Category Archives: Government

Perp Walk U.S. Central Command Leadership

Foreign Policy, Government, Law, Middle East, Military

Imagine a large private company that invests half a billion dollars in a training program for a large workforce only to find that the program has failed, and that only 4-5 of those that underwent the training are kind of prepared to do the job they were trained to do. Imagine, further, that the company’s CEO decides not to scrap the program and fire those that dreamt it up—but, rather, to retain the program and merely shift its focus.

The creditors or the shareholders would have a field day in the courts (is it a derivative action that shareholders bring to “redress harm to the corporation caused by management?”) There might even be a perp walk or two.

Via RT:

The US State Department did not have a straight answer for RT’s correspondent when asked about why the program to train and equip ‘moderate’ Syrian rebels had failed, or why it believes the new version that is said to solely equip the rebels would work.

The State Department said the US has dropped the training program and decided to focus on just the equipping part of the plan.

“There is a pause being put in place, while we focus more on the equipping side of those groups that are in Syria now and have proven competent against ISIL [Islamic State, ISIS/ISIL],” State Department spokesperson John Kirby told RT’s Gayane Chichakyan at a Friday briefing. …

MORE.

These sort of scandals are an every day occurrence. And nothing is done. No one pays. China is known to execute officials for lesser embezzlement.

The US government and military, in this case I think Central Command is responsible, is terribly corrupt. It never has to account for ongoing embezzlement and it makes no pretense about having a fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers.

About Pope Francis, The Lady Di of The Papacy

Celebrity, Christianity, Federalism, Founding Fathers, Government, Islam, Reason, Religion

“About Pope Francis” is the current column, now on the Unz Review, America’s smartest webzine. An excerpt:

In the wake of America’s week-long, Pope Francis bacchanalia, a few column titles suggest themselves:

“Benedict, What Have You Wrought?”

“The Global Village Idiot.”

“Lady Di of The Papacy.”

The last hints at the trendy, pop-philosophies that animate Pope Francis’ Lady Di-like belief system. The intellectual equivalent of these papal shopworn shibboleths you’ll find in a Chinese, fortune-cookie wrapper.

Ultimately, the editor will decide which of these unflattering headings best describes the man whom one devout Catholic—libertarian jurist Andrew Napolitano—called a false prophet for overturning Catholic canon law without consulting his Bishops. Yet another reason Pope Francis is drawn to an authoritarian president who rules by presidential veto.

Intellectually, Pope Francis is no match for his predecessors.

With his 1998 encyclical, the Polish pope—how the Polish people suffered under the communists whose creed Pope Francis is inadvertently dignifying—sounded a lone voice for both “Faith and Reason” in the postmodern religious wilderness.

Who other than Pope John Paul spoke with such unhectoring clarity about the errors of relativism in modern thought? Certainly not Jorge Bergolio, who is too simple to consider such abstractions.

The anti-intellectualism evinced in the Holy See’s 2015 environmental encyclical made this pope’s “close advisers,” in all their “ill-tempered diction,” the butt of ridicule over the pages of the Catholic Crisis magazine:

From the empirical side, to prevent the disdain of more informed scientists generations from now, papal teaching must be safeguarded from attempts to exploit it as an endorsement of one hypothesis over another concerning anthropogenic causes of climate change. It is not incumbent upon a Catholic to believe, like Rex Mottram in “Brideshead Revisited,” that a pope can perfectly predict the weather. …

In the same badly written potboiler, the pope took a swipe at the richest nations, blaming them for despoiling the earth. In truth, however, the developed world has advanced the technologies (and attendant ethics) that are helping to clean up the atmosphere, the waterways, the oceans and many a landmass. It is the developing and underdeveloped nations—China and India, for one—that despoil the earth and devastate its creatures. So polluted are the waterways in former communist countries that rivers are known to catch fire. Watch. …

… Read the rest.“About Pope Francis” is now on the Unz Review, America’s smartest webzine.

UPDATED: ‘Camp Of The Saints’ Scenario (#1,359 On Amazon)

Europe, Government, IMMIGRATION, The West

The Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail is on the minds of those of us with an historic memory and some insight. (Thanks to Amazon’s magnificent cookies, this prophetic book is grouped with my own.) Charles Burris’s description of the novel and its relevance to the refugee crisis underway in Europe (the handiwork of Bush, Obama and Hillary) is impossible to best:

“… one cannot not help but be reminded of the stentorian warning to the West emblazoned in the apocalyptic novel by Jean Raspail, The Camp of the Saints (.pdf). In one of the most divisive and controversial works of the 20th Century, Raspail chillingly predicted and prophesized [sic] forty two years ago precisely what is occurring and its suicidal consequences for the diseased remnants of that civilization. It is unquestionably the most powerful novel I have ever read. Insidious egalitarianism, destructive welfarism, aggressive multiculturalism, cultural Marxism, Third World invasions by the wretched of the earth, militaristic imperialism posing as humanitarian liberation, and mindless parousiatic atheism in the name of a hallowed pluralism, have blended into a banal omnipresent doxology. The most recent expression of this syncretic mélange is taken directly from Jean Raspail, Pope Francis’ appeasement policy regarding the tsunami of ‘migrants’ flooding Europe. Other prophetic voices have followed Raspail: Oriana Fallaci, Pascal Bruckner, Bruce Bawer, and most notably Patrick J. Buchanan. The culture vultures have indeed come home to roost and are flailing away at the twisted torso of the corpse that was once the West.”

Geert Wilders is the one European politician who has not betrayed the interests of the people who pay is salary (courtesy of Diana West and Gates of Vienna):

0:00 Hello everyone. In The Netherlands
0:02 We’re overloaded with asylum refugees.
0:06 It’s an invasion threatening our prosperity and our country.
0:14 The Hague blandly abandons us.
0:17 Premier Rutte keeps our borders wide open for fortune-hunters.
0:20 We must save our country.
0:23 Of course real refugees must be taken care of.
0:27 However, that must be done in the region itself,
0:30 not here.
0:33 The Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, those sorts of rich countries,
0:36 take care of a meager couple of hundred refugees annually.
0:39 In The Netherlands, many thousands arrive every month.
0:45 That can no longer be done.
0:46 Every refugee costs us €36,000 annually.
0:52 They receive free medical care, a house,
0:55 government care.
0:57 Never have these people contributed a single cent to our economy.
1:00 Even so, billions are spent on them,
1:04 while our elderly are left out in the cold.
1:08 I can’t understand why we allow that.
1:12 Our borders must be closed.
1:17 We must send back every asylum seeker.
1:18 Only then will the flood stop.
1:20 Only then will unscrupulous smugglers lose their business.
1:25 Only then will no more people drown.
1:31 Let’s do what Australia does:
1:32 ”Send them all back”, send them all back.
1:36 Mr. Rutte doesn’t do that.
1:38 He neglects his duty.
1:40 Help the Party For Freedom save our country.
1:44 It’s time to close our borders.
1:48 It’s time to stand behind our own flag.
1:52 It’s time to stand up for The Netherlands.

UPDATE: A controversial, prophetic book, whose history itself deserves to be documented, has soared to #1,359 on Amazon.

Product Details

Paperback: 316 pages
Publisher: Social Contract Pr (December 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1881780074
ISBN-13: 978-1881780076
Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 6.5 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (148 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,359 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#26 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Literature
#138 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary
#362 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

Letters: From A Grieving Father & Friend As Well As From An Ann Coulter Fan

Ann Coulter, Critique, English, Government, GUNS, Ilana Mercer

He’s a former military man, an accomplished test pilot, a novelist, and, sadly, a grieving father. “‘Gun Violence’? No! Goon Violence” mentions my friend William B. Scott:

“… As to the former catalyst: In 2014 alone, attests activist William B. Scott, police ‘gun-violence’ dispatched 1,100 people, an average of three every day of the year. Scott’s son, Erik, a decorated ex-Army officer, West-Point graduate, and Duke Univ. MBA, was shot to death by a slob of a cop in Las Vegas. Erik’s BlackBerry was mistaken for a firearm. (Excellence runs in this family. Senior is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School.)”

William weighed in at WND’s Comments (I’ve linked to his important novel):

“Superb commentary, as always, Ilana! ‘Goons’ include a large number of bad/rogue/outlaw cops, such as the scared, low-IQ officer who killed my son, Erik Scott. Thanks for reminding your readers that Erik WAS murdered…and that the Las Vegas Cartel of Corruption covered up the crime, employing the same well-worn tactics that have buried more than 300 officer-involved fatalities attributed to shootings, beatings, etc. in Sin City. In more than 40 years, not a single Vegas cop has been found at fault for killing a citizen. Always ruled ‘Justified’ by the Cartel’s lap dogs.

As you may recall, Ilana, Chapter 10 of a novel based on Erik’s murder-by-cop, The Permit, warned of a deadly backlash, if police officers continued to kill three Americans a day, every day of the year. Now, good cops are dying for the murders committed by their corrupt brethren-in-blue and -brown.”

[SNIP]
So sad. Such a fine family (see you soon, my friend).

On a more cheerful note, this arrived from an Ann Coulter fan:

Ms. Mercer,

Being a fan of Ann Coulter and a frequent visitor to your site I felt the need to send a quick note. You have just surpassed Ann Coulter as my favorite commentator. The reason is this sentence [from “Motormouth Megyn Kelly & the Mad Matriarchy”]:

“Kelly herself has fast succumbed to the female instinct to show-off, bare skin, flirt and wink. She now also regularly motormouths it over the occasional smart guest she entertains (correction: the one smart guest, Ann Coulter). At the same time, Kelly has dignified the tinnitus named Dana Perino with a daily slot as Delphic-oracle.”

Now I have to go buy your books.

Sincerely,
CV

This is high-praise indeed. I love and appreciate my readers. Although not a libertarian, Ann Coulter is extremely smart and unarguably an excellent writer. “Just Another Mouth in the Republican Fellatio Machine” explains why Ann doesn’t have a show of her own.