By Laurence Vance
Defense officials claim that a Russian military jet
performed an unsafe intercept of a US Navy P-3 Orion surveillance plan.
The American pilots reported that the Russian jet came within five feet
of the US plane. The Russian jet’s action forced the US Navy aircraft
to end its mission prematurely.
The problem? Not Russian aggression. The US plane was flying over the
Black Sea. It seems as though only libertarians are asking this
important question: What the *$%@#*+! are US planes doing anywhere near
the Black Sea? What if Russian jets flew over the Gulf of Mexico? Would
not we think it was a provocative act?
The USG sure has a double standard.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Monday, January 29, 2018
Imperial Logic
In the "what's old is new again" from the history department we have this pearl today from Armstrong Economics:
The next step [from Modor on the Potomac] is to auction off the office of president to the highest bidder whoever promises the bureaucrats the most money for their pensions.Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
This reminds me of Marcus Didius Julianus who was a distinguished Senator of Rome. Emperor Commodus was assassinated and Pertinax became emperor and he, like Trump, was not liked by the bureaucrats so he was murdered by the Praetorian guards. After parading around with the head of Pertinax on a pole, the Praetorian Guards withdrew to the safety of their camp. There was no clear heir to the throne so the Guards stationed heralds on the wall to announce openly that the office of Emperor was up for sale to the highest bidder.This incident became the most scandalous affair in the history of political corruption. Can you imagine that the FBI auctions off secretly the office of the President? I am sure Lindsey Graham would be a major bidder.
There were two rival bidders who presented themselves – Titus Flavius Sulpicianus (father-in-law of Pertinax) and Marcus Didius Julianus. Didius’ bid was 25,000 sestertii per man, which was the high bid and he was duly declared Emperor.
Didius Julianus quickly found himself in serious trouble. The treasury had been depleted much more so than he had expected under Commodus. Didius began to reduce the weight of the coinage trying to stretch the reserves as far as possible. At the same time, he attempted to politically demonstrate stability by also issuing coins bearing the portraits of his wife Manlia Scantilla and daughter Didia Clara.
Julianus found himself deserted by the Praetorians and deposed by the Senate. He sought refuge in his deserted palace but was beheaded on June 2nd after a reign of only 66 days.
If Mueller and his FBI conspirators, cheered by Lindsey Graham, take down Trump, they better beware. There may be a bigger rebellion against them than they ever imagined if history has anything to say.
Friday, January 26, 2018
Through the Looking Glass
By Becky Akers
Do you know what a “vacuum device used to compress luggage” looks like? Neither do I. And for sure the losers at the TSA don’t, either.
So when nine “cast and crew members of an upcoming CNBC reality show called ‘Staten Island Hustle'” tried to take said device through one of the TSA’s anti-Constitutional checkpoints, the agency’s perverts threw their usual imbecilic and hysterical fit. Then “officials” whistled to their lapdogs in the media, who breathlessly reported—and I used the term loosely—the TSA’s lies without even the most rudimentary fact-checking:
No matter: the TSA ruined nine lives because its morons are too stupid to understand such simple concepts as gestures, let alone advanced technology. “Tom Carter, TSA’s federal security director for New Jersey,” huffed, “This type of stunt is reckless, dangerous, uninformed and totally insensitive to the reality of the terror threat we face…”
Yeah? I bet you absolutely despise the FBI, then, right, Tom?
But I interrupted His Huffiness’ ignorant ire. “There is simply no excuse for trying to do something like this knowing it had the great potential to cause panic with the intention of turning that panic into a reality show.” Tom, do yourself a favor and yank your head out of your butt.
Our Rulers charged these innocent travelers with “causing a false public alarm, interference with transportation and conspiracy. They face up to $13,000 in fines for each charge.” No wonder their production company abjectly apologized (“Unfortunately, there appears to have been a misunderstanding, and we regret any inconvenience to TSA and other authorities on the ground for complications that may have been caused …”), though none of its employees had done anything other than try to travel with innocuous equipment.
Meanwhile, if “causing a false public alarm” and “interference with transportation” are crimes, I eagerly, blissfully await the trial and endless incarceration of every piece of slime sponging off our taxes at the TSA.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Do you know what a “vacuum device used to compress luggage” looks like? Neither do I. And for sure the losers at the TSA don’t, either.
So when nine “cast and crew members of an upcoming CNBC reality show called ‘Staten Island Hustle'” tried to take said device through one of the TSA’s anti-Constitutional checkpoints, the agency’s perverts threw their usual imbecilic and hysterical fit. Then “officials” whistled to their lapdogs in the media, who breathlessly reported—and I used the term loosely—the TSA’s lies without even the most rudimentary fact-checking:
According to officials the TV crew tried to pass a fake bomb through airport security … Other members of the crew were secretly videotaping the encounter, according to the Transportation Security Administration.Except that “a motor, wires and PVC pipes” can add up to many things that aren’t even close to explosive, in this case a “vacuum device used to compress luggage.”
But TSA crews did notice what was in the luggage and nine members of the TV crew were arrested. …
The TSA says that the carry-on bag contained the makings for an improvised explosive device, including a motor, wires and PVC pipes.
No matter: the TSA ruined nine lives because its morons are too stupid to understand such simple concepts as gestures, let alone advanced technology. “Tom Carter, TSA’s federal security director for New Jersey,” huffed, “This type of stunt is reckless, dangerous, uninformed and totally insensitive to the reality of the terror threat we face…”
Yeah? I bet you absolutely despise the FBI, then, right, Tom?
But I interrupted His Huffiness’ ignorant ire. “There is simply no excuse for trying to do something like this knowing it had the great potential to cause panic with the intention of turning that panic into a reality show.” Tom, do yourself a favor and yank your head out of your butt.
Our Rulers charged these innocent travelers with “causing a false public alarm, interference with transportation and conspiracy. They face up to $13,000 in fines for each charge.” No wonder their production company abjectly apologized (“Unfortunately, there appears to have been a misunderstanding, and we regret any inconvenience to TSA and other authorities on the ground for complications that may have been caused …”), though none of its employees had done anything other than try to travel with innocuous equipment.
Meanwhile, if “causing a false public alarm” and “interference with transportation” are crimes, I eagerly, blissfully await the trial and endless incarceration of every piece of slime sponging off our taxes at the TSA.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Are You Aware?
By Thomas DiLorenzo
“The Gold Standard” was a category of questions on “Jeopardy” last night.
The questions involved knowing what “fiat” money is, how the gold standard stifles inflation, and FDR’s thieving confiscation of privately-owned gold in the 1930s. (Citizens had to give up almost all their gold to the government at about $21/ounce or face a $10,000 fine and ten years in prison. The government then sold the gold for $35/ounce for a tidy profit).
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
“The Gold Standard” was a category of questions on “Jeopardy” last night.
The questions involved knowing what “fiat” money is, how the gold standard stifles inflation, and FDR’s thieving confiscation of privately-owned gold in the 1930s. (Citizens had to give up almost all their gold to the government at about $21/ounce or face a $10,000 fine and ten years in prison. The government then sold the gold for $35/ounce for a tidy profit).
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Central Bankers; Creating War?
By Charles Burris
Soon after the Great War began in August of 1914, the firm of J. P. Morgan & Company was named as fiscal agent for Great Britain and France. Those politicians, journalists, industrialists, and financial elites within the Morgan ambit began a concentrated drive for US intervention into the conflict being waged in Europe. This was seen as essential in order to protect the intimate relationship Morgan partner Henry P. Davidson had forged. In 1910 Davidson was a key participant for Morgan in the secretive meeting on Jekyll Island, Georgia that led to the creation of the Federal Reserve. In its early years the Fed was dominated by a coterie of Wall Street investment firms, led by the House of Morgan. President Woodrow Wilson, after winning re-election in 1916, soon went to Congress asking for a formal Declaration of War on April 6, 1917. On May 3, 1917, the Federal Reserve signed its first reciprocal account agreement with a foreign central bank, the Bank of England, soon followed by the Bank of France.
For decades critics of the Fed have authoritatively spoken out how this cancerous institution in the body politic has enabled war, the destruction of the Republic, and the creation of the warfare-welfare state. Here is a Confession of Faith from Simon Potter, Executive Vice President of the New York Fed, to his global confederates of crime and plunder in detailing these enabling events. Also discussed is the beginning of the sinister relationship between Governor Benjamin Strong of the New York Fed and the Bank of England’s Montagu Norman which played a central role in Murray N. Rothbard’s brilliant account of America’s Great Depression.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Soon after the Great War began in August of 1914, the firm of J. P. Morgan & Company was named as fiscal agent for Great Britain and France. Those politicians, journalists, industrialists, and financial elites within the Morgan ambit began a concentrated drive for US intervention into the conflict being waged in Europe. This was seen as essential in order to protect the intimate relationship Morgan partner Henry P. Davidson had forged. In 1910 Davidson was a key participant for Morgan in the secretive meeting on Jekyll Island, Georgia that led to the creation of the Federal Reserve. In its early years the Fed was dominated by a coterie of Wall Street investment firms, led by the House of Morgan. President Woodrow Wilson, after winning re-election in 1916, soon went to Congress asking for a formal Declaration of War on April 6, 1917. On May 3, 1917, the Federal Reserve signed its first reciprocal account agreement with a foreign central bank, the Bank of England, soon followed by the Bank of France.
For decades critics of the Fed have authoritatively spoken out how this cancerous institution in the body politic has enabled war, the destruction of the Republic, and the creation of the warfare-welfare state. Here is a Confession of Faith from Simon Potter, Executive Vice President of the New York Fed, to his global confederates of crime and plunder in detailing these enabling events. Also discussed is the beginning of the sinister relationship between Governor Benjamin Strong of the New York Fed and the Bank of England’s Montagu Norman which played a central role in Murray N. Rothbard’s brilliant account of America’s Great Depression.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Saturday, January 20, 2018
"The Time Has Come" The Walrus Said...
“All hell is breaking loose in Washington D.C. tonight after a four-page memo detailing extensive FISA court abuse was made available to the entire House of Representatives Thursday. The contents of the memo are so explosive, says Journalist Sara Carter, that it could lead to the removal of senior officials in the FBI and the Department of Justice and the end of Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation.”
The scandal may have to be renamed because it’s really not about Russia. It has two or three facets. It’s about people in government using the powers of government illegally to let Hillary off the hook. Then it’s about sabotaging the Trump campaign through Russia-related charges. This leads into the dossier, the FISA aspect, spying on the Trump campaign and the entire “soft coup”. The current 4-page memo that we have yet to see but which is causing a big stir should open the box to much more.
After this memo is made public, which won’t take long, this will catalyze even further investigation and revelations that will show who colluded and acted with malice aforethought to influence the upcoming 2016 election through illegal use of government offices and powers. This will take in figures in the Obama administration that go right up to Obama himself, the Democratic campaign, both Clintons, the FBI and the Department of Justice. It will reveal those intelligence officials and those in Congress from both parties who participated in subsidiary ways as by transmitting the Steele dossier.
There have been quite a few revelations already in the past month or two, like the role and firing of Peter Strzok, a senior FBI agent, and the role of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. The soft-pedaling of the Hillary Clinton e-mail case is part of this multi-faceted scandal.
The Mueller investigation is part of this scandal. It is implicated too and presents a third facet of the case. It’s corrupt, illegal, biased and dangerous in its power as I’ve suggested before (here and here). It belongs more to the Stalin era than to a country that has a Fourth Amendment to its Constitution.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Social "Justice" Warrior's Well Deserved Rebuke
By Thomas Lifson
Senator Rand Paul will receive some degree of justice for the enduringly painful six broken ribs and other injuries he suffered from an unprovoked attack by his neighbor, Rene Boucher, in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Outrageously, local authorities had charged Boucher with only a misdemeanor, third-degree assault, to which he had pleaded not guilty. Federal prosecutors stepped into the unjust breach by announcing yesterday:
Future inmate Rene A. Boucher.
Media reports, such as this from the New York Times, indicate that Boucher has pleaded guilty in an agreement that will result in a shorter federal prison sentence than he otherwise might have faced if found guilty:
As AT readers well know, there has been an alarming rise in violent language directed at Republicans, encouraging the less stable among progressive haters to physically attack conservatives. Rep. Steve Scalise suffered near fatal injuries, and but for heroic Capitol Police guards, there might have been a mass assassination of House Republicans gathered for a baseball game. I am not certain that 21 months in federal prison (note that paroles are rare and do not come early in sentences in the federal correctional system) is adequate punishment to discourage other progressive haters from acting out their political passions violently.
Federal prosecutors must have come up with evidence that Boucher's attack was politically motivated, which justifies charging him. I am sorry only that it will not be exposed at trial.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Senator Rand Paul will receive some degree of justice for the enduringly painful six broken ribs and other injuries he suffered from an unprovoked attack by his neighbor, Rene Boucher, in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Outrageously, local authorities had charged Boucher with only a misdemeanor, third-degree assault, to which he had pleaded not guilty. Federal prosecutors stepped into the unjust breach by announcing yesterday:
... that Rene A. Boucher, 58, Bowling Green, Kentucky, has been charged with assaulting a member of [C]ongress resulting in personal injury, a felony under federal law.
"Assaulting a member of Congress is an offense we take very seriously," said [US Attorney Josh J.] Minkler. "Those who choose to commit such an act will be held accountable."
Media reports, such as this from the New York Times, indicate that Boucher has pleaded guilty in an agreement that will result in a shorter federal prison sentence than he otherwise might have faced if found guilty:
Mr. Boucher has signed a plea agreement and will plead guilty, but no date has been set for his court appearance, his lawyer, Matthew J. Baker, said in a phone interview. Federal prosecutors will seek a prison sentence of up to 21 months, Mr. Baker said, adding that he would seek probation for his client. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.There is no word yet on a fine, which could amount to $25,000. Boucher reportedly is "retired" at age 58 and already faces the costs of his legal defense.
As AT readers well know, there has been an alarming rise in violent language directed at Republicans, encouraging the less stable among progressive haters to physically attack conservatives. Rep. Steve Scalise suffered near fatal injuries, and but for heroic Capitol Police guards, there might have been a mass assassination of House Republicans gathered for a baseball game. I am not certain that 21 months in federal prison (note that paroles are rare and do not come early in sentences in the federal correctional system) is adequate punishment to discourage other progressive haters from acting out their political passions violently.
Federal prosecutors must have come up with evidence that Boucher's attack was politically motivated, which justifies charging him. I am sorry only that it will not be exposed at trial.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Another Noncrime
By Lawrence Vance
According to a new report issued by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, “Police arrest more people for marijuana use than for all violent crimes — combined.” On any given day in the United States, “at least 137,000 people sit behind bars on simple drug-possession charges.” This in spite of the fact that medical marijuana is legal in 29 states, recreational marijuana is legal in 8 states, and the possession of small amounts of marijuana has been decriminalized in 21 states. As I recently stated: “No one should ever be arrested, fined, or imprisoned for possessing a plant the government doesn’t approve of. Not in the land of the free.” Want to eliminate half of the cops in the United States? End the war on drugs. It is, after all, a war on freedom.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
According to a new report issued by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, “Police arrest more people for marijuana use than for all violent crimes — combined.” On any given day in the United States, “at least 137,000 people sit behind bars on simple drug-possession charges.” This in spite of the fact that medical marijuana is legal in 29 states, recreational marijuana is legal in 8 states, and the possession of small amounts of marijuana has been decriminalized in 21 states. As I recently stated: “No one should ever be arrested, fined, or imprisoned for possessing a plant the government doesn’t approve of. Not in the land of the free.” Want to eliminate half of the cops in the United States? End the war on drugs. It is, after all, a war on freedom.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
The Latest and Ongoing Inquisition
By Michael Rozeff
While not up to Stalin’s purges and show trials, it’s getting there in terms of being a total miscarriage of justice. It’s senseless for the Mueller gang to be calling in and interviewing everyone in the Trump gang that had anything to do with the campaign. What possible sense can be made out of all sorts of conversations attended by all sorts of people, who all are afraid now, who all could be hung out to dry now for trivial misstatements and who all have varied recollections of events? What sense can be made out of young and ambitious campaign workers falling all over themselves to look good and get close to the center of power in Trump? Many were and are clowns. On this the book “Fire and Fury” provides accurate insight.
The whole Russian collusion scenario has been a farce engineered by Trump opponents from day one. It has zero credibility. It’s all a politically-motivated witchhunt in the tradition of the worst dictatorial governments. It’s a charade parading around under the cover of a legitimate government process, which it is not. Sessions should have scotched this thing long, long ago; but he was looking out for his own skin. Comey and his FBI fellow gang members should be the ones under investigation as should Hillary Clinton. The whole affair illustrates just how bad the justice system is in this country. The Bundy affair is not an outlier.
As for money laundering through financing, I won’t believe anything that Mueller and his cronies come up with. The world is awash in banks, hedge funds, offshore accounts, investment managers and a myriad of ways to transfer money. Money itself is replaceable by its own type indefinitely through multiple holders, that is, it is fungible. A company cannot control the composition of all its ultimate lenders because funds can pass through so many hands. If Mueller attempts to prove money laundering of criminally-obtained gains or through entities that have been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury, I won’t believe a word of it. That means I’m extremely skeptical.
What I do believe is that Trump ran a loose ship or ran no ship at all, and if that’s the way he runs his business empire, it being a family concern, almost anything is possible that can look bad.
I’m uninterested in defending Trump or any of his cohort in political terms, but no matter how reputable or disreputable, smart or stupid, tight-lipped or loose-mouthed, kempt or unkempt, any of them are, I do not think it’s at all right for Mueller to have the power to delve into every nook and cranny of their lives, conversations and activities in order to concoct or discover “crimes” that are really not crimes. The zeal of the Mueller gang reminds me too much of Robespierre’s prosecutor, Antoine-Quentin Fouquier-Tinville. “His zeal in prosecution earned him the nickname Purveyor to the Guillotine. His activity during this time earned him the reputation of one of the most sinister figures of the Revolution.”
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
While not up to Stalin’s purges and show trials, it’s getting there in terms of being a total miscarriage of justice. It’s senseless for the Mueller gang to be calling in and interviewing everyone in the Trump gang that had anything to do with the campaign. What possible sense can be made out of all sorts of conversations attended by all sorts of people, who all are afraid now, who all could be hung out to dry now for trivial misstatements and who all have varied recollections of events? What sense can be made out of young and ambitious campaign workers falling all over themselves to look good and get close to the center of power in Trump? Many were and are clowns. On this the book “Fire and Fury” provides accurate insight.
The whole Russian collusion scenario has been a farce engineered by Trump opponents from day one. It has zero credibility. It’s all a politically-motivated witchhunt in the tradition of the worst dictatorial governments. It’s a charade parading around under the cover of a legitimate government process, which it is not. Sessions should have scotched this thing long, long ago; but he was looking out for his own skin. Comey and his FBI fellow gang members should be the ones under investigation as should Hillary Clinton. The whole affair illustrates just how bad the justice system is in this country. The Bundy affair is not an outlier.
As for money laundering through financing, I won’t believe anything that Mueller and his cronies come up with. The world is awash in banks, hedge funds, offshore accounts, investment managers and a myriad of ways to transfer money. Money itself is replaceable by its own type indefinitely through multiple holders, that is, it is fungible. A company cannot control the composition of all its ultimate lenders because funds can pass through so many hands. If Mueller attempts to prove money laundering of criminally-obtained gains or through entities that have been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury, I won’t believe a word of it. That means I’m extremely skeptical.
What I do believe is that Trump ran a loose ship or ran no ship at all, and if that’s the way he runs his business empire, it being a family concern, almost anything is possible that can look bad.
I’m uninterested in defending Trump or any of his cohort in political terms, but no matter how reputable or disreputable, smart or stupid, tight-lipped or loose-mouthed, kempt or unkempt, any of them are, I do not think it’s at all right for Mueller to have the power to delve into every nook and cranny of their lives, conversations and activities in order to concoct or discover “crimes” that are really not crimes. The zeal of the Mueller gang reminds me too much of Robespierre’s prosecutor, Antoine-Quentin Fouquier-Tinville. “His zeal in prosecution earned him the nickname Purveyor to the Guillotine. His activity during this time earned him the reputation of one of the most sinister figures of the Revolution.”
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
The (shitsorm?) Continues
By Michael Rozeff
People at the meeting have conflicting recollections. So far, Graham and Durbin say he said it. Cotton and Purdue say he didn’t say it. Nielsen said he didn’t use “that exact phrase”. Three other attendees have said nothing.
Is it possible to hear something vulgar that someone else didn’t say? Yes, it is, definitely. I assert this from personal experience.
I once had a one-on-one meeting with a dean who was against me because I disagreed with his program. People in business specialties like finance, marketing, and accounting were in demand. Their salaries had risen relative to economists. The dean, an economist, wanted to hire economists in these specialties. I thought then and still think that economists didn’t know these fields and would propound useless theories. I didn’t think you could build a business school with economists.
Some time after this meeting, a few months, at some occasion in which I again talked with this fellow, he angrily recollected that I had sworn at him using a 4-letter word that begins with the letter “f”. This definitely did not happen. He told me that this happened when I pointed my finger at him. I had used my forefinger or index finger in natural body language to make a point. He was so mad at any sign of independence that he translated this into a memory of a vulgar epithet hurled at him. That thought never even crossed my mind.
When it comes to eyewitness or ear-witness recollections of meetings, in which issues are at stake and emotional reactions run high, it is quite possible that people will remember things being said that were never said.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
People at the meeting have conflicting recollections. So far, Graham and Durbin say he said it. Cotton and Purdue say he didn’t say it. Nielsen said he didn’t use “that exact phrase”. Three other attendees have said nothing.
Is it possible to hear something vulgar that someone else didn’t say? Yes, it is, definitely. I assert this from personal experience.
I once had a one-on-one meeting with a dean who was against me because I disagreed with his program. People in business specialties like finance, marketing, and accounting were in demand. Their salaries had risen relative to economists. The dean, an economist, wanted to hire economists in these specialties. I thought then and still think that economists didn’t know these fields and would propound useless theories. I didn’t think you could build a business school with economists.
Some time after this meeting, a few months, at some occasion in which I again talked with this fellow, he angrily recollected that I had sworn at him using a 4-letter word that begins with the letter “f”. This definitely did not happen. He told me that this happened when I pointed my finger at him. I had used my forefinger or index finger in natural body language to make a point. He was so mad at any sign of independence that he translated this into a memory of a vulgar epithet hurled at him. That thought never even crossed my mind.
When it comes to eyewitness or ear-witness recollections of meetings, in which issues are at stake and emotional reactions run high, it is quite possible that people will remember things being said that were never said.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Facts, Haiti, Favelas and Property Rights
On this subject your humble blogster can claim eye witness knowledge. During 1980 and 1981 I had occasion to visit Haiti and I can state with all honesty that the living conditions of its citizens were the worst of any society I have observed; even surpassing Nicaragua which was very bad.
On one occasion I saw a complete village of ramshackle huts on low ground after a recent brief rainstorm which was several inches deep in water. People were living in these huts which had inundated dirt/mud floors. Floating in this water was raw sewage as well as parts of dead animals. In other words, this inhabited area would literally qualify as a "shit hole." I also observed women casually defecating in the walkway adjacent to an open air public "market."
On one occasion I saw a complete village of ramshackle huts on low ground after a recent brief rainstorm which was several inches deep in water. People were living in these huts which had inundated dirt/mud floors. Floating in this water was raw sewage as well as parts of dead animals. In other words, this inhabited area would literally qualify as a "shit hole." I also observed women casually defecating in the walkway adjacent to an open air public "market."
By Michael Rozeff
A lot of people live in slums called favelas, places where you and I certainly do not want to live. Search Google to find photos. Haiti is one such place.
On a scale of 0 to 100, poorest to best scores, Haiti has a property rights score of 13, the lowest even of its peers. Cuba is 32 and Jamaica is 58. America is 81. We used to be 90 before 2009. In 2010 it fell to 85 and in 2014, to 80.
Haiti’s property rights problem is also a government problem, a legal problem, a political problem and an enforcement problem. It’s a problem that has resisted improvement for a long, long time. The cited article indicates specific legal problems.
The name-calling surrounding Trump’s remarks obscures the lesson that everyone needs to be taught, respect and know, which is that secure private property rights are essential for people to make something of their lives. Without security for the ownership of what one builds or produces, one loses the incentive to own and to produce in the first place. If property can be stolen, taxed or regulated away at the unstable whim of others or government, or if property cannot be clearly obtained and defended, what incentive is there to attain it in the first place?
Property rights have to be separated from racism. We in America cannot sustain strong property rights if we override them with government powers that supposedly are aiming to create progress against discrimination. Rental discrimination is not per se or automatically racism unless the force of law stands behind such discrimination; and that has happened in our country’s history. Private discrimination should not be outlawed at the price of eroding or destroying private property rights. That accomplishes nothing. Individuals or a whole society do not become more tolerant by passing a law outlawing intolerance.
It’s novel for a president’s opinions to be expressed bluntly and revealed so quickly. It’s not novel any longer for this president to be accused on one ground after another. In this case, the accusation is racism. Well before the current incident, the case was being made that Trump is racist, such as this article in Fortune. Most of this particular article dwells on Trump’s resistance to laws that infringed on the property rights of landlords. Anyone who opposes provisions of the U.S. Code that supposedly uphold civil rights and end discrimination, while simultaneously undermining property rights, can be and many have been accused of racism. How ironic it is that Trump attempted 50 years ago to defend his property rights, not a racist position, and now he is accused of being racist for a remark made about countries that have terrible property rights, such that they produce a large stream of people seeking to escape to other countries that have more secure property rights.
The storm of remarks critical of Trump’s comment may include people of sincere belief as well as people who are politically motivated. It doesn’t much matter. The point is the confusion of racism with the defense of property rights. The point is that terrible property rights are one major cause of favelas in many parts of the world. If America decimated its property rights, we’d have the same result here.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
It just so happens that most of the world is not white, something like 70 percent. It also happens that property rights vary across the world, and a variety of legal and government enforcement systems prevail. Identifying a place as having poor property rights is likely simultaneously to pick out a place that has a nonwhite population or some other ethnic or religious character. This is because much of the world is nonwhite, much of the world doesn’t have legal and governing systems that result in secure property rights, and crucially because societies with governments tend to be somewhat homogeneous along some such lines as race, ethnicity, language, legal code and religion. The cause of poor government and property rights is not skin color, which is a superficial trait. What then are the causes of poor property rights? Or the opposite: What are the reasons why some countries enjoy superior property rights?
Friday, January 12, 2018
Just Askin'
Can anyone explain to me why we must import thousands of these
and these
and must consider these our enemies?
and these
and must consider these our enemies?
A Kangaroo Court Failure (FINALLY!!)
By Roger I. Roots, J.D., Ph.D.
In 2013 the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) obtained federal court orders authorizing the agency to “seize and remove to impound” hundreds of Cliven Bundy’s cattle on the public ranges around Bunkerville, Nevada. The agency interpreted these court orders broadly, and descended on the area in April 2014 with some 200 body-armor-wearing agents, semiautomatic weapons, sniper teams, undercover informants, and surveillance cameras aimed at the Bundy residence.
The BLM brought more than corralls and horse trailers. They brought backhoes, dumptrucks and earth-moving equipment to tear up water lines and other infrastructure that had been built by Bundy and his ancestors over decades. Defying county officials, the federal officers chose calving season—the very time when cows and newborn calves are most physically weak and vulnerable—to execute the court orders. They orchestrated a paramilitarized roundup operation using helicopters to terrify the cattle into stampeding to the point of exhaustion in extreme heat. At least 40 cows either died from the ordeal or were shot by BLM employees and contractors.
The Feds even used the impoundment order to establish “First Amendment Zones” limiting freedom of speech in a 600,000-acre area to two small isolated parcels in the desert. It was almost certainly the largest infringement of First Amendment rights (by area) in American history.
When Bundy’s son Dave stopped on a state highway to photograph BLM snipers on local hillsides, BLM agents threw him down, ground his face into asphalt and falsely arrested him. And when other family members stopped a BLM dump truck to inquire if the truck was carrying dead cows, BLM agents erupted in a flurry of violence.
In response, hundreds of citizens journeyed from all over the country to protest the BLM operation. A few were armed. Political officials from across the west denounced the BLM’s heavy-handedness. As a direct result of the national outcry, the BLM halted their cattle impoundment. And on April 12, 2014, the BLM agents withdrew from the area—seemingly at the direction of the U.S. Attorneys office. It was apparently the plan of the Justice Department to entrap the Bundys into a criminal case by constructing a narrative that Bundy supporters “extorted” the cattle from the BLM by threats and “assaults” on federal officers. (The corralled cattle would have died had not Bundy family members released them back onto the range.)
Federal prosecutors spent tens of millions to build an elaborate criminal case designed to imprison Bundy and his sons and supporters for life. For two years, more than a thousand FBI agents combed through Facebook comments, posed as supporters or journalists, or surfed the internet to concoct a case against the Bundys.
Meanwhile Bundy’s sons Ammon and Ryan became active in protests against the government’s mistreatment of the Hammond family in eastern Oregon. In January 2016 protesters occupied Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in a month-long demonstration.
Again the FBI spent millions in a show of force against the “domestic terrorists.” The entire town of Burns, Oregon—30 miles from the Refuge occupation—was fortified with razor wire, chain-link fences and concrete barriers. Military hardware rolled through the streets and buzzed overhead. Undercover informants dressed as rednecks in pickups harassed the populace. At a January 26, 2016 roadblock ambush, FBI and Oregon State Police opened fire on Ryan Bundy and shot 54-year-old LaVoy Finicum in the back as he stood surrounded in a roadside snowbank.
Leftist or socialist demonstrators would likely have been charged with misdemeanors over the Refuge occupation; but government officials viewed the 2014 “armed takeover” as an affront to all that government stands for. Federal prosecutors alleged that the protesters had launched a conspiracy to impede federal officials from performing their jobs.
THE MOST ELABORATE PROSECUTIONS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
In their zeal to destroy the Bundy “movement,” teams of federal prosecutors launched the most elaborate federal criminal cases in American history. Ammon and Ryan Bundy, militia spokesman Ryan Payne, and others were flown back-and-forth between Oregon and Nevada to face hearings in two, simultaneous criminal cases. Jurors in both jurisdictions were bussed (supposedly for their safety) from secret locations every day. In Nevada, not one but two helicopters followed overhead while defendants were transported between prison and court daily. In all, the federal government has likely spent a quarter of a billion dollars reacting to, imprisoning, and prosecuting the Bundys and their fellow protesters.
In October 2016, jurors in Portland acquitted the Oregon defendants in the “trial of the century.” U.S. marshals tackled and tased Ammon Bundy’s attorney in the courtroom. Ammon and Ryan Bundy were denied release and transported to a Nevada prison to face the Nevada indictment along with Cliven, brothers Dave and Mel and a dozen others (while a half-dozen others awaited a second trial in Oregon).
The Oregon ‘not-guilty’ verdicts gave hope to two-dozen other defendants, who mostly stuck to their guns (no pun intended) and refused to plead guilty or negotiate with prosecutors. Courts were forced to split the Oregon case into 2 trial groups and the Nevada case into 3 trial groups. The first Nevada trial (of “gunmen”), commenced in February 2017 with Eric Parker, Scott Drexler, Greg Burleson, Steve Stewart, Todd Engel and Rick Lovelien facing multiple serious charges. Jurors couldn’t agree on most counts but convicted Engel and Burleson (mostly based on Facebook comments) of some accusations. Burleson was sentenced to 68 years in prison.
Then came one of the most disgraceful “trials” in U.S. history. Parker, Drexler, Stewart and Lovelien were retried in Las Vegas in August 2017. The prosecution exploited every possible advantage, winning rulings from the judge which barred the defendants from even mentioning most of their possible defenses. (They couldn’t even say that the BLM was overbearing or heavily-armed, or even that there were government snipers above them.) Jurors were treated to a one-sided display of 2014 photos showing the men with guns while overlooking BLM officers from a bridge on Interstate 15. BLM witnesses—either exaggerating or lying—cried in the courtroom while claiming they saw the defendants pointing rifles at them. (Not a single photo or video corroborates this—and there were hundreds of cameras recording almost everything at the time; there were even Nevada trooper dashcams capturing 80 percent of the movements of the defendants during the period.)
The judge even ordered Eric Parker off the witness stand for saying he looked “up and to the right” during the 2014 “standoff.” Prosecutors strenuously objected (in a sidebar hearing) that such a statement might tell jurors that there were BLM snipers on a mesa above; and thus Parker was unable to rebut the government’s claim that he aimed his rifle down-and-to-the-left at a crying BLM agent (who was photographed very-much-not-crying at the time).
Defense lawyers were so stifled by the judge’s orders that they opted not to even make closing arguments—a gutsy move almost without precedent. It was like a cry for help to the jury. And the jury heard it loud and clear. On August 22, 2017, the jury fully acquitted Stewart and Lovelien, and acquitted Parker and Drexler of most counts. (They hung on a small number of charges for the two men.)
The not-guilty verdicts sent shockwaves throughout the Judiciary and the Justice Department. Here, in the biggest case in the country, with the prosecution spending untold millions of dollars and the judge imposing rules of evidence which almost choked the defense from speaking, the Justice Department was unable to get convictions.
When the “big trial” (involving Cliven, Ryan, Ammon, and Ryan Payne) began in October 2017, defense attorneys demanded to see evidence that had been withheld by the prosecution. There were pictures (but no explanations) of immense piles of shredded documents left by the BLM at the scene in 2014. And Ryan Bundy remembered surveillance cameras pointed at the Bundy house in 2014 yet Bundy had never been provided with the footage.
Prosecutors insisted they possessed no such evidence. Even if there was a surveillance camera here or there it hadn’t recorded anything. But such questions seemed to produce more startling disclosures. Ultimately it was revealed that there had been an elaborate FBI surveillance operation which had been concealed from the defense. And it seemed that prosecutors had been coaching witnesses to change their reports to censor out inconvenient facts.
By the third week of trial in November, Chief Judge Gloria Navarro—the very judge who had given prosecutors everything they wished for in the previous two trials—was visibly weary of the DOJ’s barbarous tactics. A mistrial was declared just prior to Christmas, and all defendants except Cliven were released on conditions while lawyers argued over whether the case warranted another trial. And on Monday, January 8, 2018, in a packed courtroom in Las Vegas, the Judge granted Ryan Payne’s motion to dismiss. A “universal sense of justice has been violated,” proclaimed Navarro. The judge said further that she was unaware of a more egregious case of FBI misconduct.
It should be noted that there are currently a half-dozen additional pending motions to dismiss, citing even graver prosecutorial misconduct. It has recently come to light that lead prosecutor Steven Myhre was approached during the first Nevada trial by a government case investigator who informed the prosecutor that he was breaking the law by withholding evidence from the defense. Myhre’s response, according to some reports, was to fire the agent and order him to keep quiet. Even as Cliven Bundy was released from jail after serving 700 days, the case continues for others. Stay tuned!
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
In 2013 the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) obtained federal court orders authorizing the agency to “seize and remove to impound” hundreds of Cliven Bundy’s cattle on the public ranges around Bunkerville, Nevada. The agency interpreted these court orders broadly, and descended on the area in April 2014 with some 200 body-armor-wearing agents, semiautomatic weapons, sniper teams, undercover informants, and surveillance cameras aimed at the Bundy residence.
The BLM brought more than corralls and horse trailers. They brought backhoes, dumptrucks and earth-moving equipment to tear up water lines and other infrastructure that had been built by Bundy and his ancestors over decades. Defying county officials, the federal officers chose calving season—the very time when cows and newborn calves are most physically weak and vulnerable—to execute the court orders. They orchestrated a paramilitarized roundup operation using helicopters to terrify the cattle into stampeding to the point of exhaustion in extreme heat. At least 40 cows either died from the ordeal or were shot by BLM employees and contractors.
The Feds even used the impoundment order to establish “First Amendment Zones” limiting freedom of speech in a 600,000-acre area to two small isolated parcels in the desert. It was almost certainly the largest infringement of First Amendment rights (by area) in American history.
When Bundy’s son Dave stopped on a state highway to photograph BLM snipers on local hillsides, BLM agents threw him down, ground his face into asphalt and falsely arrested him. And when other family members stopped a BLM dump truck to inquire if the truck was carrying dead cows, BLM agents erupted in a flurry of violence.
In response, hundreds of citizens journeyed from all over the country to protest the BLM operation. A few were armed. Political officials from across the west denounced the BLM’s heavy-handedness. As a direct result of the national outcry, the BLM halted their cattle impoundment. And on April 12, 2014, the BLM agents withdrew from the area—seemingly at the direction of the U.S. Attorneys office. It was apparently the plan of the Justice Department to entrap the Bundys into a criminal case by constructing a narrative that Bundy supporters “extorted” the cattle from the BLM by threats and “assaults” on federal officers. (The corralled cattle would have died had not Bundy family members released them back onto the range.)
Federal prosecutors spent tens of millions to build an elaborate criminal case designed to imprison Bundy and his sons and supporters for life. For two years, more than a thousand FBI agents combed through Facebook comments, posed as supporters or journalists, or surfed the internet to concoct a case against the Bundys.
Meanwhile Bundy’s sons Ammon and Ryan became active in protests against the government’s mistreatment of the Hammond family in eastern Oregon. In January 2016 protesters occupied Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in a month-long demonstration.
Again the FBI spent millions in a show of force against the “domestic terrorists.” The entire town of Burns, Oregon—30 miles from the Refuge occupation—was fortified with razor wire, chain-link fences and concrete barriers. Military hardware rolled through the streets and buzzed overhead. Undercover informants dressed as rednecks in pickups harassed the populace. At a January 26, 2016 roadblock ambush, FBI and Oregon State Police opened fire on Ryan Bundy and shot 54-year-old LaVoy Finicum in the back as he stood surrounded in a roadside snowbank.
Leftist or socialist demonstrators would likely have been charged with misdemeanors over the Refuge occupation; but government officials viewed the 2014 “armed takeover” as an affront to all that government stands for. Federal prosecutors alleged that the protesters had launched a conspiracy to impede federal officials from performing their jobs.
THE MOST ELABORATE PROSECUTIONS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
In their zeal to destroy the Bundy “movement,” teams of federal prosecutors launched the most elaborate federal criminal cases in American history. Ammon and Ryan Bundy, militia spokesman Ryan Payne, and others were flown back-and-forth between Oregon and Nevada to face hearings in two, simultaneous criminal cases. Jurors in both jurisdictions were bussed (supposedly for their safety) from secret locations every day. In Nevada, not one but two helicopters followed overhead while defendants were transported between prison and court daily. In all, the federal government has likely spent a quarter of a billion dollars reacting to, imprisoning, and prosecuting the Bundys and their fellow protesters.
In October 2016, jurors in Portland acquitted the Oregon defendants in the “trial of the century.” U.S. marshals tackled and tased Ammon Bundy’s attorney in the courtroom. Ammon and Ryan Bundy were denied release and transported to a Nevada prison to face the Nevada indictment along with Cliven, brothers Dave and Mel and a dozen others (while a half-dozen others awaited a second trial in Oregon).
The Oregon ‘not-guilty’ verdicts gave hope to two-dozen other defendants, who mostly stuck to their guns (no pun intended) and refused to plead guilty or negotiate with prosecutors. Courts were forced to split the Oregon case into 2 trial groups and the Nevada case into 3 trial groups. The first Nevada trial (of “gunmen”), commenced in February 2017 with Eric Parker, Scott Drexler, Greg Burleson, Steve Stewart, Todd Engel and Rick Lovelien facing multiple serious charges. Jurors couldn’t agree on most counts but convicted Engel and Burleson (mostly based on Facebook comments) of some accusations. Burleson was sentenced to 68 years in prison.
Then came one of the most disgraceful “trials” in U.S. history. Parker, Drexler, Stewart and Lovelien were retried in Las Vegas in August 2017. The prosecution exploited every possible advantage, winning rulings from the judge which barred the defendants from even mentioning most of their possible defenses. (They couldn’t even say that the BLM was overbearing or heavily-armed, or even that there were government snipers above them.) Jurors were treated to a one-sided display of 2014 photos showing the men with guns while overlooking BLM officers from a bridge on Interstate 15. BLM witnesses—either exaggerating or lying—cried in the courtroom while claiming they saw the defendants pointing rifles at them. (Not a single photo or video corroborates this—and there were hundreds of cameras recording almost everything at the time; there were even Nevada trooper dashcams capturing 80 percent of the movements of the defendants during the period.)
The judge even ordered Eric Parker off the witness stand for saying he looked “up and to the right” during the 2014 “standoff.” Prosecutors strenuously objected (in a sidebar hearing) that such a statement might tell jurors that there were BLM snipers on a mesa above; and thus Parker was unable to rebut the government’s claim that he aimed his rifle down-and-to-the-left at a crying BLM agent (who was photographed very-much-not-crying at the time).
Defense lawyers were so stifled by the judge’s orders that they opted not to even make closing arguments—a gutsy move almost without precedent. It was like a cry for help to the jury. And the jury heard it loud and clear. On August 22, 2017, the jury fully acquitted Stewart and Lovelien, and acquitted Parker and Drexler of most counts. (They hung on a small number of charges for the two men.)
The not-guilty verdicts sent shockwaves throughout the Judiciary and the Justice Department. Here, in the biggest case in the country, with the prosecution spending untold millions of dollars and the judge imposing rules of evidence which almost choked the defense from speaking, the Justice Department was unable to get convictions.
When the “big trial” (involving Cliven, Ryan, Ammon, and Ryan Payne) began in October 2017, defense attorneys demanded to see evidence that had been withheld by the prosecution. There were pictures (but no explanations) of immense piles of shredded documents left by the BLM at the scene in 2014. And Ryan Bundy remembered surveillance cameras pointed at the Bundy house in 2014 yet Bundy had never been provided with the footage.
Prosecutors insisted they possessed no such evidence. Even if there was a surveillance camera here or there it hadn’t recorded anything. But such questions seemed to produce more startling disclosures. Ultimately it was revealed that there had been an elaborate FBI surveillance operation which had been concealed from the defense. And it seemed that prosecutors had been coaching witnesses to change their reports to censor out inconvenient facts.
By the third week of trial in November, Chief Judge Gloria Navarro—the very judge who had given prosecutors everything they wished for in the previous two trials—was visibly weary of the DOJ’s barbarous tactics. A mistrial was declared just prior to Christmas, and all defendants except Cliven were released on conditions while lawyers argued over whether the case warranted another trial. And on Monday, January 8, 2018, in a packed courtroom in Las Vegas, the Judge granted Ryan Payne’s motion to dismiss. A “universal sense of justice has been violated,” proclaimed Navarro. The judge said further that she was unaware of a more egregious case of FBI misconduct.
It should be noted that there are currently a half-dozen additional pending motions to dismiss, citing even graver prosecutorial misconduct. It has recently come to light that lead prosecutor Steven Myhre was approached during the first Nevada trial by a government case investigator who informed the prosecutor that he was breaking the law by withholding evidence from the defense. Myhre’s response, according to some reports, was to fire the agent and order him to keep quiet. Even as Cliven Bundy was released from jail after serving 700 days, the case continues for others. Stay tuned!
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Monday, January 08, 2018
Algore, Say it Ain't So!
We are not ready for any of this mentally or in any other way thanks to people like former president Obama, the Pope, and let’s never forget Al Gore. Some of the most unscrupulous people have been championing the cause of manmade global warming even though the science and actual conditions on the ground have been showing for ten years that there is no such thing as manmade warming.
It has been a big snow job, pure propaganda and now the gig is up as it starts snowing in Florida of all places. Now we have temperatures crashing, almost the entire continental United States frozen over, snow accumulating in record amounts and ice forming in the great lakes at breathtaking speed. It is not just record breaking cold but record breaking snow fall that is showing us just how difficult global cooling will be compared to global warming.
Winter is here but it’s not a regular winter as just about every American can feel if they step outside. Boston tied a 100-year-old record on Tuesday when it marked seven consecutive days of temperatures that did not top 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-6.7 degrees Celsius). New York’s airports have registered new lows and Chicago has enjoyed its coldest New Year’s Day ever.
In Nebraska, temperatures hit 15 below zero (-26 Celsius) before midnight Sunday in Omaha, breaking a record low dating to 1884, which is 134 years ago. The temperature in Indianapolis dropped to -12°F (-24C) on the 2nd, tying the previous record for the date set in 1887.
Forecasters warned people to be wary of hypothermia and frostbite from the arctic blast that’s gripping a large swath from the Midwest to the Northeast, where the temperature, without the wind chill factored in, dipped to minus 32 (minus 35 Celsius) Thursday morning in Watertown, New York. Temperatures rose to minus 7 (minus 22 Celsius) early Friday morning before the really cold air moved in for New Years. Officials are urging people to assist the homeless and elderly.
On the second of January the National Weather Service issued winter storm watches and warnings all the way from northern Florida to northern Maine, a distance of about 1,500 miles. By Friday morning, the fifth of January, wind chills could drop as low as minus 30F (-34.4C) from the Midwest to the Northeast. “This is about as intense cold as I can remember,” said Judah Cohen, director of seasonal forecasting for Atmospheric and Environmental Research.
More than five feet of snow has pummeled Erie, PA., last week, shattering at least seven city and state records. Record cold across Michigan, New York, Kentucky, Ohio, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Nebraska at the end of last year smashing 100-year-old records all across the country.
One wonders if Obama has one honest bone in his body. Let us see if he ever comes up with some truth about what is affecting hundreds of millions of Americans as the cold comes to stay.
Back on December 17, the Great Lakes had a total of 5.7 percent ice coverage. That may not sound like much, but on December 17, 2016, only 3.8 percent of the Great Lakes were ice-covered, and in 2015 on that date, no ice had been reported. Now fast forward to December 31. According to uppermichiganssource.com, ice covered close to 10 percent of Lake Superior yesterday. Typically, in late December. Lake Superior has about five percent of total ice cover.
The decline in the energy output of the sun is extremely rapid at this point. Satellite and NASA datasets show that rapid cooling is underway. The cooling we are seeing in the troposphere really is spectacular. What we are experiencing is the second largest cooling in 37+ years of satellite records.
This is not new news. We have had plenty of warnings through the last 10 years, which politicians have deliberately ignored. Scientists warn that the Earth is just 15 years away from experiencing a “mini ice age” — something that has not happened in 300 years. Solar scientists say that the latest model shows the Sun’s magnetic waves will become offset in Cycle 25, which peaks in 2022. Then, in Cycle 26, solar activity will fall by 60 per cent.
Special Note: If you still believe in manmade global warming understand you are suffering from a deliberately implanted mental disease. Like many mental disorders reality is left behind for something else, delusions, paranoia, aggressiveness and even violence. We have read in the last few years how global warming fanatics want to prosecute what they call climate change deniers. Also, global warming champions never talk about the sun. They are also incapable of doing any research that challenges their beliefs.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Thursday, January 04, 2018
The Final Days
Today, Anno Domini 2018 any sentient student of history understands what is being played out on the streets and in the halls of governance in what were once the seats of Western Civilization. As sure as the Teutonic, Gallic and Slavic barbarians fleeing into the provinces of the Roman Empire escaping the hordes of Mongols of Asia's steppes provided a catalyst for its demise we, today are living through a similar migration and make no mistake; todays "refugees" are in fact the spearpoint of a massive migration. Posted on :
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
With the commemoration of Christ’s first Advent, the end of the calendar year and a widespread (and justified) sense that we are all walking on the edge of a precipice, an old question pops up again: when will the world end? Many seers, prophets, and charlatans have predicted a date when the world will end, only to find themselves both relieved and disappointed. Unlike them, I know with complete certainty when the world will end. It will end on June 28, 1914.Had Archduke Franz Ferdinand lived, we would almost certainly inhabit a better world. There would have been no war; he was the leader of the peace party in Vienna. Without the vast civilizational catastrophe that was World War I, the West would not have lost faith in itself, its culture, and religion. Instead of cultural Marxism, we could still have Christian, conservative monarchy as the West’s leading paradigm. I doubt the House of Hapsburg, which had twice repelled the Moslem hordes from the gates of Vienna, would have opened those gates to more than a million Islamic “refugees” (really migrants). Interestingly, it is mostly states that were part of the Empire, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, that have the moral courage to say no to the EU’s refugee quotas. Had the Archduke lived, there would be no Lenin, no Stalin, no Hitler, no Holocaust. Israel might have been established as a province of the Ottoman Empire, under German and Austro-Hungarian protection; the Zionists were quite influential at the Viennese court and Kaiser Wilhelm II had a number of close Jewish friends. Russia, which by 1910 had reached the economic takeoff point, would not have lost the 60 million people killed by Soviet Communism, the figure revealed when the Soviet archives were opened in 1989. Economically, the Russian people might enjoy the same standard of living Americans have today, while still residing under a Christian monarch in an Orthodox country.Vienna was not only a political capital, it was a cultural capital as well, the rival of Paris. While the cultural pessimism that now rules the West was already stirring, without World War I and the fall of the Empire it probably would not have become dominant. Music, art, and architecture would still strive for beauty, not alienation (thank you Adorno). Nietzsche’s “transvaluation of all values,” where the old sins become virtues and the old virtues sins, would have remained the delusion of a syphilitic philosopher instead of the guiding rule of Western elites. In the year 2017, a Hapsburg Vienna might well be the source of much of the world’s cultural and intellectual greatness.Only a handful of people are left who understand how much was lost on that June day in 1914. With those pistol shots in Sarajevo, the West put a gun to its own head and blew its brains out. Our history since has been the twitching of a corpse.In 1971, when doing graduate work in Vienna, I had the good fortune to meet the Empire face-to-face. My landlady was Frau Baron von Garabedian-Elislago. Her father was General von Krauss-Elislago, Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s aide-de-camp and favorite soldier. She knew the Archduke and the last Emperor, Kaiser Karl. As you entered her apartment, you saw two magnificent Renaissance chests, gifts to her father from the Archduke. She could remember the picnics on the decks of Austrian battleships in the Adriatic.The good Frau Baron was lively, funny, and a window into all that was lost. She spoke six languages fluently. She enjoyed high culture as only a truly educated person can. One night as we were coming out of the Burgtheater she gestured dismissively to two statues and said, “Those are the monkeys who founded the republic.”Now, we Americans live in a country where the monkeys seem to be running everything. Our downward spiral accelerates. Soon, education and cultural levels will be so low that no one will be able to understand the value of a place governed by Christian monarchy and devoted to the life of the mind. But Hapsburg Vienna was such a place. Until, on June 28, 1914, the world ended.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Wednesday, January 03, 2018
Censored by YouTube!
The below video from Pat Condell has been removed from YouTube. Thanks to the functions of what remains of the free market you may enjoy it (or not) here.
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
Tuesday, January 02, 2018
Killing for Fun and Pelf
—–Original Message—–
From: E
Sent: Monday, January 01, 2018 4:20 PM
To: wblock@loyno.edu
Subject: war is a racket
Dear Dr. Block:
I applaud your proposal for a new peace with N. Korea. Unfortunately, I don’t believe it is possible because there is too much money to be made by those who are in the business of wars in far off lands. In the 1990’s I worked for a NASA lab that created a computer war game simulation. Every 6 months or so, I and dozens of others would travel to Seoul for wargames with the S. Koreans and Americans. I was there to monitor their computer networks, which were somewhat flakey. I spent 3 weeks at the US base in Seoul. This base is about 1×1 mile and has a hotel, several fancy restaurants, a bowling alley, football and baseball fields, etc. Since the on-base hotel was full, I was put up at the Hilton Hotel in a private room. All my expenses were paid for; I could ride a free bus from the hotel to the base, or hire a cab and be reimbursed. In addition to all this, I was also getting $105 CASH per diem, to spend on anything I wanted or just save tax free. And that’s in 1990, when $105 was still a lot of dough. I had such a great time, I asked to be sent back.
However, instead they next sent me to Germany at a place called, get this: “The Warrior Preparation Center”. The networks there were much better and I didn’t need to do anything. I asked if I could go home early, but they said no and told me to just go have fun. I spent much of my time touring Europe in my rental car. Driving the Autobahn at 110 mph was quite an adventure. I was set up at a nice place that served free breakfast. At night, I would go to various fancy restaurants with my co-workers. I could also go onto the air-force base next store and buy gas for my car at 20% of the cost outside, thus saving my per diem for more enjoyable things. All this, of course, was on the taxpayer’s nickel. For this reason, I don’t think you will ever see peace in your time or even our children’s time. There simply is too much money to be made. As S. Butler said, “War is a racket”.
Regards, E
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
From: E
Sent: Monday, January 01, 2018 4:20 PM
To: wblock@loyno.edu
Subject: war is a racket
Dear Dr. Block:
I applaud your proposal for a new peace with N. Korea. Unfortunately, I don’t believe it is possible because there is too much money to be made by those who are in the business of wars in far off lands. In the 1990’s I worked for a NASA lab that created a computer war game simulation. Every 6 months or so, I and dozens of others would travel to Seoul for wargames with the S. Koreans and Americans. I was there to monitor their computer networks, which were somewhat flakey. I spent 3 weeks at the US base in Seoul. This base is about 1×1 mile and has a hotel, several fancy restaurants, a bowling alley, football and baseball fields, etc. Since the on-base hotel was full, I was put up at the Hilton Hotel in a private room. All my expenses were paid for; I could ride a free bus from the hotel to the base, or hire a cab and be reimbursed. In addition to all this, I was also getting $105 CASH per diem, to spend on anything I wanted or just save tax free. And that’s in 1990, when $105 was still a lot of dough. I had such a great time, I asked to be sent back.
However, instead they next sent me to Germany at a place called, get this: “The Warrior Preparation Center”. The networks there were much better and I didn’t need to do anything. I asked if I could go home early, but they said no and told me to just go have fun. I spent much of my time touring Europe in my rental car. Driving the Autobahn at 110 mph was quite an adventure. I was set up at a nice place that served free breakfast. At night, I would go to various fancy restaurants with my co-workers. I could also go onto the air-force base next store and buy gas for my car at 20% of the cost outside, thus saving my per diem for more enjoyable things. All this, of course, was on the taxpayer’s nickel. For this reason, I don’t think you will ever see peace in your time or even our children’s time. There simply is too much money to be made. As S. Butler said, “War is a racket”.
Regards, E
Posted by ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ
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