Have you read N.S. Lyons' The China Convergence? It's quite good and helps explain this. In the West we're moving more and more towards a one party state. So to answer your question, it's irrelevant what they really think. All that matters is fealty to the Party.
But they don't. Not really. If aliens invaded tomorrow and destroyed the Atlantic Council while conquering Earth, within a month that Scottsman would be writing articles titled, "Umman-Manda Space Technology is a Boon for Human Rights." He is an intellectual slave. He will tell his masters whatever they want to hear to receive a paycheck or land a promotion. So will every other ladder-climbing sycophant in the over-bureaucratized halls of power in the modern West.
So, if most of what we hear in the West concerning this war is merely the ululations of loyal slaves, that begs the question: who are their masters?
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oww this hits very close to home since half my family is from MEXICO ( mom's side)
I've lived several years in the country, and I can tell another, overlooked situation.
Idiosyncracy.
Mexicans arent as a whole disciplined, work-oriented people (like Japanese or the anglos), preferring the easy way out (hence, how many are interested in "working" for the cartels) and handouts.
Its no suprise that the country has kinda thrived only under semi- or authoritarian govts ( porfirio diaz dictatorshsip, the PRI-semi authoritarian period 1930-2000).
Think of the country as that office full of workers that only deliver under a strict, tyrannical, bad tempered boss.
While the japanese and other 1st worlders are like workers that basically can do home office work and deliver, self-discipline embedded in them already.
Character matters, and national character ( something so many times overlooed, because, in the whacko worldview of the left, we are all "equal", like interchangeable Lego bricks) does too.
There are certain borders that provide incredible, immediate glimpses at the difference between well-running societies and not-well-running ones: Detroit and Dearborn, Niagara Falls ONT and Niagara Falls NY, El Paso and Juarez
My point here is that SOME 3rd worlders MAY make GOOD workers when properly paid AND directed
thats mexicans and other latinos in the USA, mostly hard workers in menial jobs there because sweet dollars - but seldom entrepreneurs, inventors or innovators- that speaks a lot about "idiosyncrasy".
Other 3rd worlders ( afro-americans, that for most purposes are their own 3rd world country, embedded in the USA) cant even become hard workers and become professional complainers ( encouraged by that pest called "white liberal") about the past, relying even more in handouts.
And other immigrants, like east ASIANS, are very productive and mobilizing upward.
there are clear DIFFERENCES between groups of people
Sailer has theorized that El Paso had a traditionally lower crime rate than Juarez for ethno-cultural reasons (despite having demographic similarities to Juarez)...El Paso was a haven for upper-middle-class Mexicans fleeing the Mexican Civil War and they brought their good values with them
3rd worlders in an Anglo-germanic-governed society will of course behave better than in their native countries ( well, Muslims in Europe dont, but thats another topic)
It did, places like Niagara Falls, Welland, St. Catharines and Windsor on or near the American border lost tons of manufacturing jobs. They stayed slightly longer because of the low Canadian dollar and the Canadian side of the falls also has more tourist potential.
The difference with Canada though is the growth of Toronto sort of saved these places by proxy.
The only areas of true decline in Canada are parts of Atlantic Canada and Northern Ontario there you see fairly large population drops in the small towns and a couple of smaller cities.
Keep in mind Canada has very few places to flee too, when mass immigration drives White Flight those suburban Whites in the GTA fled to places like Niagara which kept the place propped up. Real estate prices have forced people out here who have no business having to live so far away from their workplace.
You've got me thinking about the border crisis. If Mexicans only thrive under a firm Mexican govt, then US/Mexican immigration can only work under tight rule. It's not even a demographic issue and letting cartel guys slip through, but without threat of deportation, theyre not even really gonna bother being productive.
The NYC migrant crisis in particular is funny. Mayor Adams is begging Biden for work permits. Wtf kind of work are these people gonna do? Beyond the few people selling things out of a cart on the subway (good on them for trying) none seem particularly motivated anyway
This might be applied to many non-developed peoples as well
China, other LATAM, even African countries fall under this scheme
it seems to be either tough dictators that bring peace and stability needed for progress and development ( Pinochet, the PCC, Franco, Salazar, felix Houphouet from ivory coast etc etc)
for many countries, it seems to be either chaos/instability OR an authoritarian regime, nothing in between.
Thats why something as half hearted and, ultimately LAME as liberal democracy has absolutely FAILED to pull the likes of India or Latin america out from poverty.
and perhaps it's no wonder that the usual "democracy experts" IGNORE that liberal democracy was established more often than not, AFTER a Western country achieved some degree of social-economic development, piggy-backing on the success brought by trade-capitalism-industrialization.
Demand is price elastic, if you seal the border supply would be curtailed. Complete the wall, put the US military on the border and and hunt down the cartel leaders and their foot soldiers on both sides of the border. Locate the importers of Chinese fentanyl and eliminate them and their infrastructure. Incentives matter.
Even though I'm still incurably CentralEurope-centered, You provide ever more interesting reading. (Never mind the FbF heading, which escapes me.) I'm almost ready to scrape up the $50 or whatever, because other sites, frankly, either bore me, or just piss me off . . .
On the subject of viewpoints of Professors of Strategic Studies in Scotland: One thing that American conservatives tend to underestimate - as they wrestle with their own culture war against the takeover of its coastal metropolises by the virtue signalling Left - is that it can get worse. Here in the UK it can. Last election in the US about 40% (was it?) voted for a non-liberal-establishment candidate. In Britain, thanks to decades of BBC -type taming, they would get maybe 5% max. You have a 'culture war'.... think that's bad? Here it's been total surrender. The UK has made its silly self virtually conservatism-free.
And so - albeit probably for very wrong reasons - the professor is probably right about USA/UK relations in the event of a Trump victory. In other parts of Europe though, right of centre polities do still exist and are growing.
As an Englishmen, I second this. I am struggling to think of any country which is more uniformly liberal/progressive than Britain. For this reason, I am pleased about Brexit because it means that the corrosive influence of British progressivism is no longer being smeared across Europe.
referring to my earlier post about national idiosyncrasy in Mexico, this might apply too but from another angle
a "new" country searching for its own identity, like a teenager just coming of age and dont knowing what values to embrace for his personality.
and the hystericals of the Atlantic guy are both amusing and refreshing, his article is soo over the top we might wonder if its parody or exaggerated on purpose to propagate some distress on its readers.
Even IF trump won 2024, there are too many powerful forces and semi-independent centers of power embedded in the US govt to allow a drastic change in foreign policy towards NATO/Europe.
Such changes take decades or catastrophic events to happen.
Thanks for this, especially the piece on Foote. Walker Percy was his friend from childhood, and they even met Faulkner together in Oxford. Percy was so afraid of meeting Faulkner that he stayed in the car while Foote went inside!) this is a fun interview w Foote from back in the day
I'm always at a toss up when I come across stuff like the Ukraine article you shared. As to whether these people are cynical or truly believe the words they're putting to paper. Because it'd only take 5 minutes for any academic to fact check that the GOP is on board with the war effort as much as the dems. They have a house majority atm, and theyre approving the billions Biden is asking for. And afa Trump being anti NATO, he expanded it eastward with at least one country, maybe 2?
Libs are a pathological people, hence the Canadian Indigenous Genocide hoax. It's not that they see oppression where it doesnt exist. They desperately NEED to believe it. It has to feed off of grievance and protected identities to survive and expand. So when some "professor of strategic studies" (lol) goes off like that, I do think they are at least somewhat coming from a place of genuine belief. But my mind initially reads it as hollow agitprop.
As far as Biden specifically, I don't think he has any genuine stake in Ukraine beyond losing a money washing outpost. As far as I'm concerned, the man believes in nothing.
You are too kind...at his best Biden is a pipe-swinging pimp who was collecting protection money from Ukrainian gangsters and is now sacrificing hundreds of thousands for PR and risking nuclear war too.
“Why can’t poor countries just mimic the common characteristics of rich countries and skip over all the toil and trial and error of the middle part?”
This question always frustrates me. Whether it is Americans asking “Why can’t we be like Sweden?” or Russians asking “Why can’t we be like America?”, people’s ignorance of how material conditions determine which political options are viable always gobsmacks me.
But I was the same for years, always looking for “the best” form of government; it seems to be the default way of thinking in the West. We’re so propagandized here. Perhaps we can slowly but surely expose our friends to different perspectives.
I’m about to read the Mexico article in full; I’ll be sharing this week’s review and possibly the Mexico article with a couple of Russians afterwards
“Why can’t poor countries just mimic the common characteristics of rich countries and skip over all the toil and trial and error of the middle part?”
Many third-world (African and Asian) countries did precisely that, with regard to telecommunications. Specifically, they skipped the part about building a wired communications infrastructure and jumped directly from "jungle drums" to cellular telephones (and Internet).
That’s a good point; with technology, you can skip several steps and be fine. The Africans didn’t need to use horses before they used cars. Smartphones are more practical than PCs over there.
With institutions, human capital, and culture, skipping steps does not work. Most sub-Saharan African cultures are... not conducive to nation building, to be polite. And this is why attempts to form liberal democracies there fail.
On a lighter note, some of the anachronisms (to us) that occur can be hilarious. I remember an African comedian talking about a wondrous new device that was installed in a mall. Schools would take field trips to see the device. They’d excitedly use it while taking videos on their smartphones.
America is even in 1775 a great melange of English of various peoples from all over Europe.
The Dutch were still strong in New York, the Quakers in PA and Delaware, the Catholics in Maryland, we can’t ignore the Anglican Tidewater or the many flavors of Protestant or scot irish, germans, New Jersey you know was originally New Sweden and the intermarriage of so many already quite noted. Look at Hamilton; he may actually HAD some black blood, certainly Irish which was nearly as bad.
My bloodline has Foundation Ancestors (Cape Cod 1609) AND ☘️ Fenians !!! That’s a 20th century marriage of course.
But yes the Ivies won far too much, now they’re insane and it’s ending. Badly. That’s the end of the Puritans, and not soon enough it was...
Don't kid yourself. Aside from Trump and Vivek, all the Team R candidates are competing as to who can be more pro-Kiev. They know full well what the donors and the Deep State want.
Even if Trump were to win, Trump proved himself weak, stupid and easily manipulated. The Deep State would quickly bring him around. I express no opinion regarding Vivek, but he won't be allowed to win, so it doesn't matter.
F the elections, if any group in the nation moves... and so many now see no choice. The greatest cowards in history, armed to the teeth fleeing faggots and crones may at last have no choice but to turn and fight at last.
True. The only way the oligarchy can be constrained is by organised opposition. The old order was workable so long as the American people remained demobilised. The thoroughgoing politicisation of everyday life has made this situation untenable. If MAGA morphs into anything like a genuine (non-American) political party that can hold its leadership accountable the situation will be utterly transformed.
Organisation is the political expression of cohesion. Once the latter starts growing North America will never be the same.
2. Matters are far beyond Trump or MAGA just as on the Left it’s a mistake to fixate on Bernie or AOC, for-
3. As noted earlier politicization is mobilization. I add that Politics is Power and POWER is a Base Human Appetite - and to excite it in millions means millions want MORE, it’s like Sex. You want more once you’ve tasted it-this,
4. -This is like preaching chastity through pornography.
5. As humans usually organize themselves into groups, organization is inevitable.
6. Any widespread organization to get power no matter how fragmented is unhealthy and indeed fatal to status quo power.
7. That this was done on the Left was incompetence, that it was unstoppable on the Right with MAGA is impotence, to have politicized everyone insanity.
8. Incompetence, Impotence and Insanity aren’t actually qualifications for power or office, someday this will seem absurd, although in the present we endure them all.
2. Its well past Trump on every side, Trump is a catalyst that has gotten beyond all control. Even killing him at this point doesn’t save them, because-
3. As Noted earlier politicizing everything and everyone even families arguing at Thanksgiving is POLITICS and Politics is Power and now with many millions having tasted power or worse its tantalizing scent like a rabid dog that scents water but cannot drink- they want MORE.
It’s like Sex, you want more.
It’s a thirst that can only be quenched by more OR suppressed by Grace (see any grace mixing with power now ? )
OR SUPPRESSED by FEAR.
- well there’s no one about to do that either! Not really.
You see the worst part isn’t just that no one is coming to save us, it’s no one is coming to kill half of us and then rule the other half with an Iron Fist. No.
Hitler or Stalin isn’t next.
Instead because of power being an appetite now excited in many millions.... millions of mini Hitlers, Lenins, Stalins are coming... and we actually enter now not Totalitarianism but...
...The American Anarchy.
Dear Sir; if there were a Hitler or Stalin out there, myself and my friends and comrades including several Family members would...
....already have sworn allegiance to him. Yes.
Yes. In an instant. If one thinks ideology matters to fighters or that this is even selfishness or cowardice or that we’re dumb brutes who don’t care about right and wrong.... that is error. We just know what we’re doing.
Kind of agree. A descent into chaos or anarchy seems likely. An ungovernable country can still yield a steady profit for its elites, at least parts of them, if they play their hands well. Furthermore, a traditional authoritarian resolution (Red Caesar or Blue Caesar) would expose people at the top to the risk of appropriation and the potential embarrassment of taking orders from the wrong sort of people. In any case, great care has been taken since the 50s to constrain the emergence of serious alternative leadership. Now that the system is in crisis there is a shortage of potential strongmen.
A substantially chaotic North America without a capable national government would enable plenty of dealmaking amongst various players: national elites, regional elites, multinationals, drug cartels, military and intelligence chiefs and foreign governments. First priority would be to evade liability for the accrued debt, second to grab whatever can be grabbed and, finally, to secure a degree of safety for essential personnel. Everyone else is readily expendable and will suffer greatly.
Here’s more evidence that organization is being built, the headcount of 3000 is mentioned, and apparently TFPI already has 192 . Great men pass, organizations with interests not so fast .
The idea of Trump as having the attention span even to build the necessary organization, to construct a farm team of candidates, to vet them and get them into positions and build their credentials so they can take positions of higher authority, beggars the imagination.
He'd rather engage in cheap theatrics and twitter beefs with fellow members of the Moron-American Community.
Philip’s key point here could work for any organization outside the Uniparty; “The old order was workable so long as the American people remained demobilised. The thoroughgoing politicisation of everyday life has made this situation untenable.”
They went and cooked themselves, it’s just a question of which group of chefs does them in. Have you noticed they are all VERY OLD and their bench is a range from AOC ~ Gaetz - who are ridiculous performance artists? THERE’S NO SUCCESSION.
They end even if Trump and all of MAGA are destroyed tomorrow.
It accurately describes government schooling in any era. Look at the topics of today; still schoolmasters with howitzers except they changed out grapeshot for dildos and pronouns.
I am the rarest bird you’re likely to find, an Anglo, Canadian supporter of Quebec separatism. Yes? Rare?
Canada the post national nation is a disgraceful, arrogant, myopic traitor to it’s own history, and the memory of those who built this once proud nation. Pride replaced by self loathing, we, Canada, Canadians, are held hostage to a pathetic cabal of idiots. Worse, future generations are being educated by those same idiots: our national broadcaster, and our professorate.
Quebec: why am I, a 50 year Torontonian, in favour of separatism?
Because Quebequos culture should survive; It is a vestige of a better time; it is a nation and deserves preservation as was understood by all peoples of all nations for millennia before the catastrophe of this post modern affliction.
Our Prime Minister freely admits we are nothing, which means there is nothing to lose. Quebec is something, a culture anunique culture and that is deserving of preservation.
If you look at a map, you’ll understand why Quebec separating from Canada is the end of Canada .
But I am willing to walk the walk not just talked to talk. The preservation of culture is that important to me. So, preserving Quebec Culture is worth of destruction of Canada. The destruction of Canada is a nothing, we simply slip into the abyss of post modern subjectivism, which we have willingly embraced and glorify: such stupidity deserves that fate.
I grew up in rural Quebec. Our differences in culture are based largely on language. There's a difference in temperament between francophone and anglophone and that may be due to historical differences in class.
Without the french language, Quebec is a less uptight version of Ontario.
The Canada I grew up in still exists in the Atlantic provinces.
They’re coming for that Canada as well, that which still survives in the Maritimes. The kids are being taught that their cultural inheritance is a bad thing.. Quebec will be subsumed by this value of self loathing . Quebec is doomed from within. Their own children are being taught self-loathing and to lust after the international metropolis ethos. They are embarrassed by their cultural inheritance. “The machine is eating us at its leisure.”
The stories I'm reading about Quebec leave me grateful that I moved out over a decade ago. Now we're having an unaffordable housing crisis in Nova Scotia due to the recent influx of people from the rest of Canada.
Quebec is doomed, or should I say Quebecois culture is doomed. All legacy cultures are doomed. We are teaching our children to abandon their history. The kids want to be part of the international metropolitan elite mono-culture.
The certain outcome of Communism is it never survives the Founding generation, with the sole exception of the slave plantation of North Korea - which is simply a dynasty of course.
The unfortunate outcome of Communism- I refer now to the Liberal post modern abyss the USA and Canada are in - is that depending on the people’s level of commitment it destroys every other social tie from family to religion to community to nation, this is why China can’t build chips, can’t keep a team together to build engines, why all the post communist nations that aren’t Catholic have problems- and so on. Which is why Poland and Hungary are such targets for Woke State Dept, why the families in the USA are targeted by tranny sadist fiends, etc. The family and father are always a target. The Maoists and Viet Cong did same (not by sodomy).
Which is why (along with sterility) Woke won’t last but will do lasting damage. It’s not likely to last even a generation by the way, they grossly overreached and have no intrinsic force: they are cowards, they’ve made enemies of the police and disgusted the soldiers (again in America these are the same demographic and families) and they’ve made an enemy of every non gay parent in the land.
What I see is the Woke nibbling round the margins, picking off the weaklings but infuriating the main. Turns out you need some Alpha Males after all.
Cool, but also astute judgement as pertains the staying power of woke critical theory ; it will collapse under the weight of it’s own obvious internal contradictions; it is demonstrably foolish.
Few things last, especially radical movements. Woke has played a historic role in disrupting the social order and feminising Western men just as competition with surging numbers of non-Westerners becomes a challenge. It has weakened any number of institutions and professions and prepared the way for the next great wave of social engineering. It has delegitimised the old and decrepit system. Woke is like a fungus or mould that breaks down decayed timber, freeing elements to be used by new life.
Newfoundland and its neighbours might have been better off federating with the UK rather than join the rest of Canada. A Far North Atlantic Federation...maybe taken over Iceland as well, who knows?
They believe it. That’s my best take
Check out my response to Erik. The Party doesn't care what they think.
Have you read N.S. Lyons' The China Convergence? It's quite good and helps explain this. In the West we're moving more and more towards a one party state. So to answer your question, it's irrelevant what they really think. All that matters is fealty to the Party.
lmao same here
NS Lyon’ s the upheaval is brilliant and his tour de force is his China convergence piece
They believe it.
But they don't. Not really. If aliens invaded tomorrow and destroyed the Atlantic Council while conquering Earth, within a month that Scottsman would be writing articles titled, "Umman-Manda Space Technology is a Boon for Human Rights." He is an intellectual slave. He will tell his masters whatever they want to hear to receive a paycheck or land a promotion. So will every other ladder-climbing sycophant in the over-bureaucratized halls of power in the modern West.
So, if most of what we hear in the West concerning this war is merely the ululations of loyal slaves, that begs the question: who are their masters?
I’m beginning to suspect that other than the paychecks there’s no Masters. The Masters are the lawyers of the Ancient Crones gasping their last.
Think about it; it’s in the Sycophant Classes interest to keep the money coming, that they would lie is established.
When Biden gasps his last, it goes.
i just found out even Randy Savage was Jewish!
these people have a need to succeed...
So was Jesus Christ
i had no idea! ;)
He’s not the real Jesus
The real Jesus was .....
Randy "Macho Man" Savage???
had a jewish mom! ohhhh yeaahhhhhhh
What about his dad?
Angelo Poffo, his dad, was an Italian-American wrestler.
So Randy and his brother were pizza bagels, half Italian half Jewish.
Jewtalian - The Master Race
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oww this hits very close to home since half my family is from MEXICO ( mom's side)
I've lived several years in the country, and I can tell another, overlooked situation.
Idiosyncracy.
Mexicans arent as a whole disciplined, work-oriented people (like Japanese or the anglos), preferring the easy way out (hence, how many are interested in "working" for the cartels) and handouts.
Its no suprise that the country has kinda thrived only under semi- or authoritarian govts ( porfirio diaz dictatorshsip, the PRI-semi authoritarian period 1930-2000).
Think of the country as that office full of workers that only deliver under a strict, tyrannical, bad tempered boss.
While the japanese and other 1st worlders are like workers that basically can do home office work and deliver, self-discipline embedded in them already.
Character matters, and national character ( something so many times overlooed, because, in the whacko worldview of the left, we are all "equal", like interchangeable Lego bricks) does too.
There are certain borders that provide incredible, immediate glimpses at the difference between well-running societies and not-well-running ones: Detroit and Dearborn, Niagara Falls ONT and Niagara Falls NY, El Paso and Juarez
north korea-south korea
East berlin-west berlin
we can go on and on
My point here is that SOME 3rd worlders MAY make GOOD workers when properly paid AND directed
thats mexicans and other latinos in the USA, mostly hard workers in menial jobs there because sweet dollars - but seldom entrepreneurs, inventors or innovators- that speaks a lot about "idiosyncrasy".
Other 3rd worlders ( afro-americans, that for most purposes are their own 3rd world country, embedded in the USA) cant even become hard workers and become professional complainers ( encouraged by that pest called "white liberal") about the past, relying even more in handouts.
And other immigrants, like east ASIANS, are very productive and mobilizing upward.
there are clear DIFFERENCES between groups of people
Sailer has theorized that El Paso had a traditionally lower crime rate than Juarez for ethno-cultural reasons (despite having demographic similarities to Juarez)...El Paso was a haven for upper-middle-class Mexicans fleeing the Mexican Civil War and they brought their good values with them
3rd worlders in an Anglo-germanic-governed society will of course behave better than in their native countries ( well, Muslims in Europe dont, but thats another topic)
But still, bad habits cannot be totally erased:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/424141/prevalence-rate-of-violent-crime-in-the-us-by-ethnicity/
second only to our African-american friends! yay!
El Paso has a wall a long time, and a very effective police force.
Crime is a tiny number of people.
I wonder -- did Canada not deindustrialize like the US? I'm curious because most of the desolation we see across the US was caused by this.
It did, places like Niagara Falls, Welland, St. Catharines and Windsor on or near the American border lost tons of manufacturing jobs. They stayed slightly longer because of the low Canadian dollar and the Canadian side of the falls also has more tourist potential.
The difference with Canada though is the growth of Toronto sort of saved these places by proxy.
The only areas of true decline in Canada are parts of Atlantic Canada and Northern Ontario there you see fairly large population drops in the small towns and a couple of smaller cities.
Keep in mind Canada has very few places to flee too, when mass immigration drives White Flight those suburban Whites in the GTA fled to places like Niagara which kept the place propped up. Real estate prices have forced people out here who have no business having to live so far away from their workplace.
Very interesting. Thanks.
You've got me thinking about the border crisis. If Mexicans only thrive under a firm Mexican govt, then US/Mexican immigration can only work under tight rule. It's not even a demographic issue and letting cartel guys slip through, but without threat of deportation, theyre not even really gonna bother being productive.
The NYC migrant crisis in particular is funny. Mayor Adams is begging Biden for work permits. Wtf kind of work are these people gonna do? Beyond the few people selling things out of a cart on the subway (good on them for trying) none seem particularly motivated anyway
This might be applied to many non-developed peoples as well
China, other LATAM, even African countries fall under this scheme
it seems to be either tough dictators that bring peace and stability needed for progress and development ( Pinochet, the PCC, Franco, Salazar, felix Houphouet from ivory coast etc etc)
for many countries, it seems to be either chaos/instability OR an authoritarian regime, nothing in between.
Thats why something as half hearted and, ultimately LAME as liberal democracy has absolutely FAILED to pull the likes of India or Latin america out from poverty.
and perhaps it's no wonder that the usual "democracy experts" IGNORE that liberal democracy was established more often than not, AFTER a Western country achieved some degree of social-economic development, piggy-backing on the success brought by trade-capitalism-industrialization.
There would be no drug trade in Mexico, but for the insatiable appetite for drugs in the United States.
Demand is price elastic, if you seal the border supply would be curtailed. Complete the wall, put the US military on the border and and hunt down the cartel leaders and their foot soldiers on both sides of the border. Locate the importers of Chinese fentanyl and eliminate them and their infrastructure. Incentives matter.
Different commodities have different demand elasticities. Addictive drugs have a notoriously high demand elasticity.
Anyway, now you're proposing two hot wars, one against a nuclear armed China, all because Americans are that desperate to get high.
What could possibly go wrong?
Gee, that was quite a leap. Nuclear war? LOL.
Although i said nothing about "nuclear war", you apparently think China will just sit back while you "take out" facilities located in China.
And you think I have an active imagination.
Even though I'm still incurably CentralEurope-centered, You provide ever more interesting reading. (Never mind the FbF heading, which escapes me.) I'm almost ready to scrape up the $50 or whatever, because other sites, frankly, either bore me, or just piss me off . . .
High praise, haha
So, actually, the Russians have got every incentive to interfere in the US elections.
Even if they don't, they will be assumed to have done so if the wrongthink candidate wins.
It will not enter into their minds that literally millions of Americans are sick of their shit.
No, it must be the Russians!
I suspect that the elites are well aware. They don't care.
no one willingly surrenders a scapegoat (at least not until a successor is secured), they are too valuable
Right! How could we ever get anything done?
Well that’s the pivot to China , the NEW ENEMY.
If America had identical incentives we’d have already had nuclear war.
And right now...
We’d be reloading.
On the subject of viewpoints of Professors of Strategic Studies in Scotland: One thing that American conservatives tend to underestimate - as they wrestle with their own culture war against the takeover of its coastal metropolises by the virtue signalling Left - is that it can get worse. Here in the UK it can. Last election in the US about 40% (was it?) voted for a non-liberal-establishment candidate. In Britain, thanks to decades of BBC -type taming, they would get maybe 5% max. You have a 'culture war'.... think that's bad? Here it's been total surrender. The UK has made its silly self virtually conservatism-free.
And so - albeit probably for very wrong reasons - the professor is probably right about USA/UK relations in the event of a Trump victory. In other parts of Europe though, right of centre polities do still exist and are growing.
As an Englishmen, I second this. I am struggling to think of any country which is more uniformly liberal/progressive than Britain. For this reason, I am pleased about Brexit because it means that the corrosive influence of British progressivism is no longer being smeared across Europe.
too late
the EU is a wholly liberal institution
The EU, yes. But European people, less so. I get that feeling anyway.
about Canada, LOOOL
referring to my earlier post about national idiosyncrasy in Mexico, this might apply too but from another angle
a "new" country searching for its own identity, like a teenager just coming of age and dont knowing what values to embrace for his personality.
and the hystericals of the Atlantic guy are both amusing and refreshing, his article is soo over the top we might wonder if its parody or exaggerated on purpose to propagate some distress on its readers.
Even IF trump won 2024, there are too many powerful forces and semi-independent centers of power embedded in the US govt to allow a drastic change in foreign policy towards NATO/Europe.
Such changes take decades or catastrophic events to happen.
Thanks for this, especially the piece on Foote. Walker Percy was his friend from childhood, and they even met Faulkner together in Oxford. Percy was so afraid of meeting Faulkner that he stayed in the car while Foote went inside!) this is a fun interview w Foote from back in the day
https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/931/the-art-of-fiction-no-158-shelby-foote
I'm always at a toss up when I come across stuff like the Ukraine article you shared. As to whether these people are cynical or truly believe the words they're putting to paper. Because it'd only take 5 minutes for any academic to fact check that the GOP is on board with the war effort as much as the dems. They have a house majority atm, and theyre approving the billions Biden is asking for. And afa Trump being anti NATO, he expanded it eastward with at least one country, maybe 2?
Libs are a pathological people, hence the Canadian Indigenous Genocide hoax. It's not that they see oppression where it doesnt exist. They desperately NEED to believe it. It has to feed off of grievance and protected identities to survive and expand. So when some "professor of strategic studies" (lol) goes off like that, I do think they are at least somewhat coming from a place of genuine belief. But my mind initially reads it as hollow agitprop.
As far as Biden specifically, I don't think he has any genuine stake in Ukraine beyond losing a money washing outpost. As far as I'm concerned, the man believes in nothing.
Biden is a whore
You are too kind...at his best Biden is a pipe-swinging pimp who was collecting protection money from Ukrainian gangsters and is now sacrificing hundreds of thousands for PR and risking nuclear war too.
Yes , I see my error and I stand corrected.
Permission to use, “ pipe, swinging pimp” in the future. We need value accuracy.
lmao "pipe-swinging pimp" is pretty funny
I’m plugging that pipe swinging pimp into AI image generator Philip - standby
Here we are Philippians - the Pipe Swinging Pimp, AI style
https://max-k-w-p-train2.online/?p=10
Thanks, but got this message: "404 This page could not be found."
“Why can’t poor countries just mimic the common characteristics of rich countries and skip over all the toil and trial and error of the middle part?”
This question always frustrates me. Whether it is Americans asking “Why can’t we be like Sweden?” or Russians asking “Why can’t we be like America?”, people’s ignorance of how material conditions determine which political options are viable always gobsmacks me.
But I was the same for years, always looking for “the best” form of government; it seems to be the default way of thinking in the West. We’re so propagandized here. Perhaps we can slowly but surely expose our friends to different perspectives.
I’m about to read the Mexico article in full; I’ll be sharing this week’s review and possibly the Mexico article with a couple of Russians afterwards
“Why can’t poor countries just mimic the common characteristics of rich countries and skip over all the toil and trial and error of the middle part?”
Many third-world (African and Asian) countries did precisely that, with regard to telecommunications. Specifically, they skipped the part about building a wired communications infrastructure and jumped directly from "jungle drums" to cellular telephones (and Internet).
That’s a good point; with technology, you can skip several steps and be fine. The Africans didn’t need to use horses before they used cars. Smartphones are more practical than PCs over there.
With institutions, human capital, and culture, skipping steps does not work. Most sub-Saharan African cultures are... not conducive to nation building, to be polite. And this is why attempts to form liberal democracies there fail.
On a lighter note, some of the anachronisms (to us) that occur can be hilarious. I remember an African comedian talking about a wondrous new device that was installed in a mall. Schools would take field trips to see the device. They’d excitedly use it while taking videos on their smartphones.
The device was an escalator 🤣
Yes, you're right. In retrospect, I see that my comment was of the "apples to oranges" variety. Thank you!
America started with the Puritans and the DNA of those people still flows through the blood of the nation today.
Not entirely.
It’s just that Puritans won the Civil War.
They’re ending you know.
They do.
They’re not ending well.
America is even in 1775 a great melange of English of various peoples from all over Europe.
The Dutch were still strong in New York, the Quakers in PA and Delaware, the Catholics in Maryland, we can’t ignore the Anglican Tidewater or the many flavors of Protestant or scot irish, germans, New Jersey you know was originally New Sweden and the intermarriage of so many already quite noted. Look at Hamilton; he may actually HAD some black blood, certainly Irish which was nearly as bad.
My bloodline has Foundation Ancestors (Cape Cod 1609) AND ☘️ Fenians !!! That’s a 20th century marriage of course.
But yes the Ivies won far too much, now they’re insane and it’s ending. Badly. That’s the end of the Puritans, and not soon enough it was...
I recall seeing parts of the movie Chinatown. I don't recall ever seeing a single Chinese person.
Forget it Dain, it’s Chinatown.
Extras
Very informative stuff. Thank you, Sir
Don't kid yourself. Aside from Trump and Vivek, all the Team R candidates are competing as to who can be more pro-Kiev. They know full well what the donors and the Deep State want.
Even if Trump were to win, Trump proved himself weak, stupid and easily manipulated. The Deep State would quickly bring him around. I express no opinion regarding Vivek, but he won't be allowed to win, so it doesn't matter.
Correct
If Trump wins we will see a Colour Revolution in America. I cannot envision Trump being allowed to actually govern.
I doubt that anything so drastic will be needed, as Trump has already proven weak, stupid and easily manipulated.
That said, I doubt Trump will be allowed to win. Keeping him off the ballot in a couple of swing states because reasons will be enough.
The economic and geopolitical melt-down makes 2024 very hard to predict. It promises to be wild.
The process will be dramatic but the result is baked in the cake.
No FF, the cake is dissolving.
oh the election sure, but not what happens.
F the elections, if any group in the nation moves... and so many now see no choice. The greatest cowards in history, armed to the teeth fleeing faggots and crones may at last have no choice but to turn and fight at last.
Blue?
Philip we had a color revolution called the 2020 election.
FFS They published it in advance and had a nice writeup on it afterwards in TIME.
https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
Trump may well be building or gathering a movement and organization this time, that’s more important than getting elected. That doesn’t go away.
Organization is what’s been missing. That’s more important than Trump, the Presidency or Party , or anything...
True. The only way the oligarchy can be constrained is by organised opposition. The old order was workable so long as the American people remained demobilised. The thoroughgoing politicisation of everyday life has made this situation untenable. If MAGA morphs into anything like a genuine (non-American) political party that can hold its leadership accountable the situation will be utterly transformed.
Organisation is the political expression of cohesion. Once the latter starts growing North America will never be the same.
It’s quite happening all over.
“Machinery in Waiting” scroll down.
https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/trump-2025-radical-plan-second-term
I answered FF as well;
1. Mistake to fixate on Trump or MAGA.
2. Matters are far beyond Trump or MAGA just as on the Left it’s a mistake to fixate on Bernie or AOC, for-
3. As noted earlier politicization is mobilization. I add that Politics is Power and POWER is a Base Human Appetite - and to excite it in millions means millions want MORE, it’s like Sex. You want more once you’ve tasted it-this,
4. -This is like preaching chastity through pornography.
5. As humans usually organize themselves into groups, organization is inevitable.
6. Any widespread organization to get power no matter how fragmented is unhealthy and indeed fatal to status quo power.
7. That this was done on the Left was incompetence, that it was unstoppable on the Right with MAGA is impotence, to have politicized everyone insanity.
8. Incompetence, Impotence and Insanity aren’t actually qualifications for power or office, someday this will seem absurd, although in the present we endure them all.
Amen.
I have seen no evidence of this.
Trump was, is and always is ever only always all about Trump.
FF Which is why others are building the organizations (plural).
Trump is nodding his head and being Trump.
(Axios is hardly sympathetic, the meat here is down at “Machinery in Waiting.”)
https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/trump-2025-radical-plan-second-term
People made radical plans for Trump's first term as well. Enough to say that none of those hopes came to pass.
The Trump Administration governed as a weaker and more dysfunctional version of Bush's second term.
1. Stop fixating on Trump, please.
2. Its well past Trump on every side, Trump is a catalyst that has gotten beyond all control. Even killing him at this point doesn’t save them, because-
3. As Noted earlier politicizing everything and everyone even families arguing at Thanksgiving is POLITICS and Politics is Power and now with many millions having tasted power or worse its tantalizing scent like a rabid dog that scents water but cannot drink- they want MORE.
It’s like Sex, you want more.
It’s a thirst that can only be quenched by more OR suppressed by Grace (see any grace mixing with power now ? )
OR SUPPRESSED by FEAR.
- well there’s no one about to do that either! Not really.
You see the worst part isn’t just that no one is coming to save us, it’s no one is coming to kill half of us and then rule the other half with an Iron Fist. No.
Hitler or Stalin isn’t next.
Instead because of power being an appetite now excited in many millions.... millions of mini Hitlers, Lenins, Stalins are coming... and we actually enter now not Totalitarianism but...
...The American Anarchy.
Dear Sir; if there were a Hitler or Stalin out there, myself and my friends and comrades including several Family members would...
....already have sworn allegiance to him. Yes.
Yes. In an instant. If one thinks ideology matters to fighters or that this is even selfishness or cowardice or that we’re dumb brutes who don’t care about right and wrong.... that is error. We just know what we’re doing.
But don’t worry, there’s no one.
Worry that there’s no one.
Kind of agree. A descent into chaos or anarchy seems likely. An ungovernable country can still yield a steady profit for its elites, at least parts of them, if they play their hands well. Furthermore, a traditional authoritarian resolution (Red Caesar or Blue Caesar) would expose people at the top to the risk of appropriation and the potential embarrassment of taking orders from the wrong sort of people. In any case, great care has been taken since the 50s to constrain the emergence of serious alternative leadership. Now that the system is in crisis there is a shortage of potential strongmen.
A substantially chaotic North America without a capable national government would enable plenty of dealmaking amongst various players: national elites, regional elites, multinationals, drug cartels, military and intelligence chiefs and foreign governments. First priority would be to evade liability for the accrued debt, second to grab whatever can be grabbed and, finally, to secure a degree of safety for essential personnel. Everyone else is readily expendable and will suffer greatly.
Here’s more evidence that organization is being built, the headcount of 3000 is mentioned, and apparently TFPI already has 192 . Great men pass, organizations with interests not so fast .
https://archive.ph/2023.07.14-085616/https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/07/13/the-meticulous-ruthless-preparations-for-a-second-trump-term
link doesn't work.
The idea of Trump as having the attention span even to build the necessary organization, to construct a farm team of candidates, to vet them and get them into positions and build their credentials so they can take positions of higher authority, beggars the imagination.
He'd rather engage in cheap theatrics and twitter beefs with fellow members of the Moron-American Community.
Philip’s key point here could work for any organization outside the Uniparty; “The old order was workable so long as the American people remained demobilised. The thoroughgoing politicisation of everyday life has made this situation untenable.”
They went and cooked themselves, it’s just a question of which group of chefs does them in. Have you noticed they are all VERY OLD and their bench is a range from AOC ~ Gaetz - who are ridiculous performance artists? THERE’S NO SUCCESSION.
They end even if Trump and all of MAGA are destroyed tomorrow.
“Schoolmasters with howitzers” is one hell of an image.
That was their aim. Still is.
It accurately describes government schooling in any era. Look at the topics of today; still schoolmasters with howitzers except they changed out grapeshot for dildos and pronouns.
I am the rarest bird you’re likely to find, an Anglo, Canadian supporter of Quebec separatism. Yes? Rare?
Canada the post national nation is a disgraceful, arrogant, myopic traitor to it’s own history, and the memory of those who built this once proud nation. Pride replaced by self loathing, we, Canada, Canadians, are held hostage to a pathetic cabal of idiots. Worse, future generations are being educated by those same idiots: our national broadcaster, and our professorate.
Quebec: why am I, a 50 year Torontonian, in favour of separatism?
Because Quebequos culture should survive; It is a vestige of a better time; it is a nation and deserves preservation as was understood by all peoples of all nations for millennia before the catastrophe of this post modern affliction.
Our Prime Minister freely admits we are nothing, which means there is nothing to lose. Quebec is something, a culture anunique culture and that is deserving of preservation.
If you look at a map, you’ll understand why Quebec separating from Canada is the end of Canada .
But I am willing to walk the walk not just talked to talk. The preservation of culture is that important to me. So, preserving Quebec Culture is worth of destruction of Canada. The destruction of Canada is a nothing, we simply slip into the abyss of post modern subjectivism, which we have willingly embraced and glorify: such stupidity deserves that fate.
I grew up in rural Quebec. Our differences in culture are based largely on language. There's a difference in temperament between francophone and anglophone and that may be due to historical differences in class.
Without the french language, Quebec is a less uptight version of Ontario.
The Canada I grew up in still exists in the Atlantic provinces.
They’re coming for that Canada as well, that which still survives in the Maritimes. The kids are being taught that their cultural inheritance is a bad thing.. Quebec will be subsumed by this value of self loathing . Quebec is doomed from within. Their own children are being taught self-loathing and to lust after the international metropolis ethos. They are embarrassed by their cultural inheritance. “The machine is eating us at its leisure.”
The stories I'm reading about Quebec leave me grateful that I moved out over a decade ago. Now we're having an unaffordable housing crisis in Nova Scotia due to the recent influx of people from the rest of Canada.
I think my assertions are correct, but it is a broad based understanding of what’s going on. I don’t have any particular knowledge about the belle
The Texans from Toronto are snapping up your real estate
Are you optimistic or pessimistic about Quebec's future?
One thing they do correctly is teach immigrants how to speak french but not english.
That is wise.
Quebec is doomed, or should I say Quebecois culture is doomed. All legacy cultures are doomed. We are teaching our children to abandon their history. The kids want to be part of the international metropolitan elite mono-culture.
The certain outcome of Communism is it never survives the Founding generation, with the sole exception of the slave plantation of North Korea - which is simply a dynasty of course.
The unfortunate outcome of Communism- I refer now to the Liberal post modern abyss the USA and Canada are in - is that depending on the people’s level of commitment it destroys every other social tie from family to religion to community to nation, this is why China can’t build chips, can’t keep a team together to build engines, why all the post communist nations that aren’t Catholic have problems- and so on. Which is why Poland and Hungary are such targets for Woke State Dept, why the families in the USA are targeted by tranny sadist fiends, etc. The family and father are always a target. The Maoists and Viet Cong did same (not by sodomy).
Which is why (along with sterility) Woke won’t last but will do lasting damage. It’s not likely to last even a generation by the way, they grossly overreached and have no intrinsic force: they are cowards, they’ve made enemies of the police and disgusted the soldiers (again in America these are the same demographic and families) and they’ve made an enemy of every non gay parent in the land.
What I see is the Woke nibbling round the margins, picking off the weaklings but infuriating the main. Turns out you need some Alpha Males after all.
Very cool post
Cool, but also astute judgement as pertains the staying power of woke critical theory ; it will collapse under the weight of it’s own obvious internal contradictions; it is demonstrably foolish.
Internal contradictions are logical, more comforting to me : this is what happened over and over, and they presently have no men.
Just enraged heavily armed peasants.
Absurdities remain credible so long as they can bind people together. Logic, evidence or reality is irrelevant. Collective emotion is all.
We are stupid
Few things last, especially radical movements. Woke has played a historic role in disrupting the social order and feminising Western men just as competition with surging numbers of non-Westerners becomes a challenge. It has weakened any number of institutions and professions and prepared the way for the next great wave of social engineering. It has delegitimised the old and decrepit system. Woke is like a fungus or mould that breaks down decayed timber, freeing elements to be used by new life.
Newfoundland and its neighbours might have been better off federating with the UK rather than join the rest of Canada. A Far North Atlantic Federation...maybe taken over Iceland as well, who knows?