Posse Incitatus

Veterans Day 2019

This Veterans Day finds our nation in a strange place.

For the first time in history, we have president who was targeted by a subordinate for essentially conducting foreign policy without the Establishment's permission.  Indeed, the very term "whistleblower" has no application here, since military officers are expected to obey the orders of the president, not run to Congress under cover of anonymity and whine about them.

This is only the most recent example of military leaders not so openly declaring that military decisions are too important to be left to the people with Constitutional power to make them.  The Syria withdrawal appeared haphazard because it was resisted to the last minute.

Interestingly, a majority of veterans now consider the Global War on Terror - both in Iraq and Afghanistan - to be not worth the effort.  I agree.

In both instances, what was called for was a rapid, punitive strike to cripple their capabilities and serve as an object lesson to other hostile regimes.

The incompetence is bipartisan and apparently no lessons have been learned.  The same people who have gotten it wrong for the last three decades continue to get it wrong and are now trying to subvert the Constitutional order so they can keep getting it wrong, forever.

Today we honor those who served and that honor stems from the oath they take - not to an individual, or a party, or a policy, but to the Constitution itself.    The US is unique in both the type of oath and the fidelity with which it has been observed for more than two centuries.

Thank you.

The headless Islamic State

One of the weirdest elements of our current age is how the people who fancy themselves experts keep getting things wrong - and then expect people to keep listening to them!

The Obama Administration sowed chaos across the globe, stumbling from one disaster to another, learning nothing in the process.  In another age, they'd be mocked and driven from polite society rather than constantly consulted about all the awful things that are sure to result from Trump ignoring their pin-headed advice.

The other aspect of Never Trumpism is the perverse desire to stand against anything and everything Trump is for.  The death of would-be Caliph of the Islamic State should be a day anyone with a moiety of their marbles would celebrate, and yet the fake press immediately busied itself with trying to rehab the fanatical killer.

That is of course the predictable end of Never Trumpism - his successful policies which have brought renewed American prosperity and hope are now the worst possible news.   Having gotten Syria dead wrong, I anticipate a turn back to "recession mania" before trying to pump some meaningless RUSSIA hype.

Of course all that will be disrupted once the indictments come down.  I've no idea when it will happen, but the latest incendiary filing in the Flynn case indicates that the whole Spygate fiasco is about to be exposed in a way that will have even the lying mainstream media struggling to cover it up.

FISA Week is here

The long-awaited Inspector General report on FISA abuse is supposed to come out this week.

Rumors are flying and while some expect it to be another dud, the actions of the Dems suggest otherwise.

The report has been the works for a long time, and the fact that Joe Biden's CIA buddies tried to launch a spoiling attack and push impeachment suggests it's not going to vindicate the intel operatives who think they run the country.

That being said, I'm sure a bunch of sites will wail and gnash their teeth if the report isn't strong again.  This has happened repeatedly in the past, so it's worth revisiting some key points that get lost in the flood of emotion.

This is merely a finding of fact.  The IG doesn't speculate and can't pass verdicts.  The purpose of the report is to enable additional prosecution if it seems warranted and also take administrative action to correct deficiencies.  Previous reports didn't result in prosecutions, but that isn't to say they will never happen, just that they haven't happened yet.

The other key element is that the IG has no enforcement power.  IG's can't fire anyone or offer punishment.  That will go to the heads of the various departments.

What we do know is that a lot of the people involved are very nervous.  We also know that detailed investigations are underway covering foreign involvement and other irregularities.

Finally, it's important to understand that if one really wants convictions, the nature of these crimes mean the investigations will take a while.  Too many people looked at Team Mueller throwing down process charge indictments as the way things are done.  They aren't.

Most of those charges were tossed or will be laughed out of court.  Mueller's job was threefold:

1. Delay prosecution of the corrupt people in DoJ.
2. Create bad headlines for Trump
3. Fabricate an obstruction of justice charge against his administration

Mueller was partially successful in each element, but none of them are decisive.  The Dems latching into impeachment now with such a feeble case merely shows their desperation.

One final point I find interesting.  Why was the release announced ahead of time?  Usually these things just show up.

I think it was because of a rumored "big announcement" from the Clintons.  This could be that Chelsea is running for Congress, but it could also be Hillary jumping in to the campaign so that she can use the "political pesecution" defense against any indictments.  Her musing that she could "beat Trump again" is consistent with this.

By announcing the release of the report ahead of her "big surprise," the persecution card is off the table.  Most of the chatter this will be about what's in the report, totally undermining her attempt to spin any revelations as a blatantly political attempt to hamstring her campaign.

The War Party's Turkish Delight

Has anyone in my lifetime brought more clarity to the political scene than Donald Trump?  For all the claims that he lies, the man has an uncanny ability to expose the hypocrisy of the Ruling Class.

His announcement that US forces would be withdrawn from the area of Turkish incursion was one of the best examples of this.  Right on cue, people who three years ago insisted that Trump would start a shooting war in Korea are now screaming that he’s a coward for not forcing a military confrontation with NATO ally Turkey.

This is insanity on stilts.

Let us review the facts.

The United State is not at war with Syria. 

Congress has made no declaration of war, nor has any administration articulated a long-term reason for US forces to be on Syrian soil.  The reason we are there was to pursue renegade elements of the Al Qaeda splinter group ISIS after it overran much of Iraq.

The recognized government of Syria is the regime of Bashar Assad.  To maintain his tyrannical (but legally acknowledged) regime, he has solicited aid from Iran and Russia.

Turkey has been using Syria as a sandbox to hammer Kurds, some of whom like us, some of whom are Communist terrorists.

Indeed, the fact that one cannot simply summarize the situation proves that the Bush-Obama “strategic experts” have created a complete mess.

Trump’s solution is therefore a sensible one: leave.

There is no clear strategic goal in Syria for the United States.  ISIS has been militarily defeated.  Should the Assad regime reconquer its territory, it will not allow ISIS to return.  ISIS and the Alawite Syrians (which is what the Assad family is) are mortal enemies.

At the same time, the US cannot openly wage war on Turkey as this would destroy NATO.

Remember NATO?  That was the thing Trump is always accused of undermining.  Odd that getting into a military confrontation with a NATO member doesn’t concern the same people wagging their finger that Trump wasn’t being nice to them.

Strangely silent in all of this is the “peace wing” of the Democrat Party.  Seems they’ve been taking a nap since January of 2009.  I guess when a Democrat starts pointless and bloody wars of choice, it isn’t really a problem for them.

The US military is overstretched and exhausted from endless and winless wars.  Those who serve are often maligned as bloodthirsty killbots (on this very blog, in fact, go through the archives), but in fact they sign up to defend their nation, and they’re mortally tired.

It’s interesting that none of the people claiming a moral duty to wage another pointless conflict have a personal investment in the enterprise.

They will not be on the firing line.

I used to deride the “chickenhawk” slur, but I do find it interesting that many of the same people who threw it around freely in 2002 have become the thing they said they hated.

Actually, the DC Establishment does have an interest – profit.

Again, the Dems pounded away on Haliburton and Dick Cheney, but once again we see that graft is a bipartisan activity.  Joe Biden’s brother made a fortune in Iraq.  How convenient.

Of course Joe Biden’s finances are now off limit to investigative reporting because Orange Man Bad, but back when people cared about war profiteers, MSNBCBSABCNN would have been crawling up his rectum to report this stuff.

All of which is why Trump is doing the right thing.  He’s exposing the warmongers and demonstration who has the nation’s strategic interest at heart and who is content to let the bodybags continue to stream back home with no end in sight.

The NeverTrumpers build a couch-pillow Fortress of Power

Amidst the mindless noise of the impeachment farce, I was amused to see that another of the National Review Never Trump team has departed the now-disgraced publication.

David French will no longer be darkening the hallways of Buckley's flagship magazine, and will instead be squatting in the basement with Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes.

The trio will be writing for a "newsletter" called The Dispatch.  It will run on paid subscriptions, though presumably the writer will continue to try to find other markets to sell their feeble prose.

It's worth noting that Hayes has been unemployed since The Weekly Standard passed under the waves and Goldberg left National Review months ago with vague notions of a to-be-named-later writing project.

French's departure thus helps combine the hard core Never Trump team into one convenient and useless grouping.  It's pretty much a guarantee that they'll alternate guest appearances with the The Cuckshed Bulwark.

Presumably this has-been supergroup is being formed with the upcoming elections in mind, and will provide "principled, conservative" reasons for voting for a slate of wild-eyed communists.

I look forward to not reading them.

Is Ukraine the new RUSSIA?

One of the things I learned under Bill Clinton's presidency is that whenever a Democrat has broken a law, there will immediately be media reports that Republicans have done the same thing, only worse.

It was a novel invention 30 years ago, but now it's becoming a dull, predictable routine.

In other words: the magic is gone.

Clearly Joe Biden and the Obama administration know they are vulnerable on this.  There's also the lingering question of Uranium One and the decision process in approving the sale of a strategic ore to the eeeevil Vladimir Putin.

Based on experience, I'm going to assume that this whole fake scandal is an attempt to get in front of new revelations about both Biden and Clinton.  Just as the same two photos of Trump in the same room with Jeffrey Epstein were the only ones used in an effort to tie Trump to the noted sex-trafficker, so the same hackneyed allegations are being trotted out as cover for the corrupt Deep State.

The problem as that - as with Epstein - the Clinton ties are far deeper and Trump isn't shy about pointing them out.

Adding to the risk is the fact that the federal government is no loner a wholly-owned subsidiary of Clinton Inc.  There are still pockets of resistance, but there are also honest cops who seem determined to break some of these cases open.

ClintonWorld is in eclipse.  It's power came from the ability to dispense political favors and that influence is fading.  Without it, the foreign hired guns are no longer willing to do the dirty deeds that gets them paid.  In fact, they may well turn on their prior benefactors who were stiffed by Hillary's failure to win the White House.

There are a lot of unpaid I.O.U.s out there and the holders are likely looking for some payback.

 

Another China retreat?

Over the weekend, Communist China announced that it was lifting tariffs against soy and pork products from the US.

If this is the case (note that the ChiComs lie early and often), it would be a significant win for Trump's trade policies.

As we've pointed out several times, the US holds the upper hand in this dispute.  The US is almost entirely self-sufficient, and only allowed itself to become dependent on Chinese manufactured goods through a combination of laziness and corporate greed.

China, on the other hand, cannot even feed itself.  This dependency goes behind basic nutrition to prestige items like pork, which is highly-valued in China.

The Communist regime's legitimacy rests in large part on increasing prosperity.  Forcing people to cut back on favorite foods while factories close undermines that legitimacy and strikes at the heart of the regime's power. 

There is also the problem that the rest of the world doesn't have enough soy or pork to feed China.  America remains the garden of the world, and without our foodstuffs, global famine is a certainty.

Trump's economic team has always known this, and it's worth noting that while the national security and political appointees seem to have regular turnover, the economic side of the administration remains stable and successful.  This is perhaps because Trump understands that without a firm economic footing, all else is weakened.  China's leaders are now learning the same lesson.

9/11 Comes of Age

The artificial outrage over the Trump Administration seeking a negotiated settlement to the Afghan War tells us all we need to know about the Bipartisan Establishment and the Democrat-funded "peace movement."

They are both incompetent and fake.

War is not a condition to be managed, it is an existential struggle for those involved.  It is true that a coldly rational policy might require sacrifice for a greater strategic aim, but no such vision is now being articulated regarding Afghanistan.  It's a quagmire so we must stay because that's what we have to do.

It's significant that our current Ruling Class is entirely insulated from the war's costs but richly rewarded by its benefits.

This is why Trump's effort to wind down the now-aimless struggle are being attacked from the left of all places.  So much for Cindy Sheehan.  The widows and orphans of the current war are drawn from the Deplorable class, so no attention need be paid them.

The desire to smear Trump as anti-military or defeatist will fail, just as all the other smears have failed because the truth is unmistakable.  Actual combatants and their families are tired of a war without end.  The ardent volunteers of 18 years ago are now watching their children come of military age to take up the torch from failing hands, but to what end? 

A punitive expedition to Afghanistan was always a good idea, and the installation of a friendly client government was a not unreasonable solution.  But one cannot "reconstruct" a society that never was.  George W. Bush ran for president in part by ridiculing "nation-building," and yet he was the worst nation-builder of them all.

Just as the attacks 18 years ago this morning tore away the illusions that our Ruling Class knew what it was doing, so the bumbling effort since has further destroyed their credibility.  In a sense, this is the 9/11 about 9/11.

Walmart's death wish

There is a strange virus infecting corporate America.  This pathogen seems to be transmitted by social media and incubates chiefly among insular business executives seeking social status from one another.

How else to explain yet another corporation deciding to alienate its core customer base and court financial ruin?

Walmart's announcement regarding firearms is completely incoherent.  It is one thing to ban open carry, which may or may not alienate customers.  In police states like California and New York, it's already illegal.

In more enlightened jurisdictions, concealed carry is generally preferred by the gun rights community anyway.

Yet Walmart is going even further, announcing that it will ban the sale of certain calibers which it deems "bad" as well as donating to gun control organizations.

Both are insane.

As long-time readers of this blog know, there are no "safe" calibers to be shot with.  All of them can kill you.

Walmart singling out pistol calibers is however particularly daft since these are among the least lethal.  A .32 Auto or .380 packs far less punch than a 30.06 and is also less likely to over-penetrate and kill people behind the original target.

Indeed, if there's been a shooting spree conducted with a .380 or .357 Magnum, I'd like to hear about it.  I don't think it's happened.

Deciding not to sell these calibers on the basis of "safety" is stupid on the face of it, and the only goal is to leverage corporate power in support of an otherwise unobtainable political goal.

I'm sure the David French's of the world approve.

But in the real world, this is a slap in the face to Walmart's long-time customers, and I don't think it will end well for them.  Just as Gillette found, pissing on your customer base because you dream that a more "woke," and upscale one will appear out of thin air to replace it is not a recipe for success.

I'm surprised more shareholder lawsuits haven't materialized as the result of these shenanigans, but such things also take time.

Meanwhile, gun control has never been less popular, and the legal terrain has shifted sharply against the Democrats.  It's therefore no surprise they've decided to try to use Big Business to impose their will.

This is a dangerous path for them, though.  It reeks of the Gilded Age when workers were paid in scrip and forced to use the Company Store.  That provoked a severe populist backlash and a similar one is brewing now.

Smug, un-elected plutocrats living in gated communities flying jets around the world telling people what they can and cannot buy is not how one builds an electoral coalition.

The truth is the Democrats are now the funhouse mirror version of their own caricature of cigar-chomping Republicans.  Thomas Nast's cartoons of the trusts ruling over the Senate applies to the Dems, not the GOP.

Whoever the Dem nominee ends up being, it's going to be tough for them to keep screaming that they're for "the little guy" when they are on the size of Google, Apple, Amazon and now Walmart.

They are forcing Trump to become the second coming of Teddy Roosevelt and fundamentally shifting the political allegiance of millions of Americans.

Heckuva job, guys.

Molotov-Ribbentrop at 80: The concentrated essence of unprincipled leftism

Today marks the 80^th anniversary of the infamous Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, which sealed the fate of Poland and set the stage for World War II.

The alliance was purely tactical for both parties.  Joseph Stalin wanted to push his frontier further west and gain hegemony over western Poland, parts of Finland and the Baltic States.  Adolf Hitler wanted to avoid a second front during his ongoing showdown with the western Allies.

After years of heated vitriol, both totalitarian states turned on a dime, going from hating one another to proclaiming the wisdom of rapprochement so they could fight the true common enemy, western liberal democracy and capitalism.

The alliance was the basis for George Orwell’s famous formulation that “We’ve always been at war with Eastasia,” reflecting the ease with which the propagandists did a complete reversal on the Nazi-Soviet relationship and then reversed themselves again when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941.

The crucial lesson of this anniversary is that the left is utterly without principle.  It has but one goal: total, unbridled power.

This is how people who claim to worry about carbon emissions fly around on private jets and live lavish lifestyles while hectoring poor people to give up hamburgers.

It is how we must “believe all women” - unless they are accusing Bill Clinton.

Barack Obama and Eric Holder are free to call for more gun control even though it was their policy not to prosecute gun law violations.

The means are irrelevant to these people and even their goals are negotiable because all that matters is power for its own sake.  Arguably, they don’t have a clear vision of what they will do with it, other than enjoy its free and easy exercise.

Oh, and crush their enemies utterly.  That part at least is known.

This is why the best analogy to the contemporary US is not its previous civil war, but rather then one in Spain from 1936 to 1939.  Then as now, a major part of the divide was between the right – who respected institutions and culture – and the left, which respecting nothing but its quest for power.

The Spanish “Republic” was nothing of the sort, and it leaders were quite willing to rule by decree and use political assassinations and militias to achieve their goals.

Far from being a true Popular Front, the government was bitterly divided between Socialists, Communists and Anarchists, with only the common enemy of traditional Spanish culture and the Catholic Church holding them together.

What made the war inevitable, with the Popular Front’s abuse of power and its seeming pleasure in flaunting it.  Here we see a clear parallel with the left’s treatment of Antifa.  Just as in Spain, law enforcement has zero interest in breaking up the terrorist organization and instead blames their atrocities on their victims.

All of this has the effect of radicalizing the middle class, which is the crucial precondition for civil war.

The left seems convinced that this won’t happen, or that if it does, they will win easily.  The Popular Front felt the same way and it didn’t work out well for them.

Spain was the first time fascists and communists clashed militarily, with the Soviet Union backing the Republic while Germany and Italy sided with the insurgent Nationalists.

It was billed by both sides as an existential struggle and yet no sooner had the Spanish war drawn to a close than Hitler and Stalin were able to forge their infamous pact.

Because the pursuit of power demanded it and both Stalin and Hitler were leftists in every sense.

Today should be a reminder that the left is implacable, knowing no decent limits and eager to make a deal with anyone and everything to achieve power.