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As part of the Not So Great Reset of lowering standards in the 2020s, the State Department is going to make it easier for the racially privileged to be hired as foreign service officers.
One of the curious factors of American life is that some institutions managed to hold out at least until the Death of George Floyd at lowering their standards in the name of the Diversity.
Way back in January 1981, the outgoing Carter Administration threw the Luevano discrimination lawsuit, agreeing to trash the state of the art PACE civil service hiring exam on the grounds that the incoming Reagan Administration would surely be able to come up with a test that had both predictive validity yet no disparate impact by race. Good luck, Reaganites!
Over 40 years later, that still hasn’t happened. It’s almost as if it can’t be done.
But some elements of the federal government held out, such as the Foreign Service, which kept requiring job applicants pass the Foreign Service Officer Test.
From Federal News Network:
State Department rethinks how it vets Foreign Service candidates to diversify ranks
Jory Heckman@jheckmanWFED
June 10, 2022 9:58 amThe State Department is making the biggest change in decades to how it screens applicants seeking to join the Foreign Service.
The agency, starting this month, will no longer use Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) scores as the sole criteria for who moves on to the next steps of the selection process.
All Foreign Service applicants will still take the written test, but the State Department will no longer treat the FSOT as a “pass/fail gateway.”
Instead, qualification evaluation panels will instead take a candidate’s personal narrative statements, and their background and qualifications — as well as their FSOT score — into consideration, to determine who will move on to the oral exam stage of the selection process.
State Department officials, as part of a broader modernization of the agency, expect these changes will help diversify the incoming ranks of the Foreign Service.
Holistic hiring, if you will.
An association representing Foreign Service officers says it generally supports reforming Foreign Service hiring, but still has questions about how the agency will use artificial intelligence tools to vet candidates.
Mica Schweitzer-Bluhm, director of recruitment in the department’s Bureau of Global Talent Management said these changes will provide a more holistic view of candidates.
“It ensures that all applicants can present a full picture of their individual qualifications,” Schweitzer-Bluhm said in a recent interview.
The department said these changes mark the most significant overhaul to the Foreign Service evaluation process since 1930. …
Brian McKeon, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month that the department expects these changes will increase the diversity of incoming Foreign Service classes.
“Some people don’t take tests well. Some people have the resources to take courses to help them pass the written test. So we want to make sure that we are not screening out qualified officers by just the written test,” McKeon said during a May 3 hearing.
McKeon said he failed the Foreign Service exam in the 1980s.
“I came out OK, so not everybody can pass the test,” McKeon told the committee.
… The American Foreign Service Association generally supports these changes, but seeks greater transparency into the agency’s use of artificial intelligence tools to assess candidates.
“The AI will make the first cut now, since the exam is no longer the first cut, because there’s no longer a passing score,” Rubin said. “This is not all new, and we’re not necessarily opposed to it, but we do think there needs to be more explanation of how this is going to work.”
The Foreign Service receives as many as 20,000 applications a year, but Rubin said in recent years, it’s been receiving about 6,000 applications a year.
“But even 6,000 is too many for people to individually review,” he said.
Once the AI algorithm screens candidates, Foreign Service examiners, made up of active-duty members of the Foreign Service and outside public members, will review the remaining candidates and decide who goes forward with the oral exam.
Rubin said AFSA still has unanswered questions about how the algorithm from a third-party contractor will assess candidates.
I’m sure that adding an AI element to the hiring process will increase diversity. I mean, whoever heard of a robot being racist? Robots don’t have eyes so they can’t see what skin color an applicant has.
… Once a Foreign Service officer makes it through their probationary period, which about 98% of them do, Rubin said they’re permitted to serve for 27 years, unless there’s a problem with their performance.
It’s a nice job.
… The State Department during the Biden administration has taken steps to address long-standing diversity challenges in the Foreign Service — as documented over decades by the Government Accountability Office and former Foreign Service officers.
Among its reforms, Secretary of State Antony Blinken appointed Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, a career employee with more than 30 years of experience, to serve as the agency’s first chief diversity and inclusion officer.
In this role, Abercrombie-Winstanley has been focused on studying the barriers that prevent diversity from flowing up to the Foreign Service’s top ranks.
There must be something completely idiosyncratic about why on average blacks don’t score well on the Foreign Service test. Whoever heard of that being true with any other test or career?
The department has also expanded its Thomas Pickering and Charles Rangel fellowships to bring more diverse talent into the Foreign Service.
In some cases, however, there’s been institutional resistance to these changes.
AFSA, in an article last year, said some Foreign Service officers selected through the Pickering and Rangel fellowship conceal this information, “for fear that their colleagues will treat them as back-door entrants — not real FSOs.”
English
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Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
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Hebrew
Hindi
Italian
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Persian
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Portuguese
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Turkish
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Our State Department/Foreign Service Officers haven’t exactly covered themselves with glory. So, may be breaking a few more eggs to make a new omelet may be a worthwhile experiment? Honestly, how much more can things go wrong with another bunch of morons?
Why not?
The State Department hasn’t had foreign language fluency standards for years.
Then I heard abiut Carolyn Kennedy being appointed ambassador to Japan. LolReplies: @Rob McX, @Prester John
Black folks not into volunteering for America.
The article says:
Affirmative Action candidates are ridiculously easy to identify by their fellow workers–in most cases it can be done in less than five minutes in a meeting.
The “equity” fanatics ought to consider “My Fair Lady” “The rain falls mainly on the plain” training in English for starters.
😉
A big problem is that they do these inane things, and Republican administrations do not reverse course. Ever.
But if you are stuck with "diversity", it is better to do this ethnic political allocation upfront and in the open.
Right now, the "diversity" is used as a cudgel to beat down deplorable whites and hi-jack the nation. "Civil rights"--what a laughable moniker--law and the "discrimination" lawsuit game is used to buff and shine the minoritarian "oppression!" narrative, attack and push out white deplorables, our history and culture, while breaking any sort of traditional standards and rules, including basic rule of law.
We'd be far better off without the "discrimination" legal farce and just open quotas. If politicians think the Foreign Service should hire 12% blacks because America is 12% black--then just do it. But you can keep the test and hire the best blacks you can find. If Chicago's elected leaders want the police force to be a third black, because the city is 1/3 black--just do it. But again, don't wreck the standards for all just hire the best blacks you can get. But the particular policies would be subject to--clarifying--political debate.
Just naked quotas are preferrable in several respects:
-- the are naked, in plain sight so less lying about what is going on
-- you can preserve whatever standards, don't have to nuke them to try and get diverse candidates
-- quotas bypass all the "discrimination" narrative nonsense (e.g. "structural racism") that is used to build minoritarianism and attack whites
-- white deplorables--whose ancestors built this nation--can also demand *their* quotas; demand that they get their share and are not just some sort of amorphous "everyone else" blob that can be looted by Asians, Jews, random immigrants and fight against being displaced ... which will also help build a positive sense of identity.
I say bring out the sunshine. Make 'em make their ethnic sausage in broad daylight, not stab us in the back in the depth of night.Replies: @Old Prude
Probably the reason why blacks score lower on the foreign service officer test is that less of them attend private schools where they may learn useful foreign languages, come from less affluent families and therefore have less opportunity to take vacations overseas, and are less likely to grow up in homes filled with atlases and encyclopedias, and probably numerically less likely to take degrees in subjects like Latin American or European modern history
It is interesting to note that one black woman who had an interest in foreign affairs, Meghan Markle, failed the above test, but she was fairly successful in climbing the social ladder as an international freelance diplomat.
Anyway why does the US want more blacks in the foreign service? Is it so that they can dance in diplomatic grass skirts and blend in on postings to Africa or the Caribbean, or is it all to do with being inconspicuous spies?
Let's see how Barack Obama's girls score on that test, shall we, Jonathan? They have all the amenities that you've listed above that would allow them to succeed. Then again, the FSO appointments are beneath them, given their station. The problem with the arguments about testing and environmental advantages is that those who throw out the test in the name of arbitrary environmental advantages typically have to throw out what useful level of skills and intelligence are also measured.
As to why the US wants more blacks in the service, check what time it is. Blacks must be everywhere that is desirable, in greater proportion to their numbers. Regardless of their interests or aptitude, regardless of what is best for the country. It doesn't need to make sense.Replies: @ic1000, @SunBakedSuburb
It's not the lack of private schools, foreign language skills, or affluence. It's because the Foreign Service Officer Test requires a broad knowledge of all things American - history, geography, mathematics, economics, pop culture, etc. as well as an excellent command of the American English language. It takes above average intelligence and a lot of reading/study/knowledge. Does that sound like something at which blacks and Hispanics would excel?Replies: @Curle
Probably the reason has to do with natural selection.
Only at certain levels. Contrary to what you see in movies, most FSO’s don’t get London, Paris, or Rome. Most of the time it’s Third World countries. And all the overseas assignments get disruptive for family life as their children start getting older.
They also experience severe status-income disequilibrium. In these Third World countries, they get drivers, maids, etc., hobnob with elites of those countries, and their children go to the international schools with the children of foreign diplomats, business expats, and local elites. They get used to a lot of “free” amenities. Then they come home and live in townhouses next to plumbers and realtors. There is a pretty drastic collapse in status and material living conditions. Their children also often experience rootlessness (so many of them try hard to have their children attend high school stateside).
That said, many of them can retire early, get their full pensions, and contract back and collect another income (higher than their GS salaries). And, yes, the families get to experience the world.
Anyhow, as you mention its not nearly as glamorous as most make out. I took and passed the exam when I was in my early 20s, but ultimately didn't go through with the career move as we were involved in multiple Asian land wars at the time and I was assured by numerous sources that I would spend at least the first 10 years living in various 3rd world shitholes. It was also around this time I met my future wife and didn't think dragging her to Djibouti (if I was lucky) at the outset of our relationship would turn out well.Replies: @Twinkie
Lastly, considering the skills, qualifications, and accomplishments of Foreign Service Officers, the pay is nowhere near what similar qualifications would get in the non-government world. Hence, the adequate-not great-retirement package and the relative job security for a career working in less than great environments where in today's world an X mark is on your back overseas is the only thing going for joining. And the so-called "full pension" is based on a percentage of the years one worked. Unlike Senators and Federal judges who receive their FULL salary upon retirement, FSOs get much less and the COLA increases NEVER keep up with inflation. Hope this helps clarify things a bit.Replies: @Hangnail Hans, @Twinkie, @Twinkie, @Anon
Abortion.
It is interesting to note that one black woman who had an interest in foreign affairs, Meghan Markle, failed the above test, but she was fairly successful in climbing the social ladder as an international freelance diplomat.
Anyway why does the US want more blacks in the foreign service? Is it so that they can dance in diplomatic grass skirts and blend in on postings to Africa or the Caribbean, or is it all to do with being inconspicuous spies?Replies: @John Milton's Ghost, @Twinkie, @Curle, @Anonymous, @Daniel Dravot, @Art Deco
Through the looking glass with Jonathan. Meghan Markle interested in foreign affairs? Insert old Tonight Show joke with laugh track here. Miss Markle was a D-list actor who was able to snag the spare to the throne and now plays social media games to try to amplify herself as someone who Thinks Deeply. Young women and Twitter obsessed (but I repeat myself) are impressed with her; the rest of the world not so much.
Let’s see how Barack Obama’s girls score on that test, shall we, Jonathan? They have all the amenities that you’ve listed above that would allow them to succeed. Then again, the FSO appointments are beneath them, given their station. The problem with the arguments about testing and environmental advantages is that those who throw out the test in the name of arbitrary environmental advantages typically have to throw out what useful level of skills and intelligence are also measured.
As to why the US wants more blacks in the service, check what time it is. Blacks must be everywhere that is desirable, in greater proportion to their numbers. Regardless of their interests or aptitude, regardless of what is best for the country. It doesn’t need to make sense.
Time and again, Jonathan shows that he is in on his own joke. So it's all good.Replies: @John Milton’s Ghost
What is it about Black Girl Magic that you don't find desirable?Replies: @nebulafox
Hopefully things will change.
It is interesting to note that one black woman who had an interest in foreign affairs, Meghan Markle, failed the above test, but she was fairly successful in climbing the social ladder as an international freelance diplomat.
Anyway why does the US want more blacks in the foreign service? Is it so that they can dance in diplomatic grass skirts and blend in on postings to Africa or the Caribbean, or is it all to do with being inconspicuous spies?Replies: @John Milton's Ghost, @Twinkie, @Curle, @Anonymous, @Daniel Dravot, @Art Deco
Are you kidding me? The Foreign Service takes a sizable number of former military personnel (it’s attractive for the latter, too, since they get to tack onto the GS rating). And the military is now something like 30+% nonwhite.
It’s not the lack of private schools, foreign language skills, or affluence. It’s because the Foreign Service Officer Test requires a broad knowledge of all things American – history, geography, mathematics, economics, pop culture, etc. as well as an excellent command of the American English language. It takes above average intelligence and a lot of reading/study/knowledge. Does that sound like something at which blacks and Hispanics would excel?
I recall reading a rant several years ago from some career civil servant, might have been foreign service, complaining about veterans preference and the impact it was having on her employer’s culture. Apparently, she viewed veterans as overly Christian and Republican rubes getting worthless degrees from fly-by-night colleges using service related college money. Gave me a chuckle to think of some govt agency shifting away from the Lefties because of an recruiting program.Replies: @Twinkie
I don’t have a problem with this.
Up here in Canuckistan, socialized medicine banned for profit MRI centers, because The Rich shouldn’t be able to get better health care than everyone else.
Today in the USA, blacks are the great leveler. 60 years of trying to pull them up to the standards of wypipo have failed, so the current solution in policing, hiring, college admissions, medical school, etc., and now the Foreign Service is to lower the standards so that, as my 7 year old daughter said about soccer, “Everyone gets a trophy!”
It is interesting to note that one black woman who had an interest in foreign affairs, Meghan Markle, failed the above test, but she was fairly successful in climbing the social ladder as an international freelance diplomat.
Anyway why does the US want more blacks in the foreign service? Is it so that they can dance in diplomatic grass skirts and blend in on postings to Africa or the Caribbean, or is it all to do with being inconspicuous spies?Replies: @John Milton's Ghost, @Twinkie, @Curle, @Anonymous, @Daniel Dravot, @Art Deco
“Probably the reason why blacks score lower on the foreign service officer test is . . . “
Probably the reason has to do with natural selection.
On a related topic, Freddie DeBoer has published a comprehensive survey essay on the potential of education to overcome innate gaps in intelligence/achievement: LINK
TL;DR: education fails utterly in terms of gap-closing.
DeBoer still clings, at least rhetorically/publically, to his belief that this is a purely individual-vs-individual phenomenon.
It's not the lack of private schools, foreign language skills, or affluence. It's because the Foreign Service Officer Test requires a broad knowledge of all things American - history, geography, mathematics, economics, pop culture, etc. as well as an excellent command of the American English language. It takes above average intelligence and a lot of reading/study/knowledge. Does that sound like something at which blacks and Hispanics would excel?Replies: @Curle
“The Foreign Service takes a sizable number of former military personnel (it’s attractive for the latter, too, since they get to tack onto the GS rating).”
I recall reading a rant several years ago from some career civil servant, might have been foreign service, complaining about veterans preference and the impact it was having on her employer’s culture. Apparently, she viewed veterans as overly Christian and Republican rubes getting worthless degrees from fly-by-night colleges using service related college money. Gave me a chuckle to think of some govt agency shifting away from the Lefties because of an recruiting program.
TL;DR: education fails utterly in terms of gap-closing.
DeBoer still clings, at least rhetorically/publically, to his belief that this is a purely individual-vs-individual phenomenon.Replies: @The Last Real Calvinist
Gah, publicly.
Standards are racist. We used to know that in our bones.
Comic-relief time. Supposedly a foreign-service-officer joke told amongst themselves years ago:
An Indian, an American, and a Singaporean are asked, what is your opinion of the nutritional value of beef? The Indian replies, what is “beef”? The American replies, what is “nutritional value”? The Singaporean replies, What is “an opinion”?
They also experience severe status-income disequilibrium. In these Third World countries, they get drivers, maids, etc., hobnob with elites of those countries, and their children go to the international schools with the children of foreign diplomats, business expats, and local elites. They get used to a lot of “free” amenities. Then they come home and live in townhouses next to plumbers and realtors. There is a pretty drastic collapse in status and material living conditions. Their children also often experience rootlessness (so many of them try hard to have their children attend high school stateside).
That said, many of them can retire early, get their full pensions, and contract back and collect another income (higher than their GS salaries). And, yes, the families get to experience the world.Replies: @Arclight, @Aeolus, @The Wild Geese Howard
I used to live in a house (with several others) owned by an FSO in DC – so although they didn’t get to live in the townhouse they bought for a very long stretch of time, it was a great investment. They bought for like a hundred grand in the 80s and looking at Zillow tonight it’s worth about \$2M. I couldn’t believe my good luck to live in that location when I was young.
Anyhow, as you mention its not nearly as glamorous as most make out. I took and passed the exam when I was in my early 20s, but ultimately didn’t go through with the career move as we were involved in multiple Asian land wars at the time and I was assured by numerous sources that I would spend at least the first 10 years living in various 3rd world shitholes. It was also around this time I met my future wife and didn’t think dragging her to Djibouti (if I was lucky) at the outset of our relationship would turn out well.
Let's see how Barack Obama's girls score on that test, shall we, Jonathan? They have all the amenities that you've listed above that would allow them to succeed. Then again, the FSO appointments are beneath them, given their station. The problem with the arguments about testing and environmental advantages is that those who throw out the test in the name of arbitrary environmental advantages typically have to throw out what useful level of skills and intelligence are also measured.
As to why the US wants more blacks in the service, check what time it is. Blacks must be everywhere that is desirable, in greater proportion to their numbers. Regardless of their interests or aptitude, regardless of what is best for the country. It doesn't need to make sense.Replies: @ic1000, @SunBakedSuburb
Art Deco’s comment #5 included the word “inane.” Jonathan Mason’s #6 is a celebration of the concept.
Time and again, Jonathan shows that he is in on his own joke. So it’s all good.
Hey young white men, don’t forget to sign up to defend a country that hates your guts and gives you no opportunities!
What a sap you are Steve. I knew several people in the 1990s who were applying to the Foreign Service.
Shocker, the scales were already pushed in favor blacks, Hispanics and women. Everyone know it. Heck, the Foreign Service admitted it.
All of this has been going on for decades. The question is what are you going to do about it. Show our rulers another graph? Write another snarky article?
Time to choose sides, Steve. Oh wait, that’s not what you – and the other colorblind CivNats – do. You hide behind platitudes and magic words on a piece of paper, otherwise known as the Constitution.
Honestly, I respect the Progessives more. At least, they’re honest about which side that they’re on – and they fight.
Some of us cherish certain aspects of "civic nationalism" such as freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms. But they have no place in your world. If Nancy Pelosi gets into a pickle with Clarence Thomas, we have to take her side or be race traitors. If we were to take a purely racial view of, say, pistol licensing policy, well, our race originated on the island of Great Britain. Have you checked their gun laws recently?
The fact is we need a whole bouquet of tactics to fight-- race realism, civic nationalism, Christian faith, medical research, and so on. Why throw out any one of them? Amputation never helped anyone wrestle his opponent.
I want progressives to suffer as much as you do-- even more, e.g. labeling FDR a war criminal and taking him off the dime-- but the way to do it isn't to negate their-- and hence our-- right to speak out. The ends don't justify the means.Replies: @kaganovitch, @International Jew, @SFG, @Jenner Ickham Errican
In the 90s, after graduating college, I took the written test & passed it.
At the time at least, it had a very pronounced focus on early US history… like after Independence but before the Constitution. So there were lots of questions about Articles of Confederation-era stuff and the move to a more centralized Federal structure.
I guess their reasoning was that FSOs would be dealing with youngish nations still working out their own kinks on their way to getting it all figured out like us (lol).
I don’t see how wokeness and hatred of whites can be defeated outside of a what Trump was accused of wanting, but actually has too scared or lazy or moderate to try for: a sort of Putinist state that preserves multiparty and democratic institutions but uses state power and law enforcement violence to suppress domestic opposition.
Here’s why I see us never winning otherwise: we risk our jobs, reputation and physical safety opposing wokeness, while the woke haven’t the slightest downside no matter how radical they get, while advancing each other’s status within rich institutions.
To get to a level playing field, we’d need to be able to harm the careers of someone like Judith Butler and Angela Davis like what’s happening to Amy Wax. Or Ilya Somin, who was just woke-mobbed out of his job at Georgetown Law School for saying that Justice Katanji wasn’t the most qualified pick for the Supreme Court.
That’s just never going to happen.
I think Trump’s early decision to fire Bannon was an absolute disaster, because Bannon was capable of moving us toward Putinism, whose first step is purging the left out of the executive branch.
I was looking forward to DeSantis as someone cannier and more able. My one and only hesitation is he polls worse against Biden and other leading Dems than Trump. Trump has a divine gift of showmanship and charisma that just turns out marginal white working class voters. All my wishful thinking won’t give DeSantis such gift. Perhaps if he gets Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon both behind him.
Final 2024 thought. Biden looks so much worse than in only 2019. Aging past 75 is unfortunately exponential. Trump seems to be avoiding this final cliff due to his very long-lived parents (father 94 mother 88. His two grandmothers lived to 96 and 84. One grandfather died in middle age of the Spanish Flu, the other at 88)
My maternal grandfather was very unlucky - both of his parents lived past 90 but he died of lung cancer at 66. He buried his mother only a year before he died.
My maternal grandmother’s body survived to 91 but Alzheimer’s destroyed her mind several years before she died. (Her mother died at 94.)
My father, on the other hand, has just turned 66, and he has now outlived both of his parents by a couple of decades. So go figure.
Biden has the same glassy-eyed look that I saw on my grandmother’s face. Watching him stumble through a speech is almost enough to trigger my PTSD. (Alzheimer’s is an ugly disease.)
Up until 80 Grandma seemed to be doing fairly well. She was never a genius, so it’s possible that I dismissed the earliest signs of her disease as just the usual stupidity. But around 82 or 83 her decline became undeniable.
The first big sign of trouble came when she was diagnosed with diabetes. She wasn’t obese but she had a sweet tooth.
She was secretive about her health. She always insisted on doing her injections in private.
One day I was at her house when I saw her retrieve an insulin “pen” from a cabinet in the living room. She began preparing to attach a needle to the pen.
I asked her what she was doing and she said, “I have to take my insulin twice a day.”
“Why do you keep the insulin in the cabinet?” I asked.
“Where else am I going to keep it?”
“You’re supposed to keep it in the refrigerator.”
“Oh, really? Well, don’t worry. I’ve been keeping it in the cabinet since I began taking it and it hasn’t hurt me yet.”
At that moment it dawned on me that she had been injecting herself with unrefrigerated insulin for several *months*.
Naturally, I freaked out. I ran over and grabbed the pen out of her hand and threw it away. (She was royally pissed.) She had several unused pens in the cabinet, all of which I discarded immediately over her loud objections. I called in a refill right away.
God knows what kind of damage she had already done to herself.
I had always spent a lot of time at her house but the insulin incident marked the beginning of the period where I was afraid to leave her alone. And it was all downhill from there.
During the absolute worst period she was practically psychotic. Being around her on a bad day was a horrifying ordeal, one that left me completely demoralized and drained. At times I felt like I was teetering on the brink of madness myself.Replies: @HammerJack, @Ralph L, @The Anti-Gnostic, @SunBakedSuburb, @Onebelowall
Steve can keep trotting out posts on the latest nonsense and we can rant, but we aren't winning back anything pointing out how stupid or corrupted or ridiculous this or that is.
What we need is separation. After the border that should be a prime focus. Basically "you go have your insanity over there, but you don't get to impose it on us." Start with things like vouchers to energize non-woke education. And work to allow separate housing/neighborhoods. And push on with building separate institutions--separate Twitter and Facebook, separate entertainment, separate banking, etc. Whatever is necessary.
The gist of this is right now there is no choice. So effectively, although the police aren't breaking down my door--not even Steve's door--we are in a totalitarian state. There is only one path, one view allowed.
But if conservatives can enable their ability to separate, then people have the ability to choose. With the ability of people to choose the power of the "woke" over the sane craters.Replies: @Pixo
The State Department/Foreign Service has been both woke and diverse for many years, at least at the level that ordinary people come into contact with it.
Years ago, I applied to be an FSO. I waded through all the woke/diversity propaganda, I passed all the tests. Contrary to Jonathan Mason’s uninformed comment, the process did not include any test of foreign languages. I passed the various exams and got to the final hurdle, a day of slightly unorthodox interviews. They ejected me along with most of the other white guys. No explanations given.
Looking later at the photo of the matriculating “class” of new Foreign Service Officers the State Department had selected, it was a variegated mass of browns with a few blacks and whites. Maybe something like recent Ivy League admissions yield, except less athletic.
A decade or so later I was at a cultural festival where I was cooling my heels at a long picnic table. An attractive family with young children was at the other end of the table, but all of us were there to rest, so we ignored each other. Then the fattest dot Indian I’ve ever seen came and sat down between us. He was so fat he was almost spherical. The bench rose perceptibly on the ends as he sat in the middle. He was coated in a film of perspiration, presumably from the effort of moving his vast bulk about. Barely suppressed alarm registered on the faces of the family on the sudden appearance of this menacing creature. Breaking the polite silence that had prevailed, he immediately engaged the family in somewhat awkward conversation. He must have been born in India and immigrated to the US at some point after puberty, since he still had a strong Indian accent. He had a somewhat pushy manner, asking nosy personal questions to the parents of the family: highly undiplomatic for a stranger. Though visibly offput, the parents didn’t want to remove all their family and gear, so they diffidently answered the intruder’s questions.
It turned out the parents were from two different foreign countries, which I noted to myself happened to be the two foreign countries that I had secretly decided to be stationed in had I been made an FSO. By a further coincidence, the fat Indian spoke both of the parents’ languages pretty fluently. Astonished (and perhaps a little disgusted, realizing he may have overheard some of their family conversation), they asked him how he had learned their languages. He revealed himself to be a Foreign Service Officer, and he further revealed he had been stationed in each of their home countries. That caught my attention.
The family asked if he already knew their languages before becoming an FSO? No, the State Department had trained him.
How long had he been a Foreign Service Officer? He gave the date he began. It was shortly after I had applied and been turned down.
Huh, I thought, so this is guy to whom the State Department gave the career to which I had aspired. He may have been obese, awkward, pushy, undiplomatic, off-putting, and not even a real citizen, but at least he was wasn’t white. Maybe they could have found someone worse, but I’m not sure how.
Can’t say I care. Maybe a dumbed down Foreign Service will be less susceptible to the current propaganda that drives American foreign policy. It can’t possibly get any worse. If Blacks in the foreign service are less likely to support Zelenksy’s war of insanity, they have my full unadulterated support.
Anything that undermines this corrupt satanic empire would be an improvement.
It is interesting to note that one black woman who had an interest in foreign affairs, Meghan Markle, failed the above test, but she was fairly successful in climbing the social ladder as an international freelance diplomat.
Anyway why does the US want more blacks in the foreign service? Is it so that they can dance in diplomatic grass skirts and blend in on postings to Africa or the Caribbean, or is it all to do with being inconspicuous spies?Replies: @John Milton's Ghost, @Twinkie, @Curle, @Anonymous, @Daniel Dravot, @Art Deco
Meghan Markle is a mulata
“It’s a nice job”
It has a number of potentially nice aspects, but think about a) the places you have to go (think a young Obama eating dog) and b) you must toe the government’s line or be left with almost nothing if you’re not independently wealthy.
actually, there is a kind of a case for America to have more blacks as diplomats, as this might help America in Africa, the continent that due to its booming population, will have growing importance in the 21st century…this, of course, as long as standards are not compromised, and far left wokes are not included, but we know of course this will not happen
Lol.
The vast majority of Africans hate American blacks. There are many reasons why.
One issue is colorism in Africa--dark skin blacks see light skin blacks as enemies and vice versa. That is the short version--the longer version has to do with suspicions that the Americans have loyalty to one tribe or another, and that tribe might be the enemy.
American blacks generally come across as arrogant and spoiled and ungrateful--in other words, jerks.Replies: @Anonymous
99% of Indians (Pakistanis, Bangladeshis etc…) are not worthy of living in a first world environment, ever, due to cultural and genetic reasons. Out of the rest, the 1% who can live and contribute to a first world country, 99% are anti-White or even anti-Yellow (Marxist + Hindutva/ Islamist). That leaves a wafer thin 0.01% population with the IQ, mannerisms, attitudes etc…to ever live in a first World country. So in the entire Indian subcontinent of 1.6 billion , about 160000 people. That sounds about right. Nah, even that seems too high. So I would say, from the entire subcontinent, about 5000 odd people. Max. Ever. Are worthy, for the entire First World.
The quality of our Foreign Service Officers has decidedly dropped in the last 15-20 years. It’s shocking how low quality people I meet at various Embassy functions I attend.
Finally – every single FSO lifer that I know has retired with a lifestyle that couldn’t possible be supported by their FSO salary and pension. Makes a girl think.
Shocker, the scales were already pushed in favor blacks, Hispanics and women. Everyone know it. Heck, the Foreign Service admitted it.
All of this has been going on for decades. The question is what are you going to do about it. Show our rulers another graph? Write another snarky article?
Time to choose sides, Steve. Oh wait, that's not what you - and the other colorblind CivNats - do. You hide behind platitudes and magic words on a piece of paper, otherwise known as the Constitution.
Honestly, I respect the Progessives more. At least, they're honest about which side that they're on - and they fight.Replies: @Reg Cæsar, @Achmed E. Newman
What are you going to do about it?
Some of us cherish certain aspects of “civic nationalism” such as freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms. But they have no place in your world. If Nancy Pelosi gets into a pickle with Clarence Thomas, we have to take her side or be race traitors. If we were to take a purely racial view of, say, pistol licensing policy, well, our race originated on the island of Great Britain. Have you checked their gun laws recently?
The fact is we need a whole bouquet of tactics to fight– race realism, civic nationalism, Christian faith, medical research, and so on. Why throw out any one of them? Amputation never helped anyone wrestle his opponent.
I want progressives to suffer as much as you do– even more, e.g. labeling FDR a war criminal and taking him off the dime– but the way to do it isn’t to negate their– and hence our– right to speak out. The ends don’t justify the means.
Given the performance of the State Department so far in the most important situation it’s ever been in and having chosen, I don’t see how this might not be an improvement. The self-radicalisation of the upper middle classes and particularly those from certain backgrounds from ‘Russiagate’ has been amazing to watch. I’d sleep better knowing they weren’t too heavy on the ground in future in State.
Like with how with how John Kerry got tricked into giving a precondition that would preclude a US invasion of Syria while saying ‘but they won’t do that’ and Syria doing just that or how Iran keeps offering more concessions to try to get back the nuclear deal to remove any supposed casus belli from the US and Israel and Biden is throwing up his hands ‘if only they would negotiate!’.
Now we will soon have the Russians offer a peace deal which, regardless of what it is, they will reject. Minsk was sabotaged, this will be rejected. And then what?
The Serbian president recently said what every world leader is privately thinking. (Including perhaps Biden, who may feel as if he isn’t really the ‘they’)
“I know what awaits us. As soon as Vladimir Putin finishes business in Sieversk, Bakhmut and Soledar, and then on the second line Sloviansk – Kramatorsk – Avdeevka, his proposal will follow. If they don’t accept it, and they don’t intend to, we will go to hell,”
I think we could use less of the people who did this in charge of US diplomacy.
Some of us cherish certain aspects of "civic nationalism" such as freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms. But they have no place in your world. If Nancy Pelosi gets into a pickle with Clarence Thomas, we have to take her side or be race traitors. If we were to take a purely racial view of, say, pistol licensing policy, well, our race originated on the island of Great Britain. Have you checked their gun laws recently?
The fact is we need a whole bouquet of tactics to fight-- race realism, civic nationalism, Christian faith, medical research, and so on. Why throw out any one of them? Amputation never helped anyone wrestle his opponent.
I want progressives to suffer as much as you do-- even more, e.g. labeling FDR a war criminal and taking him off the dime-- but the way to do it isn't to negate their-- and hence our-- right to speak out. The ends don't justify the means.Replies: @kaganovitch, @International Jew, @SFG, @Jenner Ickham Errican
Hear, hear!
https://www.unz.com/isteve/the-not-so-great-reset-comes-for-the-foreign-service-officers-test/#comment-5451381
I have a married nephew who is in the Foreign Service. He’s ex-Navy. There are many downsides.
Places like Mali or Mongolia are the rule, and not the exception for much of one’s career, no matter how good you are.
One spouse is, for all practical purposes, unemployed or underemployed, so your building a life around a single federal government salary. The perks and allowances are so finely tuned (and taxed) that there’s only about the same amount of disposable income as living in Washington DC.
If the second spouse does indeed have a viable career (such as being another Foreign Service officer) the strains on the marriage, long-term, are immense.
The kids get dislocated every three years, and could end up in pretty mediocre schools in the crucial high-school years. These days, US colleges make no special allowances for Americans applying from overseas; they’re up against the Asian hordes with perfect scores and resumes. There’s glamour associated with mom or dad being a diplomat, but, especially in higher income countries, their classmates in the American schools around the world are often kids of well-to-do corporate expatriate executives, who are far better resourced, financially, than they are. So they miss out on being able to share that aspect of American expatriate life overseas; often, their classmates go off to summer schools, or gap years overseas, or fancy vacations. They don’t, and they don’t get to see or experience much of the life of more normally resourced Americans, as they would in a public school at home.
If my kid were enamored with the prospect of a career spent abroad, I’d encourage him to try and get into a career program with a big American bank, on their international side. It’s easier to get into, and the pay is much better, and you get to live in nicer places, like London or Tokyo.
So even when the State Department hires white women, they diversify themselves.
Finally - every single FSO lifer that I know has retired with a lifestyle that couldn’t possible be supported by their FSO salary and pension. Makes a girl think.Replies: @Almost Missouri
That’s a keen observation. I don’t know if this explains it, but an FSO, assuming that I would soon join the club, told me to use the overseas wages to put a down payment on a property in the US, which could then be rented out while overseas, and which would also appreciate in value. By “property” she meant something like a Georgetown condo. She said this is what FSOs do as a “nest egg”.
Of course, she and her colleagues were doing this in the 1980s and 1990s, so they got the 2000% appreciation that Arclight described above. For new FSOs getting into the game now, is there another 2000% of headroom in the DC property market? I dunno.
I guess they could buy North Dakota dirt farms instead. They’re more affordable to get into, and nuclear refugees and famine should drive up those prices. As a bonus, in their FSO role they can help bring those circumstances about, thereby enlarging their nest egg.
Of course, it could also be that a lot of FSOs are just crooked. In most of the countries they are stationed in, things we think of as “corruption” the locals think of as “business as usual”, so it’s not like opportunities don’t exist.
Some of us cherish certain aspects of "civic nationalism" such as freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms. But they have no place in your world. If Nancy Pelosi gets into a pickle with Clarence Thomas, we have to take her side or be race traitors. If we were to take a purely racial view of, say, pistol licensing policy, well, our race originated on the island of Great Britain. Have you checked their gun laws recently?
The fact is we need a whole bouquet of tactics to fight-- race realism, civic nationalism, Christian faith, medical research, and so on. Why throw out any one of them? Amputation never helped anyone wrestle his opponent.
I want progressives to suffer as much as you do-- even more, e.g. labeling FDR a war criminal and taking him off the dime-- but the way to do it isn't to negate their-- and hence our-- right to speak out. The ends don't justify the means.Replies: @kaganovitch, @International Jew, @SFG, @Jenner Ickham Errican
What’s your beef with FDR?
Can't speak for Reg, naturally. But honestly...
What ISN'T one's beef with FDR?
There is also his erosion of the neutrality he was sworn to defend, which led us into war. As nasty as Pearl Harbor was, it was arguably invited by our dishonest foreign policy, thus hardly a war crime, and should have been no surprise.
I will give FDR credit for keeping baseball and horse racing going (Reader's Digest raked him over the coals about the latter), and for continuing his Republican predecessors' immigration policy. Yes, Congress sets that, but Congress generally gave him whatever he wanted. Packing the Court was a rare exception.Replies: @Art Deco
Your standards are admirably high. But you may be utterly disappointed if you ever visit these shores. If you think of all the people that may be living in this country by 2050, you may even get a Heart Attack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNj0z8_PZ9s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znDppiQ3pY8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk4pG3qOX1Y
Why the West is superior to India - Jayant Bhandari and Patrick Casey
Places like Mali or Mongolia are the rule, and not the exception for much of one's career, no matter how good you are.
One spouse is, for all practical purposes, unemployed or underemployed, so your building a life around a single federal government salary. The perks and allowances are so finely tuned (and taxed) that there's only about the same amount of disposable income as living in Washington DC.
If the second spouse does indeed have a viable career (such as being another Foreign Service officer) the strains on the marriage, long-term, are immense.
The kids get dislocated every three years, and could end up in pretty mediocre schools in the crucial high-school years. These days, US colleges make no special allowances for Americans applying from overseas; they're up against the Asian hordes with perfect scores and resumes. There's glamour associated with mom or dad being a diplomat, but, especially in higher income countries, their classmates in the American schools around the world are often kids of well-to-do corporate expatriate executives, who are far better resourced, financially, than they are. So they miss out on being able to share that aspect of American expatriate life overseas; often, their classmates go off to summer schools, or gap years overseas, or fancy vacations. They don't, and they don't get to see or experience much of the life of more normally resourced Americans, as they would in a public school at home.
If my kid were enamored with the prospect of a career spent abroad, I'd encourage him to try and get into a career program with a big American bank, on their international side. It's easier to get into, and the pay is much better, and you get to live in nicer places, like London or Tokyo.Replies: @Almost Missouri, @Twinkie
Funnily enough, both active FSO women I know of are middle aged white ladies who married third world men they met while on deployment. (Why yes, both husbands were from Africa! How did you know?) Now they have captive husbands who can’t really object to the FSO lifestyle!
So even when the State Department hires white women, they diversify themselves.
Longevity is tricky.
My maternal grandfather was very unlucky – both of his parents lived past 90 but he died of lung cancer at 66. He buried his mother only a year before he died.
My maternal grandmother’s body survived to 91 but Alzheimer’s destroyed her mind several years before she died. (Her mother died at 94.)
My father, on the other hand, has just turned 66, and he has now outlived both of his parents by a couple of decades. So go figure.
Biden has the same glassy-eyed look that I saw on my grandmother’s face. Watching him stumble through a speech is almost enough to trigger my PTSD. (Alzheimer’s is an ugly disease.)
Up until 80 Grandma seemed to be doing fairly well. She was never a genius, so it’s possible that I dismissed the earliest signs of her disease as just the usual stupidity. But around 82 or 83 her decline became undeniable.
The first big sign of trouble came when she was diagnosed with diabetes. She wasn’t obese but she had a sweet tooth.
She was secretive about her health. She always insisted on doing her injections in private.
One day I was at her house when I saw her retrieve an insulin “pen” from a cabinet in the living room. She began preparing to attach a needle to the pen.
I asked her what she was doing and she said, “I have to take my insulin twice a day.”
“Why do you keep the insulin in the cabinet?” I asked.
“Where else am I going to keep it?”
“You’re supposed to keep it in the refrigerator.”
“Oh, really? Well, don’t worry. I’ve been keeping it in the cabinet since I began taking it and it hasn’t hurt me yet.”
At that moment it dawned on me that she had been injecting herself with unrefrigerated insulin for several *months*.
Naturally, I freaked out. I ran over and grabbed the pen out of her hand and threw it away. (She was royally pissed.) She had several unused pens in the cabinet, all of which I discarded immediately over her loud objections. I called in a refill right away.
God knows what kind of damage she had already done to herself.
I had always spent a lot of time at her house but the insulin incident marked the beginning of the period where I was afraid to leave her alone. And it was all downhill from there.
During the absolute worst period she was practically psychotic. Being around her on a bad day was a horrifying ordeal, one that left me completely demoralized and drained. At times I felt like I was teetering on the brink of madness myself.
It's a real 'growth industry' nowadays. I've no idea if any of the supposed miracle cures on the horizon are legitimately promising. I really need to stop getting my medical intelligence from the Daily Mail.
Anyway, a captivating and well-written post, and I thank you for offering your perspective.Replies: @Stan Adams
Bruce Willis has that glassy-eyed look now too. His family needs to come to terms with his underlying condition and stop calling it "aphasia."
I am very sorry for your ordeal. Your grandmother was psychotic because she had lost all her mental anchors but you know this of course.
Joe Biden's family should burn in hell for having him medicated and propped up and wheeled from meaningless event to meaningless event after his executive-level decisionmaking has disappeared. He should be at home surrounded by familiar sights and faces.Replies: @prosa123
Peter Van Buren talked about his experience with this, in a recent column https://www.theamericanconservative.com/moving-beyond-affirmative-action/.
Places like Mali or Mongolia are the rule, and not the exception for much of one's career, no matter how good you are.
One spouse is, for all practical purposes, unemployed or underemployed, so your building a life around a single federal government salary. The perks and allowances are so finely tuned (and taxed) that there's only about the same amount of disposable income as living in Washington DC.
If the second spouse does indeed have a viable career (such as being another Foreign Service officer) the strains on the marriage, long-term, are immense.
The kids get dislocated every three years, and could end up in pretty mediocre schools in the crucial high-school years. These days, US colleges make no special allowances for Americans applying from overseas; they're up against the Asian hordes with perfect scores and resumes. There's glamour associated with mom or dad being a diplomat, but, especially in higher income countries, their classmates in the American schools around the world are often kids of well-to-do corporate expatriate executives, who are far better resourced, financially, than they are. So they miss out on being able to share that aspect of American expatriate life overseas; often, their classmates go off to summer schools, or gap years overseas, or fancy vacations. They don't, and they don't get to see or experience much of the life of more normally resourced Americans, as they would in a public school at home.
If my kid were enamored with the prospect of a career spent abroad, I'd encourage him to try and get into a career program with a big American bank, on their international side. It's easier to get into, and the pay is much better, and you get to live in nicer places, like London or Tokyo.Replies: @Almost Missouri, @Twinkie
This is not quite true, depending on circumstances. First of all, the USG pays for the international school costs. These are equivalents of prep schools back in the States. So if you have, say, three kids, you are saving somewhere between \$45,000 to \$100,000 or so each year. Moreover, the USG covers your housing overseas, which means you can lease out your own house. That another \$30,000-\$50,000 a year. Or, if you opt for a hardship post, you’ll get as high as a 1/3 bump of your salary (that’s not COLA).
Many FSOs and their families save extra money when they go overseas. And that’s not counting the elevated lifestyle in many Third World countries (the aforementioned driver, maid, etc.).
By the way, if you have a big family, the USG shells out for extra large housing! In places such as Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, and London, that’s quite the perk.
First of all, these days, most FSOs’ kids attend “international schools.” Yes, you get your local rich kids or the business expats, but these schools also have many children of American and foreign diplomats. And many of these schools, being essentially expensive prep schools, have programs, extracurricular activities, and resources that are far greater than those of typical public schools back home. On the other hand, there are limited choices – so if your kids don’t “click” with these schools, it can get pretty miserable.
Second, one positive aspect of overseas posting is that the families often end up living with other American FSO families and expats in the same communities and these tend to have a strong communal bond that the increasingly atomized Americans back home don’t experience anymore. Granted, that’s temporary, but I’ve known children of FSOs who opt to live overseas as expats when grown up, because they crave this tight bond that they cannot easily find back in the States.
When expats return to the USA, they're demoralized by the social atomization of the society. They miss having close, supportive friends and real communities.
When Americans become expats, suddenly they feel a need to socialize with one another. So being in an expat community can be a fun experience. It's much better than the social isolation that's the norm in today's America.Replies: @Twinkie
Sexist conservatives are the real anti-racists.
Can anyone tell what country is this in?
I recall reading a rant several years ago from some career civil servant, might have been foreign service, complaining about veterans preference and the impact it was having on her employer’s culture. Apparently, she viewed veterans as overly Christian and Republican rubes getting worthless degrees from fly-by-night colleges using service related college money. Gave me a chuckle to think of some govt agency shifting away from the Lefties because of an recruiting program.Replies: @Twinkie
During the W Bush years (yes, under Condi Rice), there was a big push to have the Foreign Service hire more veterans that coincided with attempts to redeploy more FSOs from Western Europe to places such as China and India.
Anyhow, as you mention its not nearly as glamorous as most make out. I took and passed the exam when I was in my early 20s, but ultimately didn't go through with the career move as we were involved in multiple Asian land wars at the time and I was assured by numerous sources that I would spend at least the first 10 years living in various 3rd world shitholes. It was also around this time I met my future wife and didn't think dragging her to Djibouti (if I was lucky) at the outset of our relationship would turn out well.Replies: @Twinkie
Djibouti is not appropriate for accompanied tour, but it’s a fascinating place. Your French would have gotten better, and you’d have learned a lot about international shipping. 😉
There was just an incident in Poland in which a black American beat a local and got away with it per SOFA. Shades of things to come.
….. Of course, it could also be that a lot of FSOs are just crooked….
Me thinks there‘s a fair amount of semi-legal backroom side deals going on. Plus many FSOs double dip with both state and Langley. I have 3 grade school buddies that were FSO lifers, through them I met a number of other FSO lifers. They all live way WAY above their federal pensions, it’s not even close.
Predictions:
— The 98 percent figure will drop precipitously, due to black candidates.
— “Problems with performance” fittings will increase precipitously, due to black employees, and the problems will grow in scope to include corruption, bribery, embezzlement, and Chinese, Russian, and Israeli female entanglements.
Clever CIA agents will support an opportunity and place black counterintelligence operatives in foreign embassies so they can be “compromised” and run as double agents.
The State Department hasn't had foreign language fluency standards for years.Replies: @Charflodles, @AndrewR, @Art Deco
Maybe 40 years ago I read an article by former Senator Walter Mondale (D Minn) about what a shame is was that the State Department no longer offered a good enough wage package to attract multi-lingual employees. BS, I thought, your people dropped the foreign language requirement during the Carter Administration to let more Negroes in, and you know it.
The State Department hasn't had foreign language fluency standards for years.Replies: @Charflodles, @AndrewR, @Art Deco
I used to think that ambassadors all had extensive experience living in the host nation for years, working their way up the ranks as they increase their knowledge of the culture, the language and the political situation.
Then I heard abiut Carolyn Kennedy being appointed ambassador to Japan. Lol
You know, like the presidency.
Do they have family money? Diplomacy was a traditional career for aristocrats.
A diplomat who’s independently wealthy is harder to subvert through bribes. And the rich grow up learning how to say all the right things and keep up appearances.
“What’s your beef with FDR?”
Can’t speak for Reg, naturally. But honestly…
What ISN’T one’s beef with FDR?
Not to mention shifting in a new and diverse crew could be very entertaining, for a while.
Most FSO’s these days don’t live in DC or even Rosslyn. They live in Fairfax or even Loudoun. And I don’t know about 2000%, but the appreciation in both counties have been pretty good, by and large. That said, new/young FSOs are going to have trouble buying into the market.
No. Most of these are just plain ol’ bureaucrats and they have neither the opportunities nor inclinations to engage in corruption. Besides, why would they endanger their pensions (and contractor second-salary after retirement) and gold-plated healthcare for some petty cash?
Er, black Americans don’t relate well to actual Africans and vice versa.
Let’s not kid ourselves, Biden looked ludicrously bad in 2019. There were … other factors that decided things. As we can all remember.
I took the foreign service exam when I was winding up my intensive Japanese studies program at International Christian University in Mitaka. A fellow student told me she was taking it and urged me to as well. I didn’t even know what the Foreign Service was and asked her and she said they staffed embassies and hosted great parties. So I took the test. It was held at the American embassy in Akasaka. I didn’t study for it and since I like taking tests — they’re kind of like games to me — I enjoyed it. It didn’t seem hard at all except for the part about then-current affairs in the States, about which I was pretty ignorant.
But anyway I passed and got invited to have an in-person interview…in Washington, D.C., getting there on my own dime. Geez, forget it, I thought. I wasn’t really interested in the job anyway. But I mentioned it to my dad, who was stationed in Yokosuka at the time, and he saw to it I got a Space-A flight from Yokota to Andrews. The plane was one of the last C-141s in service and the flight deck crew invited me to ride up front with them rather than in the back with the plebes. There were a couple of bunk beds and I spent most of the long grind across the Pacific sleeping.
The interview itself wasn’t much as I recall. There was a J-A there and he spoke to me in Japanese and asked me to read aloud an article from the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (日本経済新聞) and then translate it verbally into English, which I did with no prob. They were obviously interested in my fluency. The rest of the interview, which included lunch, seemed to be them sizing me up, assessing my personality and so forth.
Anyway, it was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. Afterwards, I toured the museums and monuments then flew back to Japan and forgot about it. A few months later I got a letter saying I was accepted but I wasn’t even slightly interested in having that sort of job, plus I had kind of gotten sick of Japan for various reasons and sure didn’t want to spend a career interpreting and translating Japanese so I passed.
A postscript: Some years later I was talking with a guy who was retired from Exxon-Mobil and we got on the subject of Japan and he told me that he had worked for Mobil Sekiyu in Otemachi back in the 1970s and one of the guys he worked with, a contract employee teaching English to Japanese staff, had also taken the foreign service exam at the embassy. He mentioned the guy’s name as if I would recognize it — Lance Ito — but it meant nothing to me. So he explained that he was the judge on the OJ Simpson trial. So apparently he had failed the FS exam or decided he’d rather go into law than the foreign service. Anyway, I said, wow, cool, or whatever that he had known this Ito guy, while thinking to myself, what were his parents thinking to name him Lance? Who ever heard of a J-A named Lance?
I do feel kind of sorry for all the Japanese Americans to be born before the rise of anime. That ancestry must have gotten a lot cooler fast.
My maternal grandfather was very unlucky - both of his parents lived past 90 but he died of lung cancer at 66. He buried his mother only a year before he died.
My maternal grandmother’s body survived to 91 but Alzheimer’s destroyed her mind several years before she died. (Her mother died at 94.)
My father, on the other hand, has just turned 66, and he has now outlived both of his parents by a couple of decades. So go figure.
Biden has the same glassy-eyed look that I saw on my grandmother’s face. Watching him stumble through a speech is almost enough to trigger my PTSD. (Alzheimer’s is an ugly disease.)
Up until 80 Grandma seemed to be doing fairly well. She was never a genius, so it’s possible that I dismissed the earliest signs of her disease as just the usual stupidity. But around 82 or 83 her decline became undeniable.
The first big sign of trouble came when she was diagnosed with diabetes. She wasn’t obese but she had a sweet tooth.
She was secretive about her health. She always insisted on doing her injections in private.
One day I was at her house when I saw her retrieve an insulin “pen” from a cabinet in the living room. She began preparing to attach a needle to the pen.
I asked her what she was doing and she said, “I have to take my insulin twice a day.”
“Why do you keep the insulin in the cabinet?” I asked.
“Where else am I going to keep it?”
“You’re supposed to keep it in the refrigerator.”
“Oh, really? Well, don’t worry. I’ve been keeping it in the cabinet since I began taking it and it hasn’t hurt me yet.”
At that moment it dawned on me that she had been injecting herself with unrefrigerated insulin for several *months*.
Naturally, I freaked out. I ran over and grabbed the pen out of her hand and threw it away. (She was royally pissed.) She had several unused pens in the cabinet, all of which I discarded immediately over her loud objections. I called in a refill right away.
God knows what kind of damage she had already done to herself.
I had always spent a lot of time at her house but the insulin incident marked the beginning of the period where I was afraid to leave her alone. And it was all downhill from there.
During the absolute worst period she was practically psychotic. Being around her on a bad day was a horrifying ordeal, one that left me completely demoralized and drained. At times I felt like I was teetering on the brink of madness myself.Replies: @HammerJack, @Ralph L, @The Anti-Gnostic, @SunBakedSuburb, @Onebelowall
Have you written more about this? It’s a mix of fascinating and terrifying. I’ve no real experience of it—even in my extended family—but I have the feeling that most of us will have the ‘pleasure’ before we die. Either ourselves or a loved one.
It’s a real ‘growth industry’ nowadays. I’ve no idea if any of the supposed miracle cures on the horizon are legitimately promising. I really need to stop getting my medical intelligence from the Daily Mail.
Anyway, a captivating and well-written post, and I thank you for offering your perspective.
After she lost her mobility we had a CNA come to her house to bathe her every day. On bad days she believed that the CNA was trying to rape her. She was a tiny woman but when she thought she was being “raped” she fought back with every ounce of her being. She had long sharp nails - it was not easy to persuade her to allow us to get them cut - and she could break the skin quite easily. Over the course of a year she scratched my hands up pretty badly on multiple occasions.
CNAs began refusing the assignment. The agency kept sending different women to the house until finally one day they sent the only person available - a man.
Lo and behold, she liked him right away. He was strong enough to pick her up and carry her into the shower. She never complained. He even trimmed her nails without incident.
Occasionally she would suffer from hallucinations - giant flying bugs and the like.
My mother came over during the day but for a while I was alone with her at night. We slogged through many long nights. It was not uncommon for her to remain awake for 48 hours straight.
We got into a nasty family tiff about her care. My mother and I wanted to keep her in her own house. My uncle wanted to put her in a nursing home. My aunt wanted her to move in with them (my aunt, my cousin, her husband, their kids).
After some very unpleasant legal wrangling, during which I was accused of neglect, my aunt prevailed. (She had befriended my grandmother’s lawyer.) My aunt had custody of my grandmother for almost two years.
Then one day the craziness in that house caught up with her. My aunt discovered that my cousin was having an affair with a woman. This prompted an epic showdown that ended in a drunken meltdown. My cousin locked my aunt out of the house and my aunt called the police. The cops came to the house and found my grandmother languishing in a filthy house in a chaotic atmosphere and called an ambulance.
Then there was some further legal wrangling. Her house had been sold and due to the dueling accusations of neglect she couldn’t live with either of her daughters. For a brief period my mother and I had her in an apartment with round-the-clock care. Eventually she ended up in a nursing home.
When my mother complained about conditions at the nursing home, the lawyer had us removed from the visitation list.
The lawyer, a tiny little lady, was openly contemptuous of my mother, a big fat woman prone to hysterical outbursts. Fortunately she got along fine with me. I couldn’t stand her but I wasn’t stupid enough to show it.
Eventually I sweet-talked her into restoring our visitation rights. But my loathing of her did not subside.
Incidentally, the lawyer ended up with quite a substantial amount of my grandmother’s money.
(She’s not Jewish, in case you were wondering. Evangelical Christian.)
Her husband is one of those smarmy realtor types - and a manlet, to boot. I had the misfortune of dealing with him when my grandmother’s house was being sold.
(Yes, the highly-ethical lawyer had her spouse handle the sale of her client’s house. My mother and my uncle acquiesced to this arrangement only because everyone was completely drained from the custody fight.)
He was appallingly unprofessional. He made a number of cracks about my weight. I bit my tongue but I was so tempted to grab this glib little 5’6” prick and smash him against the nearest wall.
I met his son once. I couldn’t decide if he was just a standard-issue soyboy or a full-scale fag.
The same thing happened way back in the bad old days, with the notorious cases in New York and New Haven w.r.t. their preferential hiring of minority candidates for police and firemen.
Since these candidates had disparate difficulties with the qualifying exams, it was naturally concluded that the exams must be racist. But then a few years later the same candidates had the same trouble qualifying for promotions.
You can probably guess what conclusions were drawn from that. Extrapolating: how long, I wonder, before skyscrapers collapse and planes fall from the sky?
Then I heard abiut Carolyn Kennedy being appointed ambassador to Japan. LolReplies: @Rob McX, @Prester John
Anglo-American language and culture have global dominance. It used to be French. Pierre Paul Cambon was ambassador to London from 1898 to 1920 without ever learning English.
Either way, it's retarded, especially in a situation like that. The UK was the most powerful nation in the world then, even if its elite all knew how to speak French.
Learning a foreign language helps you communicate better with people, and it helps you passively understand what's going on around you even when you're not being personally addressed. Diplomatic staff have every reason to learn the local language. To refuse to learn is to purposefully handicap their ability to act in their national interests.
To me, all of this seems too obvious to even mention, but I never fail to be astounded at the stupidity of other human beings. The fact Cambon was not only appointed to the most important French diplomatic mission in the world (except maybe Germany), but allowed to stay there for decades without learning English, proves beyond all doubt that France richly deserved its fall from grace into what can objectively be described as a country without much global relevance. Not that Anglo elites today have any less hubris than the French elites used to. It's not hard to see where we are headed.Replies: @Rob McX
This began to change in the 19th century, but well into the 20th century all diplomats were expected to know French.
Reversed by SCOTUS not an “administration”.
My maternal grandfather was very unlucky - both of his parents lived past 90 but he died of lung cancer at 66. He buried his mother only a year before he died.
My maternal grandmother’s body survived to 91 but Alzheimer’s destroyed her mind several years before she died. (Her mother died at 94.)
My father, on the other hand, has just turned 66, and he has now outlived both of his parents by a couple of decades. So go figure.
Biden has the same glassy-eyed look that I saw on my grandmother’s face. Watching him stumble through a speech is almost enough to trigger my PTSD. (Alzheimer’s is an ugly disease.)
Up until 80 Grandma seemed to be doing fairly well. She was never a genius, so it’s possible that I dismissed the earliest signs of her disease as just the usual stupidity. But around 82 or 83 her decline became undeniable.
The first big sign of trouble came when she was diagnosed with diabetes. She wasn’t obese but she had a sweet tooth.
She was secretive about her health. She always insisted on doing her injections in private.
One day I was at her house when I saw her retrieve an insulin “pen” from a cabinet in the living room. She began preparing to attach a needle to the pen.
I asked her what she was doing and she said, “I have to take my insulin twice a day.”
“Why do you keep the insulin in the cabinet?” I asked.
“Where else am I going to keep it?”
“You’re supposed to keep it in the refrigerator.”
“Oh, really? Well, don’t worry. I’ve been keeping it in the cabinet since I began taking it and it hasn’t hurt me yet.”
At that moment it dawned on me that she had been injecting herself with unrefrigerated insulin for several *months*.
Naturally, I freaked out. I ran over and grabbed the pen out of her hand and threw it away. (She was royally pissed.) She had several unused pens in the cabinet, all of which I discarded immediately over her loud objections. I called in a refill right away.
God knows what kind of damage she had already done to herself.
I had always spent a lot of time at her house but the insulin incident marked the beginning of the period where I was afraid to leave her alone. And it was all downhill from there.
During the absolute worst period she was practically psychotic. Being around her on a bad day was a horrifying ordeal, one that left me completely demoralized and drained. At times I felt like I was teetering on the brink of madness myself.Replies: @HammerJack, @Ralph L, @The Anti-Gnostic, @SunBakedSuburb, @Onebelowall
Then I will count myself lucky that my 94 y.o. father spends the evenings in the 1940s asking about his parents and long dead friends–and not waking up when he has to pee.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/18/nyregion/nyc-monkeypox-health-department-information-inaccurate.html
NYC refuses to tell the truth about monkeypox or give sound medical advice.
How can we live like this? It will be endemic.
Some of us cherish certain aspects of "civic nationalism" such as freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms. But they have no place in your world. If Nancy Pelosi gets into a pickle with Clarence Thomas, we have to take her side or be race traitors. If we were to take a purely racial view of, say, pistol licensing policy, well, our race originated on the island of Great Britain. Have you checked their gun laws recently?
The fact is we need a whole bouquet of tactics to fight-- race realism, civic nationalism, Christian faith, medical research, and so on. Why throw out any one of them? Amputation never helped anyone wrestle his opponent.
I want progressives to suffer as much as you do-- even more, e.g. labeling FDR a war criminal and taking him off the dime-- but the way to do it isn't to negate their-- and hence our-- right to speak out. The ends don't justify the means.Replies: @kaganovitch, @International Jew, @SFG, @Jenner Ickham Errican
Freedom of speech has a moderating effect on any regime, since you can’t shut your opponent up. This bothers progressives and actual fascists, for the same reason. But the rest of us like it just fine.
Burn After Reading, but with hair touching.
But anyway I passed and got invited to have an in-person interview...in Washington, D.C., getting there on my own dime. Geez, forget it, I thought. I wasn't really interested in the job anyway. But I mentioned it to my dad, who was stationed in Yokosuka at the time, and he saw to it I got a Space-A flight from Yokota to Andrews. The plane was one of the last C-141s in service and the flight deck crew invited me to ride up front with them rather than in the back with the plebes. There were a couple of bunk beds and I spent most of the long grind across the Pacific sleeping.
The interview itself wasn't much as I recall. There was a J-A there and he spoke to me in Japanese and asked me to read aloud an article from the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (日本経済新聞) and then translate it verbally into English, which I did with no prob. They were obviously interested in my fluency. The rest of the interview, which included lunch, seemed to be them sizing me up, assessing my personality and so forth.
Anyway, it was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. Afterwards, I toured the museums and monuments then flew back to Japan and forgot about it. A few months later I got a letter saying I was accepted but I wasn't even slightly interested in having that sort of job, plus I had kind of gotten sick of Japan for various reasons and sure didn't want to spend a career interpreting and translating Japanese so I passed.
A postscript: Some years later I was talking with a guy who was retired from Exxon-Mobil and we got on the subject of Japan and he told me that he had worked for Mobil Sekiyu in Otemachi back in the 1970s and one of the guys he worked with, a contract employee teaching English to Japanese staff, had also taken the foreign service exam at the embassy. He mentioned the guy's name as if I would recognize it -- Lance Ito -- but it meant nothing to me. So he explained that he was the judge on the OJ Simpson trial. So apparently he had failed the FS exam or decided he'd rather go into law than the foreign service. Anyway, I said, wow, cool, or whatever that he had known this Ito guy, while thinking to myself, what were his parents thinking to name him Lance? Who ever heard of a J-A named Lance?Replies: @SFG
Assimilation used to be a thing. Back in the 70s internment camps would have been in their minds, too.
I do feel kind of sorry for all the Japanese Americans to be born before the rise of anime. That ancestry must have gotten a lot cooler fast.
And from what people are saying here, still is!
A diplomat who’s independently wealthy is harder to subvert through bribes. And the rich grow up learning how to say all the right things and keep up appearances.
My maternal grandfather was very unlucky - both of his parents lived past 90 but he died of lung cancer at 66. He buried his mother only a year before he died.
My maternal grandmother’s body survived to 91 but Alzheimer’s destroyed her mind several years before she died. (Her mother died at 94.)
My father, on the other hand, has just turned 66, and he has now outlived both of his parents by a couple of decades. So go figure.
Biden has the same glassy-eyed look that I saw on my grandmother’s face. Watching him stumble through a speech is almost enough to trigger my PTSD. (Alzheimer’s is an ugly disease.)
Up until 80 Grandma seemed to be doing fairly well. She was never a genius, so it’s possible that I dismissed the earliest signs of her disease as just the usual stupidity. But around 82 or 83 her decline became undeniable.
The first big sign of trouble came when she was diagnosed with diabetes. She wasn’t obese but she had a sweet tooth.
She was secretive about her health. She always insisted on doing her injections in private.
One day I was at her house when I saw her retrieve an insulin “pen” from a cabinet in the living room. She began preparing to attach a needle to the pen.
I asked her what she was doing and she said, “I have to take my insulin twice a day.”
“Why do you keep the insulin in the cabinet?” I asked.
“Where else am I going to keep it?”
“You’re supposed to keep it in the refrigerator.”
“Oh, really? Well, don’t worry. I’ve been keeping it in the cabinet since I began taking it and it hasn’t hurt me yet.”
At that moment it dawned on me that she had been injecting herself with unrefrigerated insulin for several *months*.
Naturally, I freaked out. I ran over and grabbed the pen out of her hand and threw it away. (She was royally pissed.) She had several unused pens in the cabinet, all of which I discarded immediately over her loud objections. I called in a refill right away.
God knows what kind of damage she had already done to herself.
I had always spent a lot of time at her house but the insulin incident marked the beginning of the period where I was afraid to leave her alone. And it was all downhill from there.
During the absolute worst period she was practically psychotic. Being around her on a bad day was a horrifying ordeal, one that left me completely demoralized and drained. At times I felt like I was teetering on the brink of madness myself.Replies: @HammerJack, @Ralph L, @The Anti-Gnostic, @SunBakedSuburb, @Onebelowall
A family member passed away from a medical event while in Stage 5 dementia. I considered it a blessing. Another one ground through to the bitter end, dying because the autonomic functions were beginning to shut down. Both were smart people who kept themselves in excellent health; doesn’t matter with Alzheimer’s.
Bruce Willis has that glassy-eyed look now too. His family needs to come to terms with his underlying condition and stop calling it “aphasia.”
I am very sorry for your ordeal. Your grandmother was psychotic because she had lost all her mental anchors but you know this of course.
Joe Biden’s family should burn in hell for having him medicated and propped up and wheeled from meaningless event to meaningless event after his executive-level decisionmaking has disappeared. He should be at home surrounded by familiar sights and faces.
Aphasia is a real condition with many possible causes other than Alzheimer's. In fact in his case it's most likely from another cause as at 67 he's very much on the young side for Alzheimer's.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic, @The Last Real Calvinist
About half of U.S. salesforces still use tests, called “personality assessments,” to help select new salespeople. It’s almost as if sales is more important than any government work, foreign service, college and law school admissions, police and firemen.
Hucksterism is a prominent trait of capitalism. Dale Carnegie was its visionary.
NYC refuses to tell the truth about monkeypox or give sound medical advice.
How can we live like this? It will be endemic.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic, @Art Deco
I’ve always wondered how actual civilizational decline would look. A huge tell is when bureaucracies, such as the NYC public health department, start losing the ability to self-correct. Even the private sector stops worrying about market discipline because market-dominant players have so much cash flow they just tweak their debt-asset mix and their financials to keep going. Time horizons shrink and people stop thinking beyond the next pay period. Middle-class people with bourgeois values start to become a distinct minority in the society instead of its largest cohort.
It is interesting to note that one black woman who had an interest in foreign affairs, Meghan Markle, failed the above test, but she was fairly successful in climbing the social ladder as an international freelance diplomat.
Anyway why does the US want more blacks in the foreign service? Is it so that they can dance in diplomatic grass skirts and blend in on postings to Africa or the Caribbean, or is it all to do with being inconspicuous spies?Replies: @John Milton's Ghost, @Twinkie, @Curle, @Anonymous, @Daniel Dravot, @Art Deco
“Probably”
Shocker, the scales were already pushed in favor blacks, Hispanics and women. Everyone know it. Heck, the Foreign Service admitted it.
All of this has been going on for decades. The question is what are you going to do about it. Show our rulers another graph? Write another snarky article?
Time to choose sides, Steve. Oh wait, that's not what you - and the other colorblind CivNats - do. You hide behind platitudes and magic words on a piece of paper, otherwise known as the Constitution.
Honestly, I respect the Progessives more. At least, they're honest about which side that they're on - and they fight.Replies: @Reg Cæsar, @Achmed E. Newman
Nah, even a pure blank-slate-believing Constitutionalist would be against Affirmative Action, which is very obviously unConstitutional. Steve Sailer has never disavowed AA.*
That’s 55 years of White men getting screwed out of better careers, better positions, money, admissions to colleges, and more, yet, no, gotta be nice.
PS: I’d be glad to learn I was wrong here.
.
* Same as Ann Coulter, BTW.
Absolutely right, Pixo!
I also agree with your take on Trump and DeSantis. If Trump could just be around to rally people to a new Nationalist or Federalist party, he’d be very helpful. As an executive, he sucked.
Since the Scientific Revolution, the world was been de-mystified.
I think wokeness is an attempt to re-mystify our lives. The Third Reich tried to re-mystify Germany by creating a great narrative of a superhero race. That myth was based on triumphant self-glorification while this one is based on pathetic self-pity.
Wokeness could also be a way of convincing people they're living in times of exciting progress. Only two genders for most of human history, and now there are [insert current number]. It also gives the illusion that people have more control over their lives. Back in the bad old days, you were stuck with your birth gender.
But true progress is difficult to achieve, requiring exhaustive and patient experimentation by disciplined and innovative people to test their hypotheses. There isn't much of this happening, certainly not among the wokerati. In fact, you could argue the whole woke business is just a cover for intellectual stagnation.
Interesting.
And here I thought “administrations” were responsible for picking Supreme Court justices (from initial vetting down to confirmation hearing coaching to prepare the nominee for their inevitable Borking). OK then!- well I hope the SCOTUS stork keeps delivering us more Clarence Thomases I guess.
• Thanks
Confirmed on Zillow, according to Arclight (not counting inflation, but until recently that hasn’t been too bad). If your two biggest expenses (housing and education) are covered and you bank most of your salary into appreciating real estate, starting in say, 1988, it seems plausible that one could retire a multimillionaire from a government salary.
That accords with my experience of FSOs. They don’t have the wheeler-dealer personality of corruption. Indeed, they are selected for bland affability and rule-following.
By the way, the USG only covers housing and education when the FSOs and their families are overseas. They can't do their entire careers overseas. First of all, it's not allowed and second, only insane people would do that. Insane people don't last 20 years.
I think there is something to that (although who’s this “our”?).
I’ve observed that, ironically, it is the atheistic products of the scientific age who are most likely to indulge in enormous risks in pursuit of some fleeting ecstasy, in a (usually vain) effort to restore some transcendence to their lives. Meanwhile, the True Believers who “ought” to be the fanatics, already have their transcendence squared away, so, paradoxically, they can move along with mundane bourgeois reality without hinderance or distraction.
The rationalized scientific atheists have become the fanatics while the religious are the burghers.
“there is a kind of a case for America to have more blacks as diplomats, as this might help America in Africa”
Lol.
The vast majority of Africans hate American blacks. There are many reasons why.
One issue is colorism in Africa–dark skin blacks see light skin blacks as enemies and vice versa. That is the short version–the longer version has to do with suspicions that the Americans have loyalty to one tribe or another, and that tribe might be the enemy.
American blacks generally come across as arrogant and spoiled and ungrateful–in other words, jerks.
If the USA is sending a batshi* crazy bald guy in a cocktail dress, and dumpy, ugly, old man wearing a skirt and pumps to the French ambassador’s gatherings, then it doesn’t matter how competent the rest of the crew is; The World got the message loud and clear: These people are f***nig nuts. Don’t trust them. Don’t negotiate with them. Don’t make eye contact. Back away slowly.. Look for an exit.
That is possible. It’s interesting to speculate on this.
Wokeness could also be a way of convincing people they’re living in times of exciting progress. Only two genders for most of human history, and now there are [insert current number]. It also gives the illusion that people have more control over their lives. Back in the bad old days, you were stuck with your birth gender.
But true progress is difficult to achieve, requiring exhaustive and patient experimentation by disciplined and innovative people to test their hypotheses. There isn’t much of this happening, certainly not among the wokerati. In fact, you could argue the whole woke business is just a cover for intellectual stagnation.
Sailer, you’re a few decades late. They already altered the test and scores for whiny womyn more than 30 years ago (just a few years after I passed the stupid thing when I took it for the very first time – no preparatory study, no test exams, no special exceptions, etc.). Just another example of how womyn ruin everything. Now cue Rosie the Rager.
“Foreign Service hiring practices had yet to be examined, however, and in 1989 the Foreign Service entrance examination process came under scrutiny. In a court order that year the U.S. District Court found that “the Department of State had discriminated against women in the administration of a written examination that applicants for positions in the Foreign Service were obliged to take.” The court mandated that State not use Foreign Service Officer Test results from 1985 to 1987. State was ordered to grade the 1988 exams to eliminate discrimination against women, and the 1989 exam was canceled.
In 1991, the same court again found discrimination in the FSOT. As restitution, 390 women who had the highest non-passing scores for the 1991–1994 Foreign Service written examination were invited to participate in the oral phase of the application process in 2002. Of those who participated, 11 were admitted to the Foreign Service with back pay plus interest and credited years of service toward retirement.”
Mon dieu.
Either way, it’s retarded, especially in a situation like that. The UK was the most powerful nation in the world then, even if its elite all knew how to speak French.
Just to elaborate on my previous comment now that the edit timer is up:
Learning a foreign language helps you communicate better with people, and it helps you passively understand what’s going on around you even when you’re not being personally addressed. Diplomatic staff have every reason to learn the local language. To refuse to learn is to purposefully handicap their ability to act in their national interests.
To me, all of this seems too obvious to even mention, but I never fail to be astounded at the stupidity of other human beings. The fact Cambon was not only appointed to the most important French diplomatic mission in the world (except maybe Germany), but allowed to stay there for decades without learning English, proves beyond all doubt that France richly deserved its fall from grace into what can objectively be described as a country without much global relevance. Not that Anglo elites today have any less hubris than the French elites used to. It’s not hard to see where we are headed.
Also, Sir James Frazer, whose 13-volume book The Golden Bough describes myths and rituals from all over the world, never travelled farther than Greece. A contemporary newspaper headline said he was "an expert on savages who has never met one".
FSO might not be the most suitable job for the negro personality. You are not expected to express your opinion. You are expected to express the position of the US government if you are permitted to speak at all.
There are a lot of well paying jobs and careers available now thanks to Biden’s covid policies and many do not require a great deal of education. I note that railroads and airlines are hiring but are negroes applying? Locomotive engineer pays well but its not glamorous and you won’t be spending a lot of time in the Big City. Airlines need pilots and will train you or you can enroll in an Embry Riddle Aeronautical Academy and use student loans to be trained where a job will be waiting for you once you graduate. The caveat is once again you will be based in smaller cities not flying from New York to Las Vegas until you amass the hours and seniority. Reliability and punctuality are absolute requirements for these type of jobs which, again, may not make them a good fit for the negro.
Negroes seem to want jobs that require little or no preparation and allow them to appear on TV as newsreader, political commentator/agitator, actor, comedian and of course football player or singer. Even being a backup musician for a famous singer is not that desirable to the modern negro and requires a lot of work too. This being the case I’m not sure eliminating a test or ‘The box” is going to get a lot of negroes interested in jobs or careers that do not involve Bright Lights Big City as a setting.
Does the Peace Corp have any relevance to the world today? At one time it was a place where upper class twits could hide in to avoid the draft. This is another government agency that needs to be closed.
Now it’s a place where upper class twits hide in order to avoid having a boss.
‘Fight, fight, fight for Washington State . . .”
It's a real 'growth industry' nowadays. I've no idea if any of the supposed miracle cures on the horizon are legitimately promising. I really need to stop getting my medical intelligence from the Daily Mail.
Anyway, a captivating and well-written post, and I thank you for offering your perspective.Replies: @Stan Adams
She became extremely paranoid. She believed that people on television (newscasters, etc.) were peeping Toms. One time she got so agitated that she grabbed the small TV we’d put next to her bed and threw it at my mother. (She missed.) After that I stopped leaving large objects within her grasp.
After she lost her mobility we had a CNA come to her house to bathe her every day. On bad days she believed that the CNA was trying to rape her. She was a tiny woman but when she thought she was being “raped” she fought back with every ounce of her being. She had long sharp nails – it was not easy to persuade her to allow us to get them cut – and she could break the skin quite easily. Over the course of a year she scratched my hands up pretty badly on multiple occasions.
CNAs began refusing the assignment. The agency kept sending different women to the house until finally one day they sent the only person available – a man.
Lo and behold, she liked him right away. He was strong enough to pick her up and carry her into the shower. She never complained. He even trimmed her nails without incident.
Occasionally she would suffer from hallucinations – giant flying bugs and the like.
My mother came over during the day but for a while I was alone with her at night. We slogged through many long nights. It was not uncommon for her to remain awake for 48 hours straight.
We got into a nasty family tiff about her care. My mother and I wanted to keep her in her own house. My uncle wanted to put her in a nursing home. My aunt wanted her to move in with them (my aunt, my cousin, her husband, their kids).
After some very unpleasant legal wrangling, during which I was accused of neglect, my aunt prevailed. (She had befriended my grandmother’s lawyer.) My aunt had custody of my grandmother for almost two years.
Then one day the craziness in that house caught up with her. My aunt discovered that my cousin was having an affair with a woman. This prompted an epic showdown that ended in a drunken meltdown. My cousin locked my aunt out of the house and my aunt called the police. The cops came to the house and found my grandmother languishing in a filthy house in a chaotic atmosphere and called an ambulance.
Then there was some further legal wrangling. Her house had been sold and due to the dueling accusations of neglect she couldn’t live with either of her daughters. For a brief period my mother and I had her in an apartment with round-the-clock care. Eventually she ended up in a nursing home.
When my mother complained about conditions at the nursing home, the lawyer had us removed from the visitation list.
The lawyer, a tiny little lady, was openly contemptuous of my mother, a big fat woman prone to hysterical outbursts. Fortunately she got along fine with me. I couldn’t stand her but I wasn’t stupid enough to show it.
Eventually I sweet-talked her into restoring our visitation rights. But my loathing of her did not subside.
Incidentally, the lawyer ended up with quite a substantial amount of my grandmother’s money.
(She’s not Jewish, in case you were wondering. Evangelical Christian.)
Her husband is one of those smarmy realtor types – and a manlet, to boot. I had the misfortune of dealing with him when my grandmother’s house was being sold.
(Yes, the highly-ethical lawyer had her spouse handle the sale of her client’s house. My mother and my uncle acquiesced to this arrangement only because everyone was completely drained from the custody fight.)
He was appallingly unprofessional. He made a number of cracks about my weight. I bit my tongue but I was so tempted to grab this glib little 5’6” prick and smash him against the nearest wall.
I met his son once. I couldn’t decide if he was just a standard-issue soyboy or a full-scale fag.
I’m surprised the Foreign Service kept their test for as long as they did. I think it has a lot more to do with Foreign Service Officer being such insufferable pricks than anything else.
Of all the people in the world, what I would call the Foreign Service/World Bank/IMF people just the worst. Arrogant and condescending, America-hating and European-loving, they can’t even be bothered to conceal their distain for you.
Also people writing about how tough it is to be in the Foreign Service have no idea what they are talking about. Most FSO have a spouse who is either FSO or work for the State Department’s HR division. It’s true you will mostly be stationed in sh*thole countries, but you live like a king in them. You live in the best neighborhood, your kids go to the best schools, you have all the resources of the Embassy (I was in Djibouti, and we took the Ambassador’s yatch out to go snorkling).
Also, it’s a lot like the military in that you move around a lot. However, just like in the military, once your kids get into high school and start establishing a group of friends, and you don’t want to move around anymore, you can shuffle things around so you find yourself with a permanent position in the D.C. area.
I don’t like Foreign Service Officers. I’m not sure why we even need them anymore. I mean, we have emails, we have telephones, why do we need 100 people in the Mali Embassy?
Time and again, Jonathan shows that he is in on his own joke. So it's all good.Replies: @John Milton’s Ghost
My bad, thanks
Then I heard abiut Carolyn Kennedy being appointed ambassador to Japan. LolReplies: @Rob McX, @Prester John
The job of “ambassador” is now largely ceremonial.
You know, like the presidency.
They also experience severe status-income disequilibrium. In these Third World countries, they get drivers, maids, etc., hobnob with elites of those countries, and their children go to the international schools with the children of foreign diplomats, business expats, and local elites. They get used to a lot of “free” amenities. Then they come home and live in townhouses next to plumbers and realtors. There is a pretty drastic collapse in status and material living conditions. Their children also often experience rootlessness (so many of them try hard to have their children attend high school stateside).
That said, many of them can retire early, get their full pensions, and contract back and collect another income (higher than their GS salaries). And, yes, the families get to experience the world.Replies: @Arclight, @Aeolus, @The Wild Geese Howard
As a three-decade retired veteran of the “Service”, I am not surprised by the many misinformed comments. Discrimination: Things may have changed since I retired but yes there is not-so-subtle discrimination against candidates who entered through equal employment type programs. It shows up in the PAR card, the personnel bio summary sheet the promotion board members get to see. The probation period runs for 5 years during which a junior officer can get the boot for low-performance evaluations. The biggest hurdle is avoiding honest but critical statements by a supervisor. While this is ostensibly encouraged officially so that the officer can improve, it is a career killer. Performance evaluations are inflated to extoll a favorite’s qualities. In a system that relies on promotions based on competition among unequal specializations (political, economic, consular, administrative) you only get to move up when someone retires and opens a slot in the next grade or if there is an increase in positions. Critically, obtaining a “godfather” senior officer is generally a must to get ahead to arrange good career-advancing assignments. This is not unlike corporate America, except where an employee can show how much profit he/she generated, for instance. How do you show “profit” in a government bureaucracy?
Lastly, considering the skills, qualifications, and accomplishments of Foreign Service Officers, the pay is nowhere near what similar qualifications would get in the non-government world. Hence, the adequate-not great-retirement package and the relative job security for a career working in less than great environments where in today’s world an X mark is on your back overseas is the only thing going for joining. And the so-called “full pension” is based on a percentage of the years one worked. Unlike Senators and Federal judges who receive their FULL salary upon retirement, FSOs get much less and the COLA increases NEVER keep up with inflation. Hope this helps clarify things a bit.
https://youtu.be/48CR8O0zkpQ
How many FSOs died in Iraq again?
Middle Managers in Multi-Nationals accomplish more, have better skills, and earn a fraction of a FSO.
FSOs are basically the equvilant of lecturers at small midwestern colleges. Good at faculty cocktail parties, but mostly
I can hear some foreign version of The Donald saying, “When America sends its Foreign Service Officers, they don’t send their best… They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems to us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Pixo, another good comment. You are making my case for separation.
Steve can keep trotting out posts on the latest nonsense and we can rant, but we aren’t winning back anything pointing out how stupid or corrupted or ridiculous this or that is.
What we need is separation. After the border that should be a prime focus. Basically “you go have your insanity over there, but you don’t get to impose it on us.” Start with things like vouchers to energize non-woke education. And work to allow separate housing/neighborhoods. And push on with building separate institutions–separate Twitter and Facebook, separate entertainment, separate banking, etc. Whatever is necessary.
The gist of this is right now there is no choice. So effectively, although the police aren’t breaking down my door–not even Steve’s door–we are in a totalitarian state. There is only one path, one view allowed.
But if conservatives can enable their ability to separate, then people have the ability to choose. With the ability of people to choose the power of the “woke” over the sane craters.
And they still exist as suburbs that provide quite a bit of practical separation, physically and culturally. So the urgency is low given it already is within reach for most people.
On a bigger level than suburbs, I think Putinism on a national and state scale is the only proved working model of real conservative real success. Hungary and Bibi’s Israel are other examples.
Where have white minorities ever been left separately alone? Domination by white minorities like in Brazil, or their destruction/exile as in South Africa and Detroit, are the actual alternatives. Separation worked until it didn’t for the destroyed Christian populations of Iraq, Syria, Anatolia, North Cyprus and large parts of Lebanon. The rest of Christian Lebanon and the Copts of Egypt don’t seem to have a good future.
Some on the right see militias and private arms as important, but I disagree and see control of law enforcement and the military to be more important. Law enforcement is the big public institution that the right can most practically dominate. Tucker promoting Orban and Hungry I find a positive development for these reasons and hope he keeps it up. Putin’s Ukrainian disaster conversely is especially sad because I kind of liked him before.Replies: @epebble
Let's see how Barack Obama's girls score on that test, shall we, Jonathan? They have all the amenities that you've listed above that would allow them to succeed. Then again, the FSO appointments are beneath them, given their station. The problem with the arguments about testing and environmental advantages is that those who throw out the test in the name of arbitrary environmental advantages typically have to throw out what useful level of skills and intelligence are also measured.
As to why the US wants more blacks in the service, check what time it is. Blacks must be everywhere that is desirable, in greater proportion to their numbers. Regardless of their interests or aptitude, regardless of what is best for the country. It doesn't need to make sense.Replies: @ic1000, @SunBakedSuburb
“Blacks must be everywhere that is desirable …”
What is it about Black Girl Magic that you don’t find desirable?
Any idea how much blacks have cost America since desegregation in terms of welfare/Section 8, policing, affirmative-action hires that pay the same but are reduced in productivity, civil lawsuits over the 1963 law, “carry costs” as one poster here put it of worthless diversity hires to fend off lawsuits, etc.?
“It’s almost as if sales …”
Hucksterism is a prominent trait of capitalism. Dale Carnegie was its visionary.
Bruce Willis has that glassy-eyed look now too. His family needs to come to terms with his underlying condition and stop calling it "aphasia."
I am very sorry for your ordeal. Your grandmother was psychotic because she had lost all her mental anchors but you know this of course.
Joe Biden's family should burn in hell for having him medicated and propped up and wheeled from meaningless event to meaningless event after his executive-level decisionmaking has disappeared. He should be at home surrounded by familiar sights and faces.Replies: @prosa123
Bruce Willis has that glassy-eyed look now too. His family needs to come to terms with his underlying condition and stop calling it “aphasia.”
Aphasia is a real condition with many possible causes other than Alzheimer’s. In fact in his case it’s most likely from another cause as at 67 he’s very much on the young side for Alzheimer’s.
https://i.imgur.com/yRrfrcC.jpg
He can't follow a single line of instruction or repeat a single line of dialogue. The self-made man who was somebody's brother, husband, lover, father and breadwinner is gone. This is the long goodbye as his cerebrum starts shutting down.
A professional colleague was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at age 65 when he called his office from the side of the road and said he didn't know where he was. Carol Jenkins Barnett passed away from Alzheimer's at age 65 after being diagnosed at age 60.Replies: @prosa123, @Art Deco
My maternal grandfather was very unlucky - both of his parents lived past 90 but he died of lung cancer at 66. He buried his mother only a year before he died.
My maternal grandmother’s body survived to 91 but Alzheimer’s destroyed her mind several years before she died. (Her mother died at 94.)
My father, on the other hand, has just turned 66, and he has now outlived both of his parents by a couple of decades. So go figure.
Biden has the same glassy-eyed look that I saw on my grandmother’s face. Watching him stumble through a speech is almost enough to trigger my PTSD. (Alzheimer’s is an ugly disease.)
Up until 80 Grandma seemed to be doing fairly well. She was never a genius, so it’s possible that I dismissed the earliest signs of her disease as just the usual stupidity. But around 82 or 83 her decline became undeniable.
The first big sign of trouble came when she was diagnosed with diabetes. She wasn’t obese but she had a sweet tooth.
She was secretive about her health. She always insisted on doing her injections in private.
One day I was at her house when I saw her retrieve an insulin “pen” from a cabinet in the living room. She began preparing to attach a needle to the pen.
I asked her what she was doing and she said, “I have to take my insulin twice a day.”
“Why do you keep the insulin in the cabinet?” I asked.
“Where else am I going to keep it?”
“You’re supposed to keep it in the refrigerator.”
“Oh, really? Well, don’t worry. I’ve been keeping it in the cabinet since I began taking it and it hasn’t hurt me yet.”
At that moment it dawned on me that she had been injecting herself with unrefrigerated insulin for several *months*.
Naturally, I freaked out. I ran over and grabbed the pen out of her hand and threw it away. (She was royally pissed.) She had several unused pens in the cabinet, all of which I discarded immediately over her loud objections. I called in a refill right away.
God knows what kind of damage she had already done to herself.
I had always spent a lot of time at her house but the insulin incident marked the beginning of the period where I was afraid to leave her alone. And it was all downhill from there.
During the absolute worst period she was practically psychotic. Being around her on a bad day was a horrifying ordeal, one that left me completely demoralized and drained. At times I felt like I was teetering on the brink of madness myself.Replies: @HammerJack, @Ralph L, @The Anti-Gnostic, @SunBakedSuburb, @Onebelowall
Nice but woeful tale of easing a loved olden one into their twilight time. My tale is not as chilling as yours, yet. But this is duty; and we must make of it what we can in order to survive. I follow Kurt Vonnegut’s adage: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” When I purchase the nappies from the local Walmart I pretend to be the olden one who has the bladder problem rather than the middle years man who still suffers from morning boners. This makes me less threatening to the nice young dot-head lady at the cash register but gives me a disadvantage in the parking lot which sometimes swarms with blacks looking for an easy target. Like Kurt said: You gots to be careful.
Great line.
My dad died several years ago at age 81 with dementia but of other causes. I’ve spent way too much time over the intervening years cleaning up and performing deferred maintenance on the properties (located at an distance) he and my mother, also now with dementia, assembled over the years. I hit an trifecta of basic hoarding, dementia related hoarding (buying multiples of same thing) and hoarding related push-back from my mother and some of the females in the family that has magnified the unpleasantness of the situation. The folks in the early stages might still recall some of their assembled junk but if you can get rid of it you are mostly in the clear. It is the surviving non-dementia female hoarder in the family who magnifies the unpleasantness. Not sure what is worse, the dementia or the hoarding.
Ethnic diversity always generates ethnic contention. And–especially in a democracy–demands for ethnic political allocation. This is unfortunate–another downside of “diversity”.
But if you are stuck with “diversity”, it is better to do this ethnic political allocation upfront and in the open.
Right now, the “diversity” is used as a cudgel to beat down deplorable whites and hi-jack the nation. “Civil rights”–what a laughable moniker–law and the “discrimination” lawsuit game is used to buff and shine the minoritarian “oppression!” narrative, attack and push out white deplorables, our history and culture, while breaking any sort of traditional standards and rules, including basic rule of law.
We’d be far better off without the “discrimination” legal farce and just open quotas. If politicians think the Foreign Service should hire 12% blacks because America is 12% black–then just do it. But you can keep the test and hire the best blacks you can find. If Chicago’s elected leaders want the police force to be a third black, because the city is 1/3 black–just do it. But again, don’t wreck the standards for all just hire the best blacks you can get. But the particular policies would be subject to–clarifying–political debate.
Just naked quotas are preferrable in several respects:
— the are naked, in plain sight so less lying about what is going on
— you can preserve whatever standards, don’t have to nuke them to try and get diverse candidates
— quotas bypass all the “discrimination” narrative nonsense (e.g. “structural racism”) that is used to build minoritarianism and attack whites
— white deplorables–whose ancestors built this nation–can also demand *their* quotas; demand that they get their share and are not just some sort of amorphous “everyone else” blob that can be looted by Asians, Jews, random immigrants and fight against being displaced … which will also help build a positive sense of identity.
I say bring out the sunshine. Make ’em make their ethnic sausage in broad daylight, not stab us in the back in the depth of night.
Aphasia is a real condition with many possible causes other than Alzheimer's. In fact in his case it's most likely from another cause as at 67 he's very much on the young side for Alzheimer's.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic, @The Last Real Calvinist
It would have to be a stroke, an aneurysm, or traumatic brain injury, which nobody’s mentioned. Given his affect and appearance and the shock of his second wife I’m betting Alzheimer’s. Here she is when it dawns on her she’s lugging a big child around.
He can’t follow a single line of instruction or repeat a single line of dialogue. The self-made man who was somebody’s brother, husband, lover, father and breadwinner is gone. This is the long goodbye as his cerebrum starts shutting down.
A professional colleague was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at age 65 when he called his office from the side of the road and said he didn’t know where he was. Carol Jenkins Barnett passed away from Alzheimer’s at age 65 after being diagnosed at age 60.
While Alzheimer's can occur at a comparatively young age, it's very rare. The average age at diagnosis is 80.Replies: @Jack D
Small quibble, but most people’s biggest expense is government: taxes paid everywhere from the paycheck to the checkout counter.
Learning a foreign language helps you communicate better with people, and it helps you passively understand what's going on around you even when you're not being personally addressed. Diplomatic staff have every reason to learn the local language. To refuse to learn is to purposefully handicap their ability to act in their national interests.
To me, all of this seems too obvious to even mention, but I never fail to be astounded at the stupidity of other human beings. The fact Cambon was not only appointed to the most important French diplomatic mission in the world (except maybe Germany), but allowed to stay there for decades without learning English, proves beyond all doubt that France richly deserved its fall from grace into what can objectively be described as a country without much global relevance. Not that Anglo elites today have any less hubris than the French elites used to. It's not hard to see where we are headed.Replies: @Rob McX
It sounds crazy nowadays that a man could presume to know a country without speaking the language. But in those days, there was more emphasis on the written word than on direct experience of meeting and talking to people. Presumably enough information on England was available in French, as far as Cambon was concerned. Leopold von Ranke, author of an eight-volume history of 17th century England, couldn’t speak English, at least not when he met Macaulay in 1840.
Also, Sir James Frazer, whose 13-volume book The Golden Bough describes myths and rituals from all over the world, never travelled farther than Greece. A contemporary newspaper headline said he was “an expert on savages who has never met one”.
Lastly, considering the skills, qualifications, and accomplishments of Foreign Service Officers, the pay is nowhere near what similar qualifications would get in the non-government world. Hence, the adequate-not great-retirement package and the relative job security for a career working in less than great environments where in today's world an X mark is on your back overseas is the only thing going for joining. And the so-called "full pension" is based on a percentage of the years one worked. Unlike Senators and Federal judges who receive their FULL salary upon retirement, FSOs get much less and the COLA increases NEVER keep up with inflation. Hope this helps clarify things a bit.Replies: @Hangnail Hans, @Twinkie, @Twinkie, @Anon
Yes, yes, only it’s also true that there isn’t a government employee in the USA who doesn’t say this. They’d be surprised at how many low-paying jobs there are out here in the real world. Many of which have no benefits at all.
Steve can keep trotting out posts on the latest nonsense and we can rant, but we aren't winning back anything pointing out how stupid or corrupted or ridiculous this or that is.
What we need is separation. After the border that should be a prime focus. Basically "you go have your insanity over there, but you don't get to impose it on us." Start with things like vouchers to energize non-woke education. And work to allow separate housing/neighborhoods. And push on with building separate institutions--separate Twitter and Facebook, separate entertainment, separate banking, etc. Whatever is necessary.
The gist of this is right now there is no choice. So effectively, although the police aren't breaking down my door--not even Steve's door--we are in a totalitarian state. There is only one path, one view allowed.
But if conservatives can enable their ability to separate, then people have the ability to choose. With the ability of people to choose the power of the "woke" over the sane craters.Replies: @Pixo
I am sold on a separate whitopia, I grew in one and it was nice. I don’t see any examples of this happening in practice anywhere in the world on a macro political level.
And they still exist as suburbs that provide quite a bit of practical separation, physically and culturally. So the urgency is low given it already is within reach for most people.
On a bigger level than suburbs, I think Putinism on a national and state scale is the only proved working model of real conservative real success. Hungary and Bibi’s Israel are other examples.
Where have white minorities ever been left separately alone? Domination by white minorities like in Brazil, or their destruction/exile as in South Africa and Detroit, are the actual alternatives. Separation worked until it didn’t for the destroyed Christian populations of Iraq, Syria, Anatolia, North Cyprus and large parts of Lebanon. The rest of Christian Lebanon and the Copts of Egypt don’t seem to have a good future.
Some on the right see militias and private arms as important, but I disagree and see control of law enforcement and the military to be more important. Law enforcement is the big public institution that the right can most practically dominate. Tucker promoting Orban and Hungry I find a positive development for these reasons and hope he keeps it up. Putin’s Ukrainian disaster conversely is especially sad because I kind of liked him before.
“At one time it was a place where upper class twits could hide in to avoid the draft.”
Now it’s a place where upper class twits hide in order to avoid having a boss.
‘Fight, fight, fight for Washington State . . .”
And they still exist as suburbs that provide quite a bit of practical separation, physically and culturally. So the urgency is low given it already is within reach for most people.
On a bigger level than suburbs, I think Putinism on a national and state scale is the only proved working model of real conservative real success. Hungary and Bibi’s Israel are other examples.
Where have white minorities ever been left separately alone? Domination by white minorities like in Brazil, or their destruction/exile as in South Africa and Detroit, are the actual alternatives. Separation worked until it didn’t for the destroyed Christian populations of Iraq, Syria, Anatolia, North Cyprus and large parts of Lebanon. The rest of Christian Lebanon and the Copts of Egypt don’t seem to have a good future.
Some on the right see militias and private arms as important, but I disagree and see control of law enforcement and the military to be more important. Law enforcement is the big public institution that the right can most practically dominate. Tucker promoting Orban and Hungry I find a positive development for these reasons and hope he keeps it up. Putin’s Ukrainian disaster conversely is especially sad because I kind of liked him before.Replies: @epebble
I think the second half of 21st Century will be a blend of Mexico and Brazil. Mexzil or Brexico?
https://i.imgur.com/yRrfrcC.jpg
He can't follow a single line of instruction or repeat a single line of dialogue. The self-made man who was somebody's brother, husband, lover, father and breadwinner is gone. This is the long goodbye as his cerebrum starts shutting down.
A professional colleague was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at age 65 when he called his office from the side of the road and said he didn't know where he was. Carol Jenkins Barnett passed away from Alzheimer's at age 65 after being diagnosed at age 60.Replies: @prosa123, @Art Deco
You can’t tell much of anything from a person’s expression in a still photo.
While Alzheimer’s can occur at a comparatively young age, it’s very rare. The average age at diagnosis is 80.
They also experience severe status-income disequilibrium. In these Third World countries, they get drivers, maids, etc., hobnob with elites of those countries, and their children go to the international schools with the children of foreign diplomats, business expats, and local elites. They get used to a lot of “free” amenities. Then they come home and live in townhouses next to plumbers and realtors. There is a pretty drastic collapse in status and material living conditions. Their children also often experience rootlessness (so many of them try hard to have their children attend high school stateside).
That said, many of them can retire early, get their full pensions, and contract back and collect another income (higher than their GS salaries). And, yes, the families get to experience the world.Replies: @Arclight, @Aeolus, @The Wild Geese Howard
This is why we can now offhandedly refer to US Embassies as fruit stands.
While Alzheimer's can occur at a comparatively young age, it's very rare. The average age at diagnosis is 80.Replies: @Jack D
You can’t even tell in person unless you speak with them for a while. At least in the early stages, they are still able to exchanges normal pleasantries. Their speech and appearance is normal. It’s only after you speak with them for a little while that you realize that something is not quite right. It starts out where the person just can’t remember recent events – they can tell you about what they did 50 years ago but don’t recall what they had for breakfast. In his final tour, Glen Campbell no longer knew his ass from his elbow but if you put him on stage with a guitar he could still play and sing the old songs. Willis apparently has been affected for some time but was still doing straight to video movies.
Eventually it gets worse and at an advanced stage they may lose the power of speech and/or their behavior can become toddler-like (but not always and often it take years to deteriorate to that point).
Yes, it’s possible, but there are a lot of if’s there.
By the way, the USG only covers housing and education when the FSOs and their families are overseas. They can’t do their entire careers overseas. First of all, it’s not allowed and second, only insane people would do that. Insane people don’t last 20 years.
What is it about Black Girl Magic that you don't find desirable?Replies: @nebulafox
Half of them have herpes, for starters.
(I don’t know why, but I serially attract black women. Some were quite pretty, some weren’t, and a couple were, like, twice my weight. All were friendly, though!)
Lastly, considering the skills, qualifications, and accomplishments of Foreign Service Officers, the pay is nowhere near what similar qualifications would get in the non-government world. Hence, the adequate-not great-retirement package and the relative job security for a career working in less than great environments where in today's world an X mark is on your back overseas is the only thing going for joining. And the so-called "full pension" is based on a percentage of the years one worked. Unlike Senators and Federal judges who receive their FULL salary upon retirement, FSOs get much less and the COLA increases NEVER keep up with inflation. Hope this helps clarify things a bit.Replies: @Hangnail Hans, @Twinkie, @Twinkie, @Anon
This is true everywhere. In some jobs, it’s more explicit and less subtle than others, but it’s there. We all have eyes and ears.
Young naval officers in the Royal Navy used to toast, “To a long war or a sickly season!”
It’s not just the FS or “corporate America.” This is the norm in most professions where there is competition for promotions.
The fact of the matter is that human beings tend to overrate the performances and competence of the people they like and underrate those of the people they dislike. So it’s crucial in most industries/professions that an ambitious careerist is liked by what you call a “godfather,” a mentor, a senior partner, a high-ranking officer, executive or board member, to get ahead as well as avoid the enmities of the same (e.g. I know an exceptionally capable, honest, and hardworking major in .mil who made all his ranks below the zone up until that point who unwittingly crossed a major general who took a personal interest in his career – he went nowhere from that point on and went inactive as a major).
It sounds like you don’t know much about corporate America! Even in the private sector, in the vast majority of jobs these days, one’s work is not tied directly to the profitability of one’s firm.
Whether the FS, intel community, military, law firm, investment bank, or what have you (indeed any human social organization), the people who rise rapidly are those who are not only hardworking and capable, but who are ambitious, driven, attractive, form good social networks, and exude that “presence,” which attracts positive attention.
It’s almost comical to compare a civil servant to a U.S. senator! Senators are rulers of the nation. They are a special case (as are federal judges). Comparing ordinary civil servants to them is silly.
That said, the FS (and federal law enforcement, for that matter) doesn’t have the same pension system as other ordinary civil servants in the federal government. You must know all this. An FSO can retire after 20 years of service upon reaching age 50 and collect an annuity. It’s 1.7% of average of the three highest annual salaries times those 20 years (after year 20, it’s 1% times the years in excess), then there is TSP (USG matches up to 5%). Throw in a few hardship postings, that helps too (Afghanistan was a 35% bump in salary, Saudi 25%… even Brazil was 10%). And, of course, you aren’t going to do nothing at age 50, so if you are not a washout, you can come back as a contractor and get paid more than your previous salary.
Such as what in “the non-government world”? And that’s setting aside the job security/pension (who gets a pension these days in the private sector) and the healthcare.
Lastly, considering the skills, qualifications, and accomplishments of Foreign Service Officers, the pay is nowhere near what similar qualifications would get in the non-government world. Hence, the adequate-not great-retirement package and the relative job security for a career working in less than great environments where in today's world an X mark is on your back overseas is the only thing going for joining. And the so-called "full pension" is based on a percentage of the years one worked. Unlike Senators and Federal judges who receive their FULL salary upon retirement, FSOs get much less and the COLA increases NEVER keep up with inflation. Hope this helps clarify things a bit.Replies: @Hangnail Hans, @Twinkie, @Twinkie, @Anon
I hope you were not this guy:
How many FSOs died in Iraq again?
Same with Biden. They can wind him up with meds, stick a cue card with large print in his hand and place him in front of a teleprompter and he’ll spit out whatever scrolls up. Once things veer off-script, he gets insecure and angry and desperately trying to fill in the gaps in his thought.
This footage is incredible. Nobody wants to talk to a shell who can’t articulate a coherent train of thought. He’s literally a dead man walking.
My family member with whom I could discuss intricate issues of life, career, religion, politics and metaphysics could only smile and nod as I talked toward the end. It kept my family member relaxed and engaged, so I would just jabber away.
Someone told me Bruce Willis probably has a standard Hollywood pre-nup in place with Emma Hemming that entitles her and their kids to what he earned during the marriage. So Bruce Willis, self-made action star battling dementia, goes to work one last time in the straight-to-streaming schlock factory to maintain the family’s lifestyle. His last heroic act.
I wish we devoted more resources to getting rid of amyloid protein plaques and repairing degenerated neural tissue.
But yes, you can see that Obama is the Alpha in the room. If we didn't live in the US, Obama would have been President for Life and Biden would have shined his shoes the way Medvedev licks Putin's boots.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic
Can anyone tell what country is this in?
https://twitter.com/ElijahSchaffer/status/1548896882071687170?t=8GXM5qfLM0Fl5K0AcTim9w&s=19
https://twitter.com/ElijahSchaffer/status/1549150855823183872?t=GqiXRTmA1cJXP2gLPFgmOA&s=19Replies: @Stan Adams
Looks like it was filmed at the Piazza del Duomo in Milan. More specifically, near La Rinascente (a department store).
In Biden’s defense, this was Obama’s 1st time back at the White House and everyone was glad to see him. They see Old Joe every day.
But yes, you can see that Obama is the Alpha in the room. If we didn’t live in the US, Obama would have been President for Life and Biden would have shined his shoes the way Medvedev licks Putin’s boots.
https://youtu.be/LtqiLobIJnU
He's no more responsible for events than his German Shepherd, which couldn't figure out who was the actual master in the household so it started biting Secret Service agents.Replies: @Jack D, @nebulafox
I just did a search for Emma Hemming and a picture of Bruce, new wife, Demi, and Bruce and Demi’s three daughters was one of the first results. Boy, do Bruce’s girls favor his side. Almost as much as Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley’s daughter does Joel. Luckily, Sylvester Stallone’s daughters with Jennifer Flavin do not resemble Rocky, Rambo, or Judge Dredd and to the contrary favor their model/actress mother.
Ha, AFRICOM’s HQ is in Stuttgart. CJTF-HOA (used to be under CENTCOM) is based in Djibouti though. Then again, PLAN has a base there too.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/CJTF-HOA_insignia.jpg/800px-CJTF-HOA_insignia.jpgReplies: @Reg Cæsar
But if you are stuck with "diversity", it is better to do this ethnic political allocation upfront and in the open.
Right now, the "diversity" is used as a cudgel to beat down deplorable whites and hi-jack the nation. "Civil rights"--what a laughable moniker--law and the "discrimination" lawsuit game is used to buff and shine the minoritarian "oppression!" narrative, attack and push out white deplorables, our history and culture, while breaking any sort of traditional standards and rules, including basic rule of law.
We'd be far better off without the "discrimination" legal farce and just open quotas. If politicians think the Foreign Service should hire 12% blacks because America is 12% black--then just do it. But you can keep the test and hire the best blacks you can find. If Chicago's elected leaders want the police force to be a third black, because the city is 1/3 black--just do it. But again, don't wreck the standards for all just hire the best blacks you can get. But the particular policies would be subject to--clarifying--political debate.
Just naked quotas are preferrable in several respects:
-- the are naked, in plain sight so less lying about what is going on
-- you can preserve whatever standards, don't have to nuke them to try and get diverse candidates
-- quotas bypass all the "discrimination" narrative nonsense (e.g. "structural racism") that is used to build minoritarianism and attack whites
-- white deplorables--whose ancestors built this nation--can also demand *their* quotas; demand that they get their share and are not just some sort of amorphous "everyone else" blob that can be looted by Asians, Jews, random immigrants and fight against being displaced ... which will also help build a positive sense of identity.
I say bring out the sunshine. Make 'em make their ethnic sausage in broad daylight, not stab us in the back in the depth of night.Replies: @Old Prude
Right on AD…And then you woke up…and your pants were wet…
The State Department hasn't had foreign language fluency standards for years.Replies: @Charflodles, @AndrewR, @Art Deco
They didn’t have them two generations ago. That was the principal complaint of The Ugly American. They likely didn’t have them a generation before that. The 1920s was the era when some systematic professional standards were instituted in recruiting foreign service officers.
The Peace Corps may bring some side benefits to the U.S., but it’s primarily volunteering for the welfare of those in poor countries. (The question is, do Peace Corps volunteers have any knowledge of use to their constituents abroad?).
It is interesting to note that one black woman who had an interest in foreign affairs, Meghan Markle, failed the above test, but she was fairly successful in climbing the social ladder as an international freelance diplomat.
Anyway why does the US want more blacks in the foreign service? Is it so that they can dance in diplomatic grass skirts and blend in on postings to Africa or the Caribbean, or is it all to do with being inconspicuous spies?Replies: @John Milton's Ghost, @Twinkie, @Curle, @Anonymous, @Daniel Dravot, @Art Deco
The Foreign Service does not recruit specialists. The exam is designed to select people with a broad liberal education. Not sure if that’s the right type to select, but that’s what they do.
But yes, you can see that Obama is the Alpha in the room. If we didn't live in the US, Obama would have been President for Life and Biden would have shined his shoes the way Medvedev licks Putin's boots.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic
It’s not a question of meriting a “defense.” Biden is past the point where anything matters; he’s just waiting to die and gets moved around by handlers, including White House staffers in Easter bunny outfits.
He’s no more responsible for events than his German Shepherd, which couldn’t figure out who was the actual master in the household so it started biting Secret Service agents.
Now as far as a dog is concerned, humans are just another type of dog. They regard humans in terms of pack dynamics. So if a dog is acting really nuts it's probably because he senses that there's no pack leader.
https://youtu.be/LtqiLobIJnU
He's no more responsible for events than his German Shepherd, which couldn't figure out who was the actual master in the household so it started biting Secret Service agents.Replies: @Jack D, @nebulafox
I don’t know about the rest, but the part about dogs is true. If a pack has a clear strong leader, the other dogs are content to submit to the leader. All is right in the world. Every once in a while they might try to test the leader a little bit but they will back off immediately as soon as the pack leader asserts dominance. But if the dog senses that the pack is leaderless they will try to step up and become the leader because it’s dangerous to have a leaderless pack – they get very nervous if there’s no leader around.
Now as far as a dog is concerned, humans are just another type of dog. They regard humans in terms of pack dynamics. So if a dog is acting really nuts it’s probably because he senses that there’s no pack leader.
The Foreign Service is having recruitment troubles, similar to the Military’s problems.
Fewer qualified people want to work for the Woke bureaucracy.
Yes. I tried to switch for Camp Lemonnier’s gate when I remembered that, but my comment timed out before I could. The Japanese also have a small installation there, from what I recall.
(As a kid, I probably would have thought living in Djibouti would have been cool, for several reasons-ironically, you stated one of them. But I doubt that’s the kind of base they wanted dependents hanging around on.)
In other news:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-arabia-considers-accepting-yuan-instead-of-dollars-for-chinese-oil-sales-11647351541
What makes energy prices interesting is the source to sink ratio: when logistics prices explode, everything goes up. When I advocated disinvesting ourselves from the region, this was with the implication of taking advantage of being one of the few nations on the planet that has the *gift* of having our own resources to rely on. Having the Obama-era wiz kids who created the worst of both worlds in the region around a President who has dementia is resulting in farce in places other than defending the Free World (TM) by buying slave labor made solar panels.
As I wrote before, it's a fascinating place. It's the latter-day Casablanca (the movie version, not the real thing) or a real-life version of the bar in Star Wars. Us, the Chinese, the Japanese, the French, the Germans, and the Spanish are all there (we blocked the Russians a few years back). No doubt, even ROK will want some services ashore when its aircraft carrier is built and operational with a carrier group.
https://youtu.be/LtqiLobIJnU
He's no more responsible for events than his German Shepherd, which couldn't figure out who was the actual master in the household so it started biting Secret Service agents.Replies: @Jack D, @nebulafox
I’m beginning to wonder if the job of governing the United States is too big for any one guy. In any case, the President should be on site in problem areas, not sitting behind a desk and having his orders diluted by an uncooperative bureaucracy. Have a ceremonial head of state on hand in the capital to handle all the rituals and whatnot, serve with dignity and gravitas (i.e, no dementia!), and get the President(s) the hell out of there to where they are needed.
Assuming we get out of the tough times ahead intact, the Overton Window will be completely defunct-and the taste that our current inept, corrupt gerontocracy has left that few will object to radical shifts in state policy: and mass disempowering of the current Leviathan. That’s one consolation prize of cleaning up the mess, you get to contrast yourself to the previous rulers, not have to follow in their example. It allows for more creativity.
An article I read recently but cannot remember where, said that if we hope for civilizational collapse in order to resent we will be disappointed. They described how the courts kept running and taxes kept getting collected during the worst years of the Black Plague in England.
Our Anglo derived institutions are hardy like cockroaches after a nuclear war.Replies: @Justvisiting
I took the test around 1985. Even then there were efforts to make it easier for blacks — I remember a question about Marcus Garvey and recall that there were other questions that only someone who had bothered to learn about black American political or literary history would know.
BTW, I did very well on the exam and went in for the interview, where I was rejected for being “ethnocentric”.
Some of us cherish certain aspects of "civic nationalism" such as freedom of speech and the right to keep and bear arms. But they have no place in your world. If Nancy Pelosi gets into a pickle with Clarence Thomas, we have to take her side or be race traitors. If we were to take a purely racial view of, say, pistol licensing policy, well, our race originated on the island of Great Britain. Have you checked their gun laws recently?
The fact is we need a whole bouquet of tactics to fight-- race realism, civic nationalism, Christian faith, medical research, and so on. Why throw out any one of them? Amputation never helped anyone wrestle his opponent.
I want progressives to suffer as much as you do-- even more, e.g. labeling FDR a war criminal and taking him off the dime-- but the way to do it isn't to negate their-- and hence our-- right to speak out. The ends don't justify the means.Replies: @kaganovitch, @International Jew, @SFG, @Jenner Ickham Errican
LOL. Does “some of us” include you? You regularly write that the Equal Protection Clause and the Second Amendment are incompatible—“can’t have both”—regarding Blacks. Yet you never argue that Blacks as a people in America should be currently expelled/enslaved/killed, which would make the racial ‘incompatibility’ moot. So you in effect have come out against the current existence of one or both aforementioned constitutional amendments.
Who or what would you fight against—the ghost of FDR? How quaint. Are you Ta-Nehisi Coates? You chide CoaSC for being against “civic nationalism” but you yourself disdain the same, as shown by your antipathy for both the 2nd, and the 14th’s Equal Protection Clause. Why do you contradict yourself? Do you just like to troll?
Of the nine states and district that are may-issue, only two (MA, CT) are whiter than the US as a whole, while whites are a minority in three (CA, DC, HI). The former both abut New York.Replies: @Jenner Ickham Errican
Yup, JSDF has an installation as well. It’s getting bigger.
As I wrote before, it’s a fascinating place. It’s the latter-day Casablanca (the movie version, not the real thing) or a real-life version of the bar in Star Wars. Us, the Chinese, the Japanese, the French, the Germans, and the Spanish are all there (we blocked the Russians a few years back). No doubt, even ROK will want some services ashore when its aircraft carrier is built and operational with a carrier group.
Dear k, unfortunately Reg is totally bullshitting:
https://www.unz.com/isteve/the-not-so-great-reset-comes-for-the-foreign-service-officers-test/#comment-5451381
Aphasia is a real condition with many possible causes other than Alzheimer's. In fact in his case it's most likely from another cause as at 67 he's very much on the young side for Alzheimer's.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic, @The Last Real Calvinist
Sadly, it’s very possible that Willis has Alzheimer’s. One of my uncles passed away earlier this year at just 70; he’d had Alzheimer’s for a decade. The look on Willis’s face in the photo The Anti-Gnostic has posted (as well as the look that frequently appears on Joe Biden’s sad old face, for that matter), is characteristic.
I agree with you, though, that his family calling his problem ‘aphasia’ is just delaying the inevitable acknowledgement of a more severe underlying cause.
This is a good description. My uncle was in this stage for years; if you engaged him in conversation, he’d carry on in the most pleasant fashion — he was actually very content, mercifully. But as his condition deteriorated, that unguarded look appeared on his face more and more often; it’s indeed reminiscent of a very young child, open and unfiltered in a way you rarely see in healthy adults.
The range of function of the federal government isn’t much different from those of other foreign governments. The legislature is comparatively horrible, and the manner in which recruitment and promotion in the civil service is conducted leaves you with a lousy bureaucracy as well.
https://i.imgur.com/yRrfrcC.jpg
He can't follow a single line of instruction or repeat a single line of dialogue. The self-made man who was somebody's brother, husband, lover, father and breadwinner is gone. This is the long goodbye as his cerebrum starts shutting down.
A professional colleague was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at age 65 when he called his office from the side of the road and said he didn't know where he was. Carol Jenkins Barnett passed away from Alzheimer's at age 65 after being diagnosed at age 60.Replies: @prosa123, @Art Deco
Not seeing much instructive in that picture.
Look at her face.
Of all the people in the world, what I would call the Foreign Service/World Bank/IMF people just the worst. Arrogant and condescending, America-hating and European-loving, they can't even be bothered to conceal their distain for you.
Also people writing about how tough it is to be in the Foreign Service have no idea what they are talking about. Most FSO have a spouse who is either FSO or work for the State Department's HR division. It's true you will mostly be stationed in sh*thole countries, but you live like a king in them. You live in the best neighborhood, your kids go to the best schools, you have all the resources of the Embassy (I was in Djibouti, and we took the Ambassador's yatch out to go snorkling).
Also, it's a lot like the military in that you move around a lot. However, just like in the military, once your kids get into high school and start establishing a group of friends, and you don't want to move around anymore, you can shuffle things around so you find yourself with a permanent position in the D.C. area.
I don't like Foreign Service Officers. I'm not sure why we even need them anymore. I mean, we have emails, we have telephones, why do we need 100 people in the Mali Embassy?Replies: @J.Ross
To move money, arm terrorists, and occasionally get an ambassador killed.
A mediocratic Empire… the British would be laughing if they weren’t beset by such w0ke nonsense as well.
Yes, perhaps wokeness is a way of asserting that humans have souls without resorting to traditional religion; how could someone be “born in the wrong body” or a “two-spirit” person, or feel the pain of their ancestors unless they are more than their biological substance?
I would think the invasion of Ukraine has kind of exposed the incredible levels of incompetence and corruption in the Russian Federation. Compared to where Russia was in 2000 the story of Putin is one of steady decline, especially vs China, and a massive loss of cultural and economic influence in Ukraine, Central Asia and Central Europe. Manufacturing capabilities have been hollowed out, education is in decline, and the talent brain drain is becoming critical. Putin is arguably the most incompetent ruler in Russian history.
And even if we try to squint and pretend there has been some sort of moral rebirth – can you name one real conservative success Putin can point to? Certainly not public morality. Russia’s best tennis player just came out as gay yesterday, she clearly has no real fear of consequences for that.
No one remotely familiar with Russia's economic and social statistics in 2000 and in 2019 would make such a remark.Replies: @Peter Akuleyev
And even if we try to squint and pretend there has been some sort of moral rebirth - can you name one real conservative success Putin can point to? Certainly not public morality. Russia’s best tennis player just came out as gay yesterday, she clearly has no real fear of consequences for that.Replies: @Art Deco, @Malla
Compared to where Russia was in 2000 the story of Putin is one of steady decline
No one remotely familiar with Russia’s economic and social statistics in 2000 and in 2019 would make such a remark.
The lack of investment in provincial Russia is painfully obvious to anyone who spends time outside Moscow, Petersburg and Sochi.
I‘ve posted many times over the past decade at the way Turkey was quietly kicking Russia‘s ass in terms of manufacturing capability. Look who just humiliated Putin yesterday - Erdogan. Russia built some nice shopping malls and a few cathedrals under Putin but that is not going to stave off decline.Replies: @Art Deco
Combined Joint Task Force–Horn of Africa definitely has the coolest and/or the wokest insignia.
At his Oz Conservative blog, Mark Richardson has written some interesting posts arguing that transgenderedism is a form of Gnosticism.
I hope that as well but….
An article I read recently but cannot remember where, said that if we hope for civilizational collapse in order to resent we will be disappointed. They described how the courts kept running and taxes kept getting collected during the worst years of the Black Plague in England.
Our Anglo derived institutions are hardy like cockroaches after a nuclear war.
In degraded civilizations the outward appearance is that "all is normal".
However a sullen and hostile people will "mail it in" when it comes to effort to comply with authorities--they will fake it as much as they need to (to avoid unwanted attention) but they will focus most of their efforts on evasion.
No one remotely familiar with Russia's economic and social statistics in 2000 and in 2019 would make such a remark.Replies: @Peter Akuleyev
Simply not true. If you just take total GDP, the influence of the FSB and the consumer spending of Muscovites as your yardstick, yes Putin has done fairly well. He made the capital and the upper middle class much richer at the expense of the rest of the country, but he increased Russia’s dependence on the global economy rather than making the world more dependent on Russia. The best you can say for Putin is that he transformed Russia into another Saudi Arabia. But the hollowing out of Russia‘s defense industry is well documented – Russia’s defense and aerospace industries are completely dependent on German machine tools and various EU electronics manufacturers. The sanctions are actually working, much better against Russia than against Iran which actually has stronger internal manufacturing and food processing capabilities (and more young people to work) – that is on Putin.
The lack of investment in provincial Russia is painfully obvious to anyone who spends time outside Moscow, Petersburg and Sochi.
I‘ve posted many times over the past decade at the way Turkey was quietly kicking Russia‘s ass in terms of manufacturing capability. Look who just humiliated Putin yesterday – Erdogan. Russia built some nice shopping malls and a few cathedrals under Putin but that is not going to stave off decline.
You can look at any metric you care to that matters - the total fertility rate, life expectancy, the homicide rate, per capita product at purchasing power parity, the employment-to-population ratio, regional data on income levels and you see large improvements across the board. Your contention that 'he transformed Russia into another Saudi Arabia' is egregious as the ratio of fuel and mineral exports to nominal domestic product declined from 20% to 14% over the period running from 1999 to 2019 and is well below the 25% to 30% that is normal for Saudi Arabia. Russia's ratio is comparable to Norway's.
Go away. Everybody wise to you.
Lol.
The vast majority of Africans hate American blacks. There are many reasons why.
One issue is colorism in Africa--dark skin blacks see light skin blacks as enemies and vice versa. That is the short version--the longer version has to do with suspicions that the Americans have loyalty to one tribe or another, and that tribe might be the enemy.
American blacks generally come across as arrogant and spoiled and ungrateful--in other words, jerks.Replies: @Anonymous
There’s also the stigma against being a descendant of slaves. Local African elites look down on even smart/educated American blacks for this reason.
Benghazi was like the plot of an E.M. Forster novel: naive, homosexual minor diplomat is given ballyhooed ambassadorship to anarchic hellhole to trumpet success of Cabinet secretary’s disastrous regime change operation which was supposed to be the crown jewel of her campaign for President. Everybody dies.
The lack of investment in provincial Russia is painfully obvious to anyone who spends time outside Moscow, Petersburg and Sochi.
I‘ve posted many times over the past decade at the way Turkey was quietly kicking Russia‘s ass in terms of manufacturing capability. Look who just humiliated Putin yesterday - Erdogan. Russia built some nice shopping malls and a few cathedrals under Putin but that is not going to stave off decline.Replies: @Art Deco
Simply not true. If you just take total GDP, the influence of the FSB and the consumer spending of Muscovites as your yardstick, yes Putin has done fairly well. He made the capital and the upper middle class much richer at the expense of the rest of the country, but he increased Russia’s dependence on the global economy rather than making the world more dependent on Russia. The best you can say for Putin is that he transformed Russia into another Saudi Arabia.
You can look at any metric you care to that matters – the total fertility rate, life expectancy, the homicide rate, per capita product at purchasing power parity, the employment-to-population ratio, regional data on income levels and you see large improvements across the board. Your contention that ‘he transformed Russia into another Saudi Arabia’ is egregious as the ratio of fuel and mineral exports to nominal domestic product declined from 20% to 14% over the period running from 1999 to 2019 and is well below the 25% to 30% that is normal for Saudi Arabia. Russia’s ratio is comparable to Norway’s.
Go away. Everybody wise to you.
‘Minor diplomats’ are not given ambassadorial posts in the foreign service. He was a 20 year veteran and had served in a number of posts in the Arab world. It’s doubtful he qualified as naive. That other thing is your imagination at work.
Which should have been Stevens' big red flag: they're appointing a relative nobody to an ambassadorship.
That whole mission was appallingly naive; they were incredibly under-manned and isolated and it got them killed.Replies: @Art Deco
Ambassadorships are for wealthy private citizens who donate a lot of money to Presidential campaigns, not career FSOs. Stevens, a career FSO with an okay resume, got his last job ever because he was a career FSO with an okay resume. After all, you don’t give prominent donors ambassadorships in countries that are in the middle of clan warfare; they might get killed.
Which should have been Stevens’ big red flag: they’re appointing a relative nobody to an ambassadorship.
That whole mission was appallingly naive; they were incredibly under-manned and isolated and it got them killed.
You don't know what you're talking about. They scatter some patronage appointees in there, but most ambassadors are government lifers. They even have a rank for the highest level of FSO - 'career ambassador'.
Noted.
An article I read recently but cannot remember where, said that if we hope for civilizational collapse in order to resent we will be disappointed. They described how the courts kept running and taxes kept getting collected during the worst years of the Black Plague in England.
Our Anglo derived institutions are hardy like cockroaches after a nuclear war.Replies: @Justvisiting
“the courts kept running and taxes kept getting collected during the worst years of the Black Plague in England.”
In degraded civilizations the outward appearance is that “all is normal”.
However a sullen and hostile people will “mail it in” when it comes to effort to comply with authorities–they will fake it as much as they need to (to avoid unwanted attention) but they will focus most of their efforts on evasion.
Which should have been Stevens' big red flag: they're appointing a relative nobody to an ambassadorship.
That whole mission was appallingly naive; they were incredibly under-manned and isolated and it got them killed.Replies: @Art Deco
Ambassadorships are for wealthy private citizens who donate a lot of money to Presidential campaigns, not career FSOs.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. They scatter some patronage appointees in there, but most ambassadors are government lifers. They even have a rank for the highest level of FSO – ‘career ambassador’.
My maternal grandfather was very unlucky - both of his parents lived past 90 but he died of lung cancer at 66. He buried his mother only a year before he died.
My maternal grandmother’s body survived to 91 but Alzheimer’s destroyed her mind several years before she died. (Her mother died at 94.)
My father, on the other hand, has just turned 66, and he has now outlived both of his parents by a couple of decades. So go figure.
Biden has the same glassy-eyed look that I saw on my grandmother’s face. Watching him stumble through a speech is almost enough to trigger my PTSD. (Alzheimer’s is an ugly disease.)
Up until 80 Grandma seemed to be doing fairly well. She was never a genius, so it’s possible that I dismissed the earliest signs of her disease as just the usual stupidity. But around 82 or 83 her decline became undeniable.
The first big sign of trouble came when she was diagnosed with diabetes. She wasn’t obese but she had a sweet tooth.
She was secretive about her health. She always insisted on doing her injections in private.
One day I was at her house when I saw her retrieve an insulin “pen” from a cabinet in the living room. She began preparing to attach a needle to the pen.
I asked her what she was doing and she said, “I have to take my insulin twice a day.”
“Why do you keep the insulin in the cabinet?” I asked.
“Where else am I going to keep it?”
“You’re supposed to keep it in the refrigerator.”
“Oh, really? Well, don’t worry. I’ve been keeping it in the cabinet since I began taking it and it hasn’t hurt me yet.”
At that moment it dawned on me that she had been injecting herself with unrefrigerated insulin for several *months*.
Naturally, I freaked out. I ran over and grabbed the pen out of her hand and threw it away. (She was royally pissed.) She had several unused pens in the cabinet, all of which I discarded immediately over her loud objections. I called in a refill right away.
God knows what kind of damage she had already done to herself.
I had always spent a lot of time at her house but the insulin incident marked the beginning of the period where I was afraid to leave her alone. And it was all downhill from there.
During the absolute worst period she was practically psychotic. Being around her on a bad day was a horrifying ordeal, one that left me completely demoralized and drained. At times I felt like I was teetering on the brink of madness myself.Replies: @HammerJack, @Ralph L, @The Anti-Gnostic, @SunBakedSuburb, @Onebelowall
My mom died exactly two months ago. She slowly lost her independence over a few years. While she didn’t have dementia, thanks heaven for small favors, but her condition did cause her cognitive issues. I can kind of understand where you’re coming from.
I’ve heard the same thing.
When expats return to the USA, they’re demoralized by the social atomization of the society. They miss having close, supportive friends and real communities.
When Americans become expats, suddenly they feel a need to socialize with one another. So being in an expat community can be a fun experience. It’s much better than the social isolation that’s the norm in today’s America.
Nah, I make a very good wage with good benefits and I know it. There are a few of us government employees out there who do understand it’s a good gig. It helps to live in flyover country among regular people, with housing that’s not outrageously expensive. I’d probably feel much poorer if I worked in DC and had to live 90 minutes out to afford a house.
It is practical and better safe than sorry.
Instead of the Third world becoming First World, the First World is gonna get dragged down to the Third World. The First World has to blame itself for its own stupidity, not resisting mass immigration and Marxist cultural destruction enough and wasting resources in “improving the World” “spreading democracy” and White man’s burden type activities which were always futile.
Real per capita income in Latin America is similar to that of the United States in the 1940s. Rule by entrepreneurial soldier-caudillos and by the institutional military is quite unusual in this world as we speak. The decay of democratic institutions in the occidental world doesn't bear much resemblance to political forms in the 3d world ca. 1967.
And even if we try to squint and pretend there has been some sort of moral rebirth - can you name one real conservative success Putin can point to? Certainly not public morality. Russia’s best tennis player just came out as gay yesterday, she clearly has no real fear of consequences for that.Replies: @Art Deco, @Malla
What bullshit. Maybe Putin could have done better but he was a major improvement over the gangster Yeltsin era. Also the Russian federation is a major exporter of food, while the USSR was importing grain. I agree Putin could have done better, could have concentrated on more manufacturing.
When expats return to the USA, they're demoralized by the social atomization of the society. They miss having close, supportive friends and real communities.
When Americans become expats, suddenly they feel a need to socialize with one another. So being in an expat community can be a fun experience. It's much better than the social isolation that's the norm in today's America.Replies: @Twinkie
Yup. But, of course, it’s not all cookies and cream. These expat communities are transient. And they are small communities, so you better be on your best behavior. They’re like small towns where everyone knows each other and is in each other’s business.
…. Do they have family money?……
Nope – middle middle class parents. Wives are also middle middle class.
One of those few South Asians who definitely deserves to live in a first World nation is Mr. Jayant Bhandari. And he would agree with my assessment too.
Why the West is superior to India – Jayant Bhandari and Patrick Casey
Lastly, considering the skills, qualifications, and accomplishments of Foreign Service Officers, the pay is nowhere near what similar qualifications would get in the non-government world. Hence, the adequate-not great-retirement package and the relative job security for a career working in less than great environments where in today's world an X mark is on your back overseas is the only thing going for joining. And the so-called "full pension" is based on a percentage of the years one worked. Unlike Senators and Federal judges who receive their FULL salary upon retirement, FSOs get much less and the COLA increases NEVER keep up with inflation. Hope this helps clarify things a bit.Replies: @Hangnail Hans, @Twinkie, @Twinkie, @Anon
….. considering the skills, qualifications, and accomplishments of Foreign Service Officers, the pay is nowhere near what similar qualifications would get in the non-government worl…….
Middle Managers in Multi-Nationals accomplish more, have better skills, and earn a fraction of a FSO.
FSOs are basically the equvilant of lecturers at small midwestern colleges. Good at faculty cocktail parties, but mostly
Lol yes. Remember when Obama appointed Chinese-American Gary Locke ambassador to China? I guess he thought the Chinese would get along better with a fellow ethnic Chinese.
The Chinese hated Locke.
To them he was the worst kind of traitor, a race traitor. They could not understand how Locke could be racially Chinese and not in their corner.
They also viewed him as a bad example for common Chinese.
They denigrated and hated on him constantly. Made me respect Locke, actually. A tough position to be in.
But being in that position has to mess with your mind and identity big time.
State used to have a policy not to post FSOs into ancestral countries. Very sensible. Dunno when that went away.
My point is that the Amendments contradict each other. Either one or both would be benign in Denmark. Not in Diversityland. Let blacks vote, and they vote lockstep for gun prohibition.
Of the nine states and district that are may-issue, only two (MA, CT) are whiter than the US as a whole, while whites are a minority in three (CA, DC, HI). The former both abut New York.
If you’re against letting Blacks vote, you should explicitly make that case, and describe how that could be accomplished. You’ve done neither, which is suspect. And if Blacks are so dangerous and incompetent, as you’ve been suggesting, you should also be making the case for their current and complete removal from American society/territory. Again, you haven’t done so. Why not?Replies: @Reg Cæsar
Aerial bombing of civilians is a war crime, regardless of who does it, or the specific nature of the bombs used. The only excuse would be if the civilians are being used as a shield for military activity, e.g., as some claim of the Lusitania. (Then it’s the other side’s war crime.)
There is also his erosion of the neutrality he was sworn to defend, which led us into war. As nasty as Pearl Harbor was, it was arguably invited by our dishonest foreign policy, thus hardly a war crime, and should have been no surprise.
I will give FDR credit for keeping baseball and horse racing going (Reader’s Digest raked him over the coals about the latter), and for continuing his Republican predecessors’ immigration policy. Yes, Congress sets that, but Congress generally gave him whatever he wanted. Packing the Court was a rare exception.
You have an alternative given the technology of the era?Replies: @Reg Cæsar
Not just bullsh!t, but crazy bullsh!t. Up until February of this year, Russia had never had a period in its history so tonic. In absolute terms, Russians have never been so affluent. Vis a vis the occidental countries, certainly no time in the last four generations, if ever. The Gorbachev and Yeltsin years saw a few improvements – much greater personal liberty, the restoration of an authentic and autonomous public life, the reconstitution of Russia as a national state, a dramatic reduction of the military component of the productive base, more circumscribed ambitions in foreign policy – at the same time, there was a catastrophic decline in production, an explosion in street crime, a public health crisis that saw life expectancy declining, horrible wage arrearages throughout the economy, and a collapse in fertility. The Putin ministries reversed all that and did so without manufacturing stacks of public and external debt. They also suppressed the Chechen insurgency with fewer casualties than his predecessor managed in failing to do so. The only Russian rulers in Putin’s class might be Piotr Stolypin or Alexander II, if them.
There is also his erosion of the neutrality he was sworn to defend, which led us into war. As nasty as Pearl Harbor was, it was arguably invited by our dishonest foreign policy, thus hardly a war crime, and should have been no surprise.
I will give FDR credit for keeping baseball and horse racing going (Reader's Digest raked him over the coals about the latter), and for continuing his Republican predecessors' immigration policy. Yes, Congress sets that, but Congress generally gave him whatever he wanted. Packing the Court was a rare exception.Replies: @Art Deco
Aerial bombing of civilians is a war crime
You have an alternative given the technology of the era?
Why are arms plants built in residential areas anyway? Didn't they have zoning? Isn't it enough to destroy the "communications"-- rail lines, roads, airstrips-- necessary to move the arms and ammo to the front?
Instead of the Third world becoming First World, the First World is gonna get dragged down to the Third World.
Real per capita income in Latin America is similar to that of the United States in the 1940s. Rule by entrepreneurial soldier-caudillos and by the institutional military is quite unusual in this world as we speak. The decay of democratic institutions in the occidental world doesn’t bear much resemblance to political forms in the 3d world ca. 1967.
Bombing and shelling enemy cities in wartime has never been a crime. (No country with an air force will ever agree to making it illegal.) As recently as the 1990s the destruction of cities via aerial bombardment was a core part of U.S. military doctrine.
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
Great line.
My dad died several years ago at age 81 with dementia but of other causes. I’ve spent way too much time over the intervening years cleaning up and performing deferred maintenance on the properties (located at an distance) he and my mother, also now with dementia, assembled over the years. I hit an trifecta of basic hoarding, dementia related hoarding (buying multiples of same thing) and hoarding related push-back from my mother and some of the females in the family that has magnified the unpleasantness of the situation. The folks in the early stages might still recall some of their assembled junk but if you can get rid of it you are mostly in the clear. It is the surviving non-dementia female hoarder in the family who magnifies the unpleasantness. Not sure what is worse, the dementia or the hoarding.
NYC refuses to tell the truth about monkeypox or give sound medical advice.
How can we live like this? It will be endemic.Replies: @The Anti-Gnostic, @Art Deco
It’s confined to 1.5% of the population (appended to which are any juveniles they molest). They can readily avoid it by behaving normally rather than engage in their peculiar recreations. Unlike AIDS, the incubation period is less than three weeks, its presentation is not incremental, and you’re not infectious to the end of your days. We’ve lived through this before. The first time was the tragedy. This time’s the farce.
Of the nine states and district that are may-issue, only two (MA, CT) are whiter than the US as a whole, while whites are a minority in three (CA, DC, HI). The former both abut New York.Replies: @Jenner Ickham Errican
Essential rights are not about being “benign”. Wars are fought over them.
Vermont-carry-Vermont also abuts New York. Are you suggesting the distance from the Bronx between Bennington and Great Barrington was the deciding difference between Vermont and Massachusetts carry laws? LOL.
You haven’t shown that. If, in your opinion, law-abiding Blacks can’t be trusted with guns, then all Blacks can’t be trusted to exist in America, period. THAT should be your argument if for you it’s not merely about the guns, as you claim. You should be hammering “Get rid of the blacks!” as much as AnotherDad writes “Separate nations!” Oddly, you haven’t done so at all. I think you at least equally fear civilian Whites with guns, as a national phenomenon, but you are too afraid to come out with that opinion.
It’s amusing and delightful when they vote for gun prohibition: They’re outnumbered nationally and their idiotic voting is actually helping the 2A cause everywhere, including in places like NYC.
If you’re against letting Blacks vote, you should explicitly make that case, and describe how that could be accomplished. You’ve done neither, which is suspect. And if Blacks are so dangerous and incompetent, as you’ve been suggesting, you should also be making the case for their current and complete removal from American society/territory. Again, you haven’t done so. Why not?
You have an alternative given the technology of the era?Replies: @Reg Cæsar
The same argument can be made for sinking the Lusitania— civilians used as shields or camo for military action. If it’s not a war crime by the attacker, then it is a war crime by the attacked. It is either avoidable by the attacker, or made unavoidable by the attacked. Take your pick.
Why are arms plants built in residential areas anyway? Didn’t they have zoning? Isn’t it enough to destroy the “communications”– rail lines, roads, airstrips– necessary to move the arms and ammo to the front?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/CJTF-HOA_insignia.jpg/800px-CJTF-HOA_insignia.jpgReplies: @Reg Cæsar
It’s certainly the Horniest I’ve ever seen.
If you’re against letting Blacks vote, you should explicitly make that case, and describe how that could be accomplished. You’ve done neither, which is suspect. And if Blacks are so dangerous and incompetent, as you’ve been suggesting, you should also be making the case for their current and complete removal from American society/territory. Again, you haven’t done so. Why not?Replies: @Reg Cæsar
I’m surrounded by whites with guns. I don’t think any of my in-laws lack them– except for the lone coal-burner.
Blacks suggest this themselves by their voting behavior. The SPLC condemns immigration restrictionists for using aqueous metaphors against migration (e.g., flood, waves), yet they say nothing about preachers railing against the flow of guns to their congregants.
Blacks can vote all they want, as long as it doesn’t affect me. Devolution! Federalism!
Look, I know what you’re doing. You’re a treasonous cuck. Your anti-2A “blacks with guns” mantra is a nonsensical red herring. Your real fear is right-wing (civilian, mostly) Whites with guns winning a future civil war. Nothing personal, but if such a scenario ever comes to pass, I would hope that your gun-owning relatives are patriots and ‘euthanize’ you for the good of the Nation and the Land O’ Lakes. 😔Replies: @Reg Cæsar
My condolences.
Doesn’t mean you aren’t gun-phobic. Have you discussed the subject of gun control with your in-laws? Or are they don’t ask—don’t tell, knowing guns trigger anxiety with you?
Blacks vote for Dems, who are more lenient on violent criminals, who are disproportionately Black. Why do you put any credence in what Blacks vote for?
You care about what Black preachers are “railing against”? LOL! Are you sure you’re not the one with the Jet subscription? Do you donate to Creflo Dollar? Sheeeiiiit. What’s next—a report on the hottest weave styles this summa?—Reggie C gots the fo’ one one.
You have it wrong: Blacks will vote (or not), regardless. They ain’t waiting for yo ass to weigh in.
Sorry, does not apply to constitutional amendments. The current SC is certainly making sure of that. Maybe you can find a new hobbyhorse: “Constitutional convention now!”
Look, I know what you’re doing. You’re a treasonous cuck. Your anti-2A “blacks with guns” mantra is a nonsensical red herring. Your real fear is right-wing (civilian, mostly) Whites with guns winning a future civil war. Nothing personal, but if such a scenario ever comes to pass, I would hope that your gun-owning relatives are patriots and ‘euthanize’ you for the good of the Nation and the Land O’ Lakes. 😔
“lots of quick promotion on ten deaths a day”
Look, I know what you’re doing. You’re a treasonous cuck. Your anti-2A “blacks with guns” mantra is a nonsensical red herring. Your real fear is right-wing (civilian, mostly) Whites with guns winning a future civil war. Nothing personal, but if such a scenario ever comes to pass, I would hope that your gun-owning relatives are patriots and ‘euthanize’ you for the good of the Nation and the Land O’ Lakes. 😔Replies: @Reg Cæsar
…is not mine. It is that of almost all 18th- and 19th-century American leaders, including those who wrote and ratified the Constitution. Your beef (assuming it is genuine and not staged) is with them.
I have never stated a personal opinion on black self-armament, and see little reason to expend the energy necessary to develop one.
This is you:That’s your beef, Reg. I haven’t come out against the 2nd, or the 14th’s EPC written by “18th- and 19th-century American leaders”. You started off by whining about the coexistence of those amendments.You’re the one who favorably cites what Black preachers (LOL) and Black voters (LOL) are thinking about guns, and cite them all the time. You also favorably cite obsolete laws that specifically prohibited Blacks from owning firearms. If you favorably cite something, that is a personal opinion, dummy.In multiple comments over the years, you’ve commented negatively about Blacks legally having guns. Your opinion on that is beyond developed. Maybe it’s a falsely stated opinion, and a rhetorical stalking horse for universal gun control, but you’ve long stated that Blacks should not be armed:
French was the language of European elites for a thousand years. This is because France for most of that time was the largest, richest and most populous European country.
This began to change in the 19th century, but well into the 20th century all diplomats were expected to know French.
It is yours. That’s why I’m responding to you.
You must be in the early stages of Alzheimers.
This is you:
That’s your beef, Reg. I haven’t come out against the 2nd, or the 14th’s EPC written by “18th- and 19th-century American leaders”. You started off by whining about the coexistence of those amendments.
You’re the one who favorably cites what Black preachers (LOL) and Black voters (LOL) are thinking about guns, and cite them all the time. You also favorably cite obsolete laws that specifically prohibited Blacks from owning firearms. If you favorably cite something, that is a personal opinion, dummy.
In multiple comments over the years, you’ve commented negatively about Blacks legally having guns. Your opinion on that is beyond developed. Maybe it’s a falsely stated opinion, and a rhetorical stalking horse for universal gun control, but you’ve long stated that Blacks should not be armed:
Hell, why not recruit at the Bronx Zoo and max out the diversity?