Roundup: Whipgate and other border news
There’s so much news about the southern border that I’m just going to do a roundup:
(1) Child sexual abuse.
(2) The government promotes the false Whipgate narrative. Why not? After all, lying comes naturally to them, and right now their illegal immigration policy isn’t meeting with public favor. So something out of a Hollywood movie is what they fall back on.
(3) The administration’s Haitian policy is being criticized, as well.
(4) Although these next two are unrelated to immigration, since I’m doing a roundup I thought I’d put them in here anyway. The House overwhelmingly votes funds for Iron Dome for Israel’s defense system, but the Squad votes against and AOC weeps – perhaps because political realities forced her to break from the other Squad members and vote “present.”
(5) Something’s going on in China – maybe a leftward pull, maybe not.
This is horrible….
What is needed is a little honest humor—as absolutely vital as was rum in the trenches—to shore up our flagging spirits….
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/475521/
The truly demented hysteria in the media over a perfectly legitimate use of reins (normal equestrian practice) fomented by such (unfortunately influential) fools as Mad Maxine is nothing but a distraction from the fully impeachable dereliction of constitutional duty (no doubt fully intentional) over the security of the southern border by this ghastly administration. Mayorkas has proven himself to be perhaps the most ineptly pathological liar of all Biden’s minions; he is fully the equal of Schiff for consistent and outrageous and utterly shameless mendacity.
Horses have been used in the area since well before the CBP. It’s Texas, y’all.
And here it is…the destruction of the US Armed Forces, proposed by none other than Mr. No-One:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-pushing-dishonourable-discharges-court-martials-troops-who-refuse-vaccines
Everything is proceeding apace. (IOW, it’s not possible that “Biden” has jumped the gun here; “he” is simply too intelligent and “his” sense of timing too impeccable, to do something so foolish…)
I have been reading that a number of the Haitians coming across have been living in other South American countries for several years. It has nothing to do with the hurricane.
““The Administration strongly opposes section 716,” reasoning that it would “detract from readiness and limit a commander’s options for enforcing good order and discipline when a Service member fails to obey a lawful order to receive a vaccination.”
“lawful order” are the key words. Since the U.S. is still a party to the Nurenberg Code… it’s clearly NOT a lawful order. That order is a direct violation of that treaty. A member of the military does not give up their human rights for if they had to, society would be declaring them to be less than… human.
Alinsky Rule # 4 “make them live up to their own standards”
O/T
Neo, as a political changer, like myself, you might be interested in the case of British comedian Russell Brand.
Brand stills claims the left/liberal title. But I’ve been watching his YouTube channel for about a month and its quite interesting to watch him slowly morph away from the typical Hollywood Lefty as he opens his mind. He seems fairly intellectually honest as he works his way through the vaccine BS and now, today, the Trump/Russia/Sussman stuff.
He really doesn’t want to leave the Leftist tribe, or relabel himself. And yet, you can see the change happening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k6X03XvxWw
A truly epic Twitter thread.
https://twitter.com/lone_rides/status/1440418239478059016
And “the whip thing” is the cherry on top of the We’re All Screwed Sundae. A bunch of college-educated hysterics literally got the Biden administration to savagely attack ITS OWN BORDER PATROL over nothing but a handful of photos and the complete ignorance of people who’ve never been outside city limits in their entire lives.
Mike
Re What’s Going on in China:
What’s going on in China is the tech and other commercial Oligarchs are being cut down to size *and* the middle class is being buttressed by putting brakes on runaway spending on private tuition in pointless stressful ducation arms races, etc. and by clamping down on K-Pop/Drama driven male effeminacy fad.
If any of you were only 40 years old and had to worry about your offspring being propagandized into becoming trannies, you’d wish you had a Xi handy.
Needless to say, Americans set in their ways will call it Maoism 2.0 or something.
Really all it is is the CCP / Xi ensuring that there is one ultimate source of authority in the country and that this locus of power more or less maps accurately onto the official Org Chart so that there’s no confusion. I’m firmly with Moldbug when it comes to the idea that political and social chaos eventually ensures when real world manifestations of Power do not cohere with what’s written on the constitutional box.
Now do you think that Jack Dorsey had more or less power than Donald Trump in early January 2021? Zuckerberg? Bezos?
The Chinese Learn(*). They’re inside the West’s OODA loop and doing pirouettes. Also they should feel grateful because all they have to do is sit back watch whatever Western ruling elites do and cross those choices off the list because pretty much guaranteed to be wrong. Makes life so much simpler.
*YOU* have the Cultural Revolution 2.0 going on right now. Worry about that, Munchkins.
The guy who *was* doing Mao 2.0 type machinations in order to try to get to the top in China is Bo Xilai — ex Boss of Chongqing whose wife was tied up in all kinds of commercial shenanigans with UK Secret Service dude who she eventually had to get whacked. Long and dirty sordid tale now mostly memory-holed.
*Chinese have their ideological purity/loyalty virtue signaling tests and displays too. But they’ve learned from past very bad experiences and self-inflicted tragedies to make sure that said displays don’t get in the way of clear and pragmatic thinking about real world problems. Would you prefer having to make what appears to us to be slavish loyalty declaration to Emperor Pooh once or twice a a year vs having to spend every day of your life pretending that Climate Change , mental state of Blacks, and Trannies are the greatest issues of the day and that you should destroy yourself and your progeny for these causes?
Re Iron Dome:
https://israelbetweenthelines.com/2021/05/06/israel-ranks-in-top-20-economies-for-gdp/
So why does the USA need to borrow money it has to PRINT to pay Israel to protect itself. Plucky Little Israel is no longer Little. It can afford to defend itself.
No interest in Mystery Meat female Democrat Politicians none of whom should be anywhere near the levers of power or even in the country in a sane world.
But very interested in how most of the US Political establishment trips over its own feet while running to make outraged comments against anyone daring to suggest that Israel shouldn’t get more money that Americans will never be able to pay back.
Not in Hong Kong’s national interest?
If Haitian border jumpers are not being whipped, heads need to roll.
What would Heritage Foundation Darling (I suspect the love was not quite so reciprocated) Lee Kuan Yew have done?
Zaphod: How can the Chinese both be “inside the West’s OODA loop” AND “watch[ing] whatever Western ruling elites do and cross those choices off the list because pretty much guaranteed to be wrong.” The first option makes them sound innovative and the second option makes them sound reactive.
If they are organized along the lines that you suggest then they are doomed to failure. I hope you’re correct in your assessment.
@EvaMarie:
OODA — Do you even know what the first O is? Observe.
Expecting the Chinks to fall flat on their inscrutable faces before you do is not a winning strategy. It’s like buying lottery tickets as a retirement plan. Thinking that USA can do some subtle Wizardy courtesy of your best and brightest big geostrategic brains to make them fall on their faces faster is also not a winning strategy. See Kabul and last 30 years of squandered opportunities and all-round #$%^tardery by both sides of US Political Clown Show and Rest of the West.
A winning strategy would involve making difficult decisions about Who Rules Who for Whose Benefit inside the USA and setting some sane priorities for national revival. It would have to be an all-hands on deck effort along the lines of Electrification of the Soviet Union. Or… Trigger Warning for the faint-hearted: Making Trains Run on Time and building out Autobahns… errr… Autostradas. Whatever. Heads would need cracking. But no… that’s Not Who You are ™ — ergo best go start a war somewhere else usually on behalf of Other People so as to distract yourselves.
Regardless, Everything not under rubric of Cleaning House is just Cowardice, Projection, and Cope-ium (a lovely soporific medication, no doubt).
Poor little man, lives in a place where he has no say whatsoever and appears doomed in short order, and came from a place that was inconsequential in the world stage. Yet he is so wise about the US it’s history and national interests. And he loathes it.
Zaphod: the point is to be inside the loop. While the attacker goes through the inevitable loop of decisions, the successful defender gets inside that decision loop so that the attacker is disrupted in his aggression by constantly having to recalibrate his decision making process. If the Chinese are stuck on observing, the world is going to make minced meat of them.
@Eva:
I’d say that financing the Clintons in 1994 and buying the W-88 warhead design might constitute being inside the OODA loop. And plenty more water under the bridge since then. Please. Regardless of Om’s bleatings, I’m not some kind of shill for China. I’m simply pointing out that you need to look at what they are doing more as a mirror to hold up to yourselves than as a bogey-man mimetic cop-out.
https://tonyrogers.com/news/clinton_china_nukes.htm
Heard of this thing called TikTok? Forget about figleaves about who owns it.. They hacked a generation’s heads. You’re too old to really grok this. They can do this to you. You just try doing it to them and see how far you get.
As for Om Boilerplate. I don’t hate the USA. I came of age in the Reagan years. I used to go outside to see the Shuttle pass over and stuff like that. You have no idea. But I have utter contempt for your ruling elite and an increasing anger and fury at Western (not just American) Normie Cattle who just cannot seem to wake up.
Regarding Stuff Happening in the World, my residual Ashkenazi Genetic Hypermanic Spidy Sense is registering an uptick in Climate Change messaging in the last week or so.
It’s as if with Covid Hysteria Wind-Down (but not to zero, you can bet) on the horizon, it’s time again to punch us with the other fist. But Newer! And Better!
Zaphod: No, of course you’re not a shill for China. I just think that curbing Chinese influence in the world won’t be accomplished by mimicking them.
But yes, the first discernible Chinese influence in US elections was in 1994.
@EvaMarie:
I used to know someone whose father worked in Zhongnanhai and Diaoyutai. Went to USA on first trade mission in 70s not long after Nixon visit. Spoke very, very favourably of Bush Senior — who spent about a year in Beijing ostensibly doing representative office / CIA stuff before formal establishment of diplomatic relations in 79… but was also busy feathering his nest doing middle-man dealings. The rot may go back a bit further.
Nixon himself was banging a Hong Kong Cocktail Waitress (I’m not kidding) on the side in the early 70s.
There’s a joke in Indonesia that they have the Best Legal System Money Can Buy(*). Same goes for USGov, Pentagon, etc. All bought one way or another. In China if you’re found to be bought or just plain disloyal: bullet in back of head. In front of your colleagues. To Encourage the Others as Voltaire so wonderfully expressed it.
I do not think that Chinese methods would work for the USA. The problem is I don’t think that American Methods work for the USA either because it’s no-longer a North American Republic… it’s something else. Won’t get into semantic arguments here. So I think we can agree that USA can’t be China. The problem is it has to become a New Thing and it needs to do so without being nobbled by excessive neuroses about certain European Old Things.
*Amusingly it’s dominated by Bataks who are shall we say ‘over-represented’ and have a higher verbal IQ than the Javanese who otherwise run the country as a multi-ethnic empire with themselves on top. So Bataks lack drive. Maybe a few pogroms would do the trick.
Interesting people the Bataks. Used to eat their deceased parents before Christian and Islamic incursions during C19. The Christian ones still eat dogs.
Zaphod: Sorry, no proof of an affair between Nixon and Marianna Liu. Nixon was a Cold War warrior. He would no more have an affair with a possible Communist spy than Trump would have sex with 2 Russian prostitutes.
Also Clinton 1996 election received funding from China, although the planning may have started in 1994 after Clinton signaled his position on human rights.
So who exactly is funding and facilitating the illegal migration of thousands of people into the US from Mexico?
Why is Mexico not being held to account for their participation in all of this?
Why do I think that the global warming hoax is being funded, surreptitiously, by Russian and/or China or other good “pals” of the USA?
Recall the massive anti-nuke- missile (i.e.. anti Reagan) demonstrations throughout Europe during his presidency, years later finding out it was all funded/encouraged by the Russians.
Re: Israel
Though I am very pro-Israel, they are a modern, hi-tech nation and easily the most advanced nation in the ME, so why does the USA have to keep providing them billions in aid?
I just don’t get it.
It’s one thing to be a good ally and even have an alliance with them (sort of like what we have with the UK, Australia, Canada, NATO, etc) , but honestly, it’s about time that the USA begin weaning Israel off the massive aid they appear to expect from the USA.
That being said, he demonkrats here in the USA would not care one iota if Israel gets wiped off the fact of the earth by some Iranian nuke. The dems would just say the Israel deserved it or had it coming due to their policies with the Palestinians .
Zaphod,
That America’s internal enemies are currently a much greater threat to national survival than our external enemies does not change the reality that we face a serious and growing external threat in China.
Zaphod: As far as TikTok is concerned – OMG – I love it. No idea what you mean by hacking a generation’s heads. But if any generation’s heads been hacked by TikTok, it’s the social security crowd’s heads. More old people on TikTok than on Facebook.
From Red State;
Jen Psaki as the mouthpiece of the administration, continues to throw embattled Border Patrol agents who were simply doing their job under the bus by slandering what they did in the service of their jobs, and creating a controversy out of whole cloth.
This is Biden’s border patrol. You would think the administration would back up these hard working individuals, but no, he is back in high school blaming anyone for his mistakes. You may hope that the people surrounding the incompetence would be smarter, but they are not. In lot of ways they are worst. The ‘silver lining’ is they probably have a hard time living in this lie of a life.
@GB:
“That America’s internal enemies are currently a much greater threat to national survival than our external enemies does not change the reality that we face a serious and growing external threat in China.”
On both points we both agree.
Where we might differ is on relative weightings and priorities given to Stopping Digging vs. Containment Right Now.
Broader non-GB specific point: I don’t see the Chinese as being in any way infallible. It’s more a case of In the Land of the Blind the One-eyed Man is King. Which is why I rant endlessly about Cleaning House at Home.
Eva-Marie:
“As far as TikTok is concerned – OMG – I love it.”
So they’ve hacked your head too 😀
Texas and other red states just need to take charge of the border. FL, NE, OK, the Dakotas and other states just need to send the National Guard there and stop this.
“…providing them billions in aid…”
…so that Israel can buy American weaponry and ordinance. IOW, the US Government is financing/subsidizing American military R ‘n D and weapons/tank/fighter aircraft manufacturers.
(Funny how the “small print” is so often left out…. But then, AOC and her fab four, among others, prefer it that way….)
Note: Regarding Iron Dome (from Wikipedia):
“Plans for co-production with the United States:
“With the United States on track to greatly increase funding for Iron Dome, there have been calls for technology transfer and co-production of Iron Dome in the United States. Just as the US and Israel share co-production of the Arrow III missile system, with Boeing manufacturing 40–50 percent of the production content, there has been support in the U.S. Congress, media and think tanks in favor of co-production.[49] The U.S. House of Representatives included report language in its FY-2013 Defense Authorization Act supporting Iron Dome with $680 million but also instructing that the Director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, ‘should explore any opportunity to enter into co-production of the Iron Dome system with Israel, in light of the significant U.S. investment in this system.'[50] There were media reports that the Pentagon was requesting similar language in the Senate Defense Authorization Act as well as the respective House and Senate defense appropriations bills for 2013.[30] Adding Iron Dome to the list of high-tech military programs built jointly by both nations would help further strengthen ties between Israel and the United States.[51]
“In July 2014 it was announced that Raytheon would be the major U.S. partner in co-production of major components for the Iron Dome’s Tamir intercepting missile. The U.S. firm will supply components through various subcontractors.[52] Rafael and Raytheon had teamed to offer the Iron Dome launcher and Tamir interceptor, known as SkyHunter in the U.S., to the U.S. Army as part of its Indirect Fires Protection Capability (IFPC) system, but Dynetics was instead chosen offering a launcher based on the Multi-Mission Launcher firing the AIM-9X Sidewinder.[53]”
Interesting exchange between Eva Marie and Zaphod.
When I was neck deep in International Business in the early ’90s I couldn’t imagine how Japan would not beat the U.S. Their keiretsu ( https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/06/whats-the-future-of-japans-business-groups/ ) and the government’s direct involvement of planning for the long term and promoting industries and conglomerates with direct funding seemed unbeatable. Also, they had an extremely homogenous populace willing to work very hard and sacrifice for the State. They were buying up Hawaii, Manhattan, California… Yet, they’ve been in a two decades long slump with no end in sight. Also, they forgot to have babies.
I agree with Zaphod that the U.S. cannot be China, just as we could not be Japan. It appears most our elites want to be Western Europe, which is an odd, economic role model. America has always had an inferiority complex regarding Europe and even after becoming the dominant nation on the globe after WWII, elites kept sending their kids over there to learn how to be refined and cultured. Western Europe is anti-nationalism and anti-Judaism/Christianity.
I don’t see how you run a nation without patriotism or a moral foundation in God as a dominant theme(s), but the U.S. seems determined to do just that. Zaphod is correct to point out that patriotism and national pride are very important elements of modern China’s success. We successfully substituted blue jeans and rock and roll for national pride in the U.S.S.R., but I don’t think that’s going to work with China. Unlike Russia and Japan I don’t think we can count on the competition taking themselves out of the game.
We are living through the most disruptive period in the U.S. since 1865. We very obviously lack a national identity and Americans do not have a sense we are working together for a common cause. It doesn’t seem like COVID or Global Warming are apt substitutes for God and Country, but our elites are determined to make the change.
I don’t see the Chinese as being in any way infallible. It’s more a case of In the Land of the Blind the One-eyed Man is King.
Given some of the recent developments it sure seems like they’re extremely fallible to me. Xi seems to be determined to bring back the bad old days of Mao with all it’s command economy idiocies. He’s been cracking down on all sorts of elements of what he imagines to be excessive capitalism. Just this morning I hear they’re apparently straight up banning all crypto transactions in the middle kingdom.
And then there’s the evolving Evergrande crisis…
Nonapod:
You must be living in the past! 😉
America and the West are all bad! Franco lives! Stick to your own problems and don’t question the Xi behind the curtain. That’s the line from Hong Kong. 🙂
Zaphod is so outré. Maybe too much so to be real. I reserve the right to suspect that he could be a PLA (or similar) “cultural expert” flexing his rhetorical legs here. See the comedy version “The Experts” (1989). He does shill for China about 70%. That makes him smarter than the typical Dem troll who pushes the hard left mantra 100% of the time.
All crypto currency transactions are now illegal in China. I’m sure that’s all about keeping their boys from becoming trannies. The benign use of power for the betterment of China. Yah, sure. Who’s coping now?
But, but Panama (intends) to make crypto street legal….(or was that Ukraine?)
Or so they say just months ago (enabling legislation to come).
Or to put it differently, El Salvador is not the end of Crypto.
Probably too late for this comment but for posterity’s sake, what the hell.
Zaphod,
“Where we might differ is on relative weightings and priorities given to Stopping Digging vs. Containment Right Now.”
On weightings we are in agreement. On priorities we only appear to differ. Gaining greater consensus on the reality of the threat from China will be much easier to gain once China attacks Taiwan. China’s actions alone will convince the world of her threat. And, being an apologist for totalitarian regimes is never going to be a persuasive position with Americans. So clarity will increase on that issue.
Whereas, the Marxist/Collectivist internal threat consists of relatives, friends (both former and current) neighbors and just fellow Americans. Respect for the Constitution and a decided reticence to accept that armed conflict is the only remaining path forward restricts our response to that threat. But as with China, our internal totalitarians are likely to force it upon us.
Rufus T. Firefly,
I too remember when Japan’s economic prowess seemed invincible. Both their lack of babies and their economic downturn are entirely self-created.
“America has always had an inferiority complex regarding Europe and even after becoming the dominant nation on the globe after WWII, elites kept sending their kids over there to learn how to be refined and cultured.”
Our intellectual pretenders always had an inferiority complex regarding Europe. Most Americans did not and have never had one. I cite as symbols of well adjusted American’s attitude toward European ‘superiority’… two movie characters; “The Unsinkable Mollie Brown” and Jimmy Stewart’s character in “It’s a Wonderful Life”, specifically when he says “and then, I’m going to go to college and see what they know” I cite them because both those characters resonated with ordinary, well adjusted Americans. We recognize wisdom when we hear it and recognize spirit that refuses to be crushed by life’s viccissitudes when we see it.
“I don’t see how you run a nation without patriotism or a moral foundation in God as a dominant theme(s), but the U.S. seems determined to do just that.”
You can’t because moral foundations based in the personal subjective… cannot sustain societal consensus. Absent belief in a beneficent God, to sustain societal consensus requires totalitarian coercion. Islamic and Communist societies being our current examples.
However it’s not the US that’s attempting to create an entirely secular, godless society. It’s leftist democrats and our ‘elite’ who are attempting to do that.
US politics is so depressing, horrible, I can barely read about it anymore. Glad Neo continues to do yeoman great work, but it’s barely worth any comments other than sadness. All too much, more of the same Dem lies.
Democrat Delusion Syndrome.
China, on the other hand, is changing. It looks to me like Xi is simultaneously moving against any rich or powerful other Chinese person, to make sure they toe the Party line, and taking full “Mandate From Heaven” God-emperor type status, tho so far without the titles.
Plus, the increasingly comfy Chinese middle class remains both a strength and a (merely potential?) weakness. Will Xi make more obvious moves on Taiwan? Many fear so; I fear so. But do I really think they’ll start killing?
10% yes, in the next 12 months.
Some higher amounts in the future. How old is Xi? (born June 15, 1953; 3 years older than me.)
Possibly still a couple of decades, very very likely more than 5 more years of healthy activity.
What does Xi want?
“Xi wants the state sector to have more market discipline, and the private sector to have more party discipline.”
History says: ain’t gonna happen. The gov’t sector having market discipline won’t – but the private sector in bed with gov’t.
Fascism.
That seems likely; as is happening here, too. Sadly.