Category: Current Events

ZMan’s Farewell Tribute to Baltimore

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In ZMan’s parlance Baltimore is Lagos on the Chesapeake.  And today he wrote his swan song to residency in that troubled urban hell.  He moved to the country.

Missing Lagos

Now he jokingly titled it “Missing Lagos.”  But in a real way, he is feeling a loss.  Obviously the overwhelming emotion you feel when you escape a hellhole like Baltimore is relief.  All of the large and small problems and even existential dangers are essentially gone.  And with them goes the tension and stress that takes a continuous toll on your body and mind.

But you can’t live somewhere for decades without it becoming a part of you.  Leaving it produces something like that “phantom limb” experience that amputees experience.  There’s a feeling that something isn’t right.  Of course that eventually subsides but never entirely disappears.  I remember when I moved out of New York City.  It took me months to get used to the sound of frogs and crickets.  It took me a couple of years to stop locking all the car doors.

But reading his account which was mostly disparagement of the dysfunctional residents of his former residence, I could still detect a certain pride in being a member of a club.  The pride is that he has proven that he can survive and even thrive in a war zone.  It’s an odd kind of a badge but a real one none the less.

Congratulations on your escape ZMan.  Enjoy the crickets.  They’re very soothing.

Macron Panics the French Military with Talk of Boots on the Ground

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Emmanuel Macron has as much as declared that France would be putting troops into Ukraine.  This provoked a firestorm in the French defense establishment.

“What happened to the president when he considered sending troops to Ukraine? Several confidential defense reports explain the “panic” at the Élysée, where party leaders are invited this Thursday, March 7, to discuss the issue. On the front, the Russians are in a position of strength. However, was it necessary, in the face of Putin, to brandish an untenable threat?”

Now whether this threat was with or without American support is less clear.

“By not ruling out sending troops to Ukraine , Emmanuel Macron caused an outcry in Europe and received American disavowal. Several French soldiers, interviewed by Marianne, say they “fell out of the closet” . “We must make no mistake, facing the Russians, we are an army of cheerleaders!, mocks a senior officer, convinced that “sending French troops” to the Ukrainian front would simply be “not reasonable””

It sounds like the West is trying to convince Ukraine that they can frighten Russia into some kind of deal or at least a cease-fire while the hope for more American aid is on hold in Congress.  The only problem is that talk of sending American troops into Ukraine would finish off Joe Biden’s hopes of re-election even with the assistance of massive voter fraud.  The Millennials and Zoomers would not like the army.  Too many micro-aggressions during a shooting war.

Signifying Something

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Macbeth has a speech late in the play.  His wife has suicided and his enemies are gathering for the kill.  And all his actions and all his hopes have been swallowed up into a nightmare.  He says,

“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”

Macbeth: Act 5, Scene 5

And sometimes our plight summons a similar feeling in me.  Our enemies call all the shots.  They control the heights of all the power structures.  They’ve even done a thorough job of brain-washing the younger generation into thinking that all the destruction of our way of life was the inevitable working of capitalism.  So that a decline into an impoverished welfare state is the reasonable and just future for themselves.  That life is but a walking shadow.  And that resisting this fate is a hopeless effort, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.  And controlling the youth, they determine the future.

I don’t deny that is probably where the smart money is currently bet.

But for whatever reason I disagree.  Maybe it’s just personal prejudice.  But, when I look at both sides, I find that our side has the more interesting characters; a more compelling plot.  We have a better story to tell.

The Left is selling despair.  Their message is: give up and die.

They say trade your life for a cash card and a smart phone and a grimy cell in a youth hostel and gender assignment surgery and the promise that you won’t have to think or try.

And I’m sure that there is a good-sized audience that will walk down that dead end.  Millions.  But I refuse to believe that everyone will follow it.  There will be a good-sized audience; millions, that will say, “That’s all you’re selling?”

And some of them will hear what our side has to say.  And I think that may be enough to decide things in the long run.  An army of zombies, even an army of millions, is still mostly nothing.  And it’s an aging army.  Zombies don’t have children.  They get older and weaker every day.

Our side has the advantage that what we say not only has the ring of truth, it is the truth.  Calling nonsense, nonsense and basing your actions on logic and reality even in the short run is the winning strategy.

The fact that they’ve rigged so many parts of the system we live under doesn’t mean it’s hopeless.  It just means you have to use your head to avoid the snares and pitfalls they’ve set for us.  With the Left in authority in many roles it’s obviously not going to be easy to flourish.  There is a lot of pain and frustration involved.  But as long as this country is still the best option for living a somewhat free existence then it’s worth our while to work around their traps.

And even just looking at the messaging that seems to be moving around in the media, even in the mainstream media, it seems that our version of the story is resonating with all kinds of different people.  I think that Biden and his band of weirdos have so thoroughly botched their transformation of America that they’ve even alienated a lot of the coalition of the oppressed.  If you watch the interviews even the zombies are semi-awake and complaining that their free stuff is too expensive.

The Democrats can steal elections and run roughshod over the Constitution but eventually they’ll end up like the Soviets.  Their system will degenerate into a Potemkin Village and one day the cardboard will collapse and there won’t be anything left but angry peasants with pitchforks.

So, for whatever reason I don’t feel like just giving up.  And anyone else who has something to say other than, “let’s give up,” can say it here.

Guest Contributor – ArthurinCali – 12MAR2024 – American Apathy

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ArthurinCali has put up an essay at his substack on the lifeless response of Americans to the destruction of their home.

He uses the analogy of a homeowner who allows neglect to allow a fixable problem to undermine his whole house.  I think the central statement is this:

“The bathroom scenario describes the mindset many in America have who see the problems being caused by several issues that are not going away simply by ignoring them. Mass immigration, unaddressed crime, and the near-total erosion of the rule of law are leading to many Americans adopting a stance of apathy and behavior modifications to avoid what is happening. They rationalize and use pretzel logic to fool themselves that the train is still on the track, norms and standards are still in place, and the best thing to do is continue down this path.”

Read the article at the link and see if you agree with the analogy.

Watching the Train Wreck

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Yesterday it was Haitian cannibals.  Today it’s hydraulic fluid pouring out of jetliners during takeoff.  Tomorrow it’ll be a nuclear exchange with the Russians.  I remember back in 2001 after the 9/11 attack everyone was walking around shellshocked.  There was a slew of incidents; hijackings, subway bombings, biological weapons attacks, kidnappings, even a space shuttle crash.  It felt like the wheels were coming off of our whole civilization.  But back then we felt that the people in charge were marshalling forces to push back against the anarchy and we hoped over the next few years the world would be put back in order and normalcy would be restored.

Well, that never happened.  We went from two terms of Middle East war under George W Bush to two terms of color revolutions under Barack Obama.  We got a respite under Trump but now we are experiencing Biden’s war on modernity.  It seems to be his intention to not just eliminate affluence from the middle classes but to eliminate the middle class altogether.  Joe Biden seems to have ushered in the era of Crap-hole America.  There can be little doubt that he has initiated various policies that are laying waste to the majority of Americans’ livelihoods.

So, I really don’t have any deep insights about why or how or even where this ends up.  It’s kind of an unprecedented phenomenon.  The only similar situation was the Jimmy Carter presidency where 18% mortgage rates and double-digit inflation created an enormous backlash that got Ronald Reagan elected in 1980.

I believe that the numbers for the Biden catastrophe are quite a bit worse than the Carter Stagflation.  I’m comparing my memories of that period to today.  Things were pretty grim back then but the country hadn’t divided into two camps that considered each other the enemy.  And no one thought Jimmy Carter despised the majority of American people because of the color of their skin.

So, I think we’re in uncharted territory.  Based on what we saw in 2020 with BLM, COVID and the election fraud I don’t doubt that the current regime would be more than willing to do whatever it takes to win the November elections.  No amount of obvious fraud would surprise me.

But I am very interested to see what a second stolen election will do to this country.  Already an outright majority of Americans think the 2020 election was stolen.  I’m guessing that a repeat performance on top of the awful polls that Joe Biden is seeing today might trigger a very strong response from the people.

I’m not claiming they’ll start a guerrilla war or march on the Capitol or anything like that.  I think there will be a psychological change in the way most Americans view their government.  I think they will be forced to admit that the “democracy” here is a sham.  And I think it will break out into the open.  Not just the dissident right but everyone not on the Left will be talking about the fraud and how the United States is now a banana republic.  I think the disrespect toward Biden and the rest of the junta will be open and vicious.  And I think that kind of a psychological change will damage the country in ways that will be measurable.

And I think it should.  A very real part of the strength of this country is based on the fact that we thought we were the good guys.  And that, if need be, we would fight to protect our way of life.  I’m sure that is no longer the case.  In fact, I’ll advise any friend or family member to stay out of the armed forces.   In fact, I’ll warn them to stay away from all Democrat run jurisdictions.  I’ll also advise them to weigh the options between what life will be like in red state America and any pockets of freedom and opportunity in other parts of the world.  America has been a land of prosperity and freedom for generations.  But that era may be finished now and re-evaluating its advantages and disadvantages versus other countries is no longer an unthinkable idea.

So, I’m very interested in how America reacts to 2024.  And from time to time, I’ll add to these remarks.  After all who can take his eyes off of a train wreck when it’s in progress?  I know I can’t.

More Haiti

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War Pig
Unfortunately, Haiti is run by tribalist gangs who now practice cannibalism of their rivals. Perhaps we should simply embargo them and let them solve their problems as the Kilkenny Cats did. Give it a year or two, then open the embargo and deal with the survivors.

 

TomD
For whatever reason, the Haitians seem incapable of self-governance on any basis other than a strongman dictatorship and that’s a best-case scenario.
It’s ironic that Haitians tend to be a successful US immigrant group on average. That’s probably because anyone with any sense, intelligence and ambition is more than ready to get out of that s*** hole (as Trump so delicately stated it).
I’ll bet the El Salvador method would work well there.

 

ArthurinCali
1915-1934 intervention didn’t work.
1994 intervention didn’t work.
2004 intervention didn’t work. Kind of seeing a pattern of futility.

 

Milo Mindbender

If you look at the island from satellite you can see very clearly the border with the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is a tourism destination, but Haiti is not so much. They share an island, but do not share a culture. The problems in Haiti are more culture based, and less of a location issue. After every change of government, or natural disaster the western world tries to rebuild, or in the case of the Clinton foundation reloot this nation. You would think the serving of dirt cookies, and the reduction to cannibalism would serve as some sort of a warning about the eventual outcome of this.

Deplorables of the World Unite

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We now live in a truly lawless time.  You only have to read the newspaper or watch the television to see National guardsmen stationed in the Manhattan subway stations to keep the homicidal homeless and other random madmen from pitching subway riders onto the tracks in front of the next arriving D or F train.

In the high schools of the various big cities, most recently in St. Louis, teenage girls will bash in the brains of their classmates on the pavement in a fashion that differs not at all from that opening scene in “2001: A Space Odyssey” when the ape man is smashing in a skull with his primitive club.  No humanity is recognized and none displayed.

Today’s headlines talk about the gangs in Port au Prince eating the roasted flesh of their enemies.  There’s even a video of one man tearing off a small chunk of meat off of what looks like the charred remnant of a leg and putting it in his mouth to chew.

And of course, we have the recent toll of young American women raped or murdered by illegal immigrants.

But does any of this upset the Left?  No.  They’re upset because Joe Biden called Laken Riley’s murderer an illegal alien.  He’s the victim!

`It would be foolish for me to say that things can’t get any worse.  Of course, they’ll get worse.  Every agency of the federal government and many state governments are working round the clock to introduce greater and greater levels of dysfunction to our world.  California for instance is an incubator of ever crazier laws and regulations to snuff out any remaining possibilities for its inhabitants to enjoy life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness.  Our world will get worse.

But what is completely clear is that it is already so bad that it is impossible to claim that an honest vote by sane people would not reject those currently in power in order to try and reverse what is going on.  And so, we come up against the acid test.  If the November election does not radically reject the Democrats, then either the voters are insane or the vote was rigged.  Or both.

And practically speaking it doesn’t matter which cause holds.  Whether we live in a country of madmen or a sham democracy the result will be the same for me.  It means there is no relief from what is going on through “the system.”  We will have no one rescue us.  Not Donald Trump or anyone else who tries to reform the government from the top down.  If Joe Biden wins the November election, we can stop paying attention to these election rituals.  They will be nothing more than a bit of kabuki theater.  Something to distract the children from what the grownups are busy with.

And if we lose, I’m not saying I know what needs to be done.  Some other arrangements will be needed to try and influence our surroundings.  Maybe we all start learning how to influence the right local officials or pay for security to protect us from the mob.  I won’t speculate about revolution or anything like that because that’s already a heavily regulated entertainment activity of the FBI and the Justice Department.  I wouldn’t want to interfere with their latest color revolution production.  I’m sure it will be well attended by their cadre of young men wearing khaki pants and dark sunglasses.

But I’ll speculate that what we need to do will involve organizing financially and commercially.  We have to form an organization that concentrates our commercial clout so that we can negotiate with corporations that provide the services we want.  Suppose there was a rating organization sort of like Consumer Reports but focused on the qualities that we want in a provider of products and services.  So, for instance, this rating group would identify a company that would provide services that other “woke” companies would not.  But it would do more than that.  It would also recruit companies.  It would build partnerships with owners who were willing to provide the custom product lines that we can’t get elsewhere.  And in order to make this work, this rating company would have to have the ability to sway a hundred million consumers.  So how about a company that could compete with Disney because the rating company could sway the parents of tens of millions of children to buy their DVDs and stream their movies because they agree to provide wholesome entertainment.  Or how about a company that provides resources for homeschooling and also textbooks for schools that have committed to a traditional grade school curriculum.  There could even be a company that opens private schools wherever enough parents have banded together to support it.  These companies already exist.  They just need to be incentivized to guarantee the product line that people are already willing to buy.

And this rating company can do the same for any business.  You get the Deplorables Business Seal of Approval for anything from book publishing to banking to crowd-funding.  Just think of all the betrayals we’ve seen through the years from Bud-Lite to Disney to Target.  Having retailers groveling to get certified for the business from a third of the population would be glorious.  And all we have to do is get organized.

So that’s my big brain idea.  If we lose in November that we stop going around on the merry go round and just start building something that belongs to all of us in the sense that it wants to serve us what we actually want.  If we’re only a hundred million people in a country of three hundred plus million then we are a minority.  But a hundred million people is a mighty big minority and if we build our own internal world then that’s an enormous force for our own good.  We can have our own private schools and our own organizations and we’ll watch movies and read books that we sponsor.  And sure, we’ll be restricted to the red states for the most part but that’s reality and who really should want to live in places like New York and California anyway?  Those places actively hate our guts.

I’ve heard of the beginnings of things like this.  There is a company listed on the New York exchange that has an on-line listing of non-woke businesses.  Now it just needs an Elon Musk or someone of that caliber to see how this could work on a big scale.  Maybe that’s what X is supposed to be.  I hope it is.  Well after November I’ll have tome to think about other things besides politics.  We’ll see if any really smart people have the same idea as me.

Guest Contributor – Bigus Macus – 10MAR2024 – Haiti for the Haitians

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HOW MANY FOREIGN MILITARY INTERVENTIONS HAVE THERE BEEN IN HAITI?
Since the early 1900s, there have been at least three major foreign military interventions in Haiti led by the United States and the United Nations.
The U.S. first occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934.
Nearly 60 years later, the U.N. launched a peacekeeping mission in 1993, followed by the arrival of U.S. troops in 1994. Another intervention occurred in 2004. The first of those was to restore President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. The second followed a rebellion that removed him again.

Haiti for the Haitians.  Let them sort out their own problems.

Cannibalism Returns to the Western Hemisphere

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Regular readers of this site know that the appearance of cannibalism is my benchmark for declaring the onset of the apocalypse in the United States.  Well, we’re not quite there yet but it has broken out in Haiti which is only about a hundred miles from Florida.

“It is now thought that 80 percent of the Haitian capital is controlled by these gangs.

Describing the violence in the country, a journalist on the ground told Daily Express US that cannibalism has been witnessed on the streets as the violence reaches “unprecedented” levels.

Speaking anonymously, they said: “Haiti is living in a total chaotic situation right now. It is total chaos everywhere, especially in the capital where I am right now.”

Well, well.  I seem a lot less crazy now!  The fact that the most powerful of the gang leaders is nicknamed “Barbecue” tells you everything you need to know about the future of Haiti.  Even around here keep an eye on anyone who gets large deliveries from companies with the letters BBQ anywhere in their names.

Transgender Hubris Through Lear

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Andrew Klavan is a gifted writer. He breathes emotion and conviction into his arguments and they ring true. In this essay he interprets transgenderism and other manifestations of “transhumanism” through the stories of Lear and Prospero in Shakespeare’s plays.

What he points out is the hubris that confused men commit when they ignore that they literally are not God.  When we pretend that the definitions of human life do not apply to us we set ourselves up for the catastrophe that will follow when we attempt to ignore these boundaries.

“We have now reached the nadir of that mode—or the zenith, depending on where you stand. This is that moment that Nietzsche talked about, the “catastrophe” of a civilization awaking to find its foundations gone.”

Klavan sees King Lear as the cautionary tale for human hubris and rejection of the natural order and The Tempest as a fairy story about restoring it.  Well, I like Shakespeare so I like when a gifted writer uses it to make a point.  Bravo Andrew.