Several Things - December 6 2019

Joe Biden   I keep saying that Joe Biden is IMO a nasty bully masquerading as a benevolent, highly experienced and wise curmudgeon with deep roots in the Labor Unions.  He is none of those things.  In evidence of that he yesterday advanced menacingly toward a man who had the audacity to challenge the "Joe Biden" show and narrative.  This was in Iowa.  The man told him he (Biden)  was too old to be president (He is). The man questioned the probity of Joe's narcotics addled son''s appointment to the board of directors of  a corrupt enterprise in Ukraine.  Joe was visibly enraged and it seemed for a minute that he would attack this citizen.  Really, Democrats?  Really?  Him?  Bloomberg? Hilly?  Booker?  Castro? Warren?

Jobs.  The Labor Department employment report released today states that the US economy added 266,000 new jobs in November rather then the expected 186,000.  The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 %.  This is full employment because there is a certain amount of structural unemployment inherent in any economy.  "Impeachment?" What's that?

St. Nancy the hypocrite a reporter asked Pelosi yesterday if she acts from hatred of Trump.  She responded that having been raised as a Catholic she does not hate anyone because we are taught to hate the sin and love the sinner. Well, pilgrims, Catholics are expected to practice their religion through both faith and deeds and to accept the teaching of the Church.  In spite of the hopes of some, this is not a cafeteria operation.  One does not pick and choose among the Church's teachings. If you can't accept them, you leave.  Pelosi is in spiritual rebellion against the Church's teaching on abortion.  Catholic teaching is that abortion is murder plain and simple.  There are some Catholic politicians who claim to compartment their personal beliefs and actions from their responsibility to their non-Catholic constituents.  I do not challenge that having done much the same as a government servant but that is not the case with St. Nancy who is an ardent advocate for abortion.  BTW if the US government had sought to require me to do something immoral I would have refused and taken the consequences.

Riots in Paris  I like France, the French language, their wine, their cheese, their women and their style of life, but I am not blind to the faults of the French.  One of these is a tendency to take to the streets over grievances or perceived grievances  in society.  France has a highly regulated economy that does not particularly favor growth of the kind now being experienced in the US.  "Bureaucracy" as a word is French in origin.  At the same time the welfare state is massive and all pervasive.  In fact the welfare state with its early retirements and cradle to grave benefits is just too big to be sustained by the economy of the country.  This conflict of means and ends is strangling the country's ability to function.  Macron knows this and has been trying over the last year or so to "whittle down" the outputs enough to have them align with the inputs in the economy.  The result has been the "Yellow Sweaters" street riots and now a new wave of riots resisting attempts to change retirement laws.  This street activity will burn itself out but the  riots are likely to be prolonged. 

 The Shooting In Pensacola  A Saudi military trainee went shahiid (berserk)today and killed three people.  The naval aviation center there routinely trains foreign aviators.  There was nothing unusual in the man's presence on base.  He had been in training for a year.  King Salman sent his condolences supposedly saying to Trump that he and the Saudi people love the US and the American people.  Well, pilgrims, I lived in The Kingdom for several years and have visited many times and I do not remember indications of their love for us.  It will be interesting to learn if the student just ran amok crying Allahu Akbar! or couldn't make it in class or both.  pl

 

Comments

[Babak Makkinejad]

Spain is the most decentralized state in EU. It is a very nice country and I feel quite comfortable there. But, like Bismarck said, she is also the strongest European country since every few decades it tries to destroy herself, like Iran.

[J]

Colonel,

FYI

Appears the Pentagon is a bit concerned that their message of fear everything Russian is not getting through to the troops.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/pentagon-alarmed-russia-gaining-sympathy-among-us-troops

[Factotum]

Babak, Miscarriage is not the intentional taking of a life; abortion is.

[Factotum]

Babek, In the US, we don't. Can't be all things to all people. Unfortunately we have medical malpractice and an overly burdened social welfare system along with international defense obligations that distort our cash flow differently than other countries you claim that can provide universal health care as a "right".

I would like to see us dismantle our current welfare system so there is more direct benefit fo those who pay into it. That is a major distortion right now, exacerbated by the floods of illegals who still keep coming here when obviously they would do so much better in all the countries you mentioned.

Join me in getting the message out - illegals looking for free health care - don't come to the US.

[English Outsider]

Ah, that brings it all back to reality. Thank you for your reply, Colonel Lang.

I hope the operation goes well and that the recovery is quick. Without wishing to be fulsome, this is the shrewdest and best informed site there is so I hope the labour of running it is not proving too irksome. If it does, well, this has been something of a pilgrimage for me and I'd guess many others. Thank you.

[Diana C]

As a retired teacher, I have to say that public school teachers now are paid quite well, especially given the number of hours per year that they report to work.

My observations of new young teachers is that they know little about their subject area, do little lesson planning or grading of assignments. Many of them sign up immediately to earn extra money serving in some way as a coach. Doing so means that they often cut back on even assigning homework or grading homework or tests. In secondary schools they give a student hours of credit toward graduation by using them as student assistants who help grade tests and assignments, which are usually true or false tests or choose the answer a.B.c. tests and which can be graded by grading machines.

They take easy education department online course to fulfill their requirement of adding courses to their transcripts in order to move over on the pay scale and earn amore money. These courses do nothing but teach them the education jargon and the new untested ideas about how to teach (such things as better ways to do seating charts, how to do group work which means less grading for the teacher, motivation techniques (which have no real testing behind them other than they were published in educational department journals by teachers who decided to share their experiences).

If young teachers sign up to be assistant coaches or do some other service such as helping with administrative tasks, they rarely never have an administrator Observe their teaching and so get an easy pass, even though there is in reality no teaching being done in their classrooms.

I was dumbfounded by the lack of knowledge many young teacher have of the subject matter. For example, one English teacher once complained about grading assigned essays because she is always confused about when to use "past" or "passed." She was teaching "advanced" students.

Never, never, never believe anything that comes from the NEA.

And I always encourage parents to find private school, charter school, or homeschooling options. A little dirty secret now that those options are more available is that students in those programs always test higher on state tests and college admission tests.

As afar as I can tell, high schools now are really just there to provide young people the chance to earn a sports-related scholarship. The valedictorians get something, but it's never as much as a sports scholarship. (In the school in which I last taught, the valedictorian and the salutatorian were always of Asian background, since those cultures still value content knowledge.

[TonyL]

Eric,

No, nobody here is "acting like U4 - U6 are some tragic secret hidden by a dishonest administration". You are too partisan that you see The Left in anything that you disagree with. All we're saying were U3 is incomplete, and U6 is the whole picture. If you can refute that then please state your case.

[J]

Who Spied on Julian Assange?

There are many possible suspects

by Philip Giraldi •

https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/who-spied-on-julian-assange/

[A.I.S.]

As a Kraut reserve guy. To be the nucleus for a European army we Krauts would have to drop our brave soldier Sweijk act which we maintain in front of the Americans (and to a lesser extent the Russians). As our politicians dont have the cojones to say no to the transatlanticists (well, a lot of them are tansatlanticists), the only way to prevent German troops from being voluntold to the hotter lines of contact with the Russians is to publically appear so inept that no serious request is made by the "transatlantic community".
One can say no to Uncle Sam, but saying no in the way of "we could do as you want, but it would be stupid and criminal, therefor we are not going to do it", carries costs while "we would love to follow your glorious and totally sane requests, but sadly our military is not as incredible as yours and as such we hope that valiant America will heroically carry the burden" works better and does not carry personal carreer trajectory costs for whoever says no.

Essentially, the (rather soft in historical terms, the US is a fairly benign overlord from a european perspective, certainly more benign then a lot of European overlords were) vasallisation of the EU by the USA had the hardly unexecpected result of degrading European military capabilities (rule 101: if a vasall has a competent military, he will probably be demanding independence soon). It is no surprise that the countries who are least "vasallized by the US" in Europe maintain the most capable militaries (these being Russia, Turkey and France as well as GB. While GB is quite subordinate to the USA, they believe that they are allies rather then vasalls which improves their willingness to invest resources).

From a strictly machieavellian perspective, why should Germany fund a large and capable standing army? Its utilization (for what German goal?) would be subject of the veto by the USA, and it could be utilized by the USA on issues that either dont matter to German interests or are actually against German interests, while Germany could in turn veto such utilizations, saying no to Uncle Sam carries a political/personal price. The "transatlantic community" never forgave Schröder for saying no to the Iraq invasion, even if the USA would have been massively better off listening to him on this issue, and even despite Schröder rock solid transatlanticist credentials (he was behind declaring article 5 over 9/11, and threatenened to resign if the greens did not agree to the German Afghanistan mission).

We Germans are surrounded by nations that we are treaty bound to not invade, and that are treaty bound to not invade us. Much of the migration threat we face is due to ill advised military operations. Much of the "Russian threat" we face is due to also ill advised military expansion.

[English Outsider]

A.I.S.

I am grateful for your insights into UK defence policy. You say -

"While GB is quite subordinate to the USA, they believe that they are allies rather then vasalls which improves their willingness to invest resources)."

1. In the earlier cold war period we "invested resources" in defence to the extent that it seriously unbalanced our economy. That was because the UK establishment was still hooked on "East of Suez" nonsense. We also invested greater resources in NATO by far than the continental European countries. That was because we were scared of the Soviet Union. There was also the desire of the establishment to hold on to the illusion that a small country on the edge of Europe was one of the "Big Three".

Whether it was foolish or not to invest resources in that way is here beside the point. The point is that we did not do so because the Americans were twisting our arms. In fact a glance at the history shows that the Americans were opposed to that first reason given above and indifferent to the third.

Also worth noting is that during the Falklands War, behind all the diplomatic nonsense and political posturing, the Americans were solidly there when it came to logistic and other support. That contrasts with the attitude of the continental Europeans. It's at such times that one finds out who one's real friends are.

Also worth noting - ich hoffe, ich langweile Sie nicht - that the NATO alliance is voluntary and flexible. The incorporation of the British armed forces into the as yet non-existent "European Army" that Mrs May was rushing through and that Mr Johnson may well continue with will be neither. Nor is it likely to serve as an effective defensive alliance.

2. In any case you are seriously in error when you characterise the UK as an American vassal state. Close we are, and a damned good thing too, but our country is not run from Washington.

At present it is increasingly run from Brussels. You may have noticed that many English seek to remedy this state of affairs. For the moment this attempt is hampered by politicians who are either singularly inept or quislings. That will not last for ever and then we shall be vassals to none.

[Keith Harbaugh]

So Michael Flynn instigated WaPo Afghanistan series! :

"How The Post unearthed The Afghanistan Papers"

The path to The Afghanistan Papers started with Michael Flynn.

In the summer of 2016, as the retired Army general became renowned for his fervent support of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, The Washington Post received a tip that Flynn had given a lengthy unpublished interview railing about the war in Afghanistan.
...

[A.I.S.]

I actually fully appreciate that London prefers Washington as a Boss to Brussels as a Boss. I would probably do the same if I was a British patriot. Being the second in the 5 eyes is a better deal then being well, 4/5th in a Brussel centrix EU.

I also think that we have different understandings of the word "vasall state". Fundamentally, a Vasall is someone who contributes troops in return for protection. Vasall oaths differed considerably throughout time and space. British vasalls iirc generally vowed on harsher terms (meaning they were in worse positions vis a vis their lieges) then German vasalls.
These things were considerably more complicated then people believe. While the HRE certainly had a clear hierarchy, in practice the emperor was more like a "Pater familias" in a mafia family. A strong emperor could enforce his will, but frequently powerfull sub family would ignore him or attempt to replace him.

In Holy Roman Empire times, all polities within that confederation where, legally speaking, vasall states of the Emperor. In practice, they allied with foreign powers against the emperor, waged war against the emperor (sometimes with the added twist that the Emperor could only legally use his own household troops against them, rather then the additional hosts we was theoretically entitled to marshall as King of the Germans) and even elected the emperor. If you get a time travelling HRE emperor, he would proably be astounded about how comparably pliant americas vasalls are compared to the vasalls he was dealing with.

We Krauts have a lot of experience with being vasalls, as before the end of the HRE, all of use were Habsburg vasalls. What we see in Nato fits quite comfortably into vasall/lord relations we are historically used to.

[English Outsider]

Well, when Blücher came to our aid at Waterloo I'm not sure he came along as a vassal. Merely a bloke coming along to lend a hand, in his interests as well as ours.

But I think I must be cautious here. I suspect irony in your comment and am therefore highly suspicious!

Also, the last time I remarked that Wellington won Waterloo with Blücher's help, a German relative broke in indignantly "What do you mean. Everyone knows that Blücher won Waterloo with Wellington's help."

We could perhaps agree that Blücher was not only indispensable, he was also heroic, battling on to get his troops up after he'd been knocked about so much. That's why so many pubs in England were named after him. We value friends like that.

[J]

Virginia Lawmakers Threaten 2nd Amendment Sanctuaries With National Guard

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/virginia-lawmakers-threaten-2nd-amendment-sanctuaries-national-guard

[A.I.S.]

Pardon, but as Waterloo the HRE has been desolved for about a decade already, even if it was not, Prussia would have been a Habsburg, not a British vasall. One can make a case that Bluchers Prussia was a Russian vasall at this time, given that it was the Russians who were calling the shots, but the Russians themselfs figured it was unplausible to have Prussia as a vasall to them, and wanted Prussian cooperation when it was time to divide Poland, for its excessive Francophilia, yet again.

Prussia was temporarily vasallized by France during the Napoleonic wars, and also kind of by Russia, during the Tauroggen convention, but it succcesfully rebelled from being a French vasall during the peoples battle of Leipzig and the Russians simply didnt think that maintaining their prerogatives was very realistic so they just dropped them.

The alliance against Napoleon was an alliance between changing members of different strengths. Some of these members were trying to vasallize other members (it is not as if Prussia/Austria missed a beat in trying to get more control over other German states), other members performed classic quadrouple backstabbings and got away with it (Bavaria sure had some balls in that regard) doubling their territory in the process.

The alliance also had 3 centers of power, London, Moscow and Vienna most of the time, so smaller members who felt uneasy about Londons or Moscows or Viennas dominance could appeal to the other 2 centers for support. Napoleons empire was emphathetically single pole and thus there were no internal checks and balances in it to balance Paris with something else. This increased the pull of Paris to reduce their "allies" autonomy and led to resentment by those allies. Napoleon after all had some willing allies, f.e. Denmark-Norway or Poland, and given the massive British perfidy against Denmark who could blame the Danes? The British essentially pearl harbored Kopenhagen without a declaration of war.

[English Outsider]

Yeah well, Copenhagen.  That was a grudge match.  We hadn't forgotten Lindisfarne.  And you can talk. Remind me about Schleswig-Holstein.

OK, lets get down to brass tacks.

Looks like Angie's going to pinch Scotland and has got her eye on a few other bits and pieces.  We might end up as  the only maritime country on the planet to have its EEZ owned by someone else.

Not complaining or anything, but could you let us have Hanover back?  Only fair.

[turcopolier]

J Ralph Northam is a spineless weakling but he knows that to seek use the Virginia National Guard against the citizens of Virginia for this purpose is to invites violence. In any event the president/commander in chief could call the guard into federal service thus eliminating the possibility.

[J]

For any politician to turn the broadsword of war (Military active, reserve, or guard) used as a weapon inward against the civilian citizenry, I find totally reprehensible.

[turcopolier]

J
I see that the Va NG has issued a statement proclaiming its loyalty to the constitution of the US and especially to the 2nd Amendment. Northam has wisely stated that none of his proposals includes trying to take guns away fom anyone. The governor commands the NG, not the legislature.

[J]

Colonel

Another Pentagon bureaucrat trying to play unelected POTUS

Ex-Pentagon Mideast Chief: Trump 'Capitulated' in Syria

https://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax/article/946991/16

[J]

Virginia setting stage to jail gun owners: NRA lobbyists

https://www.wnd.com/2019/12/virginia-setting-stage-jail-gun-owners-nra-lobbyists/

[J]

An End to the World as We Know It?
Congress and the White House compete in year-end stupidity sweepstakes

Philip Giraldi

https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/an-end-to-the-world-as-we-know-it/

[J]

Colonel,

Virginia legislators are wasting no time in shafting your state's citizens

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/democrats-seek-override-racist-single-family-zoning-virginia