Thursday, July 14, 2016

More terror in Europe, and the coming autocracy in America.

Image result for nice france  terror images  Another attack in Europe. This time it was not a truck bomb, but an actual truckMan these fools are relentless. The death toll is 80 and rising. And it happened during Bastille Day celebrations, which is the French equivalent to our 4th of July.

Anyway, as is to be expected, a certain candidate for president has already called for a declaration of war to be authorized by congress.

The problem is, of course, that I am pretty sure he can't tell us what nation he wants us to go to war with, or even where he wants to put our troops to start the fighting.

Saying we don't want any refugees in the country sounds good for political sound bite purposes, but the reality is that most terrorist attacks on our soil has been carried out by American citizens or people who are here on visas issued by the state department.

In times like these you might want to take time to read the following:

"Autocracy is government based on fear, domination and insecurity. It is of course billed as the opposite. But it is born of these three horsemen and in turn breeds them. One of the shaping thoughts of the generation of actors and thinkers who emerged from the Second World War was the seared perception that stability, trust, peace and virtuous cycles of all sorts are not natural phenomena or human norms. In fact, they are brittle creations and perhaps abnormal in human affairs. Of course, these beliefs and the ambitions and goals which grew out of them led to their own follies. One can jump from 1945 to 1965 and see the wisdom of this recognition conditioning many of the same people to walk into a folly of an entirely different kind. Those men who built much of the world we live in today also built a world that was perpetually on the brink of cataclysmic nuclear annihilation. Their creation, let us say with some understatement, had real shortcomings. And yet, for all that complicated history and all that human folly, some basic realities remain. Democracy, borders that are peaceful rather than armed and bloody ... none of these things are natural states of being like a rock that rolls to the bottom of a hill and then stays there until some greater force than gravity and friction presses it along or pushes it back up the hill.

Whether it was wise or not for the United Kingdom to walk out of the European Union is a question that I can't answer, though I certainly have my opinions. What is worth noting, though, is that what we now know as the EU was not created to promulgate human rights or create efficiencies of trade and labor mobility. All of these came later. The predecessor organizations of the EU were created with a single, very focused aim: preventing the recurring pattern of the rivalries of Europe unleashing horrific wars which not only destroyed the lives of millions of Europeans but embroiled the entire world in spasms of almost unimaginable destruction. The key was binding together France and Germany and from there the other great nations of Europe and then the smaller states into one whole, to build connective tissue, whether of trade or culture, which would prevent the every generation blood-letting. Numerous of Europe's small nationalities want to break free from the nation-states of which they are a part. We have frozen under our own feet many of the centripetal forces which tore Europe apart in the past. And in an ever-deepening European Union perhaps they can do this. We can have a Scotland and a Basque homeland and a northern Italy able to stake out on their own, unfettered by peoples they've never quite felt part of and it can all happen within an umbrella of Europe. But if that umbrella frays the picture looks rather different.

We sometimes hear that Europe's 'brand' is human rights. But that is a recent and aggressive rebranding. Europe's real brand is barbarity and killing on an almost unimaginable scale. Europeans are and were no more evil than Indians or Chinese or subsaharan Africans or any other people. To believe otherwise is just a relic of eurocentrism. But their fortuitous grasping of control over key trading networks in the 17th and 18th centuries and then development of key technologies in the 19th and 20th allowed them to practice barbarity, to be shall we say human on a scale and with an intensity never imagined before. Yes, there were marvelous symphonies and advances of science and art. But the barbarity and killing should hold our attention. Indeed, that was what held the attention of the men and women, but still largely men, who pondered how to reconstruct the world in the 1940s.

It worked almost unimaginably well, certainly in Europe and by and large around the globe as well. European institutions, NATO, the benign and generally soft dominion of the United States, which reinforced both, created what was and is, in the scope of most human history a period of peace and unrivaled prosperity. For all the uncertainty and novel animosities we've unleashed and seen unleashed in recent years, the thought of Germany and France going to war with each other is close to unimaginable. The same with England and France, England and Germany, Germany and Italy. All of these contentions are part of a distant past.

But here we see the United Kingdom simply decide to up and leave. And why not? Perhaps the British will see an economic downturn, some perceptible diminishment of prosperity over the decades. But it seems more or less a free choice. Scotland can contemplate and perhaps will decide to leave the United Kingdom in turn. Because, again, why not? No one imagines the Scots and the English will go to war, despite the fact that Scotland is a tiny country compared to England and not one that could easily defend itself alone against an aggressive England to the south.

Of course I am not saying that England and Scotland couldn't peaceably part. But the fact that they can is a product of institutions and history and habits of trust and rule-keeping that are the product are conscious and hard-taken decisions which we now take as the natural order of the things but are in fact not natural at all.

As John says, the horror of autocracy is diminishing as the living memory of World War II drifts into oblivion. But it's not just autocracy. It's the world of cycles of killing, 'high fear' rather than 'high trust' patterns of international relations and domestic accord that we take for granted as the natural order of things but most definitely is not.

Of course in the United States we have Donald Trump, a man of erratic impulses and petty but intense grievances who has, like all demagogues, ripped at the existing fissures of our society as a way to grasp political power. American institutions have preserved political order and domestic peace for going on a quarter of a millennium with the very notable and brutal exception of four years of civil war 150 years ago. Those institutions can in all likelihood weather four years of his mental instability and toxic incitement. But not necessarily. Britain's exit from Europe, Scotland's exit from the United Kingdom, the increasingly militarized border between 'Europe' and Russia can likely all be managed. But maybe not. Violence and instability can build quickly on themselves.

I believe generally in what Democrats believe in rather than what Republicans believe in. It informs almost everything I've written in almost twenty years as a professional writer about American politics. But both have been able to govern the country within a broad consensus of what we consider acceptable behavior. Trump represents something quite different. And the kind of menace he represents is amplified by the rise of complacent instability and reckless behavior we see today in Europe, in the conflagration in the Middle East and the still distant but rising specter of great power confrontation on the borders of Russia and in East Asia. The belief that we can roll the dice with no consequences, that we can provoke and act out with no consequences is a dangerous illusion. We are indulging that illusion along with many other peoples across the globe. But there are consequences. And they can multiply and spin out of control quickly." [Source]

Church!

*Pic from cbsnews.com









   

34 comments:

Wesley R said...

O'Reilly is trying to push World War 3 now.

Anonymous said...

Following what happens with these unexplained, random acts of terrorism there's the usual call for banning the instruments of destruction and death. So, we must ban box trucks. This could have been prevented if we had controlled the access to box trucks.

As for the article you linked...

It's not and it won't and there's medication for that.

Carl said...

2016 is shaping up to be the most volatile year we've seen in awhile...and we're only halfway through it.

James Bold said...

"I am pretty sure he can't tell us what nation he wants us to go to war with"

The one that defines itself by the black flag, beheadings and the shahada.  It's not a Westphalian nation-state, but that's a European thing and they don't subscribe to Western stuff.

"or even where he wants to put our troops to start the fighting."

Are you so deluded that you think this is a war with a front and uniforms and the stuff of civilized conflict under the Geneva conventions?  You really have no idea what's coming.  It's not going to be nice, but the people who made it inevitable didn't want it to be.  The thousands of raped girls in Rotherham weren't a bug of the system; according to the architects, they were a feature.

dinthebeast said...

So now we do what? Get so terrified that we damage our own society like they want us to? I'm thinking of Molly Ivins and the story of the chicken snake: "...when you give up some of your freedom to try to be more safe, you don't end up more safe, just less free."

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

Are you so deluded that you think this is a war with a front and uniforms and the stuff of civilized conflict under the Geneva conventions?
-------------

Is James really this fucking stupid or is just an act? Holy fuck!!!!!!!!!!!

dinthebeast said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXToviObdoA

-Doug in Oakland

PilotX said...

Wow, even Tim Dog is telling stories of police discrimination. Who'd thunk it? Is he trying to get out of the house? I think he made it to the porch. Wonder what his gop masters think of him now.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/07/14/3798066/tim-scott-racial-profiling/

Anonymous said...

"Of course in the United States we have Donald Trump, a man of erratic impulses and petty but intense grievances who has, like all demagogues, ripped at the existing fissures of our society as a way to grasp political power."

I thought at first read he was referring to Obama, who has done a stellar job of feeding his own narcissistic impulses and nurturing his own delusional petty grievances to fracture the existing fault lines in American society. Obama demogogued his way to power the first time, the second time it was just over-the-top banana republic level fraud. The level of violence in this country now due to Obama's venom and pettiness harkens back to the 1970's. Fundamental transformation fo'sure.

Reading Field Negro lately is like entering a different universe, as is reading the Root and Grio. Much of it is laugh-out-loud funny, it's so delusional and untethered from any reality.

Interesting times indeed.

Anonymous said...

http://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2016/06/08/passengers-on-this-plane-did-not-like-the-captains-annoucement-about-obama/

I've lost count of the number of people who have countdown timers on their laptops or tablets until this fool is flushed. Boos is mild compared to most commentary I've heard.

Donald upsets all the right people who deserve to be upset and unsettled. Perfect!

Eric Jacobus said...

There really is a lot of blood on Obama's hands. Hopefully he will reap what he sows once he leaves office. Or while still in office. Either way is fine.

Anonymous said...

Pilot X said:
"Wow, even Tim Dog is telling stories of police discrimination. Who'd thunk it? Is he trying to get out of the house? I think he made it to the porch. Wonder what his gop masters think of him now."

He also made the "one family" appeal, and he is so wrong. We have never been and never will be "one family". I have no shared history, culture, or genes with the African American cohort who choose to remain in a "racist" environment, when they are free to move anywhere that they feel they would be treated better and given better opportunities for personal success. I have no desire to pretend otherwise.

Obama's attempt to refashion American society into something of his - and other black racists - liking will only escalate existing tensions and heighten the backlash. Forcing DIEversity upon communities who have worked hard to build strong, safe, homogeneous communties for their families will not work out well. What Tim Scott complains will be mild in comparison.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/420896/massive-government-overreach-obamas-affh-rule-out-stanley-kurtz

Jim Davidson said...

Blah blah blah. Who cares? There are more pressing issues, like all this feminist bullshit being shoved down our throats by that stupid Ghostbusters remake and its SJW apologists. Gays and trannies are bad enough, but adding feminazism to it all makes it even more unbearable. Fuck you leftists.

Kruger said...

LOL! Mike Pence.

That's all that really needs to be said.

Anonymous said...

https://twitter.com/AnthonyCumia/status/752662047981273093

PilotX said...

Eric plays the classics, "it's Obama's fault". Stick with what works. I guess he drove that truck himself. Tinfoil hats for everyone!

James Bold said...

"So now we do what? Get so terrified that we damage our own society like they want us to?"

Expelling the hostile foreign elements from our midst is doing ourselves damage?  Give up whatever you've been smoking, it's rotting your brain.

"Reading Field Negro lately is like entering a different universe, as is reading the Root and Grio. Much of it is laugh-out-loud funny, it's so delusional and untethered from any reality."

I'm glad that others are noticing this too.  Lots of completely unintentional comedy here; you could probably quote-mine the posts and comments for a sitcom.

The Coatesville ExPat said...

TPM... Binding the progressive hive-mind together for over a decade now.

Limpbaugh said...

The president of France just declared war on terrorism. Europe really does have the type of problem that Trump supporters think we have here, including terrorism and rapes. If Germany wants to open their borders, why should the UK open theirs with Germany? The U.S. created Al Qaeda to fight Russia in Afghanistan. We unleashed terrorism by attacking Iraq. Then we started ISIS to overthrow Libya and Syria. One of Hillary's emails suggested that it was time to start bragging about overthrowing Libya without using any American troops, and another discussed overthrowing Syria to please Israel.


I voted for Bernie Sanders. The DNC and the rest of the establishment stole the nomination from him. The AP even announced that Hillary won the nomination before the California primary, based on their "polling" of how delegates said they would vote in July. If the presidential election were held today, I would vote for Trump, to stop Hillary and to throw a monkey wrench into the establishment. The Democrats wouldn't even charge Dick Cheney! Someone lied to you about World Trade Center Building 7. Either the establishment lied to you, or Issac Newton did.

Hillary is John McCain on foreign policy. He was the biggest cheerleader for arming the "moderate rebels" who ended up joining ISIS. But at least he is for campaign finance reform. He hates begging for money. Hillary is the ultimate whore for donors. She will gladly send your kids to die for the money AIPAC gives her, or the money Saudi Arabia gives the Clinton Foundation. And she arranges arms deals with rogue countries like Algeria for weapons manufactures owned by Goldman Sachs. John McCain seems misguided but honest. He is a war hero and I am not aware of him doing anything racist. He is probably the only politician in Arizona who hasn't. Remember him sticking up for Obama with the old racist lady? Hillary is worse than John McCain.

Anonymous said...

"Reading Field Negro lately is like entering a different universe, as is reading the Root and Grio. Much of it is laugh-out-loud funny, it's so delusional and untethered from any reality."
---------
Unlike the altered reality on conservative websites. The problem is you are racist assholes who cannot understand anything outside of your intense white hatred. Actually we're glad you don't have the same mentality as the posters here because if any of us thought like the Bolds of the world it's time to kill yourself. Wnna bet you agree with everything on stormfront? White racist assholes have always lacked an understanding of anyone outside of their little universe. Go ahead and laugh because you can bet your ass we laugh at your dumbasses.

Anonymous said...

The level of violence in this country now due to Obama's venom and pettiness harkens back to the 1970's. Fundamental transformation fo'sure.
--------------

Yeah, this is fucking reality. The violence isn't because of historic injustice that predates everyone alive today but because of the President. Had nothing to do with Nixon demonizing drugs, racist policies in the past, red lining and all the other programs that alienated teh blacks but all of this happened in 2008. If you believe this you are fucking stupid and have a fundamental lack of understanding of the historic economic effects that happened in this country. Don't trip, we know you are racist and will never grasp the concept of multi-layered and complex isssues. Your dumb ass is only capable of yelling "it's Obama's fault". And of course your idiotic butt brother will nod in agreement. You come to FN to try to feel superior to us negroes but you expose yourself as a dimwitted and narrowminded individual who can only stick to certain topics.

Anonymous said...

Tim Wise spitting knowledge. Some of our white racists need to listen.

https://soundcloud.com/tim-wise/tim-wise-on-the-black-on-black-crime-deflection

Obama's mama said...

Because the country was doing so fucking well during this asshat's administration. This fool doesn't even know how to conduct himself at a fucking funeral. This is how we know you racist assholes aren't serious because anyone with half a grain of sense knows we are much better off under the secret Mooslim's watch.

http://trofire.com/2016/07/15/george-w-bush-embarrasingly-good-time-dancing-dallas-police-memorial/

Anonymous said...

Military coup in Turkey.

Turkish military are militantly secular, so I'm guessing this is a reaction to their Islamic government.

BOLD Sunless Tan said...

@JB: "Lots of completely unintentional comedy here; you could probably quote-mine the posts and comments for a sitcom."

Oh, the genius of the white mind, seeing the money-making potential in everything.

Nevertheless, I think you're on to something here. No one makes me ROFLMAO more than you.

We can call the sitcom:

The Bold and the Ugly.

Bolding For Dollars.

BOLDerdash.

Or Just:

Whiteish!
.

Anonymous said...

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, genetically speaking.
Africans and northern africans and all other
africans are ALL, hear me, ALL fiends from hell, no matter what
religion they subscribe to, if any. We know that
fiends and devils are quite proficient in appearing
innocuous to those who are prone to denial and altruism.
They will take your kindness for weakness.
Truck driver mohammed not overt muslim but
thought jihad would get him to heaven and much virgin subteen pussy.

field negro said...

"hostile foreign elements"? Isn't that like the folks who drove out the natives ?

Anyway, interesting development in Turkey.

What would president trump and his VP from Indiana do?

Lt. Commander Johnson said...

Hey! Where do live, field?

Weren't there those nasty hostile "natives" living there before you?
Next time you walk on your deck to feed that sorry-assed dog/cat.

You're right. It's their land. Get off it.

Maybe you should thank "those folks".

Puerto Rican food is nasty shit said...

Picking Mike Pence as his VP pretty much guarantees that Trump will lose in November.

James Bold said...

"The violence isn't because of historic injustice that predates everyone alive today but because of the President."

He took the last vestiges of restraints off you, yes.

"Had nothing to do with Nixon demonizing drugs, racist policies in the past, red lining and all the other programs that alienated teh blacks but all of this happened in 2008."

In other words, you have to reach back 40-50 years to come up with grounds for complaint.  Almost EVERYTHING since then has been tilted in your favor... but you are never satisfied.  Not even electing a Black president was enough for you.

If you refuse to acknowledge the effort, buckle down and try to conciliate, expect those gestures to be withdrawn.  Even now the recognition is spreading that redlining, Jim Crow, sundown towns, and everything else was not meanness towards you, but defending civilization FROM you.


"If you believe this you are fucking stupid and have a fundamental lack of understanding of the historic economic effects that happened in this country."

The stupidity is there all right.  You can't see it because it's yours.

America is sick of your stupidity and won't put up with it any more.


"No one makes me ROFLMAO more than you."

Your only problem is that Blacks won't spend money on entertainment, and DWLs are running out of self-delusion.

Greg said...

Why hasn't that slimy bitch Yisheng posted in here in awhile?

Yīshēng said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
DQAE said...

@Ask your Mammy since she's the main slimy bitch in your life.

It turns out that becoming a Dr. takes a ton of work, which you're obviously too stupid and uneducated to understand. So most days, I have better uses for my time other than watching you and others pull dumb ass comments out of your rancid, "John" semen filled asses.

field negro said...

Get em ,doc. :)