“If you do not think the government’s election commissions are in on the massive voter fraud inherent in every state’s voter rolls, you can stop reading here — because they are, and we can prove it in state after state. Read some of our reports on http://www.Omega4America.com.
…
We know phantom voters are the seed bed for fake ballots. The ballots aren’t fake — they are quite real, but called “fake” because they aren’t voted by the name on their envelope.
We know that fake ballots are mailed, at industrial scale, to legitimate voters, fake voters, dead voters, voters who moved.
…
The Fractal system found 1,250 people living at a single address — a college dorm. The Wisconsin team found that only 300 people can live there at any one time. Good find.
That was not enough for these guys. They had the Fractal team create the “root search” — thus digging into the address one layer deeper. Guess what! Not only were 1,250 people getting ballots at an address where only 300 can live, but 450 of those ballots went to a single dorm room!”
The financial payoff for fraud is in the trillions. The white-haired ladies running elections at your precinct as volunteers aren’t going to take on George Soros and his criminal gangs to lead the fight to save the nation.
I was once on a church team working with hospice during the final days of Oliver, a beloved elder member of our church. He was such a generous, great-souled man.
Around that time I discovered this marvelous poem by Kay Ryan, which reminded me of Oliver, and now Gerard.
____________________________
Age
As some people age
they kinden.
The apertures
of their eyes widen.
I do not think they weaken;
I think something weak strengthens
until they are more and more it,
like letting in heaven.
But other people are
mussels or clams, frightened.
Steam or knife blades mean open.
They hear heaven, they think boiled or broken.
–Kay Ryan
____________________________
Oliver was dying of multiple cancers and often in pain. Yet he remained so sweet in his final days.
On one of my turns to be with Oliver, I couldn’t get into his house because my key to the lockbox was wrong. So Oliver had to get up from his bed and come to let me in.
Except he collapsed on the way to the door. I heard a sickening thud and my heart stopped, fearing the worst. Fortunately, he recovered and crawled to the door to let me in.
The procedure at that point was to leave him on the floor and call hospice for assistance. I got him some pillows and a blanket.
From that position Oliver joked. He was gay and said he hoped they sent the firemen instead of a nurse! Maybe you had to be there.
I think we still have choices as we age, even unto death.
Neo-
Thank you for the housecleaning last night, and my apologies for rising to the bait.
JWM
What Shirehome said – I was thinking the same thing – it is beautiful but also sorrowful.
Have a safe trip home Neo.
A lovely tribute to Gerard.
Looks like a blessing.
When our children were young, my wife & I would see a sight like that & offer, “God’s saying, ‘Hello’ to us.” A small reminder that the Author of all things was indeed an Artist beyond compare, and all things were in some way a word to us.
We generally had Psalm 19 in mind…
The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
Day after day they continue to speak;
night after night they make him known.
They speak without a sound or word;
their voice is never heard.
Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
and their words to all the world…
Reading again I find this too…
The instructions of the Lord are perfect,
reviving the soul.
I pray & trust you are being revived Neo…
I am very concerned, that the US Government, + the rest of the world’s governments, aren’t doing, [in my words], enough to stop North Korea’s building up its nuclear missiles program.
[To me, this also includes all of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, and [N.K.’s long-range missiles program].
I gather that North Korea wants to take over South Korea, and it is willing to do so by military force, if necessary.
It is possible that N. Korea can find, and pay, scientists to make nuclear missiles for North Korea, that could hit the West coast of the United States.
Being paid a million dollars, or even [several] millions of dollars, can motivate A LOT of scientists to work on North Korea’s nuclear missiles.
I think that- the US Government, and the world’s governments, need to increase their offers of- money incentives and/or bribes, or threats of punishments- to North Korea, before THEY BUILD nuclear missiles that can hit The USA’s Western states.
(By THEY, I mean North Korea.)
If North Korea ever builds these nuclear missiles, they will not give them up.
The governments need to stop North Korea [before] they ever build these nuclear missiles.
If they do not, North Korea will become an actual, nuclear threat to The United States.
Mark steyn is back after a health scare
Achingly beautiful. A reminder that, “With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.”
What an amazing link, wherein a whole host of creeps make a cameo appearance. Sperry is truly dynamite.
But my God they lie about absolutely EVERYTHING.
(We already know that, of course, and we’ve known it for some time now, but every time one encounters it—i.e., again and again and again—it is truly staggering. Gobsmacking…
Interestingly, unless I’ve entirely misunderstood some of those tweets, Bob Woodward appears to be engaged in a campaign of VENGEANCE against the WaPo, NYT and the rest of the utterly corrupt, suborned, depraved media…
(That is, unless he’s suddenly discovered his conscience…though what are the chances of that?…OTOH, it may be that the WaPo screwed him sufficiently to enable him to find his “conscience”, once again if I’ve been able to decipher those posts…)
Well, the Lord certainly does work in mysterious ways…
Barry & miguel,
Regarding Sperry’s tweets; so much information is getting out in the daylight. It is a thing of beauty! Musk’s purchase of Twitter was a huge help, but also people like Bari Weiss, Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi being able to make a good living as independent journalists on Substack and sites like locals.com, as well as pure independents like neo and Gerard Vanderleun and Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit… All talented and vital warriors in the work that is wresting control of information from corporate media.
Look at CNN’s ratings. I’m not sure Americans are necessarily “better” informed. A great many of our fellow citizens are more interested in the “Real Housewives of Famousville” and cat videos (no offense PA Cat 😉 ) than researching current events, but the “Main Stream Media” are truly no longer “Main Stream” nor media sources for the majority of the country.
Information wants to be free and in a society like ours, where enterprising people like Dave Reuben, Joe Rogan, Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Glenn Beck, Jason Whitlock, Clay Travis, Jordan Peterson… can earn good money NOT towing the corporate line, we are only likely to see more of this. A few people are getting very wealthy speaking freely and this will not go unnoticed by young people seeking fame and fortune.
Unfortunately, it seems far too many of our fellow countrymen and women crave security over freedom, but the ability of large, corporate media enterprises to shape and control the narrative is on the wane, and that is something to celebrate*.
*It’s interesting. One of the main goals of groups like the Homebrew Computer Club and other people who worked together in the early days of personal computing was to smash the corporate hold on information and make information free for the masses (remember the famous Apple 1984 Superbowl commercial? https://youtu.be/2zfqw8nhUwA ). So much of that effort ended up being led out of Silicon Valley. For the past few decades much of Silicon Valley has been fighting against freedom of information. However, the theory behind those who designed the original hardware and software seems correct, and unstoppable. Personal computing is a net positive in humanity’s pursuit of truth.
Easy to see why Old Twitter wanted Paul Sperry gone.
Safe travels and I wish you ease.
Good friend of mine just lost her stepfather, a few days before Gerard went into hospice. We’re friends with my friend’s mom as well, and we’re supporting where and how we can. Just finished Neal Peart’s “Ghost Rider”–among other things, he notes that the second year of grief is harder, the books said that, he didn’t have any truck with that but turned out it *was* harder–and with all this I’m accidentally soaking in remote grief, grief that touches but doesn’t grab and stab like it does for my friends and acquaintances. I fervently do wish you some ease.
Miguel: yup, Mark Steyn is back in the saddle after recuperating (we hope) from two heart attacks in early December:
Elsewhere, there’s a lot in the news about Matt Taibbi’s responses to the Alliance for Securing Democracy’s “fact sheet” on Hamilton 68. The scam appears to be unraveling at speed. Couple of things that have not received a lot of attention, as far as I know:
First, AfSD Advisory Council member David Kramer is the former McCain staffer who shopped the Steele dossier around D.C. in 2016. “Nonpartisan initiative” my ass.
Second, Clint Watts–the former (?) FBI CI guy who helped to develop Hamilton 68 and shilled relentlessly for it–was on Angelo Codevilla’s radar a while ago:
Codevilla had this crapweasel’s number early on. Where do we find these clowns? How do they get hired?
50 years ago, young lt woodward proffered the self effacing tales of a bureau supergrade mark felt, now it was adam entous and co, to spin that tale, nearly as much out of whole cloth, dutiful scribe for mueller and co,
some people like jonathan last, who once upon a time was sane, think mcgonical’s plight is proof that Orange Man is bad, forget his ties to the Albanians and Ukrainians
Neo, thanks again for your lovely elegaic posts about GVDL. Gerard chose wisely in whom to entrust his last wishes. I hope you will continue to consider opening your blog to social and political commentary as you feel able.
Its clear that some of the community Gerard gathered is also here, and I for one will be visiting as its much the same sane thoughtful and intellectually interesting conversations here, with your own flavor in the mix.
Gerard seemed to rail against the night, with his own righteous outrage against what is being done to our western culture of Reason and Enlightenment.
We cant give in. We must be kind but we must also be strong to give a good world to our grandchildren. Thats what they will see about him when they seek him out, that and the courage of honest quest for Truth.
In the article I have mentioned, about Croatia, above:
Croatia’s government is also against The West’s nations, in their support of Ukraine.
[The West’s nations support Ukraine, in The War in Ukraine].
Ah, Balkan politics and the Bear, pan-Slavism, The Black Hand, and all that history of the last (two?) centuries. Imperial Russia and its proxies. Making the old, new again.
Hi om,
Yeah, you’ve got it.
People tell me- “All of the Balkans are on our side”, just like, “We can be allies, with Benedict Arnold, and all of his friends”. ;D XD
Hmmm…
I can make a bullet-proof vest out of [tin foil]…, or I can trust all of the Balkan nations to always support us.
I wonder which action is more risky? 😀 😀
This is a continuation of a conversation with Turtler from 1/26 concerning any promises about future expansion of NATO eastward.
“So the most Baker is TALKING ABOUT is whether or not NATO military hardware or “jurisdiction” will be spread further East.” -Turtler
So I would ask, is there any NATO military hardware to the east of Germany?
This was also part of the transcript:
“Baker: I want to ask you a question, and you need not answer it right now. Supposing unification takesplace, what would you prefer: a united Germany outside of NATO, absolutely independent and without American troops; or a united Germany keeping its connections with NATO, but with the guarantee that NATO’s jurisprudence or troops will not spread east of the present boundary?
Gorbachev: We will think everything over. We intend to discuss all these questions in depth at the leadership level. It goes without saying that a broadening of the NATO zone is not acceptable.
Baker: We agree with that.
Gorbachev: It is quite possible that in the situation as it is forming right now, the presence of American troops can play a containing role. It is possible that we should think together, as you said, about the fact that a united Germany could look for ways to rearm and create a new Wehrmacht, as happened after Versailles. Indeed, if Germany is outside the European structures, history could repeat itself.”
I do think it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the Russians to think the United States was committed to containing NATO expansion.
James Baker, as Secretary of State is speaking for the United States government. Very interesting conversation, and contained many elements of perestroika, including the ramifications of German unification.
Which raises another thought. Do Russians consider the annexation of Donbas and Crimea something akin to the reunification Germans felt? If that’s the case, Russian tolerance for the war will include the expectation that the Donbas and Crimea remain Russian territory.
“according to Dalio, there’s about a “1-in-6 chance of severe internal conflict” in the US and we’re right on the precipice (there are some indicators he uses in the book) of a “1-in-3″ chance of a civil war.”
In my opinion, the only way we avoid civil war is for enough Democrat voters to develop a bit of moral discernment and refuse to support the totalitarians’ cancellation of the constitution. Starting with joining the demand for honest elections.
Brain E, after three long detailed responses by Turtler, that should have put the NATO meme dead to rights comes back with another exhumation.
Imperial Russia used to control Poland and much of the rest of the Baltics. They used to effectively control (proxies and toadies) half of Germany and all of eastern Europe; you do remember that thing called the last century? Some Roosians speak of reestablishing that Imperial Roosia, or are you deaf to that?
“Major here did give (what I view as improper) assurances that Poland etc. would not join NATO, but he did so to a dishonest Soviet hardliner who would go on to stage a coup against his own government and wound up imprisoned, thus unsurprisingly changing the situation (especially with the SR ones).” – Turtler
This probably sums it all up.
I feel like I’m cramming for a history final, reading through Turtler’s commentary from the 1/26 comment section. Truly information overload.
NATO expansion requires unanimous consent by the members. The US could have prevented expansion eastward. Why not just say, based on the aggressive actions of Russia, those assurances given by the west were no longer valid?
Speaking of coups, wasn’t the 2020 election in reality a bloodless coup by the left?
Assurances given to the USSR? Or is USSR just the same as the Russian Federation?
Vlad looking for rationalizations to justify his aggression? Shocked! Shocked!
Are we supposed to believe that- Putin started the War in Ukraine, because, [he was afraid that Ukraine and Russia were going to be taken over by The US and NATO?]
I seriously doubt that’s why Putin went to war in Ukraine.
When is the last time The US military took over a foreign country, and made it the servant of the US: not the War in Afghanistan, not the 2003- War in Iraq, not the Persian Gulf War.
In the 20th century and after, the US hasn’t been really keen on- going to war, and using wars to take over other nations.
Since WW2 + The Korean War, the US + The US military haven’t been fond of going to war at all.
I have read news reports, that when the Berlin wall was being torn down, around 1990, that- Putin was a KGB soldier in East Germany, he watched in dismay as the wall was being torn down.
The wall being torn down was a symbol of the very real events of: the Communist + repressive…Soviet Union and the Communist + repressive…puppet nations of the USSR…including East Germany, collapsing before the world’s eyes.
The USSR and East Germany were harsh, dictator governments that Putin thought the Eastern-European nations, and the rest of the world, wanted and needed.
News reports that I have read said- that Putin, since The USSR fell, in 1991- has been making plans to: use the Russian Military to go to war- an retake all of the countries of the USSR, and make the USSR, all over again.
But this isn’t Russia’s 1980s + 1990s, anymore.
Putin is stuck back in the 1980s, and wants the ex-Soviet nations to be pulled together again, so he can [bring back “The good old days” of the Soviet Union].
But the world has moved on, leaving the USSR behind, + the world wants more freedom and more economic freedom than the USSR ever gave to people.
The USSR is like the 1950, Chevy car- a machine that people used in the past, but there is no use for it today, and there is no use for it in the future.
Putin is routing and cheering for a country, that doesn’t exist anymore.
@Brian E
Apologies for this, I also replied to you over in the new Open Thread, starting here.
So I would ask, is there any NATO military hardware to the east of Germany?
To which I respond, obviously.
For a couple of reasons.
Firstly: While Baker’s “we agree” was probably reflective of not merely his personal views but that of the Bush Administration in 1990, the world of 1991 was already vastly different from that of 1990 and the Bush Administration’s opinion was not universal among all Americans, let alone all Germans or other Central/Eastern Europeans.
This is something Baker makes painfully clear when parsing his words in the source, which I quoted at greater length there.
Secondly: Baker and Gorbachev never made this assurance legally binding, probably because both knew Baker and Bush lacked the kind of broad support to make it stick the old fashioned way, in Congress.
So times changed. And not only was Bush replaced by Clinton and there became much wider support for NATO expansion (spearheaded in large part by the ex-Pact nations themselves clambering to get in against a backdrop of the Soviet periphery and Yugoslavia exploding into showers of blood), but even by the time there was a changing of the guard Bush and Baker had already started to reconsider. Especially since the Hardliner coup showed that the regime in Moscow might not always be a somewhat amiable Gorbachev.
I do think it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the Russians to think the United States was committed to containing NATO expansion.
I disagree for a few reasons.
Starting with the fact that while politics and diplomacy are famously cynical businesses involving a lot of self-serving and the Kremlin regimes have often had particularly blinkered ideas on how to interpret the world (see their misunderstandings of the Reagan assassination attempt and Nixon being given the boot), they were not utterly ignorant.
And in context, Baker and Gorbachev talk A LOT about foreign and public opinion issues, with the last excerpt featuring Baker complaining about “American conservatives” criticizing the US government’s detente with Gorbachev.
The Soviets also had a healthy knowledge and appreciation for the value of getting agreements passed through the US Congress, as we saw with arms control negotiations.
So in context I think it is fairly clear that Gorbachev at the time and Putin’s legal eagles looking back will recognize that Baker was mirroring the position of the Bush Administration in 1990, but A: that it was a position the Bush Admin either couldn’t (due to lack of political support ) or wouldn’t (due to perfidy/dishonesty/opportunism) cement in a treaty, and B: that the Bush Admin did not mean All Americans, let alone All of NATO.
James Baker, as Secretary of State is speaking for the United States government. Very interesting conversation, and contained many elements of perestroika, including the ramifications of German unification.
Agreed. But it also touched on the limits of a superpower intent on operating through consent, both at home and with its foreign partners. Which both Baker and Gorbachev recognize.
Which raises another thought. Do Russians consider the annexation of Donbas and Crimea something akin to the reunification Germans felt?
Probably a bunch of them do. After all one of Putin’s major propaganda smorgasborgs was a public broadcast titled “Crimea: The Road Home” or “Crimea: The Way Home” (the translations I’ve seen differ and I am a monolingual scrub). This is also something I point to when it comes to Putin admitting he lied about the presence (or lack thereof) of Russian Federation troops in Crimea in 2014.
The big difference however is that neither the GDR or FRG ever unilaterally conceded the claim to be the sole legitimate German government. Both went out of their way to avoid this, and retained hopes for reunification long into the future.
In contrast, the Russian Government formally recognized Ukraine as independent within its existing borders in 1994.
If that’s the case, Russian tolerance for the war will include the expectation that the Donbas and Crimea remain Russian territory.
I definitely agree that’s true within the forseeable future, especially for Crimea and the Eastern Donbas.
The issue is that much like East Germany, that project’s already started to run into issues. There’s a reason why the maximum “Separatist”/Russian occupation in the Donbas capped out at around 2/3rds in 2014-2015 before slingshotting back down to somewhere between a third and a fourth. The Kremlin SERIOUSLY overestimated how popular “reunification” would be among the traditionally Russophone, often ethnically Russian, and typically pro-Russian/”Blue” populaces. Or at least unification by these methods. Which is proving to be an issue.
What is the code for shading block quotes?
I do not know. Perhaps we could ask our host?
This probably sums it all up.
I feel like I’m cramming for a history final, reading through Turtler’s commentary from the 1/26 comment section. Truly information overload.
Apologies for that. It is one of my strengths and weaknesses.
NATO expansion requires unanimous consent by the members. The US could have prevented expansion eastward. Why not just say, based on the aggressive actions of Russia, those assurances given by the west were no longer valid?
For starters because most of the “assurances” cited didn’t rise to the level of assurances. There’s something incredible about seeing Putin try fanatically to turn the conditional assurances by Baker about the opinion of himself and the Bush Administration into official assurances from all of NATO that NATO/the US/etc “broke.” When again, the context of Baker’s statements make it very clear that isn’t the case.
(Maybe there are other documents that do fit that description that I haven’t read, I’ll have to slowly work through them. But this specific document isn’t so, in contrast to the claims of the co-authors.)
But another is because those times when assurances were given, they were generally A: Given to a Soviet regime under Gorbachev that would soon cease to exist, B: Given unofficially or by the politicos involved personally (like Baker and Major), or C: Both.
And finally, they consistently emphasized the need to be sensitive to the opinions of the various Central and Eastern European states and public, as well as their own.
Especially since – again -the wonders of Western politics meant that just because Bush agreed with Gorbachev about not expanding NATO did not mean that he wouldn’t be voted out and replaced by people of a different mind (which is one of the key inflection points of the co-authors).
In short, Putin’s looking to muddy the waters and detract attention from more recent and binding assurances like Budapest and Astana that he clearly broke, and is counting on unfamiliarity with the source material to help do it. I’m also of concurrence with Neo that nothing in these documents would justify the invasions of Ukraine and elsewhere (especially since the invasion of Ukraine in particular was not over NATO membership – which was only a distant possibility for Ukraine and not one it was particularly interested in prior to 2014 – but over a trade deal with the EU turned constitutional crisis in Ukraine).
Speaking of coups, wasn’t the 2020 election in reality a bloodless coup by the left?
I’d say so, with the caveat that it wasn’t so bloodless.
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Very nice! Thanks.
VDH says we are now living in “1984”. https://amgreatness.com/2023/01/29/anarchy-american-style/
What kind of person votes for and cheers 1984?
Stupid, ignorant and morally defective is no way to go through life.
Bitter Sweet, but very beautiful.
Lovely. I like to think it’s a tribute.
Renee Fleming sings “Im Abendrot”–“At Sunset”–from Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXPpXrEQ3Qk
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/01/tracking_a_fraudulent_ballot_in_real_time.html
The fraud is mindboggling.
“If you do not think the government’s election commissions are in on the massive voter fraud inherent in every state’s voter rolls, you can stop reading here — because they are, and we can prove it in state after state. Read some of our reports on http://www.Omega4America.com.
…
We know phantom voters are the seed bed for fake ballots. The ballots aren’t fake — they are quite real, but called “fake” because they aren’t voted by the name on their envelope.
We know that fake ballots are mailed, at industrial scale, to legitimate voters, fake voters, dead voters, voters who moved.
…
The Fractal system found 1,250 people living at a single address — a college dorm. The Wisconsin team found that only 300 people can live there at any one time. Good find.
That was not enough for these guys. They had the Fractal team create the “root search” — thus digging into the address one layer deeper. Guess what! Not only were 1,250 people getting ballots at an address where only 300 can live, but 450 of those ballots went to a single dorm room!”
The financial payoff for fraud is in the trillions. The white-haired ladies running elections at your precinct as volunteers aren’t going to take on George Soros and his criminal gangs to lead the fight to save the nation.
I was once on a church team working with hospice during the final days of Oliver, a beloved elder member of our church. He was such a generous, great-souled man.
Around that time I discovered this marvelous poem by Kay Ryan, which reminded me of Oliver, and now Gerard.
____________________________
Age
As some people age
they kinden.
The apertures
of their eyes widen.
I do not think they weaken;
I think something weak strengthens
until they are more and more it,
like letting in heaven.
But other people are
mussels or clams, frightened.
Steam or knife blades mean open.
They hear heaven, they think boiled or broken.
–Kay Ryan
____________________________
Oliver was dying of multiple cancers and often in pain. Yet he remained so sweet in his final days.
On one of my turns to be with Oliver, I couldn’t get into his house because my key to the lockbox was wrong. So Oliver had to get up from his bed and come to let me in.
Except he collapsed on the way to the door. I heard a sickening thud and my heart stopped, fearing the worst. Fortunately, he recovered and crawled to the door to let me in.
The procedure at that point was to leave him on the floor and call hospice for assistance. I got him some pillows and a blanket.
From that position Oliver joked. He was gay and said he hoped they sent the firemen instead of a nurse! Maybe you had to be there.
I think we still have choices as we age, even unto death.
Neo-
Thank you for the housecleaning last night, and my apologies for rising to the bait.
JWM
What Shirehome said – I was thinking the same thing – it is beautiful but also sorrowful.
Have a safe trip home Neo.
A lovely tribute to Gerard.
Looks like a blessing.
When our children were young, my wife & I would see a sight like that & offer, “God’s saying, ‘Hello’ to us.” A small reminder that the Author of all things was indeed an Artist beyond compare, and all things were in some way a word to us.
We generally had Psalm 19 in mind…
The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
Day after day they continue to speak;
night after night they make him known.
They speak without a sound or word;
their voice is never heard.
Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
and their words to all the world…
Reading again I find this too…
The instructions of the Lord are perfect,
reviving the soul.
I pray & trust you are being revived Neo…
I am very concerned, that the US Government, + the rest of the world’s governments, aren’t doing, [in my words], enough to stop North Korea’s building up its nuclear missiles program.
[To me, this also includes all of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, and [N.K.’s long-range missiles program].
I gather that North Korea wants to take over South Korea, and it is willing to do so by military force, if necessary.
It is possible that N. Korea can find, and pay, scientists to make nuclear missiles for North Korea, that could hit the West coast of the United States.
Being paid a million dollars, or even [several] millions of dollars, can motivate A LOT of scientists to work on North Korea’s nuclear missiles.
I think that- the US Government, and the world’s governments, need to increase their offers of- money incentives and/or bribes, or threats of punishments- to North Korea, before THEY BUILD nuclear missiles that can hit The USA’s Western states.
(By THEY, I mean North Korea.)
If North Korea ever builds these nuclear missiles, they will not give them up.
The governments need to stop North Korea [before] they ever build these nuclear missiles.
If they do not, North Korea will become an actual, nuclear threat to The United States.
Mark steyn is back after a health scare
Achingly beautiful. A reminder that, “With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.”
Paradise is not lost. Only beginning again.
What balderdash they traffic in
https://twitter.com/paulsperry_
What an amazing link, wherein a whole host of creeps make a cameo appearance. Sperry is truly dynamite.
But my God they lie about absolutely EVERYTHING.
(We already know that, of course, and we’ve known it for some time now, but every time one encounters it—i.e., again and again and again—it is truly staggering. Gobsmacking…
Interestingly, unless I’ve entirely misunderstood some of those tweets, Bob Woodward appears to be engaged in a campaign of VENGEANCE against the WaPo, NYT and the rest of the utterly corrupt, suborned, depraved media…
(That is, unless he’s suddenly discovered his conscience…though what are the chances of that?…OTOH, it may be that the WaPo screwed him sufficiently to enable him to find his “conscience”, once again if I’ve been able to decipher those posts…)
Well, the Lord certainly does work in mysterious ways…
Barry & miguel,
Regarding Sperry’s tweets; so much information is getting out in the daylight. It is a thing of beauty! Musk’s purchase of Twitter was a huge help, but also people like Bari Weiss, Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi being able to make a good living as independent journalists on Substack and sites like locals.com, as well as pure independents like neo and Gerard Vanderleun and Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit… All talented and vital warriors in the work that is wresting control of information from corporate media.
Look at CNN’s ratings. I’m not sure Americans are necessarily “better” informed. A great many of our fellow citizens are more interested in the “Real Housewives of Famousville” and cat videos (no offense PA Cat 😉 ) than researching current events, but the “Main Stream Media” are truly no longer “Main Stream” nor media sources for the majority of the country.
Information wants to be free and in a society like ours, where enterprising people like Dave Reuben, Joe Rogan, Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Glenn Beck, Jason Whitlock, Clay Travis, Jordan Peterson… can earn good money NOT towing the corporate line, we are only likely to see more of this. A few people are getting very wealthy speaking freely and this will not go unnoticed by young people seeking fame and fortune.
Unfortunately, it seems far too many of our fellow countrymen and women crave security over freedom, but the ability of large, corporate media enterprises to shape and control the narrative is on the wane, and that is something to celebrate*.
*It’s interesting. One of the main goals of groups like the Homebrew Computer Club and other people who worked together in the early days of personal computing was to smash the corporate hold on information and make information free for the masses (remember the famous Apple 1984 Superbowl commercial? https://youtu.be/2zfqw8nhUwA ). So much of that effort ended up being led out of Silicon Valley. For the past few decades much of Silicon Valley has been fighting against freedom of information. However, the theory behind those who designed the original hardware and software seems correct, and unstoppable. Personal computing is a net positive in humanity’s pursuit of truth.
Easy to see why Old Twitter wanted Paul Sperry gone.
Safe travels and I wish you ease.
Good friend of mine just lost her stepfather, a few days before Gerard went into hospice. We’re friends with my friend’s mom as well, and we’re supporting where and how we can. Just finished Neal Peart’s “Ghost Rider”–among other things, he notes that the second year of grief is harder, the books said that, he didn’t have any truck with that but turned out it *was* harder–and with all this I’m accidentally soaking in remote grief, grief that touches but doesn’t grab and stab like it does for my friends and acquaintances. I fervently do wish you some ease.
Miguel: yup, Mark Steyn is back in the saddle after recuperating (we hope) from two heart attacks in early December:
https://www.steynonline.com/13216/back-from-the-dead
Really hope we don’t lose him too.
Elsewhere, there’s a lot in the news about Matt Taibbi’s responses to the Alliance for Securing Democracy’s “fact sheet” on Hamilton 68. The scam appears to be unraveling at speed. Couple of things that have not received a lot of attention, as far as I know:
First, AfSD Advisory Council member David Kramer is the former McCain staffer who shopped the Steele dossier around D.C. in 2016. “Nonpartisan initiative” my ass.
Second, Clint Watts–the former (?) FBI CI guy who helped to develop Hamilton 68 and shilled relentlessly for it–was on Angelo Codevilla’s radar a while ago:
https://amgreatness.com/2019/08/12/the-white-supremacy-hoax/
Codevilla had this crapweasel’s number early on. Where do we find these clowns? How do they get hired?
50 years ago, young lt woodward proffered the self effacing tales of a bureau supergrade mark felt, now it was adam entous and co, to spin that tale, nearly as much out of whole cloth, dutiful scribe for mueller and co,
some people like jonathan last, who once upon a time was sane, think mcgonical’s plight is proof that Orange Man is bad, forget his ties to the Albanians and Ukrainians
Neo, thanks again for your lovely elegaic posts about GVDL. Gerard chose wisely in whom to entrust his last wishes. I hope you will continue to consider opening your blog to social and political commentary as you feel able.
Its clear that some of the community Gerard gathered is also here, and I for one will be visiting as its much the same sane thoughtful and intellectually interesting conversations here, with your own flavor in the mix.
Gerard seemed to rail against the night, with his own righteous outrage against what is being done to our western culture of Reason and Enlightenment.
We cant give in. We must be kind but we must also be strong to give a good world to our grandchildren. Thats what they will see about him when they seek him out, that and the courage of honest quest for Truth.
As in yours, in your own way.
Namaste.
RTF–
Just for you: 1) a Mark Steyn video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6j-qvO4GSk&ab_channel=MarkSteyn
2) a baseball video, in which the Yankees are sidelined by the Orioles’ MVP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTkBVNMD-VY&ab_channel=MLB
and 3) a Canadian sea shanty, courtesy of the one and only Gerard:
https://americandigest.org/lethal-earworm-alert/
You’re welcome.
good news for a change mark houck, the prolife activist, in philadelphia, was acqutted of his kangaroo court tribunal,
Open Thread:
Ukraine war tactical analysis Bakmut fighting, Roosian gains:
Reporting From Ukraine
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3erP-78S4yI
Ukrainian goals, loose as little ground and extract the maximum casualties from Vlad’s forces at Bakmut.
Croatia’s government, after being made a member of the EU, decides [to side with Russia’s govt.], in the war in Ukraine.
Croatia’s President [calls the war morally bad, since he says- it can’t be won], and he says that [Crimea will never become part of Ukraine].
I thought that Croatia’s govt. was on the side of the USA and The West.
Perhaps it is not.
This action by Croatia is unfortunate.
How unfortunate.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/crimea-never-again-part-ukraine-154744306.html
In the article I have mentioned, about Croatia, above:
Croatia’s government is also against The West’s nations, in their support of Ukraine.
[The West’s nations support Ukraine, in The War in Ukraine].
Ah, Balkan politics and the Bear, pan-Slavism, The Black Hand, and all that history of the last (two?) centuries. Imperial Russia and its proxies. Making the old, new again.
Hi om,
Yeah, you’ve got it.
People tell me- “All of the Balkans are on our side”, just like, “We can be allies, with Benedict Arnold, and all of his friends”. ;D XD
Hmmm…
I can make a bullet-proof vest out of [tin foil]…, or I can trust all of the Balkan nations to always support us.
I wonder which action is more risky? 😀 😀
This is a continuation of a conversation with Turtler from 1/26 concerning any promises about future expansion of NATO eastward.
“So the most Baker is TALKING ABOUT is whether or not NATO military hardware or “jurisdiction” will be spread further East.” -Turtler
So I would ask, is there any NATO military hardware to the east of Germany?
This was also part of the transcript:
“Baker: I want to ask you a question, and you need not answer it right now. Supposing unification takesplace, what would you prefer: a united Germany outside of NATO, absolutely independent and without American troops; or a united Germany keeping its connections with NATO, but with the guarantee that NATO’s jurisprudence or troops will not spread east of the present boundary?
Gorbachev: We will think everything over. We intend to discuss all these questions in depth at the leadership level. It goes without saying that a broadening of the NATO zone is not acceptable.
Baker: We agree with that.
Gorbachev: It is quite possible that in the situation as it is forming right now, the presence of American troops can play a containing role. It is possible that we should think together, as you said, about the fact that a united Germany could look for ways to rearm and create a new Wehrmacht, as happened after Versailles. Indeed, if Germany is outside the European structures, history could repeat itself.”
I do think it wouldn’t be unreasonable for the Russians to think the United States was committed to containing NATO expansion.
James Baker, as Secretary of State is speaking for the United States government. Very interesting conversation, and contained many elements of perestroika, including the ramifications of German unification.
Which raises another thought. Do Russians consider the annexation of Donbas and Crimea something akin to the reunification Germans felt? If that’s the case, Russian tolerance for the war will include the expectation that the Donbas and Crimea remain Russian territory.
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/16117-document-06-record-conversation-between
What is the code for shading block quotes?
Victor Davis Hanson on the Great US-urpation (or, if you will, Hijacking)…
…wherein the Democratic Party demonstrates such principles as honesty, integrity, responsibility, reliability, lawfulness, etc., ALL REDEFINED to mean “Whatever It Takes To Grab Power and Hold Onot It And Expand It”…
“Anarchy, American-Style;
“The Left runs Oceania, and we work for their various bureaus…”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/victor-davis-hanson-radical-left-establishment
+ “Bonus” (Related)
“Biden To End COVID-19 Emergency Declarations On May 11, Also Ends Title 42 Policy At Border”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/biden-end-covid-19-emergency-declarations-may-11-also-ends-title-42-policy-border
Imposing a totalitarian system requires the rejection of reality. https://sovereignnations.com/2023/01/26/the-negation-of-the-real-james-lindsay/
—
And the Jordan Peterson appearance of Joe Rogan is special.
—
re: Ray Dalio’s book. https://www.culturcidal.com/p/why-legendary-investor-ray-diallo
“according to Dalio, there’s about a “1-in-6 chance of severe internal conflict” in the US and we’re right on the precipice (there are some indicators he uses in the book) of a “1-in-3″ chance of a civil war.”
In my opinion, the only way we avoid civil war is for enough Democrat voters to develop a bit of moral discernment and refuse to support the totalitarians’ cancellation of the constitution. Starting with joining the demand for honest elections.
Brain E, after three long detailed responses by Turtler, that should have put the NATO meme dead to rights comes back with another exhumation.
Imperial Russia used to control Poland and much of the rest of the Baltics. They used to effectively control (proxies and toadies) half of Germany and all of eastern Europe; you do remember that thing called the last century? Some Roosians speak of reestablishing that Imperial Roosia, or are you deaf to that?
But, but, but NATO.
The Democrats have been showing us how to destroy cities across the land.
They’ve also been eagerly showing us how to destroy states and are busy as beavers showing us how to destroy the country…
“Chair Of California Reparations Panel Pushes For Wealth, Mansion, Or Property Tax To Pay Billions To Descendants Of Slaves”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2023/01/31/chair-of-california-reparations-panel-pushes-for-wealth-mansion-or-property-tax-to-pay-billions-to-descendants-of-slaves/
Can’t say they’re not consistent!
(Who was it who said, “As California goes, so goes the country”? Aaron Maté?)
Woodward (continued), from the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” files:
“Bob Woodward scolds media colleagues for Trump Russia coverage, says American public was ‘cheated’;
“Liberal journalist Bob Woodward turns on mainstream media for failing to properly vet the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, then gets sued by Trump.”—
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/bob-woodward-responds-upcoming-document-dump-2pm-today
“Major here did give (what I view as improper) assurances that Poland etc. would not join NATO, but he did so to a dishonest Soviet hardliner who would go on to stage a coup against his own government and wound up imprisoned, thus unsurprisingly changing the situation (especially with the SR ones).” – Turtler
This probably sums it all up.
I feel like I’m cramming for a history final, reading through Turtler’s commentary from the 1/26 comment section. Truly information overload.
NATO expansion requires unanimous consent by the members. The US could have prevented expansion eastward. Why not just say, based on the aggressive actions of Russia, those assurances given by the west were no longer valid?
Speaking of coups, wasn’t the 2020 election in reality a bloodless coup by the left?
Assurances given to the USSR? Or is USSR just the same as the Russian Federation?
Vlad looking for rationalizations to justify his aggression? Shocked! Shocked!
Are we supposed to believe that- Putin started the War in Ukraine, because, [he was afraid that Ukraine and Russia were going to be taken over by The US and NATO?]
I seriously doubt that’s why Putin went to war in Ukraine.
When is the last time The US military took over a foreign country, and made it the servant of the US: not the War in Afghanistan, not the 2003- War in Iraq, not the Persian Gulf War.
In the 20th century and after, the US hasn’t been really keen on- going to war, and using wars to take over other nations.
Since WW2 + The Korean War, the US + The US military haven’t been fond of going to war at all.
I have read news reports, that when the Berlin wall was being torn down, around 1990, that- Putin was a KGB soldier in East Germany, he watched in dismay as the wall was being torn down.
The wall being torn down was a symbol of the very real events of: the Communist + repressive…Soviet Union and the Communist + repressive…puppet nations of the USSR…including East Germany, collapsing before the world’s eyes.
The USSR and East Germany were harsh, dictator governments that Putin thought the Eastern-European nations, and the rest of the world, wanted and needed.
News reports that I have read said- that Putin, since The USSR fell, in 1991- has been making plans to: use the Russian Military to go to war- an retake all of the countries of the USSR, and make the USSR, all over again.
But this isn’t Russia’s 1980s + 1990s, anymore.
Putin is stuck back in the 1980s, and wants the ex-Soviet nations to be pulled together again, so he can [bring back “The good old days” of the Soviet Union].
But the world has moved on, leaving the USSR behind, + the world wants more freedom and more economic freedom than the USSR ever gave to people.
The USSR is like the 1950, Chevy car- a machine that people used in the past, but there is no use for it today, and there is no use for it in the future.
Putin is routing and cheering for a country, that doesn’t exist anymore.
@Brian E
Apologies for this, I also replied to you over in the new Open Thread, starting here.
https://www.thenewneo.com/2023/01/31/open-thread-1-31-23/#comment-2664343
But to address your stuff here….
To which I respond, obviously.
For a couple of reasons.
Firstly: While Baker’s “we agree” was probably reflective of not merely his personal views but that of the Bush Administration in 1990, the world of 1991 was already vastly different from that of 1990 and the Bush Administration’s opinion was not universal among all Americans, let alone all Germans or other Central/Eastern Europeans.
This is something Baker makes painfully clear when parsing his words in the source, which I quoted at greater length there.
Secondly: Baker and Gorbachev never made this assurance legally binding, probably because both knew Baker and Bush lacked the kind of broad support to make it stick the old fashioned way, in Congress.
So times changed. And not only was Bush replaced by Clinton and there became much wider support for NATO expansion (spearheaded in large part by the ex-Pact nations themselves clambering to get in against a backdrop of the Soviet periphery and Yugoslavia exploding into showers of blood), but even by the time there was a changing of the guard Bush and Baker had already started to reconsider. Especially since the Hardliner coup showed that the regime in Moscow might not always be a somewhat amiable Gorbachev.
I disagree for a few reasons.
Starting with the fact that while politics and diplomacy are famously cynical businesses involving a lot of self-serving and the Kremlin regimes have often had particularly blinkered ideas on how to interpret the world (see their misunderstandings of the Reagan assassination attempt and Nixon being given the boot), they were not utterly ignorant.
And in context, Baker and Gorbachev talk A LOT about foreign and public opinion issues, with the last excerpt featuring Baker complaining about “American conservatives” criticizing the US government’s detente with Gorbachev.
The Soviets also had a healthy knowledge and appreciation for the value of getting agreements passed through the US Congress, as we saw with arms control negotiations.
So in context I think it is fairly clear that Gorbachev at the time and Putin’s legal eagles looking back will recognize that Baker was mirroring the position of the Bush Administration in 1990, but A: that it was a position the Bush Admin either couldn’t (due to lack of political support ) or wouldn’t (due to perfidy/dishonesty/opportunism) cement in a treaty, and B: that the Bush Admin did not mean All Americans, let alone All of NATO.
Agreed. But it also touched on the limits of a superpower intent on operating through consent, both at home and with its foreign partners. Which both Baker and Gorbachev recognize.
Probably a bunch of them do. After all one of Putin’s major propaganda smorgasborgs was a public broadcast titled “Crimea: The Road Home” or “Crimea: The Way Home” (the translations I’ve seen differ and I am a monolingual scrub). This is also something I point to when it comes to Putin admitting he lied about the presence (or lack thereof) of Russian Federation troops in Crimea in 2014.
The big difference however is that neither the GDR or FRG ever unilaterally conceded the claim to be the sole legitimate German government. Both went out of their way to avoid this, and retained hopes for reunification long into the future.
In contrast, the Russian Government formally recognized Ukraine as independent within its existing borders in 1994.
I definitely agree that’s true within the forseeable future, especially for Crimea and the Eastern Donbas.
The issue is that much like East Germany, that project’s already started to run into issues. There’s a reason why the maximum “Separatist”/Russian occupation in the Donbas capped out at around 2/3rds in 2014-2015 before slingshotting back down to somewhere between a third and a fourth. The Kremlin SERIOUSLY overestimated how popular “reunification” would be among the traditionally Russophone, often ethnically Russian, and typically pro-Russian/”Blue” populaces. Or at least unification by these methods. Which is proving to be an issue.
I do not know. Perhaps we could ask our host?
Apologies for that. It is one of my strengths and weaknesses.
For starters because most of the “assurances” cited didn’t rise to the level of assurances. There’s something incredible about seeing Putin try fanatically to turn the conditional assurances by Baker about the opinion of himself and the Bush Administration into official assurances from all of NATO that NATO/the US/etc “broke.” When again, the context of Baker’s statements make it very clear that isn’t the case.
(Maybe there are other documents that do fit that description that I haven’t read, I’ll have to slowly work through them. But this specific document isn’t so, in contrast to the claims of the co-authors.)
But another is because those times when assurances were given, they were generally A: Given to a Soviet regime under Gorbachev that would soon cease to exist, B: Given unofficially or by the politicos involved personally (like Baker and Major), or C: Both.
And finally, they consistently emphasized the need to be sensitive to the opinions of the various Central and Eastern European states and public, as well as their own.
Especially since – again -the wonders of Western politics meant that just because Bush agreed with Gorbachev about not expanding NATO did not mean that he wouldn’t be voted out and replaced by people of a different mind (which is one of the key inflection points of the co-authors).
In short, Putin’s looking to muddy the waters and detract attention from more recent and binding assurances like Budapest and Astana that he clearly broke, and is counting on unfamiliarity with the source material to help do it. I’m also of concurrence with Neo that nothing in these documents would justify the invasions of Ukraine and elsewhere (especially since the invasion of Ukraine in particular was not over NATO membership – which was only a distant possibility for Ukraine and not one it was particularly interested in prior to 2014 – but over a trade deal with the EU turned constitutional crisis in Ukraine).
I’d say so, with the caveat that it wasn’t so bloodless.