I've gone from a dedicated news avoider to welcoming the heavy thud of each new edition as everything continues to come up roses. I don't even know where to start, I'm like a kid in a candy store.
-- Useless and obviously shifty Republican leader defeated in primary by real person though he outspent opponent $2.5 million to $40,000. Chaos ensues, and the New York Times calls the professor who won the primary a member of the "extreme far right."
-- The latest laughable "Islamic terrorist group," Boko Haram, wants 800 cows in exchange for the release of 20 kidnapped young women. We should consider extending the WIC program.
-- After billions of dollars in training and equipment, the Iraqi Army has deserted en masse, revealing more than 10 years of USG policy, both Republican and Democratic, as having been based on nothing more than delusions and idiocy.
-- In the real, existing Iraq it's a Sunni versus Shiíte versus Kurd mega-smackdown. It's like a beauty contest in Sweden: everybody wins.
-- The World Cup of a terrible sport has begun and just about everyone admits openly that it's corrupt, it's corporate and it's fixed. The U.S. national team is lead by a European who clearly hates everything about America and states openly that he cannot win, thereby confirming the righteous judgment of average Americans that it's something best left to junior high girls.
-- After billions of dollars and man-hours spent, the U.S. intelligence agencies didn't forsee or warn of: 1) the obvious intention of Russia to annex the Crimea; 2) the incursion of Sunni forces into Mosul, Iraq; or 3) the kidnapping offensive by Islamists in Nigeria.
-- The Islamic Republic of Iran has deployed elite troops to Baghdad to protect the Iraqi Government. Thus, if the USG wishes to return to Iraq, it will be fighting alongside Iranian forces.
-- USG and liberal forces moving to make "the children" and Los Dreamers the center of attention in the immigration debate has fostered a Children's Crusade on the border, with more than 250,000 teenage boys showing up at the border unaccompanied, and immediately let right in the country.
And so on. Why is this all good news? Because, all of it reveals that the small but growing minority which has been arguing that the current situation is beyond reform and will require revolutionary and systemic change is correct in its assessment. The obvious inability of the establishment to run affairs will eventually lead to a crash. Even the most stubborn and bone-headed patriot is starting to realize just how out of control and out of touch our empty leadership is.
It's always darkest before dawn.
-- Useless and obviously shifty Republican leader defeated in primary by real person though he outspent opponent $2.5 million to $40,000. Chaos ensues, and the New York Times calls the professor who won the primary a member of the "extreme far right."
-- The latest laughable "Islamic terrorist group," Boko Haram, wants 800 cows in exchange for the release of 20 kidnapped young women. We should consider extending the WIC program.
-- After billions of dollars in training and equipment, the Iraqi Army has deserted en masse, revealing more than 10 years of USG policy, both Republican and Democratic, as having been based on nothing more than delusions and idiocy.
-- In the real, existing Iraq it's a Sunni versus Shiíte versus Kurd mega-smackdown. It's like a beauty contest in Sweden: everybody wins.
-- The World Cup of a terrible sport has begun and just about everyone admits openly that it's corrupt, it's corporate and it's fixed. The U.S. national team is lead by a European who clearly hates everything about America and states openly that he cannot win, thereby confirming the righteous judgment of average Americans that it's something best left to junior high girls.
-- After billions of dollars and man-hours spent, the U.S. intelligence agencies didn't forsee or warn of: 1) the obvious intention of Russia to annex the Crimea; 2) the incursion of Sunni forces into Mosul, Iraq; or 3) the kidnapping offensive by Islamists in Nigeria.
-- The Islamic Republic of Iran has deployed elite troops to Baghdad to protect the Iraqi Government. Thus, if the USG wishes to return to Iraq, it will be fighting alongside Iranian forces.
-- USG and liberal forces moving to make "the children" and Los Dreamers the center of attention in the immigration debate has fostered a Children's Crusade on the border, with more than 250,000 teenage boys showing up at the border unaccompanied, and immediately let right in the country.
And so on. Why is this all good news? Because, all of it reveals that the small but growing minority which has been arguing that the current situation is beyond reform and will require revolutionary and systemic change is correct in its assessment. The obvious inability of the establishment to run affairs will eventually lead to a crash. Even the most stubborn and bone-headed patriot is starting to realize just how out of control and out of touch our empty leadership is.
It's always darkest before dawn.
I see upon holding my nose and visiting NRO's The Corner that the denizens there have taken a break from giving us fascinating updates on Papal matters to pushing the line that "Obama lost Iraq" and that we must intervene militarily.
ReplyDeleteIf this doesn't convince you that mainstream conservatism is brain dead, I'm not sure what will. The people of this country gave President Bush every opportunity to win the war in Iraq, even giving him the benefit of the doubt in 2004. Bush instead decided to build girls' schools and accept an Iranian-backed Shiite government as representative of the Iraqi people. Obama then ran SPECIFICALLY promising to get the U.S. out of Iraq, which, happily, he did.
Any attempt to get the U.S. involved again militarily will be even more unpopular than the boomlet for war in Syria was, and, of course, would be placing us in a de facto military alliance with Iran on the ground.
And it would be political suicide.
To be clear; The American people do not give a flying you-know-what about Iraqi or Iraqis, will not stand for the loss of one more life or the spending of one more dollar there and will scream like hell if this "conservative" plea gains any traction.
Jourdan, you are quite correct with regard to sentiment - there is zero support to re-engage in Iraq.
DeleteThat said, the "deep state" will spring into action if ISIS threatens the southern oil fields around Basra. Not just the US "deep state" but you will see unanimity in the UN Security Council.
The bottom line is that those barrels of oil are needed to keep the world economy floating. Another world wide recession induced by an oil shock would threaten political elites on every continent.
That, and Russia and China - the usual holdouts - are pretty friendly with Iran to begin with, more than US.
Remember that what's going on right now in Iraq and Syria is an Iran vs Gulf state proxy war. And the world is increasingly fed up with the Gulf states.
So yeah, US carrier based planes flying close air support for IRCG troops defending Basra and retaking Baghdad? With UNSC blessing?
Could happen. And sentiment will have little to do with it.
Game of Thrones has it right. Knowledge isn't power. Power is power. If the powers that be care about our opinion they will give us one.
You called it lewy. Not more than 24 hours after a fight at a major oil refinery center, the President has announced 300 "advisors" to Iraq (to do what? To advise an army that lacks all credibility and was just beaten by 3,000 men when it had two divisions, complete with M1 Abrams tanks?) and intelligence gathering in advance of air strikes.
DeleteI guess that is my cue for my usual bi-monthly crisis re: my job.
Sigh.
Life can get pretty absurd, to be sure.
DeleteFor instance, right this second I'm blasting some thumping trance music through my bluetooth headphones, dancing in my underwear in the living room and doing a fair impression of floranista's purple banana gif.
Why, you ask. OK you didn't ask but I'll tell you anyway.
I'm doing this for the same reason any prudent and responsible fifty something man would be doing this.
Colonoscopy prep, of course. Gotta keep that polyethylene glycol flowing so it don't back up.
So there's some perspective for you. My wisdom is transcendent and pervasive; someday soon you too will face this and realize yeah, lewy totally had this Iraq intervention called, and has it nailed with this whole colonoscopy prep-fu thing. Way to go pal!
;)
Oh, and two words: cordon sanitiare.
ReplyDeleteE.g. if the French people elect Marine Le Pen, then the French people will be dissolved.
I would not mind a military intervention, if needed, as long as the intention is to go in and kick ass and get the job done. Going in and trying to be polite while waging war is a waste of everything, time, money, and lives.
ReplyDeleteI do not advocate committing atrocities, but we can't go in and say, "Do you mind if we target you bad guys?" either. Anyone who harbours a bad guy is a bad guy. If someone is caught in the middle then they need to know that and fear us more than they fear the bad guys.
We either want to do it or we don't If we do, let's do it. If we don't, don't bother. Escalating a war without making it appear that we are escalating a war is how Johnson made a mess of Viet Nam.
Jourdan ... thank you for bringing me up to date. I stopped watching any news casts of any kind a week ago. Bad attitude on my part and all that. Guess I better start paying attention again, before some idiot decides 71 isn't to old to be recalled to duty.
ReplyDeleteRadioMatt.... your idea of intervention, one I might support, has not be executed since 1946. And make no mistake LBJ, with the idiot Robert Komer (Blowtorch Bob) at his side, but the Vietnam War was a foregone conclusion in 1946...when the west gave Indo-china back to France, who were not prepared for it, did not deserve it, and could not manage it....the beginning of pseudo-leadership in war began, in my lifetime, with the French in Hanoi. The journalist Jules Roy has published on it extensively.
I will never support boots on the ground again unless the mission is precisely defined, and once accomplished, we leave immediately and assure we've devastated the place enough to prevent crops growing for 5 years.
Ari, you sum it up pretty well.
DeleteBravo, Jourdan.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more.
Even in the most mainstream conservative circles, the realization that the jig is up seems to be taking root. For example, today in The Corner at NRO Michael Austin writes:
ReplyDelete"Yet Washington itself remains insouciantly, defiantly self-obsessed and self-satisfied. Yes, individual congressmen, like Eric Cantor, can get knocked off by their constituents, but as a corporate body, Washington is invulnerable and impermeable to change. It forestalls any threats to its real power (fiscal extraction) by continually expanding the scope of its powers, far beyond what the Founding Fathers intended. The form of American democracy may remain intact, but its functioning is increasingly disconnected from the will of the people. From Washington’s perspective, business is great: Income is up, credit is limitless, and the customer base is growing. There can and will be no reform coming from inside Washington because that is manifestly not in Washington’s interest or in the interest of those who benefit from its largesse."
Yyyyyep. That's about right.
ReplyDeleteThere will be no reform from inside Washington.
Thing is... there will be no reform from outside Washington either.
Washington doesn't even have to fight the people.
It's poisoned social discourse with its campaigning and media apparatchiks to the point where the people are fighting each other far more effectively than the government could every fight.*
Washington laughs. (And London, and Brussels...)
The idea that grass roots conservatives will overcome the Washington machine strikes me as unlikely as the idea that Elizabeth Warren type true progressives will overcome the Washington machine.
They will disrupt nascent challenges in real time. Don't think they don't know how. Every success by the "insurgents" just makes them smarter.
[*] Besides, the day comes when the neo-statist juice-box fanbois get their wish and CNN broadcasts live streams of US military using tanks and planes against masses of "white rednecks", they will be in for a rude shock when financial markets mount a run on the Treasury bond, the dollar crashes and is abandoned, and their statist dreams go up in flames. This is why they backed off the Bundy ranch - a massacre would adversely affect US Treasury markets. The people running the show are smarter than that.
No criticism intended, however, this assumption that the masses will be slaughtered by overwhelming military and quasi-military force is a fallacy. Some years ago we fought some little guys with rustic weapons in black pajamas, who were supported by a tiny third world army, and yet they essentially defeated the most powerful military in the world...not in battle, but by perseverance and willingness to take up arms at all and kill.
ReplyDeleteThose who think the US militarized federal agencies, as shown at the Bundy Ranch, will be surprised, just as the federals were at Bundy Ranch. There really ARE people who will take up arms and resist. The feds saw that and balked at not merely killing some civilians but in anticipating explaining how some agricultural bureaucrats in ninja drag got their asses shot off in a pitched battle.
What Jourdan quotes above is precisely what my experience in and with Washington DC tells me.
Ari, I think we're pretty much on the same page here.
DeleteDefinitely agree that there are people willing to fight the aggregated, evolving US "Interior Ministry".
Whether or not the militia might prevail in any one conflict is actually beside the point.
The images would get broadcast - and not just by CNN, but by Russia Today, Xinhua, Al Jazeera, AFP, Bloomberg, Reuters, BBC, etc... likely they would pick up the raw footage from cell phone cameras in situ.
Aaaand that would be the end of the Treasury market, and the dollar. The strength of our financial base is not, as commonly believed, solely due to the strength of arms pointed at enemies, but the absence of domestic unrest (relative to the rest of the world).
What the Chinese would call a "mass incident" - only American style, i.e., with guns - would call into question American financial stability.
The prosperity of the United States - and the people in it - would take a severe hit if outright armed insurrections were to occur, whatever the outcome of those incidents.
There are those who would counter that there are more important issues than prosperity. I'm not attempting to argue that point, only to point out that there is a price for everything.
I think the powers that be know all this which is why insurrection will not be fought. Recall that the US military ended the Sunni insurrection in Anbar not by fighting it, but by co-opting it.
The militia movement is full of true believers. Likely it is also full of spies. The cosplay fed ag storm troopers likely had much better intel on the people and arms arrayed against them than the militia might have assumed.
That, and the realtime analysis of social media, which again is a sophisticated and pervasive program.
The world elites are quite cooperative with each other when it comes to threats to their collective rule. There is no hidden conspiracy; this cooperation for the most part occurs in plain sight.
The principle of popular consent as the basis for government legitimacy is eroding. I don't see limits to its further erosion.
You may have missed my point. I am NOT talking about posers and militia dudes. I am talking about ordinary citizens just saying they have had enough. The "militias" had little to do with the stand off at Bundy Ranch other than to gather in support of the resistance already extant.
DeleteThe "Powers that Be" have nothing to say about it...any more than Gen Westmoreland and Robert Komer did about the Viet Cong....and what they did say was totally wrong. The "Powers that Be" ought be more worried about the spies within their ranks. Been there, done that.
Otherwise, we agree.
For the past several excursions, the US Government has been very conscious to not offend the people we were trying to defeat -- that's why the folks in the black pyjamas were so successful.. I doubt they would give a flying rip about American Citizens, or they wouldn't take such an action in the first place
Delete.