h/t Donald Sensing
[Examiner] During the Obama Administration, a frequent rallying cry among conservatives has been the need to "take our country back." The Obama era has brought the fundamental change that the future president promised in 2008, but has left many Americans feeling that the country is on the wrong track.
Much of the focus on restoring America is centered on restoring Republicans --constitutional conservatives in particular -- to the White House. Winning the election of 2016, however, will prove much easier than reversing American decline. Many of the problems faced by the United States are in reality merely symptoms of deeper problems that may well prove impossible to fix, even with committed conservative Republicans in control of both houses of Congress and the presidency.
#1
From the article: "We might follow in the footsteps of Europe’s social democracies with a generation or more of stagnation and decline."
Delete "might" from the above. USA has either been stagnant or declining for ~20 years now.
#2
I agree the decline will be very challenging to overcome. Mostly because both major political parties do not have the intestinal fortitude to make the tough painful decisions. If the republicans win they will be more focused on reelection and rewarding cronies than reversing the decline.
The social issues are rarely reversible and usually grow; so get prepared for polygamy and affirmative action for transgenders and other made up classes of people.
#3
Ronald Reagan was transformative, despite the media's attempts to hogtie him. So where is Reagan when you need him? If we found him, how would he get past the media?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/24/2015 7:43 Comments ||
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#4
Civil wars have a tendency to sort out a lot of this kind of stuff. All the kings horses and all the kings men, can't put Humpty together again.
#5
I agree with Bobby, a Reagan/Thatcher type figure could reverse the decline. I'm not sure I see such a figure yet, but I have hopes Walker with all he's done so far and Cruz with his boldness confronting the media might somehow turn out to be so.
I also hope we get a wave election that replaces both Dems and Pubs with tea party Republicans, because our current political class is way to comfortable with the decline.
#8
I just reread Heinlein's Expanded Universe, published in 1980. Toward the end he discussed the nations's financial situation, in the context of it already being his long-since predicted Crazy Years. As he described it, in 1980 when the book was published America's federal debt was already too high to be paid back, never mind what was owed at the state and local level. It is considerably worse now, a thing he did not live to see, having died shortly after publication. Nonetheless, he had faith that after a really nasty crash, American hard work and inventiveness would put us back on track to prosperity.
#10
The left has gone Marxist. The Republicans in DC have shifted left. One of the few conservatives in DC lashed out at McConnell today on the Senate floor.
And millions of foreign nationals continue to flood in illegally.
As Dorothy said in the Wizzard of Oz, Dorothy: "Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh, my!"
#11
Lest we fergit, + to paraph 1990's CLINTONISM > THERE ARE NO COMMUNISTS AND FASCISTS IN WASHINGTON DC, ONLY COMMUNISTS AND LIMITED COMMUNISTS IN WASHINGTON DC.
Also ala 1990'S CLINTONISM = "THE US-N-ONLY-THE-US MUST BE RESTRAINED AND CONTROLLED".
Our mighty 21st Century, post-9-11 Unitarian Anti-Unitarian GOP-Dem Establishment.
* US-LED ANTI-US OWG-NWO + GLOBALISM = EX-SOLE-SUPERPOWER-SOON-TO-BE-ONE-OF-MANY-OWG-CO-SUPERPOWERS AMERIKA IS DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY HELPING ITS DEDICATED ENEMIES ANDOR WANNABES, ETC. GET MILPOL-GEOPOL STRONGER RELATIVE TO ITSELF.
THE US-N-ONLY-THE-US MUST UNILATER GIVE UP ITS POST-1945, COLD WAR, + 9-11 SOLE SUPERPOWER INFLUENCE-N-AUTHORITY AROUND THE WORLD TO THE NEW HIGHER OWG-NWO + ITS NEW CO-SUPERPOWER SIBLINGS PUTINIST RUSSIA, CHINA, + IRAN, OTHER? + WHILE SOMEHOW ALSO N-O-T BEING EXISTENTIALLY THREATENED OR DESTROYED IN THE PROCESS BY SAME OR OTHER.
"NONE DARE CALL IT TREASON", ... OR "SOCIALISM", Marxism, etc.
Iff the pro-OWG, Secularism-happy/demanding Marxists-Commies-Globalists + aligned believe they can control the [Theo-Socialist] Radical Islamists-Jihadists = Soon-to-be-Nukulaar Hard Boyz + Global Jihad, unfortunately I see nothing in the present to indicate that they can or will.
AFAIK the background as to why my Ancestors + PreCestors = 1960's-1970's Guam Taotamonas gave me visions of a STILL-RETREATING, STILL "WEAK/DECLINING" FUTURE USA deciding to sink Guam + other strategic Pacific islands to deny agz CHINA, etal. in SELF-PRESERVING "A2/AD" IS BEING SHAPED OR FORMED AS WE SPEAK.
#12
At this stage, the US' self-retreat is in its early phases - Anti-US US Globalist POTUS Obama wants the US-World to falsely or surreally believe the US Superpower is "weak/declining" while it continues to quietly entrench or re-trench vee coop wid Regional Allies, e.g. "PIVOT/
RETURN TO ASIA".
Hence no need to sink Pacific Islands just yet.
Instead of cementing its image andor credibility wid our traditional Allies, THE BAMMER ADMIN DESIRES TO ALLOW US ALLIES TO BELIEVE US COMMITTMENT = TREATY OBLIGATIONS TO THEM IS "DOUBTFUL" OR "QUESTIONABLE", ostensibly in order to foster or empower reliance by our Allies on the OWG Global Federal Union(s) in their particular regions as NOT HEADED OR LED BY THE US.
Thus we have ...
* MANILA TIMES > "FLEECED, BAMBOOZLED" KERRY DEFENDS IRAN DEAL.
* TOPIX > [Washington Times] ISIS SEKS TO ESTALISH FUNCTIONING,LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT [Governance] AS ITS TERRITORY GROWS.
* SAME > [AEI] SORRY, US, IRAN IS NOT GOING TO DEFEAT THE ISIS FOR YOU.
* SAME > [Jerusalem Post] OPINION: ARMING ALL SIDES FOR NUCLEAR WAR.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Independent.UK] US ACCUSATIONS THAT RUSSIA IS NOT RESSPECTING ITS SNIEGHBORS SOVEREIGNTY ARE "CONFRONTATIONAL", SAYS MOSCOW.
Kremlin Spox Dmitry Peskov.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > GET READY, JAPAN, RUSSIA HAS ITS OWN ISLANDS- BUILDING PROJECT [Military-Civilian Buildup = Kurils]| THE NATIONAL INTEREST BLOG.
* WORLD NEWS > [Japan News] CHINA SETS SIGHTS ON EAST CHINA SEA, FEAR GROWS BEIJING COULD MONITOR ALL OF ADIZ, i.e. "plug the gaps/loopholes" in its already declared ECS ADIZ wid the new islands China is building or improving in the South China Sea.
* WORLD MILITARY FORUM > GLOBAL TIMES: EXPERT: GUAM [+ CNMI] IS FAR WAY FROM THE US, WHY DOESN'T THE US GIVE THEM UP?
D *** NGIT, YEAH, WHY DOESN'T THE US = OBAMA GIVE US UP???
Lastly, as per #9, I'm afraid wid both the GOP + Dems goin' "Unitarian" Socialist, IT MAY TAKE A DE FACTO "CIVIL WAR 2", OVERSEAS MILPOL DISASTER, OR OTHER SEVERE OR CATASTROPHIC COMBO for your post to come true.
Social proof is susceptible to betrayal, while reasoning, because it relies on God — or mathematics and the laws of physics if you wish — never lies. Since history is pretty much a catalog of betrayal and obscurantism, it is rational to rely on reason. This conviction once lay at the heart of Western civilization and drove its progress but not any more. We’ve become superstitious savages with smartphones. We’ve forgotten why reason was adopted as the cornerstone of civilization to start with.
#5
If Iran fails to meet its responsibilities, by the time the sanctions will snap back into place, if ever will at best be years and it will be too late.
#6
When was the last time you saw a limp noodle snap back into place?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/24/2015 7:28 Comments ||
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#7
3dc, what you quote is true but only up to a point.
No logical argument is any stronger than the truth of the premises on which it is based. Goedel's proof pretty much says it all about the limits of completeness and consistency in any system be it mathematical or logical.
Our problem with society is that the underlying premises have all been undermined or ignored so logic and reason can no longer build on that foundation.
[DAWN] AT long last, two years and two months on from May 2013, the country can put to rest doubts about the credibility and acceptability of the last general election.
The three-member General Elections-2013 Inquiry Commission 2015 led by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Nasirul Mulk has given its verdict: the elections were in large part organised and conducted fairly and lawfully; no plan or design to manipulate or influence the election was found; and – simplifying the use of a double negative by the Commission — the elections were a true and fair reflection of the mandate given by the electorate.
In sum, the PTI’s claims have been dismissed and the PML-N government declared legitimate and lawfully elected.
In this hour of victory for the PML-N — and relief for the electorate that its will was not materially distorted in May 2013 — there was a predictable, though thoroughly unnecessary, controversy: instead of immediately releasing the report to the public, the PML-N chose to overnight crow about its content and first spin the conclusions of the report rather than allow the media and the people to read it for themselves.
Fortunately, better sense prevailed and the whole report was released yesterday afternoon before a full-fledged controversy erupted.
While vindication for the PML-N is here and the PTI is left to reflect on how and why it dragged the country through the dangerous and destabilising times that was the months-long dharna in Islamabad, the Commission’s report does underscore that there is a great deal of work to be done before Pakistan can traverse the ground between credible and acceptable and free and fair. In particular, the report amounts to an indictment of the Election Commission of Pakistan and its ability to conduct and organise elections.
The ECP, while constitutionally empowered, has proved to be very feeble in practice. It is unable to train and monitor the massive election machine that reports to it. It has not provided the kind of dynamism and sense of purpose that the vast administrative exercise that is a general elections needs.
As rightly suggested by the Commission, it was the many failures of the ECP that combined to produce a sense of injustice and even conspiracy theories in the minds of many of the electoral losers in May 2013.
There is surely no reason why the ECP should continue to be so listless in the performance of its constitutional duties.
Yet, much will depend on the government — and parliament — if the ECP is to be re-energised and re-tooled to meet the needs of elections in the 21st century.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif struck a conciliatory note in his address to the nation yesterday and referred to the work of the parliamentary committee of electoral reforms.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[DAWN] A year or so ago, those in Lahore who didn’t approve of the Sharif brothers’ rule had in a majority of cases placed their bets on Imran Khan. The skipper has since been dropped in favour of a more forthcoming and more empowered Gen Raheel Sharif. Any further developments in which Mr Khan is seen to be blocked – such as a judicial commission report that does not favour his cause – is going to add to Gen Sharif’s appeal as the only likely change-maker.
The general’s rise has been swift. For a brief period after the dharna in Islamabad was called off, it seemed to some that the old PML-N alliance with the army had been restored. That the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had failed to get from the military the relief it was looking for brought back the old grand theories about Mian Nawaz Sharif’s ‘natural’ bonding with the military, established meticulously over time under the tutelage of Gen Ziaul Haq.
The PML-N government was thought to have left the worst behind it and was certified to not be threatened with any imminent danger. But considering how much history and common sense was invested in the theory, the moment passed all too quickly. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was destined to be eclipsed by the army chief.
The old theory was replaced by new ones, many of which sought not to unduly disturb the visible sensitive balance with the military the Sharif government had managed to ‘restore’. The agreement was that Gen Sharif was a rival of Prime Minister Sharif’s choosing in public gallery. With a quick recall of his past it was decided that PML-N leaders were once again willing to live by an illusion of power while the real authority rested elsewhere — so long as it kept Mr Khan at bay. Thus the most talked about of the explanations was that which projected the prime minster as a satisfied junior partner to Gen Sharif.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2015 00:00 ||
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"If you marry off a girl at the age of 10, and she has a baby by 11 or 12, that is a child having a child; she is not ready. She doesn’t even understand what it is; physically, emotionally and psychologically she is not ready," said Professor Babatunde Oshotimehin, Executive Director United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), recently at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2015 00:00 ||
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Very basically, the cuckservative is a white gentile conservative (or libertarian) who thinks he's promoting his own interests but really isn't. In fact, the cuckservative is an extreme universalist and seems often to suffer from ethnomasochism & pathological altruism. In short, a cuckservative is a white (non-Jewish) conservative who isn't racially aware.
That’s a serviceable academic description. I prefer something a leetle more… pungent.
CH definition: A cuckservative is a cowardly pussy who sucks up to leftoid equalists for mercy and pisses himself when he gets accused of racism, sexism, or anti-semitism.
Corollary to the above CH definition: The cuckservative will throw his brother and his nation under the bus if it means he keeps his token status as cog in the Hivemind machine. Those cocktail parties aren’t going to attend themselves!
So what’s the difference between a cuckservative and a garden variety shitlib? Delayed reaction. Much more at the link. Commenter sez:
Conservatives thought they could placate their opponents by an act of good faith. "Hey, guys, we are willing to scrutinize the sins of the white man if you come halfway in our direction and let us keep our traditions." It was a misplaced, gratuitous, and unreciprocated faith that our enemies (rightly) read as a weakness to exploit, which they did.
That was then. There is no connection between 20th century conservatism and 21st. The ultimate sacrifice to white guilt ‐ giving the negro the presidency to expiate our sins ‐ severed that connection. We have gone from a political landscape where compromise was theoretically possible to a war-footing where the total surrender of one side must be unconditional.
In other words, the cold civil war is going hot. The left, rejecting not just compromise but the very legitimacy of the right, forced the situation when we largely would just rather be left alone.
The many well-meaning conservatives we are talking about here are not dumb or perversely attracted to their own humiliation (cuckoldry). They simply have not caught up with the news that this isn't their father's republic anymore. This is war.
Trimmed for fair use and inflammatory language, as this is a family blog.
should be appended to the headline, it got cut off for some reason...please delete this comment after editing, thanks!
Headline fixed. Article text snipped, as explained above. My daughters started reading this site over my shoulder when they were in sixth grade or thereabouts, curious about what I was enjoying. Other Rantburg offspring have done likewise over the years, and we take that into consideration in setting standards.
#3
Still - it is an extremely accurate definition, especially when taking into consideration the current wave of political terrorism being hurled at the nation via the social justice warriors.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
07/24/2015 14:46 Comments ||
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#4
As Ace said today (responding to these type of nitwits)- 'F*ck you - war'.
#6
Thanks for the link Tee H. A commenter I'd love to buy a beer or two.
Old rusty cock
Really shld not hijak this wonderful work by Heartiste, with g3y American sports talk, but I have to respondz lulz…
American football sucks..5 seconds of play time followed by roughly 5 minutes of race mixing pizza and beer ads. American football is incredibly boring. At least European soccer has hooligans and politics associated with certain cities and teams.
But back to something that matters. If you’re a white parent get your sons into wrestling in school early.. its free. If they dont want to, at least make them do it for one season. Even the most basic wrestling skills put an avg kid, a step ahead of the blunt smoking simian who will hit on his Gf. If you have the money get them into Boxing, muay Thai, Russian Sambo, and or BJJ when they’re not wrestling. Any one of these cpld with wrestling is great, and if you have time/money for more then go for it.
Whites can and do excell at wrestling and MMA, but again even at the basic levels it instills alphaness, physical fitness/prowess, work hard & succeed mind set all minus the mouth breathing dick scratching simian behaviour of baksetball (blacks play bball in winter while most whites wrestle) More importantly look around you, war is coming…get your sons prepared.
[PJMedia] This argument between Ted Cruz and Code Pink's Medea Benjamin [1] over the Iran deal is an interesting contrast in logical styles. Cruz reasons the deal is bad because it gives Tehran $100 billion that it will use to continue its war against America. By contrast, Benjamin says that since Obama and all the right thinking people think the deal is good then it must be. How can you, Ted Cruz, think differently from all these super-smart people?
The debate reflects the age-old conflict between an argument from reason and an argument from authority. It's a real contest because while Western civilization pays lip service to "evidence based" policy, in practice most human beings rely on social proof [2] to decide what to believe.
Social proof is a type of conformity. When a person is in a situation where they are unsure of the correct way to behave, they will often look to others for cues concerning the correct behavior. ... and is driven by the assumption that surrounding people possess more knowledge about the situation.
The search for "social proof" as a determinant of conviction is not wholly crazy. Few of us can say why a pharmaceutical works. But if the doctor prescribes a pill, we drink it without question. Most of the world is preoccupied with making a living and consequently have a high level of rational ignorance [3]. "Rational ignorance occurs when the cost of educating oneself on an issue exceeds the potential benefit that the knowledge would provide." It takes too long for us to figure things out from first principles, so we find a "smart man" and do what he tells us.
Many people spend 15 minutes every four years thinking about foreign policy or politics. Since it would take too much time for them to examine the issues themselves they rely on proxy indicators to inform their choice. Some people have faith in Donald Trump, others in Bernie Sanders. Medea Benjamin happens to believe in Barack Obama.
Ignorance about an issue is said to be "rational" when the cost of educating oneself about the issue sufficiently to make an informed decision can outweigh any potential benefit one could reasonably expect to gain from that decision, and so it would be irrational to waste time doing so. This has consequences for the quality of decisions made by large numbers of people, such as general elections, where the probability of any one vote changing the outcome is very small.
In some sense the American War of Independence never ended. The issues that divided it remain alive to this day. Perhaps it will never be settled for mankind, which will always be divided between those who look up at Ultron and see Hope and those who wonder why anyone who broods on a throne should be trusted.
The problem is that the social proofers demand that everyone conform to their viewpoint, to confirm its validity.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/24/2015 7:40 Comments ||
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#2
It's one of the more insightful short reads that I have seen in long long time.
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.
[DAWN] AT long last, two years and two months on from May 2013, the country can put to rest doubts about the credibility and acceptability of the last general election.
[DAWN] A year or so ago, those in Lahore who didn’t approve of the Sharif brothers’ rule had in a majority of cases placed their bets on Imran Khan. The skipper has since been dropped in favour of a more forthcoming and more empowered Gen Raheel Sharif. Any further developments in which Mr Khan is seen to be blocked – such as a judicial commission report that does not favour his cause – is going to add to Gen Sharif’s appeal as the only likely change-maker.
[DAWN] 
