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Here’s a new Open Thread for all of you. To minimize the load, please continue to limit your Tweets or place them under a MORE tag.
I’d published a lengthy piece on the Ukraine war and some of its propaganda aspects:
https://www.unz.com/runz/war-and-propaganda-in-the-russia-ukraine-conflict/
The American government has now suddenly suggested that the Nord Stream pipelines may have been destroyed by a mysterious group of pro-Ukrainian activists, and I’d recommend Douglas Macgregor’s latest interview, which includes some discussion of that strange development.
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs had spent the last thirty years as a top advisor to the governments of Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. He recently gave a talk at Oxford University, and I’d highly recommend this short closing portion, in which he discusses the origins of the Ukraine war:
SBS divers are now Ukie Ultra Fans
Mr. Unz,
The new thread is appreciated.
____
We have discussed preferred blades in this thread. However, we would be remiss if we skipped steps in the manufacturing process.
Q: Can an individual temper (a.k.a. heat treat) modern steel?
A: Yes
It relies on the same principle that was true centuries ago. If you cannot heat the entire blade — Where do you need the hardness? Then, optimizing the temperature at that part of the design.
PEACE 😇
I guess Col MacGregor is now in Beijing’s pay. lol. Always was.
Hydrate Slugs,
Anyway, The Chinese are obviously flexing their muscle on Ukraine.
New add to “Commenters to Ignore”
Wokechoke for Trolling.
Na-na-na-na. Goodbye!
PEACE 😇
Iraqi Information Minister reviews
The Man from the Future: the Visionary Ideas of John von Neumann
Anayo Bhattacharya
2021 Norton
353 pp
Did John von Neumann invent Quantum Mechanics? Computers? The Atom bomb? The Hydrogen bomb? Cellular Automata? Artificial intelligence? Artificial life?
No to all of the above but this rare genius was right there in the middle of all these game changing technologies. Kind of like Forrest Gump except with phenomenal intellect. Ananyo Bhattacharya emphasizes von Neumann’s accomplishments and minimizes warts. This book is about his ideas first, and his life is only covered incidentally.
I. Quantum Mechanics. This is where and when our hero arrives into the thick of it. Born in 1903; in 1927 he was named Privatdozent at University of Berlin, Mathematics. The youngest ever. This is when the European physics community was in the middle of Heisenberg’s theory, Schroedinger’s theory, de Broglie’s theory, the Bohr-Einstein debates–all of it. In 1932 von Neumann published his contribution
Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
a book which sparked controversies which continued at least until 2017. Bhattacharya informs us this book demonstrated that Heisenberg’s theory and Schroedinger’s theory each implied the other, and that hidden variables were impossible. The physicists were convinced of the former before von Neumann’s more rigorous presentation. The latter is still being argued.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.10119.pdf
Hidden Variables and the Two Theorems of John Bell by N. David Mermin
includes a delightful footnote quotation from John Bell:
Dieks, D., 2017, “Von Neumann’s impossibility proof: Mathematics in the service of
rhetorics, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 136-148.
is the last citation on the von Neumann side of the debate cited by Mermin.
II. The Atom bomb
John von Neumann made an enormous contribution to blowing up Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There were various designs before the following was finally decided on:
The von Neumann issue was the best geometry of implosive charges to maximize the density of the core before it blew. This involved modeling of propagation of the shock waves at it and every proposed design required exhaustive calculations on the first generation of computers and that was von Neumann’s task to manage.
III. Computers
All the first computers from the ENIAC forward had John v. N. on the management committee. Today we call the standard arrangement of processor, memory, operating system, input and output the von Neumann architecture. There were other people who claim there is some stolen credit thing going on there. Since (A.) exactly what happened was top secret to begin with, and (B.) whatever secrets have been revealed have been trampled on by adversarial intellectual property lawyers we are never going to get to the bottom of that can of worms.
IV. Hydrogen bomb
The design of the first fusion bomb was performed by many of the same characters at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Again lots of wave propagation calculations supervised by committees with John von Neumann dominating. There is a quotation from one of the participants that right after the war every computer in the country was filled up with work for John von Neumann. He defended his friend Robert Oppenheimer but he made sure to not go so far as to lose his own security clearance. Numerous people thought he didn’t go far enough, but Oppenheimer never begrudged him.
V. Cold war
The first work on Game Theory, which provided the intellectual input to America’s Cold war deterrence strategy was published by John von Neumann. They ended up using more of John Nash’s theory than von Neumann’s theory which is an interesting dispute all by itself. John von Neumann at times was a vigorous proponent of all out pre-emptive warfare at the Soviet Union before they had a chance to do anything about it.
VI. Cellular Automata
The first cellular automata, self-replicating automata, artificial intelligence programs, and artificial life programs are largely credited to John von Neumann’s work which he put together for the Macy Conferences during and after the war.
This last part of Bhattacharya’s book kind of goes off the rails as von Neumann died in 1957 and was an invalid from 1955 on but he has 56 pages on post von Neumann cellular automata and artificial intelligence and &c up through 2020 and Stephen Wolfram. Apparently the author was so enraptured with the quality of this material that he had to include it. There are some amazingly foolish quotations from Wolfram which are fun to read but I don’t know what they really have to do with John von Neumann.
Turning the universe into paper clips begins with turning the moon into paper clips. The following picture is included:
The circumference of the hypothetical moon base factory there is a fresh strip mine trench and the factory keeps going until the entire moon is one big strip mine + factory I presume.
There are no UFO’s in this book. For John von Neumann the singularity is the answer to the Fermi paradox. There aren’t any aliens because when a civilization gets to the Hydrogen bomb phase their imminent destruction is a foregone conclusion. Singularity == Extinction.
John von Neumann was working more productively than any nerd in history right up until his physical collapse in 1955. The doctors immediately diagnosed him with terminal cancer and prescribed him to get his affairs in order. He talked to a Roman Catholic priest and got last rites although his religion was nothing more than an entry in a Hapsburg Budapest government bureau until 1955. His grandparents were born Jews but converted to get ahead. They all made sure they got out of central Europe before Hitler invaded Poland though. In one case the relative got out with ten days to spare. Apparently John von Neumann thought Pascal’s Wager was the way to bet and he never bought Walter Kaufman’s criticism that the Big Guy has special (very bad) plans in store for clever people that take Pascal’s Wager.
Early in the book Bhattacharya talks about the Jew von Neumann but you will have to read until the very end to find out about the Catholic von Neumann. This is only one small item which leads me to suspect Bhattacharya is on the payroll of globalist Luciferians. There are others but I gotta go!
Hydrate Slugs…
Those higher up in the cartel must have been terrified of what America would do because of George Floyd, etc.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11840535/Mexican-cartel-turns-five-members-kidnapped-four-Americans.html
BTW, how many miles from Musk’s Starbase?
Those not paying attention erroneously believe that Meloni is a fake.
Smart observers see the beginning of real reform: (1)
Tossing the crew of a trafficking vessel in prison for 16 years will discourage landfalls in Italy. The cash fines will keep the vessels impounded until paid, which will make insurance unaffordable.
PEACE 😇
__________
(1) https://rmx.news/italy/italian-government-announces-strict-new-immigration-rules-up-to-30-years-in-prison-for-people-smugglers/
Hand rubbing intensifies…
Check out the bespectacled man grinning on the right of the image on the bottom comment. . Early life unavailable but he looks the part. Here Sanna Marin and Jew King of Kiev do a memorial. Why is that guy grinning? What’s his background. It’s a shame AZ dies the Nazi accusation because what we are seeing is a whole lot more interesting.
Possibly significant to any attempt to contain China:
Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar.
Twinkie 3 2 1….
Interesting. China as peace-maker in the Mideast…why not? Hard to see that their role could be more disastrous than that of Western powers.
Is this because black people hate them?
Conversely, Iran could take over Xinjiang (with China’s permission of course). They’re religion-compatible with the locals. I’m sure it could work.
Uyghurs are predominantly Sunni…and there’s Taliban Afghanistan between Iran and Xianjiang.
Maybe more Mideast involvement could get China to moderate its policies against the Uyghurs somewhat though.
Would never be allowed.
Interesting question how much it might be influenced by the stop Asian hate campaign, or other direct wokery.
But I suspect it is a mix of things. Youth in general are feeling alienated, and America just isn’t the attractive place it once was, with a semi-cohesive culture and shared narrative. AA must be starting to hit Asians. I wonder how much it has to do with state geography – like, how much it has to do with California descending into 3rd world.
Semi-related: this tunnel in NYC cost nearly 100x one in Madrid.
Egads! If Musk’s starship scheme works out, he may end up spending less to develop a reusable heavy-lift rocket than it cost to build this 1.5 mile tunnel in NYC.
Some Asians assimilate …
Proving once again that kremlinstoogeA123 is a natural stooge for the kremlin. Censorship is written all over his DNA structure (he’s really an awful American):
kremlinstoogeA123 busy at work again as ususal.
Censorship can only lead to cornering yourself into a corner:
It must have been a good two months now since Col McGregor started predicting a massive and imminent Russian winter offensive. I would just like to understand what makes people listen to self-declared experts who have been proven wrong once and again and again.
In a way or another we all prefer to get our information from sources that are more or less close to our viewpoints but trusting a particular source regardless of how many times that source gives us information that turns out to be wrong is a different level of bias. It seems to satisfy a psychological need more powerful than that of knowing the truth.
Probably has a lot to do with general trends in the locus of control shifting externally. Inner locus = belief you control things
Outer = belief things are beyond your control
According to Haidt, this is a trend that started in the early ’90s, with parents not allowing their kids to play outside unsupervised, and which has gotten worse, due to social media, and changes in school and college. To him, shift to outer locus explains wokery, and increasing rate of mental illness.
Believe Asians show signs of lower self-esteem in school in surveys. (though debatable how significant or negative) Maybe, related?
I can only assume that it’s people who are so disenchanted with the present-day West/present-day America (and there are many good reasons for that) that they’re projecting all their desires on Russia and hoping for some decisive Russian victory that would bring the Western system down.
It’s indeed strange though that such people haven’t adjusted their views at all after one year of war. Recently had a look at Niccolo Soldo’s Substack, and one commenter there was still citing Martyanov as an authority, how Russia had supposedly acquired military superiority over the US through its hyper-sonic missiles etc. That’s just some weird parallel reality stuff.
Makes perfect sense. Explains why Finland decided to cash in its neutral status and join NATO. Ukraine doesn’t forget its fallen heros. As for the “bespectacled man grinning” do you mean the guy who’s actually frowning? 🙂
Last time I checked the two letter abreviation of “AZ” stood for Arizona, therefore I don’t have a clue as to what you’re getting at?…
Azov batallion presumably. The dead “hero of Ukraine” (a native of Galicia) had belonged to the Right Sector.
It’s pretty strange how Western establishment types are so friendly towards the Ukrainian hard right. One wonders if it will last, or if this is similar to how the Mujahideen were seen as freedom fighters in the 1980s.
EDIT: Nah, I was wrong. AZ is the Twitter account Wokechoke cited. No idea what that stands for.
Xi was recently elected CCP Chairman for the third term. It is unprecedented: after the death of Mao CCP introduced policy of rotating leadership, with two-term limit for the Chairman position. The US (and all its sidekicks) voiced strong opposition to Xi reelection.
Similarly, the US and its vassals are working hard to undermine Putin, supporting all sorts of actors in Russia who is (or even appears to be) against him. The result so far: Putin’s popularity in Russia is at all-time-high, his approval exceeds 80%.
Yet imperial “strategists” still do not get a simple rule: in 6/7th of the world their opposition of someone benefits that person, who gains increasing support of the population. In contrast, when they openly approve of some political actor or movement, it’s a black mark in the eyes of the population, it greatly reduces the support and dooms the “beneficiary”. As they say in Russia, “the US is furious, which means that we are doing the right thing”.
It is said that fools learn from their own mistakes, whereas smart people learn from the mistakes of fools. Now, what do we call those who do not learn even from their own mistakes?
I was able to locate the “bespactacled grinning man” at the memorial service. If you look at Zelensky and then follow two men up in a north easterly fashion, he’s the second man up. He does look quite out of place in the photo of this very solemn ceremony?…
Is breast cancer common because perma-breasts are evolutionarily new?
Wonder where they would rank in terms of growth rate of tissues.
British Nazi mercenary Aiden Aslin fought for Ukraine. He was captured in April 2022 in Mariupol, sentenced to death in June in Donetsk People’s Republic, but then instead of being executed, was exchanged. He reportedly returned to Ukraine and now fights for it in Bahmut/Artemovsk.
In recent months many foreign mercenaries were killed by Russian forces, but none has been captured alive.
History: in Stalin’s army during WWII there was an explicit order to capture prisoners from Vlasov’s army that fought on Hitler’s side. Many were killed, but none captured, despite those orders.
Challenge: can you put two and two together and come up with a coherent explanation?
I thought that was going to be a Crazy Rich Asians video.
There is a culture of commie kids in Los Angeles who drive Ferraris and McClarens.
A couple of months ago I had three Korean missionary smoking hot chicks show up at my front door. And it was after dark. I think maybe crazy and asians is redundant. I gave them my 3 X 5 card elevator pitch for my sect and sent them away but after I was thinking maybe a Silence of the Lambs DVD would have been a more useful item. There is no way the oldest of them was 25 y.o.
Doesn’t give a very favourable impression of Russians tbh, given the mess Putin has gotten Russia into. But I suppose they enjoy all that talk about being in an existential struggle.
More than 20 years in power is just too long in any case, pretty much everybody loses touch with reality after such a long time, which is aggravated by the common tendency to surround oneself with yes-men and trusted loyalists. There’s also the issue of all potentially capable successors being kept out of power and not being allowed to develop their talents, because the leader can only see them as rivals and thinks him/herself indispensable, so personal and state interests become blurred to a dangerous degree.
These issues aren’t limited to just Putin and Xi btw, they were very much evident in Merkel too. Term limits or at least some rotation of power are absolutely necessary.
They are not that new, pretty common in apes. Humans and modern apes evolved from a common ancestor five to ten million years ago. I wonder, do other apes have breast cancer?
There is a top secret Russian department that turns such prisoners into black magic ritual sacrifice meat.
Confidence. Humans are easily taken in by any confident sounding person. It’s why incurious know-nothings who act like know-it-alls are so succesful. Macgregor has been consistently wrong for a year yet he states with great confidence what will happen next so people assume he must know what he’s talking about. I mean, listen to these guys laughing at those of us who thought there would be a war yet they may have even more follwers today than a year ago. People are thick.
It’ll be interesting to see what the Americans (and Israelis) do to ruin it. Nordstream suggests they don’t care about optics any more. Although that might just be for impotent passive Eurotrash.
My understanding is that female apes don’t have permanent breasts, but they come and go with nursing or birth, and disappear after menopause. Guessing the structure of them is different, and maybe they don’t have the same fat backing.
Breast cancer seems to be predominantly human, and nearly unknown in apes, but humans live longer, so that might explain a tiny bit of it. Though probably not a lot, as many apes can live 50-60 years in captivity.
In short – swindler’s charisma, but it works in part too, because some people just want to be swindled.
I agree with that. My point is, in most of the world West’s opposition cements the power of those it opposes. Yet autistic Western “strategists” did not tumble to that simple fact, even though it is recurring. E.g., w/o vehement US opposition, blockade, military incursions, etc., Cuba would have likely evolved into something much gentler. Or Maduro, who is nowhere near the caliber of Chavez, wouldn’t have such a solid support in Venezuela. Or Xi in China. Or Putin in Russia. There are many more examples, but I am sure you get the drift.
BTW, speaking of Mutti, compared to current pathetic nonentity, she looks like a wise statesman.
Chinese supposedly cut the internet cable going from Taiwan to Matsu Island about a month ago. Wonder if it is some kind of test to see what effects doing same would have on Taiwan. (Not predicting an invasion soon)
Perhaps, the world should send out researchers to see if it has any positive effect on teenage girls, and other people.
I loathe Merkel (will never forgive her for her migration policy), but there’s unfortunately a certain truth to that. Scholz is a very unimpressive person…highly crooked politician, it’s pretty clear that he lied to Bundestag about his personal involvement in a sordid financial scandal…one wonders if there’s something even more incriminating that could be used to pressure him. Or maybe his behaviour regarding Nordstream is just dictated by general considerations of political prudence. In any case, given the nonsense German media is now trying to sell the public, he seems to be in on it somehow.
Mugabization of various dictatorships IS the strategy, which works quite good in case of RF, all the events since 2019 only confirmed own older opinion:
https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-85/#comment-3371657
He’s clearly smiling through the video. People can react that way seeing famous folks of course, but he’s leering in a very interesting way.
Most likely mentally deranged.
I expected a large scale war in Ukraine when Biden was elected. The only expectation in had was that the USN and RN might stage a showy amphibious attack, Vlad simply beat them to the punch in a way. Although if the NS2 bombing and the strike on the Kerch Bridge were the handiwork of the SBS and SEALS then we did get splashy naval action. Just not landings quite yet.
Merkel is quite unappetizing. Migration policy was not the only major blunder she is guilty of. I’ve heard two explanations. One, given by former Chancellor Kohl (who actually promoted her when he was in power), is that she is simply stupid. Two, given by the rumor mill, is that she was a Stasi agent in DDR times, and that the US has blackmail material proving that. Hence her non-reaction to the finding that her phone conversations were eavesdropped by the US intelligence. I don’t know which is true (possibly both).
Yet the “government” assembled by Scholz is certainly the most pathetic and inept in German history. It’s the laughing stock of “politically incorrect” (the majority of the world). The ignorance and stupidity of German “foreign minister” Baerbock is astounding. Recent Russian joke about her: Baerbock says “In the past people thought that I am an idiot, but now I turned around by 360 degrees”.
Sour grapes, anyone?
LOL
There are certainly reasons to be disenchanted with the state of affairs in the US, although I see increasing signs of pushback against the most blatant forms of woke insanity, but another way of looking at it is that perhaps this is an interesting time to be alive in the US. For the first time in generations being against the Establishment, the security apparatus and the big corporations means being on the right. The ideological battles, such as ending the forever wars, infinite immigration, the censorship of ideas, the attempt to brainswash our children and making them believe crazy stuff like having been born in the wrong body, are battles worth fighting.
From the distance, the situation looks bleaker in Europe but the other day I learned that DeSantis is finally embracing the anti foreign interventions agenda. He must have sensed that the public opinion on the right is trending that way. There is some hope. No need to look up to mendacious and brutal foreign satraps at all.
So that’s what it was?
Even less respect for this CanaCuk Vet org now..
It’s a shame that you don’t follow your own advice, foolishly stomping for the Kremlin aggresors within Ukraine. Will you cower in silence again, while Russia’s most recent bombings of Ukraine target civilian sites? Why don’t they attack military sites? And then you indignantly cry out that no crimes against humanity are going on within Ukraine by the Russian side?
Targeting civilian sites, energy grids, apartment buildings, bridges, railroad tracks etc. are considered as war crimes by any humanitarian standards.
The whole Silicon Valley Bank story is more complex than most journalists make of it.
In all likelihood, the losses accumulated by SVB were mostly by investing the huge deposits (from venture capitalists and the like) into treasuries. The treasuries lost value when interest rates when up.
The side story is that current accounting rules allow these investment to be considered as held to maturity in the “banking book”, so these losses are not recognized. SVB probably needed to raise some cash (maybe small losses here and there on the core lending portfolio) and liquidated treasuries (which is the purpose of the treasuries), but in so doing had to take an immediate loss for the loss of value of the treasuries.
The losses looked manageable, what wasn’t was the scared clients trying to pull their money.
Which shows that these legitimate accounting practices, by reducing the clarity of the bank’s finances, contributed mightily to the losses: those 2bn probably accrued over 18 months, and wouldn’t have scared anyone had they been revealed progressively.
Scary-looking folks. I’d prob feel more at ease around the cartel members.
Stereotype of America now is to send in SEAL teams to rescue kidnapped Americans, but wouldn’t totally surprise me, if these folks were down there trying to pull one over on the cartel. Future will be interesting, as more and more of these happen, and test the issue.
Another demonstration that the word “American” has become largely meaningless.
BTW, I have a psychological question I wanted to ask you. (No pressure):
Do you know who coined the specific term ‘black-and-white thinking’, or when it exactly originated? (don’t mean any synonyms, like ‘splitting’)
Hard to find evidence of the term before WW2. Seems to skyrocket after early ’80s.
Here’s what I have come up in Ngrams: (edit: link doesn’t seem to work, even though it previews?)
Search: black and white thinking
https://books.google.com/ngrams/
I’d suggest that it may have come out of the civil rights era as a reflection of word fetishism to due with race.
Merkel has the profile of a Stasi agent – one can see it simply reading her official bio. But if she was then Russia would also know – there would be blackmail all around. But for US blackmail is only one of the tools that they could use on Merkel – a more likely one is a reward, both financial and career. Her behavior during the mass migration suggests that she was prepared ahead of time and simply followed instructions.
Scholz is pathetic, his personality evokes weakness. Baerbock is just a typical aspirational conformist girl who got ahead of herself, they kept on promoting her and now she is lost. She reminds me of Kamala in US, and Trudeau. They are transitional figures who leave little mark.
Political grape business in RF – somebody is eating those grapes involuntary while paying or being paid and pretending it to be sweet, somebody is being told by Simonyan they’re sweet and somebody gets ten years of jail for writing about it not being sweet. Also somebody abroad is looking at those grapes from afar not eating and just spamming about it being really sweet;) And ofc, there are freaks whom indeed like it sour too…
The anglicisation of continental theories of the mind in the 1950s predates your civil rights point and then it didn’t take fully off from there until the 90s and CBT.
CBT is basically adult coping mechanisms. “Black and white thinking” therefore has nothing to do with your political concerns but is just a typical straightforward phrase for Anglo-style discourse. CBT is also very Anglo.
That would have been OK if we were talking about some boy/girl scout camp or an irrelevant country. As things are, the mark of these nonentities might be huge – all of us incinerated.
Slovakian Minister Rostislav Kacer explains how Slovakia will continue supporting Ukraine, including MIG 29’s. Thankfully, Kacer understands the Russian threat to his small country’s safety and defense – a good review of Slovakia’s relations with Ukraine since the war started. Herr Beckow’s castle remodeling business should continue safe and secure from Russian bombing. 🙂
Interesting fantasies (at least should be interesting to a psychiatrist). Shows what heights of fiction one can achieve by being totally ignorant. No wonder people in the know pay no attention to these raves.
Can you really say that opponents of the war don’t face repression in Russia?
I mean, sure, probably not all of them (and I understand they’re only a minority anyway, since most Russians support the war), but you only need to punish a few for the rest to get the message.
@Mikel –
Ok let’s give this a shot –
I reached this place on say 3 of a backpacking trip in the Winds. I camped by that small lake, completely alone. I had not seen anyone hiking all day – the solitude was glorious. I think around 10,00 feet – it was quite cold. I had hiked up through lush forest and grassy park like fields to reach a high elevation arid zone.
I will post more pics later if this works –
Not sure how definitive it is, but can’t find any early hits for it at all on PubMed. First appears to be 2003.
Am sure what appears on google ngram viewer is mostly outside of psych, and the phrase was probably in the general lexicon earlier than it entered psych.
IMO, phrase seeming to explode in the ’80s supports my theory. Have previously speculated that is why Taleb’s ‘black swan’ took off – the phrase and idea actually existed before, but it needed an MSN and academia obsessed with race to make it explode.
How long does it take for you to hike up and down to the lake area? How far is your vehicle parked away?
You mean that you think the Russians will roll through Galicia? (I do not) And, if not, then how can they be a threat to Slovakia?
Yes, I can. I personally know opponents of the war, who expressed their opposition in writing many times, including in Western media and fake Russian media sponsored by the West, who faced no repressions and roam the RF freely.
You face criminal charges in the RF for four war-related things: 1) collecting and transferring classified info to foreign intelligence services; 2) recruiting or being recruited for service in the Ukrainian military; 3) terrorist acts; 4) repeating Western and Ukrainian lies about Russian military and its conduct. Only the last one was added by the new law adopted during the conflict, the first three were on the books for a long time (1 and 2 – high treason; 3 – terrorism).
Merkel has the profile of a Stasi Agent. That means she HAD the information and was thus able to black mail others.
No doubt she used coercion to force Christian EU countries to comply with commands issued by German elites. For over a decade as Chancellor, Merkel ruthlessly bossed America around. The only relief was when she had nothing on Trump.
The powerhouse Scholz presumably had access to Merkel’s files. That is how dominant global German influence can make Not-The-President Biden and the Dutch government comply with orders from Berlin.
PEACE 😇
Who knows? If they had taken control over all of Ukraine as they had intially planned, eventually “the skys the limit”. There are very real defensive concerns that Finland and Sweden have taken into conideration before having finally signed up for NATO membership.
I’m not convinced. But it guess it doesn’t matter, this disaster will have to play itself out until the bitter end, whatever that may be.
The warning against black and white thinking, in terms of the colours black and white, is older than even the Yin Yang. You’re just seeing your own obsession. This is silly. No different from an SJW-type who thinks that warnings of darkness are racist against black people.
I hiked down to the lake area and kept on going – it was a loop hike. It took me about an hour and a half to get down. The next day I climbed up to another plateau and passed like ten or more lakes in an area that looked like the Scottish highlands!
I was making relatively slow progress as there was lots of climbing up and down, and I did a few side trips, but I’d say I was 30-40 miles from my car, maybe more. Probably no more than 50.
Here are some pics for you, Mr Hack 🙂 I think you’ll recognize your beautiful corner of the world. Well, you’re part of the world but not that close to you – it’s from Organ Pipe Cactus NP on the Mexico border.
It’s kind of remote so less people make it there, but it’s glorious! They don’t have extensive backpacking trails – instead, they have a 20 mile dirt road that takes you into the backcountry, and you can reserve one of around 20 parking spots along that road up to a week, from which you can basically walk into the wilderness and camp anywhere you like! But there are no trails, and there’s no water, so you have to bring your own.
To get to this campsite, I walked only around two hours through a pathless wilderness, carefully stepping around various cactuses. A false step could be painful. Since I wasn’t on a trail I didn’t want to get too far from my car and get lost in that wilderness. I should probably hone my compass skills.
The setting sun was so peaceful and calm, but after night fell a howling wind echoed through those canyon walls, and fine red sand blew into my tent all night long, to the point where I had to cover my face in my sleeping bag. There was nothing I could do but just wait it out. I was worried I might get buried 🙂 The morning dawned beautiful and peaceful.
So, this is an example of the long prophesied ‘Chigger’?
Frankly, I did not expect you to be. I am beginning to think that the attitude, which is becoming more widespread in Russia with each passing day, that the opinions of the US and all its vassals should be ignored is rational. Especially as opinions in 6/7th of the world are essentially opposite.
Yes, this disaster, which started in 2014, will play itself out until the bitter end. Unfortunately, with lots of people dead and maimed in the process.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-vanishing
Must read article that destroys all the Jewish conspiracies.
Kind of blackpilling in a way.
Jews are way better than progressives (blacks)
In New York—the seat of American Jewish political power—there are almost no Jews left in power. A decade ago the city had five Jewish congressmen, a Jewish mayor, two Jewish borough presidents, and 14 Jewish City Council members. Today just two congressmen and a single borough president remain
Did you see any bears?
You can learn something from the Russians, who successfully used Chinese as proxy and cannon fodder three times in 20th CE– against Japan, in the Chinese Civil War, and in Korea.
Many Chinese are are becoming sympathetic to the Japanese perspective. A Japanese woman writes in Chinese–
Lol, but funnily enough, I actually did!
At least I think I might have. It was the following week in a nearby area connected by trails to this.
It was evening and I was looking for a camp spot in a grassy park like area with a beautiful river running through it, very idyllic, towering stone mountains hemming the valley in.
Again hadn’t seen another soul in hours and was completely alone as darkness was falling – suddenly on the trail there are these two absolutely giant moose. I was astonished at how big they were, they towered over me. I knew moose were big but it’s different seeing them in person out in the wild. We kind of just started at each other for a moment, neither of us knowing what to do – I figured hey, they’re just giant deer, right? Prey animals, and likely fearful – and I’m, after all, a human! (At least I think I am)
So I strode purposefully right at them, and sure enough they scattered towards the river. I found out later that moose are actually deadly animals, and will even chase down bears! Ignorance is bliss sometimes lol.
Anyways I keep on going for like ten more minutes and then see a beautiful spot by the river that would be a perfect camp spot, but as I approach it I see what looks like a giant bear hanging out. This is of course Grizzly country, and of course, of course, I had forgotten my bear spray in the car (I discovered that like two hours into the hike, and figured what are the chances I’d need it).
So I quickly continue down the road to find another spot – but later, I began to think it might just have been one of those giant black moose. It was dusk, light was fading, I was spooked by the moose, I was completely alone for hours, maybe I my mind was playing tricks on me.
I camped another ten minutes down the trail and had a peaceful and uneventful night 🙂
I would love one day you see a genuine Grizzly – a mountain lion is also on my bucket list! I’ve seen multiple black bears on both the forests of New York and California. But a Grizzly!
Beautiful. My kind of place. The Winds look more rugged than the Wasatch. Up there in Wyoming I’d be concerned with grizzlies during a solo hike though. Our black bears and cougars don’t usually cause any trouble. California wildfire haze in the summer sky? The Sonora desert pictures are great too. They capture the serenity of the Southwest desert very well. They must be from that winter trip that you made to sunny Arizona. Excellent choice.
What’s the basis for that claim?
Anti-Russian sentiment in Japan isn’t surprising, Japanese right-wingers might still be sore over what happened to the Kwantung army, also the Kuriles issue. And of course the country is firmly within the US sphere.
But why should Chinese be sympathetic to such a perspective? Is that just wishful thinking on your part?
Seems at odds with a fairly recent survey which found most Chinese regard Russia as an ally or a partner:
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3211263/ukraine-1-year-chinese-want-war-end-soon-russia-remains-ally-and-partner-divided-world-poll-finds?module=perpetual_scroll_0&pgtype=article&campaign=3211263
While Euro peoples in general may well indeed have something of a creative streak about themselves, the flip side of the coin, unless guarded against, seems to be a marked tendency to all too readily believe any charlatan, fraud, or, snake oil salesman who comes around.
Witness the hysteria surrounding the infamous ‘Indian rope trick’:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_rope_trick
Thanks,
Yeah, there were big signs at the trailhead warning of Grizzlies. It’s the Bridger-Teton national forest, which is maybe 80 miles south of Yellowstone. Supposedly the Winds have wolves too.
But what can you do? Attacks are rare. You have to do what you love.
I guess the sky does look a bit hazy, now that you point it out, but I didn’t notice it too much during my trip. Many mornings were sparklingly clear.
I’ll post tomorrow some more pics of the various places I’ve been recently when I have more time, like Steens Mt, etc,- I’ll put them under the more tag to not clutter up this thread and only those interested in this kind of thing can bother looking. Don’t want to distract too much from the passionate debate over who is more evil, Russia or Ukraine 🙂
• American Jews are fundamentally White.
• The Judeo-Christian religion is anathema to the SJW Muslim left
Progressive Jews are about to be scored as privledge equivelent to hetro-cis White men. High performing Asians are also going to be similarly devalued.
PEACE 😇
If you like saguaro trees, then by all means visit the Saguaro National forest near Tucson. It offers you the opportunity to see many more condenced groupings of these magnificent Cacti in their natural setting, without a huge outlay of energy:
Saguaro National Park at dusk.
Sabino Canyon, within Tucson, offers several levels of difficulty for hikers. This one, Bear Canyon, is one of the loveliest, especially after the winter and the snow begins to melt…
I’ll get back to you later, as I have some more questions, but am busy at the moment.
Sure. Most wumao and fenhong are NPCs, no less than in the West, that believes whatever the CCP line is, and is pro-Russia.
But Chinese ethnics who don’t like or hate the CCP, and there many, are generally pro-Japan and anti-Russia. And are voting with their feet– Chinese are now the biggest minority group in Japan (and definitely are not moving to Russia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_people_in_Japan
I don’t mean this as a necessarily positive thing. Many Chinese are are becoming sympathetic to the Japanese perspective; but also many Chinese know the normie Japs-invaded-China-we-dindu-nuffin narrative is bullshit, yet act arrogantly in Japan.
Anti-Russian sentiment in Japan isn’t just being-a-US-vassal thing. The woman’s account I quoted is also highly critical of the West–
Amazingly it is not obvious where this term originates from.
“Things are not black and white” or “There it is in black and white (written down).” can’t tie it down very easily. The term “black and White Thinking” is a very modern manifestation of the idiom though. It’s a correlation with psychological terms like “Dichotomous Thinking”. Whih is certainly linked to social management of racism.
“Shades of grey ” might be a better place to look. Though it’s obscure enough too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raw_and_the_Cooked
Here’s a good example of post ww2 sociological use of that you are hinting at.
Le Cru et le Cuit
In the introduction, Lévi-Strauss writes of his confidence that “certain categorical opposites drawn from everyday experience with the most basic sorts of things—e.g. ‘raw’ and ‘cooked,’ ‘fresh’ and ‘rotten,’ ‘moist’ and ‘parched,’ and others—can serve a people as conceptual tools for the formation of abstract notions and for combining these into propositions.”
A lot of Black and White terms do seem to hit on race and extremism.
I’ve seen that. It’s interesting, but hard to understand what effect it will have. I suppose in most positions of influence, they are being replaced by people with similar politics.
Lot of syllables. (5) compared to (2) for “splitting” which seems to be a synonym in psych. But, maybe, it is easier to remember?
Sailer linked to an op-ed in Scientific American just a few days ago, which to me seemed to suggest that it might be something political in the deep brain that gives special appeal to the phrase, for certain people, like Laxa:
https://www.unz.com/isteve/an-essential-difference-between-liberals-and-conservatives/
Seems like a lot of hits on archive.org. Probably didn’t do a thorough job in searching, but initially it seemed to be employed weakly. Didn’t notice a very strong negative connotation until 1967, when it was paired with race:
https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-group-psychotherapy-psychodrama-sociometry_1967_20_1-2/page/60/mode/1up?q=%22black+and+white+thinking%22
If you think of the politic biases of psychology in academia, I think the field skews incredibly liberal female, and also on the psychiatrist’s couch. Women are less about hierarchy, so that might be another mode of appeal.
Board of APA seems like it is 3/4 female, with maybe 1/16 being a white gentile.
https://www.apa.org/about/governance/board
APA has classified whiteness and toxic masculinity as mental disorders.
Get elsewhere with no hesitation if you see mama + cub. Those bitches are psycho.
Am not surprised by Japanese animosity towards Russians. Of course, that is their biggest territorial dispute, and they are on the other side of it, unlike the Senkaku Islands and Okinotorishima.
Japan is in a kind of interesting position, IMO. On the one hand it is supposed to be the buttress of the US.
But, on the other, arguably there are much stronger cultural ties to China. And not just culture but blood. Shinsen Shōjiroku mentions 163 Chinese families. We can suspect additionals based on their names. Most of all, there is the DNA, which really obliterates any idea that the Japanese are an ancient people, unconnected to the Chinese. Really, they didn’t exist until maybe about 100-200 AD, or later
But I’d expect Japan-Korea rapprochement much earlier than Japan-China. I think the size of China must be scary to the Japanese and Koreans both. And Chinese culture seems weaker than Japanese, at the moment. Certainly would not eliminate possibility of Japan getting nukes.
Of course, if population doesn’t correct, they may be forced to cooperate eventually.
NSFW/Fag warning before the more tag please.
@songbird “I’ve seen that. It’s interesting, but hard to understand what effect it will have. I suppose in most positions of influence, they are being replaced by people with similar politics.”
The old ruling class was defined by intermarriage with WASPS.
The latter themselves becoming minority in NE cities by 1920s.
The new ruling class will be defined by intermarriage with blacks & other freaks.
It’s just normative inversion – the old elite was inherently abrahamic.
The new one has to prove itself so will attack the past & its norms/beauty.
—
After awhile you might get a new elite, but there’s a lot of sinking left still.
The Binary 0100101010010001…that is Black and White. Could be expressed as such.
This is what happens when you realize that Yevgeny Prigozhin might be a stalking horse the CIA or Mossad are grooming for later. It slowly dawns on YOU that a Jew is being positioned to inherit power in Moscow after Putin. It’s as much why Johnson promotes him as any Zelenskyy loyal Ukie flunky or indeed the western press…Schryver isn’t quite aware of the sleight of hand but RWA ought to be realizing the subversiveness of the PMC. They are not quite there yet, won’t say anything openly.
Chinks will go all in to help Russia, or they are next and isolated and more or less alone. Which means they get to replay the 1830s.
“Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 10 2023 21:23 utc | 296
A complex situation and a hard ball play. Prigozhin has a lot of appeal especially to what I would define as the Russian “fly over country”, which would be basically the whole of Russia minus Moscow and St. Petersburg. Ideology is not a word that Prigozhin would use, he sounds like a sharp commoner with the language of someone that has served time which in fact he has, and he connects firmly with the majority, what Ukrainians pejoratively call vatniks. But there could be a multilayered game in play, today he posted a video, a new swipe at the “rublyovka” types which is a neighborhood in Moscow where all the billionaires have their mansions, he has attacked Shoigu indirectly and in my opinion rightly so, his son in law has insulted the “vatniks” while sunbathing in the middle east instead of joining the fight, a muscle pumping blogger that damages the image of the defense minister since Russians know very well that Stalin himself refused to exchange his captive son for a German general, and here you have this guy making fun of commoners at the front while enjoying the sweet life abroad. On the other hand it could be all theater to confuse the enemy, and at the same time it is another hit to keep demoting oligarchs and entrenched bureaucrats and remnants of the old guard, there are accusations of corruption and slow reaction to a new form of warfare, like drones and communications, but according to other actors the army has reacted and many problems have been solved while others remain. In any case he is at ease before a camera and his language coarse, brutal but sincere has a lot of appeal, I really enjoy listening to him, but then again, it is a complex game and it’s hard to tell how it’s going to end for him, either a great folk hero like the first batch of red commanders – Kotovsky, Stalin himself- or killed in combat, or horror of horrors for the West, as the successor of Putin and then all the bloody tales about the Kremlin villain would be closer to reality.
In this clip he makes fun of the rublyovka types and corrupt bureacrats.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin/80129
Posted by: Paco | Mar 10 2023 23:31 utc | 306”
This is starting to look like CIA or Mossad promoted stuff…Jewish guy is being groomed as a President by outside voices. Russia troops will probably face a heavy Ukie counter attack toward Melitopol and this will be a hell of an attack. It’ll be stopped (or not) by the regular army and mostly because of entrenchments, defense in depth with bunkers and mines absorbing the blows and infantry willing to fight it out all all costs. Wagner won’t show. Guarantee that. Prigozhin would now be best served with a collapse by the Regular army on the Crimean landbridge. This suits the west.
While RF is rocketing electrical stations in UA, Russian programmer in US started cosplaying as the diversionist on enemy soil and blew up some electrostuff in Silicon Valley:
https://tadviser.com/index.php/Person:Peter_Karasev
Barely a year ago his decade in prison was said to be for forcing underage girls into prostitution. Now he is going to take over the country, once the trifling matter of routing the Russian army is arranged. Some reality therapy is in order.
The Jew PMC guy is now being touted as a successor. I predicted this was the basic idea behind the promotion of his media profile all along. A narrow loss around Melitopol is all Prigozhin would need. He could say something like “My Wagner boys were excluded and won all their battles! elect me! Oy vey.”
I expect a Russian general might shoot him now.
That nicely summarizes your paranoia :)… Actually nothing goes up to the sky, it is only fluffy empty space. Instead we are heading down to the black earth, a bit closer and for some reason omitted from our mental mythologies. The over-eager Ukies are going there ahead of their time. You should put some thought – and empathy – into that.
Kacer is a caretaker minister appointed to serve until the elections, the lib-madhouse government collapsed in December. Nobody pays attention to what he says, he is simply angling for a cushy sinecure in some institution or NGO. Your misreading of the situation is almost comical. It must be getting hot in Arizona…
That is possibly the real meaning of the mark of the devil: conformist nonentities over their heads dragging us to a catastrophe.
Let’s see: an environmentalist and a “peace” activist on a bike who doubts the existence of gender and believes that Germany could use a few (tens of) million more people – but wholeheartedly supports war, bombing and exporting ‘democracy’. It seems about right. This could indeed end badly.
There’s nothing comical about my understading of Kacer or his policies. His scholastic and work resume is quite impressive. He looks quite comfortble standing next to pani prezidentka:
He’s everything that Beckow is not: pro-western, ant-putlerian, a real expert on the US economy and pro-Ukrainian. I see a bright future for Mr. Kacer.
Let’s get something clear: you understand nothing about other countries. I don’t understand Arizona politics, and you don’t know anything about what goes on in Slovakia – the English texts available to you are almost complete nonsense, shallow and basically cheap propaganda.
Just look at the guy, he is not an expert on anything (economy? omg, you are gullible :)…the president lady is a former garbage dump litigator (her dad owned a few) who busies herself with picking clothes and younger men to date (she is divorced). If you are interested in that, I could introduce you, but maybe stick with the cholas – the elderly ladies here have a bit of a sour-puss reputation…:)
Excellent –
No the losses weren’t manageable, they hadn’t hedged their interest rate risk. Ironic this happens the same week Bakhmut gets encircled and China brokers the Iran-Saudi deal, losing on all fronts.
When do you think the US will be able to develop hyper sonic missiles?
We already knew from Syria that Russia is at least a generation ahead in such technology, which includes air defense systems. Not only does the US not appear to be catching up but actually is falling further behind. We can see the results in the Ukraine.
Although it probably won’t achieve much, the more that achieves, the more that is winning. China helping to maintain the white man’s burden is good for everyone.
They’ll all get their money back. It was timing issue. You’ll see.
According to you, the Ukrainian army was destroyed a year ago and Bakhmut had fallen 8 months go.
LOL.
Btw, Mark Dubowitz from neocon Foundation for defense of democracies has already expressed his disapproval:
We can see the results in the Ukraine
What results have come from hypersonic weapons?
Some bureaucratic talking head made a throwaway argument for why people need to funnel more resources to him and listen to him more.
He’ll have new “takes” next week. Offering takes is just asking for attention. No one cares.
Referring to neocon filth as mere bureaucratic talking heads deserves a Troll reaction but…
It already has developed them: (1)
The Pentagon will no doubt select and deploy one of these packages in the next few years.
____
The question is, “So what?” Most of the people gushing over hypersonic weapons, including Scott Ritter, come across as obsessive spec sheet worshiping fan boys.
Look at what the system actually does. There is nothing ground breaking about moving above Mach 5. Ballistic missiles have had comparable speed for decades. The incremental improvement of a hypersonic package presents limited tactical implications. However, they do not change the strategic balance of forces.
PEACE 😇
__________
(1) https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/us-announces-successful-tests-of-3-hypersonic-missiles-in-2-weeks/
They blew up a power plant resulting in a loss of electricity for a few hours.
Been able to hit targets across the Ukraine, and by implication NATO bases, if needed, whilst Russia has remained largely untouched. Of course, due to the poor quality of NATO air defence systems, often low quality drones have been sufficient to achieve results. Logistics has been greatly complicated and the threat of direct NATO intervention mitigated.
Losses are losses, they had to sell their bond holdings and realise those losses to meet withdrawals. Rumour is SVB depositary claims are being offered at 70-80c, you should take it.
The Ukrainian Army was destroyed, NATO built a new one, that was destroyed, and now they have built another, hence the endless new supply commitments having to be made by NATO, and the worldwide hunt for Soviet era weapons to purchase.
Anyone who takes the Hedge Fund offers of 80% is stupid. An unsecured loan from a Hedge Fund would probably be at about 25%, so the Hedge Funds are expecting 100% of money being returned.
You’re totally delusional.
Wokeness hinders AI development. CCP blocks it.
Not only the elderly ladies it seems, but the middle aged entrepreneurs as well. 🙂
Kacer’ partial biography below, seems to cause you a great deal of consternation!
https://www.europeanleadershipnetwork.org/person/rastislav-kacer/
Kacer is quite articulate, and is the subject matter of current affairs beyond the borders of Slovakia.
This video clip is quite fresh and was loaded just two days ago. For a nobody, he seems to be somebody in the news:
Btw, Mikel, more pics of the Winds to help you decide if you wish to go. Much of the best places I did not take pictures of, and it’s all shot on a crappy Google pixel cam, often in a rather random and haphazard way lol, but I think this can give you a flavor of the Winds.
This spring/summer I plan on buying a decent camera and learning how to properly take pics.
Yes, first we had the questionable ‘Putin’s Brain’, the ‘radical’ Alexander Dugin, and now we have the equally questionable ‘Putin’s Chef, the ‘extremist’ Yevgeny Prigozhin, who also (allegedly) has probable grand dreams of future state, and perhaps in time, even global power, for himself and his followers.
Note how his ‘Wagner PMC’ group is already (I submit quite deliberately) ‘poison pilled’ with the name ‘Wagner’ itself, you know, the very same name as Hitler’s cultural favorite.
That’s conveniently fitting, for from a modern prog’s view, whether a group or individual is republican or not in outlook, and even if the ethnic identity this likely controlled opposition might espouse is simply empty symbolism of empty symbolism, such as that espoused by a Trump or Putin, it doesn’t matter….’They is all ‘Nazi!’TM in their book.
But, just in case you are a bit on the slow side and don’t understand this, they will make sure you do by choosing ‘Wagner’ as the group’s name.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/06/1160851615/russia-putin-chef-yevgeny-prigozhin-wagner-group
Dorill’s MI6 book has documented operations against the Soviet Union over a 20 year period after 1945. The success track record was approximately zero for 200. Commie counter intelligence capacity was one level up from MI6.
Probably there has been some decline but anybody who gets the job of regime change in Moscow might want to know it is like a suicide mission. Fortunately for the Biden and Blinken and Nuland and Sullivan families we don’t have accountability any more.
In all the time he documents there was exactly one MI6 agent who was killed in action. All the fatalities like on the CIA headquarters wall of honor are stupes hired for a weekend suicide mission. The dead MI6 officer was in Yemen in the early 1960’s. The Muslim terrorists cut off his head and paraded it on a stick.
btw, he likely isn’t Wagner’s founder, it was the other guy named Dmitry Utkin IIRC, Prigozhin just completely took over the structure as Putin’s old shadow confidant.
Kinda like Musk wasn’t Tesla founder, but took it over later.
Prigozhin serving to G.W. Bush:
If you believe for some reason that energy generation and distribution infrastructure is off-limits “ethically”, then you completely disagree https://archive.org/details/office-of-general-counsel-department-of-defense-2015 the US Defense Department’s Law of War Manual (20125) and the US murderers’ actual practice over the decades. And that makes you not just ill-informed, but not a very good American 😉
A place for you to start:
https://archive.org/details/office-of-general-counsel-department-of-defense-2015
Did you ever encounter any animals during your trip? Just wondering, the pics look a bit lifeless (fascinating landscape though, so keep them coming).
Could you pinpoint the exact page(s) that said information can be located? I don’t have the time to read all 1204 pages today? 🙂
You can’t believe this because it is too silly. All you need to do is put a filter on the output, like those employed on the Great Firewall on which it would be trained.
Probably it would be easier because there is only one sacred cow and no intersectionality.
Has anybody listened to Ritter lately? It’s insane how delusional he is. He did make one point that I think might be legitimate, though: he said the RuAF under the direction of Surovikin is acting as a new strategic front in the war. Now, unlike Ritter, I don’t expect this to do much but I do think it could be a factor going forward and possibly hamper future Ukrainian offensive operations
But anyway, SVB likely does signal the start of a financial crisis. Congratulations US Federal Reserve! A few months ago, I would have thought this meant that Ukraine was cooked, but no longer. Whatever happens, there remains a political consensus in the West that Russia should not be permitted to annex Ukraine. Even Le Pen and Trump pretend to be against that.
This does, however, make it less likely that the West will support Ukrainian attempts to drive Russia back to the pre invasion borders. Assuming the Ukrainian summer offensive fails and that financial crisis hits in the fall, the West, US included, is going to be looking for a ceasefire. Probably a ceasefire in place, removal of most of the post invasion sanctions and in exchange Ukraine gets additional weaponry and becomes a de facto NATO and EU member. I consider that deal a win for the West but Putin can credibly call it a defensive victory so hopefully we are able to get an agreement along those lines.
There’s infinite sacred cows and endless intersectionality and rather than being suspended from Twitter for breaking them they ruin your life and maybe that of your entire family. Have some perspective.
Don’t Prigozhin and Putin hate each other?
What is Scholz up to now? He is trying to undermine Georgia.
How? He ordered his puppet Not-The-President Biden to deploy Samantha Power: (1)
America desperately needs a President who will spurn German elites. Trump will put a stop to this sort of thing.
#LetsGoBrandon 😇
______________________
(1) https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/03/10/the-insufferable-samantha-power-now-focuses-on-georgia-bordering-russia/
All of the pix are breathtakingly beautiful. Is the color of the water in the fifth picture down as green hued as it looks?
Unfinished questions from yesterday. Is it accurate to asume that in the first picture way above, where you put up your tent, that this was the entry point that you chose for your further meanderings to these other lakes, perhaps as much as 40 miles further on? Did you have some kind of a map that you used to help guide you? How many lakes in all did you see and visit and how many days have you been exploring this area? How far away from “base camp” did you go? Did you always come back to your original staging ground, or did your tent and supplies move along with you? Sven Hedin, move over! 🙂
Flyover Europe and flyover U.S. is the best Europe and the best U.S.
Unlikely. SVB is fairly small at ~$200B in deposits. Yes. That sounds big. However, as a comparison, US Bank has ~$20,000B in deposits.
SVB has assets that mature in 2-5 years. The problem was a liquidity run. The depositors will likely receive all of their money. They just cannot get at it now. Also with inflation at 5-10%, earning 2% interest for 5 years is real value loss, but it is too late to fix that now.
Some of the Venture Capitalist startups with money at SVB cannot wait 5 years. They will go bust when they cannot make payroll. But, VC firms go bust all the time. That is normal for the industry.
It is wise to pay attention to stories about bank failures, but this one is less alarming than the bank runs taking place in China. Rural banks are failing and there is no equivalent to FDIC. Individuals are being wiped out. (1)
PEACE 😇
__________
(1) https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/06/breaking-run-banks-china-long-lines-henan-shanghai-dandong/
I encountered animals in large numbers, except for the larger predators – no wolves, grizzly bears, or mountain lions (I did see a bobcat one early morning in California – I’ve also recently seen several black bears in California). One day!
But to really see lots of animals you need to go to Yellowsy – it’s like a Safari.
I saw eagles, hawks, huge owls, endless amounts of deer but they are too numerous and mundane to mention perhaps, lots of American antelope (we call them pronghorns here) roaming vast open spaces, which I particularly enjoyed (antelope I saw mostly in Wyoming and Oregon), wild horses, enormous giant moose, mountain rams, lots of coyotes, often passing through my camp in the early morning yipping as I lay in my tent, which I loved, and several snakes – one, a rather large rattlesnake in NY last summer, that was beautiful and lazily crossing my path completely unperturbed by me, large turtles, and lizards. (In fact, I’ve been startled by the frequency with which I’ve been encountering snakes and am wondering if there is some spiritual meaning to that), badgers, otters, and tons of small things like chipmunks etc.
Unfortunately I didn’t take too many pics of animals! I’ll try and remedy that this Spring/Summer.
Here are the only animal pics I have – a mountain ram (?) in the desert at dawn (there were a bunch but I only captured one), a wild horse in Wyoming (shitty pic – and again there was a whole herd but I only got one), and a herd of deer silhouetted against a beautiful California dawn at a regular campground I stayed at.
PEACE 😇
Perspective would be thinking back to people in the ’70s and ’80s saying that the computer revolution would result in everyone publishing their own samizdat, and the internet would make access to information so easy that it would destroy communism, and then realizing that, not only did their predictions not come true, but pretty much the opposite has happened.
The West is obviously less free than it was back then, as computers have become more common. Speech has become ever more circumscribed, and you can be arrested in many countries for “misgendering” someone. All phone calls are tapped and transcripted by machine. The Twitter Files show how the FBI is embedded in social media. Snowden saw people trading candid pics. The Stasi would be envious of the files that the German state now has.
The EU commission has plans to monitor all private chat communication (supposedly to combat child porn…and who could object to that, don’t you care about the children?):
Absolutely dystopian. “Liberal democracy” is leading to some very strange outcomes.
So much hysteria, yet any time, anywhere you want, you can take your phone out and access infinite alternative information and communicate with whomever from around the world. That has never been true before and all your panic doesn’t change that fact.
I don’t support the censorship that happens, but the above is crucial for you to have perspective to your opinion.
My perspective is that you are silly for thinking that the Chinese can’t do AI because they won’t allow a machine to count to ten, since it evokes Tienanmen.
Yep, that’s actually the color of the water – it’s interesting that a high mountain lake at 8,000 feet in Wyoming would have a near tropical tinge, isn’t it.
So the first picture I posted was a little bit past the midpoint of my hike – day 3 of a 5 day hike. You could probably get there in 1-2 days if you really wanted (1 is a stretch) – I choose to explore the surrounding valleys more and not hurry. I had roughly another 30 miles to go to get back to my car, give or take. I had both paper maps and I downloaded electronic maps on the app Avenza – perhaps cheating, but it makes it so easy 🙂 Lately, I don’t always take my phone with me on trips so I have more to rely on paper maps.
I generally prefer “loop” hikes because they’re more convenient, but certain hikes you need to arrange transport at the other hand or rely on hitchhiking – I saw people waiting for a ride sometimes for a few days (people camp for several days at certain trailheads so you may not find anyone leaving soon)
As for the lakes, they are high mountain lakes above 10,000 feet and really special – it’s impossible to capture their special beauty in pics. Basically, the lush, grassy, forested valleys of the Winds are connected by high altitude “plateaus”. These semi-arid plateaus are in my view stunning and surreal. The air is limpid and sparkling at dawn and sunset, it’s windy and cold, and it’s just vast and dramatic and impossible. It’s a highlight of the Winds in my view. I think Mikel would find them as exhilarating as I do.
That first pic of mine is after crossing for a few hours the first “plateau” – from that pic, the next morning I descended into a forested valley, and climbed back up onto another glorious plateau – this one better even than the first 🙂
That’s where I encountered sparkling lake after sparkling lake – I didn’t count, but I’d estimate more than ten, maybe even 15.
They can’t do AI. That’s a fact. The explanation is extremely partial. But amusing. And highlights the point I made.
ah the Hydrate Slugger.
Power is Power
The stereotypical Chinese/Asian thinking pattern seems intrinsically AI-like in the first place: study, copy, interpolate, extrapolate and iterate.
Progozhin became a new oligarch thanx to Putin’s rise, why should they have bad feelings towards each other? Ofc, everything can happen in life and relationships can go bad, but so far Prigozhin has a function of a scarecrow in the system after Zhirinovsky’s death – look, if you won’t negotiate with me, then the big bad scary armed mafia criminal boss might come instead!
I wonder if Wagner secretly has any latitude to fight Russia’s battles against Jewish power in cases where Russia’s hands are unofficially tied?
The idea is their role is to turn civilizational battles between Russia and Zionist interests into more acceptable factional or secular struggles of (((one faction))) against (((another faction))).
In other words, Wagner vs Kolomoisky might be acceptable whereas Russia vs Kolomoisky is somehow to be avoided. So the FSU can’t bag Zelensky, but it might be OK for Wagner to take his scalp.
What did Solovyov mean when he said Russia needed to adopt the methods of Comrade Sudoplatov? Is this a reference to the assassination of OUN leader Konovalets in 1938, and therefore a call to assassinate Zelensky?
I see there’s also a Sudoplatov batallion now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Sudoplatov_Battalion
The history politics of this conflict are very strange, OUN/UPA as heroes on the Ukrainian side, NKVD killers on the pro-Russian side.
Don’t be like clueless Western “strategists”. Prigozhin, like Kadyrov, isn’t large enough caliber to fit Putin’s shoes. Both are OK as second fiddles, but neither is capable of being the first fiddle. Their obsession with PR clearly shows what they are. Don’t be fooled by the fact that Wagner is successfully squeezing France out of Africa, or Ukrainian military out of Bahmut/Artemovsk: in both cases that’s the competition between second-rate players.
You might say that obvious mafiosi of even lesser caliber are “leaders” in Kosovo and Montenegro. But these are third-rate countries, so third-rate bandits are good enough to rule the roost there.
Something like habitually drunk traitor Yeltsin will never return in Russia. After Putin is gone, Russia will have a leader that measures up.
How can you know that, it seems to be totally unclear who will succeed Putin, or what sort of preparations Putin himself has made for his succession (if he has made any, that is). And it’s not like there’s any clear mechanism for the transfer of power like there was in the Soviet Union.
Politics is not a plausible reason because they can just slap a filter on it.
Chips are not a plausible reason because they can just buy them. You think they can’t buy Nvidia chips, etc. off ebay in a dozen countries and then tranship them?
Nonsense – some models have already been exported, and there are people playing around with them.
Baidu will release their own chatbot ERNIE any day now.
Because Russia has mature civil society (in contrast to the decaying West, full of sheep docilely going to the slaughterhouse). The people won’t tolerate a piece of shit like Yeltsin (or like Scholz, Macron, Sunak, Trudeau, or Biden, for that matter). The outcomes of the palace games are now limited by the populace, and the palace creatures know it.
Because there’ll be some sort of mass uprising otherwise? Based on which “civil society” groups and institutions exactly? If Putin’s successor doesn’t turn out to their liking, Russians will just spontaneously organize, agree on their own candidate and bring him to power? When has something like that ever happened?
Putin himself came to power as a result of “palace games” btw, I see no reason to suppose that it will be any different for his successor, or that Russians will have much say on the matter.
But of course the future is fundamentally unknowable. So this is all idle speculation in a way.
We must be fair. Spain ALWAYS seems to have massive unemployment. It was yuge when I was last there 10 years ago, yet the restaurants were full and there didn’t seem to be large numbers engaged in doing nothing.
There’s obviously something about Spanish unemployment stats that’s different from (say) UK ones, or something about unemployed Spaniards (or maybe unemployed immigrants – immigration to Spain is also yuge). 13% is more than one in eight people of working age.
PS – the troll to poster ratio here is also YUGE – a pity. If I want to read Ukraine/CIA propaganda I’ve got the entire MSM to read, it’s duplicated effort.
Most commenters here are quite sincere (Mr. Hack whom you labeled a troll certainly is). The only one who does frequently come off like he/she/it could be a professional propagandist is Laxa/Leaves no shadow.
I once suspected A123 too, but his views are so idiosyncratically crazy he’s probably genuine.
Promethean libtard demands to revoke Russia’s inviolate right of Self-Determination
That word has been obsolete for at least seven years.
Only a zombie NPC would use it.
Did you read the Ron Unz message welcoming it back? That was one of the gentlest warnings to be on one’s best behavior in the history of the internet.
It should raise questions how RWA has never been deplatformed from any Western tech, despite it being “unofficial propaganda” as no actual ‘independent media’ can legally exist in Russia.
Two solutions are plausibe, that it is “black propaganda” run by a Western intelligence agency to grift off of the US Right (which is the overwhelming audience and funding source); or that it is run by the GRU which has produced self-funding propaganda. And that Western Big Tech won’t deplatform it for fear of blowback.
Official US Propaganda demands to violate the self-determination of Russia.
Unofficial Russian propaganda demands to violate the existence of my short male brethren, and in the replies is funding MSF which floods the Western lands with mass immigration.
Not surprising from an unofficial propaganda account that previously justified violence against humble Boers.
No, I don’t read the rest of the site (only come here for the long-term commenters). Had a look at Ron Unz’s commenting history, don’t think I found what you’re referring to…but wow, Laxa sure is a prolific commenter.
Let me fix that for you:
I once suspected A123 too, but his views are so idiosyncratically accurate he’s genuine.
I suspect that we agree more than we disagree. Most of the issues come from the fact that you post things that rely on believing:
• Not-The-President Biden is competent. He is not.
• His coup administration represents America. It does not.
• It is not being ordered around by foreign actors. It is.
Feel free to blame the White House occupant. He doesn’t represent us, so you will receive little resistance. But you cannot credibly say, “America is giving Germany (or the Dutch) orders.” It just ain’t so. There is no one in America who can do that. Droolin’ Joe might grope foreign politicians. However, coherent orders are beyond the barely animate, near corpse.
Did you stop to consider that the Netherlands government and ASML simply do not want the CCP stealing their technology? Nope. You jumped on some crazy conspiracy theory where the Dutch were coerced.
If you insist on blaming everything on America. I will continue blaming everything on Germany. The choice is yours.
Hack is mentally ill. He needs the help of a psychiatrist and medication. But, not a troll. Or, at least, not an intentional one. I have him blocked on compassionate medical grounds. I feel great pity for him, and I hope he recovers.
Laxa/LNS as a professional? Really? You are suggesting someone is paying her? Who? Why?
Blinky is Fake & Gay. Definitely a troll. Fortunately, an infrequent poster.
PEACE 😇
Once got the fleeting idea that A123 might have access to some sophisticated white/black lists for hundreds of thousands, or millions, ranging from world leaders to guys who run publishing houses out of their garages, to the creator of Babylon 5, depending where they stand on single issue.
But probably just my imagination. (Read: please, make your own tests!)
What is annoying about Laxa is the refusal to engage on identity. I was thinking that it would be a safe way to add color to her personality to crosspost reviews to IMDB or something, under the same moniker. Am interested in her perspective, since she did not think Big was really creepy, and I wonder what movies she likes, and whether she would apply the same vocab to reviewing them.
Laxa, how did you feel about the Christmas movie (also with Hanks) that really crossed the uncanny valley: The Polar Express (2004)? I could never watch it myself, but I am wondering whether you could have been more tolerant of it. Also, have you seen any of the things that Aaron B has recommended, and what are your thoughts?
Is that Baerbock? I thought she was a trampolinist, and her favorite mode of transport was jumping from one to the other, across backyard hedges and fences.
But I like those young guys on bikes who left skidmarks (albeit very small) on that giant rainbow flag painted onto the street somewhere in Cali, which seemed to me to be a massive potential traffic hazard, and which should be removed immediately, using those flamethrowers that they shoot on streets to cure the asphalt.
It said “welcome back” -> nonsense banal small talk for 2 more sentences.
Message = I know who you are. The banning 4 months ago or whenever it was was not mentioned.
Let’s recall historical facts. Last time Germans staged an uprising was in 1918, 105 years ago. Lust time Russians staged an uprising was 1993, 30 years ago. Yeltsin regime had to spill a lot of blood to suppress that uprising (not that this “democrat” or his equally “democratic” Western sponsors were shy spilling people’s blood).
Now, that’s a good summary.
She probably is. They say that she jumped too high and hit her head many times. It shows.
There were mass demonstrations in East Germany in 1989. Of course they wouldn’t have amounted to much, if the regime had decided on repression/still been capable of it.
Only in Moscow iirc…was there much unrest in the provinces?
I see no reason why a hypothetical successor of Putin couldn’t do the same as long as he’s got the security forces on his side.
You say Russia has got a “mature civil society”, but as far I can tell, there are no organizations, institutions or parties that could organize and channel dissent. Without that you’ve just got an atomized mass.
There is something to this.
He rather suits western interests. Certainly so as a bogey man.
There are organizations and non-parliament parties (parliament parties are just play-dolls of the powers that be, pretty much like in the US). Putin is constantly changing his policies (sometimes likely against his preferences) to be in tune with the majority. Right now the majority supports what he is doing (in fact, the opposition that believes that he is not harsh and anti-Western enough outnumbers grant-eater Western darlings by like 5-10 to 1). If he is replaced by someone more anti-Western than he is, the majority would be content. If some Yeltsin-style piece of shit squeezes through, there would be widespread discontent. I cannot predict in what form, but such a regime is going to be very shaky and won’t last long.
Update on South Africa. European WEF values in action.
SJW European values just do not work.
PEACE 😇
You still only have a History Channel level understanding of Russo-Japanese relations.
The Japanese consider the Sino-Japanese War to be Sino-Russian alliance against it. And resents that its repeating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Zet
Hope you don’t lose sleep over East Asian population decline. I’m empathetic to Europe’s travails but this is a reasonable depiction–
One of the things that would make it difficult for Prigozhin to advance even higher on the political stage is that he has managed to alienate a large part of the ruling apparatus. He is apparently at odds with the General Staff and the military establishment don’t like him (he is obviously an eye sore for the normal military who have their own, more traditional code of behavior).
The conflict between the Generals and “the stormers” is classical, the Nazis had a similar issue with Ernst Röhm (who was eventually handed a pistol with one bullet in it).
In Prigozhin’s case, this tension is still ongoing. What does that even mean? That there is a really strange equilibrium in place?
A while back Prigozhin’s soldiers put out a video where they where shooting aim at photos of Gerasimov and another high ranking general. This is quite scandalous.
The whole zek recruiting affair, too, has upset the legal system, because it is pretty crazy to arbitrarily take zeks out of the system to be sent to war, after they have gone through the whole legal system, prosecutions, judges’ rulings, etc. Naturally, the whole judiciary system does not approve of such methods.
When Bashi and I spoke about this a while back, I expressed doubts that the wider Russian populace would accept someone like Prigozhin as president (he is too crude and formerly incarcerated), to which Bashi told me that many Russian men have been formerly incarcerated and that he is popular among them (which is actually true, he is what they call a blatniy, the guy who gets sh*t done in prison and to whom many can come for favors in exchange for services, and there is a whole former zek culture in Russia, which goes back to the Gulags, and I’m sure there are a ton of female vatniks who like him as well).
When Prigozhin says something, he addresses the population, the electorate, not so much the ruling powers (except when he demands more ammo from the military but even then he says it in a tone which sounds somewhat accusatory to the official military). So he is definitely a kind of a populist. It is assumed that the next president could only come from the apparatus (people such as Mishustin or Medvedev or the like), and the FSB will determine who it will be.
So this is an interesting situation where Prigozhin is popular with the core electorate (the so called “deep people”), but he is at odds with the system, while at the same time being employed by Putin to carry out the military goals (which they are unlikely to achieve – the Ukrainian leadership have decided to not leave Bakhmut, enforcements were sent in recently, including the Ukrainian spetsnaz and the big Ukrainian spring offensive could commence as soon as April).
That’s probably true, an authoritarian system like his has to some extent take more account of public opinion than a “liberal democracy” would (obviously I’m not a fan of the latter). Putin’s system doesn’t strike me as all that great either though, it’s too focused on Putin’s personal power and deliberately built on de-mobilization of the masses (iirc even that youth organization Putin had for a while doesn’t exist anymore…he’s like a tsar, doesn’t even want his own supporters organized, lol…that’s very different from China’s system with its powerful party btw), and once he’s gone, who knows what will happen. It could all become very unstable.
I enjoyed this little quote from DBH.
The idea is that the events of history represent precisely that side of human existence that is “nothing” – that has no ultimate significance (they are mere human power struggles). So what we call history is the history of the “nothing” happening – they will not be remembered in eternity. It’s not a new concept, but it’s a nice way of putting it 🙂
If we are evolving towards being Gods, who ultimately partake in the fullness of infinite Being without needing to struggle for power against each other, then history is ultimately a story of that struggle for power not ending with a victor – but simply being overcome.
So history ends with “history” being overcome – a play on words, but I like it 🙂
Sometimes, maybe even often, reframing an old issue in new language can startle one into a new understanding of it. Let us all appreciate the Great Reframers – language, in the end, is a spell, and the mere arrangement of words can shock us into enlightenment (Zen is full of this kind of story).
And who, once he’s a developed a large, more philosophical view, can doubt the truth of this? Is it a question of ultimate human significance if America or China are the global heavyweight? Or whatever configuration of powers comes after?
Proximately, of course it matters, but the process of history is an overcoming of that it matters, as it were 🙂
Great trolling by Sikorski. Muscovy it is.
Hilarious that a Putin shill gets all shook up by dead-naming. As if it compares to a murderous invasion.
what liberal democracy ever gave the majority population what it wanted? You tell me.
Cue 100,000 rampaging Chinks with Call signs: Berke, Batu and Chingis.
Unofficial federal assets showed up locally.
Makes sense… China is much more dependent on Middle-Eastern oil than the US.
Of course Europe is equally dependent, but we know all had it confirmed in the the most blatant possible way that Europe is now viewed as beneath contempt and doesn’t have an independent say on anything.
“Weimar conditions – Weimar solutions” – LOL. Thanks for posting, that was pretty funny.
Shias are beneath Christians and even Jews according to predominant mainstream Islamic jurists and ‘thinkers’. Guilty of both Bidah (innovation) and Shirk, basically the two worst things a Muslim can do before outright apostasy.
It’s a bit of a mystery to me why Unz continues to think of him so highly. Quite a disservice to lump Jeffrey Sachs, Greenwald and Mearsheimer with this Macgregor and other grifters like Ritter.
Brexit!;)
US aid to Ukraine is overwhelmingly popular, as it is in Europe. Even in Hungary most of the population actually wants to give Ukraine military aid, which the Orban government has not done.
Most of the people also oppose sending ground troops, which imo is the only way that Ukraine can recover all of its 1954 territory. Just the same, the pols have not sent ground troops even though they could probably get away with it.
Only about 5% of the US has pro-Russia opinions, which includes people like me, who still are quite critical of many of their actions.
The UK is lagging behind Italy. But, they are also beginning to try: (1)
It is the right idea, but the timing should have been much earlier.
PEACE 😇
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(1) https://rmx.news/uk/uk-government-announces-new-powers-to-detain-and-deport-small-boat-migrants/
I’m still causing you problems, even though you haven’t read a single comment of mine for several months now? Amazing, my powers of wielding the written word are stronger than I ever imagined? Perhaps, it’s really you, and not me, that is in dire need of seeking psychiatric consultation, kremlinstoogeA123? 🙂
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Even a MAGA superstar needs help once in a while…..
ROTFLMAO
It is an inch deep 🇺🇦fad🇵🇸. Maliciously ask the wrong question, and high numbers can be manufactured. The number of Americans who want to prioritize Ukie aggression over domestic issues is a minority.
MAGA supporters, and thus the U.S. House, are especially 🇺🇦fad🇵🇸 resistant. Speaker McCarthy has openly repudiated the current “blank check” policy that places Americans last. Despite violent Zelensky’s invitation, McCarthy has said he will not visit Ukraine.
It may not go to zero. However, the lame duck omnibus bill was the last mega transfer to the Kiev regime. Future gifts will be smaller and 100% audited. Will France and Germany pony up Billions of €uros to keep European WEF aggression on the field?
PEACE 😇
Wrong
https://www.unz.com/akarlin/open-thread-191-russia-ukraine/#comment-5418752
That you stand with Mr. Anne Applebaum and the neocons is vile.
Yes, this part is true.
I don’t think we should engage in cope. Ukrainian defeat would be cataclysmic for the liberal system, and almost all libs know it. So at least in US/CAN/UK they will be loudly supporting continued aid, and more importantly the media elite will be even louder.
Will Ursula (the actual shot caller) keep throwing aid on the pile, quite possibly.
Chirac and Schroeder cynically and traitorously did not support Bush’s Iraq war, for their own selfish electoral reasons (they thought Saddam had WMD, and the latter was only going to send troops if Kerry won). So it is possible that similar manipulation could recur, but why would Macron and Scholz want to defeat Biden? And what action could they do to get their fellow libtard Tusk in power over in Poland?
As an American who is 99%+ cope free. I concur.
American DNC critters are in a very different position from their European puppeteers.
DNC survival has to beat — J6 myth busting, abandoning of lib cities (e.g. Portland), the failure of CRT, pedo grooming in schools, failure of the lib bank SVB, etc. In America the 🇵🇸fad🇺🇦 is an immediate anti-survival liability. Those holding safe seats may stay in, but there will be a great deal of running for cover in the swing elections that matter.
The majority of Leftoid voters could not find Ukraine on a globe. Abandoning the total irrelevance of Kiev aggression is a no brainer. Leftoid media will be ordered not to cover it. Thus, it will be “memory holed” and conveniently forgotten.
America has neither prestige nor commitment on the line in Ukraine. It is a European conflict, of Europe, by Europe, for Europe. It has nothing to do with the U.S.
Will European elites want to keep throwing aid? Almost certainly.
However, those €uros would have to come from France and Germany.
As much they might want to retain their puppet, Not-The-President Biden, it is hard to see Scholz and Macron expending resources on futile efforts to “save” the coup regime in America.
PEACE 😇
Walter Veith, biology professor, seventh day adventist evangelist, and south african farmer covered all this back in 2009. At this rate of progress the grim reaper might catch you before you catch up to now. : )
Will Not-The-President Biden’s administration investigate SVB insider trading by DNC donors?
If they do not — They give an easy issue to TRUMP 2024.
If they do — It makes it much harder for them to raise was money.
PEACE 😇
Huh? How is posting a current update, on current status, anything other than current?
We all know that SJW Muslim Leftoids are the problem that pushed South Africa into opposing Judeo-Christian values and its subsequent collapse.
When will your rate of progress catch up to the myriad problems created by anti-Semitic Jihadists, including your George IslamoSoros? Spare us commentary about your precious Jonathan IslamoBlatt. The Anti-Semitic Defaming League of Muhammad [ADL] is another Muslim hate group. 😉
PEACE 😇
are you sure about that?
German Catholics moving towards schism:
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253846/germany-synodal-way-womens-ordination-transgender-ideology
“Despite violent Zelensky’s invitation, McCarthy has said he will not visit Ukraine.”
McCarthy may visit Ukraine in the form of a camouflaged violent missile.
If they felt that way, at the time, almost seems strange that they did not attempt close the Pacific Route of Soviet-flagged supply ships carrying 50% of Lend Lease to the USSR.
Funny meme, not to nitpick, but weird years.
This is part of the reason why I told AP to review Benedict’s posthumous book:
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2023/01/24/pope-benedict-book-published-244589
I understand it is in Italian. A language which you know well – maybe, you could read the relevant essay.
RETVRN:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_elk
Get a room.
No, we do not want ANY details.
+++
PS: Would Ron tell us if these two were simply alter-egos of the same person?
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37408
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37408/37408-h/37408-h.htm
It’s true. The libs all see Russia, Iran and China as a threat to their own way of life, and they are completely correct to feel that way. I am not saying that this means that us illiberals should support Russia in the conflict (admittedly, my previous position) but everyone should at least be aware of what is at stake here for the libs.
It’s also irrelevant. Supporting Ukraine costs the US 1% a year of its GDP at most. The US public may not care about Ukraine but the entire political class is committed to ensuring that Ukraine does not fall and that’s all that matters. Especially since the US electorate overwhelmingly agrees that what Russia is doing is wrong.
If they have to? Yes. Absolutely. The only thing they won’t do is openly send troops.
This conflict between Tradition and the cyborg theocracy + longhouse has been looming for a while.
One problem for the progressives and champions of the longhouse is that a chunk of the momentum and force behind their causes usually comes from Muslim and other immigrants, who are not going to be as useful on a topic like this. Catholic immigrants, like Christians outside the West in general, are likely to be opposed to them.
In their favour they probably have the support of the secular establishment and the fact that apart from progressive activists who are involved in the Church to subvert it and use it to propagate LGBTQI+ and feminism, the number of active members who aren’t boomers or older is probably limited in size.
Pope Benedict was always a moderate defender of tradition, I think that was the reason for the rage.
Stoddard not the only one.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitler-Only-World-Was-Enough/dp/B07QZY1R8R/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2O5A0H1KCMPS1&keywords=hitler+brendan+simms&qid=1678615004&sprefix=Hitler+Bre%2Caps%2C195&sr=8-2
Stop quoting the NGO puff-up nonsense, a loser is a loser. Kacer’s party has 4% in the polls, he is not going anywhere. The “Atlantic” whatever you quoted is a paid for propaganda for the neo-cons. Just own up to it and join them :)…
Kacer is an appointed place-holder because the government collapsed in January, there is a caretaker gment until the elections. They don’t even have the power to do policy, just to keep the lights on. You trying to understand what goes on in the other countries – with the incredibly deep US-based ignorance – is comical. Like me commenting on Arizona local politics.
The problem is not you, but that this stupidity and naivete has moved up to the gment level, that’s why Washington loses again and again. Trump was trying to fix it with common sense and bluster, but you got rid off him – you didn’t even allow him to govern. My humble suggestion would be that you fix your own country and your own problems first…at least you presumably understand them better.
Thanks for the vindication! I hope that QCIC reads your judicious assesment of my continuing misconceptons – he seems so perturbed.
I know when I’ve been doxed – it’s so humiliating. 🙁
All the Wagner people come from the Russian military, they are the same people.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/saturday-readers-mailbag-extravaganza
The most ridiculous American or Western “conservatives” are the ones who want to “own the libs” by cutting off funding to militant right wing Europeans.
Zelensky’s regime are militant right wing Europeans? lol Azov are just cannon fodder. They will never run Ukraine.
Don’t know about that, maybe that underestimates them. Could become very interesting, if they try to shape policy in a post-war Ukraine, not least regarding the reactions of Western shitlibs who are now the most eager pro-Ukrainians.
But of course there are strong “Westernizing” forces:
Though that person still lauds the recently killed “hero of Ukraine”, who according to some reports was essentially a neo-Nazi. Lots of strange contradictions.
Have you read the book? If so, what was your impression? I haven’t read it, and tbh on the face of it its thesis (Hitler being obsessed primarily with the US) seems exaggerated and implausible to me. Obviously Hitler’s world view can’t be reduced to just anti-Bolshevism, but it minimizing that aspect doesn’t strike me as all that convincing.
Only “Team Hunter/Burisma” is committed.
Carrying a corruption tainted quagmire into the next election cycle is unfavourable for DNC candidates. There are real questions about Democrat party devotion.
It is even more hostile on the GOP side. Speaker McCarthy is not supportive. (1)
Politico is a known for shill for DNC propaganda. The truth is no doubt many times worse than the damage control piece they are trying to spin.
In the U.S. system, Appropriations must start in the House. Senate pressure will keep the number above zero. However, deliberately antagonizing the Speaker of the House was a costly blunder that will have hard dollar impact.
This goes back to the “inch deep” phenomenon I mentioned a number of posts ago.
Asking a free standing question about the 🇵🇸fad🇺🇦 can produce a seemingly high %, but that support is low intensity. As soon as the 🇵🇸fad🇺🇦 is put into a context of alternatives, other spending comes first. And, fads can change suddenly. The Twitterati could easily pivot to something else.
__
America has neither prestige nor commitment on the line. Handing this mess to the European liberals and walking away is a low risk / high reward strategy for U.S. politicians seeking re-election.
PEACE 😇
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(1) https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/12/biden-united-states-ukraine-relationship-cracks-00086654
https://earthlymission.com/mezhyrich-perfectly-preserved-mammoth-bone-dwellings-shelters-ukraine-earliest-examples-architecture/#:~:text=Some%20of%20the%20most%20notable,total%20of%20149%20mammoth%20bones.
It’s not just Zelensky’s regime at war. It is the Ukrainian people – European, traditional, right-wing.
They are fighting against a motley group of post-Sovoks, Stalinists, Chechens, etc.
It’s amazing that the Western liberals are sending all this money to the traditional Europeans instead of their usual favorites. And some American “conservatards” want to end that.
The “conservatards” are being cheered on by guys like our own kremlinstoogeA123. You find nothing questionable by his most recent statement:
No longer my position. I recognize that we are in a (currently non kinetic) war with liberals but the libs are right on the Ukraine war. What needs to be recognized, however, is that they are right for the wrong reasons.
It’s definitely true. Read
and you will be able to understand all of Hitler’s actions
I would even agree that currently there’s no alternative to supporting Ukraine (though that support shouldn’t be unconditional), but what do you mean by that?
No, I was thinking of buying it at Christmas but I also had some doubts about it on plausibility grounds. Reviews tended to reinforce them. I might buy it if it is available more cheaply. There is probably some interesting stuff about Hitler’s views on capitalism, Britain and the US even if the overall argument is not convincing.
It would be interesting if there was something about Hitler’s vision for the world as a whole, the title suggests it might be covered.
Well, yes, I wouldn’t get between them on purpose but, statistically, the odds of being killed by a black bear or a cougar in Utah are negligible. Only one person has been killed by a black bear in the state’s recorded history and zero by a cougar. The mountain next to my house where I go trail-running every week is teeming with deer and in Utah that means that it’s cougar territory. In fact, one male juvenile was captured recently on a nearby farm, where he had been misbehaving with the small farm animals, but if they see me running in their territory, they clearly find me very little appetizing. We are just not their prey and they won’t waste their energy on unsavory humans. West Coast cougars, on the other hand, seem to be more temperamental and they do attack people from time to time. In Utah bison are more deadly. Moose also have a bad reputation but I’ve come across them while hiking and they behaved like placid cows.
Grizzlies are a different thing. Every year you hear about fatalities among hunters and hikers, usually in the Wyoming-Idaho-Montana triangle, although the ones I’ve seen in Yellowstone didn’t look very menacing.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/12/biden-united-states-ukraine-relationship-cracks-00086654
Lol, when one considers it most likely that it was actually the US itself which blew up the Nordstream pipelines (as I do), this is quite hilariously shameless.
I didn’t know I had a choice 🙂 Especially being just a few hours away. Though to get to them I would have to cross the Uintas, a beautiful, wild and very high mountain chain in Northern Utah that I haven’t explored much yet. I haven’t even summited King’s Peak yet, the highest point in my state. I may leave the Winds as a desert after doing King’s Peak.
After your descriptions and pictures I was wondering how difficult it would be to get to those high plateaus in winter, the perfect season for total solitude and a Tibet-like experience. I’m sure it can be done with snowshoes or skins but the approaches are likely avalanche-prone.
One other thing that caught my eye is how high and prominent those mountains in the Winds look. And yet you said that you don’t see much of them until you are in the range itself. I guess there must be long canyons and secondary elevations on the Western, Pinedale side, similar to what happens with the Sierra Nevada. Perhaps the prominence is more visible from the eastern side, where the Winds descend to the Wyoming plains.
I have a ton of pictures of the Wasatch, where I’ve summited all 21 peaks higher than 11,000′, but I have things to do today. Maybe this picture will give a taste of their general flavor, a bit more accessible and human-friendly than the Winds. This was in May:
Liberals see a Ukrainian defeat as the end of Globohomo. A Ukrainian defeat would lead to an illiberal axis of Russia, Iran and China that would have vastly more resources and outside support than Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union ever did. If Ukraine falls, Taiwan is only a matter of time. Illiberal forces within Western societies would be strengthened dramatically. The world would be divided into 2 antagonistic blocs and the liberal dream of Tower of Babel 2.0 would be destroyed forever.
As long as Azov does the Jew King of Kiev’s bidding they are useful.
surely it was Hydrate Slugs though? Amirite?
It’s easy to see why they might want Prigozhin instead of Putin.
Putin is rather short and looks like a bank vice president or an insurance company rep, ie he’s not particularly physically threatening in his appearance. In other words, he’s a hard individual to demonize.
Prigozhin, on the other hand, looks like a clone of Blofeld in You Only Live Twice. With his Wagner group, the possibilities for demonizing him are endless in comparison to Putin. They don’t even have to really try. The script writes itself.
And, if Prigozhin knows what’s good for him, he should most certainly avoid being photographed cuddling a white cat while sitting in an evil looking black easy chair. 😀
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Stavro_Blofeld
Prigozhin also looks a bit like Lex Luthor in Superman II, complete with the prison stripes. 🙂
It was a sad moment, when they had to move into huts made of wood that left no trace. I wanted to ask Bashi about the advanced civilization on the Black Sea coast that was flooded by rising sea levels, but he doesn’t seem to be around.
Am a big fan of bringing the woolly back, however, I am thinking that it might be more politic to make an attempt on another animal first. Problem with woollies is that Asian elephants are considered endangered and so it is difficult to work with them, or for them to be surrogates. Meanwhile, African elephants I think are not considered as closely related, and are difficult to work with because they are so aggressive.
Fallow dear are considered least concern, and might make good surrogates for Irish elk, but I am not sure how much DNA has been recovered. Within Ireland, they were found in bogs that destroy DNA, and, elsewhere, I don’t think that there were any in the permafrost.
Velociraptor
Battle of the Nations
Georgia Russia
https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/35838281/ufc-fight-night-221-key-takeaways-yan-vs-dvalishvili-merab-historic-performance-puts-top-stars-notice-plus-next-vegas-winners
That’s like saying commie forces within Western societies would be strenghtened dramatically, because the world would be divided into 2 antagonistic blocs after 1945. At the very best it would be like commies in Italy after WWII – notable, relatively big, but never in real ruling power.
Prigozhon has a free pass as a Jew, for the moment. Jews call such men Machers.
He has announced he is running for President next year.
There is that old idea to turn chickens into dinos by mutating them into an atavistic form. Probably not that far-fetched given the scale of mass industrial chicken farms – at least if serious resources were put into it.
Of course, personally, I feel that might be messing around with mother nature. Ice Age megafauna is a little different in my book because we probably caused its extinction in most cases.
Thus, the Globalist libs are doing the wrong thing based on bad logic.
Christian Populists grasp that unnecessarily provoking Russia forces them to become more closely linked to problematic nations, including Iran and China. Dropping Ukie Maximalist extremism would help improve relations between Christian Russia and Christian America. Russia does not want to wind up dependant on the CCP.
PEACE 😇
Newest Nordstream theory: The operation was planned and bankrolled by Poroshenko, and the date of the explosions (26th September) was chosen so it would be a sort of birthday present for him.
Morbidly funny in a way.
Of course, blaming Ukraine is virtually as plausible as blaming Nauru. However, I can’t think of any more plausible lies the terrorists could have invented. If you think of the complexity of the task, need of knowledge of exact location of all those pipes, and the amount of explosives that had to be delivered to considerable depths, this could have been done only by a very capable country. If you exclude Russia and China for obvious reasons, only one suspect remains: the US.
Right, for the President of Ukraine. That’s after he reaches La Manche.
Prigozhin did specify, though, that he is running for president of Ukraine. I would not bet my money that whatever remains of Ukraine deserves the president of even that caliber.
Well, at least they did their research and found out when Poroshenko’s birthday was. Nice that there was that coincidence.
If one insists on a sabotage theory, the complexity of the task is well below nation state level.
• Location is public knowledge.
• Amount of explosives would be ~500kg.
• Depth could be reached with recreational dive equipment. Though a modest commercial set-up would be more functional.
• German Greens had blocked NS2 as part of the Traffic Light coalition
If you exclude America, Russia, Germany, China, and other nation states for obvious reasons, only irregular non-state actors remain.
An industrial accident is still the near certain scenario. I have yet to hear anyone (here or elsewhere) explain why an attack:
♦ Covered 50 miles of geography
♦ Took place over 17 hours
♦ Hit only 3 out of 4 pipes
Perhaps the last is explicable by a low competency, non-state actor. The first two are effectively disqualifying.
You can read more about how this is almost certainly an accident here:
https://thelawdogfiles.com/2022/09/nordstream.html
https://thelawdogfiles.com/2022/10/nordstream-ii-electric-instapundit.html
PEACE 😇
Hydrate Slugs!
It looks like Silicon Valley Bank is going to be bailed out. That was inevitable once the bank runs started yesterday.
I think the plan is to keep hiking rates, at least one more 50 bps hike, and keep with the QT. Powell et al probably think that SVB is a one off and that by protecting SVB’s depositors, it will strengthen faith in the banking system so that the Fed can continue to tighten without causing a financial crisis. I think he’s wrong, but I guess we are going to find out.
Treasury is working hard to squash expectations about a broad bailout. (1)
It is hard to see why a bail out is required. SVB has high quality assets with 2-5 maturity.
With minimal effort there should be near total or full 100% coverage of uninsured deposits.
PEACE 😇
__________
(1) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/janet-yellen-silicon-valley-bank-bailout-face-the-nation-interview-today-2023-03-12/
I’ll have Muscovy Duck and she’ll have Chicken KIEV.
Did you know there are videos on the internet of freshly beheaded chickens running around the barnyard like chickens with their heads cut off? I’m still searching for good video of Chinks eating live monkey brains.
It isn’t even marriage, just partnerships. Marriage is banned by the Constitution. Civil partnerships may be possible. Gays are getting some more sympathy in Ukraine not because they appear on cute TV shows as occurred in the West but because they are volunteering to kill and die for the country (there were issues about, for example, being able to visit a wounded partner in the hospital). It’s a radically different path to acceptance. Not sure how it will ultimately play out, but it probably suggests very little increase in sympathy for effeminate drag queen type stuff.
Here’s an interesting Ukrainian poll from this summer.
https://www.kiis.com.ua/?lang=eng&cat=reports&id=1128&t=3&page=1
Respondents were randomly assigned one of two surveys.
One survey asked – should Ukraine be encouraged to spread and strengthen modern western and European values, versus traditional Ukrainian values?
Traditional Ukrainian values won, 78% to 12%.
Traditional Ukrainian values won among all age groups, and all education levels, by about the same margin.
The second survey asked – should Ukraine be encouraged to spread and strengthen modern western and European values, versus traditional (Russian, Belarussian, and Ukrainian) East Slavic values.
Modern/Western values won, 51% to 33%.
Modern/Western values won in Western, Central and Southern Ukraine but not in Eastern Ukraine (though in the latter the victory was 44% to 31% with many undecided). Modern/Western won with all age groups under age 60.
So people in Ukraine will choose traditional Ukrainian values over the Western ones by a wide margin, but not traditional Russian ones.
I don’t think there is a big difference between “traditional Ukrainian values” and “values that are traditional for Eastern Slavs – Russians, Belarussians and Ukrainians” but it strongly suggests that a Russian occupation would not save Ukraine from Westernization but on the contrary, would push Ukrainians towards it.
I didn’t mean to advocate a Russian occupation as being somehow morally good for Ukraine. I don’t have any illusions about Russian society, obviously it’s quite morally rotten in many ways (alcoholism, abortion etc.).
However, I think you’re engaging in a bit of wishful thinking about it merely being about civil partnerships for homos. Ok, one doesn’t want to be heartless, I get that, to some extent I even can sympathize with that view (or at least used to). However, the trajectory of Western societies over the last 20 years imo shows that there actually is a slippery slope. Even ten years ago I thought this trannie stuff was some insane joke that nobody would take seriously…now it’s a government-supported ideology in the US and much of western Europe.
Obviously Ukraine has rather more existential concerns now, but long-term this will be an issue.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that you did.
Some Western “conservatards” were saying that a Russian takeover would “save” Ukrainian from Western liberal values. It would have the opposite effect.
Maybe. but the barrier to legalization is high – it would require a change in the Constitution rather than a simple over 50% legislative action as in the case of civil unions.
The advantage for places like Ukraine is that this extremism can’t sneak up on it because everyone sees the end, it’s already happened in much of the West.
The Russian hypersonics flew a short distance, so didn’t burn out, after air launch at speed. They seem to have evaded the Ukrainian S300 air defence systems. Not yet obviously game changing. In Syria, S300 air defence systems didn’t take down 16 ageing subsonic Tomahawks. They all hit the pharma plant.
On 15th February this year, China decided to restore the Chinese names on its maps of the settlements, teh 64 villages, in Outer Manchuria that Russia seized in 1860 during the Opium Wars. In his inaugral speech Xi mentioned removing the unequal treaties. The only one left was with Russia.
https://asiatimes.com/2023/02/chinas-ironic-reticence-on-land-grab-in-ukraine/
China has been less than supportive of Russia during this conflict.
Abstaining in the UN
Refusing military supplies
Suggesting peace proposals
China has reasons.
-2014 invasion destroyed China’s plans for agriculture in Ukraine and ports in Crimea.
-Current war is a threat to the BRI/Silk Road. Russia & Iran are both sanctioned, so useless.
-The 64 villages.
Would Russia exchange land for security guarantees from China? I doubt it but it has made such an offer to Ukraine.
No, I think you have no choice at this point 🙂
When you have time, please do post your pics! Always a pleasure to see – in fact, I’m considering asking Ron to shut down the political discussions and making this a wilderness exploration board – maybe Unz should have a wilderness blogger lol, yeah that’s what’s missing from this site 🙂
Very interesting question about winter access – it seems highly likely that there are people enjoying this natural wonderland in the winter. To get to the plateaus, the ascents aren’t particularly steep, but trails are often narrow and between huge boulders – trailheads are usually around seven or eight thousand feet, and the plateaus probably eleven to twelve.
I don’t know anything about the technical details of winter hiking in deep snow, but I’ve seen videos of people doing multi-day winter backpacking trips in deep snow in places like Idaho and Utah, so it must be possible.
Be aware though that all trailheads are at the end of at least 20 mile dirt roads – at least on the Western side.
I agree with you that it would be a magnificent Tibet-like wonderland! Winter backpacking is something I must get into – it’s the next logical progression for me.
Ah, the Uintas – a year or two ago on of my trips I was basically ready to do the Uinta High Trail – it’s 100 miles and nearly all of it above treeline, so one giant “plateau”. Its very famous but not so many people do it for some reason. I had all my gear and was ready to go – I was in Moab at the time, but unfortunately just at that time there were forest fires and they shut the trail down (don’t remember if this was summer of 21 or 22)
Kings Peak was actually on my radar this summer 🙂 After leaving the Winds I was in Rock Springs, and it was only three and a half hours away, but I ended up going to my beloved red rock deserts. BTW, Rock Springs is the start of a stunning and wild stretch of scenery south along the 191 along Flaming Gorge – truly magnificent country and not as well known as it should be (the eastern side of the gorge is the one to take).
Good point about the Eastern vs Western side – I always go to Pinedale, and am curious about the Eastern side. Yes, there are valleys and hills between the mountains and the highway that obscure the view – this is what they look like from a wild campsite in the sage-brush desert ten miles out of Pinedale closer to the mountains –
See what I mean – you get no sense of what awaits you.
Now that you mentioned the eastern Sierra and Tibet, I think you’d love the area around Lone Pine – it’s been compared to Tibet, and it’s special and stunning. You can climb Mt Whitney. Here are some pics –
My “room” came with a great view 🙂
Wild Animals
The only cougar I’ve ever seen was near the NCAR at Boulder. I was trail running. I stopped, picked up a stone, chucked and looked threatening. I walked straight at it.. It left. It was a week between two cougar attacks there. Both kept on running after seeing the cougar. It was back in the 1980s. I was probably lucky. In Colorado, cougar attacks are not unknown.
I also used to go off into the wilderness when I found myself in Idaho. My longer walks were from a place called McCall about halfway N-S in the state. I see your remarks about grizzlies. Oh dear, I took no measures. Should I have had a bell? The flies were awful. I never wore shorts after the first time. I did see a bear across the valley from me walking the Arapahoe Trail not far from Boulder. I wasn’t bothered. He didn’t look curious. I was more worried about some ill little critter in the car park that seemed rabid to me.
Wonder if they will put spider legs on Tubman, when she makes her debut on the twenty.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/newark-harriet-tubman-monument-replaces-christopher-columbus-rcna74167
Singh fell fighting while stopping miscreants.
50 to 1
ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ
Hmmm….. Bankers and hand waving…
I previously mentioned that SVB has significant high quality assets. Based on this announcement, SVB receivers will be able to give below market interest securities to the BTFP at face value. Then use that cash to cover 100% of deposits.
If the interest on the *loans* matches the below market rate on the underlying security there is no “default risk”. OK… This will work for SVB as it had high quality assets.
At some level “Psychology = Reality” when it comes to managing market panic. Could this placate the Sheeple even though it relies on something unique to SVB? Signs point to “yes”.
PEACE 😇
I just spent nearly a month in Prague and southern Poland. In secular “liberal” Prague there is very little faggotry and my local pub near the city centre which got a lot of tourist customers (mostly Germans) had a large anti-antifa sticker on the door saying “Good Night Left Side” with a communist on the floor being beaten up. Only Anglo expat establishments and multinational companies had any signs of poz.
Go to “based Catholic” Poland and what does one see? Rainbow/anal sex flag socks and other clothing throughout the shopping malls. Women conspicuously carrying rainbow flag shopping bags in the city centres. Pubs & hipster fast food restaurants with LGBT “we are a safe space” stickers in English. Poland is the next Spain, Quebec, Ireland. I’m all out of sympathy for the Poles. They are so pig-headed about this stuff it is impossible to talk to them.
I’ve only been to Ukraine once so I don’t know much about it but based on my own experience as a native of Ireland listening to locals with their “it won’t happen here” bravado and observing Poland over the last 15 years I think Ukraine will fold quickly in the face of American degeneracy. (Diaspora Ukrainians are probably just as ignorant about every day life in Ukraine as the notoriously ignorant Irish diaspora in the US are about Ireland).
What I’d like to know is why the secular, historically liberal, Czechs seem to have a greater immune system to syphilitic libtardism compared to supposedly more conservative countries. (Maybe I’m wrong and beneath the surface there are turning into Western homos, but right now I don’t see it). Just guessing…this could be a case of familiarity breeding contempt. People raised in conservative Catholic societes focus all their petty pent up hatred and resentment towards the conservative Catholic normies they grew up with to the point where they just, out of spite, throw in their lot with whichever force the media delegates as the opposite of the Catholic Church. Czechs, having no historical experience or even memory of an overbearing conservative Church, focus their resentments elsewhere. Hard to know from an outsider perspective.
May I ask where you were? I was in SE Poland (Rzeszow and a bunch of small cities and villages in that region) in April and didn’t see such things.
But don’t take my word for it:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/28/where-europe-stands-on-gay-marriage-and-civil-unions/
Just 5% of Russians and 9% of Ukrainians, for example, say they favor allowing same-sex marriage, according to surveys conducted in 2015 and 2016. Figures in Poland (32%) and Hungary (27%) are higher, though Poles and Hungarians who support same-sex marriage remain in the minority. The Czech Republic is the only country out of 19 surveyed in Central and Eastern Europe where a majority of adults (65%) support gay marriage.
2021:
https://notesfrompoland.com/2021/05/17/poland-ranked-as-worst-country-in-eu-for-lgbt-people-for-second-year-running/
Poland remains the worst country in the European Union for LGBT people, according to the latest “Rainbow Europe” ranking produced by ILGA-Europe, a Brussels-based NGO that advocates for LGBT rights.
::::::::::::
Several Polish cities had declared themselves to be LGBT-free zones.
I think that what you saw was a minority taking on a protesting role because there is a lot for them to protest. Whereas in Czechia there is much less to protest against.
Has AK put in his review of Wandering Earth 2 yet?
You have a good, easy to understand writing style and you’re developing into a good nature photographer too. Sven Hedin liked to draw pictures to accompany his travelogue prose. I second that proposition to have UNZ include a wilderness exploration blog (really!). Keep in touch and keep sending back more stories about your trips. Happy Trails!
This guy is actually a Catholic priest in Germany:
He didn’t say it, but I will.
Brussels can order a change in the Constitution any time it wants, and the economy depends on what Brussels and DC want. Any investment can be restricted based on ESG scores.
There is no advantage, you are just dense. Perhaps another Poltava will cause the scales to fall from your eyes.
There isn’t a big difference, and that’s exactly what the Culture Industry would use to condemn them. Anyone who advocates social conservatism will simply be tagged a Muscovite, I’ve seen Polish libtards do exactly this, and a similar analogue was done to social conservatives in Ireland.
American lolbertarians often advocate against censorship due to lingering 60s libtardism which promoted free speech absolutism as a tactic. They call it the Streisand effect, or its phrased as “speaking truth to power”.
I don’t think this is borne out in evidence. We’re nearly through a decade of Big Tech speaking power to Truth, and it has done wonders to shut down most of the Right and cause the rest to self censor or ghettoize.
Rather if Truth has the power, it can simply jail its enemies. Which makes them look weak. Don’t take my word for it, the SBU has been doing this since 2014 quite successfully.
Empires are very expensive. Over time too many domestic and foreign parasites both domestic attach themselves to the goodies’ flow. When doubts appear about the long-term future of these flows greed and fear accelerate.
Yellen said it because she knows that she will have to do it again, she is wagging her finger at the petitioners not to come too lightly or early.
The game of managing rising fears is tricky, it makes sense to be among the first. Dumping huge amounts of money into the financial system – money that is not backed by anything tangible – is risky. In the closed controlled system before 2021 it could work indefinitely. But what now? There is a budding alternative that Washington doesn’t control – they are trying to squash it before it becomes viable…but even having to do the squashing undermines the untouchable nature of the fiat money fueling the West…
If Ukraine loses the war all the money created for the project will have to be written off. Not a tragedy by itself, simply sunk costs that will disappear – although a lot of that fiat cash shipped to Kiev will find its way back to the West. The problem is that it cheapens Western money, it creates a precedent for extreme profligacy – if money can be created out of thin air to pay pensions in Ukraine (probably mostly stolen), what is the limit? Why not anything?
As systems mature they reach a point of extreme rigid irresponsibility – something like Louis XVI or the madness of WW1. A devil may care, “we are untouchable” hubris steamrolls over everything. And clowns like Baerbock, Kamala and Zelko appear and people pretend to take them seriously. This is very entertaining…until we hit the wall.
You are trying hard to sell something that just won’t work out the way you advertise.
stfu faggot, Shove that Slug up your fundament.
These missiles do have strategic implications, as you pointed out and proved in the simplest terms.
AK has moved on to becoming a reviewer of Black People.
He was comparing his experiences with “the Blacks” in Warsaw vs Moscow.
I was suggesting he help hang a few in India,
but said his new wignat audience would find it unpalatable.
Brings new meaning to the term “blackpill”.
I had agreed with you, but then the U.S. and Germany divulged that they considered sabotage by a non-state Ukrainian group the most probable hypothesis. I think they wouldn’t push this hypothesis if the accident hypothesis were viable. Newspapers readers, even the most credulous ones, will necessarily suspect the Ukrainian government. Is this a good move for the countries who are supporting Ukraine?
Yeah, Annalena the green-tinted trampoline jumping warrior :)…
Not to give her too much credit, but when Annalena burst on the scene she had that woman-who-stays-for-breakfast quality. Sure, the endless cheery war-making-gender-fluid talk would be annoying, but one figures that most of it is for show…
Now I am not so sure, she could be the real deal – a retarded, conformist, true believer with ambitions. If it goes boom, it is funny that non-entities like her have fronted the idiocy…
Oh, details, details. Well, nothing that cannot be fixed. Out goes Iran, in comes Saudi Arabia. They’re all pals now: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia. It’s even better: the U.S. has kept silent about Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations for decades: how could it justify criticism of Xinjiang when it becomes a Saudi province?
The situation in Ukraine seems different, most of the population is not Catholic and the minority who are are Eastern rite or Greek Catholics. During Soviet rule Ukraine was also subject to a pretty radical anti-clerical regime and rapid secularisation from above. There doesn’t seem to be the same straightforward route to seeing the adoption of Anglo/Northern Euro progressive anti-clerical values as opposition to the establishment. Also given the war the atmosphere in the country should be inhospitable to them at the moment.
Otoh, there is a lot of power and prestige behind progressive values, and they can maybe use NGOs and social media to spread them among the young, even if they don’t reflect local history or experience.
I guess the most effective opposition to progressives will ultimately come out of Northern Europe and the US.
It’s possible they are already pushing things into the old ‘danger zone’ Aristotle identified for democracies, where a descent into demagoguery begins. Politicians start to try to leverage power by promising rights without responsibilities, work less get paid more and so on. Different groups are selected as scapegoats for why these fictitious rights and entitlements are not available. A lot of people dislike the truth because it is challenging so follow the demagogues. You arrive at some form of democratic tyranny, generalised entropy and a breakdown of relations in the polis until a force emerges to reverse it.
To A123,
Maneuvering hypersonic missiles is the topic. These missiles are apparently hard to hit, which sounds plausible since anti-missile weapons seem to use a calculated intercept.
The kinetic energy of the missile mass itself is very high, so a point blank interception isn’t so great.
Both sides worked in this area for years and after 1990 it seems development went dormant in the USA and kept going in pilot light mode in Russia. Russia/USSR always had supersonic cruise missiles in various flavors. Some of these were similar in concept to the USA 1950’s-era Talos anti-aircraft missile.
The bank collapses were supposed to happen in Russia!
They did not divulge anything important:
— Did they explain the timing? No.
— Did they explain the geography? No.
A boat with traces of explosive residue on board is potentially interesting. However, unless they have time/position data, it has no strong tie to the NS events. Even a simple crime might do. Could someone in the construction trades have stolen from their employer? And, the boat was used in the theft?
Governments often lie. It is much better to focus on the physical facts. And, there is still no credible sabotage explanation for the events.
PEACE 😇
Yes. It is an incremental battlefield upgrade that has tactical implications.
Being harder to hit implies that naval forces will stay further back to increase time available to intercept. For ground combat a hypersonic is better, but how much do they cost? $20MM each? If so, the military can buy 10 Tomahawk missiles for that price.
Addition of hypersonic has no strategic impact. As you point out, supersonic dates back to the 50’s. High performance ballistic muscles to the 70’s. Hypersonic is no more than an additional variation on this existing theme.
PEACE 😇
Which is why a Russian destruction of Ukraine would accelerate the process by replacing it with an unpopular form. The anti-Russianism will remain and will be much more open to westernisation.
You mean how USSR failed to kill Ukrainian, Polish, Baltic nationalisms after generations of rule?
Russia is a very low debt country. Also, its authoritarian political structure essentially makes it immune to financial crisis. I never bought the idea that the Russian economy would collapse.
This fuckup by the Fed has to be the biggest own goal in the history of economics. And they still aren’t cutting rates! Our leaders are total morons
Poland would block it. Several EU countries not only ban gay marriage but don’t even have civil unions – Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria.
Constitutions ban gay marriage in Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia (some of these allow civil unions). No one has forced them to change their constitutions.
You don’t know much about Europe, do you?
An excellent discussion, debunking the pro-Kiev regime lies and half-truths uncritically parroted in Western mass media.
D.C Based Podcasters, Activists and writers. Bringing information to the neglected masses of the divinely Melanated Unapologetically.
I am sure this is going to be a precise, measured and well-informed source.
So I just discovered that a Muslim leader of a Pathan tribe in Afghanistan, whose tribe was steeped in revenge killing, was converted by Ghandi to nonviolent resistance.
It’s a remarkable fact that should be better known, especially among Muslims! Perhaps it could help transform the Muslim world from within.
There’s a book about it –
Nonviolent soldier of Islam: Badshah Khan, a man to match his mountains.
It should be remembered that Ghandi was no “limp-wristed” pacifist, but actually advocated the use of violence for a certain type of person. Ghandi said that if one failed to resist oppression out of fear and weakness, it were better to violently resist at least. Nonviolent resistance was recommended as the far more difficult path, which would involve tremendous suffering and self control – whatever ones views on nonviolent resistance, as a mere question of fact, Ghandi is obviously correct here.
For myself, while I admire pacifism I am not quite a pacifist. But I think the world is a better place that some people are pacifists, and it’s an important perspective that can contribute to moderating violence, hatred, and fanaticism, even if it isn’t followed. It’s at least good – very good – to have in the “background” as a moral vision.
The solipsism and sadism of the slave moralist. The man who will passive aggressively use people as objects to perform how peaceful he is. No empathy, just a pretence of it. His grandnieces did not want to be forced to sleep naked next to him.
The facts are that after his wife, Kasturba, died in 1944, Gandhi began the habit of sharing his bed with naked young women: his personal doctor, Sushila Nayar, and his grandnieces Abha and Manu, who were then in their late teens and about 60 years younger than him.
Gandhi hadn’t had a sexual relationship with a woman for 40 years. Nor, in any obvious way and so far as anyone can tell, did he begin one now. His conscious purpose in inviting naked women to share his bed was, paradoxically, to avoid having sex with them. They were there as a temptation: if he wasn’t aroused by their presence, he could be reassured he’d achieved brahmacharya, a Hindu concept of celibate self-control.
Presumably the pressure on Ukraine would be more informal, through Western NGOs and the like (Ukraine could hardly ban them, just look at what’s been happening in Georgia, and how pro-Ukrainians in the West see the failure of the anti-NGO law there as a great victory against Russia). After the war (if there is a real “after”) Ukraine will need a lot of aid for reconstruction, so therefore will be in a somewhat weak position.
One also doesn’t know what sort of ideas Ukrainians returning from abroad will bring back.
But sure, maybe that’s all too pessimistic. It’s hard to tell.
Sure, I was just trying to make sense of their supposed lies, and I can’t. But I can’t make sense of the sabotage advocates’ offered explanations either. I will have defer judgement until something new surfaces.
In fact, Islamic history has many noble figures with an exalted moral vision that can serve as a source of transformation within the Islamic world today. I want to learn more about this whole tradition within Islam.
Another such figure is the 19th century Algerian fighter against the French Abdelkader, who displayed consistent magnanimity and chivalry towards his Christian enemies, limiting the violence he was willing to use and remaining true to an exalted moral vision. He was celebrated for this throughout Europe – there is even a town in Iowa named after him, and was widely considered one of the great men of his time.
Where are such Muslim leaders today?
I don’t know, I don’t really see many signs of that. Sure, Sweden and Denmark have adopted somewhat more restrictive policies on immigration…but apart from that?
I certainly can’t see much effective opposition to progressives in Britain or Germany (do they count as “Northern Europe”?)…in Britian public discourse has become so insane that even the faux anti-wokeism of the present government is decried as equivalent to Nazism. Germany is also becoming ever more dystopian, yet AfD remains solidly stuck in the polls…and frankly, much of the German right is pretty retarded, either boomer cons who don’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation, or hard-right types whose parochial concerns (post-war re-education as the source of all evil etc.) make even me uncomfortable.
Don’t know about the US. Maybe someone like DeSantis could achieve something, but on the other hand, he might just as well be another opportunist who’ll just enact the standard GOP idiocies.
In Aristotle’s theory that would lead to the emergence of a tyrant (or an oligarchy)?
But tbh I’m not sure how far ancient poleis are meaningfully comparable to modern mass democracies…something like the atomized existence of many individuals in the latter wouldn’t have been possible in them (certainly not in the classical age, but probably not even in their Hellenistic “decadence”).
Also hard to see what form exactly a counter-movement could take, the historical forms that came into existence during the 1920s and 1930s obviously are so heavily contaminated they are unlikely to make a comeback. So something new would be needed.
You are a vicious little vixen, are you not 🙂
You always pop up to aggressively oppose any message of selflessness and moral transcendence 🙂
A will to power nihilist always. But I think it’s the impetuous, tempestuous fieriness of youth, ignorance, and inexperience – I was quite the will to power firebrand myself in my younger days, believe it or not. I think one of the reasons that I have a “soft spot” for this site, despite being today so opposed in values and politics, is that I know what it is to have been a fiery right-wing firebrand.
But life is – or ought to be – a continuous process of self-transcendence, as one sheds one’s former skin to achieve ever wider, larger, and vaster perspectives, ever more glorious vistas. As your favorite Nietzsche said, life is a continuous process of self-overcoming.
Unfortunately, many people get “stuck” in a phase. I’m always amazed at people who haven’t significantly developed their views in decades, like Steve Sailer.
But I have a feeling in 20 years time we will.be seeing a very different Laxa 🙂
Water is wet. What else is new?
You are giving Kiev puppets too much credit. All those lies are invented by the puppeteers. They are repeated by Western and Kiev MSM, all of which use the same script (often copy-pasting the instructions they get verbatim).
Closing the barn doors after the horse has run away. Very wise.
It’s still wiser than doubling down on insane policies like importing “unaccompanied minors” from places like Afghanistan, like Germany does.
Below an illustration of the entirely predictable consequences of that kind of policy:
Always writing to me, what advice would be best for you to follow. But you don’t actually need 20 more years to meander around myopically. You could do this now.
I would never advise you to do anything that I didn’t think was good for me too. I definitely have much further to travel on the path of self-transcendence myself – as you can even see in my regrettably “robust” initial response to you 🙂
I concur. The potential core resistance to MENA origin migration are EU skeptic nations — notably Visegrád 4, Austria, and Italy. Greece should join this group, but are hobbled by EU-phile tendencies.
Sweden has discovered the problem too late and may be unrecoverable. Germany is still talking about increasing migration, which is unfathomable.
I keep hoping that DeSantis is not making an anti-MAGA run in 2024. Despite the hype, his #2 position does not look like a winner. (1)
Running in a Trump friendly way and withdrawing from the Primaries fairly early:
• Leaves him ahead of the 2024 field if Trump has to step away for heath reasons.
• Sets him up as MAGA 2028 heir apparent.
• Provides him with a huge bankroll that he can use to help other candidates. Unlike Trump, DeSantis can spend years building up “soft power” for 2028-2036.
After Judas Pence defiled the Constitution in 2020, Trump’s 2nd term VP selection will be a loyalty pick. Thus, not a stepping stone to higher office for people like DeSantis or Abbott.
PEACE 😇
__________
(1) https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-vs-desantis-new-poll-finds-this-one-is-losing-ground-with-republican-voters/ar-AA17ECio
Well, shooting yourself in the foot is wiser than shooting yourself in the head. But isn’t it obvious that not shooting yourself at all would have been infinitely wiser?
The speech of demented Joe turned out to be very powerful. Stock market reacted immediately:
Western alliance bank – stock price lost 75%
First Republic bank – lost 65%
Zoins Bancorp – lost 43%
PacWest – lost 41%
Comerica – lost 33%
Fifth Third bank – lost 20%.
Another speech like that can crash the whole banking sector. Amazing power of democracy!
Sure, but I don’t know what your argument here is. Would you tell someone who’s accidentally stuck his hand into a wood chipper “Hey, why not go the whole way, put your other hand into it too”?
Anyway, I think this discussion is probably a sign that we’re both suffering from procrastination issues…
The DNC is decoupling from Kiev aggression: (1)
The worse Zelensky looks, the easier necessary walk away becomes.
Of course, it may be one group of insiders sniping another group of insiders…
PEACE 😇
________
(1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-ukraine-unity-cracking-apart
You mean that Western Europe is beyond salvage? Maybe it is. At least current RF policy appears to be based on that assumption.
I am not a politician, though. As a tourist, as well as an invited speaker at scientific meetings, I enjoyed France, Germany, Spain, Italy, UK, Switzerland, and Sweden. Even though I boycott Europe for now, go to Asia, Latin America, and Africa instead, I don’t want Europe to be ruined irreversibly.
But I am fully aware that history does not give a hoot about my personal wishes.
Weirdly, here I had in mind various rebellious British feminists. Mary Harrington just published her book ‘Feminism against Progress’, where she defends reactionary feminism and she was saying that she doesn’t think she has been cancelled yet despite some of the content. I’ve been noticing for while that some of the better or deeper criticism of current progressivism comes from women similar to her.
Then I was thinking that a lot of the support for current progressivism seems to come from women, and female academics did a lot to create it, so any counter movement will have to involve winning over female support. I’m not sure where this will lead, or if they will manage to build something politically in time, but it should be at least useful for people in other parts of Europe, to know they have some support in the more progressive countries. They are also interesting in that their criticism is mostly secular and not overtly religious.
This thing with Lineker struck me as so retarded it could be a kind of opportunity, if people continue to make the point that everything is compared to moustache man, as if Suella Braverman and Rishi secretly want to attack Jews or invade Poland and Russia. (The Russia thing would be higher up the progressives’ agenda?)
I guess it would be a kind of oligarchy, but the general idea I had in mind is when disaffected members of the elite use rhetoric to mobilise mobs of rascals with the idea of seizing the existing property of others (I think there is a chapter in the politics where Aristotle raises this as a possibility), rather than increasing productivity or doing something else to expand the resource base.
Afaik there is also the idea in Aristotle that human society flows naturally from human nature and people can’t live and develop without it, in a society that has undergone atomisation due to the spread of individualism this may explain why people try to recreate substitute collective identities via things like identity politics. The article about American Socialism I quoted a while ago mentioned that it is characterised by being simultaneously ultra-individualistic and statist, it sort of reminded me of the regime of rascals.
I suspect it will be, if anything more strongly right wing returns, I’ve tended to think it would be more like Salazar than Mussolini, Franco or Hitler.
During the early stages of the Great Migration, it was customary for newspapers to treat blacks as comedic relief.
There were regular stories about them sneaking into someone’s basement and trying to dig it up to find treasure, and ones about jilted men taking a knife to the new man. Everyone was laughing about it.
Eastern Europe is at that stage now, IMO.
People who rap unironically should be sent to the Zones of Rap: Niger, Nigeria, Haiti, etc.
Also, do the blockquotes help or hinder readability? (enjoyment & legibility)
Anyway, people of all different races stopped to say how much they love Sikh dress.
From black street criminals to working class white dudes.
ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕਾਖਾਲਸਾਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂਜੀਕੀਫਤਿਹ
Thank you for the responses, no discussion on Blacks is complete without your input.
@Coconuts AK commented that women are more likely to be cancelled than men.
@songbird Dating apps just create mono-racial harems.
Easier to date in your own race & share 1 man I guess.
Hatred of blacks is just related to the obesity % among women.
If the only Africans you see are slim thick mulattos.
You will hate blacks, but
I’m not interested in trying to appeal to women or in attempting to create opposition to liberalism under the claim that “liberalism is bad for women”. Liberalism is bad because it exists. It’s axiomatic. Any appeals to specific groups are part of the problem.
And reactionary Feminism is still Feminism. Once a woman uses “the ‘F’ word”, I immediately stop listening.
However all those explanations seem not entirely universal though as they would not fit US Civil war, when there were no any significant racial, linguistic or ethnic differencies between main driving sides of the conflict, probably it would be not much of exaggeration to say blackies themselves were somewhat of a sideshow then?
You don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Certain aspects of feminism (at least of the original version) were sensible. E.g., women are just as human as men, and deserve the same rights. Both sexes have their weaker and stronger points. You might have noticed that male-only crowds (common in Islamic countries) behave like sub-humans, as opposed a lot more civilized behavior of the crowds where both sexes are present.
Naturally, the idea that men and women should be represented equally in all walks of life is no more sensible than the idea that blind people should be proportionally represented among car drivers and airline pilots. Women are better than men in some professions (e.g., as nurses or watch assemblers), men are better than women in others (e.g., plumbers or soldiers).
We are the same species. Both sexes are needed to continue the human race. Men and women are humans together, separately neither are.
From a review of a new translation of Goethe’s West-Eastern Divan –
I don’t consider saying that women should have equal legal rights and that men shouldn’t objectify/dehumanize women as “Feminism”. Feminism starts when you go beyond those two things. Even mild Feminism is completely unacceptable to me.
Like, in Judaism for example, I’m totally opposed to allowing women to pray at the Western Wall or to become Rabbis. And in Synagogue, they need to remain in their separate section in the balcony. Any Jewish women who have a problem with all of that can go find themselves a new religion.
True, but they would be more than counterbalanced by the local heroes of the war, many of whom belong to organizations like Azov.
They tend to admire the West’s lower levels of corruption but not the mass presence of non-Europeans.
So it is actually a process of inoculation.
These kinds of stories are common:
https://rmx.news/article/ukrainian-women-are-refusing-to-live-in-islamic-neighborhoods-in-the-uk-citing-safety-concerns/
“Ukrainian refugees are refusing sponsored accommodation places in diverse British cities because they feel unsafe living in neighborhoods where the residents are primarily Islamic, it has emerged.”
“ The sponsor, who lives in a predominantly Muslim borough of Birmingham, told the Channel 4 News reporter how one woman who stayed with her complained about there being “too many Muslims” in the area.
“We were quite shocked at how difficult she found different cultures. Too many Muslims, too many people with different skin colors,” the sponsor said of a Ukrainian woman who moved into her home along with her young child.”
Another Ukrainian woman, Oksana, said she has moved “from the best area of Kyiv to the worst area of Birmingham,” and admitted she was “very afraid because it was not usual for me.”
The reporter told Oksana “many people would be very offended” that she felt unsafe in the area, to which she replied she had looked up police crime data that reported cases of Islamic terrorism.
The report revealed Oksana, too, has now moved away from Birmingham to a new area.
There have been numerous reports of Ukrainian refugees finding it difficult to acclimatize to more diverse communities across Europe, including in Sweden where some women told local media shortly after arriving that they wished to return home over fears for their safety.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sfusd-middle-school-ukraine-war-teen-refugee-17775257.php
Everything Yana, a 13-year-old Ukrainian refugee, knew about public schools in the United States was what she had seen on television or in the movies, often idyllic settings where teenage conflict and angst ironed itself out by the end.
… It didn’t take Yana long to realize that real life in her eighth-grade classes at Marina Middle School was nothing like the scenes that played out on her screen.
..Yana’s mother and aunt, Mariia Moroz, said the teen would come home from school and describe the chaotic scenes in her classrooms.
“She would tell us, and we were terrified,” Moroz said of the verbal abuse, hallway conflicts and classroom outbursts, adding that they told Yana to avoid eye contact and try to avoid the students acting out.
Within a month at Marina, Yana said, someone stole her cell phone in the cafeteria and then a group of students, who she believed was responsible, threatened her. Yana knew enough English to understand the gist.
“They started yelling and cursing and moving toward her,” her aunt said of the early February encounter. “A counselor came and intervened.”
The next day, Yana stopped going to school. School officials offered her a security action plan to make sure she felt safe. They also investigated the report of theft, officials said, although there was no evidence to identify who took the phone.
“I thought it was going to be better because it’s San Francisco,” she said in Ukrainian, with her aunt translating. “But after two days, I saw everything going on at the school.”
Well, not for the radical abolitionists, who in some ways were disturbingly similar to modern antiracists. But iirc there were also anti-slavery positions which weren’t particularly pro-black, but criticized slavery for destroying a fairly egalitarian society of white citizens for the selfish interests of wealthy planters. There’s that well-known book Albion’s seed, maybe a bit exaggerated, but very interesting, because it emphasizes the deep differences between different regions of colonial America/the early US, the contrast between New England (a “middle class” society of religious non-conformists) and Virginia (aristocratic, Anglican) is very striking. In a sense this feels a bit like a continuation of the English Civil War in the mid-17th century.
Of course there were also other considerations (“geopolitical” ones), if the South had been allowed to secede and control major waterways, it’s difficult to envisage the US as the sort of global power it became in the 20th century.
Anyway, thanks for the comment on Aristotle – what book is that from?
@Coconuts, thanks for your comment too, and same question, what book is your quote from?
In any case, good reminder that I need to read Aristotle’s Politics.
Yes, they are not an exhaustive explanation of conflict, it is more like a reply to revolutionary claims about universal fraternity. You can maybe see the evolution of the idea of philia from Aristotle, via Christendom to post-Christian revolutionary politics, where it becomes a universal political principle rather than a spiritual one.
Sounds very nice. But in reality you get Somalis stabbing people to death in shopping malls. No thanks, really (doesn’t mean one should go full Nazi though).
Well, we agree that those two things are reasonable.
Yes, going beyond that results in totally idiotic and socially destructive things.
Cannot judge that. I am convinced that we do not need any religion to be human. In my book, that applies to men and women equally.
Regrettably have no idea, only remember downloading that pic several years ago from some Twitter thread.
If you look at the examples of cultures flourishing as a result of cross-fertilization, they represent high points of human achievement and not what is going on today. What is going on today is something very different.
The vision elucidated in that quote has not yet been really tried and fully realized – imperfectly, at times, in the past. But it remains for the future to fully realize it.
In that vision, there is no room for childish anti-Whiteness or ethnic resentments of the kind that dominate today. As I said in another comment, the trick to remain oneself – to respect oneself – while being open to the other. But one must be healthy and strong enough for this.
The path out of what is going on today isn’t to respond with ones own ethnic resentment and ethnic exclusivity, but to transcend that kind of thing entirely.
As I said also before, the Right is quite correct that something has gone badly wrong, but their solutions only add to the crisis – and are fundamentally reactive. They aren’t an example of seizing the initiative and creatively developing a new vision, but a mere reaction to perceived attack. Understandable, yes, but a future worth having demands more.
What we need is fresh thinking.
It’s an unattainable utopia. And I’m not sure where it’s supposed to have been realized even imperfectly in the past, pretty much all the historical examples people cite probably don’t stand up to closer scrutiny, usually they involved highly asymmetrical power relations, often also barely veiled forms of ethnic strife and harsh forms of oppression.
I mean, I can understand the universalist impulse to some degree, obviously it’s an attractive vision to move beyond all that strife towards some higher form of civilization. It’s also true that pure tribalism can lead to truly horrifying results, so it needs to be at least somewhat tempered.
But as you admit yourself, the way “global civilization”, “multiculturalism” etc. is practiced today in Western societies is pretty much a lie, it amounts to unilateral disarmament for the native populations, since many immigrants are blatantly and unashamedly ethnocentric and merely use pseudo-universalist arguments as cover for their own group interests or personal resentments (sorry if that sounds too Kevin MacDonald 🙂 But imo it’s pretty obvious).
I don’t know if there is a way out of this through “fresh thinking”, and I can even understand that you’re creeped out by the type of WNs who are prominent on this site, they’re mostly pretty terrible people. Still, I don’t see how citing poor old Goethe (who lived in an almost monoethnic country) or going on about past multicultural glories (usually in highly despotic empires…) is supposed to help…because in the end, the stabby Somalis or the Paki grooming gangs still exist, and they’re not going away just because you wish hard enough for utopia to come.
The point I’m trying make is that Feminism is not about legal equality. It’s an ideology that holds that women should be treated equally to men in every facet of life. I think women’s right to equal treatment begins and ends with the law. I totally reject that society/culture should give women the same privileges and status that it gives to men.
From my POV privileges or elevated status must be earned, not given a priori. Any society that gives privileges to anyone because of his/her gender, nationality, race, religion (or lack thereof) is fundamentally sick. Personal merits and achievements of the individual must be the key. The same achievements should receive the same reward.
I’ve met worthless and worthy individuals of both genders, various nationalities, races, and religions (including atheists and agnostics). In my experience, the fact that the person belongs to any of these groups has zero predictive value.
That’s why I look at current libtard ideology, including militant feminism, with disgust. My ancestors until 1861 in Russia were slaves (indentured peasants). If I use it as an excuse for my personal failings, my friends would consider me a piece of shit. And they would be absolutely right.
I’d agree it’s never been realized very well in the past, only very imperfectly – but I don’t see why we should regard history as over, and it’s impossible to say what is or is not attainable in the fullness of time. Many things would have been thought by our ancestors as unattainable.
That it forms the basic vision of every higher religion and many of history’s greatest men, even many pagan philosophers, and that it was imperfectly realized in the past, can serve as a seed of hope.
Today, we are importing foreign cultures while bashing native cultures – there’s no “intrinsic” reason this need be the case, and indeed the reasons for this are at least somewhat historically contingent – like anti-Whiteness serving as a proxy for anti-modernity among some Whites of a Romantic cast of mind, and a the overwhelming White . This need not last, and is the result of a particular historical process.
This vision rejects neoliberal globalism as much as it rejects ethnic resentment and exclusivity – it is something that transcends both.
And it’s not that many of today’s WN are “odious people”, which is true enough, but not the main point – even a global system of national states that is composed of relatively sane and decent people but who barely engage in cultural and spiritual exchange but instead insist on remaining closed up within their little worlds in a defensive crouch is somehow depressing and not a vision of pan-human flourishing on a high level. And it is not a vision of abolishing national distinctions – without rich individuality, where would be the cultural exchange and cross-fertilization? Abolishing difference in favor of sameness is the other vision we must oppose – that’s technocratic neoliberal globalism, equally condemned. Rather, it is a “fertile chaos”, not a bland uniformity, difference-within-unity.
I do not see why we must be “limited” to current alternatives, or why we can’t live in hope of sm ever expanding and expansive future – if we choose it.
History isn’t over, and there is little point to life if we limit ourselves to defensive crouches within narrow worlds, and don’t reach out for a more expensive vision that allows us to truly thrive 🙂
Katowice & Krakow in the south plus a brief stop in Warsaw. It’s pretty clear what direction the youth of Poland are going in.
My two cents on the Czechs (esp. middle aged) is that they are too cynical, and lacking in moralistic impulses compared to their neighbours, to take any ideology seriously.
It’s this one:
https://archive.org/details/romantismeetrv00mauruoft/page/21/mode/2up
on p.21 bis
It has some anti-German content but that is recurrent with Maurras, the extended attack on Rousseau in the previous pages is quite memorable.
Thanks, very interesting. tbh I had thought it was something more recent given how well it fits current developments (especially the part about fellow citizens who don’t share the “philanthropic rage” being seen as wicked monsters, this is spot on about the “community of values” supposedly now underpinning Western societies and its constant marking of internal enemies). Surprising that something like this could already be written back then.
Here one sees the influence of the Yamnaya:
I think that AK has underestimated horses.
I agree with the point about manouvre being the key issue. The Kinzhals were tested around the time of Putin’s anniversary speeches. The ones thta flew straight were OK. The ones that tried to manouvre disintegrated in mid air. Was that fixed in a few weeks?
Certain sectors are debt sensitive. Grocery retail was prior to 2014. Many chains collapsed then. There is state emergency support for the survivors. Car dealers are feeling the strain. The Chinese models have low profitability and are selling slowly but the dealers still have to pay the Chinese on time.
I haven’t seen any reports on farming. Farming runs on highly seasonal debt. In 2014, Russia was shocked (so too the US I think) to find out how much of that debt was funded by foreign money. Again I suppose that is now covered by the state.
So, thanks to the 2014 dry run, the obvious big leaks have been plugged. I would wonder about consumer microcredit.
Goering said back in the 30’s that state run economies were immune to financial crisis, and he was right. The problem with state run, quasi capitalist economies is that they are inefficient and prone to breakdown in the long run (1980’s Argentina, 2010’s Venezuela). But when state capitalism is implemented by competent races (German, Russians, Chinese, etc.) the systems are remarkably robust. In fact, I would say that the Russian and Chinese economies are more stable than the Western economies are at this time, even though Russia and China will never catch up to the West’s level of economic development.
Pick your poison.
Regarding RF economy it was stable last year in largely thanx to oil&natgas price rise, then all the Western sanctions were tweaked in second half of 2022 in order to adress this. Now they’re getting roughly 60$ for oil and more than 3 times less for gas compared with the peaks, also collapsed EU natgas import volumes, so the final robustness or not would be seen only at the end of this year.
I believe in equity & that equality for women is oppressive.
They obviously have different needs so their father/husband needs right to kill.
At the same time, police need to have 0 right to view women unveiled.
Anon is used to prostitutes & will just start spouting wignat we are civilized bs soon.
Female legal equality is followed by a drop in tfr shortly after; Not Worth it.
Women don’t love men they step on or in front of.
W/e barking up the wrong tree, L8z.
You mean that Amerika has been silent about the made up fake news of the Saudis alleged human rights violations that have been propounded by serial liars Soros, Am. Int. Et. Al. Who lie about everyone and everything that do not support.
1.Abortion
2. Climate change
3. Gay marriage
4. Transgenderism
5. Mail in voting w/o ID
6 ESG
7. DEI
8. Vacine mandates
This is top level delusional.
Now that my local bank has reached out to me, I wonder what would happen if I told them that all their woke signaling makes me nervous. Suppose they would probably just put me on some list and lock my account.
When I was translating Maurras I was also surprised how relevant some of it seemed, given it was mostly written between the 1890s and early 1920s.
My guess it is because a liberal, republican parliamentary regime arrived in France earlier than anywhere else in Europe, and at that time some of the basic premises were still controversial and more open to debate.
One of Maurras’ other findings, that as a result of the activities of finance this sort of regime always ends up operating in the interests of foreigners, seems to be gradually being proved true as well. It is interesting that the book by Mary Harrington I mentioned earlier looks like it fills in some more of the details about how this comes about.
Krakow (and Warsaw) are perhaps the most liberal places in Poland. Young people there may indeed feel rebellious towards the rest of the country and express it.
Of course the young in Poland are much less religious, on average, than their elders. In Poland, only about 23% of young people regularly go to church. This is still 3 times higher than the general populations of the UK (8%), Russia (7%), and a lot higher than Germany (10%), even higher than in Canada (20%).
My teenage nieces and nephews in Poland (not in either Krakow or Warsaw) are very religious; the boys are athletic and popular in their school so high religiosity isn’t a sign of being a weirdo, at least not in their region. I saw packed churches when I visited.
This matches what I have heard from many others, but I’ve not been there.
Could you specify what exactly is delusional and why you think it is?
I second this lady’s idea to create a fatsoville. I feel like there would be tangible benefits to it.
Scientists could study obesity (though they would apparently need to wear fat-suits). Young kids could be sent on a field trips as a warning. Land whales could be sequestered. In some measure, eventually, it might be turned into a segregationist’s dream.
I’m not particularly interested in American history but that is one of my favorite books on history. I’ve lived in a few American regions and the book is very accurate; it’s interesting to trace the development.
The book makes the interesting and correct observation that the British homeland changed a lot since the first settlers came to America, and in a sense the American Revolution was a rebellion of these “backwards” Brits against the new Britain. That is, each region in America had a different type of “backward” British culture. New England retained the culture of 17th century East Anglia. The South – that of early 18th century SW England.* One of the complaints of the colonists was the new British settlers that the Crown was bringing to America, who did not share the old-fashioned values that had developed in each American region. Many of the Tories during the Revolution were these newcomers, who were driven out of America and ended up in Canada.
Despite their extreme differences, the various types of English peoples of “old Britain” would unite against the “new Britain” during the American Revolution.
* These cultures would, of course, continue to develop in their own ways but they would retain their old prototypes.
That book is globo homo propaganda.
With luck we will not have to find out.
I think the most advanced tactical missiles are intended to take out the most advanced SAMs, which they can do with a proper attack. Then the more conventional missiles are used to take out more conventional SAMs. At that point high altitude bombing can take its toll. Hopefully Ukraine will capitulate before this happens.
There’s certainly something magic in the Eastern Sierras but for some reason, the big attractions where everybody goes are on the western side: Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon,… not quite as scenic in my personal view. My favorite place on the eastern side is probably Bishop, a very strategically located town, though Lone Pine, next to Mt Whitney and Death Valley, also has a privileged location. It’s quite remarkable, how vast and solitary this part of California is. It feels like a remote part of the US interior or Canada, depending on which part of the Eastern facade you’re in. I remember once paying $6 dollars a gallon at a gas station in Lee Vining, when the price in Utah was less than $3. I wonder how much it costs now.
Some random pictures of my equally beloved Wasatch range:
Winter blizzard closing in
The White Baldy presiding over one of its glacial lakes
Winter bluebird day
Frozen lake in November
Melt lake under the very exposed ridge of the Lone Peak
If Russia was capable of suppressing the Ukrainian air defenses, they would have done it a long time ago, when Ukraine wasn’t receiving advanced Western models. They failed when all Ukraine had was their version of Soviet era systems. Russia has also failed to take out the electricity grid of its neighboring country after months of trying. They either lack the necessary amount of missiles or the ability to mount a consistent attack, or both. I don’t think hypersonic missiles are designed to target air defenses anyway.
Suppressing air defense systems is only possible in an Iraq or Serbia scale situation.
Eastern Europe will have to worry about dangerous ideological poisons, but that’s not because of the EU. Countries of European ancestry outside the EU are also affected by this, and I am not just referring to Norway or Australia, because this is the case even in countries in South America whose populations are mostly ethnic Europeans.
Same thing with immigration, for example, mass migration from the Third World to the UK has exploded since the UK left the EU. I think people like the idea of having an identifiable enemy so much that they get this fixation against the EU against all the evidence. That’s not to say the EU isn’t full of lunatics, but politics is primarily made in individual countries.
The other thing that people ignore in this absurd debate, and it’s an absurd debate because no sane person would support Russia invading, annexing and physically or culturally destroying Sweden because Russia is supposedly much more conservative than Sweden, so I don’t know why this is a topic in the case of Ukraine, but anyway, one thing to keep in mind is that according to polls young people in Russia were also getting more liberal about gays and other issues, at least until the war, but I don’t think the war will change this in the long run.
We know that on immigration/minorities, Russia has a serious problem, and immigration and naturalizations from Central Asia are exploding right now: https://intellinews.com/number-of-tajiks-seeking-to-get-russian-citizenship-growing-fast-269907/
The way women are treated in SA is a human rights violation, even if it isn’t as bad as rank and file Westoids believes
The Russians didn’t think so during their initial air and stand-off attack on Ukraine. After a while they had to stop flying over Ukraine due to the heavy aircraft losses. Since then the Russian Air Force has only been able to operate from Russian/Belorussian territory or close to the front lines.
I wholly agree with you.
Whilst there were some regional intra-ethnic differences, these were not nearly enough to cause a Civil War. I’m familiar with the Tarriff hypothesis which I don’t think provides an adequate explanation either.
The ‘elephant in the living room’ that no one talks about is the more commercially oriented North, following in the footsteps of the British Empire and in accordance with the tenet of Capitalism to maximize profits, having monetized chattel slavery and it’s trade via the early 19th century introduction of wage slavery, ie specifically the so called ‘cheap labor’/’mass immigration’ system.
In explanation, the systematic theft of the value of the individual’s labor is most efficiently accomplished directly from their pay, their ‘wages’, hence the term wage slavery, as opposed to accomplishing this same theft by the very inefficient physical owning of a person as property, ie ‘chattel,’ and hence the term chattel slavery.
I should note here that when I use the term ‘wage slavery’ I am specifically referencing the so called ‘cheap labor’/’mass immigration’ phenomena, highly visible in Anglosphere countries (in particular the United States) the last two centuries, and not generic wage labor as some who much abuse the term do.
For decades the US North attempted to persuade, cajole, coerce, and in time threaten, the US South in an attempt to have it adopt the North’s wage slavery (ie ‘cheap labor’) system, all to no avail. Sadly, chattel slavery which was much more widespread in the South than it had been in the North, had become entrenched there, and a way of life, a terrible one to be sure.
Finally, after the multiple ‘compromises’ had fallen apart, ‘Bleeding Kansas’, John Brown’s raid, and the election of Lincoln, had all occurred, all hope of political resolution had expired, and the South attempted to peacably secede.
The North wouldn’t have it. Hence the war.
And just how much more efficient was the North’s wage slave system as opposed to the South’s chattel slave system, bearing in mind that firstly both chattel and wage slavery substantially satisfied the historically slavery corrupted Anglo-Saxon elites and hangers on (of both the North and South) economic requirement of not paying their own people the prevailing real time local rates for their labor, accomplished via the importation by diktat of alien chattel or wage slaves which they would often employ in their stead?
In answer, the financial representative of the Lincoln administration in London during 1863, Robert J Walker, taking numerous variables into account, effectively calculated wage slavery to be four times more productive than chattel slavery when he compared the center of chattel slavery in the South (ie South Carolina) with the center of wage slavery in the North (ie Massachusetts).
[Walker was a former US Treasurer, a past Mississippi slave speculator, and in 1858 the governor of ‘Bleeding Kansas’, and hence well versed on the economic issues driving the US Civil War, not to mention quite well suited to represent the financial interests of the United States in London for the obtainment of loans to finance the North’s war effort.]
See comment link below which has a direct link to the 1864 US journal article which featured Walker’s 1863 London economic calculations as part of a ‘Why we fight’ series of articles published for Northern consumption.
https://www.unz.com/lromanoff/americas-buried-history-of-white-slavery/#comment-5848125
The comment link below provides a link to a quote of Eliza Frances Andrews who in 1908 says quite bluntly in words exactly what Walker had said with his 1863 London economic numbers, ie the North’s wage slavery system was more efficient at productivity than the South’s antiquated and inefficient chattel slave system.
Bear in mind, it was these ‘inefficient’ and costly Southern chattel slaves who picked the cotton which fed the Northern cotton mills, greatly adding to the overall cost of production and hence Northern motivation to force (ultimately via the violence of a war) the South to adopt the more efficient wage slavery system.
Andrews says nothing in her book about the ‘Tarriff issue’.
Andrew’s father had been one of the ‘privileged 4000’ who ruled over the US South prior to the Civil War. These consisted of three thousand men, such as her father, who owned a hundred or more chattel slaves, and their one thousand business owning ‘allies’.
https://www.unz.com/lromanoff/americas-buried-history-of-white-slavery/#comment-5848180
Lastly, there are two ‘Making of America’ websites online, operated by two US universities. They have entire 19th century libraries, including journals from the US Civil War era, and have word search functions.
Tellingly, the use of the term ‘cheap labor’ ceased in all US Northern journals during the course of the war, only to magically reappear as soon as the war concluded in 1865.
Can’t believe that they are dropping Audubon’s name. Audubon was a huge figure. One of the great men of America.
https://www.amren.com/news/2023/03/bird-union-drops-audubon-name-to-distance-from-namesakes-racist-past/
Could some of the elite of Haiti be descendants of his father, who had the good sense to leave the place? Or were Audubon’s fractionally black half-siblings massacred? Or sent somewhere else?
Russia cannot overcome vast quantities of MANPADS short of either hand-to-hand combat or massive aerial bombardment of mostly empty country. These MANPADS limit their ability to give low altitude fire support airstrikes which may be why they are firing such a large number of artillery rounds.
I don’t think this prevents Russia from high altitude bombing. I believe the higher performance SAMS which are designed to defend against this have been taken out or will be if the need arises. We have heard that Ukraine places missile sites near civilians which we also know Russia has been trying to avoid killing.
This leaves it to the troops on the ground to get the job done with hand-to-hand combat.
+++
I think you are misinformed if you believe Russia cannot take out the electric grid.
@AaronB and Laxa
One has to admire Gandhi for his unfailing dedication to his personal code of ethics and way of living; but my view is that essentially he was a screwball eccentric. It’s this dualism that I think gives rise to either unbounded admiration or extreme revulsion for him as a character. Personally I hold him in high regard even while acknowledging he was a bit of a nutcase; because I think he was good-intentioned at heart. His nuttiness was channeled in a mostly harmless matter; with the one notable exception mentioned by Laxa of his peculiar practice of brahmacharya.
It always has to be remembered that Gandhi was ultimately successful in achieving his chief political goal: gaining independence without resorting to violence. There’s a good case to be made that his success was in part attributable to British restraint and eventual willingness to depart with its imperial possessions. In a counterfactual scenario where India was ruled by a colonial power more inclined to brutality; Gandhi might have been promptly hanged or left to starve instead of indulged, as he was under a relatively (key word) benign British rule. But then the British took a restrained attitude towards him precisely because of his non-violent approach; they saw him as being preferable to violent rebellious leaders. And in any case luck always plays a role in achieving success; so Gandhi’s case is hardly atypical.
I’m open to Gandhi’s suggestion that satyagraha is an effective means of resistance; but since his belief in non-violence was religious rather than empirical in nature; I find it prudent to examine closely its efficacy using a more rational framework. I think there’s something to be said about satyagraha when your opponent is imbued with a sense of fairness; or at least inclined to respond with reciprocity, as was the case with the British. But the question becomes more difficult when you are facing Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan in the 1930s. Typically Ghandi had urged non-violent resistance against a Japanese invasion in 1942; which strikes me as naïve and wrong-headed.
He also told an interviewer that Jews should commit collective suicide; since it “would have aroused the world and the people of Germany to Hitler’s violence.” But what reason is there to believe that the Nazi leadership or Germans as a whole would’ve been more sympathetic to Jews if they had “committed suicide” (a fanciful notion anyway; since people are not inclined to suicide collectively). I’d think that deliberate genocide would be more conducive to “arousing sympathy”; the latter would rather be dismissed with contempt rather than sympathy. That said; there is a kernel of wisdom in Gandhi’s statement; in that “arousing sympathy” from the rest of the world was the only survival measure available for European Jews during WW2; given their disadvantaged numerical and organizational position vis-a-vis Germans.
On the other hand; I think that satyagraha was basically the correct approach for India at the time; and both Britain and India were fortunate in having a dedicated pacificist leading the movement for independence. Other less principled leaders would almost certainly have fallen to the temptation of resorting to violence. I think satyagraha might also be effective in certain scenarios in today’s world; for example the Palestinians might benefit from a non-violent approach instead of ineffectually firing home-made rockets at Israel; which only serves the purpose of giving Israel a pretext for barrel bombing Gaza; and increasing asabiyah among an otherwise fractured Israeli population.
It’s probably good that Gandhi died shortly after independence; because his “700,000 villages” vision for India was misguided and would’ve set India back for another thousand years. Though I don’t doubt asceticism worked for him personally; the vast majority of people do not attain a state of spiritual exaltation from poverty – far from it. The sight of poor Indian children dying prematurely from tuberculosis is nothing to be admired; and only industrialization could’ve alleviated the evils which come with mass poverty. Characteristically, India had another great man waiting in the wings to take over; and though his socialistic ideology was flawed; it at least set India on the path to industrialization. Admittedly modernity comes with its corresponding evils; but they simply don’t compare with the deprivations of a poor society. Perhaps there was a time when Indians blissfully accepted there impoverished existence; but with modern communication systems; the sight of wealthy and comfortable societies just a few thousand kilometers away would inevitably breed dissatisfaction among the Indian populace.
The Ukies are training their troops outside their borders. Did you notice that?
Yeah they don’t have enough missiles. To take out Ukraine’s electric grid you’d need like 2000 missiles a day for a week. I doubt Russia has fired 500 long range missiles during this entire conflict
Biden then…
Russia would very much like to annex Kazakhstan again. What’s the problem?
Well, not only that, but Russian (and other EE, in full fairness) mating habits have already been problematic for a long time. Regardless of the attitudes towards gays, the TFRs were already low in the 1970s, they were starting to inch below 2 and this is during a time when social attitudes were generally quite strict, when people were expected to marry early, etc. The TFRs went up only by mid 1980s and coincided with an oil boom as well as with prohibition (and one could say an overall optimism in society). So the issues here are much deeper. Outward homophobia, while commendable in a measured manner, will not save the white couples’ prospects (the men will keep spinning plates as long as they can and the women will continue to be extremely hypergamous as long as they can) and outward xenophobia, while equally commendable, will not improve the picture when there are millions of non Slavic migrants.
The issue is with personal responsibility and to some extent the economic structure and the prevalent monitary policies.
The war could potentially change this in Ukraine, the value of masculinity might go up (and with that possibly a more traditional gender outlook, although that is a big speculation). In Russia, too, maybe but probably to a lesser extent since they do not feel the war as acutely on their male demographic.
Kazakhs.
Along with Ron Desantis, a number of other Republican presidential prospects are making sense on Russia-Ukraine, as opposed to the likes of Haley, Christie, Bolton and Pence –
Tweets by TuckerCarlson
This is probably the most intelligent and nuanced position one can take from a conventional secular perspective, and thanks for providing it so articulately, but I think it suffers from several weaknesses, it seems to me, which I shall try to address.
I don’t know a lot about Ghandi and plan to read more – I did read the interesting Orwell essay on him, as I’m sure you have – but from what I do know about him, while he presented some unusual and eccentric features the main reason to see him as a nut is because he’s basically an irruption of a medieval mystic into the 20th century, a strange anachronism, and moreover one who managed to alter the course of history and have a huge political impact, not just someone who rejected modernity and lived in a cave. And not an unsophisticated primitive, but someone who managed to slough off the best modern European education – one might call it indoctrination – and adopt a creed and philosophy that should have been left in the duustbin of history long ago.
From our perspective, that’s remarkable – indeed, shouldn’t even be possible. Those times should be well and truly gone. It’s an affront. But even today large parts of India have a distinctly medieval flavor, and twenty years ago on my first trip that was even more pronounced. Women wear gorgeously colored saris and carry water jugs on their heads, sadhus and holy men wander the mountains and streets, cows and monkeys live freely together with humans (and it’s often unclear which is the dominant species), and shrines and temples to the Gods abound. One imagines in the early 20th century, this medieval religious flavor was quite prevalent.
But Ghandi’s philosophy is not unusual if compared to the Sermon on the Mount or Thomas a Kempis or Francis of Assisi, or Santideva, or traditional Hindu notions of ahimsa, or certain Muslim Sufi saints, etc, etc.
It’s often been said that Ghandi’s tactics would not have worked against a regime like the Nazis, but it seems to me that’s open to question, and it might be useful to engage in a little thought experiment.
By the standards of today the early 20th century Brits were appallingly racist and brutal – see the quote in my original comment about the brutal techniques employed by the British – and one can easily imagine that had Ghandi not existed when he did, but arose today against one of the American occupations or the Israelis and succeeded (as I think he would), we would be treated to the same argument – well, it never would have worked against an empire as brutal and racist as the early 20th century British.
The point is, it’s just not clear where to draw the line, and it seems highly relative – let us remember, too, how Churchill was willing to gas the Ethiopians, cause devastating famine in India, and firebomb German cities, etc, etc.
That’s not to deny that the Nazis were worse than the early 20th century Brits, but it’s hard to know precisely when a community has become so morally corrupted as to be utterly impervious to extremely powerful and self-sacrificing moral gestures – or, indeed, to Love. Historical data is insufficient, and I don’t think the question can be decided on secular grounds, and it seems the spiritual approach which suggests almost no humans are beyond moral appeal is at least reasonable, and a community of people dedicated to a spiritual ideal might reasonably put it to the test against even the most extreme evil (and be prepared to take the consequences).
But we just don’t know. Let’s remember, too, the early Christians remarkable success against the pagan Romans, a very unsentimental empire by any measure.
Second, the question is also significant from the point of view of how refusing to engage in violence affects those practicing it themselves – whether death is worth the spiritual gain – as well as the rest of the world and future generations. It may indeed leave a hugely positive mark on history even if it doesn’t immediately succeed in the narrow sense.
Perhaps the Nazis would have simply slaughtered them, but, after winning, future generations of Germans would have found in this a turning point towards morality and the spiritual life, thus neutralizing the Nazi vision in the long run – potentially turning a Nazi victory into a Pyrrhic one.
So zooming out and taking a really wider view of the situation reveals a more complicated situation on several levels, I think.
As for Ghandi and modernity, his vision was one of a peasant population living a simple life close to the land and largely sustaining itself. While I’d call this an undeveloped society, it’s hard to see why this would lead to starving malnourished kids.
We briefly touched on the issue of modernity before, you and I, so it’s unlikely we’ll see eye to eye on this, but Ghandi’s vision seems intrinsically more beautiful and satisfying than industrialized society. Indeed, anyone who has been to modern India and seen the devastation industrialization has wrought on the environment and the urban landscape, and the degradation and filth it has inflicted on a population that has increased far beyond it’s natural bounds, might conclude that the poverty one sees in modern India is the gift of modernity, and not the traditional rural economy.
But as I said, I know you’re an advocate for modernity, and we won’t agree on this. I do think humanity will eventually grow bored with developing the external world and turn to more exciting adventures of the spirit, opening up vaster and more interesting horizons, as I mentioned before to Laxa – but we’re not there yet, and still on the level of the clever ape. So be it.
Those are very lovely pictures, Mikel, thank you 🙂 I also quite enjoyed the variety – snow, green fields, summer, winter. The Wasatch truly look remarkable.
So you do know about the Eastern Sierra’s – I wasn’t sure if you had mentioned that you’d been there or not. I agree Bishop is a nice town and the surrounding area magnificent. I camped once in the White Mountains with amazing views of the Sierra.
I think Americans have an obsession with forests and greenery – I’m not sure why. I have countless friends who tell me they find the desert very off-putting, and on a map, any given scenic area will most often be forested.
I notice Europeans are far more appreciative of the desert. It’s something about the American psyche. That being said, lots of Americans love arid landscapes as much as we do! (And Beckow seems to hate the desert lol).
This summer, gas in Cali was around $6.50!
Thanks for the pics, and I hope to have some fresh ones this spring/summer 🙂
There was in fact a lot of violence in India. The British had to kill Hindus and Muslims up to the very end.Then the savages genocide each other.
They all appear to be flocking to Moscow. Which I am reliably informed by Johnson is becoming a Kazakh city.
Hang on in there then…Is there a Communist Party waiting in the wings? Or Yeltsin like shock therapy?
Wtf are you expecting is going to happen? The Russians will just pillage everything on their borderlands.
– Ghandi
I have noticed there is at least some truth to this in my life. Whenever I have had some small ability to influence anyone, it’s never been through brilliant argumentation, or mockery, or aggressive logic, or truculence of any kind, but only if I reduced my own ego – although I’ve never wanted to reduce it to zero lol, nor would I be able to.
(And this should be a lesson to our own fiery and tempestuous young Laxa).
As I mentioned to songbird, the only thing that stands a chance of working long term is genuine moral conviction, based on a genuine moral high ground of some kind of other (and one must see to it that it is a genuine moral high ground). That alone persuades, “force” never works, “fraud” never works, in the long run, and perhaps not even the short run.
It also nicely illustrates the paradox at the heart of all spiritual matters, that it is by giving up that we gain, or that by not trying we accomplish – what has been called the law of reversed effort, which seems to apply to moral and human affairs in so many cases.
Yeah I know some Russians who live in Moscow metro. The same thing that’s happening to whites in the West is happening to the ethnic Russians in Russia. The difference is that the immigrants to Russia mostly assimilate. The woman who is in charge of RT is actually an immigrant from Armenia. Stalin was an immigrant from Georgia.
In case you haven’t noticed, let me inform, that RF has been intensively pillaging the borderlands for a whole year already;)
The pillaging will intensify.
Schroedingers Muscovy.
A lot of the current pillaging is the result of tweaking sanctions stemming back to 2014.
Those two examples are products from millennia old Christian cultures, but dominating majority of new immigrant arrivals are Muslims, so such assimilation is not repeating.
btw, there is already some begining strife because of the plans to build new mosque in Moscow for that arriving mass.
The bank would get shut down or sued by the government if they didn’t do the woke carp, this was even mentioned in Better Call Saul with Mesa Verde and their need to comply to civil rights law to expand. Shame the Hanania piece on civil rights law creating woke hasn’t had more impact.
The Russians clearly have no interest in destroying the electricity system, creating problems is sufficient to destabilise logistics and hamper the economy.
Again the need to claim goals the Russians aren’t seeking in order to claim they are failing.
The ‘Conservatives’ deliberately dismantled what few immigration controls we had after Brexit, to spite it in many ways. This has happened in other countries too though, there is clearly a conscious effort to ramp up immigration in many Western countries, I would guess fears generated by Trump’s success as well as an understanding the Western economic system is collapsing and they fear a backlash.
You need to change the elite, but at least with having left the EU this is now plausible. It is noteworthy the ‘Conservatives’ are now forecast to be reduced to a few dozen seats at the next election, however we need something else to replace them.
The MANPADS mean that Russian artillery spotting is compromised. So Russia uses a lot more artillery than necessary to hit a target. They get the drones too. This is certainly what Girkin thinks. The results are evident. 10-15 shell craters in a field and not one has hit the roadway. Of course, some of this is due to how Russian artillery is organized in the first place. Hub and spoke with mass area bombardment following instructions from a senior officer about the days targets. Substitutes volume for accuracy.
That’s where the trainers and training facilities are. Russia is doing the same in Belarus.
The Central Asian men coming into Russia will replace the Russian men killed on the battlefields. This could mitigate demographic decline, while resulting in the Russian people will becoming more Asian-mixed. An appropriate solution for a Eurasian nation.
Ukraine in contrast will see a dramatic population decline, but will stay European.
The list is quite sad:
Cameron — Only put BREXIT to the vote because he thought it would lose
May — Bland & establishment
BoJo — Mayor of Multicultural London
Truss — Blinked & missed her
Sunak — Very establishment
They could have pushed for Suella Braverman and migration restrictions including the “Remain in Africa” program. Instead they chose to play nice with the EU despite years of perfidy on a fair Brexit.
The UK needs a citizen/worker MEGA party. Can the Conservatives can transform like the GOP? Or, will they need to be replaced?
PEACE 😇
Russia’s famous three warriors (bogatyri) are meant to represent Moscow’s law enforcement agencies
“Moscow city authorities have begun using comics with characters from Russian fairytales to explain to migrants how they should behave. They say a 100-page guide is needed to “maintain a positive image” of the city and could help reduce “tensions” between Muscovites and migrants. But critics have suggested that foreign migrants and ethnic Russians may be viewed as antagonists in the manual. Russian nationalists and migrants have repeatedly clashed in Moscow recently. Thousands of people – many of them from ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia and the Caucasus, and Russia’s North Caucasus – arrive in Moscow every year, attracted by the capital’s job opportunities and relatively high salaries. A significant number of them work in the Russian capital illegally.”
All can bow to the great white Finn. 🙁
Plunging Kiev and Lviv into winter darkness and cold would generate a great deal of propaganda for the Fake Stream Media. Generating sympathy for the Kiev regime would run counter to their strategy.
Remember, 3/4+ of Kiev funding is from the Europe’s Trans-Atlantic puppet. The U.S. midterm results will cut that flow dramatically if things stay status quo with the pre-election conditions. There is an obvious Putin strategy in waiting rather than pushing.
Much has been made of the lack of major Russian offensive. The ground never froze, thus making such an operation much more costly & difficult. Russian strategy is better served by conserving those resources.
Time Is On Putin’s Side.
PEACE 😇
I understand that was the argument for British nationalists, but nationalists on the continent who were Brexit skeptics predicted that none of this would ever happen, that the problem with immigration to the UK, as in other Western European countries, has always been a problem of national politics, and that if anything, leaving the EU would result in fewer European immigrants and more non-European immigrants. The skeptics have been proven right.
The fact is, if your country just wants to ignore the EU, or one of those international treaties that have been interpreted to guarantee endless migration, your country can do that. The EU, the UN, or whatever piece of paper someone signed is not going to send an army to force the UK, France, Germany or any other country to keep their borders open. The problem is obviously the lack of political will. The problem is The Camp of the Saints’ level of demoralisation, lack of self-confidence and xenophilia on the part of European elites primarily.
The media acts as a moral hysteria machine enforcing porous/open borders as an imperative in a political elite that if is not enthusiastically agreeing with this lunacy, then it is at least too cowardly to go against the media and do things that might look bad to someone, and they prefer to just maintain the status quo. Note however, how Denmark was able, with only half of a decent political will, to greatly alleviate the immigration problem.
I don’t think the traditional gender outlook is the issue here. Almost every urbanized country with medium to high incomes in the world has a fertility rate below replacement rate. The only exception that comes to mind is Israel. This is true for Asian countries, including China. This is true in Catholic Europe. In fact, countries like Denmark have higher fertility than developed Asia and Catholic Europe.
In the case of Russia, the vast majority of women have a child, but they stop at just one or maybe two. The lack of more large families is a difficult problem that no one has figured out how to fix, apart from having what Israel has, which is a mix of existential ethnic competition and highly religious groups.
About war, funnily enough, I think there is a pattern of war having the effect of increasing the status of women, at least in European countries. Why? Perhaps because war efforts bring people together and lessen previous social differences. In any case, it will be interesting to see if Ukraine experiences a baby boom after the war. If they don’t experience that, then they’re going to have a serious demographic deficit.
Don’t forget that Putler has many formidable allies in his “defensive war” against Ukraine. Let me guess that the one towards the end of the parade, the one in the purple beret, is no other than you, kremlinstoogeA123. 🙂
All the stooges march in lock step, including the real Christian (Kiril) at the front of the line, according to kremlinstoogeA123.
They were certainly more assimilable, and importantly, in numbers small enough not to significantly change the genetic makeup of the majority of the population in Russia, but also, Armenians probably had a high IQ, before they experienced high levels of brain drain at least, while Central Asians seem to be extremely dull.
One thing to concede to Putin though, is that his idea of absorbing Ukraine and Belarus is consistent with Human Biodiversity. Ukrainians and Belarusians are genetically similar to Russians, or similar enough that one might not consider them aliens, they are similar enough in culture, and they have high human capital, at least as high as Russians probably. So the plan made perfect sense on paper, because if you want to increase your population, doing so with high human capital populations with similar genetics and cultures is the right way to go.
On the other hand, Putin doesn’t seem concerned about closing the border with Central Asia, and because the plan to absorb Ukraine failed, now Russia is in danger of running out of the Slavs it wanted to absorb, but gaining all of Central Asia and who knows, maybe even other Third World peoples in the future, now that Putin has changed his foreign policy to appeal to the Third World even more.
Most serious pundits that follow this war point out that if Putler doesn’t win this war, or at the very least have more to show than what he has so far accomplished, he’ll most likely be removed from office. Authoritarian types (dictators) don’t have a strong track record of remaining in office on the heels of disastrous losses, so it doesn’t look like Putler will hang around long enough to enjoy the “fruits” of his labor in Ukraine.
No, SAMs do, as we saw at the beginning of the war, when Russia lost many aircraft. Now Ukraine is receiving more and better AA systems so, if anything, a second wave of air attacks would be more difficult. None of this is controversial even in pro-Russian circles. Everybody agrees that Russia is massively handicapped by its inability to use its air force for aerial bombardments, which makes them use very expensive and inefficient missile strikes. Kalibr missiles have proven incapable of destroying reinforced concrete targets, such as the bridge near Odessa, and Kinzhals are too scarce, expensive and maybe unreliable too, being a new technology.
So what has Russia been trying to do with its missile attacks against power plants and transformers? The Ukies don’t seem to have any problems moving their troops around and Western weapons appear on the fronts shortly after they’re delivered. Apparently, a couple of weeks ago Ukraine was again producing excess electricity and even passenger trains have been circulating all the time, with just some delays after the strikes. If the objective was to disrupt military transport, it’s been a total fail. You don’t disrupt anything by bombing some plants and transformers and then giving your enemy one month to repair everything until the next attack.
The first two points are myths or at least very selective interpretations of the historical record (when did Churchill supposedly gas Ethiopians btw? You’re confusing him with fascist Italy here. Britain did use air power in possibly dubious ways in the empire during the 1920s and 1930s, but unlike Italy and Spain they never used poison gas in colonial wars as far as I know).
For most of the time the persecution of Christians in the Roman empire was local, intermittent and somewhat disorganized. Starting with the emperor Gallienus in the 260s there even was a 40-year period when there wasn’t any persecution. Diocletian’s persecution (named the Great one for a reason) was really the only centrally organized attempt at suppressing Christianity. But by then it was arguably too late, and it’s also not clear how stringently it was enforced in the Western provinces.
If the Nazis had won, what makes you think the issue would even have been discussed? As it was, lots of Germans knew about parts of the Holocaust or were complicit in it, but the project in its entirety was a state secret, as Himmler said a glorious page of history never to be written down.
A hypothetical mass suicide of Jews (which presumably would have happened mostly in the ghettoes in Poland or other parts of occupied Eastern Europe) would just have been forgotten about.
In the entire NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, they only managed to degrade the Serbian air defence by 50%. This, of course, is partly due to the fact that Serbia operated their AD the same way the Ukrainians do now, in ‘cold’ mode, keeping radars off for a majority of the time, and turning them on only if forward observers have already gotten wind of an impending air attack. Newsweek estimated the Serbs lost fourteen tanks, eighteen APCs and twenty artillery pieces.
You should look up the Dragon’s Jaw Bridge in North Vietnam. Noteworthy that in the Vietnam War the US lost over ten thousand planes, helicopters and UAVs. How many HIMARs attacks were launched on the Antonovsky bridge? This isn’t Hollywood, bridges have to be blown professionally.
The Ukrainian air force no longer exists, they shoot down few missiles, the Russian shoot down almost all, Russian has sustained high level attacks on the Ukraine since the start of the war, the missiles didn’t run out months ago.
It was a choice of the government to increase third world immigration, they had no need or requirement to do so, it was a stitch up by the establishment. I expect immigration would have increased anyway, as it has elsewhere across Europe.
I think I’m confusing Ethiopia with Iraq, which is Mesopotamia (Ethiopia is Abyssinia – who can remember the differences among these damn foreigners 🙂 ) Churchill did authorize the use of chemical weapons against the revolt in Iraq, but none were available because they had been already used against Bolshevik positions (to little effect).
The Romans persecuted the Christians, who responded with non-violent resistance and martyrdom. It’s easy in hindsight to say that since these persecutions failed, they weren’t really very strong, or that it was “too late”. But another explanation might be that the behavior of the Christians was so morally impressive that it generated immense sympathy in the general population – and one imagines, along some of the persecutors – and that was a key factor in the spread of the religion.
It’s hard to answer this question definitively, but it’s at least an item of evidence that should be included in the ledger and reflected upon. Either way, nonviolent resistance against an unsentimental pagan empire with a reputation for brutality did not prove a disastrous failure.
As for the Jews, pre-Holocaust German persecution was widely publicized and word of massacres definitely got out as the war continued. A concerted, public campaign of loving non-resistance on the part of Jews, publicly proclaimed by Jewish leaders in and out of Germany, would have had some moral effect. Probably would have been better than what happened, which was death without even the grace and dignity of moral sacrifice.
I’m not necessarily advocating pacifism, and it’s probably too difficult for most people, myself included. I’m just happy some people are capable of it, and I think it provides a noble “moral horizon” that colors the entire moral landscape and ameliorates hate and fanaticism even among those who chose to fight back (as I likely would).
It’s precise effectiveness in each situation is a question that can be debatable – but that it is a remarkable moral action and has an interesting history that did not reliably produce disaster for those who practiced, but, like the early Christians, even inaugurated a period of undreamed of success, is something worth reflecting upon.
I thought Georgians were highly prone to criminality as depicted in this scene from Red Heat:
As to Armenians: I recently saw a tweet that gave me pause for consideration. An Armenian fellow, prob living in UK, and not woke. And he was talking about that woke Harry Potter game that A123 bought and the skin tones in it. It might have been a patch someone had made to make some characters not black, but some people still didn’t like it, and he said something like, “This is skin tone done right. No unnatural, sickly-looking people who can’t handle UV.” And, of course, there are a lot of red-haired people in the UK, and they have very pale skin.
Russia is making it so that people from Haiti, Zambia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, etc. can go to Russia without a visa:
https://visaguide.world/news/russia/russia-to-waive-visas-with-some-gulf-latin-countries/
The stereotype in Russia regarding ethic criminality is that Armenians engage in white collar, corruption type crimes, Azeris engage in extortion of street markets, Georgians are responsible for nonviolent auto theft rings, while Chechens are violent gangsters.
Seems doubtful to me the British used poison gas against “Bolshevik positions”, have never heard about that.
It’s possible that Churchill advocated the use of poison gas, I would have to check the context (have also seen claims the quote you cite is misleading or might refer to tear gas, but I don’t know, that could also be just an apologetic counter-claim). But even if so, it didn’t become actual policy.
Maybe. But in the end Christianity triumphed, because Constantine was won over to it and provided it with state patronage…and then the Christians moved rather seamlessly into becoming persecutors themselves, not so different from the pagan empire. So this is far from a simple story about the triumph of pacifism.
In a way you’re getting close to Ernst Nolte’s (imo rather excessive) claim that Chaim Weizmann had declared war on Nazi Germany on behalf of world Jewry (which only increased the paranoid Nazi belief of being in an existential struggle)…who knows if a “campaign of loving non-resistance” would have had a different effect. Personally I doubt it.
Anyway, I’m not even entirely unsympathetic to your views, maybe they do have a certain worth as a counter-culture in this increasingly militant age.
Did Christianity spread because Constantine adopted it, or did Constantine adopt it because he wanted to align himself with a “winning horse” that was sweeping through the population?
There is always the question if leaders shape public opinion, or position themselves at its leading edge and derive their legitimacy from it – technocrats like Karlin, with infinite contempt for the peasants, and infinite confidence in technique, believe leaders have infinite power to shape an essentially plastic and pliant populace.
I am quite convinced of the opposite.
No, I definitely don’t think Jews “declared war” on Germany, which is absurd. Till rather late they were hopeful it was all just a bad nightmare that would soon vanish as such things can’t happen in modern civilization.
However imagine if the Jewish leadership across the world had issued something like a Buddhist-like statement – ” we refuse to hate the Germans or bear them ill will, and insist on seeing them only with love. We understand they are acting out of spiritual delusion and are hurting themselves as much as others, and have nothing but infinite compassion for the German people. We pray for them to be delivered from this spiritual darkness. While we will do everything to help and rescue our people, we will do so with love and compassion for the German people, and the hope and expectation of a future amity and coexistence “.
Not quite non-violence, but imagine the moral impact of such a statement – even among the Germans themselves. Sure, some of the Nazi leadership would see it as a cynical Jewish ploy, no doubt, not I think it would have a dramatic impact.
.
That’s broadly true, but it was hardly seamless – in the early centuries, pacifism was very mainstream and authoritative in the Christian community. It was thought one could not be a Christian and a soldier, and then it was thought if a Christian was a soldier he would have to afterwards engage in penance and expiation, and then the Chivalric model evolved that attempted to restrain and sublimate the violent impulse, and finally the “Church militant” ideal, the final evaporation of the Christian vision, came into being.
And yes, Christians eventually began persecuting their own opponents, but every religion eventually gets corrupted and decays, which is why religion must be continually renewed – we need a new Axial Age. Christianity original sin was to ally with empire and politics.
But during this whole process, some genuine residue of good and Christian philosophy and moral vision was imparted to the populations of Europe, do it was not all a loss.
That’s a question that’s really hard to answer given the limitations of the sources. There are estimates that in the early 4th century Christians were maybe 10% of the empire’s population, but in the end that’s just a guess, nobody really knows. And of course there were regional differences. In regions like Asia Minor Christians were certainly a pretty significant presence. But much less so in the western provinces, where Constantine’s original basis of power was (e.g. the senatorial aristocracy in Rome and Italy was undoubtedly overwhelmingly pagan, and the same was in all probability true for the army throughout the empire).
Personally I think Constantine experienced a genuine religious conversion. That wasn’t entirely accidental, some kind of religious change was probably in the air (see Aurelian’s cult of the Sun god, and even a religious traditionalist like Diocletian was somewhat innovative insofar as he claimed a personal relationship with Jupiter), but also not inevitable. imo without it history might have been very different.
True enough, but as anti-Christian pagans like Celsus pointed out, if the entire empire adopted such a stance, the empire would have been overrun by its external foes, even earlier than it was in reality.
Such views can only be held consistently by a sect without access to any political power, they are no basis for running a state.
Judaea declared war on Germany.
I’d agree that genuine Christianity cannot be the basis for running a state. It’s only consistent with a kind of anarchist pacifism, as many Christian writers have pointed out. Which is why Christians made a grave mistake allying with political power – precisely one of the very things Jesus came to abolish – and thus ultimately culminated in modern nihilism and the death of Christianity as a viable spiritual path for many people (although it may be reborn in it’s authentic form now that it is no longer the state cult).
Christians should have remained resolutely outside the embrace of imperial politics and institutions, and born witness to a higher vision that was timeless and eternal.
It’s also worth contemplating the likelihood of any invaders being ultimately assimilated into the higher spiritual culture they were invading, as the Mongols did in China.
I’d also agree that Constantine’s conversion was probably genuine, but the religious atmosphere of the time was conducive to that, as you say. Even Julian the Apostate promoted a form of neoplatonic paganism that was already at that point remarkably similar to Christianity. Clearly, the entire religious atmosphere of the time was converging on something that ultimately reached it’s highest form in the synthesis of Christianity.
Even if Christianity per se was not so widespread yet in the West, the religious trends were moving towards that type of spirituality, and Christianity was likely the best developed version of it, synthesizing all the best elements of the regions maturing spiritual culture (including Judaism).
But of course who can really say definitively.
I think that you guys are arguing while ignoring dramatically different assumptions you both made. Let me explain.
Western people expect something like American “shock and awe”: you wipe out everything indiscriminately, murdering countless civilians in the process, because you do not give a hoot about the lives of aborigines (mass murder is called “collateral damage”). This yields quick military success (“mission accomplished”), as well as lasting hatred of the locals. The latter eventually turns this success into a strategic defeat (think Iraq and Afghanistan).
Russian tactic in Ukraine (and in Syria, for that matter) is to minimize civilian casualties, i.e., target only select sites with minimal presence of non-combatants. This is totally foreign for the US and other Western military planners, as this means that for the sake of saving opponent’s civilians you sacrifice a lot more of your own troops. This tactic would never look right to the Western people on the imperial patch, whereas the people in the remaining 6/7th of the world clearly understand and highly appreciate it.
He is so old that it really doesn’t matter.
He’s had a twenty year innings. The span of time speaks for itself, the rest is just chatter from propagandists.
If so, imagine what impressive nobility and greatness of soul the Germans would have displayed had they said – “we refuse to hate the Jews or bear them ill will, and insist on seeing them only with love. We understand they are acting out of spiritual delusion and are hurting themselves as much as others, and have nothing but infinite compassion for the Jewish people. We pray for them to be delivered from this spiritual darkness. While we will do everything to help and rescue our people, we will do so with love and compassion for the Jewish people, and the hope and expectation of a future amity and coexistence “.
Imagine!
After they had killed millions of Chinese and erected many skull pyramids…
Anyway, I’ve discussed those issues with you and other commenters before. I can see the attraction of the views laid out in your comments, but from my pov they amount to an essentially doomed attempt to escape from the world as it actually is (much as one may regret that).
So is bringing down an American reconnaissance drone flying over international waters by a Russian airplane an act of war? How is the US likely to react?
This war cannot end soon enough, for all sorts of reasons.
People in Ukraine don’t appreciate it though, including many Russophones who before the war weren’t anti-Russia. Ultimately that should matter more than what people in places like Mali or Bangladesh think (whose views on the conflict are mostly just rooted in general anti-Western resentments, justified or not, they don’t care much about Ukrainian issues on their own).
We have no way of knowing that. As Ukrainian SBU is at least as ruthless as Gestapo, people in Ukraine won’t openly express any opinions that differ from the official Kiev regime line.
I guess you don’t go to war for a downed drone but I would expect Kiev to start its usual pro-WWIII rhetoric in the hopes of convincing the hawks in DC.
LOL, the areas that Russia has captured have become largely uninhabitable wastelands. As Bakhmut is becoming.
UN has verified 8,200 civilian deaths so far, but admits the real number is far higher (UN isn’t counting the dead in Mariupol). And Russia has barely gone into Ukraine.
The invasion of Iraq that culminated in the conquest of the entire country resulted in 7,300 documented civilian deaths in 2003 in March-April 2003.*
The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia resulted in up to 500 civilian deaths (per HRW) or up to 2,000 civilian deaths (per Yugoslav government)
Kiev bombing of Donbas killed 3,000 civilians, almost all from 2014-2015.
So the Russian military kills more mostly Russian-speaking civilians in Ukraine than American military killed Iraqi civilians, and kills far more than NATO killed Serbs or than Kiev killed Donbassers.
Putin is the number one killer of Slavs since the second world war.
It could be worse though, I suppose:
Putin’s Chechen war resulted in 30,000-45,000 civilian casualties.
Yeltsin’s Chechen war resulted in 30,000-40,000 civilian deaths (according to Russia).
* In Iraq the resultant civil war with various militias and terrorist groups fighting one another produced 180,000-200,00+ civilian deaths but these were not caused by the US military “shock and awe” as you falsely claimed.
Documented by who? It is said that the main purpose of every investigation is to make sure that it does not lead to you.
BTW, did they count those 500,00-600,000 Iraqi babies that the US sanctions killed before the invasion? Despicable evil witch Albright (may she rot in Hell) said that it was worth it.
Probably true on issues like negotiations to end the war, even if means Ukraine has to give up territory. But come on, nobody likes being subjected to attacks with missiles or bombs, no matter how “moderate” they are by comparison. You legitimately point out how Ukraine’s indiscriminate shelling of places in Donbass caused hatred and alienation there, how can you believe that the war hasn’t had the same effect on Russia’s image in Ukraine? It’s a disastrous own goal for Russia…the meaningless sympathies of resentment-driven people in the Global South are no compensation for that.
The question is, “How long are Ukrainians willing to die for no gain?”(1)
Kiev regime dependency on external resources is also a critical determining factor. They can only be unreasonable while they have backup.
The coming cuts will force Ukraine to the negotiation table. This will probably involve Zelensky surreptitiously relocating to Europe. Regime change will place a less intransigent administration in Kiev. Ultimately, they will have to accept existence as a smaller & weaker nation.
Senselessly brutalizing the people of Crimea and Donbas yielded a disastrous own goal for Ukraine.
PEACE 😇
__________
(1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukrainian-official-we-dont-have-resources-counteroffensive
Most people see the lack of “shock and awe” tactics as due to Russia’s inability to accomplish this, rather than her unwillingness. The strange results at the beginning of the SMO lend more credence to this outlook than is warranted.
In that questionnaire Ron DeSantis surprisingly makes the most sense. Trump, unsurprisingly, is in the moronic answers group, though the moronic prize goes to Pence of course (another great choice of the former for his administration). Perhaps the second best is, also surprisingly, Noem but she can’t help introducing the “our real enemy is China” mantra. Is the prospect of a world with no “real enemies” unimaginable for US politicians?
Overall, a good indication that a good part of the GOP is moving towards increasing non-interventionism. For all his many faults, Trump can be credited with having moved the party in some positives directions and introduced discussion topics that some years ago were outside of the mainstream.
I did not say that I believe it one way or another. I only said that we have no way of knowing real opinions of Ukraine residents. To give you a close-to-home example, until May 1945 expressed opinions of German residents were exclusively in support of parteigenosse Hitler and his regime. After Germany defeat an enormous number of Germans sang diametrically opposite songs. My guess is, in neither case they expressed their honest opinions. But nobody has a way of knowing the scope of the difference between what the people said and what they thought.
These sympathies are far from meaningless. The economic power is steadily shifting from the imperial patch to the countries formerly known as Global South. Current situation in the US is succinctly described by the placard I saw: “War – the only thing not made in China”. Of course, linear extrapolation is a logical fallacy, but the trend cannot be denied.
Very refreshing to see traditional rightwingers in power again instead of newly bred putinist bootlicker “right” with the help of RF money:
https://www.dw.com/en/italy-blames-russias-wagner-group-for-surge-in-migration/a-64974923
Japan signed a neutrality pact with Soviets in April 1941– without knowing what would take place two months later.
Soviet aid to KMT and CCP would discontinue, so China was fighting alone until Dec 1941.
That’s why Chiang (Cairo) and Stalin (Yalta) could not be present at the same conference.
It’s also why the Japanese were invited to Victory Day 1945 in Moscow– to present the appearance that Soviet could be available as mediators with the Americans.
I think Russia’s attacks on electrical power infrastructure and bridges have been mostly psychological warfare intended to remind mid-level Ukrainian leaders that this is real combat and not Hollywood. Since they are not attacking major cities and the hand-to-hand fighting occurs in the East and South, people in Kiev may be confused, especially if they believe the propaganda.
Electrical infrastructure is extremely fragile under military attacks.
I think the missile barrage a few weeks ago could have substantially taken the grid down if the strikes had been targeted for that objective. What was it, 80 missiles, 2 per target, 40 targets? Call it 10 power plants and 10 gas compressor stations and 20 major transformers and substations. Lights out for 2/3 of the remaining population.
Iraq Body Count, an anti-American website.
So based on numbers of civilians killed, Putin cares less about the lives of Russian-speaking Eastern Ukrainians (most of the civilians killed by his war) than even the US cares about Iraqis, than NATYO cares about Serbs, than Poroshenko cared about Donbassers.
Reread what I wrote. 7,300 were proven to have been killed by the US military invasion as it conquered all of Iraq in spring 2003.
The supposed dead Iraqi babies killed by sanctions were used as an excuse by the Americans to invade Iraq – they stated that it was more humane to conquer the country than it was to leave it sanctioned. Interesting to see that claim work on you.
And the number was probably wrong, it was based on a flawed study that more rigorous UN studies disproved:
https://psmag.com/news/the-iraq-sanctions-myth-56433
The claim that sanctions killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children originated in a 1995 letter to The Lancet which, in turn, was based on a Baghdad survey done by Sarah Zaidi and colleagues. After other researchers identified anomalies in the survey data, Zaidi, to her great credit, re-investigated the work from the ground up. Having sub-contracted the original interviews to the Iraqi government, she traveled to Baghdad and re-interviewed many of the original households. When Zaidi failed to confirm quite a few of the reported deaths in these follow-up interviews, she retracted her results.
Sadly, the retraction came too late—the genie was already out of the bottle. In May 1996, shortly after the publication of Zaidi’s original letter, Madeleine Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, had the following rather shocking and fateful exchange on American national television:
Lesley Stahl (of CBS News): “We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?”
Madeleine Albright: “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price—we think the price is worth it.”
These remarks became a notorious example of extreme American callousness toward the Muslim world.
A few months later, in August 1996, Osama bin Laden cited the deaths of 600,000 Iraqi children in a fatwa declaring war against the U.S. “More than 600,000 Iraqi children have died due to lack of food and medicine and as a result of the unjustifiable aggression (sanction) imposed on Iraq and its nation,” he said. “The children of Iraq are our children. You, the USA, together with the Saudi regime are responsible for the shedding of the blood of these innocent children.”
In fact, several years prior to 9/11, a new UNICEF survey of child mortality in Iraq appeared in The Lancet. Apparently learning nothing from Sarah Zaidi’s experience, UNICEF did not place itself in a position to guarantee the integrity of the field work underpinning its survey, again delegating this responsibility to Iraqi government workers. This survey, like Zaidi’s original one, found hundreds of thousands of child deaths. Once again, the storyline that sanctions were killing massive numbers of Iraqi children had scientific respectability.
Yet over the next decade this UNICEF survey also fell by the wayside as three subsequent surveys (one sponsored again by UNICEF, another by the U.N. Development Progam, and a third by the World Health Organization) found no evidence to support UNICEF’s earlier claimed spike in child mortality rates in 1990s Iraq.
Nonetheless, Tony Blair cited the discredited UNICEF figures to retrospectively justify the invasion of Iraq in front of the U.K.’s Iraq Inquiry in 2010:
In 2000 and 2001 and 2002 they [Iraq] had a child mortality rate of 130 per 1,000 children under the age of five, worse than the Congo…. That figure today is not 130, it is 40. That equates to about 50,000 young people, children [alive today who would not be if Saddam Hussein had remained in power] … that’s the result that getting rid of Saddam makes.
It’s not just Blair, and it’s not just long ago. Summarizing George W. Bush’s presidency this week as his presidential library opens its doors, the WashingtonPost—in an otherwise admirable piece—opens with this canard: “Might as well start with the big one. In 2003, before the invasion, Iraq was a brutal dictatorship suffering under a sanctions regime which, according to UNICEF, killed at least 500,000 children.”
It is easy to get lost in this hall of mirrors, so let me be clear. Iraqis did suffer a lot under the sanctions regime, but the child mortality rate was not highly elevated throughout the 1990s and just before the invasion of Iraq. Nor did the child mortality rate plummet after this invasion. Nevertheless, many people continue to be taken in by the sanctions myth.
Non putinist nationalist mood these days in RF:
LOL.
https://news.italy24.press/local/387579.html
https://news.italy24.press/local/388724.html
Minister for agriculture (from Meloni’s party) is talking about 500 000 legal immigrants a year (discount the back-tracking, he meant it).
Meloni’s government has also done zero to shut down illegal migration, just a few days ago 1300 African boat migrants landed in Italy. The only thing “traditional” about them is that it’s the usual fraud, making promises to restrict immigration before the election, then doing the exact opposite.
Blaming it all on Wagner’s mercenaries (instead of on population growth and political choices within the EU), that’s some next level retardation. Though I suspect the Italian defense minister doesn’t even believe it himself, it’s merely propaganda.
Yea, sure. More rigorous studies by the fox clearly disproved the allegations that said fox actually broke into the chicken coop. Like I said before, the main purpose of every investigation is to make sure that it does not lead to you.
Trump 2024 will keep MAGA defining the GOP as the Peace Party. His personal relationship with Putin would have been able to suppress this mess caused by the weakness of Not-The-President Biden. The DNC is now the definitive War Party.
Trump is ahead by 14.4% across the board so far. And, that is skewed by a very suspicious CNN result.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2024/president/us/2024_republican_presidential_nomination-7548.html
All of the polls are Registered Voters [RV] not Likely Voters [LV]. Based on the historical record that implies that Trump’s numbers are higher than shown.
____
The 2028 auditions show that MAGA momentum can carry out beyond Trump’s 2nd term. Noem focusing on the CCP as America’s number one strategic rival is appreciated, however she comes with other baggage. Abbott and DeSantis have plausible track records as understudy. DeSantis is known to be a poor debater, so it would be good to see him on stage.
Why is Pence even running as a Republican? Is this a glorified book tour similar to Bolton’s effort? Seriously, his #NeverTrump credentials and hatred of the Constitution could net him a strong showing on the DNC side. He is a natural fit for the anti-American War Party.
#LetsGoBrandon 😇
Those lands were never ruled by the Han Chinese but by Manchu-Mongols. And it was Soviets who helped PRC reclaim most of Qing borders, Xinjiang, Tibet, anyways.
There’s a colloquialism 投资不过山海关 “investments not over the Shanhai Pass”. Shanhai Pass is where the Great Wall meets the Yellow Sea, north of it is Manchuria– which has been economically disappointing.
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/投资不过山海关
Mongolia however, is strategic, and supports Ukraine.
Squeezed between China and Russia, Mongolia backs Ukraine
https://euobserver.com/opinion/156814
Playable video and original non-autotranslated text for comparison:
https://t.me/bulbe_de_trones/4922
Since the Iraq war has come up just a reminder that most Eastern European countries demanding a hard line on Russia today enthusiastically supported the neocon war of choice in 2003. Perhaps they felt they had to to stay in the good graces of the US, but it’s still worth keeping in mind given how sanctimonious they’ve become over principles like self-determination over the last year.
You may have erroneous actuarial tables. 3 000 Americans = 3 000 000 Arabs.
(Not exact because I am not an actuary and I round quite a bit.)
Yep, that is the imperial reckoning. Arabs count differently. As an American joke puts it, “The US has vast oil reserves. Unfortunately, several Arab countries are located over them”.
They just followed imperial marching orders in both cases. The key to the imperial foreign policy (and since Jan 6, 2021, also of domestic policy) is the difference between “their son-of-a-bitch” and “our son-of-a-bitch”. Outsiders call it hypocrisy. Insiders call it rules-based order.
They didn’t have to, let’s remember that Iraq war was opposed by Germany and France (Belgium did as well). The quite enthusiastic support for it by the Eastern Europeans (recent additions to the EU at the time) was a clear indication where their true priorities lay, that no matter how immoral or dangerous the project, they would always toe Washington’s line to ensure US support against Russia. In hindsight it was a mistake not to draw the conclusion that the EU could never work as a political project with all those new members, it should have been scaled down again to the original “Carolingian” core.
As I have mentioned before. There is some good stuff in the Old Testament. I am not alone among Christians believing this: (1)
Excluding the OT makes the New Testament unworkable.
Obviously, the OT and NT were the best efforts of flawed men. Some of it simply no longer makes sense. However, separating the core values out of the Good Book is the path.
PEACE 😇
__________
(1) https://www.steynonline.com/13318/tal-bachman-dear-old-testament-god-maybe-it-time
The reason I even brought it up is because some of these Western Putinists argue that Russia should invade her neighbors, and especially subsume Ukraine, because that will somehow bring about a more traditionalist, conservative society in all these places that will be some kind of a counterweight to “Woke”. But of course this is not true. The Russians can’t solve basic problems, how would they solve those in occupied territories. It would be the exact opposite – ruins and depopulation (not to mention killing of innocents). But that’s not what these Putin fans care about, to them this is more like a sport with two competing teams (West vs Russia/China/Iran).
The Ukrainian women have played a tremendous role and have carried immense weight. The whole volunteer supply network rests largely on women. Not to mention that some of them are physically participating in the war.
They might have it if there are a lot of reconstruction resources poured in. The one moment when Russia and her Slavic & Baltic neighbors experienced a somewhat noticeable baby boom was around 2010-2017, it may have been because of some credit boom or growth in the money supply (or maybe the commodity rally). Reconstruction money pouring in (and construction of new housing) might have a similar effect.
Shock and Awe is a myth, war just isn’t like that at all. I am old enough to remember the problems NATO had with tiny Serbia, difficulties of the air campaign, the reluctance to use ground troops.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/the-iraq-war-was-a-sham
I am saying that there are real world constraints, thankfully I believe the US military know what those constraints are and are very much against getting involved.
There is one scenario under which he could stay in power even if technically having lost the war: if China bails him out. Xi is planning to visit Moscow next week in attempts to play the great peace maker, and some are saying that he might offer Putin his backing to have him remain in power, if he agrees to remove his troops from Ukraine (basically capitulate). Putin would be offered a choice to exit the war and remain in power, or keep the war going, but lose the Chinese economic backing. This would be a very tough choice for Putin.
This is just a hypothetical scenario, of course. This scenario is tricky for Ukraine as well, since Ukraine wants full victory (too many have been sacrificed and only full victory would guarantee somewhat stable security in the future), but on the other hand, having the Russian troops leave would be a great relief.
All projects of this kind shoot themselves in the foot by overreaching. The EU shot itself in the foot by adding these impotent, very loud, and disgustingly subservient imperial vassals. The USSR shot itself in the foot by adding hopelessly backward Central Asian “republics” (using this term in loose sense). The US shot itself in the foot many times by linking itself with a variety of the most disgusting puppets, including Somosa, Papa Doc, Pinochet, current Kiev regime, and others of the same ilk. Empire building is a self-defeating policy.
It’s just going to escalate and I’d exit the Baltics if I were you.
Learning from your mistakes is a virtue. Not to be criticised.
Both OT and NT are very uneven: there are excellent parts and parts written by stupid talentless people. What the Book needs is a harsh editor, to cut out the chaff and leave the gems in. As an added bonus, that would shorten it by 70-80% and make it more readable.
I call it the friend/enemy distinction.
Then residents of the Global South should stop colonizing the “imperial patch”, which they keep doing because they can’t manage to actually develop their own lands. I doubt you would enjoy it if the penalty for your subversive behavior was deportation to those lands.
Appeal to anti-white racism is vile, the most direct threat to the existence of the Western lands.
You are without honor.
The most likely border outcome is something close to the current line. There is no way to push RF troops back. All of the forces massed for the cancelled winter offense are available for defense.
Russia expansion all the way to the Dnieper in the South provides a winning “Crimea Land Bridge”. And, Putin will have ended Ukie depredation in Donbas. Another win.
Putin will catch some flak from extreme Russian nationalists, but that is nothing that a KGB professional cannot cope with. How would you like to wake up one morning and find doorknobs in your bed?. Can you say Novichok? I knew you could!
___
Ukraine on the other hand will give up ~20% of pre war territory. It is hard to see that as anything other than a loss.
Zelensky the puppet will flee Ukraine and report to his European handlers for an affluent retirement on the speaking and book circuit. Possibly even a titular, powerless government in exile.
PEACE 😇
Can anyone explain why Ukrainian hryvnia lost a lot of value in August 2022 (went from less than 30 per USD to over 36), at the time when Ukraine had some military successes? It remained at this low level ever since. Do currency traders know something we don’t?
Jealousy is not really wanting something for yourself. It is wanting it for no one, because deep down you are sure even you don’t deserve it, and so everyone else must suffer too.
Denmark leftists and a Tunisian dictator are doing a better job than the “far right” slut.
Imagine for a moment an entire strategic UAV Airfleet (approx 260) of $60 mil apiece cruising around at 200mph…
This was waiting to happen.
Poland was forced on the EEC (EU) by Margaret Thatcher in exchange for agreeing to reunify Germany.
You got the date wrong and your speculations are off the wall as usual, but here:
https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/ukraines-central-bank-devalues-hryvnia-by-25-against-us-dollar-2022-07-21/
The currency has been fixed for a long time. Ukraine chose to devlaue on that date as a serious tax to wealth in their country to better prosecute the war.
I don’t know about Europe, but the US is mostly getting the dregs of Latin American societies. Successful and productive Latin Americans do not move to the US, the trash does. Current libtard US policies are suicidal. A person committing suicide cannot accuse someone of murder.
Any racism is even worse than vile, it is stupid. A person with self-respect and honor cannot be a racist, anti-white or pro-white alike.
“In any case, it will be interesting to see if Ukraine experiences a baby boom after the war.”
You have to factor in that there will be a serious sex ratio imbalance after the war. There already was one due to the general lower life expectancy of men in that part of the world due to alcoholism and such. Now add several hundred thousand dead men of prime marriage age to that mix. The only thing that is certain is an uptick in those Ukrainian dating & marriage websites, as well as human trafficking (especially on the side that doesn’t get taken over by Russia).
He is talking about seasonal temporaries, not permanent Citizen track entries. (1)
Entries have Exits. This is equivalent to the U.S. H2-A visa. Also, he gave the speech in Brussels. So… The guy who cannot deliver gave bureaucrats soothing words about a number that is unlikely to materialize.
You are wise to keep an eye out. If 500K+ temporary visas are issued, it will be a problem for Meloni. However, at this point, it appears to be more platitudes than substance.
___
Have German politicians ever gone on a diplomatic junkets with orders to tell the audience at the far end what they want to hear (rather than what is)?
Would you judge those German administrations as “100% complete & total, utter failures” with the same undue alacrity over unpassed proposals that you are channeling at Meloni?
___
Remember, the Italian legislature is among the slowest of the slow. Meloni received legal authorization to impound vessels and arrest crews only few weeks ago. Also note, she is not obligated to go 100% all in immediately.
Good Cases make Good Law!
To ensure the rules survive a notoriously corrupt EU judiciary — Meloni should, and likely will, wait for a particularly Lügenpresse proof set of circumstances. For example, a ship’s crew that can unequivocally be tied to child sex trafficking. At that point, the crews will be harshly detained and the vessel will likely be scuttled or scrapped over unpaid fines.
PEACE 😇
__________
(1) https://news.italy24.press/local/388724.html
Your explanation sounds lame, to put it charitably. One wonders what was the real reason.
Would wait to see final data of 2023 Italy migration and countries of origin, because can’t see that much wrong if there will be half million legal immigrants originating from UA;)
But let’s for a moment assume the worst case imaginable and talk about half million new potential muslims and it still would be way better ratio outcome IRL than “christian saviour” Putinistan, where autocracy already has factually imported 13 million legal immigrants (roughly 95% of them coming from Islamic countries) last year alone…
Happy New year to all ੨੦੮੦ or 2080
We need a more than 5 minute edit window. That should have, of course read…
He is talking about seasonal temporary entries, not permanent Citizen track admissions.
…
Entries have Exits.
PEACE 😇
Tell that to the German bankers who have made immense money in the EE over the years and will continue to do so in the coming future.
I have been meaning to go over Exodus -> Deuteronomy chapter by chapter to decide which is the best warning to the Jews not to misbehave. Any favorites?
Currently I put Deut 4:25-28 on the top but there are several to choose from.
The odds are high that the Ukrainian counter offensive will be at least somewhat successful. So, no, it will not escalate and the Baltics are thus safe.
Слава ЗСУ!
Your fantasy life could use comic book art.
Laughs in Leftist NGO engaging in lawfare.
Kais Saied has shown the way, anything less is insufficient.
There’s no explanation for this other than treason, they are intentionally trying to create mass illegal migration via visa overstay.
https://tass.com/russia/1585035
However this would also nicely fit aristotelian explanation for motivation as increasing ethnic chaos is favourable to autocrat who wants to ensure his rule further, despite any potential military/economic misdeeds.
Odds are the things thst you intend to quote are part of the problematic overhead, and thus detract from God’s message.
By definition, necessary editing will impact “the word” via adding and diminishing. I suppose 4:2 could be dodged by changing the text to “The Ten Commandments” explicitly rather than commandments generally. But that, in of itself, impacts the “the word”.
One has to elevate the spirit and intent over period specific instructions. The entire ‘graven image’ injunction is mostly moot. How does one engrave on social media?
And then there are other critical issues. For example:
Anything that targets the
BloodBacon of Christ has got to go.PEACE 😇
What? I was expecting all the rest. The Steens Mt, NM, Idaho, even the NY state places where you said you used to camp.
Many people dislike deserts and it’s not an American-exclusive thing by any means. But I find it just absurd. It’s like saying that the night sky is ugly, or the Moon, or the ocean. There isn’t any life visible in those landscapes either. It must be one of those things, your brain is wired in a certain way or it just isn’t. To me desert landscapes, especially of the red rock variety that we have around here, are much more than beautiful. Watching them in real life gives me a feeling that is more intense than simple happiness, it goes beyond that. I guess you know what I’m talking about. And the same happens with mountains, especially when I have the chance to climb and “conquer” them.
I was shocked when I discovered them in real life. The first time I remember seeing them was a very long time ago in the TV drama “The executioner’s song”. They appeared briefly in the background of some scenes and they caught my eye, having such an alpine character and being so close to an urban center, but I didn’t think they would be that impressive up close. I was wrong, actually. The Wasatch tower majestically over Salt Lake City and adjoining population centers, north and south. They rise abruptly from the semi-desert valley floor and create the most dramatic mountain landscape I have seen in the US from an urban area. They compete with Geneva in Europe or Bariloche in Patagonia. And you can enjoy all kinds of activities in them, from the most extreme to the most placid ones, all year round. But I guess I’m repeating what I must have said many times before.
To illustrate with a picture, here’s one I took of Salt Lake City in winter from Mount Olympus, with the Oquirrh and Deseret ranges in the background:
A few more magic moments in the mountains under the More tag.
Tiny silhouettes on top of the Lone Peak
Encounter with a moose on the way back to the trailhead.
Man-made refuge under the mighty Timpanogos
Nature-made refuge
The Cascade Mountain and Provo Canyon from the frozen Utah Lake in December.
A really excellent question, that seems to evade any logical answer. Anybody else have an opinion?
I concede the issue in enforcing exits. However, if you preselect visa grants to those who are leaving their spouse and children in their home country, then you have a population motivated to depart instead of over staying their visa.
___
Again, I urge you to focus on this part of my comment — The guy who cannot deliver gave bureaucrats soothing words about a number that is unlikely to materialize.
There is a huge difference between creative dissembling in Brussels and actual temporary visas granted by Rome. Come back in 12 months when you have the actual number of short duration entries allowed. I suspect it will be more like ~50K rather than the number frivolously bandied about in Brussels.
PEACE 😇
This plan is like having Me109’s escort Stuka’s over Dover and London.
Carry on…
Just a guess, but probably rocketry stocks have been already emptied enough, so they can do somewhat effective long range attacks (70-80 launches at once in order to avoid too much interceptions) these days only with relatively big time intervals as production rates are not quick enough to fill in the place of spent ones.
They also need to keep and maintain some untouchable rocketry numbers for army “strategic reserves” too.
Why do Russians love Adidas?
Then she is a lot dumber than I thought. Irrelevant now: compared to the latest crop, she is a tower of wisdom.
The 500,000 figure you believe was the one used by Bush and Blair as an excuse to invade Iraq.
You are probably the most gullible person here.
Of course not. She was quite clever in this regard.
Do I need to dig up the Yes, Minister! clip about the UK being in the EU to interfere with Brussels?
According to Sir Humphrey, the EU is a disagreeable cacophony that needs dousing.
PEACE 😇
Albright is a bloodthirsty old Jewess.
When Stahl said this to her she probably wet herself. “Hal fa magillion dead EyeRabs? Oyyyyy.”
Quite interesting that she didn’t correct the numbers though. These higher ups know all the larger and smaller estimates of casualties by heart.
OK… Here is the Yes Minister clip…
The good stuff is about 2:00. And, EU expansion at 3:00.
What exactly is the “cod stick” at 0:38?
PEACE 😇
Regarding Lithuania;)
The deaths were 100% the fault of Saddam, and 0% the fault of the West. The Baath Party regime was flouting the legitimate desire of the Iraqi peoples for Self-Determination, quite brutally.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draining_of_the_Mesopotamian_Marshes#Gulf_War_Draining
Got it: if you believe what the US president or the UK PM says, you must be gullible. And when both say the same thing, it is certainly a lie. Like what they both are saying now about Ukraine.
You are correct, for a change.
Saddam had to go after he launched scud missiles at Tel Aviv, and you know it.
Maggie banjaxxed the EEC with the Polish Question.
Karlin wrote an article about Georgian criminality: https://www.unz.com/akarlin/how-russian-is-the-russian-mafia/
Basically, although Georgia itself doesn’t seem to have a high homicide rate, Georgians are vastly overrepresented in the so-called Russia mafia, in fact they are the majority of it.
Unrelated, but I note that Shinkai used an Irish tune in this short:
Perhaps, he would be open to creating a story about a wandering bard, adopting ideas I would supply him. 😉
BTW, I recently watched his short OVA Voices from a Distant Star (2002). Looking at it critically, without knowing anything else about it, I honestly thought it was pretty bland (ex: character design), most of the way through – excepting the emotional impact of the climax, which however was not inconsequential. But then to consider that the whole thing was basically made by one guy (Shinkai), and animated on his PC, and with his g.f. originally doing the voice of the girl character – that makes it seem all more remarkable.
Suppose it is not unheard of for people to animate whole episodes of anime by themselves (think that was the case with one or two episodes in that series I mentioned to you), but I imagine those are the old hands.
Anyway, I can see how people thought he had talent back then.
yup.
IMO, which is not great evidence for some persistent historical grievance starting before that time, but perhaps I misunderstood.
Speaking on the Chinese: of course, I only have a filmy, lazy eye, but I perceive different strains of attitudes towards Russia. At the outbreak, I was amused by some of the comments coming out of netizens – hard to say whether it was the Taiwanese making it all up. Some of it was pretty hyperbolic, in support, and rather unforgiving toward Ukrainians.
In film, it is only a weak tendency, but I perceive what almost seems like resentment towards half-Russians. No idea if that translates into something national.
Man-on-the-street interviews always seem very measured.
Of course, the idea that the Chinese secretly plan to annex Siberia, has always struck me as nuts. I don’t see a lot of room for practical antagonism. I think the most malleable relationship is that between Japan and Korea, as I have mentioned before.
Unofficial CIA propaganda violates every single piece of the Twitter ToS and gets away with it
Great insight on the Abkhaz-Georgian situation, as well as the current internal situation in Georgia proper –
#BlueTyranny
1. Are you talking about in the south or in Bakhmut? The one in the south is an offensive, not a counteroffensive. Huge difference
2. Both are likely to be miserable failures
The war really seems like it is wrapping up to me. Russia has gained some territory but at a horrific price: it is internationally isolated, dependent on China, has lost a huge amount of prestige and soft power, has lost influence in Ukraine, has set the stage for Belarus to eventually break away and now has a greater military threat on it’s borders than it did before the war. A Western integrated Ukraine with a growing economy will only decrease discontent at home with the complete failure of the Putin regime to improve the living standards of the Russian people.
And now we have a stalemate. I expect a ceasefire in place and the removal of the most economically significant post invasion sanctions. The West has a very strong interest in seeing the international situation return to the status quo antebellum
Leaving 2023 start economic RF data for the future reference:
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/russias-current-account-surplus-narrows-to-$12.9-bln-in-jan-feb-c.bank
Those are two different things (that are interconnected).
Bakhmut is where the RusFed forces are being attrited. Bakhmut holds – at an immense price, so that the new Ukrainian army has time to prepare for the spring offensive. Bakhmut is there to buy time.
The South… only the General Staff knows. But realistically, there is no other direction for the offensive, except the South or Luhansk. The strike will be towards recovering Melitopol / Berdyansk (our seas) and possibly one or two smaller strikes in other directions. The Moscovite army had a whole month (and more) to advance.. once they are exhausted and have wasted their month, then the Ukrainians will start advancing.
The spring equinox is March 20. The ground will dry up and the Sun will bless us with Her rays!
The evening bonfire burns,
The Brethren line up.
A hand lays on my shoulder,
“It is time for us to go!”.
Step after step,
Shadow across a shadow.
Men come out as wolves for a hunt.
Swords, consecrated in battle,
Taken from the ground, they lay in our hands.
They were forged by our Ancestors,
Hard as steel – the fear of our enemy!
The strength of the spirit – in our midst!
In our grey steppes, our seas.
Our will and prowess,
The coat of arms of our Knyaz Svyatoslav on our shields.
The eternal flame burns,
We stand together with black shields.
“The time has come for you to go”.
Those who fell in the battle in the wild fields,
They lead us, call on to us!
We commemorate them.
And once again – into the battle!
Avdeevka looks well on the way to encirclement, at the same time Ru keeps pushing NW and inside Bakhmut. The question is again asked what are the reserves left for the AFU? Seen claims of a potential counter attack at Bakhmut, but seen claims these units have already been committed in the city. If Bakhmut falls and Adveeka without any counter attack it can only mean resources are running low, those being trained in the West will only be able to plug a few holes.
Fits with comments by Gilbert Doctorow and Seymour Hersh that the hardcore fanatics like Nuland are pushing for intervention by the likes of the 82nd and 101st airborne, thankfully I think the US military and intelligence agencies know that won’t go well at all.
Jesus said he would abolish it one day, when he returns and assumes all power himself directly.
As far as abolishing all political power before the time of the Second Coming, I don’t know how you get to this conclusion from reading the NT, even more broadly from anything in the Christian tradition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Prokhorovka
An attack south to Melitopol may well run into the same trouble that Manstein had here. Depending on how heavily defended the roads and fields are… ahem… defended.
The advance south today is going to cover fairly predictable ground like the push north back then. This is also the battle where the Panther was intorduced and the Tiger featured heavily. The Germans also introduced a lot of FW190 “Butcher Birds”.
“Zis time vee do eet right yah?”
More on what Italy says: (1)
Are they manufacturing a winning case? Lets see… Russian linked human trafficker appeals to EU court? Would the EU ride to the rescue to save individuals tied to Wagner? That seems unlikely.
Authoritarian Europe is about emotions and dogmas, not accuracy. Mere association with Russian activity strengthens the chances of a desired outcome. That the accusation may be untrue is irrelevant.
PEACE 😇
__________
(1) https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/italy-blames-russia-surge-migration-accuses-wagner-group-hybrid-warfare
Your grasp of logic is as poor as your grasp of reality.
However, the more a leader is directly involved in invading a country, the more likely to lie he is. It takes a lot of lies to “excuse” invading another country. Bush and Blair invaded Iraq. I would be suspicious of claims by the invader Putin. Yet in your gullibility you believe both Bush and Blair about Iraq, and Putin about the Ukraine invasion.
He said, quite plainly, that spiritual perfection means not pursuing wealth and power, that one must be meek and gentle, like a child, one must give up wealth and pursue the spiritual life, that the poor, the powerless, the persecuted, are in fact more favored by God than the mighty.
No clearer indictment of a political system based on the harsh pursuit of wealth and power, and the enshrinement of inequality and hierarchy, is possible.
If one, for one moment, takes the Sermon on the Mount seriously, our entire system of political power becomes impossible. But of course no one does, and endless ink is extended in explaining it cannot possibly mean what it says.
Let the residents of vaudeville microstates remain in their fantasy world. That’s the only world where they can feel comfortable.
Meanwhile today in the Strait of Hormuz started four-day Security Bond-2023 maritime joint military exercises of Iranian, Russian, and Chinese navies. China has sent its guided-missile destroyer CNS Nanning to participate in the drill.
“The exercises will help deepen practical cooperation among the navies of the participating countries, further demonstrate the willingness and ability to jointly safeguard maritime security and actively build a maritime community with a shared future, and inject positive energy into regional peace and stability,” Chinese defense ministry said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202303/15/WS6411d60aa31057c47ebb4ade.html
Money changers are firmly entrenched in the Temple. Jesus said in Matthew 21:13 “It is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
If you accept any sort of orthodox Christianity Jesus was God the Son, the human incarnation of limitless power.
Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.
Jesus gives no indication that the power of Caesar is going to disappear before he returns.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross.
He accepts Caesar’s and Herod’s authority to the point of crucifixion, when he could have ended Caesar’s rule at any moment if he chose.
Even as God incarnate, Jesus had to experience death and mortality, and all that that brings with it (i.e. politics).
Render unto Caesar was an answer to a trick question, nothing more. If Jesus had said yes pay taxes to Rome he would have undermined his position as messiah, if he had said don’t pay taxes to Rome, then the Romans would have arrested him before his mission was complete. Of course he saying don’t, but the Romans have to accept otherwise, or else deny that Caesar’s sovereignty.
First of all , Jesus makes clear living a Christian life is not compatible with pursuing the things Caesar does. If anyone would follow Jesus they must eschew those things, and his Church should never have allied with those things.
Secondly, it is made clear Jesus already defeated the powers and principalities that are keeping man in bondage both on high and below – that’s the good tidings. (And a power and principality is understood as that spiritual force or being that represents a particular attitude to life and the world, among other things). They may linger yet, but they are essentially defeated.
By letting himself be killed by the authorities Jesus made a mockery of them – he showed how little their “power” matters, and how strength was really to be found in weakness. This is one of the most crucial points – he showed how utterly unimpressed with what they thought important he was, that he completely gave it up. No more beautiful or clearer message is possible.
Why do you think people like Laxa or Chieh in the past would get so infuriated at me precisely when I let them abuse me without responding, even being kind to them in return – my refusal to compete with them on power makes a mockery of what truly matters to them, it shows their whole system to be empty wind.
I should have added, his followers call him Lord and he talks frequently about the kingdom which he will rule as sovereign with his Father. The theme of his perfect obedience to the authority of his Father is pretty much the foundation of the whole NT.
Yep, Jesus came to, among other things, sweep away that whole old system of power, money, wealth – and of course they killed him for it, how could they not.
The Church eventually joined with that whole system and became like what Jesus came to replace – not entirely, to e sure, and always a spark remained of the original vision, but largely, setting Christianity on the path to ultimate nihilism.
Now that Christianity is no longer the State Cult, there are signs people are once again finding it a viable spiritual path and it is taking up once again it’s old line of development – history isn’t over yet.
Sure, to a certain extent everyone uses the language and idiom of the times, simply to be understood, just like HBD uses “sciency” terms to express ancient concepts, or “calories” are the modern equivalent of the ancient notion of “portion size”.
This should be interpreted according to the spirit and not literally, and made to accord with the whole trend and atmosphere of the bible. Moreover, submitting to a spiritual “law” may be said to exactly make clear that earthly, political power is not what is significant in life. It is using the idiom of the times to express this point.
The Old Testament contains some of the most horrid things if taken literally, and were always interpreted non-literally according to the spirit by Jews and Christians until modern literalism took hold (the Song of Songs, for instance, was not literally taken as an erotic love poem).
Bill Gaede gave tech secrets to the Cubans (who passed it on to the Soviets) in the ’80s. Iran and China in the ’90s (and after he had confessed to the FBI). All low-status countries at the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gaede
Japan sold tech to the East Germans. And there were many other transfers.
The real bottleneck was that the economy of a lot of these places lacked scale, and was too unwieldy due to communist ideology. China has scale, and has made the economic reforms, to the point where it has the most complicated manufacturing supply chains in the world. The greatest industrial base.
But Jesus and his Apostle also taught and vividly demonstrated obedience to these same authorities. This was a puzzle to solve once Christianity became a mass religion.
The good news would be that Jesus had opened heaven and had broken mortality’s ultimate hold on men because they would be resurrected after his Second Coming. Until then, men obviously remain mortal and it is clear that the ‘world’ and the power of the ‘prince of this world’ still exists.
Are the events of the passion and crucifixion presented as comic or trivial? The way it is presented Jesus was not laughing at that point. As God they seem to demonstrate his pity and forbearance for humanity; but as man there is obviously a tragic and fatal aspect to it. It is shown that Salvation has to flow from a blood offering.
Does the account of Jesus’ death (and much of the O/T) suggest that political power is not significant?
It kind of does if it is taken fairly literally.
What to make of this new revisionist story that Leonardo da Vinci was half-Caucasian?
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230314-new-research-claims-leonardo-da-vinci-was-son-of-a-slave
Honestly, not sure I follow it. They have matched his mother’s first name to a doc signed by his notary father, naming a woman with the same first name? (If so, seems rather tenuous?)
Anyway, I am envious of these old European cities that have these archives full of interesting stories, often seemingly unread.
The timing of this “discovery” tells you all you need to know about its veracity.
You can’t possibly be suggesting that the crucifixion teaches “proper” submission to political authority lol 🙂
That would actually serve as a good basis for a Gnostic story where the authorities satanically invert the meaning of the crucifixion to teach a proper attitude of submission to earthly power lol.
Sorry, I’m reading DBH’s novel Kenogaia, which he calls a Gnostic tale – it’s great so far.
The tragic aspect of the crucifixion is that man hasn’t realized yet the emptiness of it’s power struggles. The Divine aspect of that event is the attitude of sublime indifference – contempt, really – to power and the willing choice of weakness.
In the pagan world Godliness was associated with power. Christianity’s radical innovation (in that world) was to identify the Divine with the willing choice of weakness. God’s “emptying himself” in this way is taken as a model for the “kenosis” Orthodox Christians strive for.
The clue to this “paradox” is that metaphysically, the more you identify as a separate individual creature sundered from the All, and seek personal power, the more you deny yourself participation in that All, which is actually the ultimate form of weakness.
A “true” God, the truly Divine would have no interest in merely personal power that emphasized his nature as a seperate creature that is not coextensive with the All. Indeed, it would be a paradox for God to desire personal power. Personal power can only be relevant to an individual creature desiring to survive – personal power is fundamentally a survival concerns of a limited, finite, mortal being. To imply that God is such a creature would be a positive insult.
Jesus’ crucifixion is one of the most vivid and beautiful demonstrations of this insight, but it’s the basis of every higher religion since the Axial Age. Taoism advises one to become like water and willingly choose to be lowly and of no status.
In Buddhism, the creator-God Brahman is seen as representing a lower level of that ultimate Reality, and they have stories mocking his pride in his “power” to create. Of course, the Buddhists wrongly misunderstand the Hindu notions of Brahman, which actually does indicate that ultimate level of Reality that cannot have any interest in personal power.
One demonstrates contempt for power most vividly by not bothering to compete for it , by willingly choosing “weakness” (which is actually strength and participation in the true fullness of Being).
The men and women of power know this well. Try and experiment in your own life – if you know any power hungry people, make a point of not competing with them for power, of willingly choosing “weakness” in the face of their furious and desperate attempts to dominate. Not out of fear, but choice. Nothing will more reliably infuriate them, I promise you 🙂 It’s an eye opening thing to experience this – we wrongly assume the most threatening thing to the power hungry is competition, but it is actually contempt for their silliness 🙂
Similarly, “render unto Caesar” should be seen in this context as an attitude of sublime contempt and indifference – don’t bother competing with the power hungry, that whole is side of life is unimportant in the grand spiritual scheme of things.
As for the Old Testament, its vision of the ideal society is a form of political anarchy which orients itself to the spiritual and Divine – nothing is more devastating than the indictment of kingship when the Israelites beg for a king, out of a contemptible desire to be “like the other nations”. And indeed, Israel’s kings are portrayed as flawed men and are largely a disaster.
The crisis of the banking sector, triggered by ill-conceived “cheerleader” speech of a person who looks like a cheerleader about as much as I look like a bicycle, is now going global. Is Credit Suisse going to be the next casualty? Its stock price fell by 30% this morning.
Name your candidates and place your bets.
Seems to conveniently roll a few political narratives into one.
I should like to see a frequency chart of women’s names for the area. Would be very surprised if “Caterina” was <10%.
@AaronB and Coconuts
Ernest Renan in Life Of Jesus:
Let’s get real, Ukraine is a country with terrible demographics (even before the war), if Italy wants to attract hundreds of thousands of migrants a year (presumably low-skilled ones at that, given how they’re supposed to work in agriculture and tourism…), they’re going to come from outside of Europe. In the end this might mean just amnestying boat migrants and granting them regular status.
Pretty odd btw that you regard the prospect of Ukrainians permanently emigrating with such equanimity, as if it wouldn’t be a disaster for Ukraine to lose so many young people.
Baltic states can hardly be considered that important for the German economy…certainly much less so than trade with China, which might soon fall victim to forced de-coupling (which countries like Lithuania would certainly support quite enthusiastically, given how they’ve already exposed themselves over the Taiwan issue, just to please American hardliners).
I mean, I get there are serious security issues, it certainly was a massive failure on the part of Germany and other western EU members not to provide credible deterrence against Russia, which might also have lessened dependence on the US. But still, I cannot but find the attitude of many Poles and Balts irritating, I don’t get the impression there ever was a real interest in trying to create a European security structure, instead it was always just trying to curry favour with the likes of John McCain and uncritically supporting them even on issues that had nothing to do with East European security. In the end this might also backfire pretty badly btw, who knows if the US won’t eventually get tired of its commitments, all it might take is some Trump-like figure coming to power.
What makes you think that Balts give a hoot about Ukraine? If the most disgusting-looking space aliens were fighting Russia, Balts (at least the ones commenting here; I personally know perfectly normal Balts who’s be ashamed to be associated with these) would support them with the same enthusiasm.
I think that’s unfair at least to LatW who seems to be genuinely enamoured with Ukraine and depressed about the war. But indeed, I have wondered myself how real the sympathy of Balts in general for Ukrainians really is, maybe some of them are actually quite fine with Russian-speakers (as many are even on the Ukrainian side) killing each other in a proxy war that is supposedly in the self-interest of the Baltic states. But of course Russia needn’t have obliged people with such cynical views (if they exist, I don’t know) by invading Ukraine.
You are mostly right here.
to be “like the other nations” = to worship pagan gods, I would say. Kings lead Israel to pagan worship, mostly. On surface, it looks like an accident, but if you read more deeply, it starts to look like the introduction of pagan worship is by some design. It is like a pagan party is manipulating Jews to have kings, and then, to have pagan kings. It also makes sense for them; as they are minority, the pagan worship is best to introduce from the heights of power. Plus, there is this pagan tradition of “king-priest” as in Phoenicia; if they are following it, a king must be a pagan.
Even more surprising is the royal orientation of the alleged “Messiah” prophecy in rabbinic Judaism, actually bordering on obsession since such concern is not really present in Scripture in any overt way.
This only strengthens my suspicion that rabbinic Judaism is covert paganism.
Why do Jews never want to pronounce name of Yahwe?
Maybe, as secret Baal worshippers, they follow Exodus 23:13 “Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.” This only makes sense if their real god is Baal. Otherwise, if they really are Yahwe worshippers, they do everything upside-down: they never pronounce Yahwe, but they scream all the time Baal [Shem Tov], Ishtar [Esther], Mordecchai [Marduk] etc.
I do not of course think that ordinary Jews may be aware of all that. Nevertheless, rabinate position in Judaism clearly does not correspond to heavy criticism that falls upon all kind of Jewish priests in Old Testament, as the main corruptors of people. In this sense, as a premonition, Old Testament bad rep of kings is quite right.
Thanks. Renan got much right. I think, though, you can’t really understand Jesus unless you understand the spiritual dimension – Renan seems to present some aspects of Jesus attitude as mere idealist neglect of earthly realities, but in fact, from the spiritual perspective they are quite deliberate. Other times Renan does seem to appreciate the deliberateness.
It isn’t necessary, but it also helps to understand the metaphysical principles underlying this attitude to life and the world, to truly appreciate it – and to know something about other religions which share this outlook and have similar metaphysical principles. Studying the Upanishads can actually help us understand Jesus 🙂
But Renan does a very good job from a secular perspective.
But I would deny Jesus submitted to authorities, certainly not in an “apparently complete” way – Jesus whole life was a flouting of the authorities and what was “respectable”. If this wasn’t so, they hardly would have killed him!
But on another level, it’s true that he “submitted”, as a form of sublimely indifferent contempt, to political power – and this seemingly dual character of his actions have one underlying attitude to power, and is meant to convey a single message about what our attitudes should be.
Be that as it may, my original point was that Christians specifically should not have allied themselves to power and participated in it – and perhaps this is the really relevant response to Coconuts.
Even if Jesus wants us to submit to power, where is the warrant to join it, participate in it, become it – as the Church did. At the very least a Christian must stand aloof from it – he or she must bear witness to a different order of reality. And that the Church ultimately failed to do, with disastrous consequences.
Baal is merely a semitic word meaning “master” – this may amuse some of the more misogynistic here, but in Hebrew the word for husband is “bal”, and women literally say “my master” when they refer to their husband.
I’m actually surprised Israeli feminists have not petitioned to change this – I’d support such a measure.
Bal Shem Tov literally means “possessor of a good name”, no more than that. (He’s a great man, btw – a mystic and a nature lover).
Rabbinic Judaism, like all higher religions, is highly syncretic, and incorporated elements of many Near Eastern religions, reworking them. And while I agree it is importantly different from the religion of the OT, the OT is hugely important in study, prayer, liturgy, and life guidance.
This idea, that you often see on Unz, that Rabbinic Judaism has basically discarded the OT, could not be more wrong.
Rabbinic Judaism, too, hugely emphasizes the Oneness of God – it’s practically an obsession, perhaps out of a fear of the Christian conception of the Trinity. So I can’t agree that it is any kind of paganism, and the moral vision and eschatology is, at its best, far grander and loftier than the dark, often tragic, earth bound visions of most paganisms.
But it is an amusing conception, and entirely fitting on Unz, that a secret cabal of pagans are secretly manipulating Judaism to the detriment of the Jewish community, and have been throughout history 🙂
If there ever was a Jewish unz.com, that is exactly the kind of thing that would appear there – pagans would be the ” Jews” of Jewish Unz.com – it’s perfect 🙂
Yves Smith has been saying for months Credit Suisse is insolvent. They are definitely too big to fail. You and I will bail them out again. And again and again until the end of our time.
I wonder how genuine it is, and how much of it is just a manifestetion of anti-Russian feelings. I know why I love Ukraine (the country, not the disgusting current regime): I speak Ukrainian, which is a beautiful language, I know Ukrainian literature (even though it is not in the same league with Russian, English, or German, but certainly way above anything Latvia ever produced), I like Ukrainian cuisine (it has similarities with German, being largely based on pork), etc. I have to confess, though, that I have no idea whether LatW is familiar with anything Ukrainian.
In fact, current Kiev regime invaded Donbass, which rejected the coup of 2014. LPR and DPR residents consider parts of Donbass controlled by Ukies occupied territories. Ukrainian soldiers behaved in Donbass like brutal occupiers, murdering, raping, and robbing. My mother, who could compare, said that they are worse than German occupiers in WWII. I can only fault the RF with one thing: it came to the rescue of Donbass eight years too late.
Thanks once again, you have fantastic pics!
I love those sweeping vistas with mountains on the horizon. I also liked the man made refuge one – while not as dramatic, it brings to my mind life in prehistoric times, which I always like to fantasize about 🙂
Completely agree with you on the mountains hovering over – brooding over – SLC. The interesting thing is that they aren’t more widely celebrated! I remember driving up the I-15 the first time and those stark mountains rising so sharply up thinking – why wasn’t I told? Why does no one talk about how SLC has some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the US? People speak of Denver, Montana, but no one speaks of this?
(Something similar with Thailand and Laos. Northern Thailand is celebrated for its mountains but Laos has by far the grander scenery, that goes unremarked upon)
So there are there multi-day backpacking trails in the Wasatch? I remember researching a little and it seemed that the Uintas are the place to go in Utah for extensive backpacking trips, despite the Wasatch Range being so dramatic, wild, and glorious. I hope I am wrong?
Very well said. I know exactly what you mean 🙂 That feeling of magic is perhaps the most precious thing in life, and as I get older, it is that more than anything that I seek out in life, as I did as a child. I suppose old age is a return to childhood at its best 🙂 Well, I’m only middle aged, so perhaps the second part of life can be a return to childhood, then.
And the desert is utterly mysterious and magical! I suspect it may not be a brain wiring issue, but a question of spiritual education – those barbarians who don’t see the glory of the desert must be gently educated into a sublimer and larger vision.
I will absolutely post more pics if they are desired! I didn’t want to impose though.
While true, you omitted the other more meaningful Biblical definition: (1)
Thus, reality is 180° opposite what you suggest about the vast majority of the practitioners of Judaism. If you want to suggest that Ba’al = Allah, enemy of the Judeo-Christian God, you might be on to something more interesting.
PEACE 😇
__________
(1) https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Baal
From the Anglo perspective though, the same assholes who got the US and UK into Iraq are selling escalation with Russia. Biden is not suddenly a good actor when he seamlessly supported invading Iraq to defending Ukraine.
So this is Steens Mountain. (I will post other locations also later)
The interesting thing about Steens Mountain is that at the top there is this incredibly broad and sweeping valley that looks like it’s out of Jurassic times, or it may contain a Lost World, or may be the location of James Hiltons Shambala.
Who knows what’s to be found there? It’s vast and mysterious. People do multi-day backpacking trips into that sweeping green valley – some, never emerge 🙂 (I joke, I joke).
But it is an unusual feature. Another wonder of the Mountain is the sweeping views over the Oregon desert, from this sudden Mountain rising skyward.
The third cool thing is that it isn’t a mountain range – but a Mountain 🙂 And who was the mysterious Mr Steens to possess a mountain?
That whole area of eastern Oregon has these sudden dramatic mountains rising from the desert floor. Driving west, I ran into another great dramatic mountain sweeping up, more desert like, that was home to pronghorn and mountain goats, but for some reason not as famous as Steens.
As always, my pics do not do justice.
This does not make sense. Jewish, Christian, and Muslim god is the same. Large part of Koran is a brief summary of OT and NT with Arabized names, except that Jesus is considered a prophet, not god’s son. Islamic scholars who don’t go for political expediency call Jews and Christians people of the book, explicitly recognizing that the three religions have the same root.
Very cool he used an Irish tune 🙂 I think it would be funny, and evidence for the existence of God lol, if suddenly it turned out Shinkai was indeed working on a film about a wandering bard 🙂
I agree that his Voices was his weakest, but it was I think his first – and as a solo effort, it’s quite impressive, as you say. But even then his unique melancholy and poetic sensibility was on display, which is cool. I enjoyed it overall.
Weathering With You is also on my agenda!
BTW, I wanted to mention to you how Japanese anime manages to make banal urban scenes – that might even be considered ugly – somehow suffused with poetic light and magic. Ordinary train stations, a vignette of blue sky with clouds over tangled electric wires and a few drab modern buildings, sunlight slanting into a narrow Tokyo alley – somehow these banal scenes become imbued with an inner poetic light and become sites of magic.
It’s another interesting sensibility, another unusual and rewarding aspect of Japanese aesthetics that isn’t so prevalent elsewhere, if it exists at all. A topic worthy of its own discussion one day.
You mentioned you wanted a “Carolingian” type of EU – wouldn’t that exclude all of the EE? It is very naive of you to deny the immense German (and other Western) commercial interests there. As well as being able to have control over those EE states, in order to implement their various interests. That was my original point – had the West not wanted it, the enlargement would have never happened. Not to mention the overall principle that Europe should be united (so you do have a point there that the EU should also be united in its policy). Btw, the EU is a very strict entity, it’s not like one can have all that much freedom there, so it’s not like one is not giving up a lot to be in the EU.
The Western EU never wanted to provide that kind of deterrence. Their attitude towards Russia was deliberately “blind” in order to promote their own interests.
It would’ve been a positive thing had there been a serious enough attempt at this. But it is connected to the political question mentioned above. Russia was considered a “partner” or even a friend by the core EU countries.
The EEs should have their own militaries, that they should build up and constantly strengthen, similarly to what Poland is trying to do now. I’m not sure this is realistic, but it’s possible that Russia will get weakened by this war (even if not entirely), and the US will get weakened by its own internal issues. Thus both of these powers will hopefully lay off.
That’s about the only rationale for this war that could be in any way remotely defensible (preventive war against a future NATO membership of Ukraine isn’t imo). But I find it doubtful that this is Putin’s primary motivation. If it had been, why didn’t he just annex the parts of Donbass held before February 2022 and say any attack on them would be answered with equal force? Or launch only a limited operation in Donbass (iirc Biden even insinuated that something like this might not cause the same reaction like a full-scale invasion). Instead he seemed to be going for an attempt to turn all of Ukraine into a puppet state and/or annex major areas beyond Donbass. That was pretty excessive imo, indicates this is more about great power politics than any “humanitarian” concern for the people of Donbass.
You know this is really funny, but the other day I was checking out Ukrainian cuisine online. And I was just laughing about how similar it is to our cuisine. With some exceptions (like we have more smoked fish). And of course I understand the Ukrainian language very well by now.
But that’s not really the scenario here, is it? The truth is that Russia invaded Ukraine. That’s the cause of the outrage. And, yes, also pain in my case.
Hmmm… about 14,000 people were killed in the 2014-2022 War in the Donbass; 3,400 of whom were civilians, and the rest military forces.
Estimates vary on the SMO casualties, and we probably won’t have an accurate fix on the numbers for a while yet (Aeschylus — ‘In war, truth is the first casualty.’) But I think it’s reasonable to assume that the death count runs to a minimum of 130,000 people by now (but only 10-15K of them civilians; which is quite impressive tbh, considering the scale of the war. Shows that both sides are fairly restrained and civilized when it comes to civilians, despite the occasional unfortunate massacre.) But soldiers are human beings too; and each soldier maimed or killed counts equally to civilians. And the 130K figure is only for the time being; we can expect more casualties as the war drags on.
So the question is: were the 130K+ deaths worth it to avenge the 14K killed during “Kiev’s invasions of the Donbass”? I understand your anger at Kiev; but “to be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves.” The impulse for avenging injustice is understandable; but it’s important to keep a sense of proportion and consider carefully the second-order consequences of any retaliatory/interventionist actions.
@A123
I think you misunderstood me – I’m disagreeing with Polish dude that Jews worship Baal, which is a, ahem, Very Unz suggestion (I urge this phrase enter the dictionary).
Modern Judaism as it is practiced is often as corrupted and remote from it’s true spirit as any other modern religion, but at its best Rabbinic Judaism has sublime things in it – even if, in the end, it isn’t the tradition that most inspires me personally.
True enough, there is plenty of blame to go around, the Western EU states aren’t guiltless either. However I can’t agree that it was totally wrong to try engaging with Russia (even if it should have been backed up by a credible military deterrent, that was indeed a massive flaw compared to Ostpolitik before 1990, as was the level of Germany’s dependency on Russian gas). I mean, sure, the imperial mindset in Russia is a problem, and the way it’s manifested itself in relation to Ukraine is quite appalling. But I think it was a mistake to discount Russia’s perceived interests and essentially call their bluff (at least that’s how Putin probably came to see the situation in 2021). Unless there’s some unlikely happy ending with Ukraine winning the war and its independence, and Russia just accepting that without blowing up the world, the results of that approach are pretty disastrous.
Unfortunately I don’t see that happening.
I don’t know his motivations. If defending Donbass from Ukie aggression was his motivation, he would have come to the rescue in 2014.
Simply because most of Donbass (which actually held a referendum in 2014, with the majority for the autonomy, which Ukraine illegally denied Crimea before) was occupied in February 2022.
Which is a lie known as Kitman or Taqiyya. Deception is a Pillar of Islam:
Muslims know that Satan/Allah/Ba’al and the Judeo-Christian God are two diametrically opposite concepts. Fabricating a false narrative around a common root is simply a tool they use to setup Christians to be murdered by Jihad.
PEACE 😇
Let’s face it – it was a convenient situation for everybody, very minimal military or any other kind of expenses related to deterrence, and plenty of freedom to trade. The overall picture was not that bad (if one is able to ignore the annexations and the aggressive rhetoric – but that was exactly the danger there).
Of course, engaging Russia was important. I wasn’t disputing the need for that, ofc, but it’s more the issue of not seeing RF for what it was. Because what do you do then? It was just convenient.
Of course, building any kind of deterrence in Russia’s vicinity would be seen with suspicion by them. Their spies count every railway section and every soldier in the Baltic states.
The Baltic states themselves engaged a lot, even if very minimally politically, although there were a couple of high level visits before the war. But the trade was happening very intensively the whole time and the Russian investment was going up, even after 2014, ironically, trade with Russia first collapsed right after 2014 but then grew very impressively in the years afterwards, so it’s not a one sided situation – it almost seems that the political and economic tracks were going separately there. And obviously Germany wanted to keep those connected, it made sense to assume that this is how you keep peace. It’s a pragmatic position.
The problem is that the imperial mindset actually manifested itself. It proves that it is never just vain talk, but those are real aspirations. Even now they talk about going even further (not openly on the official level, but their pundits). It shows how messianic and intentional they are, how much they care about it.
The problem runs much deeper there, regardless of what the West does. They are both competing as to who will be the real heir of the Kievan Rus. Also, Russia feels entitled to Ukraine’s submission, a war was inevitable. I once heard some Ukrainian veteran talk about it, he said that when he heard Zhirinovski speak in the late 1980s, he knew there would eventually be a war. The positions were irreconcilable.
Not sure about that, but you may be right that the positions were essentially irreconcilable, that Russia’s view of the relationship was incompatible with any real Ukrainian sovereignty. However, with Ukraine being the weaker party (and they still are, despite all the Western support), I doubt it was a smart idea for Ukraine to adopt an openly confrontational approach. Of course depends on the outcome of the war how this will be judged, whether it will be seen as a successful bid for true independence or as a disastrous mistake.
Anyway, I probably should stop writing about Ukraine for the moment, until there’s some real change because of an Ukrainian offensive or some other development, there’s not much to be said anyway.
My mother and my grandma cooked it all the time. I grew up on those dishes, not just checked them on the internet.
I understand slowly spoken and written Belorussian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian (similar to Serbian, but not identical), Slovenian, Czech, Polish, and likely a few other Slavic languages. That is not the same as speaking the language.