[Townhall] To be able to eat, to move about, to have shelter, to be free from state or tribal coercion, to be secure abroad, and safe at home - only that allows cultures to be freed from the daily drudgery of mere survival.
Civilization alone permits humans to pursue sophisticated scientific research, the arts, and the finer aspects of culture.
So, the great achievement of Western civilization - consensual government, individual freedom, rationalism in partnership with religious belief, free market economics, and constant self-critique and audit - was to liberate people from daily worry over state violence, random crime, famine, and an often-unforgiving nature.
But so often the resulting leisure and affluence instead deluded arrogant Western societies into thinking that modern man no longer needed to worry about the fruits of civilization he took to be his elemental birthright.
As a result, the once prosperous Greek city-state, Roman Empire, Renaissance republics, and European democracies of the 1930s imploded - as civilization went headlong in reverse.
We in the modern Western world are now facing just such a crisis.
We talk grandly about the globalized Great Reset. We blindly accept the faddish New Green Deal. We virtue signal about defunding the police. We merely shrug at open borders. And we brag about banning fertilizers and pesticides, outlawing the internal combustion engine, and discounting Armageddon in the nuclear age - as if on autopilot we have already reached utopia.
But meanwhile Westerners are systematically destroying the very elements of our civilization that permitted such fantasies in the first place.
Take fuel. Europeans arrogantly lectured the world that they no longer need traditional fuels. So, they shut down nuclear power plants. They stopped drilling for oil and gas. And they banned coal.
What followed was a dystopian nightmare. Europeans will burn dirty wood this winter as their civilization reverts from postmodern abundance to premodern survival.
The Biden Administration ossified oil fields. It canceled new federal oil and gas leases. It stopped pipeline construction and hectored investors to shun fossil fuels.
When scarcity naturally followed, fuel prices soared.
The middle class has now mortgaged its upward mobility to ensure that they might afford gasoline, heating oil, and skyrocketing electricity.
The duty of the Pentagon is to keep America safe by deterring enemies, reassuring allies, and winning over neutrals.
It is not to hector soldiers based on their race. It is not to indoctrinate recruits in the woke agenda. It is not to become a partisan political force.
The result of those suicidal Pentagon detours is the fiasco in Afghanistan, the aggression of Vladimir Putin's Russia, the new bellicosity of China, and the loud threats of rogue regimes like Iran.
BLUF:
[ZERO] Snowden’s itinerary was arranged such that he wouldn’t land in countries that would extradite him to the United States. Nor would he cross U.S. airspace along the way. He was to make four flights in all, taking him from Hong Kong to Moscow, then Havana, Cuba; Caracas, Venezuela and finally Quito.
However, upon arriving in Moscow, Snowden was escorted by Russian security officials to an airport conference room, where they informed him that, while he was flying to Moscow, the Obama administration had invalidated his passport.
He’d spend the next 40 days at the Sheremetyevo airport, during which he applied to 27 countries for political asylum. "Not a single one of them was willing to stand up to American pressure," Snowden wrote in his memoir, Permanent Record, "with some countries refusing outright, and others declaring they were unable to even consider my request until I arrived in their territory — a feat that was impossible."
Seemingly tired of the spectacle, Putin granted Snowden asylum, and he’s been in Russia ever since. The essential point, however, is that Snowden is in Russia because the Obama administration deliberately trapped him there.
In 2013 and ever since, rabid Snowden detractors have failed to acknowledge how that move by the Obama White House belied its own assertions that Snowden was a traitor who traveled to Moscow with highly valuable intelligence information and was at high risk of turning it over to the Russian government.
#2
Wasn't there a similar article here recently about the expanding numbers of college administrators?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/02/2022 7:16 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Takes Congress to authorize a general officer billet. DoD itself can not create one. The same goes true for the number of personnel on active duty. Congress sets the ceilings.
Looks like a way for a Trunk prez and Congress to address the administrative woke coup that has occurred in the ranks.
#4
Yes. The same congress that won't let unneeded bases be closed and makes the military buy stuff they have not asked for. I'm sure all good congresscreatures will trade favors to keep the "general from his / her / it's state" in place.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/02/2022 7:40 Comments ||
Top||
#5
It will work I tell ya. Just bring in back for a 5 year trial as a Plug-in hybrid electric . You'll see !
The House bill, for example, includes $1.5 billion for an unrequested modern “amphibious” warship for dual land and sea missions, $400 million for four unrequested C-40 aircraft to carry cargo and commanders, and $1 billion worth of unrequested National Guard equipment, a perennial pork-barrel favorite, the Taxpayers’ report said. The Senate bill itself would add almost $4.3 billion for 49 unrequested programs, including $1 billion for a coast guard ship to break ice in the Arctic and Antarctic, $130 million extra for an unspecified classified program, and $900 million worth of unrequested National Guard equipment.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/02/2022 9:12 Comments ||
Top||
#9
$900 million worth of unrequested National Guard equipment
Just so you understand. DoD priortizes their requests and in doing so doesn't necessarily do what is requested by lower level commands. It gets chopped and vetoed by the higher ups pushing their programs. DoD may say its 'unnecessary' in the their larger scheme of things, but it may well not be 'unnecessary' in the terms of what units may need. When the alert orders went out for Desert Shield the amount of units previously reported as 'green' dropped dramatically. Our people pad their readiness just like the Russian chain of command. Bureaucracies are bureaucracies no matter the nationality.
#10
Our managerial elite form a class in the old communist sense of the word, and they look out for one another whether in governmant, the military, corporations, the media, or academia. The more of them that acquire and hold positions of power, the better off they are as a group.
#13
#5 The Gamma-Goat, epic-level maintenance nightmare. Articulated cargo box, and never as good as the 3/4 ton Dodge Weapons Carrier of WWII vintage.
[ModernDiplomacy] According to the intelligence information, Pakistain’s ISI is trying to start ethnic and maneuvering war again in Afghanistan, of which distinct objective is to refurbish the age-old enmity between the Achakzai and Noorzai tribes in the southwest zone. Besides, they want to start an ethnic war among Pashtuns and non-Pashtuns across Afghanistan, and between the northern and southern directions, thus, the prominent leaders of the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... , who are led by the ISI, have been entrusted with the task. As in the east and north of Afghanistan, Pashtun Talibs are oppressing other Non-Pashtuns, raiding their homes; however, no high-ranking Pashtun Taliban officials are preventing them because the ISI network leads this strategy. In order to revamp a civil war in Afghanistan, score of influential figures have been summoned by the Pak military establishment.
The latest examples are as follows: Two days ago, the Pashtun Taliban killed the former police chief and an influential tribal leader in Mandol district of Nuristan province, which caused many emotions against Pashtuns especially about southwest zone of Afghanistan. Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... in order to afresh the years of hostility between the Noorzai and Achakzi tribes in the southwestern region of Afghanistan, the ISI network raised the issue of a mass grave by several leading Talibs, especially by the current governor of Kandahar province and Noorzai tribe leading leader, Haji Mohammad Yusef Wafa.
At a time when the former leader of the Noorzai tribe, the leading smuggler of drugs and heavy weapons in Central and South Asia, and the financial supporter of the first Taliban regime, Haji Bashar Noorzai was released from the US prison in Guantánamo. The Noorzai tribe once again became twice as strong and dominant in Afghanistan, especially in the southwest zone. Resulting threats towards the Achakzai people, on the other hand, ISI has started rapid efforts to recommence the years of enmity between these two tribes.
Recently, Pakistain’s intelligence network ISI, with the help of some leading social media and high-ranking Taliban officials, has kept the issue of finding a mass grave in Kandahar province in the southwestern zone of Afghanistan broiling, namely by inducing the blame-game. Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... local tribal leaders and residents of Spin Boldak district claim that such a grave is the grave of those who were taken out of their homes by the Taliban after August 15. Since, they were connected to Achakzai tribe and on the other hand, they served in the security departments of the tossedIslamic Theocratic Republic of Afghanistan that is why the Taliban night raided their houses, and massively killed them.
Moreover, mass murdering Hazara ...a grouping of Dari-speaking people of Sino-Tibetan descent inhabiting Afghanistan and Pakistain. They are predominantly Shia Moslems and not particularly warlike, which makes them favored targets... s at their educational institutions via suicide kaboom and meantime blowing up the worship places of Sufi-Moslems, who preach the non-violent mostly peaceful form of Islam, while calling for De-weaponization and De-politicization of Islam.
Consequently, by applying such a forward-policy, Pakistain will achieve its fancied strategic-depth in Afghanistan, while subjugating the Afghan Nation.
Author Ajmal Sohail is Co-founder and Co-president of Counter Narco-terrorism Alliance Germany and he is National Security and counter terrorism analyst. He is active member of Christian Democratic Union (CDU)as wel
#1
Now if only America can stay out of it and refuse to help either side. Turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to 'oh the humanity' cries out of Londonabad and mind their own fucking business.
Speaking of fucking business, data at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention suggests syphilis in the US has been at an all time high since the Biden posse came to power.
[WaPo] What does a desirable and realistic end to the criminal war unleashed by Vladimir Putin against Ukraine look like?
If we examine the primary things said by Western leaders on this score, the bottom line remains: Russia (Putin) must not win this war. Ukraine must remain an independent democratic state capable of defending itself.
This is correct, but it is a tactic. The strategy should be to ensure that Russia and its government naturally, without coercion, do not want to start wars and do not find them attractive. This is undoubtedly possible. Right now the urge for aggression is coming from a minority in Russian society.
I hate to break it to you but there will always be people to whom power is very attractive. When these people get in control of a large wealthy country there is little to stop them from trying to accrue more for themselves.
[Gold Goats'n Guns] The old world broke this week. It was blown up cynically by someone who thought this would advance their agenda the most.
The act of vandalizing a major piece of physical infrastructure, targeting civilian populations, isn’t unprecedented in history, but it does signal that everything we thought we knew about the rules of the current game was wrong.
Well, for most people anyway.
When I spoke in June at the Ron Paul Institute Conference on Foreign Policy I described the game of geopolitics as a seven-player game of the ancient Chinese game, Go.
And in that game we’ve reached an inflection point where some factions are coalescing and others are splintering. The faction that is unwilling to compromise on their future is the most dangerous one at the table.
#2
His primary point is wrong; Russia can still send gas through other pipes. Although the Nord Stream pipelines were key arteries for delivering natural gas directly from Russia to Germany, they can be bypassed.
I am not saying Russia, I am waiting for more evidence.
#3
Kinda funny that Russia is still sending NATGAS through Ukraine.
But if Russia has been cut off from the financial system, how is Ukraine collecting its transit fees? Surely there must be an exception. Surely.
The 20-some-minute video of Luongo's presentation was good, but this 36-minute interview from August is good, too (first four minutes can probably be skipped). His take on the old European oligarchs vis-a-vis the US is interesting.
#4
Sorry. Luongo has said stuff in the past as stupid as anything you'd expect from the likes of Kamala-lala-dingdong. Saying something now that some people want to hear does not make him right.
He's part of the same ZH stable that includes Caitlin Johnstone. Think about it.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/02/2022 7:15 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I didn't think ANYBODY could be as stupid as Kamala-lala-dingdong.
#7
^ That right there comports with "never attribute to malice anything which can be explained first by incompetence." Nice catch MR-OTR.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/02/2022 8:37 Comments ||
Top||
#8
For more than a year, NordStream has been threatened with destruction — publicly, loudly, repeatedly — in explicit threats by the US President, his top State Department officials, and all of the Polish leadership.
The US and Poland fear and detest NordStream for the obvious reason that it gives Russia leverage over Europe’s most important nation, the engine of Europe’s industrial economy.
It is beyond stupid to say that the country which these people have declared their #1 enemy on the planet would do their work for them.
The notion that Russia would cut off its arm by blowing up its own pipeline and destroying its leverage over Germany is the ultimate insult to the peoples of the West. As if anyone could sneak in undetected beneath NATO warships in NATO’s lake that were that very day conducting their BALTOPS training exercises — exercises in detonating undersea mines and materiel! — and sneak out undetected, all the way back down the Baltic.
This ridiculous bullshit would be a good laugh only, a meme for a few days to add to the vast library of Biden the Shithead Menes, were these idiots not dragging us down the path to a nuclear war with Russia.
It’s not funny anymore. We’re looking at nuclear war. Over a shithole country that is of no strategic importance to us.
End this foolishness. They’ve caused enough damage. Get these madmen out of power and take their hands off the nuclear trigger before we end up in ruins.
#11
I agree on the methane plug/maintenance theory. And it’s something that should be amplified in my opinion. It might cool things down a bit, despite it being a backhanded insult to Russia.
#12
a somewhat compelling argument against the 'it was an accident' theory is that the explosions were big
the basis for the 'big explosion' observation is seismographs in the area
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
10/02/2022 16:31 Comments ||
Top||
#13
despite it being a backhanded insult to Russia.
It seems to me it’s a straightforward insult to Russia, Remoteman. But one they worked hard to earn after the Bolsheviks took over, with that whole pretend to work for pretend pay thingy.
#14
For more than a year, NordStream has been threatened with destruction — publicly, loudly, repeatedly — in explicit threats by the US President, his top State Department officials, and all of the Polish leadership.
President Putin has been threatening everybody with nukes and a variety of countries with conquest since he started eyeing Ukraine’s borders, and yet he has neither moved beyond Ukraine nor aimed radiation delivery systems toward targets. Talk is cheap, but not necessarily meaningful.
Especially when it comes from President Alzheimer, who wanders in and out of reality while his staff ignores what comes out of his mouth.
Kamala Harris: "I love Venn diagrams, so... I just do! Whenever you’re dealing with conflict, pull out a Venn diagram, right? You know, the three circles..." pic.twitter.com/Jq1KNjyMtD
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.