Rocky Paths

 

Same Old Rock

Some of you enjoy idyllic trout streams and rivers full of salmon or walleye, others again spend their time sea fishing off the coasts of fabled islands. Me? It's mostly all about Lake Whitney and, to be fair, the mighty Brazos, which is where I went this morning in a desperate bid to escape the crazy.

"Maybe getting out in the clean air of Texas will do you good," I thought grimly to myself as I loaded a couple of rods into the bed of the rig, "As opposed to staring in slack-jawed Francoist consternation at the end of the world."

Witch way mysticke sister?

And yes, it was good to get to the lake and cast off into the depths, and there were plenty of fish, no doubt about it, I could see them gliding by the bank and jumping with fierce predatory aggression. But did I catch any?

No. I did not. It was like our wars, Enemy 1, Home Team 0, but what am I saying. Every moment spent under the free sky of Texas is a moment worth living, a victory in itself. Just you try it and see. 

Ye Olde LSP

In the meanwhile, the Specialist called in and's settling down well into his his new unit, 57th ESB (expeditionary tactical signals). He has, predictably, asked to be sent to Central Asia, but fortunately that's off bounds for now. Not a good deployment, eh?

That aside, there is an equestrian club at Ft. Hood which practices boot-to-boot cav charges, swords out, run! I told him, "Well you can ride, so join in. Just don't fall off and skewer yourself with your wretched sabre." Always paternal, you see.

Your Best Pal,

LSP

Farewell to Kings?

I'm all in favor of Kings, being a 12th level Monarchist, but if kingship's lost its savour, when the people have lost their faith in it, then anointed monarchy's days are clearly numbered. The same goes for our new corporate sponsored, technocrat, managerial elite. They've shown themselves to be utterly, stupendously incompetent and unfit to rule anything, much less prosecute a war. As such, the King, embarrassingly, has no clothes. 

Check this out, via Splendid Isolation:

The managerial class increasingly appears as a sort of funhouse mirror inversion of the doomed russian nobility of the late tsarist era; they no longer know how to run a country and only seem to parasitize on the body politic while giving almost nothing of value in return. In tsarist Russia, the nobility proved increasingly incapable of winning Russia’s wars or running its ministries, making their legitimating narratives proclaiming them to possess some natural-born right and capacity for rulership increasingly impossible to believe in. In modern America, it is the meritocrats who now openly lack any merit or ability to rule, quickly undermining the ability of the average person to believe in the very foundational claims behind the managerial order. And by what right does the collective of non-divine kings rule? To borrow from Schmitt: by the same right as the collective of stupid and ignorant technocrats. In other words, by virtue of simply not having been replaced yet. Nothing more.

 

In modern America, it is the meritocrats who now openly lack any merit or ability to rule, quickly undermining the ability of the average person to believe in the very foundational claims behind the managerial order. 

Right there in the X Ring and then some. Do yourself a big favor and read the whole thing here. Excellent. But here's a cheery Sunday cartoon in the meanwhile.

Prescient, don't you think? But not to worry, it's just a cartoon and an old(?) one at that. So move along, nothing to see here, maskserfs.

Your Pal,

LSP

Mimetic Amusement

 

Can't be miserable all the time, so here's some mimetic amusement. Good to see 45's back on Twitter.

Gotta hand it to the Big Guy.

Yes.

Remember how Trump was going to lead us into forpol disaster because such a stupid idiot fascist?

Hate to say it, but maybe Terry's got a point.

And via Intrepid Reporter.

Cheers,

LSP

Arabian Alleluia

Did you know that, outside of Iran, Afghanistan has the fastest growing Christian community in the Muslim world? Right about now would be a good time to pray for them, to say nothing of a renewed commitment to the Faith in our own land.

That, the Faith, is in deficit right about now, with disastrous results. About time we made a deposit and turn the present wickedness around.

God bless,

LSP

Killer Klowns

 

Everyone loves a clown, they're so jolly and, ahem, gay. All the colors of the rainbow. But what if something sinister lurked behind the makeup?

Something unsettling and wrong, something deadly.

What if that something was USGOV. Where would you run?

Perhaps the sheer, utter, jaw-dropping incompetence of the clowns would save you, as it has the Taliban. Which was perhaps the plan all along. Either way, turpitude, chicanery, malfeasance and  gross dereliction of duty hold sway.

Cheers,

LSP

Thank God For The Paras

 

Reports are coming in that the UK's 2 Para have been running patrols into Kabul to save British citizens left behind by the US surrender of Afghanistan and its capital city to the Taliban. Scandalously, it's alleged that US command on the ground, to say nothing of its hide-away leader, Puppet Prez Biden, haven't communicated with their allies, despite thousands of Americans being stranded in a country overrun with Islamist fanatics. Via Alex Wickham:

Well, thank God for the Paras and you know the 82nd Airborne would be in there right away, if it wasn't for someone forbidding them from fighting the enemy. Some say that's the story of our Afghan adventure over the last two decades, and what does it mean?

At least this. A political class getting rich off of de facto, and cheap, mercenaries who they couldn't give a dam for, as long their lives make them moar money and moar power. What an utter betrayal of our young men and women who signed up to serve our country. Patriots in the service of self-serving traitors.

To say nothing of our friends in Afghanistan who can look forward to being hunted down, tortured and executed by our enemies. Enemies led by the very same people Barack Obama let free from jail. I tell you, I am beyond disgusted. I'd imagine 82 Airborne isn't too happy either.

In the meanwhile, the most powerful military force in the history of the world has no plan to deal with cave-dwelling, head-chopping, medieval savages, and we have to ask, is this deliberate? In the meanwhile, thank God for the Paras.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Once More Over The Rainbow

 

The savage woman beating, enslaving, Biden trolling Taliban were two months off from taking Afghanistan in what has to be the most humiliating, catastrophic, blunderous, incompetent American defeat since Vietnam, and our guys were pumping out this, in June. Here it is, from Understanding Men and Masculinities: Towards Creating Egalitarian Gender Relations in Afghan Society:

This paper examines how Afghan men from diverse socio-economic, ethno-linguistic and age groups challenge and redefine masculinities in the face of socio-political and economic changes. Understanding diverse and shifting masculinities and the men who practice more equitable gender relations by departing from hegemonic masculinity can help to inform more effective gender-based initiatives. The paper demonstrates the ways in which masculinities are constructed, deconstructed, and change over time and space in different ways for different men.

What were they thinking? Not much, as in no kidding. The author, Munazza Ebtikar, is or was a doctoral candidate at St. John's, Oxford. What a beautiful college, and who knows, perhaps she made it out before Afghan men decided to get all hegemonic on her compound. Let's hope Ektibar hasn't been reconstructed. You can write her here, to find out:

Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) Shahr-i-Naw, Kabul, Afghanistan, Post Box number: 38–015

Have you noticed how everything the ProgLeft proposes or enacts produces the exact opposite of its intended result? It's like an axiom. In the meanwhile, here's the Commander-in-Chief of the, ahem, Free World:

Some kind of joke? No, this one's deadly serious.

Cheers,

LSP

America's Elites Are Trash

 

"America's Elites are trash" and "China knows it." Former CIA Ops Officer Bryan Dean Wright isn't too happy with the Afghan debacle. Here he is, via twitter:

Former US intelligence colleagues are angry and deeply worried at what has happened in Afghanistan.

Here's what I'm hearing, and why there's nearly universal belief that America and the world are in for one of the most dangerous, unpredictable times in modern history.

Afghanistan has shown the world -- enemies & allies alike -- that our military & intel assets are largely irrelevant because we can't deploy them successfully.

The blame lays at the feet of multiple Presidents. The Generals. The Spies. The Congress.

America's Elites are trash. 

China knows it.

They will become emboldened, covertly & overtly. War over Taiwan and contested islands in the S. China Sea and E. China Sea is now more likely.

Russia will consider similar covert & overt moves, focused on Crimea, & former Soviet satellites. 

The fear is that China & Russia will act in concert.

Why? America was whipped by a tiny rebel force and couldn't even retreat properly.

Meanwhile, the American people are angry, COVID weary, & divided.

If there were ever a time to push American hegemony aside, this is it. 

If Cold War III grows hot, America will need to quickly build up & work with foreign counterparts.

But who will trust America after Afghanistan?

Who believes we have the leadership to use our military might well?

Who will trust us when we say "We Will Stand With You"? 

Beyond China/Russia, others will take gambles too.

Terror orgs like al-Qa'ida & ISIS are degraded but not dead. Their ideology is very much alive.

Iran's Hizballah -- with terror cells throughout the US -- may see an opening to create chaos too. 

Meanwhile, the disaster inside Afghanistan is only just beginning.

The Taliban will launch a terror campaign against American collaborators. The pictures will shock the conscience of the world, further degrading American moral authority.

Biden & Co will struggle to respond. 

There's also the nightmare of tactical weaponry now awash in Afghanistan, in the hands of the Taliban and -- soon -- on the global black market.

These arms will fuel chaos around the world for decades.

The Pentagon has no idea where this stuff is and no plans to destroy it. 

Finally, if Afghani refugees pour into the US, there are profound implications for security, culture, the economy, & politics.

Are they properly vetted?

Do they hold Western/tolerant values re: women, gays?

Do they bring skills/education?

Which party will they support? 

The existential problem is that America needs good leadership to right its ship but there is none.

Our federal bench is weak.

Biden is a corrupt old man. Impeachment is a long shot; VP Harris is an unpopular paperweight. The Legislature is a feckless cabal of empty suits. 

Leadership could come from a state Governor, it's true, but not soon enough.

The above threats by China, Russia, & Co will metastasize well before the 2024 elections, and even a heroic new President will need years to clean things up.

Again, our enemies and allies know this. 

Upshot: There is fear and outrage streaming through former intel officers over the Afghanistan debacle.

America is rudderless. And the world now knows it.

Grave dangers lie ahead, some predictable, others unimaginable.

Keep your loved ones tight. Pray. And vote for change. 

I can't add to that except to wonder if "voting for change" still has any... meaning.

God bless,

LSP 

Valkyries

That is all,

LSP

It's Raining But It's Sunny

 

The beautiful thing about this evening is that the sun shone as sky water poured down from the heavens like silver, cooling silver at that. What a great result, and perhaps a parable if you care to draw it. But this important mind blog's about country life in Texas. So here's a tractor.

All ready to mow, and here's some cars.

Check out the 1940s Ford roadsters, an '81 'vette and, under wraps, a '71 Camino. Neat, right? At least I think so, and so did their owner. They were his dream cars.

But remember, punters, there's no luggage racks on the back of hearse. Christ says as much, "Put not your trust in earthly treasure which moth and rust consume." Again, "Labor not for the food which perishes but that which endures for everlasting life." Something like that.

And what a sad exchange, to swap out eternity for the fools' gold of the present moment. Saying that, I'm rather looking forward to an island; all can visit, but only some can stay in the Big House, others will have to live "onna beach." Just the way it is.

Sermon over,

LSP

Tragedy Farce Malfeasance Corruption

“Every data point was altered to present the best picture possible,” and, “Surveys, for instance, were totally unreliable but reinforced that everything we were doing was right and we became a self-licking ice cream cone.” (The Upheaval)

What's happening in Afghanistan is surely tragedy, it's also farce. The Upheaval nails it, and here's a snapshot:

But most of all, farce because our political leadership was somehow reportedly “stunned” by the speed with which the allegedly 350,000-strong Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), despite twenty years of training and almost $90 billion in U.S. security assistance, threw down their weapons and totally collapsed, letting the Taliban seize control of the country in less than a week, instead of the year and a half the military and intelligence establishment had assured them it would take.

But how, exactly, did this come as a shock? Why in the world did they seriously believe those estimates?

Did they somehow fail to read their own thousands of pages of government “lessons learned” reports, as obtained and published by the Washington Post in 2019 as “The Afghanistan Papers,” that described in minute detail how the vaunted ANSF was nothing more than a Potemkin paper army, inflated only by lies, corruption, and pederasty?

 

 

You must and should read the whole thing here. Again, words fail, other than "we became a self-licking ice cream cone." Exactly.

Your Pal,

LSP

EPIC UTTER TOTAL FAIL

 

Where was our Commander-in-Chief  while the Taliban took over Afghanistan and Kabul? You know, the country we were at war in for 20 years. Good question. He was on... vacation. That's right, hidin' Biden.

Well it's not easy being a president, just ask Ashraf Ghani who fled Afghanistan in a chopper full of cash. Still, to be fair, our Puppet Prez did leave his Camp David hideout to give a presser blaming everyone but himself for this shameful, scandalous, Saigon-style defeat. He's back on vacation now. What a leader.

And what a disgrace, at every level. LL, who knows about these things, believes the whole Afghan operation should never have gone Big Army. Good call, but think of all the millions that wouldn't have been made. Here's Ron Paul:

The military industrial complex spent 20 years on the gravy train with the Afghanistan war. They built missiles, they built tanks, they built aircraft and helicopters. They hired armies of lobbyists and think tank writers to continue the lie that was making them rich. They wrapped their graft up in the American flag, but they are the opposite of patriots... The corruption is deep.

God, you may have noticed, expressed His disfavor by striking the Washington Monument yesterday. But I won't go on, words fail, this whole affair is jaw-droppingly wicked. What an epic, utter, total fail.

Have a blessed Feast of the Assumption,

LSP