Category: Uncategorized

The fall of the neoliberal order

The demoralization of Europe is complete with a declaration by the President of France concerning the end of Western hegemony.

The international order is being shaken in an unprecedented manner, above all with, if I may say so, by the great upheaval that is undoubtedly taking place for the first time in our history, in almost every field and with a profoundly historic magnitude. The first thing we observe is a major transformation, a geopolitical and strategic re-composition. We are undoubtedly experiencing the end of Western hegemony over the world.

We were accustomed to an international order which, since the 18th century, rested on a Western hegemony, mostly French in the 18th century, by the inspiration of the Enlightenment; then mostly British in the 19th century thanks to the Industrial Revolution and, finally, mostly American in the 20th century thanks to the two great conflicts and the economic and political domination of this power. Things change. And they are now deeply shaken by the mistakes of Westerners in certain crises, by the choices that have been made by Americans for several years which did not start with this administration, but which lead to revisiting certain implications in conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to rethinking a deep, diplomatic and military strategy, and sometimes elements of solidarity that we thought were intangible for eternity, even if we had constituted together in geopolitical moments that have changed.

And then there is the emergence of new powers whose impact we have probably underestimated for a long time. China is at the forefront, but also the Russian strategy, which has, it must be said, been pursued more successfully in recent years. I will come back to that. India that is emerging, these new economies that are also becoming powers not only economic but political and that think themselves, as some have written, as real “civilizational states” which now come not only to shake up our international order but who also come to weigh in on the economic order and to rethink the political order and the political imagination that goes with it, with much dynamism and much more inspiration than we have.

Look at India, Russia and China. They have a much stronger political inspiration than Europeans today. They think about our planet with a true logic, a true philosophy, an imagination that we’ve lost a little bit.

This is the result of the so-called Enlightenment gradually eroding the foundations of civilization. Western civilization ebbs and flows with Christianity because Christianity is the spiritual and intellectual barrier that separates truth from untruth. It should be no surprise that a post-Christian West has not only divorced itself from truth and reality, but in doing so, has lost its historical power and influence.

Mailvox: the illusionists

A lawyer writes to confirm my observations of his profession:

Your recent talk about lawyers hits close to home and is in most cases true. I’m an attorney who works in public contracting. I went to a third-tier law school and am not working for some prestige firm. I’m currently in a litigation defending against a party who has retained a big K Street law firm where all of the attorneys went to so-called “good” schools–we’re talking Ivys and the next level down.

In drafting an opposition to a stay request, I obviously did my due diligence and read the cases referenced by the other party for myself. After all, these cases are cited as precedent in support of their claim. The interesting thing was, the cases either weren’t appropriate analogues to the current situation, or in one instance, the main case the other side relied upon stood for the opposite proposition of what they claimed it did.

Unbelievable. I really need to start charging more.

In my experience, about 90 percent of legal briefs are written by lazy people attempting to bluff other people they assume are even lazier. In most – not many, most – of the legal arguments I have personally read or heard presented in court, there are multiple shameless attempts equivalent to asserting that there are twelve lights when there are only four or to claim that -1 is actually equal to +1. These attempts are easily disproved, of course, but only if your anticipation of their arguments and your preparations for dealing with them are adequate.

The level of sheer sloppiness across the board is absolutely incredible. I would NEVER hire a lawyer and expect him to even do the most basic reading of the primary material; in most cases they simply don’t do it. This is a crucial flaw, because often the significance of a particular phrase or passage don’t leap out at you until the fifth or sixth reading. With the exception of contract lawyers, who are genuinely detail-oriented individuals who actually read the relevant documents, most lawyers are rhetoricians who rely upon their verbal skills to manipulate emotions and win the day that way. And they are almost invariably unprepared for the non-lawyer who actually sits down and does the relevant research involved.

It is said, not inaccurately, that the law is nothing more than a mutually-agreed-upon illusion. And from that, it correctly follows that even the best lawyers are little more than smooth-talking illusionists with professional credentials.

Embrace your extremists

Because you’re going to be defined as one sooner or later.

Earlier this month, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution declaring the National Rifle Association (NRA) to be a “domestic terrorist organization.” Some of us laughed at the absurd move and simply wrote it off by thinking “It’s San Francisco, they’re all nuts over there,” but the sentiment is actually more popular in the Democratic Party than you might expect. In fact, nearly a third of Democrats believe that the National Rifle Association (NRA), the largest gun rights organization in the country, should be declared a terrorist organization, and that it should be against the law for Americans to become members.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that nearly one-out-of-three Likely Democratic Voters (32{9576e478f725cceae1d2658658ad3e64422d2ca740094a2fb07c0611fe338f11}) favor declaring the gun rights group a terrorist organization in the community where they live. Fourteen percent (14{9576e478f725cceae1d2658658ad3e64422d2ca740094a2fb07c0611fe338f11}) of Republicans and 20{9576e478f725cceae1d2658658ad3e64422d2ca740094a2fb07c0611fe338f11} of voters not affiliated with either major party agree. Twenty-eight percent (28{9576e478f725cceae1d2658658ad3e64422d2ca740094a2fb07c0611fe338f11}) of Democrats say Americans should be prohibited by law from belonging to pro-gun rights organizations like the NRA, a view shared by 15{9576e478f725cceae1d2658658ad3e64422d2ca740094a2fb07c0611fe338f11} of Republicans and 10{9576e478f725cceae1d2658658ad3e64422d2ca740094a2fb07c0611fe338f11} of uanffiliateds.

Among all likely voters, 23{9576e478f725cceae1d2658658ad3e64422d2ca740094a2fb07c0611fe338f11} favor declaring the NRA a terrorist organization in their home community, while 18{9576e478f725cceae1d2658658ad3e64422d2ca740094a2fb07c0611fe338f11} think it should be against the law to belong to pro-gun rights groups like the NRA.

When nearly a third of a political party believes that an organization supporting gun rights is a “terrorist organization” and should be illegal to join, it makes you wonder what percentage also oppose free speech, freedom of religion, and other rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution.

They have to go back. And if they have nowhere to go back to, the states, once united, must divide.

The US can’t afford the neoclowns

The US military simply doesn’t have the ability to fight low-intensity wars in the Middle East anymore, let alone engage in a three-front war against Russia, China, and Iran.

The US fleet has not been in a war since 1945, the air forces since 1975. nor the Army in a hard fight since Vietnam. Bombing defenseless peasants, the chief function of the American military, is not war.

In extended periods of peace, which includes the bombing of peasants, a military tends to assume that no major war will come during the careers of those now in uniform. Commanders consequently do what makes their lives easy, what they must do to get through the day and have reasonable fitness reports. This does not include pointing out inadequacies of training or equipment. Nor does it include recommending large expenditures to remedy deficiencies. Nor does it include recommending very expensive mobilization exercises that would divert money from new weapons.

Thus an armored command has enough replacement tracks for training, but not enough for tanks in hard use in extended combat. When the crunch comes, it turns out that getting more track requires a new contract with the manufacturer, who has shut down the production line. The same is true for air filters, there not being much sand at Fort Campbell but a lot in Iraq. Things as mundane as MRATs and boots are not there.in real-war quantities.

GAU-8 ammo is in short supply because theory says the F-35 will do tank busting. The Navy runs out of TLAMs early on and discovers that manufacturing cruise missiles takes time. Lots of it.

And of course some things simply don’t work as expected. Military history buffs will remember the Mark XIV torpedo, the Mark VI exploder of WWII, and the travails of the Tinosa.

This may explain why Netanyahu backed down rather than invade Lebanon after Hezbollah sent clear signals that it would fight rather than retreat. And why the Mad Mustache’s services are no longer required by the White House.

A test of clout

Few races are as convoluted as the one in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District, which is — 10 months after Election Day 2018 — the last vote of the midterm elections. Experts see the race between State Senator Dan Bishop, a Republican, and the entrepreneur Dan McCready, a Democrat, as a test of President Trump’s clout in suburban areas.

50.7{9576e478f725cceae1d2658658ad3e64422d2ca740094a2fb07c0611fe338f11} 96,081 Dan Bishop (R) 
48.7{9576e478f725cceae1d2658658ad3e64422d2ca740094a2fb07c0611fe338f11} 92,144 Dan McCready (D)

It would appear President Trump’s clout in suburban areas remains strong. A month ago, according to the polls, Bishop was 17 points down. An eighteen-point turnaround in response to Trump’s campaigning is impressive.

Neocon down!

The God-Emperor axes Mustache John Bolton:

President Donald Trump has fired National Security Adviser John Bolton after a string of disagreements between the two over how the U.S. should handle North Korea and Iran.

Trump announced on Twitter that he had asked for Bolton’s resignation, which he received this morning, after the president had “disagreed with many of his suggestions.”

“I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning,” Trump said on Twitter.

You can probably imagine how the conversation that preceded his departure went:

Trump: How should we deal with Afghanistan?

Bolton: Send more troops! We need more troops!

Trump: Easy, ‘stache. All right, moving on. What about Iran?

Bolton: Bomb them! Bomb bomb bomb them! Then send in the troops!

Trump: How many troops do you think we will need?

Bolton: All of them! Bring back the draft. Draft the girls! And the Canadians!

Trump: I don’t think we can actually draft Canadians.

Bolton: WHY DO YOU HATE ISRAEL?

Trump:  I almost dread to ask this, but do you have any thoughts concerning the trade war with China?

Bolton: All the bombs! All the troops! All the nukes! Rain fire upon the land! Blood for the Blood God!

Trump: (picks up phone) Yeah, Mike, we seem to have a little problem here…

A necessary prop

The Narrators would have preferred to keep the facts of the alleged Parkland shooter’s behavior under wraps, considering the obvious questions it raises concerning his inexplicable presence at the school.

If something frustrated Cruz, he would curse and threaten anyone nearby. He would hide behind corners and doors, jump out and scream at people, and then cackle at their fear. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, he would burst into maniacal laughter.

Another student, Sarah, recalled a time when he threw his chair across a classroom. Later, she saw him sitting outside the classroom with his desk tied down.

Cruz’s torture and killing of animals became a source of pride for him as he interacted with other students. One student, Devin, recalled that, although he tried to avoid Cruz, Cruz would approach him almost every day and ask, “Would you like to see videos of me skinning animals?” Devin always declined, but Cruz kept asking.

Cruz’s records suggest that his reign of terror at Westglades Middle School began halfway through his seventh-grade year, in February of 2013. For the next calendar year, Cruz was suspended every other day. Why did the school allow him to remain enrolled despite his daily, deranged behavior for a full year? Not by negligence, but by policy….

Sept. 11: After discussing and lecturing about the Civil War in America Nick became fixated on the death and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He asked inappropriate questions and was making shooting actions with his pencil. Some questions he asked were “What did it sound like when Lincoln was shot? Did it go pop pop or pop pop pop really fast? Was there blood everywhere? After the war what did they do with all the bodies? Did people eat them?”

Sept. 16: When we began to read the Odyssey Nick paid partial attention (in-and-out) until we came up to the gruesome scene when the giant eats Odysseus’ crew members, only then Nick was interested in the lesson and got my 100{9576e478f725cceae1d2658658ad3e64422d2ca740094a2fb07c0611fe338f11} attention.

Sept. 27: Another student also informed me (once Nick was escorted out of class) that Nick asks him all of the time “How am I still at this school?”

But the reason Cruz was permitted – nay, required – to continue attending public school despite his mental illness and his complete unsuitability for it is because, regardless of how deep down the rabbit hole one wishes to go, his presence there was necessary for the unfolding of the Narrative.

They care about white bears

Why don’t they care about white people?

The polar bear’s unique set of genetic adaptations could be lost

Some of the recent pizzly sightings in Canada are now second generation hybrids, dominated by grizzly DNA.

“When I say hybrids I’m referring to half polar bear and half grizzly bear. But I know of four individuals that are three quarters grizzly and one quarter polar bear. So we have a hybrid mating with a grizzly bear and we get a second generation that is three quarters grizzly,” says Derocher.

The dominance of grizzly DNA is a concern to both Derocher and Lorenzen, who suggest that polar bears’ unique genetic traits that allow them to live on sea ice and survive on a high fat diet of seals, might ultimately lose out to the dominant population of grizzlies.

“Ultimately, one species will be integrated into the other, and it’s likely that it will be polar bears that integrate into brown bears,” say Lorenzen.

“As polar bears are forced to go on land and interbreed with brown bears then the selective pressures for being able to metabolise fatty acids–that polar bears need–won’t be important any more. So these will likely be lost. Now if that’s your definition of a polar bear then that will be lost as well,” she says.

This is what happens when you let your rhetoric get too far ahead of your dialectic. Sooner or later, even the most casual observers begin to notice the intrinsic contradictions between your various positions. There is absolutely no rational reason why white people who are being relentlessly indoctrinated into the cause of sacrificing their unique set of genetic adaptations to the gods of diversity, equality, and inclusivity should give even a fraction of a quantum of a damn about white bears losing their unique set of genetic adaptations.

Extinction is just diversity in action.

The professional victim lied again

About her nonexistent victimization by the late Alec Holowka:

On August 28, 2019, game developer and activist Zoe Quinn issued a multi-post Twitter statement detailing abuse allegedly suffered at the hands of former partner and fellow indie developer Alec Holowka. On August 29, the Night in the Woods development team cut ties with Holowka, and within 48 hours, he had committed suicide. The same day as Holowka’s suicide, Zoe Quinn’s Twitter account was deleted, returning shortly thereafter under a protected lock which enabled only a few select people to access the tweets.

A source with access to Quinn’s locked Twitter account has provided The Post Millennial with important history which sheds light on the developer’s time with the now-deceased Alec Holowka.

While, in Quinn’s August 28th public statement, Quinn did not specify when the alleged abuses took place, it was stated it was while living in Winnipeg at Holowka’s apartment. A cursory scan of their Twitter reveals Quinn was preparing to leave for Winnipeg at the end of March 2012 for an unspecified period of time and had arrived at the end of March or beginning of April 2012. While those tweets appear to have been deleted and were inaccessible even by The Post Millennial’s source, they had already been screen-captured and archived in a YouTube video prior to the deletion of Quinn’s Twitter account.

In an August 28th statement, Quinn claims to have been “physically confined” to Holowka’s unit, as well as “isolated” from the outside world. Tweets reveal a different story, with Quinn tweeting regularly throughout the time period in Winnipeg with Holowka, sometimes dozens of times per day, communicating with many others and describing Quinn’s time in the city, and documenting many excursions.

Quinn and Holowka also arranged multiple indie game meetups appropriately named Windiepeg in mid-April and early May at Urban Forest where up to 38 other developers were present, many of which had been those Quinn had been interacting with through Twitter.

If you’re a journalist or a game developer or involved with the comics industry, stay very, very far away from this psychopath. Especially if you are a low-status man who is flattered by unexpected female attention. Zoe Quinn may be the closest thing to a human black widow that we have ever seen operating right in public.

GamerGate was right all along.