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22 ISIS targets hit in airstrikes in Palmyra
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Page 6: Politix
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-Land of the Free
This Week in Guns, December 17th, 2016


by Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

Interesting gun parts for modifying the SKS rifle can be found here. I have not looked into this, but what I have read is this seller offers adapter kits that can use standard AR parts for SKS rifles. Dunno how much this helps SKS owners.

The US Special Operations Command has selected a new cartridge for snipers, the .300 Norma Magnum. I have read in discussions on line about how the .308 is not a very good sniper round, but I also have read how a smaller caliber, the .264 Win Magnum is a flatter trajectory round that moves through the barrel very quickly, enough so the barrel is quickly worn out. Commercial versions of the .300 Norma Magnum run about $4.50 per round.

As you can see at the link, the powder charge behind the bullet is much, much larger than the .308 and the reason it is so much more expensive.

One shot, one kill. Any more and you'll be nursing a bruised shoulder.

Loads.

Rantburg's summary for arms and ammunition:

Prices for pistol ammunition were mostly steady. Prices for rifle ammunition were steady across the board.

Prices for used pistols were mixed. Prices for used rifles were mixed.

New Lows:

None

Pistol Ammunition

.45 Caliber, 230 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (9 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .24 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .24 per round (From Last week: Unchanged (7 Weeks))

.40 Caliber Smith & Wesson, 180 Grain, From Last Week: +.02 Each
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Ammo Mart, Legendary, FNFP, Brass Casing, reloads .19 per round (From Last Week: -.01 Each

9mm Parabellum, 115 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .15 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: FedArm, FedArm, TPMJ, Brass Casing, Reloads, .15 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks))

.357 Magnum, 158 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds: Outdoor Limited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk: 1,000 rounds: J&G Sales, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel casing, .25 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (7 Weeks))

Rifle Ammunition

.223 Caliber/5.56mm 55 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (5 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammo King, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .22 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (6 Weeks))

.308 NATO 150 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .34 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 500 rounds: Outdoor Unlimited, Tulammo, FMJ, Steel Casing, .34 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)

7.62x39mm AK 123 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks)
Cheapest, 20 rounds: Ammo King, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .25 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 1,000 rounds: SG Ammo, Wolf WPA, Steel Case, FMJ, .22 per round (From Last Week: -.03 Each)

.22 LR 40 Grain, From Last Week: Unchanged (3 Weeks)
Cheapest, 50 rounds (10 Box Limit): Ammomen, Federal, RNL, .06 per round
Cheapest Bulk, 325 rounds: Ammomen Federal, RNL, .06 per round (From Last Week: Unchanged (2 Weeks))

Guns for Private Sale
Rifles


.223/5.56mm (AR Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $483 Last Week Avg: $468(+) ($616 (2Q, 2015), $468 (2 Weeks))
California (347, 342): Mixed Build: $500 ($650 (1Q, 2015), $400 (2Q, 2016))
Texas (313, 306): Mixed Build: $500 ($700 (1Q, 2015), $350 (2Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (168, 167): Mixed Build: $520 ($700 (2Q, 2015), $300 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (218, 215): American Tactical Imports: $415 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $465 (4 Weeks))
Florida (425, 410): Anderson: $480 ($650 (2Q, 2015), $380 (1Q, 2015))

.308 NATO (AR-10 Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $1,050 Last Week Avg: $1,130(-) ($1,359 (2Q, 2015), $820 (3Q, 2015))
California (98, 93): Palmetto State Armory: $1,100 ($1,700 (4Q, 2014), $850 (3Q, 2015))
Texas (96, 89): Bushmaster: $1,050 ($1,500 (4Q, 2014), $700 (20 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (37, 27): Armalite: $1,400 ($1,600 (5 Weeks), $700 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (49, 44): DPMS: $900 ($2,750 (47 Weeks), $800 (4Q, 2015))
Florida (91, 81): DPMS: $800 ($1,950 (33 Weeks), $500 (3Q, 2015))

7.62x39mm (AK Pattern Semiautomatic) Average Price: $573 Last Week Avg: $590(-) ($668 (23 Weeks)), $450 (3Q, 2015))
California (85, 90): IO: $750 ($800 (28 Weeks)), $320 (4Q, 2014))
Texas (74, 80): Zastava N-PAP: $550 ($800 (48 Weeks), $350 (3Q, 2014))
Pennsylvania (49, 52):Vepr: $500 ($750 (1Q, 2015), $375 (1Q, 2015))
Virginia (53, 53): Zastava M70B1: $640 ($700 (28 Weeks), $350 (1Q, 2015))
Florida (110, 98): CAI: $425 ($700 (41 Weeks), $300 (4Q, 2014))

30-30 Winchester Lever Action Average Price: $350 Last Week Avg: $355(-) ($495 (10 Weeks), $296 (3Q, 2015))
California (0, 0): None Available: $0 ($1,000 (5 Weeks), $180 (2Q, 2015))
Texas (15, 16): Marlin: $300 ($550 (1Q, 2015), $300 (1Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (13, 11): Winchester 94: $350 ($450 (1Q, 2015), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Virginia (14, 14): Mossberg 468 SPX: $350 ($670 (32 Weeks)), $250 (4Q, 2015))
Florida (18, 22): Winchester 94: $400 ($500 (1Q, 2015), $250 (2Q, 2015))

Pistols

.45 caliber ACP (M1911 Pattern Semiautomatic Pistol) Average Price: $432 Last Week Avg: $443(-) ($515 (19 Weeks)), $350 (4Q, 2015))
California (220, 231): Rock Island Armory: $495 ($800 (19 Weeks), $300 (3Q, 2015))
Texas (245, 240): Charles Daly: $430 ($600 (4Q, 2014), $300 (2 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (155, 155): Para Ordnance: $575 ($550 (2Q, 2015), $300 (2Q, 2015))
Virginia (151, 158): Para Ordnance: $300 ($575 (46 Weeks)), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Florida (366, 378): Taurus 1911: $360 ($500 (45 Weeks), $250 (1Q, 2015))

9mm (Beretta 92FS or other Semiautomatic) Average Price: $267 Last Week Avg: $279(-) ($358 (42 Weeks), $245 (34 Weeks))
California (231, 254): FMK 9C1: $400 ($500 (42 Weeks), $200 (4Q, 2015))
Texas (346, 347): Springfield XD-S: $210 ($355 (1Q, 2015), $200 (3Q, 2015))
Pennsylvania (280, 287): Sccy CPX-2: $200 ($350 (4Q 2014), $200 (3Q, 2015))
Virginia (252, 245): Smith & Wesson SD9VE: $250 ($425 (50 Weeks), $189 (37 Weeks))
Florida (603, 601): Smith & Wesson SW9VE: $275 ($400 (39 Weeks), $190 (19 Weeks))

.40 caliber S&W (Glock or other semiautomatic) Average Price: $325 Last Week Avg: $280(+) ($399 (47 Weeks), $262 (27 Weeks))
California (82, 89): Springfield XD40: $400 ($560 (49 Weeks)), $250 (4Q, 2014))
Texas (109, 115): Smith & Wesson Sigma 40: $275 ($425 (4Q, 2014), ($210 (12 Weeks))
Pennsylvania (95, 94): Smith & Wesson Shield 40: $300 ($450 (35 Weeks), $200 (15 Weeks))
Virginia (82, 80): Smith & Wesson M&P40: $300 ($450 (2Q, 2015), $275 (1Q, 2015))
Florida (148, 159): Walther PPS: $350 ($400 (1Q, 2015), $199 (4Q, 2015))

Used Gun of the Week: (Indiana)
Ruger No 1 Chambered in 7mm Remington Magnum
Posted by: badanov || 12/17/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Bye-Bye, Neocons
HT AosHQ
An estimated 30 percent of American Jews voted for Trump, the highest Jewish vote for a Republican since 1988. Among religious Jews, anecdotal evidence suggests, support for Trump was overwhelming. But most Jewish Republican leaders backed Hillary Clinton or minor candidates in the general election while opposing Trump in terms that often climbed the walls of hysteria.

"Jews to this day continue to combine an almost pathologically intense concern for politics with a seemingly equally intense inclination toward political foolishness, often crossing over into the realm of the politically suicidal," wrote the late Irving Kristol, the original neoconservative. His son Bill Kristol proved the Jewish proclivity for political hara-kiri remains undiminished in his generation by doing everything he could to prevent the election of Donald Trump‐along with such high-profile Jewish conservatives as pundit Charles Krauthammer and Commentary Editor John Podhoretz. In the end, Kristol destroyed his own career. On Dec. 12 he resigned as editor of The Weekly Standard, the political journal he founded 20 years ago.
I was most disappointed in Krauthammer, who I had great respect for
Posted by: Frank G || 12/17/2016 12:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  To paraphrase Ben Richards (The Running Man) "Was de Hammer, now just hambone..."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/17/2016 13:39 Comments || Top||

#2  They fought against the boogieman-Trump. They will now see how president-elect and then President Trump actually behaves. Without the need to pontificate at frequent intervals, they will have time to evaluate and analyze -- and being intellgent, thoughtful people, I expect at least some of them will learn useful thinge and draw useful conclusions from the experience. And at least some of them will resurrect their careers.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/17/2016 16:13 Comments || Top||


Klingon director orchestrates shadow government consensus on RU hacking
[Wash Times] The FBI and the Director of National Intelligence agree with a CIA assessment that Russian cyber attacks on the U.S. election were intended in part to help President-elect Donald Trump win office, according to news reports.

Citing U.S. officials’ accounting of a staff memo sent by CIA Director John Brennan to his employees, The Washington Post reported Friday that both FBI Director James Comey and DNI James Clapper supported the CIA’s analysis of Russia’s hacking efforts.

"Earlier this week, I met separately with (Director) FBI James Comey and DNI Jim Clapper, and there is strong consensus among us on the scope, nature, and intent of Russian interference in our presidential election," Mr. Brennan wrote, according to the Post.

"The three of us also agree that our organizations, along with others, need to focus on completing the thorough review of this issue that has been directed by President Obama and which is being led by the DNI."

NBC News also confirmed the Post’s report. Reports from earlier this week indicated that the ODNI had not endorsed the assessment that the Russian’s got involved to help Mr. Trump win the election.

Coming soon: Obama confers with Lynch, threatens to block removal of DNI, Director FBI and CIA pending outcome of investigation. Recommends pulling of Secret Service protection.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/17/2016 06:43 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But, but, but I thought the bureau had the lead on investigations involving domestic counterintelligence.

No mention of whose job it is to ensure that such alleged incidents do not happen.

Consensus now, proof later according to DNI Clapper. Could take months, even years.

Wash Times Link

Posted by: Besoeker || 12/17/2016 6:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Alright, so when the Klingon's refused to meet with you last week and provide evidence, what did you think they might be up to ?

House Intel Chair ‘Alarmed’ FBI Agrees With CIA On Russian Election Interference
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/17/2016 8:11 Comments || Top||

#3  They are prepping the battlespace for the delay of the electoral vote and the eventual nullification of it.
The states will vote monday as planned, but when the results are close to being certified in congress the rug will get yanked out from under us.
Election hacked, all previous results are null and void. Demoncrats keep power.
Posted by: DarthVader || 12/17/2016 9:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Trump's rejection of international 'regime change' was the virtual last straw.

The shadow government has no intention of relinquishing power without a fight. Nothing personal, it's simply a business decision.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/17/2016 10:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, the Saudis preferred Clinton and put their money on it. Klingon Director says nothing...

Posted by: Tennessee || 12/17/2016 12:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Yeah, a lot of that money came from entities that felt they were buying something, not placing a wager. Nasty surprise for them...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/17/2016 12:02 Comments || Top||

#7  "... Support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.... Bear true faith and alligence ...."
Funny how those words in the oath will require the people in the military to take seriously any such attempt to subvert a peaceful transfer of power. Sedition is in the air folks, and it needs to be dealt with if it goes any further than snowflakes talking.....
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 12/17/2016 12:15 Comments || Top||

#8  Hopefully something will prevent these evil bastids from having their way. Their intent is becoming more obvious with each passing day.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/17/2016 12:51 Comments || Top||

#9  I watched Obama's news conference yesterday. It was unpleasant and I had to force myself to sit through it.

When asked about releasing the evidence that proves Putin's involvement in the hack he said he could not reveal certain "sources and methods". He said we have a choice of trusting our own intelligence community or trusting Putin.

Gosh, that's a tough one. He wants us to trust the people who refused to prosecute Hillary for violating secrecy laws? The people who brought us Benghazi and Syria? The people who got us into Iraq under false pretenses? The people who for decades did absolutely nothing about the cyber war being waged against us all by the Chinese, Russians, Ukrainians, Turks, etc., etc., but then, when those enemies made Hillary look bad, all of a sudden our vaunted intelligence community tells us they were endangering our democracy?

I smell hypocrisy.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 12/17/2016 12:54 Comments || Top||

#10  I'm starting to debate the use of the CIA. They are not paid to politically manipulate This Country like they are.

It looks more like a bunch of un-professional, leftist goons.

They better stop playing games.
We could replace that festering blight on our Republic with a new OSS overnight.
Posted by: newc || 12/17/2016 14:07 Comments || Top||

#11  Peaceful transfer of power...




Posted by: Sperelet Jearong5387 || 12/17/2016 16:17 Comments || Top||

#12  Keep the DIA & NRO & NGeoSpatial - Dump the others.
Posted by: 3dc || 12/17/2016 21:26 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Where are the men behind the genocide?
[Dhaka Tribune] On a PIA flight from Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
to Lahore years ago, I became acquainted with a retired Pak brigadier named A.R. Siddiqi. He seemed to be a proper gentleman and explained to me that back in 1971 he had been in charge of Pakistain’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). Siddik Salik, he told me, was his subordinate in Dhaka. Brigadier Siddiqi told me of the shock he went through when the Pakistain army launched its genocide, for he had been in Dhaka when Operation Searchlight was launched. "I am writing my account of the war," Siddiqi told me. I asked him if he meant to reveal everything in his book. He promised he would. I am glad to report that when the book, East Pakistain: The Endgame: An Onlooker’s Journal 1969-1971, appeared some years later, Siddiqi kept his promise. His account of the crisis, especially of the early days of Operation Searchlight, was riveting. It is one of the few objective books to have come out of Pakistain from a Pak who was part of the military establishment in 1971.

I have not met Brigadier Siddiqi after that conversation on the Karachi-Lahore flight. But years earlier, I did have an opportunity to come across Brigadier Siddik Salik, the writer of the acclaimed Witness to Surrender, when he accompanied General Zia ul Haq
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 12/17/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Quetta inquiry report
[DAWN] THE catalogue of errors, mistakes, oversights, criminal wrongdoing, hubris and policy misguidedness is so overwhelming that it is scarcely possible to read the report of the inquiry commission on the Aug 8 Quetta bombing of the legal community. Surely no state apparatus in a country and in a province so wracked by violence for so long can be allowed to be so utterly incompetent in so many ways. Yet, the report of the inquiry commission led by Supreme Court Justice Qazi Faez Isa lays bare such sweeping failures as to call into question the very edifice of the country’s counterterrorism and counter-insurgency strategies. To be sure, there are no easy, readymade solutions to what is destined to be a long war. By its very nature, the fight against militancy is not something a conventionally oriented state security apparatus can do automatically and immediately. But Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
has had a militarised security policy for more than a decade, military campaigns have been waged in every one of the seven agencies of Fata and counterterrorism operations have been conducted for years from Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
. By now, the stunning failures laid bare by Justice Isa should have been addressed to a great extent.

Two things stand out in the panoply of wrongs catalogued in the report. First, a meaningful policy change can only be built on an explicit rejection of past policy. From the Afghan jihad in the 1980s to the state redirecting murderous Moslem energies towards India-held Kashmire in the 1990s, Pakistain’s problem with militancy is rooted in deliberate choices that became self-inflicted wounds, but the state has never acknowledged this. Even today, responsibility for choices made willingly and egregiously is largely deflected towards external factors. The Cold War and Pakistain’s alignment with the US is blamed for the original embrace of armed jihad. The proxy wars between oil-rich Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
and Iran are blamed for the rise of violent sectarianism in the country. But through it all, it was the state’s complicity with murderous Moslem groups for parochial agendas that allowed the creation of an infrastructure of jihad that the country is now struggling to dismantle. The denial of the past must end.

Second, the state needs a zero-tolerance approach towards militancy. No more prioritisation of the fight against anti-Pakistain holy warriors while tolerating the growth of other groups. No more treating some banned murderous Moslem groups as more deserving of punitive action than other banned outfits. No more asking the world to be patient while demanding it do more to help Pakistain fight selective battles. Yes, tactics and strategies against different groups will necessarily have to be different, and different regions will need different approaches, but in principle and in philosophy there must be clarity that all murderous Moslem groups will be dismantled and that Pakistain will be cleansed of militancy, terrorism and extremism. Total clarity, total commitment -- there is no other option.

Posted by: Fred || 12/17/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Totten: The Fall of Aleppo

The Syrian city of Aleppo has fallen. Iran, Russia, Hezbollah and Bashar al-Assad's Arab Socialist Baath Party regime have won.

Long known as Syria's Stalingrad, the Battle of Aleppo has raged since July, 2012, when the Free Syrian Army opened fire on Assad's security forces in the Salaheddine district.

Four and a half years later, after being held by checkboard of various rebel factions, Assad's army has retaken the city with a rogue's gallery of international allies.

It's just about the last place on earth you'd want to be right about now.
Posted by: Frank G || 12/17/2016 12:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is not the West's fault.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/17/2016 13:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Who stopped Jr from suppressing the Sunny uprising 4 years ago, MM?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/17/2016 13:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Sorry. The muzlimb spring was more like indian summer. Short and not for real...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/17/2016 14:52 Comments || Top||

#4  barry didn't have the rocks to keep the muzlimb bros in charge in Egypt either. So there is that...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/17/2016 14:59 Comments || Top||

#5  I feel sorrow for the people of Syrian and Aleppo. Like all wars and conflicts, it is evil and disgusting. I am however, not going to send my son or your son to help fix it. If they land on the OBX and invade Duck, I will personally drive there and help kill every last one of them.
Posted by: Besoeker || 12/17/2016 15:37 Comments || Top||

#6  #5 has the only correct attitude regarding that mess...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/17/2016 15:48 Comments || Top||

#7  You don't get involved in civil wars. They are... not civil.
Posted by: European Conservative || 12/17/2016 17:05 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm with Mr. B and EC.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/17/2016 17:18 Comments || Top||

#9  This is a proxy war -- Iran, Russia and Hizb'allah vs. Saudi Arabian, Kuwaiti and Qatari funds and weapons in Sunni jihadi hands, all willing to fight to the last Syrian.
Posted by: trailing wife || 12/17/2016 17:23 Comments || Top||

#10  14 fighter groups in Syria will be joining together and announcing their group tomorrow - "The Syrian Islamic Commission."
Posted by: newc || 12/17/2016 19:55 Comments || Top||

#11  "Iran, Russia and Hizb'allah vs. Saudi Arabian, Kuwaiti and Qatari funds and weapons in Sunni jihadi hands, all willing to fight to the last Syrian"

Bingo, #9 tw.
Posted by: Barbara || 12/17/2016 21:21 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Trump and the rage of the Brahmandarins
h/t Instapundit
In recent weeks, we have witnessed ever-more cartoonish examples of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Even those of us who have been sharply critical of Trump (such as www.thelibertyzone.us) are staring on with a kind of revulsed fascination as our chattering class descends ever deeper into the pits of insanity. So do those who merely voted against Hillary rather than for Trump, such as the razor-sharp "Dystopic" or the underrated historical novelist Roy M. Griffis.

...As I was perusing Trump’s cabinet list in the Times of London the other day, I was struck not so much by the names -- some ’feck yeah!’, some ’well, OK’, some ’meh’ -- as by what wasn’t there. The ’Brahmandarins™’ had been left behind, as it were. Allow me to expand.

...Now how does this tie in with Trump and his cabinet? In the last several Presidential elections, Brahmandarin D candidates (Obama, Hillary) were pitted against Kshatriyas (McCain) or Vaishyas (Romney, Trump). While the D party used to be one with which particularly Shudras (laborers) could identify, over time it has increasingly become a patron-client coalition of Brahmandarins and Dalits.

...Fast-forward to the present. In the last several Presidential elections, Brahmandarin D candidates (Obama, Hillary) were pitted against Kshatriyas (McCain) or Vaishyas (Romney, Trump). Unsurprisingly, Brahmandarin presidents tend to appoint cabinet and senior aides from among the Brahmandarin caste, while Trump’s appointments came almost exclusively from the Vaishyas (Exxon CEO Tillerson for State, various other execs), and Kshatriyas (Mattis, Flynn, Kelly). It doesn’t matter that most of these people have real-world achievements to their names than a Robbie Mook type can only dream of: they are "ignorant" (read: insufficiently subservient to New Class shibboleths), "hate-filled", etc. -- All short-hand for "not one of us".
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/17/2016 02:30 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One of the Prof's odder offerings, nice visuals tho.
Posted by: Shipman || 12/17/2016 8:03 Comments || Top||

#2  I see it as much simpler.
Trump nominates folk who know enough about the agency they are being put in charge of to implement an austerity package based on "You are fired!".

Posted by: 3dc || 12/17/2016 21:30 Comments || Top||


Where the Right Went Wrong
Disclosure: I donated a small amount of money to the Trump campaign in September.
[NYTimes] MILWAUKEE — After nearly 25 years, I’m stepping down from my daily conservative talk radio show at the end of this month. I’m not leaving because of the rise of Donald J. Trump (my reasons are personal), but I have to admit that the campaign has made my decision easier. The conservative media is broken and the conservative movement deeply compromised.
Conservative media has been "broken and deeply compromised" for years. A lot of people espoused conservatism as a means of contrasting themselves as iconoclasts, while all the time embracing and advancing ideas and ideals that were anathema to conservatives. They were an act. Clowns and dancing monkeys. Trump's campaign drove most of the posers out in the open including, apparently, Sykes.
In April, after Mr. Trump decisively lost the Wisconsin Republican primary, I had hoped that we here in the Midwest would turn out to be a firewall of rationality. Our political culture was distinctly inhospitable to Mr. Trump’s divisive, pugilistic style; the conservatives who had been successful here had tended to be serious, reform-oriented and able to express their ideas in more than 140 characters. But in November, Wisconsin lined up with the rest of the Rust Belt to give the presidency to Mr. Trump.
The problem with reforms is that they do not address the basics: reduced government, eliminating and repealing unjust laws, and taxation. Reducing or eliminating government's incredible strength where it should never have been to begin with. If Mr. Sykes thought that Midwest reformers would lead the Republican party to a presidential victory, he should have been aware that reformers were in the mold of Mitt Romney, who got his ass handed to him four years before.
How on earth did that happen?

Before this year, I thought I had a relatively solid grasp on what conservatism stood for and where it was going. Over the previous decade, I helped advance the careers of conservatives like House Speaker Paul D. Ryan; Gov. Scott Walker; Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee; and Senator Ron Johnson. In 2010, conservatives won big majorities in the Wisconsin State Legislature, and I openly supported many of their reforms, including changes to collective bargaining and expansions of school choice.
What commie Daniel DeLeon once said about capitalism applies to reforms: stop washing the trash. Toss it out!
In short, I was under the impression that conservatives actually believed things about free trade, balanced budgets, character and respect for constitutional rights. Then along came this campaign.
Here Sykes wants to extol the virtues of ideas, except he fails to address the problem that expressing those ideals is like explaining to a man who has just lost his job the basics of Keyensian economics. But the man doesn't want to be schooled. He doesn't want to hear about economics. He doesn't want to hear about conservative policies. He wants his job.
On the surface, the explanations for Mr. Trump’s improbable win in Wisconsin are simple enough: He won big margins in rural, blue-collar counties and won the pivotal Green Bay area by double digits. But he underperformed Mitt Romney in the vote-rich Milwaukee suburbs and ended up getting fewer votes in victory than Mr. Romney received in his 2012 defeat. Hillary Clinton, however, got about 39,000 fewer votes in heavily Democratic Milwaukee County than President Obama did four years earlier. Democrats simply stayed home, though that is obviously not the whole story.
Damn lies and statistics.
That is what I saw, and this is what it might mean for the future of conservatism. When I wrote in August 2015 that Mr. Trump was a cartoon version of every left-wing media stereotype of the reactionary, nativist, misogynist right, I thought that I was well within the mainstream of conservative thought — only to find conservative Trump critics denounced for apostasy by a right that decided that it was comfortable with embracing Trumpism. But in Wisconsin, conservative voters seemed to reject what Mr. Trump was selling, at least until after the convention.
Sykes was so concerned about being in the tribe and being in the mainstream that he failed to see the coming flood. That happened to a lot of conservatives. They saw Trump and Trump's refusal to speak in the muted tones associated with a boring conservative campaign, so they mischaracterized what Trump was doing with the same rhetoric the left was using.
To be sure, some of my callers embraced Mr. Trump’s suggestion for a ban on Muslims entering the country and voiced support for a proposal to deport all Muslims — even citizens. One caller compared American Muslims to rabid dogs. But right to the end, relatively few of my listeners bought into the crude nativism Mr. Trump was selling at his rallies.
Self assurance. It can be a bear. What they did buy into was the argument that this was a “binary choice.” No matter how bad Mr. Trump was, my listeners argued, he could not possibly be as bad as Mrs. Clinton. You simply cannot overstate this as a factor in the final outcome. As our politics have become more polarized, the essential loyalties shift from ideas, to parties, to tribes, to individuals. Nothing else ultimately matters.
Polarized my ass. It was congruent, and if Mr. Sykes had any sense about conservatives he would have seen that Trump sliced effortlessly through the notion that politics in America was polarizing.
In this binary tribal world, where everything is at stake, everything is in play, there is no room for quibbles about character, or truth, or principles. If everything — the Supreme Court, the fate of Western civilization, the survival of the planet — depends on tribal victory, then neither individuals nor ideas can be determinative. I watched this play out in real time, as conservatives who fully understood the threat that Mr. Trump posed succumbed to the argument about the Supreme Court. As even Mr. Ryan discovered, neutrality was not acceptable; if you were not for Mr. Trump, then you were for Mrs. Clinton.
Trump was a businessman first. He has never been in a position to pose a threat to anyone on any level except in business. And the idea stood then as it stands now. If you were, after the conventions, going against Trump, that meant that you were a Hillary supporter. I watched this played out several times where a Golden Throat of some kind did not voice support for Trump, yet denied that meant support for Hillary. There is no nuance. There only is a choice.
In this political universe, voters accept that they must tolerate bizarre behavior, dishonesty, crudity and cruelty, because the other side is always worse; the stakes are such that no qualms can get in the way of the greater cause.

For many listeners, nothing was worse than Hillary Clinton. Two decades of vilification had taken their toll: Listeners whom I knew to be decent, thoughtful individuals began forwarding stories with conspiracy theories about President Obama and Mrs. Clinton — that he was a secret Muslim, that she ran a child sex ring out of a pizza parlor. When I tried to point out that such stories were demonstrably false, they generally refused to accept evidence that came from outside their bubble. The echo chamber had morphed into a full-blown alternate reality silo of conspiracy theories, fake news and propaganda.
Sykes ignored that even with "two decades of vilification", Hillary's socialist tendencies were getting worse as time went on. This was not group think. It was blatant and visible. How can such an individual be a rational choice?
And this is where it became painful. Even among Republicans who had no illusions about Mr. Trump’s character or judgment, the demands of that tribal loyalty took precedence. To resist was an act of betrayal.
It's like this at our local party levels as well. It's galling, but they hold the reins. Don't like it? Become involved. You can change things if you are involved. But if all you can offer is your opinion or your complaints, you won't change a thing.
When it became clear that I was going to remain #NeverTrump, conservatives I had known and worked with for more than two decades organized boycotts of my show. One prominent G.O.P. activist sent out an email blast calling me a “Judas goat,” and calling for postelection retribution. As the summer turned to fall, I knew that I was losing listeners and said so publicly.
Sykes had a choice. Watch the oncoming train, or get out of the way. Sykes chose to stay on the track, The train did not stop. Sux to be Sykes.
And then, there was social media. Unless you have experienced it, it’s difficult to describe the virulence of the Twitter storms that were unleashed on Trump skeptics. In my timelines, I found myself called a “cuckservative,” a favorite gibe of white nationalists; and someone Photoshopped my face into a gas chamber. Under the withering fire of the trolls, one conservative commentator and Republican political leader after another fell in line.
It takes leather ballz to be famous and on Twitter.
How had we gotten here?

One staple of every radio talk show was, of course, the bias of the mainstream media. This was, indeed, a target-rich environment. But as we learned this year, we had succeeded in persuading our audiences to ignore and discount any information from the mainstream media. Over time, we’d succeeded in delegitimizing the media altogether — all the normal guideposts were down, the referees discredited.
To use a football metaphor: the media referees were picking off passes intended for conservatives, and catching passes about to be picked off by conservatives. As bad as conservatives such as Sykes were, the mainstream media was an order of magnitude worse.
That left a void that we conservatives failed to fill. For years, we ignored the birthers, the racists, the truthers and other conspiracy theorists who indulged fantasies of Mr. Obama’s secret Muslim plot to subvert Christendom, or who peddled baseless tales of Mrs. Clinton’s murder victims. Rather than confront the purveyors of such disinformation, we changed the channel because, after all, they were our allies, whose quirks could be allowed or at least ignored.
"Irish democracy" will carry you only so far.
We destroyed our own immunity to fake news, while empowering the worst and most reckless voices on the right.
If by immunity Sykes means credibility, true. Also, you'll notice that Sykes doesn't mention any specific names, likely because for every "reckless voice on the right", the left had ten "reckless voices."
This was not mere naïveté. It was also a moral failure, one that now lies at the heart of the conservative movement even in its moment of apparent electoral triumph. Now that the election is over, don’t expect any profiles in courage from the Republican Party pushing back against those trends; the gravitational pull of our binary politics is too strong.
Pulueez. The "binary" notion has been exposed as a fraud. There has been only one side until 2016, and now they have a voice. Sykes and other deposed conservatives media people will have to compete now.
I’m only glad I’m not going to be a part of it anymore.
That makes two of us.
Charles J. Sykes (@SykesCharlie), a talk-show host in Wisconsin, is working on a book titled “How the Right Lost Its Mind.”
Posted by: badanov || 12/17/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sykes seems to think that conservatism is all about good manners.

I'd love it if we lived in a world where sweet reason was always the best way to persuade people -- but we don't.

If rude and crude is what it took to stop Hillary, then so be it.

Ultimately, Trump will be judged -- by honest people anyway -- by results, not by how gracious he was to the people who are trying to crap on him and the country.

I had enough of that with the Bushes, Maverick and Romney.
Posted by: charger || 12/17/2016 0:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Wars are about disciplined and systematic Violence.
There is no way to be "nice" in a war.

Plus, in the final analysis you have to send in the Infantry and their job is to shoot people and bayonet them.

There isn't ANY other way to win a war. THAT is WHY they call them Wars. In a war there is a winner and a loser. There is NO future in losing a war.

Cultural wars are no different. There WILL be a winner and there will be a loser. The dead don't complain and they don't write the history. Too bad for the dead. Forget what you can. Live with the rest.
Posted by: Slaise Bourbon9007 || 12/17/2016 3:39 Comments || Top||

#3  Broken?
Senate + President + House?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 12/17/2016 5:18 Comments || Top||

#4  By trying rational arguments on irrational people?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/17/2016 5:51 Comments || Top||

#5  g(r)om, you know what they say about teaching pigs to sing ...
Posted by: Spike Glineque6123 || 12/17/2016 7:44 Comments || Top||

#6  The question was "Where the Right Went Wrong"
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/17/2016 7:59 Comments || Top||

#7  Too many 'conservatives' are ideologically locked like their socialist counterparts. I suspect a good number of true believers stayed home on election day only to see their numbers swamped by Reagan democrats at the poles. Both sides of the political party spectrum forgot the contract begins with 'We, the people...'
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 12/17/2016 8:16 Comments || Top||

#8  [Mr. Trump] won big margins in rural, blue-collar counties and won the pivotal Green Bay area by double digits. But he underperformed Mitt Romney in the vote-rich Milwaukee suburbs and ended up getting fewer votes in victory than Mr. Romney received in his 2012 defeat

And it hasn't occurred to Mr. Sykes to figure out the reasons?
Posted by: Pappy || 12/17/2016 12:42 Comments || Top||

#9  And it hasn't occurred to Mr. Sykes to figure out the reasons?

Trump's a golfer, unlike duffer barry. It isn't always the longest shot that counts, it's the best placed shot...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/17/2016 14:57 Comments || Top||

#10  You know what's conservative?

Not spending money you don't have.

Not paying more attention to your neighbor's doings than your own.

Not sticking your nose in a fight you have no dog in. If your dog is poorly trained, maybe not even then.

The list goes on. The common thread is a true conservative minds his or her own business unless forced to do otherwise.
Posted by: M. Murcek || 12/17/2016 15:17 Comments || Top||

#11  As that great modern philosopher Dalton says, 'Be nice, until it's time to not be nice'.
Posted by: Raj || 12/17/2016 15:24 Comments || Top||

#12  Hear, hear, MM!
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 12/17/2016 15:38 Comments || Top||

#13  Sykes is part of the crowd that decried Reagan as being just an actor and "not very smart" while putting the Bedtime for Bonzo clip on an endless loop.

He's also a fool. This wasn't Reagan Democrats coming home, this was a revolt by a middle and lower-class dangerously angered by the long-running oppression of an overbearing government. VERY bad people come to power in these situations. I shudder to think what message the trump voters might've sent a few years hence had the Hildebeeste been elected.

Trump was a mild and best-case scenario.


Posted by: Lionel Gonque2389 || 12/17/2016 21:42 Comments || Top||

#14  I find it funny when they call Trump divisive. He was very inclusive towards citizens, it's just that his words were endlessly spun and misquoted by folks that know better and if Sykes believed that nonsense he's a damned fool.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 12/17/2016 22:16 Comments || Top||



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