Henry Cabot Lodge was right about the League of Nations, and the failures of the UN and the EU have proven that the conspiratorial and disloyal designs of international socialists will subvert any organization even those cosmetically designed to respond to the concerns of those defending the liberty of individuals and the sovereignty of citizens.
Review Lodge's 14 Reservations and consider his Reservation no. 1 in light of how the EU has attempted to coerce the UK into remaining and the efforts of Leftists to appeal to "International Law," which may be the opinion of unelected totalitarians, or reports and resolutions based on propaganda or fraud in conferences and bodies within or outside of the UN to undermine the constitutional order of the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodge_Reservations
Saturday, November 09, 2019
Thursday, September 26, 2019
On President Trump's Conversation with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine
I just read the whole telephone transcript. The Democrats are screaming that there is more that incriminates Trump that was kept out. It is clear to me that they are lying. It is possible that after the Javelins were mentioned there may have been a paragraph where Putin was mentioned and the civil war/invasion by Russia. That would be classified and should be redacted. Merkel was mentioned, which must have made Foggy Bottom very unhappy to see released.
It is impossible for me to see where any redacted passage would have referenced a quid pro quo for reopening the Biden investigation. The Ukrainian President makes clear that he wants to do this because the prior investigation was stopped by his political enemies, that he wants to expose them for his own reasons and without needing Trump to prompt him. In fact the Ukrainian asks Trump to supply evidence to build a case against the former ambassador and the former Ukrainian administration.
What we have here is a foreign President volunteering that he is under pressure from his own corrupt deep state and Russia and asking the American President for help with weapons, energy, and evidence of corruption. All of this cooperation is in accord with our treaty relations with his country.
It is also clear that Merkel is acting as a Russian agent to keep the EU opposed to America and dependent on Russian energy while blocking support for Ukraine. The same hysterics who have spent the last three years screaming that Trump is a Russian agent and championing the EU over the US and the UK are either gullible fools or deliberate seditious traitors.
It is impossible for me to see where any redacted passage would have referenced a quid pro quo for reopening the Biden investigation. The Ukrainian President makes clear that he wants to do this because the prior investigation was stopped by his political enemies, that he wants to expose them for his own reasons and without needing Trump to prompt him. In fact the Ukrainian asks Trump to supply evidence to build a case against the former ambassador and the former Ukrainian administration.
What we have here is a foreign President volunteering that he is under pressure from his own corrupt deep state and Russia and asking the American President for help with weapons, energy, and evidence of corruption. All of this cooperation is in accord with our treaty relations with his country.
It is also clear that Merkel is acting as a Russian agent to keep the EU opposed to America and dependent on Russian energy while blocking support for Ukraine. The same hysterics who have spent the last three years screaming that Trump is a Russian agent and championing the EU over the US and the UK are either gullible fools or deliberate seditious traitors.
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Hong Kong Protests
About 36 years ago I was assigned Shore Patrol officer duty when my ship stopped in Hong Kong. The British police took me out drinking to the Bottoms Up club. They loved HK with it's culture of a light hand and general law abiding citizens, although the triads were certainly for real. One toasted, "May we all live in Hong Kong and own a business in Singapore."
The long term cost will be the breakdown in trust between the people and the police, and the Law in general. That will erode the basic fabric which the prosperity of Hong Kong is based on.
The long term cost will be the breakdown in trust between the people and the police, and the Law in general. That will erode the basic fabric which the prosperity of Hong Kong is based on.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
On the Civil War
If it was just a theoretical argument in a debating society or law school then I could see arguments that the South had a case. Clearly the Fugitive Slave Act was constitutional and it was not being enforced. Essentially a Resistance operating both outside of and within the government, especially but possibly not exclusively at the state level, was defying the law. Almost everyone believed that states had a right to secede from the Union. New England had an active secession movement at the time of the War of 1812. Against that are two, ok three, things.
1. The Union was new and loved and that was as true in most of the South, which was recently settled frontier as much as the North was. While once the war became seen as a defense against Northern invasion many or most whites in the South rallied, at least for a time, to the Confederacy, Unionist sentiment was strong not only in Western Virginia but in other regions such as Northern Alabama. North Carolina, whose state motto could be "We aren't South Carolina," only seceded after all surrounding states did and the Confederate army had moved in.
2. The legal fiction that Lincoln relied upon in invoking the Militia Act, that combinations to powerful to resist had seized power in state governments, had to modern eyes if not to those of the time some element of truth. The wealthy agricultural interests of the Slavocracy were dominating the state governments and acting against the interests of free white labor.
3. Dred Scott. The fact is that the South forced the crisis. In the worst way at the worst time and under the weakest pretext they dragged the country into the war. Given the consequences, proportionately in modern terms think of over 6,000,000 dead, they invalidated any theoretical argument that they could have made before resorting to the appeal to blood. Like the Palestinians after their campaign of terror their arguments about prior legal standing are rendered void.
The remarkable thing is that there was comparatively little resort to guerrilla warfare and despite some generations of bitterness and the abuses of Jim Crow the post-Reconstruction settlement worked and enabled the growth of a modern society that, despite the efforts of race baiters, is proving vibrant and tolerant.
1. The Union was new and loved and that was as true in most of the South, which was recently settled frontier as much as the North was. While once the war became seen as a defense against Northern invasion many or most whites in the South rallied, at least for a time, to the Confederacy, Unionist sentiment was strong not only in Western Virginia but in other regions such as Northern Alabama. North Carolina, whose state motto could be "We aren't South Carolina," only seceded after all surrounding states did and the Confederate army had moved in.
2. The legal fiction that Lincoln relied upon in invoking the Militia Act, that combinations to powerful to resist had seized power in state governments, had to modern eyes if not to those of the time some element of truth. The wealthy agricultural interests of the Slavocracy were dominating the state governments and acting against the interests of free white labor.
3. Dred Scott. The fact is that the South forced the crisis. In the worst way at the worst time and under the weakest pretext they dragged the country into the war. Given the consequences, proportionately in modern terms think of over 6,000,000 dead, they invalidated any theoretical argument that they could have made before resorting to the appeal to blood. Like the Palestinians after their campaign of terror their arguments about prior legal standing are rendered void.
The remarkable thing is that there was comparatively little resort to guerrilla warfare and despite some generations of bitterness and the abuses of Jim Crow the post-Reconstruction settlement worked and enabled the growth of a modern society that, despite the efforts of race baiters, is proving vibrant and tolerant.
On The Electoral College and Progressivism
The Electors are selected by the state legislature. Under the state constitution the legislature may be bound to honor the popular vote and select a slate of Electors proposed by the political party that wins the popular vote in that state. There are states with GOP majority legislatures where the public votes for a Democrat in the election. Under the state constitution that state legislature has to select the slate proposed by the party that the legislature does not belong to, even though that legislature was selected by the same voters and possibly in the same election or one a year earlier. Originally most state legislatures in America were elected annually, and the voters knew that their choice would then appoint the Electors for the President. That made the separate popular vote for the POTUS superfluous. Once the Electors are appointed they can vote as their conscious directs, for any candidate.
Ideally people would vote for only a limited number of offices, and most of those in small local districts, to ensure accountability and control by the citizenry. Voting units with hundreds of thousands or millions of voters produce corruption gerrymandering and expensive media driven campaigns subject to external manipulation. It was intended that people would vote for their Representative in Congress, from a district of less than 50,000 persons and fewer voters, and no other national offices. The other offices people voted for were their governor, state legislature, usually two chambers with one at least smaller than the congressional district, the local mayor and alderman, the local sheriff and judge, and the coroner. That totals nine offices, with most elected annually. The state legislatures selected the United States Senator as well as the Electors for the Presidency and the higher state judges.
The states had an incentive to jealously limit corruption and abuse by the federal government and the federal government had an incentive to jealously limit corruption and abuse, which is inevitable, in the states. What the Progressives did by transferring power to the federal government, in part by downgrading the states through the direct election of Senators and the ostensibly apolitical Civil Service system, was to infect the federal government with the corruption, self serving bureaucratic machinery, and partisanship that was the hallmark of state level government. Children are taught that the Progressive Movement through the Wisconsin Plan professionalized government in a manner that strengthened Democracy and reduced opportunities for abuse. That is a lie. What it did was eliminate local control over the government and reduced the voters to dependents subject to coercion bribery and manipulation by national level parties. Voters no longer could even control their local and state governments, who became mere conduits to administer federal money and programs, let alone the federal government that became essentially unchained from subordination to the citizenry.
Ideally people would vote for only a limited number of offices, and most of those in small local districts, to ensure accountability and control by the citizenry. Voting units with hundreds of thousands or millions of voters produce corruption gerrymandering and expensive media driven campaigns subject to external manipulation. It was intended that people would vote for their Representative in Congress, from a district of less than 50,000 persons and fewer voters, and no other national offices. The other offices people voted for were their governor, state legislature, usually two chambers with one at least smaller than the congressional district, the local mayor and alderman, the local sheriff and judge, and the coroner. That totals nine offices, with most elected annually. The state legislatures selected the United States Senator as well as the Electors for the Presidency and the higher state judges.
The states had an incentive to jealously limit corruption and abuse by the federal government and the federal government had an incentive to jealously limit corruption and abuse, which is inevitable, in the states. What the Progressives did by transferring power to the federal government, in part by downgrading the states through the direct election of Senators and the ostensibly apolitical Civil Service system, was to infect the federal government with the corruption, self serving bureaucratic machinery, and partisanship that was the hallmark of state level government. Children are taught that the Progressive Movement through the Wisconsin Plan professionalized government in a manner that strengthened Democracy and reduced opportunities for abuse. That is a lie. What it did was eliminate local control over the government and reduced the voters to dependents subject to coercion bribery and manipulation by national level parties. Voters no longer could even control their local and state governments, who became mere conduits to administer federal money and programs, let alone the federal government that became essentially unchained from subordination to the citizenry.
On Thrift
Many many years ago (50+/-) I joined my father for lunch at a Chock Full 'o Nuts (I loved the nutted cheese sandwich) near Columbus Circle. When we were walking back to his office he asked me if I had noticed anything about the other men in the restaurant. I answered, "Yes, they were all wearing good suits." My father replied, "Every man sitting at that counter was worth at least 40 million dollars. Yes, their wives would not let them out of the house badly dressed but unless they are having lunch with a client they eat at Chock Full 'o Nuts." Half a century ago 40 million was a lot of money.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
What The Third World - and America - Needs
The Clinton Foundation was Colonialism. Instead of providing goods and services to those in need it spent its money on "infrastructure" meaning bureaucracy to manage a few projects. While the projects, things like cookstoves or clean water, themselves may be worthy they are MacGuffins. What the Third World nations lack is clean honest and effective government. That is the one thing that Clinton could not provide. NGOs provide Governance by foreigners as a substitute for Government by locals.
The concept of Citizenship is the foundation of the American Experiment, with credit to the Swiss for inventing it in the modern context first along with Federalism. There is no more important job for our politicians and our schools than in reiterating this constantly.
What the 3rd World needs are Missionaries, of the old fashioned kind. They do not even have to promote a religion that I adhere to but that is OK.
The concept of Citizenship is the foundation of the American Experiment, with credit to the Swiss for inventing it in the modern context first along with Federalism. There is no more important job for our politicians and our schools than in reiterating this constantly.
What the 3rd World needs are Missionaries, of the old fashioned kind. They do not even have to promote a religion that I adhere to but that is OK.
Sunday, August 11, 2019
Red Flags and False Reports
If anyone reports a person under Red Flag law and after the police arrive unannounced and forcibly remove the target's firearms that targeted person is found to have been lawfully in possession of those weapons and no danger to the community that would justify a court order depriving them of their right to bear arms then the person who made the Red Flag call should face a charge for attempted murder by use of the police as a deadly force proxy. If any person is injured or killed in the forcible entry precipitated by the Red Flag call then the caller should be charged with Assault or Murder.
My expectation is that we soon see a wave of calls sending the police to the homes of Conservatives after unfounded and malicious reports of Domestic Abuse, copycatting the call that was made to then prospective Prime Minister Boris Johnson's house in England, as well as false reports of Child Abuse or Racial or Sexual misconduct framed so as to drive people out of the public square and out of business.
Actions must have Consequences.
If you really believe that you know that someone is a danger to yourself or other human beings, especially to minors or others not competent to act alone, then go to the police and share your reasons. If you make a convincing argument, not just saying "Those evil people cook dead flesh on their bar-b-que, have a Trump sign, and post hunting pics on social media," then the police may act. If they have grounds to go to the District Attorney and the DA feels there are grounds to get a court order then a hearing should be scheduled in a court of law. In that case a police officer can come during the day to knock on the door and invite the target to come down to the office and bring a lawyer. In that case if there are no grounds found to remove the weapons then no one is hurt, except in the wallet to pay for that lawyer. The neighbors may not like each other but unless there is more harassment that should be the end of it. If the police are lead to believe that there are reasons to believe that a no notice forcible entry is needed then if it turns out the neighbor was right, there was a meth lab in that basement and those people were crazy dangerous, then well done to the good citizen who made that call. If on the other hand there was no good reason to cut out the due process of law and instead opt for the emergency response then the false or exaggerated report should be treated as a criminal act.
The language shielding a person making a charge based on their personal feelings rather than on objective evidence mirrors that of campus or workplace sexual or racial and other protected category hostile environment complaint proceedings, that are themselves ripe for abuse in soliciting false charges. If right now someone posted an article on Salon or a similar Left wing site stating that it is impossible to feel safe if those who identify as cisgender heteronormative white males have access to firearms then I predict that would be taken seriously, it would gain thousands of "Likes" and Shares, and celebrities and politicians would repeat the argument.
My expectation is that we soon see a wave of calls sending the police to the homes of Conservatives after unfounded and malicious reports of Domestic Abuse, copycatting the call that was made to then prospective Prime Minister Boris Johnson's house in England, as well as false reports of Child Abuse or Racial or Sexual misconduct framed so as to drive people out of the public square and out of business.
Actions must have Consequences.
If you really believe that you know that someone is a danger to yourself or other human beings, especially to minors or others not competent to act alone, then go to the police and share your reasons. If you make a convincing argument, not just saying "Those evil people cook dead flesh on their bar-b-que, have a Trump sign, and post hunting pics on social media," then the police may act. If they have grounds to go to the District Attorney and the DA feels there are grounds to get a court order then a hearing should be scheduled in a court of law. In that case a police officer can come during the day to knock on the door and invite the target to come down to the office and bring a lawyer. In that case if there are no grounds found to remove the weapons then no one is hurt, except in the wallet to pay for that lawyer. The neighbors may not like each other but unless there is more harassment that should be the end of it. If the police are lead to believe that there are reasons to believe that a no notice forcible entry is needed then if it turns out the neighbor was right, there was a meth lab in that basement and those people were crazy dangerous, then well done to the good citizen who made that call. If on the other hand there was no good reason to cut out the due process of law and instead opt for the emergency response then the false or exaggerated report should be treated as a criminal act.
The language shielding a person making a charge based on their personal feelings rather than on objective evidence mirrors that of campus or workplace sexual or racial and other protected category hostile environment complaint proceedings, that are themselves ripe for abuse in soliciting false charges. If right now someone posted an article on Salon or a similar Left wing site stating that it is impossible to feel safe if those who identify as cisgender heteronormative white males have access to firearms then I predict that would be taken seriously, it would gain thousands of "Likes" and Shares, and celebrities and politicians would repeat the argument.
Saturday, August 10, 2019
Hong Kong Faces The Dragon
China is resuming its normal history of repression and dissolution with a North and South ebb and flow as it has had for 3,000 years. Within the last 160 years the Manchu were crippled and discredited by the Southern coastal syncretic Christian Taiping Rebellion. That was crushed but the Manchu fell and in the 1920s Chiang Kai-shek's KMT marched North to unify China and 20 years later Mao's CCP marched South. For 70 years the CCP has held power and gotten the Chinese people to endure their brutal regime by reminding them of the suffering from Warlords, the Civil War (even though that was caused by the CCP), and foreign invasion by Japan.
Will the CCP order the invasion of Hong Kong with massive loss of life and the crippling of banking and commerce? Probably yes. The final trigger I predict will be when the local police refuse to attack their own people. Xi knows that is when the Resistance becomes a Rebellion that is either crushed or it sweeps away the regime. Trotsky in a brilliant passage described how the Russian Revolution began when the Cossacks allowed the protesters to crawl to safety under the bellies of their horses.
The demonstrators today rallied in front of the main police station on HK's Nathan Street. If the CCP orders the police to respond and they refuse then I expect the troops from a distant region that have likely been assembling outside HK for the last weeks to enter. Just as with Tiananmen Square where troops from Inner Mongolia were used after the students fraternized with the local garrison I think that the Chinese will use poor country boys who hate the coastal city dwellers.
What can the people of HK do to resist? We may imagine technical wizardry in laboratories allowing them to hack into computers and communications, wreaking havoc, but ultimately boots and low tech savagery will win.
Is the fascist CCP regime doomed? Ultimately yes. That however will be of small comfort to the dead and those who suffer, both in China and outside, from likely years of repression rebellion poverty and quite possibly war.
Will the CCP order the invasion of Hong Kong with massive loss of life and the crippling of banking and commerce? Probably yes. The final trigger I predict will be when the local police refuse to attack their own people. Xi knows that is when the Resistance becomes a Rebellion that is either crushed or it sweeps away the regime. Trotsky in a brilliant passage described how the Russian Revolution began when the Cossacks allowed the protesters to crawl to safety under the bellies of their horses.
The demonstrators today rallied in front of the main police station on HK's Nathan Street. If the CCP orders the police to respond and they refuse then I expect the troops from a distant region that have likely been assembling outside HK for the last weeks to enter. Just as with Tiananmen Square where troops from Inner Mongolia were used after the students fraternized with the local garrison I think that the Chinese will use poor country boys who hate the coastal city dwellers.
What can the people of HK do to resist? We may imagine technical wizardry in laboratories allowing them to hack into computers and communications, wreaking havoc, but ultimately boots and low tech savagery will win.
Is the fascist CCP regime doomed? Ultimately yes. That however will be of small comfort to the dead and those who suffer, both in China and outside, from likely years of repression rebellion poverty and quite possibly war.
On Fallibility
One benefit of the Trump presidency is that it shatters the myth that the POTUS controls this vast flawless apparatus that makes him omniscient and omnipotent. Tin pot Wannabe Gods like Barry of the styrofoam™ pillars loved to feed that idea. With Trump it was possible that the first weeks he was in the White House no one would tell where the bathrooms were and he was lucky if the driver took him to the right airport. Many otherwise sober adults thought that Trump could walk into the Oval Office and push a button and then say, "OK I want the facts on the Kennedy assassination, and Area 51, and Obama's transcripts and birth certificates, oh and by the way, what happened to Judge Crater?" Trump is like most CEOs and managers. He spends a lot of time looking for someone who will tell him what is really going on.
Monday, August 05, 2019
Comment on Instapundit: GOOD LORD:
Shocking photos show massive fireball caused by explosion at Russian ammo dump said to house tens of thousands of artillery shells.
But we have dinner reservations at the officers club!
When I was a junior officer in the Combat Systems (Weapons) Department of an LHA (big troop transport) 35 some years ago we took on a FAE (fuel air explosive) bomb for the Marines. It was stored all by itself in a cargo hold at the bottom of the ship. One day I was wasting time in the Department office when an Aviation Ordnanceman came in and knocked on the inside of the door. It was his job to go down to the cargo hold and look at a tiny glass window on the outside of the shipping container for the bomb that was strapped down onto the deck of the space so that it would not bounce around. The Petty Officer looked at the Department Head, who was a Lt Commander and a very nice guy who never wore his academy ring, and the AO said "It looks pink Sir." The boss, who never cursed, said "The hell you say." Then the Commander, myself, the Gunners Mate Senior Chief, who was also a fine soft spoken man from Muleshoe Texas who happened to be completely tattooed from neck to legs, and a Lieutenant who was there as Assistant Department Head to make my life miserable because he had gotten tennis elbow at the naval academy and was late getting to sea to qualify but was still senior to me all ran and climbed the vertical ladder down to the cargo hold and each took turns looking in the little window. Another junior officer in the department who was going to EOD Dive officer school, which is considered the longest and hardest course in the Navy, also came to take a look. The hint of pink meant that the FAE might be leaking or unstable. If it exploded the good news would be that we might be dead before we knew it. It would have cracked the ships keel. So if the initial explosion did not kill us then we would have had a less pleasant death. We climbed out of the hold and frantic signals were sent to Washington, who unfortunately was dead. But then a team of qualified EODs did fly out fast enough to secure and then remove the bomb. Knowing that you are on a ship with that thing cooking a couple of hundred feet beneath you is an interesting feeling.
Just remembered the future EOD Dive officer who was a very good guy was actually in the Engineering Department next door but he spent time hanging around our friendly department to avoid getting screamed at by the Chief Engineer.
When I was a junior officer in the Combat Systems (Weapons) Department of an LHA (big troop transport) 35 some years ago we took on a FAE (fuel air explosive) bomb for the Marines. It was stored all by itself in a cargo hold at the bottom of the ship. One day I was wasting time in the Department office when an Aviation Ordnanceman came in and knocked on the inside of the door. It was his job to go down to the cargo hold and look at a tiny glass window on the outside of the shipping container for the bomb that was strapped down onto the deck of the space so that it would not bounce around. The Petty Officer looked at the Department Head, who was a Lt Commander and a very nice guy who never wore his academy ring, and the AO said "It looks pink Sir." The boss, who never cursed, said "The hell you say." Then the Commander, myself, the Gunners Mate Senior Chief, who was also a fine soft spoken man from Muleshoe Texas who happened to be completely tattooed from neck to legs, and a Lieutenant who was there as Assistant Department Head to make my life miserable because he had gotten tennis elbow at the naval academy and was late getting to sea to qualify but was still senior to me all ran and climbed the vertical ladder down to the cargo hold and each took turns looking in the little window. Another junior officer in the department who was going to EOD Dive officer school, which is considered the longest and hardest course in the Navy, also came to take a look. The hint of pink meant that the FAE might be leaking or unstable. If it exploded the good news would be that we might be dead before we knew it. It would have cracked the ships keel. So if the initial explosion did not kill us then we would have had a less pleasant death. We climbed out of the hold and frantic signals were sent to Washington, who unfortunately was dead. But then a team of qualified EODs did fly out fast enough to secure and then remove the bomb. Knowing that you are on a ship with that thing cooking a couple of hundred feet beneath you is an interesting feeling.
Just remembered the future EOD Dive officer who was a very good guy was actually in the Engineering Department next door but he spent time hanging around our friendly department to avoid getting screamed at by the Chief Engineer.
On President Trump and the Death Penalty
Trump demands death penalty for all mass murder hate crimes while condemning 'white supremacy'
Mental Illness has become a shell game defense. Declaring someone unfit has always stopped the death penalty. What the Left did was declare every criminal legally insane, but still eligible to vote and then be released back into society. They made a mockery of Justice and they did it deliberately. We need to roll the rules back to what worked. Only citizens who are sane and competent should be allowed to vote or keep and bear arms. Determining that someone is unfit to vote or exercise another right such as the right to bear arms should only happen after due process.
If someone has been declared incompetent then if they are allowed into society someone else must take responsibility for them as their guardian, as is always true for a minor who is by definition irresponsible. If the unfit person then commits a crime the guardian may face some liability and the person would be removed from society until determined to be safe. If a person is convicted of a crime but not declared legally insane then they would face a period of incarceration and then be released.
Ideally the mentally unfit who are dangerous should be cared for in hospitals and the death penalty should apply to those who are legally sane but who commit capital crimes. The closure of the mental hospitals and the dumping of the deranged onto the streets following the exposure of the horrific conditions at Willowbrook by Geraldo Rivera was a failure of liberal policy.
President Trump's call for the death penalty for mass murderers should be seen in this context.
Mental Illness has become a shell game defense. Declaring someone unfit has always stopped the death penalty. What the Left did was declare every criminal legally insane, but still eligible to vote and then be released back into society. They made a mockery of Justice and they did it deliberately. We need to roll the rules back to what worked. Only citizens who are sane and competent should be allowed to vote or keep and bear arms. Determining that someone is unfit to vote or exercise another right such as the right to bear arms should only happen after due process.
If someone has been declared incompetent then if they are allowed into society someone else must take responsibility for them as their guardian, as is always true for a minor who is by definition irresponsible. If the unfit person then commits a crime the guardian may face some liability and the person would be removed from society until determined to be safe. If a person is convicted of a crime but not declared legally insane then they would face a period of incarceration and then be released.
Ideally the mentally unfit who are dangerous should be cared for in hospitals and the death penalty should apply to those who are legally sane but who commit capital crimes. The closure of the mental hospitals and the dumping of the deranged onto the streets following the exposure of the horrific conditions at Willowbrook by Geraldo Rivera was a failure of liberal policy.
President Trump's call for the death penalty for mass murderers should be seen in this context.
Friday, August 02, 2019
Re: Tulsi Gabbard
Re: Tulsi Gabbard.
NBCnews: "Russia's propaganda machine discovers 2020 Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard"
1. She is a veteran, currently a Major in the Hawaiian National Guard. Previously she was enlisted in a medical administration unit. She is now a Military Police officer, which is combat arms but while in a combat zone she did not participate in direct combat. She does not have a Combat Action Ribbon. There is no reason to doubt that she was competent at her duties and served honorably.
2. While she has projected an air of moderation or at least tempered certain erroneous statements by others regarding technical facts that she can claim some credibility on she has reliably supported her party leadership in generally moving the Democratic Party to the left. She has endorsed what could be extreme positions in endorsing the Obama record in both domestic and foreign policies, tempered by dovish criticisms, including accommodating anti-American and anti-Semitic groups in the Middle East, as well as participating in mob-like #metoo attacks and demands for Impeachment. She has effectively endorsed the Putin position on Syria. Her position on Israel parroted the most left wing criticisms of the Netanyahu government, while she joined her party leadership again in supporting an anodyne toothless measure designed to signal disapproval of the embarrassing Gang of Four who push open BDS.
3. She has never held a meaningful private sector job or accomplished anything significant other than get elected.
4. Tulsi Gabbard is unqualified from what we know to be POTUS and it is reasonable to believe that she would be a disaster if elected.
5. In the 2nd Debate she confronted Kamala Harris, and rhetorically speaking drew blood. In response there appears to be a campaign by left wing media, such as NBC, to discredit her using tactics that are reminiscent of the hysterical and irrational means that have been directed at President Trump and his supporters. There is a level of personal animus on display that gives pause and merits consideration.
6. Partly what we see can be considered the expression of a Stalinist model that is in fact part of the cultural DNA of the Left. While this may seem bizarre to most Americans those who have been on college campuses know that the legacy of left wing alphabet party politics that belonged in a coffee shop or cafe near City College of NY or the University of Chicago in the 1930s or in the Monty Python skit from "The Life of Brian" is as much a part of what shapes academia as the GI Bill and the Guaranteed Student Loan programs. The greater venom is directed at a member of the party who threatens the discipline of the group. Gabbard is being treated like Dmitri Shostakovich when the Party declared him to be a Formalist.
7. There may be another reason that some Democratic activists resent Gabbard. She is an attractive woman. The base of activists largely consists of the sexually frustrated and resentful. Picture a Democratic Activist and what comes to mind is an enraged middle aged woman whose ostentatious disregard for an attractive physical appearance makes a statement. This is leavened by sexual politics that have exploited attractive women to benefit men in power and a coterie of unattractive lesbians. The latter may tolerate an attractive woman as useful for publicity, as with actresses who are celebrated but rarely taken seriously, until they age into the apparatchik role or publicly reject the attractive image and, with a few exceptions for major talents, the audience that brought them stardom.
NBCnews: "Russia's propaganda machine discovers 2020 Democratic candidate Tulsi Gabbard"
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D.-HI, speaks at a press conference on Capitol Hill on July 18, 2018.Win McNamee / Getty Images file
2. While she has projected an air of moderation or at least tempered certain erroneous statements by others regarding technical facts that she can claim some credibility on she has reliably supported her party leadership in generally moving the Democratic Party to the left. She has endorsed what could be extreme positions in endorsing the Obama record in both domestic and foreign policies, tempered by dovish criticisms, including accommodating anti-American and anti-Semitic groups in the Middle East, as well as participating in mob-like #metoo attacks and demands for Impeachment. She has effectively endorsed the Putin position on Syria. Her position on Israel parroted the most left wing criticisms of the Netanyahu government, while she joined her party leadership again in supporting an anodyne toothless measure designed to signal disapproval of the embarrassing Gang of Four who push open BDS.
3. She has never held a meaningful private sector job or accomplished anything significant other than get elected.
4. Tulsi Gabbard is unqualified from what we know to be POTUS and it is reasonable to believe that she would be a disaster if elected.
5. In the 2nd Debate she confronted Kamala Harris, and rhetorically speaking drew blood. In response there appears to be a campaign by left wing media, such as NBC, to discredit her using tactics that are reminiscent of the hysterical and irrational means that have been directed at President Trump and his supporters. There is a level of personal animus on display that gives pause and merits consideration.
6. Partly what we see can be considered the expression of a Stalinist model that is in fact part of the cultural DNA of the Left. While this may seem bizarre to most Americans those who have been on college campuses know that the legacy of left wing alphabet party politics that belonged in a coffee shop or cafe near City College of NY or the University of Chicago in the 1930s or in the Monty Python skit from "The Life of Brian" is as much a part of what shapes academia as the GI Bill and the Guaranteed Student Loan programs. The greater venom is directed at a member of the party who threatens the discipline of the group. Gabbard is being treated like Dmitri Shostakovich when the Party declared him to be a Formalist.
7. There may be another reason that some Democratic activists resent Gabbard. She is an attractive woman. The base of activists largely consists of the sexually frustrated and resentful. Picture a Democratic Activist and what comes to mind is an enraged middle aged woman whose ostentatious disregard for an attractive physical appearance makes a statement. This is leavened by sexual politics that have exploited attractive women to benefit men in power and a coterie of unattractive lesbians. The latter may tolerate an attractive woman as useful for publicity, as with actresses who are celebrated but rarely taken seriously, until they age into the apparatchik role or publicly reject the attractive image and, with a few exceptions for major talents, the audience that brought them stardom.
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Dad's Lesson, On Amateurs and Professionals, Leadership at Monte Cassino
My father was in the American army that was held up for months before Monte Cassino. He had found a feather bed in a ruined farmhouse and dragged it into his foxhole. One day the American Colonel, a fearless man who had been a bank Vice President when the war started and who was ready to volunteer his men for anything as long as he remained two miles behind the lines, showed up with the British General. That was probably Alexander as the British were in command in the Mediterranean. The Colonel exploded at my father, threatening to put him on report and demanding that everything be cleaned up according to regulations. After the Colonel went off to make someone else miserable the English General, whose family had probably been doing that job for hundreds of years, came over with his swagger stick in one hand and his monocle in the other. He peered at my father's foxhole and raised his stick and cried out, "That's the spirit man. Forage man. Forage."
Tuesday, July 09, 2019
Comment on Wretchard T. Cat on Facebook:
Comment on Elizabeth Scalia on Twitter
When you think you are a god. You surrender to the Beast and have,
"No restraint. No restraint at all."
When I was at university we amused ourselves during the summer after my first year by playing with hypnotism. I was very good at it. One day I hypnotized a young woman who was a friend of mine and my set. She later became my freshman roommates girlfriend for a time. I brought her down slowly step by step, describing walking down a spiral staircase. At the bottom I asked her to describe where she was. She was in a very deep trance and this was not faked. She said that she was in a small room and that she could hear noises outside. She began to describe hearing what sounded like an animal outside that was trying to get in. I knew that something was wrong and I brought her back by walking her up the staircase until I could safely wake her up. Sometime later Erika Fromm came to a sherry hour at my dormitory and I described the incident. She became quite agitated and made me swear never to do that again. She told me that my friend was probably a paranoid schizophrenic and that I was very close to unleashing her demons. My life was in real danger if that beast attempting to get in had broken through.
"No restraint. No restraint at all."
When I was at university we amused ourselves during the summer after my first year by playing with hypnotism. I was very good at it. One day I hypnotized a young woman who was a friend of mine and my set. She later became my freshman roommates girlfriend for a time. I brought her down slowly step by step, describing walking down a spiral staircase. At the bottom I asked her to describe where she was. She was in a very deep trance and this was not faked. She said that she was in a small room and that she could hear noises outside. She began to describe hearing what sounded like an animal outside that was trying to get in. I knew that something was wrong and I brought her back by walking her up the staircase until I could safely wake her up. Sometime later Erika Fromm came to a sherry hour at my dormitory and I described the incident. She became quite agitated and made me swear never to do that again. She told me that my friend was probably a paranoid schizophrenic and that I was very close to unleashing her demons. My life was in real danger if that beast attempting to get in had broken through.
Friday, June 21, 2019
On Democrats and Liberals
The twin fights against communists and against mobsters in unions, especially but not exclusively in the film industry, and in foreign policy and in government service was lead by Liberal Democrats more than by Isolationist Republicans in the 1930s to early 1950s. In the North the losing local fight against urban mobsters was lead by Republicans with the Democratic machines being corrupted. In the South the racist and Isolationist wing of the Democrats remained in control after the GOP had been wiped out after Reconstruction. After WW-II the GOP, which was always anti-racist, became more Internationalist. As the Marxists infiltrated and took over the Democrats many liberals migrated toward Eisenhower's GOP and, having seen the consequences of the corruption brought by big government, became more conservative. That happened with Ronald Reagan and Frank Sinatra and others. The moral and criminal corruption mentioned above also provided openings for organized crime, often based in the same communities the Democrats exploited as voting blocs. That lead to even more corruption of the Democratic Party as an institution in a vicious cycle of debasement.
In New York state there are both a Liberal and a Conservative party in addition to the Democrats and the Republicans. Both the Liberals and the Conservatives openly functioned as consciouses for their larger siblings. The Liberal Party of New York was founded as an explicitly anti-communist party for liberal trade unionists to influence the Democrats.
From the wiki:
The party itself sank into corruption and is no longer a meaningful force. Its presence on the New York ballot has been replaced by that of the Working Families Party, which is Marxist front and reincarnation of the New Party and ACORN that Obama associated with.
In New York state there are both a Liberal and a Conservative party in addition to the Democrats and the Republicans. Both the Liberals and the Conservatives openly functioned as consciouses for their larger siblings. The Liberal Party of New York was founded as an explicitly anti-communist party for liberal trade unionists to influence the Democrats.
From the wiki:
The Liberal Party was founded in 1944 by George Counts as an alternative to the American Labor Party, which had been formed earlier as a vehicle for leftists who supported the presidential candidacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt but were uncomfortable with the Democratic Party. Despite enjoying some successes, the American Labor Party was tarred by the perceived influence of communists in its organization, which led David Dubinsky of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Alex Rose of the Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers, theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, and Ben Davidson to leave in order to found the Liberal Party as an explicitly anti-communist alternative. In the 1944 elections, both the American Labor and Liberal parties supported Roosevelt for President, but by 1948 the two parties diverged, with the Liberals nominating Harry S. Truman and the American Labor Party nominating Progressive Party candidate Henry Wallace. Non-Marxist ALP leaders like Dean Alfange helped lead a walkout to the Liberal Party
The party itself sank into corruption and is no longer a meaningful force. Its presence on the New York ballot has been replaced by that of the Working Families Party, which is Marxist front and reincarnation of the New Party and ACORN that Obama associated with.
Thursday, June 13, 2019
Garbage In, Garbage Out,
NY Mag calls Trump a Liar
Trump has taken political spin to new, infernal levels. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
(Note that Apple cut out the description and attribution for the photo)
When Person A announces that they hate B and think that all B Lovers should be destroyed, and then walks up to you with the blood of a B Lover, or the job and college admission of a B Lover's child, dripping from their fingers and then asks "What do you think of B?" it is understandable if the response is "That bum?"
The Left have embarked on a campaign of professional and personal destruction against not only those who actively resist them but against those who fail to publicly submit or fail to celebrate the Left's current position.
At this time the voting booth is almost the last place where people believe that they might have some expectation of privacy in expressing their views. Therefor it is reasonable to expect that many or most people who are not seeking a confrontation will answer a question from an opinion poll to give the response most likely to end the encounter with minimal risk. While we may honor those who resist bullies we must also recognize that most people will reasonably not seek to escalate an encounter phrased not as a direct threat but as an inquiry with a possible threat, possibly from a 3rd party, to follow.
My expectation is that we will see efforts to convince people that their ballot is not secret, not only to feed the Russian Hacking theme, but put out a message that it is safest to submit at the ballot box. Those Who Would Rule look at places where the Beloved Leader gets 99.96% in an election and they feel envy.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Comment on Wretchard T. Cat on Facebook:
LGBTQ Bigotry: Tyranny Masquerading as Tolerance
The same government that partners with the crybullies to defame isolate and demonize opponents, and then destroy them through the courts, refuses to use the police and other agents of government to protect the targets from real threats. This is done under the penumbra of the SCOTUS ruling in The Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales which held that the police have no duty to protect. To do so though uses a grant of tactical freedom to the police, whereby they get to assign their resources and react as in their professional judgment is appropriate, to provide a license for participation in an actual conspiracy to deny citizens of their civil rights. For an otherwise honest police officer to argue that he did not respond to a call for help, because to run down that alley without backup would have been tactically unsound or that departmental priorities assigned them to other duties, is not the same as if a police commander said "Screw 'em" when he heard that blacks or Jews or gays or straights were being targeted. The Broward Deputy who failed to respond did not do so because his superiors had ordered him not to citing the SCOTUS ruling. Quite the opposite in fact and he has been charged. Local authorities who abuse their office to enable assaults against the civil rights of any group or individual should be brought to justice.
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Comment on Wretchard T. Cat on Facebook,:
Belmont Club: "They're Coming Through the Wire"
The "Chinese Communist Party, a Marxist-Leninist organization hybrid of what the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany was"
Why yes, yes it is. Both the CCP and the KMT were founded on Leninist lines with Russian and German advisors. In part they were rivals because they occupied the same space. As in Cuba when Castro evicted Batista the Soviets, and in Cuba the Official Communists, were supporters of the Old Regime until the end, although in China by 1945 Stalin was playing both sides and allowing Mao to seize the Japanese munitions in Manchuria.
Politicians and Bureaucrats believe in kicking cans down the road. Every cop or government clerk knows that if you just listen and wait then 99% of the time the problem in the form of the unhappy person will just go away. Tell a cop that some crazy person is on the street or that some guy is selling solid gold watches for a dollar and the cop will say "You can't make this stuff up" and then the cop will go away. That doesn't mean that when the chips are down they will not act like lions, although the clerk despite their best intentions may not remember how. As Bernard Wolley said, "Minister, it's my job to see the chips stay up."
What we need are politicians, like Trump, who deliberately do not act like bureaucrats. We hire politicians through a political process to represent our values, because the normal logical process of administration needs to be lead. We need a politician or a great business manager to recognize when logic has failed and that some things are worth fighting for. For the Boomers we need a Kirk because Spock can't do the job, and 53 years ago Spock knew that.
200+ years ago the term Civil Servant applied to both elected officeholders and the staff that they supervised in English government ministries. Over time as the British system was developed, and its American variant followed, the idea of an apolitical impartial professional staff took root. In America its acceptance was affirmed late in the 19th century. However in the US that was in fact part of the Progressive Movement and the allegedly apolitical nature of the bureaucrats was always doubtful.
During the last 100 years the appointed civil service has become more ideological while the elected politicians and their temporary appointees have for at least the last 50 years taken to publicly denying their ideological responsibility. They now project themselves as merely overseers of the professional staff whose probity they accept and rely on to solve what are only technical questions. Arguments over conflicting value judgments are referred to the Courts, a nonpolitical body. That is why the Left seeks to preempt arguments by declaring that "The science is settled" and all problems can be resolved by judicial fiat.
We need to restore the Constitutional basis of government whereby the decision as to what the Constitution stands for is a political question for the citizens to decide through their elected officers.
Why yes, yes it is. Both the CCP and the KMT were founded on Leninist lines with Russian and German advisors. In part they were rivals because they occupied the same space. As in Cuba when Castro evicted Batista the Soviets, and in Cuba the Official Communists, were supporters of the Old Regime until the end, although in China by 1945 Stalin was playing both sides and allowing Mao to seize the Japanese munitions in Manchuria.
Politicians and Bureaucrats believe in kicking cans down the road. Every cop or government clerk knows that if you just listen and wait then 99% of the time the problem in the form of the unhappy person will just go away. Tell a cop that some crazy person is on the street or that some guy is selling solid gold watches for a dollar and the cop will say "You can't make this stuff up" and then the cop will go away. That doesn't mean that when the chips are down they will not act like lions, although the clerk despite their best intentions may not remember how. As Bernard Wolley said, "Minister, it's my job to see the chips stay up."
What we need are politicians, like Trump, who deliberately do not act like bureaucrats. We hire politicians through a political process to represent our values, because the normal logical process of administration needs to be lead. We need a politician or a great business manager to recognize when logic has failed and that some things are worth fighting for. For the Boomers we need a Kirk because Spock can't do the job, and 53 years ago Spock knew that.
200+ years ago the term Civil Servant applied to both elected officeholders and the staff that they supervised in English government ministries. Over time as the British system was developed, and its American variant followed, the idea of an apolitical impartial professional staff took root. In America its acceptance was affirmed late in the 19th century. However in the US that was in fact part of the Progressive Movement and the allegedly apolitical nature of the bureaucrats was always doubtful.
During the last 100 years the appointed civil service has become more ideological while the elected politicians and their temporary appointees have for at least the last 50 years taken to publicly denying their ideological responsibility. They now project themselves as merely overseers of the professional staff whose probity they accept and rely on to solve what are only technical questions. Arguments over conflicting value judgments are referred to the Courts, a nonpolitical body. That is why the Left seeks to preempt arguments by declaring that "The science is settled" and all problems can be resolved by judicial fiat.
We need to restore the Constitutional basis of government whereby the decision as to what the Constitution stands for is a political question for the citizens to decide through their elected officers.
Thursday, June 06, 2019
Comment on Wretchard T. Cat on Facebook:
Thomas Sowell on Twitter,
"The concept of microaggression ..."
The condition is not fungible. For reasons that defy the stifling whitecisgendercapitalistlogic meritocracy paradigm some microaggressions are privileged over those directed at people who are preemptively declared priviliged. Those deemed privileged are not privileged to be protected from microaggressions but the speech of those deemed privileged is declared preemptively aggressive and hateful so that it can be declared an aggression by those granted the privilege to declare the speech of others an aggression because those so declaring have already themselves been declared not privileged. Now is that clear?
Monday, June 03, 2019
Comment on Wretchard T. Cat on Facebook:
"Can we still believe in heroism in a world without heroes?"
When there were only two sexes most people managed to find a partner. It may not have been Mr or Miss Right and there was enough self pity generated to keep bartenders employed but there was remarkably few instances of arsenic in the scrambled eggs. People muddled through. The greater the complexity though the lesser the probability of finding anyone even remotely likely to fit in the narrowly defined box people are being measured for. Over 47% of humanity meet the definition of "Heterosexual Male" and another 47% meet the definition of "Heterosexual Female." Stick your nose out of the door and you are bound to encounter someone that meets the minimum standard. Additional standards will reduce the size of the availability pool. Must they be single? Must they be within certain age limits? Must they, as a college roommate once called out, have "Two eyes and a lung?" Still a qualified candidate is sure to be out there. When you start narrowing the criteria to meet standards that only apply, if they exist in reality at all, to 0.01% of humanity the sad truth is that even with the aid of the internet you are unlikely to find a match. It certainly becomes ineffective to impose costs on the other 99.99% of humanity to aid you in your search. Simple homosexuals are 4-5% of the population. That is large enough to make some reasonable allowances that do not impose excessive costs on the majority.
Why do totalitarians like the obsession with creating multiple narrow categories? Partly it is because they want time and energy wasted since on general principles they want to see our civilization self destruct. Partly it is because the more that people are isolated and frustrated then the easier they are to control. A lonely society is a trustless society. A trustless society lacks civil society and is open to totalitarian control.
Why do totalitarians like the obsession with creating multiple narrow categories? Partly it is because they want time and energy wasted since on general principles they want to see our civilization self destruct. Partly it is because the more that people are isolated and frustrated then the easier they are to control. A lonely society is a trustless society. A trustless society lacks civil society and is open to totalitarian control.
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Comment on Wretchard T. Cat on Facebook,
"Wretchard T. Cat on Twitter"
Wretchard on Twitter
"It's possible that the recent setbacks of the abortion cause are indirectly driven by the realization that humans are valuable, not the bestial burdens assumed by the eugenicists. https://t.co/38nTFSlfKJ"
Humans existed as a species earlier, and even exhibited religious activity as evidenced by burials, but as organized communities in the modern sense that can be considered in some way civilized we need look back no further than the Neolithic Revolution and the beginning of agriculture some 12,000 years ago. For over 75% of the time since then there still is no evidence of an ethical identity of humans as individuals meeting a special consideration or Mercy. That we may consider as arriving with Judaism no earlier than 1,200 BC. The acceptance that human life, including that of women and children, was not just of utilitarian value to a ruler or conqueror but had intrinsic worth regardless of social station became widespread and generally if not universally accepted at least in the West only within the last millenium, and it's period of dominance over those who wielded power over the majority of humanity as well as their subjects was but a fraction of that time. Now that humane position is visibly unraveling. It has been condemned as a legacy of Imperialism, without consideration of the murderous values that either preceded the exaltation of humanity which we may call Humanism or the forms of barbarism which lurked in dark corners and now return under new labels.
"It's possible that the recent setbacks of the abortion cause are indirectly driven by the realization that humans are valuable, not the bestial burdens assumed by the eugenicists. https://t.co/38nTFSlfKJ"
Humans existed as a species earlier, and even exhibited religious activity as evidenced by burials, but as organized communities in the modern sense that can be considered in some way civilized we need look back no further than the Neolithic Revolution and the beginning of agriculture some 12,000 years ago. For over 75% of the time since then there still is no evidence of an ethical identity of humans as individuals meeting a special consideration or Mercy. That we may consider as arriving with Judaism no earlier than 1,200 BC. The acceptance that human life, including that of women and children, was not just of utilitarian value to a ruler or conqueror but had intrinsic worth regardless of social station became widespread and generally if not universally accepted at least in the West only within the last millenium, and it's period of dominance over those who wielded power over the majority of humanity as well as their subjects was but a fraction of that time. Now that humane position is visibly unraveling. It has been condemned as a legacy of Imperialism, without consideration of the murderous values that either preceded the exaltation of humanity which we may call Humanism or the forms of barbarism which lurked in dark corners and now return under new labels.
Monday, May 20, 2019
On the Theory of Value.
Socialism is based on the equitable distribution of the fruits of labor, meaning physical labor. Marx plundered David Ricardo's Labor Theory of Value. This was intended as a counter to the earlier Mercantilist theory which was somewhat vulgarly thought to depend on wealth being based on the regulated trade in plundered colonial assets and the even earlier Feudal social and economic system with wealth based on land tenure.
Marx failed to see that the Mercantilist model failed on its own merits as shown by financial implosion of Spain after importing the gold of the New World. Every effort to use state power to limit innovation and trade failed. In this Marxism was no different than the advocates for earlier would be productive elites, feudal or mercantile.
What Marx never worked out was the valuation of non-physical labor, like that of intellectuals such as Marx. It was clear that Intellectuals are Alienated and full of grievance but for all the pleading about "Knowledge Workers" there is no credible way short of the market in a Capitalist system to value and identify as a good the product of intellectuals. Intellectuals should be the last people to argue for scrapping the market because they are most likely to have the their work value revalued down by a bureaucrat.
Marx failed to see that the Mercantilist model failed on its own merits as shown by financial implosion of Spain after importing the gold of the New World. Every effort to use state power to limit innovation and trade failed. In this Marxism was no different than the advocates for earlier would be productive elites, feudal or mercantile.
What Marx never worked out was the valuation of non-physical labor, like that of intellectuals such as Marx. It was clear that Intellectuals are Alienated and full of grievance but for all the pleading about "Knowledge Workers" there is no credible way short of the market in a Capitalist system to value and identify as a good the product of intellectuals. Intellectuals should be the last people to argue for scrapping the market because they are most likely to have the their work value revalued down by a bureaucrat.
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Comment on Wretchard T. Cat on Facebook:
"The two families, the Povlsens and the Ibrahims, were about to intersect."
Approximately 10% of Sri Lanka is Muslim, in a few small pockets. More than that are Tamil spread over large distinct region. The Tamil insurrection lasted 26 years. Suppressing it cost up to 100,000 lives and more than that were expelled. Until now most Muslims in Sri Lanka and elsewhere have been passive when faced with radical voices, pleading personal innocence and not confronting the aggressive voices but rather claiming victimhood and fearing retribution. Having turned away from socialism, crushed rebellion, and instituted one of the fastest growing economies in Asia the people of Sri Lanka may be expected to have no sympathy for a scorpion that now threatens its host. The response may be decisive. It is possible that this will induce the Muslims to identify and expel the threats from their community. If that does not happen, if there is not a paradigm shift among Muslims, then we may see a wave of isolation and expulsion.
Saturday, April 13, 2019
Comment on Wretchard T. Cat on Facebook:
"Laura Rosenberger on Twitter"
Espionage kills good people. Some years ago your tax dollars, and glad for them, sent me to Munich. Oddly enough the Navy has a facility there, and ships are heavy. We have it because Munich was in the American Zone during the Occupation after WW-II. If you look at Google Maps for the city you will see on the East side of town a district called Bogenhausen. That is the best part of the city, like the East Side in NYC. There is a small park called the Shakespeare Park, because Germans are crazy and with the 19th century attitude towards "Kultur" they thought that Bill had to be German. That is where Adolph and Eva took evening walks. Facing the park is a house with a big flagpole. It was built in 1905 by a beer baron who was Jewish. He left town very fast in 1933. Smart guy. The house was taken over by the Hohenzolleren-Emden family, a cadet branch of the old royal family and a naval hero of the old regime. From what I read a respectable man. He was kicked out in 1944 and the SS moved in, so bad things happened in the basement and after the war the house, being owned by a banned organization, became the property of the US government. Once a year on the 4th of July we run up the flag and put on uniforms and hand out hot dogs to all and sundry. The rest of the time we sit there quietly in civilian clothes.
I get orders to report for Active Duty for Training from my Reserve Unit. My Welcome Aboard went, "Only tourists walk into the Hochbrau House. Real Muncheners go to the Augusteiner Garden. You are here to work." In three days I finished three weeks worth of work. It's government. So I asked for more work, which almost induced heart failure as no punk junior officer had ever asked for more work apparently. They gave me a clipboard and told me to take an inventory of the government property, desks chairs file cabinets etc. These were all solid ugly 1950s-'70s GSA issue. Down next to that basement, which had been turned into a weight room, I found the furnace room with boxes waiting for disposal. They were full of maps, now declassified, that were issued by the US Army during the war. They showed southern Poland, including the rail lines and the camps. We knew where they were. Another map was of the Adriatic coast from after the war. The map showed beach markings and times. It was clearly an operational chart for inserting agents.
Before WW-II the United States had almost no Intelligence Service. The State Department filed reports and the FBI kept an eye on Latin America. The military had attaches, and ONI had an adventure in Cuba but very little by way of Commando or HUMINT capacity. The acknowledged masters at that were the British. We became their pupils when the war broke out and the British helped set up train the American OSS. During the war the OSS sent agents to meet with the Partisans fighting nazis across Europe. After the war the Iron Curtain came down and suddenly we had no idea what was happening in Eastern Europe. This was during the transition period between the wartime OSS and what became the CIA. Someone got the bright idea to send some of our guys back to see their old friends and gather some information. John le Carré wrote a novel with a similar plot.
Remember that we were very close to the British and to some extent under their tutelage. There was a liaison officer between British and American Intelligence. His name was Kim Philby. He was a Soviet Spy, one of the Cambridge Five Ring along with MacLean Burgess Blunt and Cairncross. The Russians were waiting on the beaches for our men. Every man on that operation died. I was holding their death certificate.
Wednesday, April 03, 2019
Comment on Instapundit: "OH THANK GOODNESS — ANOTHER TEN-YEAR EXTENSION. Beto O’Rourke Warns: Only 10 Years Left to Act on Climate Change."
Who stole those two years? I suspect Senator Iselin.
Time for the Delta's of Faber College to throw an End of The World Party.
Ask those Coeds, do they really want to die virgins?
Ask those Coeds, do they really want to die virgins?
Johnny: "Auntie Em, Uncle Henry, Toto! It's a twister! It's a twister!"
Monday, March 11, 2019
Comment on Facebook,
Wretchard T. Cat: Jennifer Rubin on Twitter
https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger/status/1104891988799819776?fbclid=IwAR0Q9WbYzuhH-Fen6-CXaFQM1jNVxOwXCmZVE7Hl8I_AE-TGSZAmPBC5FTA
On the face of it Cheney is as the Old Left put it in the days of Lillian Hellman "Objectively correct." Jennifer Rubin is very sad and I think very sick. Her disgrace is worse I think than that of Max Boot, who was just a clever young man on the make carving out a niche as a policy publicist and as such of not more import than someone who found himself working for JJ Hunsecker. While I may be wrong in thinking there is a distinction Rubin was a successful lawyer and then chose to become a conservative opinion writer and activist. Her turn since 2016, along with that of Podhoretz and the rest of the Commentary crew, is more extreme and shocking I think than that of the National Review group. Does she self medicate? How can she look at what she has stood for and then see the people she is aligned with now?
Jennifer Rubin's argument against Liz Cheney speaking up for the Jews is particularly inapt because the problem is, as I noted on an earlier post of my own, that Pelosi and her Whip are purporting to sit in judgment on what may be considered offensive to Jews. So we have a White Gentile Pelosi and a Black Gentile Clyburn telling Jews that they have no agency to criticize Omar's antisemitism because Omar's personal experience is more important than the historical experience of Jews. Cheney, a White Gentile, objects, since Jews are no less entitled to have bigotry directed at them responded to than are members of any other identity group, such as Blacks or Gays, who when attacked have received personal and direct support including the punishment by name of Congressman King. Rubin, a Jew, then attacks Cheney for defending Jews as being entitled to the same protection as everyone else.
As additional icing on this cake, Omar after her initial antisemitic statement, which resulted in the watered down House resolution in favor of Mom and Apple pie, doubled down and accused Jews of identifying more with a foreign community than America. Omar herself had no interaction to speak of or cause for grievance against Jews before coming to America that could be found in the personal experience that Congressman Clyburn, who has supported Israel in the past, referred to as more important than the Jewish experience of antisemitism. Her personal experience in Somalia was of being forced to become a refugee when Islamist extremists destroyed her homeland. What she has is a grievance based on her shared sense of identity with a foreign community that claims a grievance against a Jewish community.
Let me say this again slowly. Omar identifies with a foreign community based on a common religion and because of that she attacks native born American Jews and in a case of Projection accuses the Jews of being more loyal to a foreign community than they are to America. Pelosi and Clyburn say that Omar does not have to be held personally accountable for that, even though in far less clear cases other people have been. Cheney objects to Pelosi and Clyburn covering for Omar. Rubin then attacks Cheney.
Saturday, March 09, 2019
Boot Self-Boots
Some years ago when I met him Boot seemed reasonably bright as a Policy Populist. Not someone likely to find himself on tenure track at a good school but more likely to be a success in journalism or as a Deputy Assistant Under Secretary in a GOP administration, with some possibility of moving up. Then he hitched himself to Jeb!! He wasn't alone in being part of that trainwreck, and he could have even made himself look good coming out of it. Instead he alternately lashed out at Trump, insulted the voters, begged Trump for a job in the most condescending way possible (which crossed the line for me), and then doubled down on increasingly incoherent insanity. If anyone knows him and cares, I do think that he needs help. He did did block me on Facebook but I still get his spam-mail. Perhaps over the year that costs him the price of 10 kilowatt seconds. Max Boot's descent and rejection of his former supporters reminds me of when Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs turned into a wererabbit and dived down a hole.
http://thefederalist.com/2019/03/08/max-boot-bye-bye/?fbclid=IwAR0G-4XGjD7ifYKaZtTrMrQgRaR16hoOUJxg8jGsR9NjX5QajAqJ7f7KbJE
Sunday, March 03, 2019
Comment on "Powerline Blog"
"The Supreme Court as House of Lords"
Before Gorsuch was nominated I suggested at least discussing using the GOP majority to not increase but to reduce the size of the Supreme Court. The Justices of the SCOTUS and every other judicial or executive office only exist by Act of Congress. What Congress creates the Congress can abolish. The only exception is the office of the Chief Justice, which is created by the Constitution. If Congress had reduced the court to 7 members that would have fired Kagan and Sotomayor. The next day the Congress could have passed a new Act expanding the court and creating new offices for the POTUS to fill.
The way to depoliticize the courts is to transfer the power of Judicial Review, which is a political power, to a political body. The Electoral College as a body appointed by the state legislatures could serve that function, after the Judiciary suspends a law for a set period to afford time for such review. Also there is no way to check or override a court ruling rejecting an Act of Congress, because that power of a judicial veto was never in the Constitution to begin with. It is in the Constitution that Congress can override a veto by the POTUS. Congress needs the ability with a supermajority to override a court ruling.
The way to depoliticize the courts is to transfer the power of Judicial Review, which is a political power, to a political body. The Electoral College as a body appointed by the state legislatures could serve that function, after the Judiciary suspends a law for a set period to afford time for such review. Also there is no way to check or override a court ruling rejecting an Act of Congress, because that power of a judicial veto was never in the Constitution to begin with. It is in the Constitution that Congress can override a veto by the POTUS. Congress needs the ability with a supermajority to override a court ruling.
Thursday, February 28, 2019
The Brink
The Democrats are now actively and openly suborning perjury and creating ex post facto crimes to move bills of attainder. It is now I think impossible for the two sides to establish even that modicum of trust needed for any compromise. Indeed the Democrats cannot trust each other and need the momentum of confrontation, which creates an almost physical force, with enemies to hold their troops together. If they hold still then they will strike at the nearest objects, including each other, or sink like sharks.
This places the nation in an extraordinarily dangerous position. It resembles the situation in England during March - April of 1640 when a case was manufactured to force a Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Stafford. Only in the current case the victims are being openly coerced to participate in manufacturing a case against the President.
As we speak Netanyahu in Israel, who is Trump's ally and the great foreign hate object for all the antisemites at home and abroad, is facing indictment on charges which are at best doubtful and which have been prepared by partisans, in a process similar to that used by Mueller and the Democrats, who are allied to those that Obama assisted in an effort to unseat Netanyahu in the last Israeli election.
What can stop this naked coup d'etat? It is possible that America will be torn apart but even if it is not then either due to paralysis or the replacement of the President by those who are genuinely colluding with foreign powers it becomes likely that across the globe we may see orgies of violence. In South America, Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Asia, and possibly in Europe, those who have been restrained by America may strike while the iron is hot. Millions or maybe hundreds of millions may die. Trade may collapse, with even greater devastation to follow. Nuclear war could break out.
The Greens may get their dream of a simple sustainable technologically low energy and recyclable society with a limited population.
We may hope that like a god from a machine some patriots will produce evidence of crimes and conspiracies by Schiff (pederastic statutory rape of boys) and the other Democrats. Supporters of the President have repeatedly voiced the expectation that there was some office, such as the prosecutor in Utah, acting on his behalf to gather evidence and act once the conspirators showed their hand. The hands are showing and the cards are on the table but I do not see who will stop the plot. Hope is not a plan.
This places the nation in an extraordinarily dangerous position. It resembles the situation in England during March - April of 1640 when a case was manufactured to force a Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Stafford. Only in the current case the victims are being openly coerced to participate in manufacturing a case against the President.
As we speak Netanyahu in Israel, who is Trump's ally and the great foreign hate object for all the antisemites at home and abroad, is facing indictment on charges which are at best doubtful and which have been prepared by partisans, in a process similar to that used by Mueller and the Democrats, who are allied to those that Obama assisted in an effort to unseat Netanyahu in the last Israeli election.
What can stop this naked coup d'etat? It is possible that America will be torn apart but even if it is not then either due to paralysis or the replacement of the President by those who are genuinely colluding with foreign powers it becomes likely that across the globe we may see orgies of violence. In South America, Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Asia, and possibly in Europe, those who have been restrained by America may strike while the iron is hot. Millions or maybe hundreds of millions may die. Trade may collapse, with even greater devastation to follow. Nuclear war could break out.
The Greens may get their dream of a simple sustainable technologically low energy and recyclable society with a limited population.
We may hope that like a god from a machine some patriots will produce evidence of crimes and conspiracies by Schiff (pederastic statutory rape of boys) and the other Democrats. Supporters of the President have repeatedly voiced the expectation that there was some office, such as the prosecutor in Utah, acting on his behalf to gather evidence and act once the conspirators showed their hand. The hands are showing and the cards are on the table but I do not see who will stop the plot. Hope is not a plan.
Sunday, February 24, 2019
Bride of ISIS
1. Children of a foreign sovereign. If the Queen of England gave birth while in America the child would not automatically be a citizen.
2. The child of an accredited ambassador or diplomat on the list of persons with diplomatic immunity under the terms of the Vienna Convention.
3. A child born on a warship transiting territorial waters. Seriously.
4. The child of "a camp follower of an invading army."
The status of the children of illegal aliens has never been adjudicated. If a state government declared the illegals to be invading army, as they can do under the Constitution, or if the federal government so declares them, then category (4) applies.
As I read category (4) if a woman either is an illegal herself or willingly has sex with a person she knew could be an illegal then she could qualify as a "camp follower." If a woman claimed that she had been raped and cooperated with authorities in attempting to locate her assailant then the child would be a citizen. The complexities that could give rise to have literary or theatrical value.
Both Congress and the states have the power to declare the US is under invasion. Congress can declare war but in this case against who? It is unlikely that we would declare war on Honduras and for the ISIS Brides the time arguably has passed. If the President declares the illegals are invaders, as his Emergency Declaration may have done, then it is possible that a determination for denying citizenship could be challenged in court.
For a US citizen who joined ISIS or married into it a judicial determination that citizenship was renounced, possibly with a treason conviction, might be needed. The State Department appears to claim the power to determine that administratively but I can see a due process challenge.
For a child of a person admitted to the US as a diplomat there never was a valid claim of citizenship and absent any subsequent naturalization her child, the former diplomats grandchild, has no claim.
Nothing prevents a person not granted birthright citizenship from applying for naturalization if they wish to become a citizen.
Friday, February 22, 2019
On Noblesse Oblige
Nobility.
What makes for an elite is a sense of obligation to model superiority for the benefit of others. To be fair this may be a sincere intention. The call of noblesse oblige can be real. The argument that luxuries are consumed to demonstrate the superiority of the nation the Nobles represent, and that exquisite manners are performed as a ritual standard that the Commons may wish they could aspire to but also are a burden that the Commons are exempt from. What the aristocrats sacrificed was their freedom of action compared to the peasantry and also their privacy. The King and his family were almost like animals in a zoo, eating on display before crowds. They thought that would endear them to the public.
Calvinist Protestantism made every man a potential noble by refining Luther's "Priesthood of all Believers" into the "Elect Predestined by Divine Grace." While you could not be sure that you were among the Elect you could demonstrate to others that you were worthy by your conduct. In affect the virtues of thrift industry temperance etc of the Protestant Ethic that fueled the Capitalist Revolution as Max Weber described were aristocratic virtues.
What makes for an elite is a sense of obligation to model superiority for the benefit of others. To be fair this may be a sincere intention. The call of noblesse oblige can be real. The argument that luxuries are consumed to demonstrate the superiority of the nation the Nobles represent, and that exquisite manners are performed as a ritual standard that the Commons may wish they could aspire to but also are a burden that the Commons are exempt from. What the aristocrats sacrificed was their freedom of action compared to the peasantry and also their privacy. The King and his family were almost like animals in a zoo, eating on display before crowds. They thought that would endear them to the public.
Calvinist Protestantism made every man a potential noble by refining Luther's "Priesthood of all Believers" into the "Elect Predestined by Divine Grace." While you could not be sure that you were among the Elect you could demonstrate to others that you were worthy by your conduct. In affect the virtues of thrift industry temperance etc of the Protestant Ethic that fueled the Capitalist Revolution as Max Weber described were aristocratic virtues.
Tuesday, January 08, 2019
President Trump Speaks On Border Security
President Trump from the Oval Office.
The Democrats offer excellent service at the legal Ports of Entry, where the Illegals do not cross, and nothing to stop the flood in the hundreds of miles between border crossings. They offer faster processing of legal entrants at the Port of Entry but nothing to detain or deport illegals who are apprehended and nothing to apprehend the people who overstayed and are now illegal and already within the United States.
By analogy if you went to the Democrats with a gunshot wound they would offer a very nice x-ray and the service of a plastic surgeon to reconstruct that hole in your front, but nothing to stop the bleeding or repair the damage everywhere else.
The only argument they made for reopening the 25% of the government that is now not funded is that small business loans are not being processed. That is small beer and argues for a reexamination of the role of these programs and how they are administered. If the Federal Reserve and federal and state bank examiners are doing their jobs there should be enough liquidity to ensure that good businesses can get loans without getting the approval of a federal bureaucrat.
Trump keeps mentioning Steel because it connects with Democratic base union steel workers, who were always hard Left and are now swinging over to support Trump. This is an economically, socially, and racially unifying message that paints the Democrats into an elitist corner.
Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer in response.
"Chinatown" Morality Productivity and Power
Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different.Morality and Productivity are rare and mutually reinforcing conditions that just happen, perhaps randomly, to have developed faster in the West. Ancillary benefits or attributes include the Rule of Law, Self Government, and Privacy including Private Property Rights. Under the assault from the Left they are eroding.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Forty-five years ago in a film "Chinatown" could represent the Other as a place where the Law was subservient to Power, but ordinary people could hope to not be affected. What F. Scott Fitzgerald said about the very rich applies to the very powerful, only the cynicism is not soft but hard. Without the intricate and complex and flexible and resilient but sometimes fragile system accreted over the centuries of Western Civilization the restraints on Power erode and both Morality and Productivity are lost.
In China, and most human societies, people live and die under regimes either efficient or chaotic but all eroding under a corruption founded on a lack of Morality and the arbitrary nature of Power. That Power naturally seeks to protect itself by using technology to extend its access to information and its ability to control and respond to threats. The threats are real, although an increasing number arise from the very lack of Morality that the erosion of Western culture in the face of arbitrary Power expressed as Socialism fosters. Individuals desperate for protection seek the benefits of the technology and support its use by those with Power.
1. Now we are all in "Chinatown."
2. Facial recognition surveillance cameras in schools.
h/t Closed Group
3. China is facing a Moral Crisis.
h/t Wretchard T. Cat
Sunday, January 06, 2019
The Death of Singh
The Democrats think that we are no better than Latin America or most places in Asia or Africa. Those are places where Reporters are hirelings of criminal gangs, as are politicians, and Reporters are hunted with dogs and disappear in the night. They may soon get their wish. If Officer Singh's family and friends turned on the Press or a politician and just tore them to pieces, would the police stop them? There comes a moment when the police won't. Trotsky described when the Cossacks allowed the women to crawl to safety under the bellies of their horses. When that happens the Old Regime falls.
NYPDBrooklynNorth: They say a picture is worth a thousand words....RIP Corporal Singh
On Pride
"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." - Proverbs 16:18 KJV
I have a vision. Bill de Blasio invites all of the homeless and "undocumented" to shelter in the NYC Subways, citing Climate Change, and the Shutdown, and Trump as reasons. The paying customers refuse to enter the subways and tens of thousands do not renew their monthly $121 Metrocards. The City implodes as businesses that can, especially in Finance, Media, and other professional services, relocate operations to New Jersey or elsewhere "For the duration." Many never return. This will initiate a cascading chain of disasters as all of the progress painfully made under Giuliani and Bloomberg unravels, with less of a prospect of a recovery.
We are not blessed with any special Divine Grace or Virtue inherent in our race or air or soil. We are in fact no better than anyone else, and only gifted with the wasting asset of what those who labored before have left us. Without constant and loving care there is no reason that New York City would not within a few years descend into the spiral of decay depopulation and violence that overwhelmed both Beirut and Detroit. They were both lovely cities, and they were both proud.
I have a vision. Bill de Blasio invites all of the homeless and "undocumented" to shelter in the NYC Subways, citing Climate Change, and the Shutdown, and Trump as reasons. The paying customers refuse to enter the subways and tens of thousands do not renew their monthly $121 Metrocards. The City implodes as businesses that can, especially in Finance, Media, and other professional services, relocate operations to New Jersey or elsewhere "For the duration." Many never return. This will initiate a cascading chain of disasters as all of the progress painfully made under Giuliani and Bloomberg unravels, with less of a prospect of a recovery.
We are not blessed with any special Divine Grace or Virtue inherent in our race or air or soil. We are in fact no better than anyone else, and only gifted with the wasting asset of what those who labored before have left us. Without constant and loving care there is no reason that New York City would not within a few years descend into the spiral of decay depopulation and violence that overwhelmed both Beirut and Detroit. They were both lovely cities, and they were both proud.
On Texts, Sacred and Otherwise, and Oaths of Office.
What makes the Bible or another sacred scripture valid for a binding oath or affirmation, and the Constitution does allow for an affirmation instead of an oath, is that the scripture is immutable and not subject to alteration according the changing interests of the person holding it. While King James and others have sponsored translations that codified secular interests the principle holds that the content is considered as external to and unchangeable by human will.
The Constitution fails that test. It is designed to be amended by politicians to reflect changing needs and interests, although the process is deliberately made complex.
The Koran may be objectionable on the grounds that its content may be antithetical to those of the Constitution, as might be some text sacred to a future Rosicrucian, but that is a harder argument to win than a claim that swearing on the Constitution is sufficient. Is the politician who so swears then bound to never support any future amendment?
Even an absolute monarch when consecrated is called to appeal to be judged by some power greater than their own Will. Detroit's Congress Member Ilhan Omar swore on a Koran. She would be judged by an impersonal and unloving god and by comparison to the standard of a bloody and duplicitous tyrant but that is a standard, which others may fear, that is beyond her control. Senator Sinema is held to no standard but her own.
CBS News: "Kirsten Sinema takes the Oath as Senator on a copy of Constitution instead of Bible"
The Constitution fails that test. It is designed to be amended by politicians to reflect changing needs and interests, although the process is deliberately made complex.
The Koran may be objectionable on the grounds that its content may be antithetical to those of the Constitution, as might be some text sacred to a future Rosicrucian, but that is a harder argument to win than a claim that swearing on the Constitution is sufficient. Is the politician who so swears then bound to never support any future amendment?
Even an absolute monarch when consecrated is called to appeal to be judged by some power greater than their own Will. Detroit's Congress Member Ilhan Omar swore on a Koran. She would be judged by an impersonal and unloving god and by comparison to the standard of a bloody and duplicitous tyrant but that is a standard, which others may fear, that is beyond her control. Senator Sinema is held to no standard but her own.
CBS News: "Kirsten Sinema takes the Oath as Senator on a copy of Constitution instead of Bible"
On Nancy Pelosi's Taxes
In 1984 Geraldine Ferraro was a United States Member of Congress from Queens NY. She was a not very prominent Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus whose seat was in effect a gift paid for by her wealthy husband, real estate investor John Zaccaro. In 1984 she was chosen over Dianne Feinstein to run for Vice President with Walter Mondale against the ticket of Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush. Questions were asked about her husband's business dealings and her financial disclosures the Congress, and her husband was eventually forced to disclose his tax returns. The Mondale - Ferraro ticket was crushed.
Nancy Pelosi will now face pressure to disclose her tax returns and those of her family. Questions about her father who was Mayor of Baltimore and her families possible links to organized crime will be asked. While the media will rally to her defense the process will be painful and the results may prove cataclysmic.
We can take it for granted that if the target was a Republican and the Democrats were in control of the Executive, or even if it was just that there was a potential Republican target and the information was in the custody of partisan Democrat staffers in the IRS and DOJ, then any embarrassing information in the files would be leaked or a partisan judge would be found who would order its release.
Nancy Pelosi will now face pressure to disclose her tax returns and those of her family. Questions about her father who was Mayor of Baltimore and her families possible links to organized crime will be asked. While the media will rally to her defense the process will be painful and the results may prove cataclysmic.
We can take it for granted that if the target was a Republican and the Democrats were in control of the Executive, or even if it was just that there was a potential Republican target and the information was in the custody of partisan Democrat staffers in the IRS and DOJ, then any embarrassing information in the files would be leaked or a partisan judge would be found who would order its release.
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