WW1: Scale Is Incomprehensible

It is hard to grasp the sheer scale of the Great War. Americans have become accustomed to war being fought far away and done with low numbers of men from our volunteer forces. The Iraq War involved less than 200,000 American soldiers. The figures from the Great War boggle the mind and show the changing shape of war.

A hundred years ago this past month (August), 90,000 Russians surrendered at Novo Georgiviesk. The fortress was not evacuated despite being west of Warsaw as the rest of Poland was evacuated. Russia could not hold the Germans or Austro-Hungarians back at all. Why? Because on August 17th, 1915, the Russian fortress of Kovno fell to the Central Powers. There about 20,000 Russians were captured. This was then compounded by the loss of Brest-Litovsk. The staggering number of POWs was nearly 1.5 million Russians at that time.



Germans pose with Russian gun at Kovno

This all capped the "Great Retreat". If American students learn of failed efforts in 1915 (that's a big if), they hear of Gallipolli. The Great Retreat basically killed the Russian Army as a fighting force that had any energy to defeat the Central Powers. Germany sent feelers out to Russia to offer a truce as the situation was so bad for the Russians. One snag: the Germans wanted all territory it had captured. Russia said no. Considering what Germany had taken and how the map looks now 100 years later, this would have been a good exit for Russia. Even worse for Russia's future, on September 2, 1915, the Tsar took over direct command of the army.

Captured guns at Novo Georgiesvk

Air power in WW2 would show that fortresses were no longer impregnable. Bataan was reduced to nothing despite its amazing defenses as were other fortress cities in Asia in WW2. Thousands of men in such close proximity would not be used after air power was refined. Even Eisenhower noted that the atomic bomb had made troop clustering like the pre-Normandy invasion a relic. It is a risk no one would take.

Fall of Brest-Litovsk

These numbers of fighting men, of dead men and of captured men would not be tolerated today. America could not lose an aircraft carrier without national doubt and a crisis. How could a Western power, or Russia of today for that matter, handle over a million of its men behind barb wire?

Jeb Bush = Rachel Dolezal = Shaun King

A very simple explanation for Jeb Bush's bombing in the primary season and failure to resonate with primary voters is the 14 year freshness rule. This is the hypothesis but might as well be a rule, proven through the last 10 or so presidents, that once a candidate wins a statewide governorship or senator position, they have a 14 year window to run for president. Jeb is running head long into this problem since he was elected governor of Florida in 1998.

Why 14 years? Part of this is time in front of the nation to make big mistakes, and part of this is preventing the party from leaving you behind. Clinton and Bush both face these problems today. Hillary gets attacked from the left nonstop today, and even was attacked by Obama on the left in 2008... seven years ago. Isn't Jeb just Romney redux? Jeb is not quite Mitt Romney despite being the Establshment's choice because at least Mitt had that Don Draper attractive, alpha businessman appeal. He was a winner. There is another weird thing about Jeb, and it is exemplified by other summer stories. Jeb Bush is Rachel Dolezal.

Rachel Dolezal and Shaun King were both white kids with white parents. They both exhibited oddities as teens of identifying with cool black cultural things. Both went to black colleges and earned scholarships intended for black recipients. Both married a member of their cultural object of affection and had at least one kid. They took their obsession and cultural identification with the "other" to its logical conclusion by pretending they were now part of the other tribe and took up the fight for the "other". Both became leaders of different political advocacy groups of their now assumed tribe.

Jeb Bush was raised in Texas. He was surrounded by Texas, Tejano and even Mexican culture due to his father's many deals with Latin Americans as founder of Zapata Oil. Jeb then went to college at the University of Texas to major in Latin American Affairs. He spent time in South American nations. He buddied up with connected Mexicans. He married into the culture and had kids. Spanish is the language of his home. He worked and made good money in another heavily Latin area, Miami. He even filled out a voter registration card and checked the Hispanic box. Jeb now places illegal immigrant, legal immigrant and potential Mexican immigrant interests above the interests of Americans.

Jeb has became part of his cultural object of affection. Jeb has taken up the interests of the "other" he now identifies with. Jeb is transHispanic. This is part of Jeb's problem. As identity politics take a new turn a man as craven as Jeb is to please the "other" is not going to resonate or generate connection with his voting bloc that is overwhelmingly not the "other". As white acting as Obama is and as removed from black culture he was his entire life, he needed Michelle as his "bleard" so that enough blacks could be tricked into thinking he was one of them. Jeb Bush, the preferred candidate of the GOP establishment, is just another Rachel Dolezal.

FED And Media Are Out Of Sync

Oh no it's the end of the financial world! Not really. The financial markets are going through a rough patch because of the mountain of debt the world piled on in response to the 2008 crisis. Everything is not going into shutdown right now. Stop hyperventilating and filter out some of the crazier posts on Zero Hedge. The crisis of 2008 really started with the 2005 housing market top when the hot real estate markets ran out of marginal borrowers and the FED started to inch rates up, creating financial ripples that caused Bear Sterns to blow up in 2007. Wait a while for the real fireworks. A bigger issue is the FED cannot even get their media minions to report their moves right. The system is running into problems.

Last summer, I posted how Lee Adler is one of the financial writers I read to peek behind the curtain. In the financial blogging world, Lee Adler and his stable of writers are the closest to seeing the cathedral or polygon of power in America today. Lee has a great piece on the disconnect between the FED and the media. The FED has changed its focus and concern, but the media is not catching on nor reporting it. The FED cannot even use its flunkies, like go-to mouthpiece Jon Hilsenrath of the Wall Street Journal, to communicate to the right thinking people what the FED wants to do. This reveals the different motives to pieces of the polygon.

The FED opened their meeting minutes in July differently than prior months by focusing on raising rates and shrinking the balance sheet. This was a change from prior discussions and meetings. This would be important to report on, yet the media focused on the FED's take on the state of the economy. Raising rates and shrinking balance sheets will change the game that the current FIRE system has been operating under since the 2008 crisis reaction or band aid. Go back to the FED inching rates up graph in my first link. Look at what happened the last two times the FED has moved rates up after easy money policies. Note their pathetic step by step method, too. Crisis, recession and pain follow the rate increases because the marginal borrowers disappear as we do not have true economic growth that provides people wage growth to sustain consumption.

This would be important to put out to the public because the next crisis is coming, just a matter of when, and rising rates and shrinking balance sheets will herald it. Why is the media avoiding this discussion and focusing on the Fed's take on the economy? Lee Adler says it is because this is good copy. The media right now is in a pinch because with normal people feeling economic pain, 50 million Americans on food stamps and no nominal wage growth, no one is buying the recovery talk. Partisans will point to rising stock markets and lower unemployment rates (artificial and virtually useless measures now) as good work by Team Obama. A stock market collapse or even 20% drop hurts The Narrative. The media wants the goldilocks story to sell to the street.

The media also wants to avoid the discussion of looming economic pain because look outside your window. Political fracture is on all sides and all over the West. Blacks are attacking "white allies", forgetting they are 12% of the population and publicly calling for a race war in manifestos, and the media is suppressing it. A section of whites have said "screw it" and are embracing identity politics... and writing off liberal whites. Someone has finally said "deport", and found that a sizeable fraction of the American electorate likes it. Hell, even the open socialist, Sen. Sanders, darling of the white progressives, is anti-immigration. Even some Swedes are waking up that it's keep the social welfare system for us or keep letting in them. It is Weimar politics, even the NY Times admits it. We have not had our Weimar economic breakdown, and note that it took ten years between that and the Nazi takeover. The media needs to keep this off the front pages or even the back pages.

The media needs a materially comfortable population to keep the consumer machine going and democratic facade alive. If the West is fragmenting like this with Medicare facing insolvency in 2030 and Social Security reducing benefits automaticlaly in 2033, what happens when those numbers get 2020s dates? This will happen with the next recession because we have had crap for jobs and wage growth. When the money glue cannot keep the multicultural gollem together, what happens to these already strained racial and ethnic relations? Are white Millenials going to pull the plug on gramma in order to pay for Demarcus' 3rd kids' after school program and his SSI for "anxiety"? Are "on the fence", apolitical Boomers going to keep buying the progressive pupu platter, staying quiet and paying for some Buffalo Bill's reassignment surgeries to feel pretty when the system they paid into for decades cuts their benefits by 25%? No.

This also points out the problem of just about every bit of government interference in banking and the centralization that the creation of the FED fostered. Even after the Great Crash, the problem could have been handled specifically by the NY FED but was addressed by the FED. It would never have been possible had there been no FED, but big biz and the progs under Wilson wanted a FED. We created the FDIC and removed risk and secure management of a bank from a consumer's decision making process, therefore all they can compete on is rate, and we get a "race to zero" for the marginal borrower and customer. Banking becomes a centralized, government utility for the progs to play with, as long as their paymasters get their cut.

The FED wants one message out: change may be coming in policy, prepare for the possibility, look at what happened the last two times. The media does not want that message out, especially not in an election cycle. These are pieces of the same power structure, but they have different motives and concerns. The media wants to spin on the state of the economy and pitch all is well. "Liberal control is good. People say the game is rigged??? Bah, don't listen to that demagogue that we will compare to Hitler weekly. Even if it is rigged, it is a good game that provides you comfort and gives you steady bread. Isn't that enough?" The FED does not care about that message. It has a service to the TBTF banks, hedge funds, and investors that the casino will continue for their benefit. Liquidity will be provided for all your trading needs. Never make a deal with the progs and its polygon of power because eventually a piece of it will sacrifice you to continue its control of the system.

The Maturation of Roosh

It has been fun to observe the change in Roosh. Just to see the tweets, the updates, the trolling move from online to real life has been a joy. It is taking the hate click strategy of Return of Kings and turning it into a real life force. Like meeting an Internet Friend in real life, it is a weird but exciting moment. You know what else is fun? Seeing Roosh grow up.

If you're reading this, you're no stranger to Roosh's writing and antics. I enjoy his writing even as the single life became something I hear about and observe, not participate in. If I ran MAXIM, I'd have him as a steady writer. It was also kind of juvenile or immature with the pursuit of notches or flags if you're going international. Roosh still wrote incredibly well on the state of gender relations as a front line soldier compared to the fat and lazy writers of older generations, living in their bubbles. This was his insight into reality that would bring you back to read more.

A question was though, where was he going with this? Tucked away in a post once was Roosh writing he'd only marry and have kids when he could provide for them without his wife working. Then that kind of disappeared. Then he wrote ever darker posts while abroad. There was the weird post on what the Internet does to a person that he wrote after coming back from an Internet/Twitter break. There was the forming of Reaxxion, which seemed like opportunistic pouncing on the Gamergate idea to make a buck. After fighting the SJWs for a year, things got too redpill for the RooshVForum and he announced a break with the term redpill and creation of neomasculinity. Where was it going? Seemed like a continuation of his self-improvement writing but with softer entries so to expand reach.

That is a problem here, and with Internet writing in general. Roosh himself reveals the problem of the digital self. How much of Roosh is genuine and how much is for clicks, sales, etc.? In his mid-30s, how many revenge fucks do you need? What's the next step? Remember, they end tv shows because no one wants to see an old man chasing teenage chicks. When he announced he was going on Dr. Oz, I was excited for him. My wife watched with me and said, "Of course someone in your sphere gets on Oz and they're the bad guy". Roosh did not do well on Oz. He claimed he was blindsided (I believe it). I also expected more from him and a modicum of media savvy once he knew the trap they sprung. Still, it is live TV. He announced a speaking tour. "Jesus Christ, it's all about cash flow" was my thought.

But something clicked. Roosh wrote of being the bad guy. He wrote of giving the fools in the audience of Dr. Oz and watching at home someone to hate on, and this is a powerful realization. Realizing it before the tour was key, because he could shed the illusion that his message would be accepted or even allowed to exist as a potential good. In our vast right wing sphere, we need to recognize that what we believe is based in truth and what is true is good, but that we will be hated for it. You will be called names, you will be chased, you will be designated bad.

Bad in the eyes of a sick, broken regime. Roosh speaking, not folding, and performing ju-jitsu on the SJWs is important. Read this and try not to laugh at the ridiculous reporting, not just from feminists (male or female) but how the media frames it. Roosh might as well be a raping Turk on horseback. A woman takes his picture and asks if he is going to rape her, which he laughs off and says not even if you paid me. This was reported and printed. This is clown world. A speech to fifty men should not be a threat to the regime, but look what it inspired. Roosh is 100% right that it vindicates what the manosphere and alt-right has said for years. Totalitarian suppression of any wrongthink. As this review details the event, Roosh sounds like a grown up with vision.

Roosh very calmly and clearly lays out how a normal, masculine approach to life is now considered evil or wrong and gay pride parades with the Frankenstein homosexuality are actively cheered and encouraged by our cultural gatekeepers. This is negative society in action. Up is down. It is an adult and mature message. "Let me help you navigate the modern world and be the man you were meant, were bred and evolved to be." It is not just picking up chicks for notches anymore. It is easy to see how almost all modern media messaging sends bizarre messages of what is appropriate, just watch a commercial break on television. Roosh is looking to provide counter-programming.

Roosh is also right that this only will help him the next go around. He is taking advantage of the greatest bang for your buck advertising engine today: the SJW outrage cycle. Sure this is about free speech at the superficial level for mainstream discussion, but it is about something else. If you are going to have any pushback, you're going to need someone who steps out first. Roosh, Charles Johnson, the Gamergate crew, and even the Trump, you will need people publicly defying the regime, giving airtime to the other side and pointing out the lies.

There is a core of Americans angry over the Facebook gay marriage "skittles" profile pic crowd. There is a core of Americans who considered the Confederate flag a mark of stupidity or redneck status, but think the media and Left went overboard with suppressing and attempting to erase it. There is a core of Americans sick of all this gay cheerleading, roll their eyes at Black Lives Matter bullshit and know any opposition is silenced by the thought police. You cannot just delegitimize the system but need to offer and build alternatives.

Is Roosh perfect? No, but he is taking steps I would not have predicted even six months ago. Hell, I expected him to start writing "How To Spot The Perfect Wife" and other finding LTRs/wives posts as he caved and found a cute eastern euro to settle down with. Has he found that surrogate activity that so many childless people fail to develop or even attempt to explore? Is this his new calling? Was it reading Culture of Critique? Was it the Dr. Oz appearance? Only Roosh knows. The fun has been watching him grow from writing "how to get laid" to "the gender situation is awful" to "we need to make a stand and build something better".

If this be a crusade for masculine virtue and the destruction of the poisonous and ruinous feminism movement, then march forth. Quit complaining about the dominant cultural messaging system and support the opposition. If you are tired of the insanity around you, pay attention to Roosh's journey and support him.

Two Weeks Off

Summer vacation arrived. I'm taking two weeks off. If you see anything funny or interesting, leave a comment. I will moderate comments and tweet for fun but my vacation requires fun, family focus and beach reading. I shall return with a Sunday post in two weeks. The WW1 posts will continuenon Thursdays. Enjoy the Summer of Trump.

Social Matter - Trump Is A Demon Of The Establishment’s Design

Today's essay at Social Matter is about the Trump phenomenon. The Establishment has no one to blame but itself. Go read it there.

The circus that is the American election cycle has an added bit of flair this time. No, not the possibility of a female on the ticket. We had that buzz of excitement in 1984 and 2008. It is the spectacle of a self-promoting, billionaire blowhard taking the "Bulworth" approach towards a legitimate run for the presidency. Donald Trump has added spice to the 2016 presidential election cycle and in the summer slow news season to excite cable news operatives. He has rocketed to the top of the polls, rustled Establishment jimmies and caused conversations to take place that no one would expect.  

As much as he is loathed by the Establishment, he is a demon of their design.

Everyone ont he left wants to blame Fox News or rise of ugly right wing politics. They do so not to blame themselves. Go read it there!

More Operation Mockingbird and Last Week's Social Matter + Preview for This Week's 12

First a quick note on last night's post. It is important to note that the 'right' is false opposition. This is their job to be phony on your behalf. Expose that and help other see the fraud. Buckley was never confirmed as part of Operation Mockingbird, but it is hard to see how he would not have been. Let's follow the timeline. Digging into the background for my long Mockingbird/McCarthy post, I traced a bit more "why" behind the McCarthy investigations. It ties together.

1.  CIA starts Operation Mockingbird at the start of the CIA. Controlling the press was critical.
2. Buckley was CIA for a short span of time (early '50s).
3. The National Review lived on donations and Buckley admits it lost $25,000,000 over 50 years.
4. J. Edgar Hoover learns there are commies throughout the USG. J. Edgar Hoover had just seen known communists walk free in the Amerasia affair. Hoover could not trust the courts or the administration. What did he do? He started to feed McCarthy and Nixon information in their two committees. Senator McCarthy nearly uncovers all of the CIA's dirty cultural work, points out commies everywhere, and even makes the connection that the Democrats were crypto-commies. McCarthy is destroyed in 1954.
5. National Review is founded in 1955. The Review can make sure that no isolationist ever becomes preeminent in the party again. The Review can also channel right wing energy and action into proper channels rather than noticing the odd coincidence of far leftists always being rewarded by our universities, Federal grants and media.

Can't you imagine it? It's DC, 1954, right after McCarthy is censured. The CIA and Georgetown Set goes "How do we make sure another McCarthy never arises? How do we keep the right wing playing empire and not noticing homegrown commies? I got it, let's use Mockingbird but in a magazine supposedly for them! They'll eat it up."

This week at Social Matter, I will tackle the curious case of Donald Trump. He is a demon of the Establishment's design. Not the GOP establishment, but the system that the cathedral created for our sham elections. I will be taking a 2 week break after this though as I have summer vacation with my family.

Last week's Social Matter essay was on Israel and America's odd fixation with the Holy Land. This got some play and even ended up on Reddits worldpolitics page. I had a bit of fun with this, but in all seriousness, I would love to see America be more friendly to India and focus on building a good partnership there. It would make more sense than the time we spend on Israel.

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Have you seen this steady stream of quotes and speeches by presidential candidates about one of our allies? This ally is in a far flung region of the world. They have a vibrant democracy in an area unfriendly towards democracy. They deal with a Muslim threat, jihad next door, terrorists within their nation and the threat of nuclear annihilation. They do have nuclear weapons of their own, and have a nationalist leader at the head of the government now. Let's review the quotes.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: "India is a vibrant democracy in a region dominated by autocracy, and it faces existential threats to its survival." (source)

Senator Bernie Sanders: Weird. Sanders never quite answers anything or takes a definitive stand on India. If you heckle him about it, he will tell you to shut up. (source)

Senator Marco Rubio: “This is a historic and tragic mistake. India is not a Republican or Democratic issue. If this was a Republican president doing these things, I would give the exact same speech. In fact, I would be even angrier. This is outrageous, it is irresponsible, it is dangerous, and it betrays the commitment this nation has made to the right of a Hindu state to exist in peace.” (source)

Senator Ted Cruz: “Christians have no greater ally than India... if you will not stand with India and the Hindus, I will not stand with you. Good night and God bless.” (source)

Former Governor Rick Perry: "India needs more than our passive support—it needs our vigorous support." (source)

Former Governor Jeb Bush: "With India, those interests lie in a firm alliance. India and America must work together to build a more prosperous and hopeful future for the region. A state for the Muslim people, side by side with Hindus, will be possible only if the Muslim people are represented by leaders committed to delivering on the promises made at the negotiating table." (source)

Governor Scott Walker: "Yet even as you stand there, reflecting on the consequential events of two millennia ago, you recognize India is not merely a place of shrines and holy sites. India is one of the world’s most vibrant democracies and one of America’s most important allies." (source)

Senator Lindsay Graham: “I am in charge of the foreign assistance account, I’m in charge of the money we provide for the United Nations,” he explained, referring to his chairmanship of an appropriations subcommittee. “We provide 25 percent of the funding for the organization,” Mr. Graham said, several times. “I’m not going to ask the American taxpayer to fund an organization that’s going to be used in a way to marginalize” India, which he called “our best friend.” (source)

Senator Rand Paul: (bold in original) "I’m proud to support India, America’s longtime friend and ally in the East. Indian cafés and buses are bombed, towns are victimized by hundreds of rockets, and its citizens are attacked by Muslim terrorists. It’s time we took a stand for India by standing up to the enemies of India, the enemies that murder Israeli citizens. That’s why I proposed a bill called the “Stand with India Act” to cut off the flow of U.S. taxpayer dollars to the Muslim Authority." (source)

Donald "Alpha" Trump: “The only [candidate] that’s going to give real support to India is me,” said the 69-year-old Trump. “The rest of them are all talk, no action. They’re politicians. I’ve been loyal to India from the day I was born. My father, Fred Trump, was loyal to India before me. The only one that’s going to give India the kind of support it needs is Donald Trump.” (source)

Governor Chris Christie: "I absolutely believe that India is a priority to be able to fund and keep them strong and safe after eight years of this administration." (source: GOP Debate)

All of these quoted bits are about Israel not India. I changed India for Israel, changed Jewish to Hindu and pulled out Palestinian where appropiate. Doesn't this look ridiculous? I could have taken quotes from each GOP candidate in their primary circus, but I wanted visible names to show how silly it looks when all put together. India is an apt substitute per the description in the opening paragraph. All of those items hold true. India is also a bigger trade partner with the US. Indian-Americans now make up 1% of the US population, which is nearly the Jewish share (1.8%). India itself is also a gigantic nation of strategic importance due to its location, friction with China, and immense population.

We do not have politicians waving their hands around like maniacs and spouting off non-stop nonsense about India because they do not fund our political campaigns. There is no powerful AIPAC for India. American newsrooms are not stocked with Priya Shukla and Sandeep Gurnani pontificating on the need for America to cater to India's needs. American television shows are not stocked with Indian sidekick friends, and stand-up is not dominated by the likes of Nishant Chuptabanjawa. I like how Israel manages its nation for its people. I do think they go overboard creating problems for themselves because they never know when to cool it. America destroyed any sense of a balance to Middle East foreign policy because the Israel's cousins in America run our media.

Now for the flip side, what actually should be our interest in the Middle East? Consistent supplies of oil to keep the price per barrel low in our currency. The goal should be protecting transit routes for safe delivery and patroling key straits. Israel does not produce oil. Israel is not located on any straits. Our interest should be in making oil and gas producer regimes stable while not encouraging terrorism blowback. America should be tough on any nation that antagonizes those oil producers and starts arms races Arab, Persian or Israeli. Israel is a thorn in the side of those oil states. America should have worked to remove all nukes from that area to reduce tension. If the Sampson Option is real and linked to a Doomsday device like the Russians had, this is a hugely destabilizing presence when the antagonists are Muslims with end times beliefs.

Instead, America spent the post-WW2 decades enabling and aiding the creation of the Israeli state, its air force, and its nuclear arsenal (even aiding and covering up the nukes). Instead, American media and academia also cleared out the Arabist wing of our foreign policy intelligentsia. Instead, America is going to allow one of the worst spies in American history leave prison for a short hold in the US and then a pension and retirement in Israel. America may want to change foreign allies or avoid wars, but we cannot do so because of the Israeli lobby. To point out that peculiar interest would notice Jewish overrepresentation in the cultural gatekeeper system.

It runs deeper than just who is where in the system but how our system is set up. Democracy allows money to settle elections. Not just internal money, but money from any source that can find a way to set up a political action committee. Here is a list of pro-Israeli donations to different representatives and senators. That money matters as nearly twenty five years ago it turned a 40% point deficit into a 10% win in a special U.S. Senate election, all because President Bush (41) did not toe the Israeli line. AIPAC is flying all but three of the freshman Congressmen to Israel for a push to block the Iranian nuclear deal. Checks and balances, where money can find new ways to work its magic on elected leaders.

This is our system, and our rotated leaders paid for by sponsors of any interest are up against some long standing regimes without the fear of elections. The deal does appear weaker than the original goals from a decade ago when the 5+1 talks began. The main goal of negotiations switched from dismantling the nuclear program in return for sanction removal to preventing nuclear bomb capabilities for sanction removal. Read Obama fanboy Politifact's strained take on that in the final paragraph that the evil, GOP Senator is not telling the truth unless you want to count a switch in stance seven years after 5+1 talks began as a concession. That too is a function of a desperate White House wanting any deal.

At the base of the issue, who does a nuclear capable Iran threaten more, America or Israel? Israel, not America, yet tens of millions will be poured into blocking or pushing this deal over the top. The system of democracy allows money to pull the USG leviathan in directions it should never go and protect interests that have nothing to do with American risks. This is but one reason why this system must go.