Liberty Bristles

It seems that just now the question of whether the United States is a democracy has come to the public conversational fore. I think that’s great, as any among you who for whatever sad reason might have read what I’ve written on the subject would suppose. We as a country had some time ago been led by Democrats in the Democratic Party, Democrats in academe and Democrats in media to intone over and over that the United States was a democracy, that we fought for democracy, should spread democracy and that the word democracy was synonymous with good. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of the United States succeeded in federal court arguing that the party was not a democracy and could pick its leaders in any way they wanted. (Wilding, et. al. v. DNC Services). The Democrats were in court on a related democracy issue (white primaries) in the 30’s and 40s ( Grovey v. Townsend and Smith v. Allwright). Owning words and their public meaning is big strategy for Democrats, but it gives us a lot of tell, a lot of clues as to the who’s who. I just saw a clip of a CNN huff piece in which George Bush the younger is shown saying “Democracy remains the definition of political legitimacy.” Political Scientists love the word legitimacy. Political Science likes hollow words. All Democrats are Political Scientists. It’s science. Political Scientists are not legit scientists. That’s science too. Democrats are not democrats. George Bush was Republican but not republican. America is not a democracy, it’s (supposed to be) a republic, but our government is Democratic, not the least bit democratic, and not republican, even when Republican. You get it. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting about what to have for din-din. That said, the founders thought elections could help kick the bums out. Vote.

Nah, no punchline. In Mother Russia, joke make you. Taibbi and Kirn host a show called ‘America This Week’ on substack. Back on June 9th, the title of their discussion was “The Grand Inquisitor” by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It’s a stand-alone (more or less) short story at the beginning of The Brothers Karamazov. Yeah yeah, I know, I didn’t either. But some guys in my old office at Ft. Leavenworth probably did. Summarized summary: Dostoevsky explains the nearly inexplicable by imagining Torquemada in a conversation with Jesus Christ. The former mansplains to Jesus why the latter got it all wrong, and immorally so at that. I highly recommend reading the short story and listening to the discussion Walter and Matt have about that story. You might have to pay their fee. According to the discussants, Fyodor anticipated the Russian Revolution, or at least its fundamental justifications. The story does more than that. For those of you who would like to see a long-form explanation of propaganda of the deed, or of why the Faucies and Schwabs of the world are so flippant about killing lots and lots of folk, well — Dostoevsky.

We are already well into suffering the cultural part of the War for America. That in mind, today, 14 June, I want to recommend and second the work of J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ (Ace of Spades HQ (mu.nu) He has recently been battling some personal medical issues but (overcoming the de-gumptioning effects of both malady and treatment) provides us with some of the most entertaining, intelligent and resolute insights and information. Go there. He is a lot better than I am. (Then come back, you do not deserve J.J. Sefton)

This post is for those of you seeking my advice regarding the upcoming 2024 federal elections.  Ha ha…You must be kidding me…get a life. Yes, well, getting over your lack of self-respect, here is what I think.

We need to ignore as best as possible the Trump vs Biden conversation.  We need to ignore the ‘Biden is a jerk, Biden is too old, Biden is senile’ messaging and narrative. I believe all that is red herring. We have to make the contest Trump vs the Democratic Party of the United States. We need to drum on the idea that the Democratic Party is the evil entity. The actual leadership of that evil entity is looking for a pathway past Biden-Harris, and we need to be ready for however that play unfolds. Biden is not the issue and has not been for some time. Here is a chart…

Potential differences if Trump is or is not elected:

Once again checking in with Willy OAM. I’ve been hitting his site lately as the plot may be thickening and a Russian breakthrough on the near horizon, but who knows. Anyhow, beginning at about the 13:00 mark, Willy talks about a knowledgeable, elite friend of his who has repeatedly lamented the misuse of Ukrainian ‘special forces.’  I wondered in a comment if it might not be that no ‘strategic uses’ exists because of lack of transport. Let’s assert two broad traditional use categories for special forces type personnel — training of foreign forces in guerrilla warfare and raiding (OK, we could tease out others). To do the training guerrilla bit, there has to be some territory into which the forces can be placed where there is an appreciable body of potential guerrillas. To achieve the other (some sort of raid), any mission proposal depends on transportation capacity to and from a target. If strategic movement cannot be reasonably effected, fuhgeddaboudit. Indeed, if special ops transport cannot be mounted, there is no special ops force, just a bunch of better, more resolute athletes who have been organized on the basis of elite mentality and some hope. As Borat might tell you, “The problem is transport.” Maybe Willy’s friend wants to think he’s with some special guys, but they are effectively a bunch of rangers who don’t have any ‘SF’ guys who need saving and no plane to jump out of. In fact, your friend is with a group that long ago became high-end infantry reserves. Maybe they are being put to their best possible use — shoring up areas where defensive fortifications were not well-enough prepared or where less well-trained troops cannot survive — which now looks like a lot of areas.