"By 2008, it was obvious to anybody who was paying attention that Barack Obama had a strange and highly creepy personal life. Yet nobody ever asked him about it.
"By that point, a leader's behavior within his own marriage, the core relationship of his life, had been declared irrelevant. It was Barack Obama's business, not yours."
Tucker has been on the inside for a long time now. He knows things.
Did he just say what I think he just said?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2023 6:55 Comments ||
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#6
So far he has not approached any of the third rails of Twitter. We will see where he plans to take this and whether he plans to burn all his bridges to places like Newsmax.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/09/2023 12:42 Comments ||
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#7
Michelle will come out as the first transwoman presidential candidate and win in a landslide.
[Tom Woods] They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Here, then, are a thousand words about Mandy Cohen, North Carolina's health secretary and Joe Biden's pick to head the Centers for Disease Control: (scary photo in link)
She is exactly what you would expect: masks and lockdowns work great, get these shots and you can't give anyone Covid, etc.
As Charlotte radio host Pete Kaliner put it, "When we were at our most frightened, Cohen was there to infantilize us and treat us as the children she sees us as."
According to Jim Bovard in the New York Post, although Cohen claimed that her Covid policies were driven by recommendations from her "scientific team," it became clear after she left office that she had instead "relied on phone calls with political appointees in other states."
Bovard describes Cohen recounting a call to the Massachusetts health secretary, who asked her: "Are you going to let them have professional football?"
"Nope!" Cohen replied. The Massachusetts official responded: "OK, neither are we."
Cohen then laughed -- because disruption of society is really hilarious -- and explained that "it was conversations like that" that were behind COVID prohibitions.
Attorney Jenin Younes, a political liberal who was excellent over the past three years (and who represented in court many good people victimized by crazy policies), reacted this way to the announcement:
"This alone is a reason to vote against Biden. The fact they are trying to inflict another one of these authoritarians on us after three years of totally failed, destructive mitigation policies is frightening. I want all of these people far, far away from powerful positions."
#1
Bovard describes Cohen recounting a call to the Massachusetts health secretary, who asked her: "Are you going to let them have professional football?"
"Nope!" Cohen replied. The Massachusetts official responded: "OK, neither are we."
If it were up to me, most of these Covid panic 'public health' officials would wind up in one of two ways - fired and stripped of their pensions, or (like these two) swinging from a lamppost.
[Daily Beast via Yahoo due to registration requirements] In May 2021, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas informed the Senate Appropriations Committee that the greatest threat currently facing America was domestic in nature—specifically, "racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists" who "advocate for the superiority of the white race." According to Against All Enemies, that situation hasn’t improved during the past two years, as Charlie Sadoff’s documentary details how a collection of anti-government white-nationalist movements have increasingly gained traction inside our borders, often by strategically recruiting those committed to protecting the nation: law enforcement and military service members.
Premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 8, first-time director Sadoff’s Against All Enemies takes its title from the constitutional oath of office: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." It’s a declaration of utmost timeliness, given the rise of homegrown outfits such as the Three Percenters, the Boogaloo Boys, the Proud Boys, and the Oath Keepers, whose founder Stewart Rhodes was just convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and sentenced to 18 years behind bars. Worse, though, is that it’s a pledge now adopted by those very treasonous factions, who—embracing an upside-down worldview in which they’re the persecuted "patriot" minority—claim to be waging a war against shadowy deep-state forces intent on destroying democracy, even as they themselves attempt to replace that system with outright fascism.
As anyone who’s watched footage of the Jan. 6 insurrection knows all too well, many of the men and women who stormed the Capitol—or commanded the rioters—were active and/or former law enforcement and military personnel. Most useful to the ongoing dialogue about domestic terrorism is Against All Enemies’ investigation into the present and historical ties between American hate groups and armed servicemen and women. Through archival footage and commentary from Northwestern University professor Dr. Kathleen Belew and former Army forward observer Kristofer Goldsmith (among others), Sadoff’s film explains that such connections existed during the post-Civil War, post-WWI, and post-Vietnam eras of the Ku Klux Klan, with military vets spearheading the groups’ violently discriminatory and treasonous campaigns. With clarity and precision, it contends that, far from an outlier, today’s link between neo-Nazi groups and soldiers and police officers is merely the latest iteration of a long-standing trend.
That’s not to downplay the severity of the issue, however, since Against All Enemies argues that such bonds have never been tighter. With generations of contemporary military veterans disillusioned by war, scarred by PTSD, and adrift in everyday society, these groups—per Goldsmith, who describes himself as a self-styled "Nazi hunter"—provide damaged warriors with the camaraderie, purpose, and warfare opportunities that they miss. Moreover, they offer them a mission: to defend their beloved homeland against nefarious villains determined to disenfranchise, manipulate, and oppress them. That such a narrative is make-believe doesn’t matter; having a bullseye at which to point their gun alongside their brothers-in-arms is a seductive lure to those who’ve completed their tours of duty.
Fueling soldiers’ attraction to these groups, Against All Enemies asserts, is a social media culture that’s riddled with propaganda and capable of uniting disparate individuals and forces, as well as a Republican party that validates ugly conspiratorial traitorousness. That begins with Donald Trump and extends to his sycophantic acolytes, many of whom—such as QAnon-supporting Michael Flynn and J.D. Vance—use their military credentials and armed forces skills to bring additional soldiers into the fold. Sadoff speaks not only with a variety of experts, politicians, and critics, but also a couple of out-and-proud extremists: Randy Ireland, ex-leader of New York’s Proud Boys (who describes his brethren as "Western Chauvinists"), and Eric "General E" Braden, founder of the Southern Patriot Council. Both are vets, and their comments indicate that they exist in an alternate reality where the Big Lie is an unassailable truth, Joe Biden is a criminal, and revolt is an apparent inevitability.
Goldsmith candidly recounts his experiences tumbling down a rabbit hole of antisemitic fiction in the years following his army service, which fed into his disaffection and poisoned his mind. His emergence from that hateful echo chamber via in-person college courses and volunteer work speaks to the support systems necessary to keep military vets from falling prey to radicalization, just as Against All Enemies’ discussion of Timothy McVeigh—and his relationship to the Jan. 6 insurrection—pinpoints the urgent need for federal laws that target domestic terrorists, of which there are currently none. The fact that there are scant tools to fight these adversaries is a depressing and unnerving state of affairs, albeit not one that’s totally surprising, considering that one of the country’s two political parties has directly aligned itself with such elements. And in doing so, it has fomented distrust of the government and media, stirred up hate against minorities, and forwarded replacement theory scare tactics that compel conservatives to view things in dire us-versus-them terms.
Written by Sadoff, Sebastian Junger, and Kenneth Harbaugh, and narrated by Peter Coyote, Against All Enemies doesn’t always maintain strict focus on the ways in which white nationalist organizations go after soldiers and cops, instead veering into more general discussions that, however relevant, tend to leave the proceedings a bit diffuse. Best is when Sadoff allows his speakers to concisely talk about how patriotic veterans are seduced into accepting an "enticing" cause ("You get to fight again") through the promise of strength, brotherhood, and valor. "Their movement is about excluding others," says Goldsmith. It’s also about suppressing opposition and consolidating power, and as the documentary illustrates, it’s a coordinated effort that—by assuming a decentralized structure—is difficult to totally see, much less combat.
Against All Enemies’ scope is too limited to be a definitive examination of this phenomenon; learning more about the prevalence of white nationalist sentiment and allegiances inside the military (and police units) would have afforded a more comprehensive portrait of this problem. Consequently, Sadoff’s doc doesn’t fully convey the potential perils of the 2024 election and beyond. Still, as an introduction to a destructive marriage that only grows closer by the year, it does plenty to scare one about the future of the republic.
#2
Just a bunch of fucking bullshit is what it is.
Posted by: Chris ||
06/09/2023 10:03 Comments ||
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#3
If the Left is warning against a radicalized far-right military, it means they themselves are attempting a far-left radicalized military..and there are credible signs they are doing just that.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/09/2023 10:16 Comments ||
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#4
that situation hasn’t improved during the past two years
#5
In 1918 they were called Counter-Revolutionary, but since the forces of Marxism in America don't call themselves Revolutionary, but Progressive, perhaps the moniker should be Counter-Progressive, or C-Progs?
In an amusing parallel, the Czarist Counter-Revolutionary Forces were called "White Russians" so the much maligned concept of "White Americans" has yet another subtext?
#8
Some I’m a vet - check, concerned parent - check, devout Catholic … I guess I’ll go wait in the kitchen for the paddy wagon.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/09/2023 12:36 Comments ||
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#9
Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Militia. Crazy returning Vets. Ever since LBJ this fecal material has been sprayed on the populace by Democratic Party controlled administrations ...to cover up their own neuroses and fellow travelers on the Left, perhaps.
Truth will often tell you that's you're downtrodden, oppressed, brutalized, or enslaved. How's that freedom?
[SUDANTRIBUNE] Three days of fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) resulted in over 200 casualties, hundreds of others maimed and assaulted and extensive destruction of an already collapsed infrastructure. It is time to wake up from the trance that affected everyone post the 2021 coup and face the reality. There is no pro-democracy or pro-transition side among the parties in this conflict. It is a fight between two partners in one crime, the 25 October 2021 coup, over the spoils of their crime. This is a war between two evils who both don’t have the interest of this country in their hearts.
Hemetti’s war was inevitable. The RSF is an abnormal appendix to the state’s normal organizational structure. With its independence, military nature, and the ambition of its leader, it posed a continuous existential threat to the state. The 2021 coup exaggerated Hemetiti’s lust for power and pushed his competition with Burhan and the army over control. Later, his engagement in the dysfunctional political process as a natural and independent political actor further fed his ambitions to continue preserving his military and political influence. The recognition of some domestic actors and international sponsors to the process of his irrational demands, as negotiable political stances, such as a decade to resolve the issue of his forces, gave him a growing sense that he could re-position himself as a legitimate political actor both locally and internationally. RSF’s regional and international ties also fed his illusive sense about his legitimacy and the legitimacy of his forces and their equal status with the national army.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2023 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11124 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
#1
There is a problem with the conclusion. The international community -- that is supposed to step in to save the day -- has found the Sudanese polity (politicians and military) so corrupt no one gives a damn if the country actually goes to hell in a handbasket.
[Politico] The Pentagon Is Freaking Out About a Potential War With China (Because America might lose.)
The problem has come into sharp relief only in the last few years as Russia invaded Ukraine, leading to a prolonged war that has drained U.S. munitions stockpiles, and China dramatically escalated both its military spending and aggressive rhetoric against Taiwan. In the last year the U.S. has allocated nearly $50 billion in security aid to Kyiv, possibly cutting further into its deterrent against China. In other words, the failure to deter Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine and the stress this has put on the U.S. defense industrial base should be sounding alarms for the U.S. military posture vis-a-vis Taiwan, many defense experts say. Yet critics on both sides of the aisle say the Biden administration has been slow to respond to what is minimally required to prevent an Indo-Pacific catastrophe, which is the need to rapidly build up a better deterrent — especially new stockpiles of munitions that would convince China it could be too costly to attack Taiwan.
“There is a recognition of the challenge that goes to the top of the Pentagon, but across the board there is more talk than action,” says Seth Jones, a former Obama-era defense official who compiled a report on one of the wargames conducted at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
But a swift response may not be possible, in large part because of how shrunken the U.S. manufacturing base has become since the Cold War. All of a sudden, Washington is reckoning with the fact that so many parts and pieces of munitions, planes, and ships it needs are being manufactured overseas, including in China. Among the deficiencies: components of solid rocket motors, shell casings, machine tools, fuses and precursor elements to propellants and explosives, many of which are made in China and India. Beyond that, skilled labor is sorely lacking, and the learning curve is steep. The U.S. has slashed defense workers to a third of what they were in 1985 — a number that has remained flat — and seen some 17,000 companies leave the industry, said David Norquist, president of the National Defense Industrial Association. And commercial companies are leery of the Pentagon’s tangle of rules and restrictions.
“Unfortunately, the more you dig under the hood the more problems you see,” said a senior Democratic defense expert in the Senate who was granted anonymity because he was not allowed to speak on the record for his boss. “This is largely a function of the post-Cold War period being focused on efficiency. Since the Gulf War we came to expect too much from smart munitions. We haven’t needed stockpiles or found ourselves critically low on spare parts. So we’ve decreased the wiggle room.” At a military conference earlier this year, the Navy’s intelligence chief, Rear Adm. Mike Studeman, called the problem “China blindness,” saying: “It’s very unsettling to see how much the U.S. is not connecting the dots on our number one challenge.”
The administration’s response, including the fiscal 2024 defense authorization bill, was also delayed because of the protracted negotiations over Biden’s budget and the debt ceiling. Sen. Jack Reed, the Democratic chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, had been planning to hold hearings on America’s defense industrial base, but put those plans off because of the time being devoted to budget and debt dickering.
#3
After reading the article, I wonder if the invasion of the Southern Border and the economic, cultural and political destabilization that 8 MILLION new illegals is set to impose is not also a part of this strategy by the CCP/PLA through their surrogates in the Biden Administration? Certainly the efforts to neuter Trump as a candidate receive their unquestioning support through the Dark Money pipeline into the DNC for exactly the same reason.
[FoxNews] ...Washington establishment 'experts' rationalize that ending the flow of billions of dollars worth of weaponry to Ukraine will hand victory to Putin, emboldening Xi to invade Taiwan. It is the same characters who got every other foreign policy issue wrong -- Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Syria, and of course, the real Russia threat while focusing instead on the collusion hoax manufactured by the administrative security state. Truth is, Xi doesn’t need any extra encouragement to execute China’s decades old "One China" policy. Beijing vowed to "unify" the renegade province of Taiwan with mainland China back in 1949, including by force.
China’s defense minister General Li Shangfu reminded us of this as recently as Thursday. In a meeting with Singapore’s defense chief Ng Eng Hen, Li told his Singaporean counterpart that the PLA will "absolutely not" renounce the use of force on Taiwan. On Sunday, Li strengthened his warning to Washington. During the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual gathering of some of the world’s top defense officials in Singapore, China’s defense chief stated that war between China and the United States would be an "unbearable disaster for the world."
Establishment analysts, dominating U.S. elite media airwaves, interpreted Li’s statement as a sign of Beijing’s recognition of the need for Washington and Beijing to improve relations that are "at a record low." But what Li was actually doing is what is called in the intelligence business as strategic messaging. He was warning Washington to stay out of China’s perceived sphere of influence in Asia, lest it would incur "unbearable" costs.
Consider the context of Li’s warnings. Last week, the Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu, rejected a U.S. offer to have Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meet with China’s counterpart Li Shangfu. Liu Pengyu implied the Pentagon was insincere in seeking communication and accused the U.S. of "seeking to suppress China through all possible means."
For the past year, Chinese warships have been harassing U.S. Navy ships in the Taiwan Strait, with the last encounter taking place on Saturday, when a People’s Liberation Army Navy warship cut across the bow of a U.S. guided-missile destroyer, a distance of 150 yards. This provocation looked like a brazen attempt to instigate an incident.
In his speech, China’s defense chief Li then told foreign militaries to "mind your own business," and not operate warships and aircraft close to China’s territorial waters, in order to avoid problems. He blamed Washington for the recent provocative encounters.
Having Washington hyper-focused on Ukraine, pouring billions of dollars in military aid into yet another endless and unwinnable war suits Beijing perfectly. The Pentagon already has depleted crucial weapons stockpiles to such dangerous levels that U.S. forces would run out of existing precision weapons in less than a week in a potential war with China, according to a prominent Washington DC-based think tank. China, which already holds a military advantage over the U.S. by some measures -- having more ships, airplanes, and both offensive and defensive missiles – is overjoyed to see the Pentagon continue eroding American combat readiness in Ukraine.
The U.S. security apparatus got caught off guard by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and has cost billions to taxpayers. Biden’s current preoccupation with Ukraine at the expense of preparing our military for an inevitable war with China will have a much steeper cost. In a high-intensity shooting war with a "peer adversary," as the Pentagon terms China, U.S. forces would highly likely sustain tens of thousands of casualties. Or more. Washington’s getting duped into staying focused on Ukraine is dangerous for America.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Tom Woods] They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
[Daily Beast via Yahoo due to registration requirements] In May 2021, Attorney General 
