Ukraine

Isolationism is Best

Mark Noonan44 Comments

David Frum took Senator Lee to task over his refusal to back the war in Ukraine – stating that failure to back the Administration when its helping a NATO effort is tantamount to backing Russia. So it has been in our foreign affairs since WWI – failure to enthusiastically back Administration foreign and war policy is treason.

To my shame, I used to sign on to this. I am glad I’m past it now.

To be sure, there is such a thing as treason – we define it directly in our Constitution. One of the few definitions of crime in it.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. – Article III, section 3

Now, you can make an argument that refusing to condemn Russia over Ukraine is some sort of adherence to our enemies, but I do believe that stretches it far beyond the breaking point. Adhering to our enemies in the Founder’s minds would have been what Benedict Arnold did: taking an officer’s commission in the Royal Army to fight against us. It is true that after the Revolution many Loyalists were mistreated and forced to flee the new nation – and good riddance to them. As Samuel Adams put it, I hope their chains sat lightly upon them and we have very much forgotten they were ever our countrymen. But nothing was done with that very large segment of the population which was neither Patriot nor Loyalist. The bottom line is that a great number of Americans didn’t care one way or the other about the outcome of the war. And after the war, they simply became citizens along with the Patriots and proceeded to play their role as citizens in the formation of our Republic. Given this, I don’t think that anyone refusing to back Ukraine can in any reasonable definition be considered a traitor.

But that is what the Frums of the world consider them to be. They are so committed to the global order that they cannot allow any dissenting view from it. We must be involved. Isolationism must be wrong. And so on like that. It is very useful for them to take such a line as it excuses them from having to argue in favor of the war or the policy. It allows them to merely slander those who disagree with it.

The only war we’ve had since the Civil War which wasn’t a war of choice was the war against Japan. One can argue that various policies of the USA provoked Japan into attacking and I will agree…but the choice still lay with Japan. They did commit the overt act against a Power which was not in any way threatening offensive military action against Japan. But other than that war, everything has been a choice. Sure, a lesser argument can be made that the war against Hitler’s Germany also wasn’t a choice as Hitler declared war on us. But our sending by far the largest part of our military force to Europe was a choice. We didn’t have to do it. Backed by American aid, the Anglo-Russian combine in Europe could never be defeated by Germany. Open question whether this combine absent an American Army and Air Force could have beat down the Germans as was in fact done…but the bottom line is that we didn’t have to be there. And neither have we had to be anywhere else.

But everywhere else we have been, right? And now think about it: in each case the justification for action was Hitler. Because Hitler managed to get rolling against people who didn’t want to put up a fight it became necessary for us to put up a fight for everyone else, forever. And by one means or another (though lately explicitly) each enemy we’re told to go fight is another Hitler who, if not stopped right now and by us, will grow to a Hitlerian threat to the world. It is really rather crude – indeed, cartoonish – propaganda once you see through it, but it has worked very well. And so they keep doing it – and now Senator Lee is a Hitler-appeasing traitor…for not wanting an open-ended commitment to Ukraine’s government (which is getting to be m ore unsavory in action all the time).

It is good to point out that it was only in hindsight that Hitler had to be stopped regardless of cost. Anyone telling you that the leaders of the world knew what Hitler was up to in the death camps is lying or misinformed. Sure, plenty of word did get out but it was like all other word out of an occupied territory…you couldn’t be sure. It was only when the camps were opened that we knew for certain what was happening…and everyone was shocked because nobody, not even the strongest opponents of Hitlerism, thought that an advanced people like the Germans could really round up men, women and children and exterminate them. So, it was good that we got deep into Europe. Had we not, many more millions of innocents would have died. But that was happenstance. It wasn’t intended. We didn’t invade Europe to shut down Auschwitz; it was shut down as a merciful byproduct of the main desire. But this hindsight is now transformed into foresight for the globalist propagandists and everyone they hate has to be Hitler and we all have to jump aboard or we’re allowing another Holocaust to occur.

Drivel.

Hitler was a unique thing. What he did and how he was able to accomplish it will never be repeated. This is not to say that we won’t come across people willing to murder millions. Heck, some of our own leaders are willing to murder millions to appease the weather god. But there won’t ever again be a racial supremacist like Hitler determined to conquer territory for his people and exterminate a group identified as the sole enemy of humanity. It just won’t happen again. Putin not only isn’t a Hitler, he can’t be a Hitler. He might be twenty different versions of SOB, but he’s not an existential threat to Europe or the world. He’s a problem. But is he our problem?

I say, no. Europe is collectively far more powerful than Russia. Just between Poland, Germany, France and Britain a military, naval and air force can be raised sufficient to make Russia back down. And with France and Britain having nuclear weapons, there’s a complete stand off on that level. I can see why Poland doesn’t want the Russian Bear to take Ukraine and once again hold land bordering a Poland which for centuries has been seen by Russia as a sort of redoubt to be held by Russia against Europe. But this tells me the Poles better build a first rate military force and make alliance with Germany and, also, Romania and Hungary who also don’t want a Russian army camped on their borders. And if the Poles or the Europeans in general don’t do this?

Well, how does that become an American problem? People who won’t defend themselves are to be defended by us? For what purpose? If the Poles don’t want to work to keep the Russkies away, why should a kid from Ohio have to do it?

And why is it our problem if the Syrians are having a civil war? Did the Syrians intervene in ours? Sudan descends into chaos. Why is that our problem? I can see keeping foreigners out of the Americas, but what interest do I as an American have in African, European and Asian affairs?

Oh, you can talk me into having an interest. But this would require truly reciprocal alliances and allies who maintain powerful military forces. I don’t think I should have to send an American army to defend Poland unless, say, a Polish army is pledged to come to east Asia to help us fight the Chinese. And that Polish army better be first rate. Well trained. Best possible equipment. Ready at a moment’s notice to fight. See where I’m going? It isn’t an alliance if I’ve got an unlimited obligation to my ally and he has no obligation to me. If he’s allowed to be slack in preparedness and doesn’t have to bleed with us when we’re attacked, then it isn’t an alliance. That is a client relationship – and if Poland is our client, fine. They can pay us 3% of their GDP every year. Same as everyone else in the NATO “alliance”. We’re the first global empire to be the sugar-daddy and its just stupid.

I want us to stop this. To give up the Wilsonian demand that the world be made safe for Democracy. I don’t care what the world is: I only care what America is. And I don’t like being called a traitor – with all that implies – because I don’t want Americans to bleed for the Donbas. We’ve poisoned ourselves with alliances. It is time to bring them to an end. The war is over. Come on home, America. Let the foreigners fight. Advise them carefully that attacking us is suicidal, but leave them alone. It isn’t our world.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan40 Comments

Rumor mill says McConnell is about to call it quits: I guess that fall he took a little while back was much worse than originally advertised. The good news is that the Kentucky GOP rather miraculously engaged in foresight and in 2021 enacted – over the Democrat governor’s veto – a new provision for replacing a Senator: the governor must select between 3 different candidates put forward by the Party which won the previous Senate election. So, Mitch gets replaced by another GOPer. I do pray that McConnell recovers but I’m also happy he’s moving on…he did a lot of good things for us, but he’s too old and too old fashioned. He’s not the sort of leader we need in the Senate right now.

Update: In a Tweet, McConnell says he’ll return to the Senate on Monday, scotching that rumor, at least for now.

The IRS is now going to force 1099’s on anyone who receives $600.00 or more via Venmo or other electronic means. This is what Pudding Brain meant when he said he was going to make those billionaires pay their fair share: it was always about going after low paid people not letting Uncle Sam get his cut. As I’ve said again and again: the richest 1% doesn’t have any money. Not in relation to what Uncle Sam needs. In 2022 Uncle Sam spent $6.2 trillion. All the rich people in America, if we confiscated it, probably wouldn’t cover 80% of that. And even if it covered a year, that’s it. All done. No more rich people. You can only confiscate once. The real money in America – by a vast amount – is held by working people. Those who go to work every day and earn taxable wages. Each of us only has a small amount but there are 166.7 million of us. Collectively, we make vastly more than the super rich and the pool of taxable money replaces itself every year. Any “tax the rich” scheme by the Democrats will always work out to “soak the poor”. It simply can’t be any other way.

Netflix is going with a black Cleopatra. This is what she looked like from contemporary sources:

She was Greek. She might not have even known how to speak the Egyptian language. She was the tail end of a Greek Ruling Class which set itself up in Alexandria in the aftermath of Alexander the Great’s demise and simply milked Egypt for all it was worth. But even if she was the product of some intermarriage with native Egyptians, this is what Egyptians looked like:

Were Egyptians Swedes? No. But they also weren’t black Africans. They were fairly typical Mediterranean peoples – skin darker than northern Europeans but not as dark as Africans. Easily could have been admixture into them from both sub-Sahara and northern Europe (the more we study the ancients the more we’re finding that people really moved around a lot).

So, why are they doing this? Two reasons:

  1. To eliminate white people from any positive aspect of history. White people are the devil in modern thinking and so cannot be connected to anyone who ever did a good deed, or even did anything interesting. This is cultural erasure and it is spreading: black people are being credited with innovations of Europeans and rely on it, eventually black people will be credited with all technology, art, literature and architecture.
  2. The Left feels a need to create a pro-Black myth to replace the older, pro-White myth. They can’t go around and simply say that the old racism was wrong and we shouldn’t do it anymore. Because just saying that means you’re still sitting around wondering just why black Africans were so technologically backwards as late as the 19th century. Even in the Americas there were some impressive civilizations. The highest sub-Saharan cultures barely rose to the heights of the neolithic era. Only the Australians were more primitive. I mean, there are very obvious reasons for the lack of development…almost entirely stemming from the peculiar geography of Africa. But your basic Marxist “studies” professor probably can’t read a map and never learned about how trade developed. So, they just make up things.

The Ruling Class is really angry that someone leaked intel showing that the Ukrainian military is weak. They are leaving no stone unturned to find the miscreant. Which is kinda weird: after all, even if you support Ukraine, you still need to know the true situation so you can assess the needs and respond. Unless, of course, the whole thing is a money laundering grift and so you need to hide it all to keep it rolling until just before Russian tanks arrive in Kiev.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan64 Comments

Pudding Brain saved us from Trump’s financial crisis. Hey, I’m just going on what the MSM is saying here!

What really happened is that a bunch of banks got caught in a squeeze on US Treasuries – because of Biden’s failed policies, those bonds lost a lot of value. Banks are required to have a certain amount of assets against liabilities, right? Well, the Treasuries were assets…which then cratered in value. This forced a lot of banks to try and dump the Treasuries (which nobody wanted because, of course, their value was on the downswing)…and this, in turn, led to a cash crunch: the banks didn’t have enough money to cover operations. Bye, Bye SVB and a couple other players. Fortunately, we’ve got Pudding Brain!

His people came up with this idea – and I’m not kidding here: the Federal Reserve will now loan failing banks money at low interest rates with the devalued Treasuries held as collateral at face value.

That’s it. That’s the plan. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, borrow half a million against your $250,000 house and let me know how that goes.

If you could. You can’t because you can’t borrow for greater value than your security. You know: laws of economics and all that stuff. The Banks can because they donate to the right people…and in the case of these particular failing banks, their depositors are also deeply connected to the Democrat ruling class (naturally with lots of Chinese connections, too; I’m pretty sure the boys in Shanghai gave Team Pudding Brain a call over the weekend). This is the merest papering over the cracks. It’ll likely keep things rolling for a bit. How long? Who the heck knows? Long enough for the connected to get their money back and into something besides a US bank. To loan this money the Fed will have to print which will put upward pressure on prices which will force the Fed to jack up rates some more which will punish Treasuries making their value drop even more (this is how they can claim it won’t cost taxpayers any money – because it will be Fed printing: but that devalues your assets in hand, and so it is a secret tax to bail out the Banksters. Again. Oh, what law are they using here? ROFL! Law! Like that matters. There isn’t any law which allows this – they’re just gonna do it).

Their hope is probably that it at least holds together until after Election Day, 2024.

The MSM is, naturally, asserting that the real problem is people noticing the problem. If we’d just please stick to the script, all will be well!

Tucker Carlson sent of a questionnaire to the major GOP candidates about Ukraine and got their answers back – Trump, DeSantis and Ramaswamy gave the best answers (and we’ll need Amazona for a ruling on him – he’s definitely born in the USA to people who were legally residing in the USA at the time of his birth…but I don’t know if they were citizens when Ramaswamy was born…but, anyways, he’s running: and the more I hear from him, the more I like). All three of them discounted our continuing effort in Ukraine – Trump and Ramaswamy more forcefully than DeSantis, but even RDS was noting how stupid it is to defend Ukraine’s border while ours is wide open. Pence and Christie gave the worst answers – essentially committing to the war with only small caveats about how we’ve done it. A lot of candidates didn’t respond, most notable Haley, who is probably trying to keep all her options open as her actual desire is the VP slot and so she’ll be wary of saying anything that would strike her off the eventual nominee’s list. I think that American popular support for Ukraine is very soft and entirely conditional – as long as Americans don’t feel any particular pinch, they’ll go along with it…but if push comes to shove, the people will reject the war. Better for the GOP candidates to be forthrightly anti-war on this issue.

Hey, Mark, why have you lost all faith in our institutions?

Well, skippy, I just found out that GlaxoSmithKlein hid the cancerous side effects of Zantac for 40 years. 40 years! Do you realize how many agencies in how many different nations had to be bribed to pull that off? The payoffs to bureaucrats, doctors and researchers must have reached astonishing levels – but I guess Zantac was such a money-maker that it was all worth it. To them. Not to anyone who got cancer because they wanted to cut down on heartburn. It staggers the mind when you really think about it – for 40 years a major drug company pushed poison on people and all the probably millions of people around the world who are paid to guard against precisely this…let it slide. And do note that I just heard of this – the report came out last month. When it suits the DNC/Ruling Class Narrative stories of a product causing cancer get 24/7 coverage…but for some reason this one seems to have slipped the MSM’s mind. Couldn’t be because right now Democrats are making bank on Big Pharma donations, could it?

HT: Ace of Spades

Open Thread

Mark Noonan37 Comments

Latest word is McCarthy will release to the public all of the J6 video. If so, good for him. At 4,400 hours, crowd-sourcing is probably the best way to really get to the truth of what happened, as far as video can tell (even all 4,400 hours will still be partial…cameras aren’t everywhere nor do they pick up sound. This is in line with my view that there must be no government secrets – that video is the property of the people of the United States of America and we, the people, have a right to view it, at will, and draw our own conclusions.

To give you a flavor of how the Ruling Class is reacting – Geraldo Tweeted out that we should try to remember how we felt about J6 as the MSM was covering it live…in other words, we should ignore any new evidence and stick to the carefully crafted Narrative. These people are pathetic – but, also, that is how they are: I doubt any reporter in the last 50 years has had a truly independent thought. Maybe a couple here and there if we want to be generous, but most just read from the script. And this goes back to WWI when the US government started assiduously controlling the Narrative by means of access. If you didn’t toe the government line, you wouldn’t get access…and if they caught you unauthorized in a combat zone, they’d arrest you.

Huge contrast to the Civil War when reporters literally crawled all over the battlefield…and though the generals hated it and would try to inconvenience the reporters, they never dreamed of trying to control them. They knew that a hundred negative articles about them would be washed away with one victory…so go out and get a victory. Our modern generals – and politicians – figure its easier if the MSMers just write up defeat as victory. And the MSMers play along with it – oh, sure, they’ll turn on a military operation, but only when they’re told to, and invariably only when a GOPer is in office (just watch, if a GOPer wins in 2024, then starting January 21, 2025 the covering of Ukraine will go uniformly negative, if the war is still going by then). Why? Because it is easier, first and foremost. Cooperate and you get a nice billet and you’re protected and have good food – to report on a war would require going out to the battlefield and that’s risky, after all.

The MSM is upset that fewer kids are choosing to go to college – after all, how you gonna turn normal kids into non-binary Commies if they don’t go to college?

I’m pleased with this. College is supposed to be for the rare heights of intellect – in a real, sane system, not 10% of any high school graduating class would be able to even get into college, the entrance exam would be so demanding. Out of college we’re supposed to get our doctors, our lawyers, our highest level scientists and philosophers of exceptional knowledge…not barely literate “studies” majors who owe a hundred grand after they’re done.

In reality, for most people, 8 years of education is sufficient. Edison, who’s mother was a teacher, had only a few months of formal schooling. Lincoln only had about a year. Once you teach a kid to read, write and do sums, it is really up to the kid at that point – and the kid will either have the mind and will for it, or not. I remember those long, dreary hours 9th through 12th grade where I wasn’t learning anything I didn’t already know…and, indeed, massively advanced upon as I devoured my father’s library. The reason I didn’t go to college was because I couldn’t face four more years of that. And these days in addition to the lack of intellectual challenge, the kids are relentlessly propagandized…and for anyone with an ounce of liberty in their hearts, that has to be enervating. And to end it up massively in debt? A complete waste unless you need the credential to get into medical or law school.

So, kids: learn a trade. Even if you’re not mechanically inclined, there are trades to learn which can lead you to quite a nice life: I know of a man who is a few years older than me and he’s got buckets of money because he started, as it were, in the mail room and just learned the business backwards and forwards and so became invaluable…and, indeed, headhunted for ever more pay. Work. Learn. Save your money. By 50 if you’re at all responsible, you’ll be well off.

If you’ve never seen the 1964 movie Zulu, you should watch it because it is one of the very best war movies ever made – but now you should watch it because, apparently, it really irritates the Left. They are claiming it is a gateway drug to White Supremacy. To his credit, one of the stars of the movie, Michael Cain, is telling them to get bent (it was his first starring role). It isn’t hard to see why the Left hates it – British soldiers as good guys is enough to kill it for them, but what is worst about it is that it shows about 140 British soldiers holding off three or four thousand Zulu warriors in a pitched, two day battle. It also, for anyone who looks into it, will reveal that while the British might not have had full legal justification for breaking the Zulu kingdom, they certainly had the moral right – the Zulu kingdom was a hideous, inhuman tyranny where murder was the method of deciding who ruled. But, that’s not really in the movie – and rightly so: the movie, itself, is about soldiers…and it pays tribute to the Zulu warriors who obeyed their king and went to war, as soldiers should.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan29 Comments

I guess the city of Bakhmut, Ukraine has fallen and the Russians are hailing their victory while the Ukrainians are saying they never really wanted to hold it. The bottom line, for me, is that Russia has definitely resumed advancing and the Ukrainians aren’t able to stop it so far. No breakthrough, but a war of attrition where the Russians are just grinding the Ukrainians down…though such eventually does lead to a breakthrough as the weaker side can never sustain this kind of fight forever. Meanwhile, everyone on the Ukraine side gets ever more hysterical about how we have to support Ukraine. I think it is time for negotiations. Unless Zelensky has something big up his sleeve, offensive-wise, better to quit now rather than wait until there’s nothing left between the Russians and Kiev.

Argentina has ripped up its Falklands agreement with Britain and is demanding negotiations over sovereignty. This is what I mean about just staying the heck out of foreign problems: most of them are stupid. The bottom line is that whatever theoretical legal right Argentina received from Spain to the Islands, there never was a permanent, indigenous population of the Falklands until the Brits showed up in the 1830’s. The people who live there going back nearly two centuries have never had any connection to Argentina. They consider themselves British. The speak English. When asked in a plebiscite what they preferred, more than 98% voted to stay under British rule. But Argentina likes to get all fussy about it – and they are getting fussy about it shortly after HMS Queen Elizabeth became operational which means if they decide to start shooting over it, they’ll lose (the Royal Navy is a shadow of her formal self, but most of Argentina’s navy is laid up in port; and they don’t have a naval air arm to speak of). Amazing how stupid people can be, and for all the wrong reasons.

Kellyanne and George Conway have called it quits – which is kinda sad but very understandable. George acted like an a** during the Trump years and Kellyanne has allowed herself to be squired around by the likes of Cuomo recently. Really its all rather pathetic.

The Left is still trying to sell the notion that the Second Amendment only secured a right to bear arms to the Militia, which is now the National Guard. Of course it is absurd, but lots of people are fierce in their faith about the Militia having the right. It isn’t just propaganda doing this – it is propaganda directed a population which is barely literate and almost entirely ignorant of American history. We can’t get control of the schools fast enough. This is a terrible problem and it will harm us politically…but if we control the schools it is literally just a few years before the problem is fixed.

RDS has put out a video which is “I’m running” without saying the actual words, “I’m running”.

I’m increasingly positive that the Left overstepped on the trans issue – and it is women leading the backlash. Which is proper as women are being erased to accommodate trans women. It is very irritating, isn’t it? What is clearly a man winning women’s sporting contests, Hershey and other woke corporations using trans women as spokespeople for women’s issues. I mean, seriously: who thought this would be a good idea? Oh, yeah: Progressives did. Never forget that as ruthless and cruel as they are, they are also monumentally stupid.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan31 Comments

Supposedly General Miley a little while back advised that Ukraine is as strong as she’s gonna get, is not strong enough to defeat Russia, so it is time for a diplomatic solution. If this story is true, my respect for Miley goes up a notch.

Of late, Zelensky has been talking big not just about pushing Russia out of what they’ve taken in the last year, but out of all Ukrainian territory, including Crimea. Well, hey, if he can do that, more power to him: but I don’t think Ukraine has the sheer power to do that. Absent a complete Russian collapse, the Russians will pretty much hold on to what they’ve got. As I said at the start – Ukraine’s job since 2014 was to build a mobile strike force capable of immediately going on the offense either right at the time the Russians attacked, or just before that. I like to call this The Israeli Option: what to do with enemies who vastly outnumber you and have far greater strategic depth? You attack and turn their dream of marching on Tel Aviv (Kiev) into a nightmare defending Cairo and Damascus (Rostov and Voronezh). Ukraine had plenty of time and plenty of money – and even plenty of factories and material to produce this force with only very limited support from anyone outside Ukraine. They didn’t do it. They decided that bribing foreign pols as a means of securing their support against Russia was a better idea (and this tells you right there that there’s at least a huge part of the Ukrainian population uninterested in fighting for Ukraine – that the Ukrainian government, unlike the Israeli government, could not rely on the population to make the sacrifices in blood and treasure). And, fundamentally, that is why I was against giving aid from the start – if they can’t sacrifice for themselves, why should I sacrifice for them? Now is the time to make peace – before more blood is shed and before the Russians do put forth their full power.

So, now they’re admitting that masks don’t work and there’s a good chance the Chinese flu came from the lab – whether accidentally or intentionally we don’t know, and likely never can know. Just as the repeated assertions of 2020 being clean are our best proof it was dirty, the assertion that Covid didn’t come from the lab was our best proof that it came from the lab. We just know – if we’ve any sense at all – that whatever it is they’re saying is a lie…or if by some miracle the truth, only partial and designed to deflect attention from something else even worse. Why they’re dribbling this out now remains to be seen – but is certainly isn’t to enlighten us. They’re hiding something else.

Supposedly the J6 footage was all turned over to Tucker Carlson and people are starting to wonder when we get to see it. Rely on it, folks: it was given to Carlson to ensure the most Narrative-Destroying parts never see the light of day. I dig that Carlson has a lot of fans and he does, indeed, say some useful things…but he’s MSM. He’s Establishment. He’ll never jeopardize his meal ticket and while his boss is testifying that Trump was lying about 2020 election fraud, you can bet any money that Carlson won’t piss the boss off by showing that J6 was a setup to ensure the truth about 2020 never came out.

Pudding Brain’s illegal order to cancel student debt was heard before the Supreme Court today – it ain’t looking good for Pudding Brain. But there is a very worrisome thing going – all over the Democrats and MSMers (but I repeat myself) was the assertion that the Court should rule in favor of cancellation regardless of what the law says…with an unstated subtext that if the Court doesn’t rule the way the Democrats want, then it is “out of control”…and so in need of being brought under control. We need not say who’s control is needs to be brought under. This is terrible for our system of government – essentially, the Democrats are saying that any Court ruling going against their desires is illegitimate.

Looks like Lori Lightfoot didn’t pass the graft around enough and she didn’t get into the runoff for Chicago Mayor. The winner will be whichever candidate seems most likely to correctly pass around the graft. Lightfoot will, of course, claim that her loss was because of racism, sexism and homophobia. This would mean the Democrat party is packed full of racists, sexists and homophobes.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan30 Comments

I had mentioned before Aleste and the Ice Crystal Dragons – the story is hooked into my Mirrors series but it came about after I was explaining the series to my granddaughter and she observed that it was an utter fail because it didn’t have any dragons in it. So, I told her to come up with a story that had dragons in it. With her talking and me writing, the book was made. And we’ve got some reviews over at Amazon:

I read this book to my 3rd grade class and they absolutely loved it! The cliff hangers left them begging for me to read more each day. We feel in love with the character Aleste and her bravery throughout the book. The details, descriptive language, and great vocabulary used throughout this book made it a great book to share with my students. Awesome job!

Got a kid or a grandkid? Get the book. It is a heck of a lot of fun.

Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell of Los Angeles was shot and killed on Saturday. It is in the news but it isn’t really making the news, if you know what I mean. The increasing collapse of civilization in Los Angeles does not support any Democrat Narrative, nor will it help Newsom when he runs for President in 2024 or 2028, so what would have been a huge story 20 years ago, is pretty much nothing these days. Nor are any other stories highlighting the end of civilization – the re-barbarization of the West which gains speed day by day. You know – things like mass brawls at fast food joints and stores. Nobody ever even knows why the fights start but a score of people at times are just pounding on each other…or one poor body is being beaten mercilessly by a gang of thugs and everyone is just standing around filming it.

This is not normal and it is not sustainable. Eventually everything falls apart and the reaction sets in – a very violent reaction as the few remaining civilized people decide that the barbarians have to die.

Former Governor Larry Hogan is giving a class these days called, “Why You Got Trump”. At any event, he may as well be doing that. He’s rumbling about running for President but what he’s really doing is auditioning for an MSM gig…which a failed Presidential run and then complaining about the eventual GOP nominee will get him. His most recent absurdity was to claim that DeSantis pushing back against woke ideology in public schools is “big government”…you know what all True Conservatives with Muh Principles oppose. It is just a stupid thing to say – the schools are government and all RDS is doing is making them bend to the will of the people of Florida…you know, like a government is supposed to do. It is stupid – but it is wowing the Left, and that’s the point of the exercise. But for us, what he’s doing is providing the perfect foil for the new, populist GOP…an example of what we cannot go back to. Maybe it is time to move on from Donald Trump, but it isn’t time to move on from Trumpism.

There’s a news report about how to survive a nuclear blast. I did not have this on my 2023 bingo card – but, kiddies, let us oldsters clue you in, because we learned this stuff when we were kids. If there’s a nuclear attack, get under your desk, put your head between your knees and kiss you a** goodbye.

Speaking of which, the global Ruling Class is really pushing for Ukraine victory…but I’ve yet to see how Ukraine destroys the Russian army. That is a kind of a crucial First Step here…a plan and the means to do that. I think that our leaders are so divorced from reality and so ignorant of history that they just don’t know this. That they think high tech weapons will just do the trick, somehow. But unless Ukraine builds a military force which is capable of sustained offensive operations, its all just a waste of blood and treasure. Keep in mind that since the initial Russian invasion there hasn’t even been a battle. Oh, sure, there’s been lots of fighting and dying, but no battles once you understand that a battle is a event whereby your principle military power is directed against the enemy’s principle military power and decisive results are achieved one way or the other. Attrition warfare isn’t a battle…and its a sort of warfare Ukraine can never win given the population disparities. Meanwhile, the Russkies seem to be calling up half a million…and not to just hold the line, but to provide a powerful strike force which will be launched against the Ukrainians with a mind towards destroying the Ukrainian army.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan22 Comments

That quake in Turkey looks really bad. Don’t forget to say some prayers for them.

Saw another one of those articles accusing Putin of war crimes – this on the basis of recruiting soldiers from occupied Ukrainian territory. This is, indeed, a direct violation of the Geneva Convention and other international treaties.

Its also worth about a fart in a hurricane.

One of the most baleful things of the past century was the Nuremburg trials is this misbegotten drivel that there is such a thing as international law or that there can be a neutral tribunal provided for a defeated enemy. It just doesn’t work that way. It only seemed that way after WWII because the enemy powers were utterly defeated and occupied. Absent that, just how are you going to serve your warrant for Putin’s arrest? Unless a Ukrainian or other non-Russian army arrives in Moscow, it just isn’t going to happen.

But even in the unique circumstances of World War Two, the trials were an absurdity. We put on trial Hans Fritzsche as a major war criminal – he was in the same dock as Goering. Of course you’ve never heard of him – he was a radio broadcaster. Sure, he broadcast Nazi lies – that was his job. But if we’re to charge everyone who broadcasts a lie as a war criminal, we’re going to be busy for a bit. We hung Alfred Jodl who didn’t really do that much to order or carry out war crimes but only passed out 12 years to Alfried Krupp who ran the sickest slave labor empire in Nazi Germany; and then we let him out after 3 and gave him all his money back. The Russians made a serious effort to pin the Katyn Massacre on the Germans and have it as one of the counts at Nuremberg – they didn’t succeed but the bottom line here is that both FDR and Churchill were advised early on that it was the Soviets who carried out that massacre and they killed the story so as to not offend Stalin. With, you know, the truth…but then we set up trials with the Soviets helping us judge Germans guilty of carrying out massacres.

This is not to say that the Nazis should have skated. As I’ve noted before, Churchill once mused that the best thing to do would be to haul out the Nazis one fine morning and just shoot them. That would have been just – and of far more moral worth than a charade trial which included a mass murderer among the judges.

But, it happened – and now pinheads are forever asking for a repeat. As if it would do anything. War is about power – who has the most and who can apply that power most effectively. If you want Putin in the dock, then you better gather a lot of power and march on Moscow. Good luck to you. If you get him, go ahead and hang him, if that makes you feel better about it. I’ve no complaint about someone who starts a war getting shot for putting the world to the trouble. But don’t preach international law at me: it doesn’t exist. If you do catch Putin then the trial you hold for him will be garbage – because there can’t be other than a guilty verdict and you’ll be charging him not with being evil, but with losing. International law is whatever the strong choose to enforce at any given time. And that is how it should be: if you defeat your enemy, he is at your disposal. Shoot him or make a deal with him, as you desire. But don’t pretend you caught a bank robber and that a trial will somehow right the scales of justice in the world.

The news report is from 2021 but I first heard it yesterday: the Orwell Estate has given permission for a re-write of 1984 from a feminist perspective. Think about it: the premier book about totalitarian propaganda is going to be re-written to fit current propaganda. And you just watch: once this new one comes out, the original will be condemned and removed from libraries. The Left hates 1984…because they know it is all about them.

They apparently had some sick, bizarre Satanist musical number at the Emmy’s. I didn’t watch it because why would any sane person watch drivel like an award show? But I guess some people are upset. Can’t say that I am – of course these nimrods are glorifying evil. Some of them are just evil, others are too stupid to realize the evil. The few pop culture people who do see through it all usually end up making really good art that doesn’t get a lot of play. Look for those gems – I’ve even found some fairly recent pop music which is darned good and interesting…gotta hunt for it, but it’s there. It isn’t the stuff that tops the charts for the most part. And some of it does make me suspect that pop culture has its secret dissidents from the Leftist Narrative.

Pudding Brain is going to do his SOTU and they’ve put the fences back up around the Capital. Because our government hates the American people.

DeSantis is pulling the plug on Disney’s private empire in Florida. Among the other benefits Disney was given in the 1960’s is that they can take property via eminent domain! Old Walt must have had one heck of a lobbyist back in the day! Anyway, that’s all over with now – a five person board appointed by the governor will look after things; the board being the method by which a Leftist local government is cut out of the process. RDS seems to really get the point: it is all about power and you don’t leave any of it lying around for the Left to use.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan49 Comments

Thinking about it, the best outcome of the Ukraine war is a swift Russian victory. Ukrainian victory would only mean yet another open-ended American commitment to defend an European nation against an increasingly hostile Russia driven closer to alliance with a China which poses the only strategic threat the United States faces.

It must be emphasized that Russia is in no way, shape or form similar to the threat posed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Hitler’s ideology required war to expand German territory into non-German territories to enslave/exterminate the local population so that Germans could move in. Putin holds to no such ideology and it is obvious that all he is attempting to gain is formerly Russian-ruled territories in order to revive Russia’s Great Power status. This is a fool’s errand on Putin’s part, but it does not amount to a threat to American interests.

More and more prison systems are transferring female-identifying male prisoners to the female prisons. This is having the obvious result. It is almost a certainty that every male prisoner who identifies as female is doing it just to get into the female prison either for the opportunity for sex or because the regime is likely lighter than in the male prisons. We’re allowing woman to be raped and abused in order to conform to insane, ideological demands. And, yes, we do bear the moral responsibility here – when we imprison a person we take over the job of keeping them safe from harm as far as practical. To put men in with women – and some of these men were convicted of sex crimes against women – is objectively evil.

People are hanging on to their gasoline cars. My Saturn was built in 2004. I will not let it go. EV’s are not just inefficient, but they are too connected to the internet of things.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan23 Comments

China Joe announced that we’ll be sending 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine – this, apparently, is what the Kraut’s demanded before they would agree to send Leopard tanks. Ukraine is getting a hodge-podge of military equipment which they have no training or maintenance facilities for. This will get interesting.

Russia, meanwhile, continues to push forward in certain areas, likely to prep for an offensive after the Spring rains. We’ll see how this comes out – but I suspect, long term, that Russia will have some Abrams tanks to sell on the international arms market. The bottom line, absent a collapse of Russian will to win, is that Russia has vastly superior numbers over Ukraine and the outcome is only a matter of time.

New York City erected a Medusa-looking statue on their courthouse – in honor of RBG and abortion, so at least kinda appropriate. Very ugly, though. But that is the point of modern art: to be ugly. To be something you hate but can’t get rid of.

Also in New York City – for ages they had de-facto segregation in their schools. This was to allow New York’s rich progressives to have high quality public schools while proclaiming their allegiance to diversity without, you know, the diversity. There merely skimmed the cream of the crop of minority students to put into class with the kids of rich, white Progressives. Former Mayor DeBlasio, true to his Leninism, put an end to that – rather than have test scores determine who got into the swanky, Manhattan public schools, they created a supposedly scientific algorithm which would decide…naturally, it really just managed to shove into these schools kids who were in no way prepared for high education achievement. There is a bit of poetic justice here in that rich, white liberals lost their little education plantation…but the bad news is that now all of New York’s public schools suck. This is considered fine by the upper end of the Ruling Class because they send their kids to private schools and, hey, who wants to take the time and effort to improve all schools? Better to just score some DEI brownie points by wrecking the few remaining good schools.

Surrounded by armed guards, California Governor Newsom proclaimed in the streets that “weapons of war” have no place there. Make no mistake about it: Newsom will be hard for the GOP to beat. He’s good looking, sounds good on TV and, of course, the MSM will cover up his crimes and puff him up as the Second Coming. But he can be beat – his State is a complete disaster outside a few, rich coastal enclaves. The way to handle him in debate is to simply get truthful about him: “Governor, you hate the people of California. You want them to suffer. You talk about ‘weapons of war’ but what you really are trying to do is make honest citizens into criminals while you deliberately and maliciously allow real criminals to run amok.” Words like that – 100% true – will put that arrogant ass into a defensive mode and he won’t know how to deal with it as he’s never had a hostile question asked of him.

What do to about rising egg prices and people suddenly dying? Claim that the eggs are causing sudden death. I’m serious: it is what they are trying to assert. This after they tried to assert that all the sudden deaths are due to climate change.