’s problem. It spent the past half-century crowbarring-in its Female and Of Color revolution. But it’s the (officially despised) white males who keep the lights on and the sewage plant running.
This serves to ratchet-up their resentments and envy at being unable to be what they are not.
If they’re in uniform now in any Western country they are not men of high character. I can’t have much sympathy for them if they go and fight, but I don’t want them to be killed. We need all we can get if they’re not already ruined by the pozz.
Mao did the same thing in Korea, with the remnants of the loyalist army.
Pertinent and scary thought. Fortunately young white men seem to avoid the bait
I wonder if Trump’s election and the naming of an anti-DEI SecDef will trigger a renewed interest in military service among young white men. I am more open, but not sold yet, to recommending the military to young relatives that need the discipline and a way out of a crappy situation. Times have sure changed since I went in at age seventeen in the 70s.
Having a tattooed Zionist retard as Secretary of Defense is for the sole purpose of recruiting white boys to die in their wars. It’s like folks never learned anything from Dubya.
Isn’t it oxymoronic to believe in men of “high character” who have low moral intelligence and low street smarts? Those soldiers’ manipulability and eagerness to kill for a mafia of mediocrities, insatiable capitalists, and Zionists is evidence of low moral intelligence. Their enthusiasm to obey and to die for mediocrities, insatiable capitalists, and Zionists is evidence of low street smarts. Maybe the matter of street IQ can be separated from character. But how? After correcting your premises, a good strategy for precisely subverting the military commands of the USA, UK, France, Poland, etc. ought to suggest itself. Meanwhile, it remains… Read more »
There aren’t enough divisions in NATO to even move the lines forward even a kilometer in most sectors. And here’s a dirty little secret: How ready are these divisions for war?
When our squadron shipped out to Iraq, our maintenance crews worked double shifts for weeks trying to get every one of our aircraft in perfect shape. I don’t know if NATO is doing the same effort.
Well, that’s one way of ensuring the vibrantization of occidental society is permanent.
Heh, a month. Probably. They’ll be rendered combat ineffective in shorter time. Foreign Legion might be effective for a little while.
An expeditionary force would work against some third world country like Mali, but putting them into Ukraine and hoping anything would change is fool-hardy, unless they bring their own artillery and air support and all the rest of it, in which case, its not a expeditionary force, but a full fledged invasion force.
That ain’t gonna happen.
If the Commonwealth joins the fray, watch out:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nV7jPRaHpF8
If I may make a modest suggestion, I would send along the homeless and the asylum-seekers (often overlapping there). In my area of exurban Florida, the past year or two these are easy to spot since they often sport backpacks; it’s pretty easy to differentiate these from “real” backpackers or students, neither of who are common in my area. Alternately, one sees them on bikes with bags (and obviously not cycle tourists that are rare in my area.) I can’t speak for the whole nation, but I can say for a fact the situation is not far different in the Kansas… Read more »
Okay, the figurehead leaders chosen by the managerial class are as fantastical as the managerial class itself, but someone or some groups prop up the managerial class. Ironically, the managerial class couldn’t manage a lemonade stand, but here they are.
Someone pays for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Someone back Starmer and Macron. This is the problem with democracy. We have no idea who is really in charge but someone is and it’s not Starmer or Macron or, even as powerful as they are, the Kagen cult.
The fear and likely reality is that the oligarchs who select the managers also are of infinitely lower caliber than in the past. I’m certain some of the elite realize how deranged and dangerous this all is, but how many and who? We probably would not like the answer.
I noticed that when you had the protests after Oct. 7. The big Jewish donors to the schools seemed genuinely shocked. Yeah, yeah, they were pissed that Jews were being thrown into Team Whitey, but they also seemed to have no clue what was going on at the universities. Now that I think of it, when you look at our oligarchs today, they are very different from the oligarchs in the past. The oligarchs of the past made their money in real industries that required dealing with the real world – getting raw materials, transporting the materials and shipping the… Read more »
No doubt. The WEF is quite the clown show, but it does reveal this diminished capacity from time to time, especially with panels on transhumanism and immortality achieved through downloading memory/brain activity. To the degree that’s not deranged, it also is infantile and stupid. Although less extreme, Bill Ackman never believed the Ghost of DEI Present would appear at his kids’ yeshiva. More than detachment and arrogance, that reflects a shocking degree of ignorance at the most basic level. As sort of an aside, the oligarchs’ monopolies on finance, tech, and information are slowly receding, and they are in panic.… Read more »
Consider the possibility that no one is in charge. As a wiser man than me noted, virtually all aberrant organizational behavior can be attributed to those eternal human foibles: greed, stupidity, sloth, plain old incompetence. “Virtually” because one can never rule out deliberate malice; of course it happens, but it’s probably rare, and less so at scale (IMO of course). We conspiracy theorists love to believe in some evil genius pulling the strings. For Christians that’d be Satan and his minions. For secularists, it’s the WEF. A few generations ago it was the Bilderbergers and the CFR/Trilateral Commission. When we’re… Read more »
Lot of sense there. Consider the first moment you look down into your newborn’s face and the terrifying thought hits you, “Crap, I’m like an adult now. I’m supposed to know things. I shoulda studied or something.” Only to (possibly) realize much later that we are all just ad libbing, winging it, making it up as we go.
The guy who “wins” is the one who can convince others that his made-up answer is right. Putting your faith in kings and princes, as it were…
I strongly suspect there are competing elite factions now, so there is merit to your point if that suspicion is right. The disappearance of leftwing, for convenience’s sake, lockstep and coordinated actions has started to pop up now and then. If factions are in constant competition and have given up the modus vivendi that at least provided the illusion of unity, yeah, no one probably is in charge (this assumes once upon a time someone was in charge).
No, of course they’re not in charge.
To the degree it matters, having an incapacitated dementia patient as president brought that home to a lot more people.
This was prophetic:
Blazing Saddles Governor Scene
Same as in WWI and WWII. Who controls the fed? Who controls the WTO? Who controls the international banks? Who controls the money printing presses? Who colludes to keep the price of metals artificially low?
Somebody is going to have to explain to me why the set-up of the post-Yeltsin era was so bad for everyone. The Russians exported cheap gas and pretty girls, the Euro elite and Ukrainian politicians took their cut, the Russians reinvested the proceeds in London real estate and football clubs, and German industry hummed along. 20 years later, everything is screwed and we’re talking about something as farcical as the “JEF” while we’re on the brink of WW3. I want to speak with the Manager………….
I once thought that this was oversimplified but it has proved most certainly not to be: check the Early Life of the principal agitators for war with Russia. It is almost uniform.
One word, Cpt Willard: Greed. That great big mostly empty spot on the map with untold natural resources has always been the big prize for centuries. Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Hitler, the Neocons all have had/have their designs on the vastness of Russia. Just imagine the lebensraum for all the tens of millions of third world workers that would be brought in to build and staff this vast playground for the super rich and their managerial toadies. The rainbow flag will be hoisted over the Kremlin with great fanfare. When Russia is finally filled and raped and pillaged, “they” will move… Read more »
The globalists wanted to financially and literally strip-mine Russia. Many, like our Sec State, are also old Trotskyists with ancient grudges. They’ve been throwing a temper tantrum ever since Putin put an end to those games.
Bingo. We lost a great potential ally with the shenanigans we pulled. The only thing that kept us even somewhat restrained was the potential for nuclear proliferation from a collapsed, anarchic Russian Republic.
Consider how angry internet leftists get at the thought of a redneck having a truck—and the fantasies they surround him with: small penis, mowed-down schoolgirls, asphyxiated Mother Earth, etc. That’s how our rulers feel about anyone but them having anything. That functioning arrangement you remember included some minor accommodations of normal people’s desires, like heated homes, hamburgers, and not being shelled in a trench. It had to end—to be ended. They’ll destroy the world however many times it takes to keep it from you. Your possession of any of it is every evil. Why was suburbanized c.1960 America, the best… Read more »
It was okay for the Russian Jews who became billionaires as compradors to the West. It was catastrophic for the Russian population. Putin’s mission has been to MRGA (sans empire).
I dunno, scanning the MSM it’s mostly Trump-Trump-Trump. I have not seen much hand-wringing over Russia. It’s very likely the only people who genuinely care about Ukraine-Russia are managerial retards and neocons. I wonder if Europe and not Washington is driving all this? You know the old line about politics is downstream from culture. Europe for some time time has been downstream from America. When we let something go, Europe is still holding onto it. Like jean jackets. It may take some time before they realize America doesn’t care, so they won’t care. This pertains to all the fads of… Read more »
That’s confirmed by the polling…A vast majority of Americans want to cut off the Ukraine entirely and tend to our business at home…..
The Grand Canyon has nothing on the chasm between what the public wants and what its putative elected leaders deliver. Mass migration is overwhelmingly opposed in every Western nation, for example. Opinion and voting only matter if the causes and issues align with what the Administrative State wants. Otherwise, the concerns are duly noted and filed away.
A green shoot, perhaps, is how quickly the public turned against the Ukraine insanity, but that is offset by it not making a difference.
I thought it was interesting that the immivader vote didn’t really show up and make a big impact in the recent election.
If the immivaders are so lazy they won’t even show up to vote, I wonder how the managerial class thinks they can shape them into any sort of fighting force.
I suspect the immivaders have most of their EBT items delivered. The new crop is lazy as hell, which highlights how much the NGO’s were involved in providing the food, shelter and transportation to get them here. There likely will be a new ballot harvesting operation targeted directly at them if the recent indifference continues.
I guess their principal service to our country is simply to consume products and services thereby providing GDP growth and public sector employment to manage the dispersal of their benefits and cleanup of the destruction they wreak on their surroundings. Any military service is mostly a gateway to more gimmes.
Their presence as criminals, idiots, and ugliness—terroristic friction in everyday life—is their military purpose. Wherever they are is defeated.
They’ll be called up to “fight” the same way BLM and antifa are: Today you do your crimes on TV, with overt police assistance.
They’re not what conservatives say, “military aged men” or “Democratic voters.” They’re ringvereine. Their sign is the Obamaphone.
Imagine the Regime gets in a hot war with Russia and there is no folksy patriotism, and few American flags placed on cars. There’s a lot of resistance to it from both the left and the right. The incoming president doesn’t want it. The media starts splintering, and then you have a missile attack on a carrier or European base and you have maybe 1/5th of the outrage that you’d have seen if it were 2003.
If you’re into the JQ, fellas, then that’s a great time to mainstream it.
I suspect a number of false flag attacks to be launched on the homeland to try to gin up support, but given the crisis of competency the managers also would screw those up. Exhibit A is the planted pipe bombs in coordination with the January 6 psy op. Literally everyone realizes the IC/FBI to be responsible.
Remember that weird bombing of the AT&T exchange in Nashville(?) a few Christmases ago?
Look how quickly that got memory-holed and has never really been discussed since.
Everything is memory holed (slight hyperbole): Las Vegas shooting, J6 pipe bomb, pre-positioned bricks for antifa rioters, the first assassination attempt and Secret Service complacency, incompetence or complicity, FEMA malfeasance, etc. In my youth I believed that investigative journalism existed, no more.
Zfan pretty well covered it, but if you think about the mounting atrocities committed against the public, the ability to disappear them has been breathtaking.
I like jean jackets.
The most damning indictment of liberal democracy is the quality of its leadership. The ruling class put up a vegetable and a retard sequentially, and asked us to believe that these were their best they had to offer. Even Trump, for all his extraordinary talents, is a poor judge of character and too easily manipulated by flattery. His chief virtue is that he is not, or was not, part of the ruling class. The liberal order is governed by narratives that are necessary to achieve the necessary consensus among distributed power nodes. Adherence to the narratives is the lingua franca… Read more »
This is the most dangerous time for the US when Trump takes office. We all know he does not read, and is not interested in history beyond talking about how long the mattress is in the Lincoln Bedroom. He is a 1960s-1990s era American male and will bring that mindset to foreign policy. I see no one on Trump’s national security staff who will be able to keep the “Commies coming over the Rio Grande” whisperers away from Trump, which will trigger and mirror his own experience of being a white dude who lived in a time everyone thought the… Read more »
This is a good observation—unfortunately *not* without merit. My hope is Trump is a reformed/contrite man after the Covid-19 fiasco. He listened to those with “credentials” against his better judgement and it lost him re-election.
Trump’s main problem (IMHO) was that he listened to too many people in his first administration and went against his gut instincts. Given our current trend in this group to analyze and condemn the managerial class, the uniparty and their overlords—perhaps placing all our money on a Trump bet is the best way out of this mess, if possible.
Trump has certainly has made some noise by nominating many “disruptors” to key positions. Unfortunately, when Cocaine Mitch said Gaetz was a no go Trump instantly folded. Will things play out like they did in 2016 when all the outsiders he brought with him to Washington in January were gone by April.
The Russians are dismantling what was the largest and most experienced army in Europe.
Sending an Euro expeditionary force to Ukraine at this time would be like Longshanks sending Prince Edward to negotiate with William Wallace.
i am thinking more like the Athenian expedition to Syracuse
Maybe Putin will find a salt mine where the survivors could be put to work.
“they are below decks debating the need for a captain.”
I may have heard it here first IDK but I always think they’re below decks having meetings that make sure nobody can be held accountable
isn’t the manifest unfitness of the ruling class going to bring their rule to an end? and probably within the next 10 years? especially since the chinese and russians don’t seem likewise afflicted…
Certainly. It cannot continue to exist based upon its self contradictory nature. It’s not if, it’s when—and when, then what comes after. We fear the great unknown and rightfully so. There really are no prior examples that can be extended into a modern societal situation as we have today.
“Rather reign in hell than serve in heaven” comes to mind. There is no historical antecedent because these clowns have the actual ability to take out everything with them.
That’s the one I was thinking of too.
The other one that comes to mind is “An evil man will burn his own civilization to the ground, simply so he can rule over the ashes.”
Nietzsche knew a thing or two about Nihilism I recall his chilling observation that man would rather will nothing, than to not will at all.
‘That is the West right now. It is a ship bobbing around, crewed by mediocre men who are terrified at the thought of being in charge. Instead, they huddle together inside a consensus and ruthlessly enforce it.’ Right. The West has a crisis of masculinity in that it’s overtly feminist and anti-masculine. It devalues and disenfranchises its boys and men, calling that goodness and equality. Its impetus consists of empowered women plus tractable and inferior men, that infest the political class and the bureaucracy. All things then founder and deteriorate. Instead of meritorious and proven hierarchic leadership, upon which men… Read more »
Look at Nigel Farage in the UK, who is literally running away from a leadership role at a time when a strong man might cause the UK government to fall. Instead, he’s making videos about the Jaguar commercial and muttering like Jordan Peterson about woke going broke again, like a broken record. There doesn’t seem to be anyone willing to step up, for reasons I doubt we’ll live long enough to find out. Meanwhile Trump has surrounded himself with Russophobes like Mike Waltz and Seb Gorka — anyone who thinks the Trump White House will tamp down the insanity is… Read more »
Farage is no leader. Don’t kid yourself. He’s just a polished speaker.
How could Farage lead? His party has a just a few seats in Parliament.
Trump will turn the insanity down from 11 to about 7. Not much, perhaps, but I’ll take it.
“The UK has a lot of problems, but it still has some of the best human capital on the planet.” The English are not a numerous people, and yet consistently, even today, they produce amazing writers. The globalists must not be allowed to make the English vanish from the Earth. “How in the world did these two feckless nitwits end up ruling these two once great nations?” They do not rule. They administrate. A Prime Minister is an example of state authority. If an individual is making sovereign decisions, then they are exercising power. If they are carrying out decisions… Read more »
Nixey is no Nixon. This is especially idiotic: “Consider the drip-feed: before the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s Donbas in 2014, the west refused to provide Ukraine with any military assistance or to sanction Russia meaningfully….” That’s because Ukraine and Russia were at peace before the 2014 Nuland coup.
It makes sense to the western managerial mind that they should have sanctioned Russia for the thought crime of thinking about annexing Crimea, long before they actually did it. Putting aside for the moment the comedy of this mediocrity still believing, at this late date, in the effectiveness of sanctioning Russia. No, that is too kind to him, and too harsh to true mediocrities.
His entire life has been about sitting in a room somewhere imagining what life is like outside that room. Original? Regardless, awesome. Politicians and the unironically dubbed “thought leaders” always have been the dutiful puppets of oligarchs. With the collapse of oligarchical intelligence we have gotten the likes of Macron, Starmer, and the even dumber diversity version like Harris and Lammy. Common people may not get the governments they deserve but the oligarchs certainly do. And as an aside, while I hope beyond reason nothing of the sort happens, it almost–almost–would be a joy to see the look on Starmer’s… Read more »
You had a post last week about how the CIA grooms people like Juan Guaido. The same is true of morons like Starmer and Macron. When the US regime talks about “democracies”, it means compliant quislings like these.
The British forces today are about capable of invading and capturing the Isle of Wight. Maybe that’s too severe — let’s say the Isle of Man. That’s it.
If you really want to be scared, or reassured, I’m not really sure which, consider the high probability that none of these western “leaders” are actually in control of launching nuclear weapons, and consider who might be. We already know Trump wasn’t. We can be very confident Biden isn’t. I’m willing to wager substantial sums that Starmer and Macron aren’t either. If anybody has a guess for who is, I’m all ears.
I believe no one is. Those that kept the control from Trump had no ability to launch either. They only froze the whole process.
My knowledge of nuclear command and control is pretty much limited to a Tom Clancy novel or two. No matter; it rang true: such power is not in the hands of any one individual. At the very least it’d require the approval of one ? two ? more? Other officials before an attack would commence. Of course there are any number of other rumored systems, like the Soviet’s “Dead Hand” automatic Doomsday program. It’s been rumored the US has something similar. You know, something that would massively retaliate automatically, our subs I presume, in the event of a first strike… Read more »
One lesson is that, if you ever start a country that is noting but a Roman Republic LARP, at least make sure you have some provision for a dictator, like they did.
Madison and Hamilton should have their bones dug up and thrown in the Potomac.
The problem with Rome’s concept of a “dictator”—one that they knew and feared at the time—was who that dictator would be. In the first use (that I’m aware of) they found Lucious Quinctius Cincinnatus. He of course was a man of honor and principle and when he no longer needed the power of absolute dictator, returned to his life as a gentleman farmer. In times not long past, our early Republic recognized such men of integrity and celebrated such as an example to the people.
Today, not so much…sigh.
“In the room the women come and go talking of Michelangelo”
One of the thoughts repeatedly echoing in my mind when thinking about the Western press and elites is from Eliot’s Prufrock. To me, this captures the pretentiousness, effeminacy, and general superficiality, and is the general feeling of the comments here.
Couple this with impotence and a general sense of etherized unwellness – and you have the modern situation with Russia.
Eloi: And Prufrock’s laments were in the aftermath of WWI, and perfectly described society in the build up to WWII. That is such an epic poem, not quoted often enough.
“I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled.” And meanwhile all the young White men lie dead.
I am so glad to hear there is a fellow “Prufrock” fan. There are so many greats- yours included! My favorite line: “I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.” Anyone who has worked a 9-5 for any period of time absolutely gets what he means.
Now you bring to mind the Crash Test Dummies– thanks!
I don’t understand what you are discussing.
An obscure Canadian alternative rock group from the 90s that liked to put phrases from T.S. Eliot in their lyrics. Obscure, alternative and even pretentious— damn, what’s that say about me?
YES. It’s my favorite. If you haven’t heard him read it: T.S. Eliot Reads: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Here he reads his close second, and stylistically best, even if I prefer TLSJAP: T.S. Eliot Recites “The Hollow Men” Both were about the early interwar years and the devastation of WWI, but they perfectly describe today. In his words, voice and cadence, Eliot captures the bleakness of modernity–and he likely would be horrified by how right he was. Thank God Eliot didn’t live to see today’s Britain or St. Louis. Hearing him read these poems is a small… Read more »
So far this week we have stories leaking out from Europe that the Brits and French are talking about sending an “expeditionary force” to Ukraine. Because the last time the Brits sent an Expeditionary Force to the Continent it worked out so well. 🤦♂️ They had to come back four years later with the American Army. All I can think of with the Brits is the old school yard taunt “Oh yeah? You and what army!” Quite literally. What forces can the Brits marshal? A quick Goog says the Royal Army totals 110K. How long would they last in head… Read more »
This has been going on for a long time. In 1860 Prussian and Austrian armies were settling a territorial dispute with Denmark. Britain was up in arms about it. When Bismarck was asked what he would do if Britain landed troops, he famously replied that he would send the police and have them arrested.
Do they not know how stupid they sound?
In August 1914, the British Expeditionary Force was sent across the Channel to support France. Although a small force compared with the German and French armies, it was to play a role out of all proportion to its numbers. But the cost was huge, and by December 1914 the original force had been almost wiped out.
https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/1914-mons-christmas#:~:text=In%20August%201914%2C%20the%20British,had%20been%20almost%20wiped%20out.
Once upon a time, the captain and the mates of a ship grew so vain of their seamanship, so full of hubris and so impressed with themselves, that they went mad. They turned the ship north and sailed until they met with icebergs and dangerous floes, and they kept sailing north into more and more perilous waters, solely in order to give themselves opportunities to perform ever-more-brilliant feats of seamanship. As the ship reached higher and higher latitudes, the passengers and crew became increasingly uncomfortable. They began quarreling among themselves and complaining of the conditions under which they lived. “Shiver… Read more »
Speaking of mediocrities (hey Joe), can you just imagine Harris being elected? She’d have sat at the pinnacle of the mediocrity bubble – good lord. Sure guys and gals, keep up all the tough talk about taking on Russia while promoting swarthy invaders, fags and trannies – everyone is no doubt shaking in their boots.
Have you ever worked someplace that was just a dysfunctional mess and watched how people reacted when a competent leader was inbound? They tend to freak out because for years they’ve just done whatever with no accountability. Now the organization is broke, sales are down, market share is collapsing and nobody seems to care. The ship has a crew. They aren’t debating the need for a captain. A new captain has been assigned to them, and that means accountability is coming. As Tucker put it before the election, “Dad is coming home. And he’s PISSED!” Hence all the talk about… Read more »
“Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are ridiculous people who have landed in these positions due to the collapse of their respective political classes.”
It seems as though Europeans suffer from a lot of delusions. I think many of them in positions of power secretly fantasize about being royalty. They consider themselves players on the world stage but in reality, they are small ball politicians like what you would find in any state legislature.
The ridiculous group pictures taken for publication, which they pose for every time they have another of their frequent and meaningless group meetings (G7, G20, NATO), are further evidence that they are just larping as world leaders.
From Clinton on, until Trump, all the presidents have been hollow men; None had any real world experience beyond politics. None have ever had to pay a mortgage, much lead a platoon.
Not that I have much use for generals and admirals, either. By the time they get a star, they have been living in the military cocoon so long they have no idea how the world outside the cocoon functions. (I recall a four star advocating for more Head Start. Brilliant, sir!).
How does this not end in the actual end of history?
that is not how things work.
Yesterday’s empiricism may not cover today’s situation. But even I confess to be having trouble envisioning the actual extinction of humans
Extinction of humans may well occur . . . but the sub-saharans will still be around. That’s why it will be the ‘end of history.’
It would be ironic if that’s the real meaning of Fukuyama’s idiotic phrase. The world was supposed to embrace the virtues of everyone just enjoying a life of easy consumer capitalism and this would end all conflicts and drama. Of course there is a guaranteed way to end all conflicts…
[…] ZMan can only shake his head. […]
“I am a sailor of the raging depth, and I know a thing or two. Back to the corner mates and over the side, yes I know a thing or two.”
– Workshop of Telescopes, Blue Oyster Cult
Hello Captain Trump. Yet the managerialists below decks don’t want him.
Friedman was paid to, “predict”, the next century. The first stop was to easily manhandle Russia via a conflict in the Ukraine. At the same time the West would shore up its GDP by paying aliens to invade the territories of the Empire and its Occidental satraps. GDP is everything and so it would solve all of the problems presented to the Empire. China wouldn’t be a problem in the least. China’s coastal elites are international and closer and happy to be closer to the post-Western coastal/cosmopolitan elites. It was a happy alliance without a single possible crack or fissure.… Read more »
You’ve made some especially apt metaphors today, Z-man!
Over at AZLyrics, “Ship of Fools” produces well over a dozen results. There are some covers, but looks like most of them are unique songs.
This whole thing shows why deterrence and mutually asssured destruction isn’t foolproof. The reason the regime is trying to provoke Russia isn’t because they want to destroy civilization in a nuclear holocaust, but they’ve concluded that Putin also is unwilling to destroy the world so they correctly believe that as long as they don’t fire a nuke then they can do anything else including an invasion of Russia. Putin is partially to blame for this, he keeps drawing red lines which our shithead leaders proceed to cross, then his response is always “ooh lookie what I can do with this… Read more »
as painful as it would be, what would be the primary targets of a Russian strike? the cities. no loss there as they are purely parasitical at this point. the forest flourishes after a fire. bigger picture; the population pressure on the world is basically eliminated. in Darwinian terms, a nuke war is a huge plus for the planet, and mankind. the quality of life shot up for the survivors of the Black Plaque for the very same reasons.
Africa and the Global South would be mostly, or perhaps even entirely spared, while White nations would be devastated, the white population dramatically diminished. Over time probably this would lead to starvation in Africa, since they are incapable of surviving at current population levels without food imports.
Winner: Pajeets
Yes, while Europe and N. America is smoldering, the Indians and Chinese will begin vying for world dominance. The Chinese will win, but the Indians will try and rebuild the West in their image, to better counter the Chinese.
Arabs/Muslims will play the two off each other, and try and keep their civilizations alive without their fancy condos in NYC/London and their Swiss financial havens.
Africa will be Africa, no matter what.
There’s a Heinlein book about that. A nuclear war destroys the northern hemisphere. Through the magic of sci-fi the hero wakes up in the distant future run by a technologically super advanced southern hemispheric people – blacks – who keep whites as slaves (and food, iirc)
I just remembered the name: Farnham’s Freehold. Read it a long time ago. It has a “Wakanda” problem in the plot, though.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farnham%27s_Freehold
Wakanda was real!
History’s richest man is worth at least $87BN more than Elon Musk – and Jeff Bezos
No mention of slaves . . . hmm.
Methinks you are ignoring the untoward effects of (possibly) a total collapse in world trade, the value of the debt/credit financial systems, the shipment of raw materials or finished goods, etc. A global system breakdown would claim victims far in excess of a (relatively) limited nuclear war.
“…the quality of life shot up for the survivors of the Black Plaque for the very same reasons.” Yes, but that was then—this is now. Back in Medieval times, everyone lived off of the land at subsistence level. The Malthusian theory of population would keep the numbers at what the land could support. The people went away, but the land did not, hence a rebound. We have a technological society and the cities contain the bulk of the technological, high IQ caste. How many get killed off will be the key to what the immediate future will look like. We… Read more »