COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Pat Buchanan puts the spotlight on the potential destruction of the West

The Real Existential Threats of 2016

On Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2016, the national debt is projected to reach $19.3 trillion.

With spending on the four biggest budget items — Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, defense — rising, and GDP growing at 1 percent, future deficits will exceed this year’s projected $600 billion.

National bankruptcy, then, is among the existential threats to the republic, the prospect that we will find ourselves in the not-too-distant future in the same boat with Greece, Puerto Rico and Illinois.

Yet, we drift toward the falls, with the issue not debated.

Ernest Hemingway reminded us of how nations escape quagmires of debt: “The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”

“Debauching the currency,” Lenin’s depiction, is the way we will probably destroy the debt monster.

Hemingway’s second option, war, appears to be the preferred option of the war chiefs of the Beltway’s think-tank archipelago, who see in any Putin move in the Baltic or Black Sea cases belli.

What our Cold War leaders kept ever in mind, and our War Party scribblers never learned, is the lesson British historian A. J. P. Taylor discovered from studying the Thirty Years War of 1914-1945:

“Though the object of being a Great Power is to be able to fight a Great War, the only way of remaining a Great Power is not to fight one.”

Another existential threat, if Western man still sees himself as the custodian of the world’s greatest civilization, and one yet worth preserving, is the Third-Worldization of the West.

The threat emanates from two factors: The demographic death of the native-born of all Western nations by century’s end, given their fertility rates, and the seemingly endless invasion of the West from Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Concerning the demographic decline and displacement of Western man by peoples of other creeds, cultures, countries, continents and civilizations, there is an ideological clash within the West.

Some among our elites are rhapsodic at the change. Worshiping at the altars of diversity and equality, they see acquiescing in the invasion of their own countries as a mark of moral superiority.

Angela Merkel speaks for them, or did, up to a while ago.
To those who believe diversity — racial, ethnic, religious, cultural — is to be cherished and embraced, resistance to demographic change in the West is seen as a mark of moral retardation.

Opponents of immigration are hence subjects of abuse — labeled “racists,” “xenophobes,” “fascists,” “Nazis” and other terms of odium in the rich vocabulary of Progressive hatred.

Yet, opposition to the invasion from across the Med and the Rio Grande is not only propelling the Trump movement but generating rightist parties and movements across the Old Continent.

It is hard to see how this crisis resolves itself peacefully.

For the hundreds of millions living in Third World tyranny and misery are growing, as is their willingness to risk their lives to reach Europe. And national resistance is not going to dissipate as the illegal immigrants and refugees come in growing numbers.

What the resisters see as imperiled is what they treasure most, their countries, cultures, way of life and the future they wish to leave their children. These are things for which men have always fought.

And, in America, is diversity leading to greater unity, or to greater rancor, separatism and disintegration? Did anyone imagine that, 50 years after the civil rights laws, we would still be having long hot summers in Ferguson, Baltimore and Milwaukee?

The crisis that South Carolina statesman John C. Calhoun had posthumously predicted in his “Disquisition on Government” has also come to pass.

The country would divide into two parties, Calhoun said. One would be the party of those who pay the taxes to government, the other the party of those who consume the benefits of government.

The taxpayers’ party would engage in constant clashes with the party of the tax-consumers.

In 2013, the top 1 percent of Americans in income paid 38 percent of all income taxes. The bottom 50 percent of income-earners, half the nation, paid only 3 percent of all income taxes.

A question logically follows: If one belongs to that third of the nation that pays no income taxes but receives copious benefits, why would you vote for a party that will cut taxes you don’t pay, but take away benefits you do receive?

Traditional Republican platforms ask half the country to vote against its economic interests. As a long-term political strategy, that is not too promising.

During the New Deal, FDR’s aide Harold Ickes, declared in what became party dogma, “We shall tax and tax, spend and spend, and elect and elect.”

And so they did, and so they do. But this is a game that cannot go on forever.
For, as John Adams reminded us, “There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”


Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of the new book “The Greatest Comeback: How Richard Nixon Rose From Defeat to Create the New Majority.”
Copyright 2016 Creators.com.

35 comments:

  1. Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday refugees had not brought terrorism to Germany, adding that Islam belonged in the country as long as it was practiced in a way that respected the constitution.

    More than a million people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere arrived in Germany last year. The mood towards them has soured after a spate of attacks on civilians last month, including three carried out by migrants.

    Two of those attacks were claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

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    1. Angela's an idiot, a quirk of Germany.

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    2. It's not a quirk, it's a feature.

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    3. Nature has quirks, Germany has features.

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  2. “There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

    "If (as is the case with most existing city-states) the population lacks the capacities and resources for complete happiness, however, the lawgiver must be content with fashioning a suitable constitution (Politics IV.11). The second-best system typically takes the form of a polity (in which citizens possess an inferior, more common grade of virtue) or mixed constitution (combining features of democracy, oligarchy, and, where possible, aristocracy, so that no group of citizens is in a position to abuse its rights). Aristotle argues that for city-states that fall short of the ideal, the best constitution is one controlled by a numerous middle class which stands between the rich and the poor. For those who possess the goods of fortune in moderation find it “easiest to obey the rule of reason” (Politics IV.11.1295b4–6). They are accordingly less apt than the rich or poor to act unjustly toward their fellow citizens. A constitution based on the middle class is the mean between the extremes of oligarchy (rule by the rich) and democracy (rule by the poor). “That the middle [constitution] is best is evident, for it is the freest from faction: where the middle class is numerous, there least occur factions and divisions among citizens” (IV.11.1296a7–9). The middle constitution is therefore both more stable and more just than oligarchy and democracy."

    http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-politics/

    Rah-rah for the middle-class !

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    1. On the other hand, one can say to hell with politics altogether - and sex too (Ernest Hemingway said every time one has sex it shaves some time off one's life)


      Indian 'oldest man ever' says yoga, celibacy key to age

      AFP•August 17, 2016


      View photos


      Indian monk Swami Sivananda (C), who claims to be 120 years old, is watched by one of his followers while practicing yoga in Kolkata on August 2, 2016 (AFP Photo/Dibyangshu Sarkar)
      More

      Kolkata (AFP) - Looking remarkably unlined for his claimed 120 years, an Indian monk who says he is the oldest man to have ever lived puts his longevity down to no sex or spices, and daily yoga.

      Hindu monk Swami Sivananda was born on August 8, 1896, according to his passport. If true, his life would have spanned three centuries, but despite his apparent age he remains strong enough to perform yoga for hours at a time.

      He is now applying to Guinness World Records to verify his claim. It currently lists Japan's Jiroemon Kimura, who died in June 2013 aged 116 years and 54 days, as the oldest man to have ever lived.

      India's passport authorities confirmed Sivananda's age from a temple register, the only record many Indians even decades younger have of their date of birth.

      However it would be extremely difficult to independently verify his age.

      Sivananda was featured by local media earlier this summer, with the Times of India noting he looked 50 years younger than his apparent age but taking his claims at face value.

      Sivananda, from the holy city of Varanasi, grew up in extreme poverty and chose to become a monk, saying he owed his age to "yoga, discipline, and celibacy".

      "I lead a simple and disciplined life. I eat very simply -- only boiled food without oil or spices, rice and boiled daal (lentil stew) with a couple of green chillies," he told AFP after a two-hour yoga session in Kolkata, the eastern Indian city where he had come for a short visit.

      Standing 1.58 metres (five feet two inches) tall, Sivananda sleeps on a mat on the floor and uses a wooden slab as a pillow.

      "I avoid taking milk or fruits because I think these are fancy foods. In my childhood I slept many days on an empty stomach," he said.

      Sivananda said he had not previously come forward to claim the record because he did not seek publicity, but was eventually persuaded by his followers to apply.

      The elderly man lost both parents before he was six and was given away by his relatives to a spiritual guru, whom he travelled with around India before settling in Varanasi.

      Fit and without any medical complications, he lives independently and even travels alone on trains.

      Sivananda, who was born in colonial-era India without electricity, cars or telephones, says he is not enthused by new technology and prefers being on his own.

      "Earlier people were happy with fewer things. Nowadays people are unhappy, unhealthy and have become dishonest, which pains me a lot," he said.


      "I just want people to be happy, healthy and peaceful."

      https://www.yahoo.com/news/indian-oldest-man-ever-says-yoga-celibacy-key-053114003.html?ref=gs

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    2. .

      Indian 'oldest man ever' says yoga, celibacy key to age


      In high school, he belonged to the chess club and couldn't get a date to the prom.


      .

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  3. SHOCK POLL: CLINTON 44.0% TRUMP 43.4%...

    RASMUSSEN: IT'S A 2-POINT RACE....DRUDGE

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  4. .

    Ol Pat is right in pointing out no one is talking about the budget even though at the current rate we are adding a $ trillion to our deficit every two years. Pat talks about defense, SS, Medicare, and Medicaid as the big four in the budget. But according to the 2016 FY budget, within 7 years interest on the debt will be a bigger element in the budget than defense. It will be bigger than all discretionary spending less defense. It will be bigger than Medicaid. It will be approaching the cost of Medicare. It will be more than half the cost of SS. And it will continue to grow and because of compounding it will be growing at an accelerating rate nudging out other discretionary spending. And what do we get for that cost? Zip!

    [Not sure what interest rates are being used in the projections or when they project they will normalize; however, were interest rates to suddenly shoot up we would be SOL.]

    That being said, there is always something that can be done about the debt. None of them good, of course. But it is not an existential threat. It may be very painful but I doubt it will threaten our existence as a nation.

    The only existential threat I see at the moment is Russia. Although with the rapid build up of the Chinese military they too could become a serious threat. And, of course, an alliance of China and Russia would not be a welcome circumstance.

    .

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    1. Both campaigns have close relations with the Russians, we've got them covered.

      Delete
  5. .

    China steps up 'military cooperation' with Assad as top admiral visits Damascus

    18 August 2016 • 11:13am

    China is to step up personnel training and humanitarian assistance to President Bashar al Assad’s Syrian government, state media reported on Thursday, in a signal of growing concern in Beijing about the course of Syria’s civil war.

    Rear Admiral Guan Youfei, who heads China's office for international military cooperation, met Lt. General Fahd Jassem al-Frejj, the Syrian defence minister, in Damascus earlier this week, the Xinhua news agency said.

    The Chinese military is “willing to strengthen cooperation with its Syrian counterparts,” the agency quoted the defence ministry as saying.

    “They reached consensus on improving personnel training, and the Chinese military offering humanitarian aid to Syria,” the Xinhua report said of the Damascus meeting...


    ========================================================================


    China has been selling weapons to Syria for decades and has joined Russia in blocking resolutions critical of the regime at the United Nations Security Council.

    It has avoided further entanglement, however, and is currently the only permanent member of the Security Council not involved in military operations in Syria.

    “The dispatch of senior Chinese military personnel suggests a deeper involvement and a more strategic angle,” to the Syrian crisis said Michal Meidan, an associate fellow at Chatham House and Asia analyst at Energy Aspects.

    China sources about half its oil and gas from the Middle East, mostly from Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, which back opposing sides in the multi-sided conflict. Beijing is unlikely to risk alienating any of those powers by becoming militarily involved in the conflict.

    The visit may be intended as a diplomatic poke in the eye for the United States amid mounting tensions over Chinese territorial ambitions in the South China Sea, Ms Meidan said.

    Chinese involvement in the Syrian war would further complicate a multi-sided conflict that has drawn in most of the world’s major powers…


    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/18/china-steps-up-military-cooperation-with-assad-as-top-admiral-vi/

    .

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  6. It probably sounded better in the original German.

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  7. For a long time, I have been an advocate of normalizing US relations with Iraq. It is to our advantage to do so. Normalizing relationships between states does not mean becoming “friends”.

    Paying ransom is stupid by any measure.

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    1. President Obama, Aug. 4:

      We do not pay ransom. We didn’t here, and we won’t in the future,” the president told reporters, speaking of the Jan. 17 payment and hostage release.

      Families “know we have a policy that we don’t pay ransom. And the notion that we would somehow start now, in this high-profile way, and announce it to the world, even as we’re looking in the faces of other hostage families whose loved ones are being held hostage, and saying to them ‘We don’t pay ransom,’ defies logic,” Obama added at the time.

      He lectured the press for even raising the issue.

      “It’s been interesting to watch this story surface. Some of you may recall, we announced these payments in January. Many months ago. There wasn’t a secret. We announced them to all of you. [Press secretary Josh Earnest] did a briefing on them.

      This wasn’t some nefarious deal,” the president said. “It wasn’t a secret. We were completely open with everybody about it and it is interesting to me how suddenly this became a story again.”

      http://nypost.com/2016/08/18/state-department-400m-cash-to-iran-was-contingent-on-us-prisoners-release/

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  8. Rufus is scratching his head trying to figure out how to justify paying international ransom right now, but can't come up with anything.

    Should we pay ransom to get out Olympic athletes back from Brazil ?

    That's the current question.

    Though Iran has kidnapped a couple more Americans....

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    Replies
    1. (Rufus is scratching his head because his O'bozo can' do anything wrong)

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    2. We should apologize and pay to repair their Shitter.

      Delete
    3. ...maybe that's why his hair turned grey.

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  9. A Moslem nation with some virtue -

    Muslim World Take Notice: Women's Rights In Muslim Majority Azerbaijan

    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/08/muslim_world_take_notice_womens_rights_in_muslimmajority_azerbaijan.html

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  10. Deuce, I don't think returning someone's OWN PROPERTY would be considered "paying ransom."

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    Replies
    1. Now, if you were to refer to it as an "exchange of hostages" (their human hostages, and our financial hostage," maybe I could go for it. :)

      Delete
    2. IRANSOM: OBAMA ADMIN ADMITS CASH FOR PRISONERS....DRUDGE

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  11. Penis crushes pole vaulter’s Olympic dream

    http://imgur.com/gallery/SOnDtsL

    http://nypost.com/2016/08/16/penis-crushes-pole-vaulters-olympic-dream/

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oweee

    http://imgur.com/a/fGbym

    ReplyDelete
  13. At the Trump rally on now -

    "Lock her up"

    "Lock her up"

    "Lock her up!"

    ReplyDelete
  14. Autistic Native American Student Says Obama Aide Beat Him Up Over 'REDSKINS' Shirt....DRUDGE

    ReplyDelete
  15. Replies
    1. Trump is now heading to Louisiana, while Hillary must have her naps, and O'bozo plays golf and Malia smokes joints at Martha's Vineyard.

      Delete
  16. It Ain't Over Till It's Over

    Pat Buchanan Cites Reasons Why Trump Has Hope

    http://www.wnd.com/2016/08/it-aint-over-till-its-over/

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  17. Back in the early 1990s, political talk show host John McLaughlin was portrayed by Dana Carvey on "Saturday Night Live" as a boisterous despot who was prone to straying into bizarro territory. In one of the skits, he asked his TV panelists what they each had for breakfast, only to tell them, "Wrong! You all had Special K with banana!"

    ...

    Besides turning on viewers to the joys of spirited debate between Washington-insider pundits and journalists like Pat Buchanan, Eleanor Clift, Mort Kondracke and the late Jack Germond, McLaughlin was such an entertaining broadcaster that he was ripe for parody. "I loved impersonating him on SNL," Carvey said in a statement to The Wrap.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Ha !

    Report is that The Hag and Huma skipped out on the mandatory State Department Ethics Training Class.

    Heh !

    Ho ho !!

    'We don't need no stinkin' ethics class'

    Ha ha ha ha

    ReplyDelete