"People do not expect to find chastity in a whorehouse. Why, then, do they expect to find honesty and humanity in government, a congeries of institutions whose modus operandi consists of lying, cheating, stealing, and if need be, murdering those who resist?"
- H. L. Mencken
[ZeroHedge] Just as uniformity can result in both stability and stagnation, so too can diversity sometimes ensure either dynamism or bedlam...
What do all our notable fabricators - George Santos, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Barack Obama - have in common?
Well, quite like the Ward ChurchilIs or Rachel Dolezals of the world, one way or another, they lied about their identities. Or they sought fraudulent ways of suggesting their ancestries were marginalized. Or they had claims on being victims on the theory their constructed personas brought career advantages.
George Santos claimed, apparently in search of a victimized status, that he was an “American Jew” and a “Latino Jew,” and a descendent of Holocaust survivors.
Joe Biden lied that he went to “shul” as well as that he grew up in a veritable Puerto Rican household and just happened to attend a black college as well as being an honorary Greek.
Elizabeth Warren ended up a laughingstock for claiming her high cheekbones were proof of her Native-American ancestry—a lie she rode all the way to being the “first” Native-American professor on the Harvard Law school faculty.
Somehow the half-white, prep-schooled Barry Soetoro, who had taken his Indonesian stepfather’s last name, rebooted in the university back to Barack Obama. The latter oddly did not catch his literary agent “misidentifying” him in a book promo as being born in Africa. And only as president, did we learn his “autobiographical” memoir was mostly a concoction.
This fixation with constructing identities is one of the great pathologies of our woke era.
When we obsess in neo-Confederate style on race, ethnicity, or religion as the defining element of who we are, and we do this to leverage political advantage, then we set off a chain-reaction of Yugoslavian- or Lebanese-style tribalism. Like nuclear proliferation, once one group goes tribal, then all others will strain to find their own deterrent tribal identity.
A SOCIETY OF LIES
There are warning signs all around us of our fate to come if we do not stop this nihilism: Latino members of the Los Angeles City Council caught on a hot mic of matter-of-fact venting tribalist hatred and mocking of non-Latino tribes—blacks, gays, indigenous people, and whites. Or the Jussie Smollett farce, both the lies he concocted to promote his victimhood, and the lies the Chicago prosecutor office initially promulgated to ensure initial preferential treatment for Smollett based on his race. Read the comments posted below news stories of rampant swarming smash-and-grab, knockout game, or carjacking crimes—and be warned of the venomous and tribalist backlash to venomous tribalism.
In a world in which there are too many oppressed for the static number of oppressors, then it is perfectly logical that an Elizabeth Warren on the one hand would fabricate an advantageous identity for careerist opportunity, and a Jussie Smollett on the other hand would invent mythical white MAGA demons to ensure he was victimized and deserving of careerist reparations for his suffering.
Yet the tribal problem is not just an epidemic of false identities and fraudulent victims. Entire areas of social and political reality are now set off and exempt from rational discussion. We are currently witnessing an upsurge in black-male crime, often descending into disproportionate hate crimes perpetrated against Asians and Jews. Yet any discussion of this violence is taboo, lest one is deemed racist or illiberal.
Questioning the morality of allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports and to destroy decades of striving for equal female athletics likewise is put off-limits.
So are discussions about the epidemic of illegitimacy and the negative effects of fatherless families contributing to problems in some minority communities.
#3
The same reason their families left to 'old country' are the same reason for moving on. The problem is that their first new home became just like the 'old country'. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
#6
I was talking to someone who moved here to Tennessee from Pennsylvania and was complaining about the sales tax. He wants the state to implement an income tax and reduce the sales tax. I told him to move back to Pennsylvania. He was complaining about the sales tax on a new refrigerator saying it was cheaper to drive to Virginia and buy one. I asked him how often he bought a refrigerator. He shut up then.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/05/2023 11:16 Comments ||
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#7
Transplant from NE was talking about how inexpensive her new appliances are. Pointed out it is not inexpensive here, this is basically the floor price - it is expensive where you come from after taxes and regulations.
[Rudaw] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) released their conflicting number of annual fatality figures for 2022, with the ongoing conflict between the two spanning across borders and multiple operations.
The Ottoman Turkish interior ministry on Wednesday claimed that its forces inflicted 1,220 casualties, including 87 bigwigs, on a number of "terror" groups including the PKK, with Minister Suleyman Soylu stating that Ottoman Turkish security forces foiled 18 suicide kabooms throughout the year.
Soylu however did not elaborate whether the casualty statistics are limited to inside Turkey or also include bordering countries where anti-PKK operations are ongoing, including the Kurdistan Region and Syria.
The People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the armed wing of the PKK, claimed that 2,942 Ottoman Turkish soldiers were killed and 408 injured during their attacks against the Ottoman Turkish army, adding that 301 of their fighters bit the dust during the festivities.
The conflict between Turkey and the PKK spans across several countries, including Turkey itself. Ankara pursues the Kurdish group on the basis that it threatens Turkey’s national security and has designated it as a terrorist organization.
The PKK is a Kurdish gang fighting for the increased political and cultural rights of Kurds in Turkey.
Turkey on November 20 launched Operation Claw-Sword targeting Kurdish positions of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the PKK in northern Syria and the Kurdistan Region from the skies. The operation, according to President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than there are in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really most important... , is a prelude to a looming ground offensive in those areas.
The YPG is the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a mostly-Kurdish force in Syria that fought the lion’s share of the battle against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) and ultimately territorially defeated the terror group in 2019.
The aforementioned operation follows Operation Claw-Lock, which was launched by Turkey on April 18 with the goal of removing PKK fighters from the areas of Metina, Zap, Avashin, and Basyan in northern Duhok province along the Ottoman Turkish border. The operation aims to cut the PKK’s access to mainland Turkey.
In October, PKK-affiliated Firat News Agency (ANF) published several videos purportedly showing Ottoman Turkish soldiers targeting its fighters with chemical weapons ...have not been used since WWI except for in Iraq, by the late, unlamented Saddam Hussein and in Syria, but really, honest, not by the Syrian government. And in Germany in WWII, but that was against civilians. Lots of them, just one of many reasons Hitler's also late and unlamented except among devout Moslems... , adding that Turkey has used banned bombs and chemical substances at least 2,476 times since April.
The Ottoman Turkish defense ministry later deemed the claims that its soldiers used chemical weapons against the PKK "completely baseless and untrue."
More than 500 villages have been emptied in the Kurdistan Region over three decades of the Turkey-PKK conflict.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/05/2023 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
[PJ] What happened to the U.S. border? Where did it go? Who erased it? Why and how did 5 million people enter our country illegally? Did Congress secretly repeal our immigration laws? Did President Joe Biden issue an executive order allowing foreign nationals to walk across the border and reside in the United States as they pleased?
Since when did money not have to be paid back? Who insisted that the more dollars the federal government printed, the more prosperity would follow? When did America embrace zero interest? Why do we believe $30 trillion in debt is no big deal?
When did clean-burning, cheap, and abundant natural gas become the equivalent to dirty coal? How did prized natural gas that had granted America’s wishes of energy self-sufficiency, reduced pollution, and inexpensive electricity become almost overnight a pariah fuel whose extraction was a war against nature? Which lawmakers, which laws, which votes of the people declared natural gas development and pipelines near criminal?
Was it not against federal law to swarm the homes of Supreme Court justices, to picket and to intimidate their households in efforts to affect their rulings? How then with impunity did bullies surround the homes of Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, John Roberts, and Clarence Thomas — furious over a court decision on abortion? How could these mobs so easily throng our justices’ homes, with placards declaring "Off with their d—s"?
Since when did Americans create a government Ministry of Truth? And on whose orders did the FBI contract private news organizations to censor stories it did not like and writers whom it feared?
How did we wake up one morning to new customs of impeaching a president over a phone call? Of the speaker of the House tearing up the State of the Union address on national television? Of barring congressional members from serving on their assigned congressional committees?
When did we assume the FBI had the right to subvert the campaign of a candidate it disliked? Was it legal suddenly for one presidential candidate to hire a foreign ex-spy to subvert the campaign of her rival?
#1
When you decided 'principles' were more important than power. When you became too comfortable to throw off old rituals that no longer provide honest government. When you decided to bury that document issued on 4 July 1776.
#2
The seeds of socialism, Marxism, communism,,,, finally bloomed as the institutions were corrupted beyond repair. No need to have a leader as the rot knows what to do. No need to tell the Census bureau to fudge the numbers to favor Blue states; it is just BAU.
#6
Been this way for a long time. They just did it with a thin veneer of legality to it. Now they are just discarding the fig leaf for us to see because they know nothing will change it short of war.
Biden’s orders direct the secretary of the Interior Department to halt new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters, and begin a thorough review of existing permits for fossil fuel development.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/05/2023 13:22 Comments ||
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#12
Can't be Biden's fault as long as we have Putin to serve as a whipping boy.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/05/2023 13:25 Comments ||
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#13
A rich country can afford to be frivolous. And the richer, the more frivolous. And we are, and we are.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/05/2023 13:36 Comments ||
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#14
What I've been saying for some time. We clearly lost a war of some sort but it's clear we came out on the short end and are now being dictated to. The question is, by whom? I'm not so sure it's Kalorama anymore.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/05/2023 13:38 Comments ||
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#15
^ I was never sure it was Kalorama. I always got the feeling that his strings were being pulled too. I believe the American people have a right to know who is really running the country but that right is being abrogated.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/05/2023 14:21 Comments ||
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#16
I do not believe the left ever loved the US, the US was a roadblock n their grand future plans. Now they have infested the institutions and are able to remove the roadblock.
[PJMedia] As of publishing time, Rep. Kevin McCarthy ...the GOP house majority whip. He replaces Eric Cantor, who got whupped because his politix are like Kevin McCarthy's... (R-Calif.) has lost five six votes in his bid to be House speaker and there seems to be no end in sight. There are around 20 Republican holdouts in the "never McCarthy" camp, and they’re showing no signs of budging.
Former President Trump’s last-minute endorsement failed to move the needle toward McCarthy, which led Rep. Lauren Boebert, one of Trump’s most staunch supporters, to admonish him on the House floor. "Let’s stop with the campaign smears and tactics to get people to turn against us, even having my favorite president call us and tell us ’We need to knock this off,'" Boebert said on Wednesday. "I think it actually needs to be reversed. The president needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that, ’Sir, you do not have the votes, and it’s time to withdraw.'"
Continued on Page 49
#1
McCarthy should be resisted until he places members of the House Freedom Caucus in committee leadership positions.
Many of his current choices are anti-Trumpers.
#9
Is white smoke or black smoke the sign that we have a new speaker?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/05/2023 15:22 Comments ||
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#10
If he wants to sway the 20 dissenters, McCarthy should show a path forward that could result in real change in the way the House conducts its business.
That's not reality. If he humors these people, there's no end to the number of such factions going forward, each with mutually irreconcilable demands.
[PJMedia] Incidents of Moslems slaughtering, or trying to slaughter, their own parents are on the rise.
ISIS said, “The fact is, even if you were to stop bombing us, imprisoning us, torturing us, vilifying us, and usurping our lands, we would continue to hate you because our primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until you embrace Islam. Even if you were to pay jizya and live under the authority of Islam in humiliation, we would continue to hate you.”
Most recently, a 30-year-old Moslem man stabbed his own mother in the throat with a knife in La Belle France. After characterizing the incident as an "attempted murder," local authorities said that the "accused has admitted to the crime," which he "committed for personal and religious reasons." Further underscoring the latter reason — "religion" — the Moslem would-be matricide was heard crying, "Allahu Akbar."
Two months earlier, also in La Belle France, a Moslem man, 25, beheaded his own father, 60, with a knife. When police arrived on the scene, the Moslem patricide was also heard crying, "Allahu Akbar" while fleeing the scene.
Continued on Page 49
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than there are in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really most important...
[PJ] What happened to the U.S. border? Where did it go? Who erased it? Why and how did 5 million people enter our country illegally? Did Congress secretly repeal our immigration laws? Did President Joe Biden issue an executive order allowing foreign nationals to walk across the border and reside in the United States as they pleased?
