Very interesting thoughts, particularly on philosophically interpreting the constitution vs practically doing so. All from an originalist perspective of course.
I was visiting one of my best newer friends a few months ago and Trump had been handed a defeat of one of his actions by the SCOTUS. (I don’t recall which action or order.)
She began to carp about how this shows that Trump is trying to subvert the rule of law. She’s not terribly political generally, so I wisely let it go. My thought was: In a properly operating legal system (does ours currently qualify as such?) the clear rules of law are completely adjudicated by the lower courts. SCOTUS is there primarily for legal issues that are not clearly understood in the legal framework of the time.
@huxley: I saw a sub-headline at the BBC saying the rioting has spread to Montpellier, but I was unable to read the article without subscribing.
The author is writing from an economic libertarian perspective. They want to get back to advocating for laissez-faire economics. The trouble is that there has never been a majority for that vision. The MAGA style economic nationalist vision is the old only [Selfy edit] serious rival the DSA vision has.
Trump is giving $90 checks to most Medicare Part B recipients, and promising $5000 checks to everyone, if GOP wins the midterms. How does this differ from Democrat freebies?
The difference is only that Trump loves his country and is not bat-guano crazy/evil, unlike the Democrats. I support “economic libertarian…laissez-faire economics.”
Reagan did many great things. Amnesty for illegal aliens “one time only” wasn’t one of them.
GWB was focused on immigration “reform,” and 9/11 happened on his watch. Then he continued the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, without winning them.
Trump is fighting illegal immigration and the evil Democrats and their media, and shaking up the Establishment, which are good things!
More voters say they dislike both the Democratic and Republican parties than in other recent elections, the result of economic anxiety and deep dissatisfaction with politicians and government. Some 21% of the voter pool holds an unfavorable view of both parties, a recent Wall Street Journal poll found, significantly above the 13% in the 2022 midterms and about 12% in the past two presidential elections.
Yeah, ‘Two Rotten Peas in same the Pod’. I’m gonna go GOP ticket again in mids but 2028 is a different story if the GOP goes with JD “Bootlicker” Vance. Ditto on the Yeah, the “Party of White Men” will surely go with Vance…
Kate:
Here’s a mention from the BBC, though no specific detail.
____________________________________
The protests began last week in the capital Paris and have spread across the country, with cities including Montpellier, Nantes and Marseille affected.
YouTuber “Liam Out Loud” (a millennial with a Canadian accent) is on a tear with incisive monologs about western decline and critical themes of out declining times in the past two or three months, posting very frequently.
He’s brilliant synthesizer. Summarizing and illustrating so much of what we think here — his videos are honest confrontations with contemporary idiocy.
This video short (90 seconds) on “Western Social Decline” — approached from the perspective of the scoffing and reclusive old man against his neighborhood in decline, played by Clint Eastwood, in his film “Gran Torino” — introduces us to where this young 30-something finds himself. And why? Answered by factual evidence.
huxley, that one photo of Montpellier doesn’t look as bad as Paris. Here’s hoping.
September was a rough month for the stock market, and they say that Sept. is statistically a bad month. Plus, rising interest rates are a concern. Why are they rising? None of the above is noteworthy in this forum, except…
The rioting in France is now being mentioned as one possible cause for the above.
In May 6, 2010 the US markets had a flash crash. Not a big deal if you were a cautious trader or don’t actively trade at all. But, three Greek bank employees were burned to death by anarchists the day before, and it was all over the global news coverage. Of course, we were told that those two things were unrelated. Nothing to see here, move along.
The media is lying about the French riots. They say it’s about underfunding of schools. But in fact, these schools in Muslim/immigrant districts get more moneies than average school.
The want better facilities — yet burn down and destroy those they have. They want more teachers — yet attack and burn the white teachers abd protesters they see!
What’s really going on that they don’t report? The far Left Communist Parties are funding and organizing ethnic minority hate groups against France, hoping to win the Presidency in the coming election.
Commies hate France and the West. So, they’re quite happy to destroy — it is attacking sacred symbols and humiliating the majority and their foundations is their Deathwork, as explained by Carl Trueman. (See the fresh post on Trueman at Instapundit explaining the concept. HERE https://instapundit.com/826838/#disqus_thread)
“Welfare, sustaining people without their own input, cannot fix the problem of dignity. The rabble has nothing useful to offer to society. They experience it not as a system that can serve its own interests but as a system that functions and reproduces itself without them, wealth they have no part in. So they destroy it. They burn cars. They burn schools. Destroy infrastructure. It’s not their state, it’s the enemy’s, so it’s fine…The symbols of the White French state become unacceptable, as they’re the symbols of the Enemy; Palestinian, Moroccan and Algerian flags are chosen, not because they actually feel connected to these Muslim nations, but they’re the Friend the Enemy produces by the dialectical movement — you need allies to fight the hated state that will not give you what you want.”
If France is fortunate, it will have an NR President come April and and NR legislature come June. They can pass agreeable legislation, but can they build the infrastructure to implement it? And can they do anything at all to address the pathologies in the French political economy?
hoping to win the Presidency in the coming election.
==
See current survey research. If M. Melanchon wins a place in the runoff, he’ll do well to win 1/3d of the ballots against Marine Le Pen. The cordon sanitaire contra NR has collapsed. The conventional right is content with NR as a second choice (as they were in 2022) and the social liberal / technocratic strand in the French electorate apparently prefer Marine Le Pen to M. Melanchon as we speak.
The NR appears to be in favor of “remigration” of immigrants who won’t assimilate, but otherwise it doesn’t seem to have anything resembling a viable economic strategy to rescue France from itself.
Here comes AI.
You can’t just go into the VA claim application process cold, or you are going to fail.
You need to get oriented to this very specific process, to develop a particular mindset– a way of looking at things–and a vocabulary to communicate, to describe and characterize things.
If you are looking on YouTube for advice about the complicated, often labyrinthine, and opaque VA claims process, and how to navigate and to understand it—the exact language in Title 38 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations which governs that process, the specific forms you need to file, and how to fill them out, how to characterize whatever it is you are claiming for, how to present yourself, and what you need to say–and not say–at a VA compensation and pension examination–there are all sorts of different people giving all sorts of advice—VA spokesmen and Veteran Service Officers, representatives from several veterans organizations, and actual vets who have gone through the process.
In addition, there are also medical professionals, and lawyers who also give advice, and who offer to represent you—reportedly for a hefty fee, or percentage of any award you might get—and to help you present your claim.
Sorting through all of these different sources to find what seem like the most reliable ones is quite a chore, and takes quite a lot of time.
(This whole application process reminds me of applying for a Federal job, and how you need to be very careful when you fill out the standard form–what terminology, what particular words you need to use, and how you need to present your experience and qualifications in a very specific way to demonstrate your “Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities”–or you are not going to be called in for an interview.)
But now, comes a new twist.
According to the veteran who runs what I consider to be a reliable website on these matters, he has discovered that a someone who claims to be a decorated Veteran and who has appeared on the YouTube scene, giving this kind of advice to veterans, is not actually a real person, but is a synthetic creature, an AI creation.*
In the Federal government application process (at least as it was several decades ago), you could have all of the education, experience, and skills which would make you highly qualified for a particular position, but if you didn’t present them in the paperwork in exactly the right way, you would never get called in for an interview but, someone who might actually be unqualified–a comparative dunce–but who did know the game, and how to fill out the paperwork to his best advantage, would get that interview, and perhaps the job.
(There were also, of course, the “wired” positions; a job description constructed to fit the one specific person that you already wanted to hire.)
Now, I suspect, it’s more about what particular “victim” or “oppressed” group you happen to belong to, which plays a major role in the interview and hiring process.
P.S.S.
Of course, those who were looking over you paperwork and interviewing you were supposed to “check your credentials,” make inquiries–call around, examine documents–and to verify that what you wrote in that application and what you told them about your background, education, and experience was accurate, complete, and correct.
What I suspect, though, is that there was a whole lot of “puffery”–if not outright lying–involved in a lot of, and perhaps in many applications, and that those charged with looking over that paperwork, interviewing, and hiring (from how they acted, some of those charged with conducting this hiring process gave me the impression that this was an added, unwanted burden, over and above their real day to day jobs, an onerous process, an ordeal, a pain in the ass) might have skipped a lot of–or perhaps all of–those key verification steps.
That would explain a lot.
P.S.S.2–I’m talking above about about routine positions which were not dealing with anything classified.
If I recall correctly, almost 70 or so years ago, I was told that the agents who were doing the background check for my relatively low level military and/or government security clearance had even interviewed some of my old grade school teachers.
Earlier this week, I posted a comment about the process as explained by Jeff Childers in his Substack: https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/government-20-wednesday-september
“A breaking news special report: what’s really behind the America.gov product launch, which looked nothing like any government initiative we’ve ever seen. Prepare to learn the astonishing truth.”
I can’t testify on the VA, but for bureaucratic/corporate labyrinths I use AI routinely.
It’s not guaranteed — for one thing organizations are often extending or rearranging their labyrinths — but AI is better than starting from zero on one’s own.
IMO the labyrinths have grown much worse over the years, in no small part due to computerizing everything.
The NR appears to be in favor of “remigration” of immigrants who won’t assimilate, but otherwise it doesn’t seem to have anything resembling a viable economic strategy to rescue France from itself.
==
So your preferred course of action is what?
New biography of Cormac McCarthy. Reviewed in, you guessed it, the WSJ. Know he has some fans here.
Art Deco: “So your preferred course of action is what?”
Of the options available to the French, NR is the best choice. They don’t appear to have a choice which would lead to less government spending, less regulation, and shrinkage of the welfare state. NR would be only a step in the right direction.
Vance is already sniping at Ted Cruz over 2028, and Cruz is calling him insecure, while an NBC/Telemundo poll shows Latino voters swinging hard off Trump and the GOP. Trump is at 27% approval with them; Democrats lead 59–35 on control of Congress.
A greater share of Latino voters hold negative views of the Republican Party than at any time since 2016, and Democrats have leads on issues like dealing with the economy, immigration, the cost of living, corruption and healthcare. Two years ago, Latino voters gave Trump a 4-point edge over then-Vice President Kamala Harris on handling the economy. Today, they give Democrats a 21-point advantage on the same question.
Looks like Trump and JD “Bootlicker” Vance may well lead the ‘Party of White Men’ (AKA GOP) into a loss that finally breaks the long-held 50/50 tie between GOP & DEMs that plagues America’s politics.
BTW, “Bootlicker” is also obviously running in 2028 as he is the “de facto frontrunner for the nomination”— which makes his attack on Ted Cruz seem quite hypocritical:
It is really obvious to me that, at this very moment, Ted Cruz is running for president. At this moment, I’m not. I’m trying to help elect Republicans. That’s what I’m going to keep on doing.
Yeah, cracks are starting to show in my earlier prediction that the GOP holds Congress in the 2026 midterms — serious ones that look likely to carry into 2028.
Reply to Marlene at 3:35 ABOVE.
Link to “Liam Out Loud.” Sorry it did not work for you.
I am completely new to sharing a short clip from YouTube.
And fact, just like you, I had to find it through Liam’s YT page!
You finish by asking me, “Am wondering, though, if you had chosen a particular video we should watch first, when you gave us the /shorts/ link, above.”
Well. I did put the (Instapundit.com LINK) in parentheses.
Like a “for further info” see background.
I’m sure I’ve come across the “deathwork” concept before.
But I hadn’t known the origins or depth and seriousness with which it was launched. So, I wanted to share that background I found enlightening and link it with LOLs quick take.
Thanks for noticing.
Oh! Reply to Kate. Yeah, I noticed the deplorable unseriousness of the NR to immigration, too. It’s as if the crusty Old Right never heard of Harvard’s Robert Putnam ‘s findings 20 years ago research findings that diversity kills social trust! It ain’t hard— it’s common sense.
Karmi quotes the NBC/Telemundo poll, finding “A greater share of Latino voters hold negative views of the Republican Party than at any time since 2016….”
Well, I’d bet that no Telemundo or other Spanish speaking news outlet tells them that transing children and mutilating them keeps them aware that it still continues. That parents don’t know if the schools are protecting children from knowing about transient in California. Or the “Blue” states in general.
I bet they’re mostly silent to their Hispanic audiences on that controversy Care to bet I’m wrong?
So, why fear majoritarian Democrat Rule?
The Manhattan lawyer blogging as “Manhattan Contrarian” for nearly an eternity looks at a few policies the NYC imported Socialist Mayor is pursuing.
In his attempt to enlighten us non-socialists, he arrives at a free principles the New York Left observes, functionally orienting all of them!
Audacious — right?
Here his conclusion:
“I’ll suggest a few principles of progressive thought that can reconcile these seemingly irreconcilable circumstances:
“- The world is divided into the oppressors on one side, and the oppressed and their champions on the other. Whatever oppressors do is bad, and whatever the oppressed and their champions do is virtuous. Walmart [selling groceries, etc] is obviously an oppressor. Mamdani is a champion of the oppressed. Data center developers and utilities are oppressors. Promoters of “climate” legislation and green energy are champions of the oppressed. Private landlords are oppressors. NYCHA is a champion of the oppressed. Are you starting to see how this works?
And they’re shooting (or soon will be) for “paradise” on earth.
(You know, like all those other attempts at totalitarianism, with a warm, avuncular, occasionally smiley, face.)
Brazil might be making a turn to the right in tonight’s election. At the very least it seems they will have a stronger hold over the senate. Some states are electing right-wing(ish) candidates and don’t have a history of electing such people.
Even if Lula holds on, this does not seem, as of right now, to be the most pleasant election for the left.
65% of the vote in.
Flávio Bolsonaro
49.58%
PL
37,566,895 votes
Lula
42.25%
PT
·
Incumbent
32,007,853 vote
Good news out of Brazil, thanks!
Nuthin’ to see here folks, we’ve all been assured…but in any case, here’s an update on that interrupted diesel theft at the air base in the land once known as Great Britain…
What a dump. Heck, ya’ can’t even steal diesel in that benighted place…
Update.
50% needed to win
92% reporting
Flávio Bolsonaro
47.88%
PL
52,398,815 votes
Lula
44.16%
PT
·
Incumbent
48,322,426 vote
So my cynical self says runoff, Lula wins because…
Well, we all know why.
Flavio won the first round, but it will go to a second round because he supposedly didn’t get 50%. Most of the third party candidates that were knocked out were right wing.
The question is, can the left get away with possibly manufacturing 7% of the vote in Lula’s favor in the second round. What margin of fraud will they be able to get away with these electronic voting machines?
Also I believe Michelle Bolsonaro was elected to the senate, for what that is worth.
Lula also severely weakened in the senate.
“Party of white men”
“Rule of law”
“Abrahamic religions”
Three strikes and you’re out.
So says the Religious Fanatic — on a Sunday no less.
Guess “out” means humble me is headed for the burn the heretic stake…
Religious fanaticism is an uncritical zeal, obsessive devotion, or extreme commitment to a religious belief system that often leads to unreasonable behavior, intolerance, or the rejection of complex diversity.
Core Characteristics and Signs
• Inability to Question: Rejects critical thinking, curiosity, or open dialogue, relying instead on rigid dogmas or thought-terminating clichés.
• Black-and-White Worldview: Views the world strictly through an “us versus them” binary, believing that only one group holds absolute truth.
• Coercive or Intolerant Attitude: Shifts from personal spiritual practice to attempting to impose beliefs, control others, or eliminate differing viewpoints.
• Justification of Harm: Uses scripture or ideology to excuse negative behavior, judgment of others, or systemic harm (such as restricting healthcare or education based on dogma).
Re: RAF Rairford incident
@Barry Meislin: Nuthin’ to see here folks, we’ve all been assured
Apparently. Another 48 hours pass and we have no further information.
___________________________
And you know something is happening
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
–Bob Dylan, “Ballad of a Thin Man” (1965)
___________________________
Interesting song. Dylan is actually telling hipsters that they are also out of touch. Though few understood at the time.
Re: French riots…
Have broadened to include firemen and unions.
There is much dissatisfaction in France. Street protests are close to a separate branch of government there.
Wonder if a new Napoleon or de Gaulle is waiting in the wings….
GWB was focused on immigration “reform,” and 9/11 happened on his watch. Then he continued the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, without winning them.
— selfy
On the contrary, America won the actual wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq. What was bungled was the aftermath.
Iraq is a functional, if far from ideal, state that is a distinct improvement on Hussein from the American POV. In Afghanistan, at the time that Biden’s handler’s surrendered, the country had been essentially pacified.
Both outcomes were partially (in Iraq’s case) and entirely (in Afghanistgan) bungled because the Western elite class, Left and Right alike, simply can not cope with the reality of the non-Western world. They want to project either a Randian secularism or a 60s liberal secularism everywhere, and it just won’t and cannot work.
So, two wars that America won were turned into partial or total failures. Bush II is not solely responsible for the latter failure, but he is in part. Success would have required going against and maybe destroying the establishment he was part of, and he just couldn’t make himself do it.
Looking back, I notice that Bush II did well, usually, following his own instincts. He got into trouble when he started trying to implement the stuff his father and his family taught him, like open borders immigration and ‘free trade’.
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Samuel Alito has an editorial in today’s WSJ.
Even Originalists Make Mistakes
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/justice-samuel-alito-even-originalists-make-mistakes-02cedb8c?st=JUuJAj
Very interesting thoughts, particularly on philosophically interpreting the constitution vs practically doing so. All from an originalist perspective of course.
I was visiting one of my best newer friends a few months ago and Trump had been handed a defeat of one of his actions by the SCOTUS. (I don’t recall which action or order.)
She began to carp about how this shows that Trump is trying to subvert the rule of law. She’s not terribly political generally, so I wisely let it go. My thought was: In a properly operating legal system (does ours currently qualify as such?) the clear rules of law are completely adjudicated by the lower courts. SCOTUS is there primarily for legal issues that are not clearly understood in the legal framework of the time.
@huxley: I saw a sub-headline at the BBC saying the rioting has spread to Montpellier, but I was unable to read the article without subscribing.
Great comments from TommyJay and HC68 on yesterday’s open thread:
https://thenewneo.com/2026/10/02/open-thread-10-2-2026/#comment-2865558
about https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/10/the-new-right-is-making-socialism-harder-to-fight/
HC 68 wrote:
Trump is giving $90 checks to most Medicare Part B recipients, and promising $5000 checks to everyone, if GOP wins the midterms. How does this differ from Democrat freebies?
The difference is only that Trump loves his country and is not bat-guano crazy/evil, unlike the Democrats. I support “economic libertarian…laissez-faire economics.”
Reagan did many great things. Amnesty for illegal aliens “one time only” wasn’t one of them.
GWB was focused on immigration “reform,” and 9/11 happened on his watch. Then he continued the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, without winning them.
Trump is fighting illegal immigration and the evil Democrats and their media, and shaking up the Establishment, which are good things!
WSJ article thru archive.today:
These ‘Double Haters’ Have Lost Faith in Both Parties—and Could Decide the Midterms
Yeah, ‘Two Rotten Peas in same the Pod’. I’m gonna go GOP ticket again in mids but 2028 is a different story if the GOP goes with JD “Bootlicker” Vance. Ditto on the Yeah, the “Party of White Men” will surely go with Vance…
Kate:
Here’s a mention from the BBC, though no specific detail.
____________________________________
The protests began last week in the capital Paris and have spread across the country, with cities including Montpellier, Nantes and Marseille affected.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ck3r5dxxwqzpo
____________________________________
I figured the US would have a risky October before the midterms, but not France.
The Daily Mail has a riot photo of Montpellier:
https://i.dailymail.com/1s/2026/10/02/10/111609421-16177897-image-a-44_1790934028340.jpg
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16177897/France-student-violence-riots-far-left.html
YouTuber “Liam Out Loud” (a millennial with a Canadian accent) is on a tear with incisive monologs about western decline and critical themes of out declining times in the past two or three months, posting very frequently.
He’s brilliant synthesizer. Summarizing and illustrating so much of what we think here — his videos are honest confrontations with contemporary idiocy.
This video short (90 seconds) on “Western Social Decline” — approached from the perspective of the scoffing and reclusive old man against his neighborhood in decline, played by Clint Eastwood, in his film “Gran Torino” — introduces us to where this young 30-something finds himself. And why? Answered by factual evidence.
He consistently amazes me by his articulate perspicacity, delivered with energy and a fact pace. Check him out! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jO–WGNByP0
huxley, that one photo of Montpellier doesn’t look as bad as Paris. Here’s hoping.
September was a rough month for the stock market, and they say that Sept. is statistically a bad month. Plus, rising interest rates are a concern. Why are they rising? None of the above is noteworthy in this forum, except…
The rioting in France is now being mentioned as one possible cause for the above.
In May 6, 2010 the US markets had a flash crash. Not a big deal if you were a cautious trader or don’t actively trade at all. But, three Greek bank employees were burned to death by anarchists the day before, and it was all over the global news coverage. Of course, we were told that those two things were unrelated. Nothing to see here, move along.
The media is lying about the French riots. They say it’s about underfunding of schools. But in fact, these schools in Muslim/immigrant districts get more moneies than average school.
The want better facilities — yet burn down and destroy those they have. They want more teachers — yet attack and burn the white teachers abd protesters they see!
What’s really going on that they don’t report? The far Left Communist Parties are funding and organizing ethnic minority hate groups against France, hoping to win the Presidency in the coming election.
Commies hate France and the West. So, they’re quite happy to destroy — it is attacking sacred symbols and humiliating the majority and their foundations is their Deathwork, as explained by Carl Trueman. (See the fresh post on Trueman at Instapundit explaining the concept. HERE https://instapundit.com/826838/#disqus_thread)
Paul Joseph Watson makes the case on media propaganda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLYeH7w76Po
If this is too long and repetitive, do see the final 3-4m.
TJ-
Your U-Tuber is very deficient in voicing solutions. We all know what and wheree the problems are.
Cicero, in your comment to TJ, do you mean “Liam out loud” or Paul Joseph Watson?
TJ, at 12:24 pm: I can’t get your youtube link to work for “Liam out Loud”.
This failed me: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jO–WGNByP0
I found him here:
https://www.youtube.com/@liam-out-loud
Am wondering, though, if you had chosen a particular video we should watch first, when you gave us the /shorts/ link, above.
Karmi…’Double Haters’…see my old post Dangers of ‘a Plague on All Their Houses’
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/40509.html
re the root causes of the riots, see Octavian:
“Welfare, sustaining people without their own input, cannot fix the problem of dignity. The rabble has nothing useful to offer to society. They experience it not as a system that can serve its own interests but as a system that functions and reproduces itself without them, wealth they have no part in. So they destroy it. They burn cars. They burn schools. Destroy infrastructure. It’s not their state, it’s the enemy’s, so it’s fine…The symbols of the White French state become unacceptable, as they’re the symbols of the Enemy; Palestinian, Moroccan and Algerian flags are chosen, not because they actually feel connected to these Muslim nations, but they’re the Friend the Enemy produces by the dialectical movement — you need allies to fight the hated state that will not give you what you want.”
https://x.com/posta_octavian/status/2105663720294621314
And, especially, see St-Exupery, some of whose thoughts I have excerpted here:
The Passwords and the Barbarians
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/74612.html
If France is fortunate, it will have an NR President come April and and NR legislature come June. They can pass agreeable legislation, but can they build the infrastructure to implement it? And can they do anything at all to address the pathologies in the French political economy?
hoping to win the Presidency in the coming election.
==
See current survey research. If M. Melanchon wins a place in the runoff, he’ll do well to win 1/3d of the ballots against Marine Le Pen. The cordon sanitaire contra NR has collapsed. The conventional right is content with NR as a second choice (as they were in 2022) and the social liberal / technocratic strand in the French electorate apparently prefer Marine Le Pen to M. Melanchon as we speak.
The NR appears to be in favor of “remigration” of immigrants who won’t assimilate, but otherwise it doesn’t seem to have anything resembling a viable economic strategy to rescue France from itself.
Here comes AI.
You can’t just go into the VA claim application process cold, or you are going to fail.
You need to get oriented to this very specific process, to develop a particular mindset– a way of looking at things–and a vocabulary to communicate, to describe and characterize things.
If you are looking on YouTube for advice about the complicated, often labyrinthine, and opaque VA claims process, and how to navigate and to understand it—the exact language in Title 38 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations which governs that process, the specific forms you need to file, and how to fill them out, how to characterize whatever it is you are claiming for, how to present yourself, and what you need to say–and not say–at a VA compensation and pension examination–there are all sorts of different people giving all sorts of advice—VA spokesmen and Veteran Service Officers, representatives from several veterans organizations, and actual vets who have gone through the process.
In addition, there are also medical professionals, and lawyers who also give advice, and who offer to represent you—reportedly for a hefty fee, or percentage of any award you might get—and to help you present your claim.
Sorting through all of these different sources to find what seem like the most reliable ones is quite a chore, and takes quite a lot of time.
(This whole application process reminds me of applying for a Federal job, and how you need to be very careful when you fill out the standard form–what terminology, what particular words you need to use, and how you need to present your experience and qualifications in a very specific way to demonstrate your “Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities”–or you are not going to be called in for an interview.)
But now, comes a new twist.
According to the veteran who runs what I consider to be a reliable website on these matters, he has discovered that a someone who claims to be a decorated Veteran and who has appeared on the YouTube scene, giving this kind of advice to veterans, is not actually a real person, but is a synthetic creature, an AI creation.*
Why go to the effort to do this?
• See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWMsMbkZo_w&t=123s
P.S.–
It was actually a shame, really.
In the Federal government application process (at least as it was several decades ago), you could have all of the education, experience, and skills which would make you highly qualified for a particular position, but if you didn’t present them in the paperwork in exactly the right way, you would never get called in for an interview but, someone who might actually be unqualified–a comparative dunce–but who did know the game, and how to fill out the paperwork to his best advantage, would get that interview, and perhaps the job.
(There were also, of course, the “wired” positions; a job description constructed to fit the one specific person that you already wanted to hire.)
Now, I suspect, it’s more about what particular “victim” or “oppressed” group you happen to belong to, which plays a major role in the interview and hiring process.
P.S.S.
Of course, those who were looking over you paperwork and interviewing you were supposed to “check your credentials,” make inquiries–call around, examine documents–and to verify that what you wrote in that application and what you told them about your background, education, and experience was accurate, complete, and correct.
What I suspect, though, is that there was a whole lot of “puffery”–if not outright lying–involved in a lot of, and perhaps in many applications, and that those charged with looking over that paperwork, interviewing, and hiring (from how they acted, some of those charged with conducting this hiring process gave me the impression that this was an added, unwanted burden, over and above their real day to day jobs, an onerous process, an ordeal, a pain in the ass) might have skipped a lot of–or perhaps all of–those key verification steps.
That would explain a lot.
P.S.S.2–I’m talking above about about routine positions which were not dealing with anything classified.
If I recall correctly, almost 70 or so years ago, I was told that the agents who were doing the background check for my relatively low level military and/or government security clearance had even interviewed some of my old grade school teachers.
@ Snow on Pine: check this out!
https://america.gov/
Earlier this week, I posted a comment about the process as explained by Jeff Childers in his Substack:
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/government-20-wednesday-september
“A breaking news special report: what’s really behind the America.gov product launch, which looked nothing like any government initiative we’ve ever seen. Prepare to learn the astonishing truth.”
I can’t testify on the VA, but for bureaucratic/corporate labyrinths I use AI routinely.
It’s not guaranteed — for one thing organizations are often extending or rearranging their labyrinths — but AI is better than starting from zero on one’s own.
IMO the labyrinths have grown much worse over the years, in no small part due to computerizing everything.
The NR appears to be in favor of “remigration” of immigrants who won’t assimilate, but otherwise it doesn’t seem to have anything resembling a viable economic strategy to rescue France from itself.
==
So your preferred course of action is what?
New biography of Cormac McCarthy. Reviewed in, you guessed it, the WSJ. Know he has some fans here.
‘Cormac McCarthy’ Review: A Novelist’s Long Road
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/cormac-mccarthy-review-a-novelists-long-road-6611ebb6?st=B4N81i
Art Deco: “So your preferred course of action is what?”
Of the options available to the French, NR is the best choice. They don’t appear to have a choice which would lead to less government spending, less regulation, and shrinkage of the welfare state. NR would be only a step in the right direction.
Vance is already sniping at Ted Cruz over 2028, and Cruz is calling him insecure, while an NBC/Telemundo poll shows Latino voters swinging hard off Trump and the GOP. Trump is at 27% approval with them; Democrats lead 59–35 on control of Congress.
Looks like Trump and JD “Bootlicker” Vance may well lead the ‘Party of White Men’ (AKA GOP) into a loss that finally breaks the long-held 50/50 tie between GOP & DEMs that plagues America’s politics.
BTW, “Bootlicker” is also obviously running in 2028 as he is the “de facto frontrunner for the nomination”— which makes his attack on Ted Cruz seem quite hypocritical:
Yeah, cracks are starting to show in my earlier prediction that the GOP holds Congress in the 2026 midterms — serious ones that look likely to carry into 2028.
Reply to Marlene at 3:35 ABOVE.
Link to “Liam Out Loud.” Sorry it did not work for you.
I am completely new to sharing a short clip from YouTube.
And fact, just like you, I had to find it through Liam’s YT page!
You finish by asking me, “Am wondering, though, if you had chosen a particular video we should watch first, when you gave us the /shorts/ link, above.”
Well. I did put the (Instapundit.com LINK) in parentheses.
Like a “for further info” see background.
I’m sure I’ve come across the “deathwork” concept before.
But I hadn’t known the origins or depth and seriousness with which it was launched. So, I wanted to share that background I found enlightening and link it with LOLs quick take.
Thanks for noticing.
Oh! Reply to Kate. Yeah, I noticed the deplorable unseriousness of the NR to immigration, too. It’s as if the crusty Old Right never heard of Harvard’s Robert Putnam ‘s findings 20 years ago research findings that diversity kills social trust! It ain’t hard— it’s common sense.
Karmi quotes the NBC/Telemundo poll, finding “A greater share of Latino voters hold negative views of the Republican Party than at any time since 2016….”
Well, I’d bet that no Telemundo or other Spanish speaking news outlet tells them that transing children and mutilating them keeps them aware that it still continues. That parents don’t know if the schools are protecting children from knowing about transient in California. Or the “Blue” states in general.
I bet they’re mostly silent to their Hispanic audiences on that controversy Care to bet I’m wrong?
So, why fear majoritarian Democrat Rule?
The Manhattan lawyer blogging as “Manhattan Contrarian” for nearly an eternity looks at a few policies the NYC imported Socialist Mayor is pursuing.
In his attempt to enlighten us non-socialists, he arrives at a free principles the New York Left observes, functionally orienting all of them!
Audacious — right?
Here his conclusion:
“I’ll suggest a few principles of progressive thought that can reconcile these seemingly irreconcilable circumstances:
“- The world is divided into the oppressors on one side, and the oppressed and their champions on the other. Whatever oppressors do is bad, and whatever the oppressed and their champions do is virtuous. Walmart [selling groceries, etc] is obviously an oppressor. Mamdani is a champion of the oppressed. Data center developers and utilities are oppressors. Promoters of “climate” legislation and green energy are champions of the oppressed. Private landlords are oppressors. NYCHA is a champion of the oppressed. Are you starting to see how this works?
“- And then of course there is the principle that taxpayer funds are infinite and can be spent freely without any need to pay attention to costs or tradeoffs.”
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2026-10-3-how-to-think-like-a-new-york-progressive
CARE TO DISCUSS?
A bit of Sunday news: Brazil has reversed its politics to return to sanity.
In celebration of which, some Villa-Lobos to please the earbones — “Suite Popular Brasileira“, Andrea de Vitis (guitar) [17:02]: https://youtu.be/j8-nvzkr9jU?is=5uQ5Atu73WdlFYTt
“…DISCUSS…”
They’re merely spectacularly dishonest, oh-so-earnest commies.
IOW, the worse it gets the better it gets.
And they’re shooting (or soon will be) for “paradise” on earth.
(You know, like all those other attempts at totalitarianism, with a warm, avuncular, occasionally smiley, face.)
Brazil might be making a turn to the right in tonight’s election. At the very least it seems they will have a stronger hold over the senate. Some states are electing right-wing(ish) candidates and don’t have a history of electing such people.
Even if Lula holds on, this does not seem, as of right now, to be the most pleasant election for the left.
65% of the vote in.
Flávio Bolsonaro
49.58%
PL
37,566,895 votes
Lula
42.25%
PT
·
Incumbent
32,007,853 vote
Good news out of Brazil, thanks!
Nuthin’ to see here folks, we’ve all been assured…but in any case, here’s an update on that interrupted diesel theft at the air base in the land once known as Great Britain…
“US yanks all B-1 bombers from UK base targeted in foiled terror plot”—
https://nypost.com/2026/10/04/us-news/us-yanks-all-b-1-bombers-from-uk-base-targeted-in-foiled-terror-plot/
What a dump. Heck, ya’ can’t even steal diesel in that benighted place…
Update.
50% needed to win
92% reporting
Flávio Bolsonaro
47.88%
PL
52,398,815 votes
Lula
44.16%
PT
·
Incumbent
48,322,426 vote
So my cynical self says runoff, Lula wins because…
Well, we all know why.
Flavio won the first round, but it will go to a second round because he supposedly didn’t get 50%. Most of the third party candidates that were knocked out were right wing.
The question is, can the left get away with possibly manufacturing 7% of the vote in Lula’s favor in the second round. What margin of fraud will they be able to get away with these electronic voting machines?
Also I believe Michelle Bolsonaro was elected to the senate, for what that is worth.
Lula also severely weakened in the senate.
“Party of white men”
“Rule of law”
“Abrahamic religions”
Three strikes and you’re out.
So says the Religious Fanatic — on a Sunday no less.
Guess “out” means humble me is headed for the burn the heretic stake…
Re: RAF Rairford incident
@Barry Meislin: Nuthin’ to see here folks, we’ve all been assured
Apparently. Another 48 hours pass and we have no further information.
___________________________
And you know something is happening
But you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
–Bob Dylan, “Ballad of a Thin Man” (1965)
___________________________
Interesting song. Dylan is actually telling hipsters that they are also out of touch. Though few understood at the time.
Re: French riots…
Have broadened to include firemen and unions.
There is much dissatisfaction in France. Street protests are close to a separate branch of government there.
Wonder if a new Napoleon or de Gaulle is waiting in the wings….
“Napoleon’s secret code deciphered after 217 years using AI to read emperor’s mysterious letter”—
https://nypost.com/2026/10/02/science/napoleons-secret-code-deciphered-after-217-years-using-ai/
— selfy
On the contrary, America won the actual wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq. What was bungled was the aftermath.
Iraq is a functional, if far from ideal, state that is a distinct improvement on Hussein from the American POV. In Afghanistan, at the time that Biden’s handler’s surrendered, the country had been essentially pacified.
Both outcomes were partially (in Iraq’s case) and entirely (in Afghanistgan) bungled because the Western elite class, Left and Right alike, simply can not cope with the reality of the non-Western world. They want to project either a Randian secularism or a 60s liberal secularism everywhere, and it just won’t and cannot work.
So, two wars that America won were turned into partial or total failures. Bush II is not solely responsible for the latter failure, but he is in part. Success would have required going against and maybe destroying the establishment he was part of, and he just couldn’t make himself do it.
Looking back, I notice that Bush II did well, usually, following his own instincts. He got into trouble when he started trying to implement the stuff his father and his family taught him, like open borders immigration and ‘free trade’.