MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Philosophical Musings of this Writer in this Time of Traumatic Sophistry – garydbarnett.com

Posted by M. C. on January 27, 2022

With collectivism, the individual necessarily becomes irrelevant, and can only feel whole when a part of the herd. Considering the tyrannical agendas of the State, this collective phenomenon is much desired, as the political becomes reality; therefore, steering all policy without any regard or consideration for the individual. This of course leads to chaos and total moral decay.

https://www.garydbarnett.com/philosophical-musings-of-this-writer-in-this-time-of-traumatic-sophistry/

By: Gary D. Barnett

“A philosopher operates with deductions. A sophist operates with paradoxes. A “public intellectual” operates with buzzwords.”
 

Jakub Bozydar Wisniewski, Mises Institute

~ Man is the ultimate threat to man, and the true danger to the future. Nature guarantees this concept, and disassociation through collective destruction of the individual allows for an end to individual purpose. The answer to altering this reality then, seems uncomplicated, as in order for humanity to live and prosper, to love and understand beauty, to strive for a peaceful and fulfilling existence, and to be free, depends on each to know himself, and to demand his life and unique and singular presence as his own.

~ Embrace inner thought, embrace truth, and then embrace the fact that no external rules can change the psyche of the individual man.

~ Suicide is thought to be a way to escape a life that has little meaning. Given that man can only perceive as certain and prove that life leads to death, he has a choice to make. That choice is to fully accept life and all it brings, or commit physical or philosophic suicide. If all life is predicated on an unknown afterlife, it becomes an untenable effort to just survive instead of living fully, in hopes of finding some future finality of nirvana. With acceptance of self, and an effort to find the true spirit inside, life becomes much more than just constant suffering and disappointment, and turns into a joyous experience that conceivably could last forever.

~ The larger the crowd, the less important the individual, which can only lead to the extinction of love and beauty, and the infinite nature of the individual intellect. Uniformity as normal brings a feeling of insignificance for the individual, stifles thought, and brings darkness instead of light. An awakening can only truly occur and exist when balance between the conscious and subconscious is apparent, and an escape from perception takes place, leaving reality more exposed, and the unknown more sought.

~ With collectivism, the individual necessarily becomes irrelevant, and can only feel whole when a part of the herd. Considering the tyrannical agendas of the State, this collective phenomenon is much desired, as the political becomes reality; therefore, steering all policy without any regard or consideration for the individual. This of course leads to chaos and total moral decay.

~ Once a societal mass is formed, all valid intellectual function disappears in favor of a total loss of consciousness, leading to despair, lack of self-awareness, and confidence, which in turn leads to domination by default. Because of this dynamic, all who seek the group become the group, and in the process are completely susceptible to oppression. The building of this tower of sameness breeds weakness and uncertainty, and a desire to seek the safety of a monopolized control which could be referred to as the comfort of mediocrity.

~ Sometimes the obvious is so apparent as to become nearly invisible. A great false threat is created and then used to confuse and frighten the masses, causing the herd to flee, just as is the case of all flight animals in the wild. But the human animal has the ability, whether exercised or not, to think and reason, so why is this gift tossed aside during times of strife; times when it is most needed? Maybe it is due to a lack of understanding of self, and a dependence on others, especially on those dishonestly claiming to be ‘leaders.’ When each takes his own way instead of relying on false prophets, the tables are turned in favor of a more enlightened and valuable outcome, and a return to right.

~ “Man’s inhumanity to man” has caused mass pain, suffering, and death, and for what reason no one knows. It is at once incomprehensible and at the same time expected, and this should not be so. Contradiction at this level is beyond confusing, but then man has always been the epitome of imperfection; a conundrum to be sure considering what are said to be the inherent and basic beliefs held by much of the human species. A species supposedly seeking harmony while consumed by conflict cannot survive, and as Robert Burns so skillfully described:

“Many and sharp the num’rous ills
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves
Regret, remorse, and shame!
And Man, whose heav’n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn, –
Man’s inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn!”

~ What is the answer; I do not know? Why is man so terribly bent on his own destruction; I do not know? Why does man’s inhumanity to man forever subsist; I do not know? I do know that for inner peace and tranquility to exist, and therefore for humanity to peacefully exist together, that one must act alone, meaning all should act alone as individuals in favor of harmony, love, and non-aggression. This means that the ‘State’ should end, and the individual should reign.

“TO the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist

much, obey little,

Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,

Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever after-ward

resumes its liberty.“

Walt Whitman — “Leaves of Grass”

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What Would A Mini-Iceage Look and Feel Like? : Cold Climate Change

Posted by M. C. on January 27, 2022

Since the end of 2019, the United Nations’ gauge of food prices has risen by about a third, with the causes of the surge — bad weather, higher shipping costs, worker shortages, an energy crunch, and increasing fertilizer costs — meaning high prices could persist this year.

https://coldclimatechange.com/what-would-a-mini-iceage-look-and-feel-like%EF%BB%BF/

Published by ColdClimate Admin |

A winter storm will impact 100 million people in the United States. That was last week. This week is more of the same but with incredible cold added. In an elevated valley of northeast West Virginia on Saturday morning, 125 miles west of Washington, the temperature at a weather station in Canaan Valley plunged to -31F (-35C) — the coldest reading on record in that part of the state.

Unprecedented blizzards battered parts of Pakistan recently, including the hilltop town of Murree, where deep drifts and felled trees blocked roads, trapping thousands of vehicles and killing at least 23 people. One Pakistani woman, trapped in her car for hours by the record snowfall, described how she “saw death” in front of her as she waited for help.

Samina said she left her home at 16:00 local time to travel to Murree but soon found herself among those trapped in the snow: “I could see death in front of me,” she said. “It was like there were snow peaks built around our car… I can’t explain in words what I was going through. We were praying God may help us, and we shouldn’t perish in a snowstorm.”

Conditions conspired to dump 1.5m (5ft) of snow within just a few hours. “It was unprecedented,” said Tariq Ullah, an official in the nearby town of Nathiagali. “There were strong winds, uprooted trees, avalanches. People around were terrified.” Samina was finally rescued at 10:00 the following day. Ten children were confirmed to have perished in the storm, and at least 13 others were not so lucky.

Over the weekend in India, heavy, record-breaking snow across the higher reaches of Himachal has brought life to a standstill, blocking more than 730 roads, including four national highways; shutting down more than 700 electricity transformers, mainly in Shimla, Lahaul-Spiti, and Chamba, which has caused widespread power outages; and halting over 100 water supply systems.

Japan is being clobbered by snow. Otoineppu Village, Hokkaido, for example, registered a whopping 31cm (a foot+) of snow during three hours last Wednesday. Blizzards are continuing across northern and eastern Japan, and local weather officials warn of road closures and near-zero visibility. As much as 70cm (2.3ft) of snow is forecast along with parts of the Sea of Japan for the next two days, including Tohoku, and up to 50cm (1.64ft) in Hokkaido and Niigata as of this writing.

Canadian refineries have been struggling in the freezing weather. With temperatures ranging in the minus 50 C (minus 58F)  degree range. Freezing lows were affecting the refinery’s ability “to crack the molecules to make gasoline or diesel.” The extreme cold was also slowing operations at a refinery in Anacortes, Washington, and two storage terminals in Oregon–which ship throughout the area. On top of that, the Trans-Mountain pipeline from Alberta to Burnaby is also not yet 100 percent back in action after November’s storm.

The City and Borough of Yakutat declared a ‘local disaster emergency ‘ this week, citing the imminent threat of roof collapse caused by high snow loads across the Southeast Alaska city. In response, The National Guard deployed service members and vehicles via military airlift.As reported by alaskapublic.org, Borough Manager Jon Erickson said Yakutat has seen 6 feet of snow over the past few weeks, causing intermittent power outages, damage to buildings, and school closures.

Are you getting the picture yet? No? This winter is only the opening act and will give many a taste of what our government and the press have been lying about. As we shall all see this winter is that the real threat is not warming but dramatic cooling coupled with intense snow and continued ice buildup at the poles and in Greenland.

What kind of people would lie about such a thing and spit Nature in the face? Bill Gates is such a person and he wonders why so many people think badly of him.

Crews at Wolf Creek Ski Area in Pagosa Springs undertook some serious shoveling this week after one of their snowcats was completely covered by the recent record-breaking snowfall.

RECORD COLD HITS MT WASHINGTON

Brian Fitzgerald, Mt. Washington Observatory’s director of science and education, said that Tuesday saw a record low temperature atop the mountain: -31F was registered, busting the old coldest January 11 on record — the -29F set in 2020.

See the rest here

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Why Jordan Peterson Quit Academia | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on January 27, 2022

https://mises.org/wire/why-jordan-peterson-quit-academia

Michael Rectenwald

Woke supremacy has been taking a toll on Western civilization. The casualties of wokeness are too many and sundry to track. But we should not forget that wokeness was first germinated in higher education, from whence it metastasized to the wider social body. The academy is the cathedral pulpit from which the ideological dictates of the elite flow downward to the hoi polloi.

According to David Acevedo of the National Association of Scholars, hundreds of North American academics have been subjected to cancel culture to date, including yours truly. And the number continues to grow. This is to say nothing about the curriculum, which has suffered excisions of canonical works from literature and philosophy and the denunciation of correct answers in math, among many other abominations.

Now woke ideology has led to the resignation of the most famous academic alive: the psychologist, best-selling author, and public intellectual Jordan Peterson, who announced in the National Post his decision to retire from his position as tenured full professor at the University of Toronto.

Peterson cites two main reasons for his resignation. The first involves his otherwise bad conscience regarding graduate students. For one, his white cis-hetero grad students are unlikely to land academic jobs due to the explicit discrimination that white males face in the academic job market.

I can attest to this fact, having served on hiring committees that set aside top-notch candidates who happened to be white males in favor of far less qualified and sometimes utterly unqualified comers whose membership in “marginalized” identity categories was their most distinguishing qualification. Adding insult to injury, academic job applicants must now submit “diversity” statements in which they swear allegiance to so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), or diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE), despite the ideology’s discriminatory function and, in the case of those from “dominant” identity categories, the likelihood that it diminishes their own prospects.

Furthermore, given Peterson’s association with the alt-right and white nationalism by hysterics in the media and the academic Left, his graduate students face even more discrimination than usual. Basically, any intellectual that opposes communism and third-wave feminism is dubbed a Nazi and a misogynist by academic leftists, and Peterson is no exception. Yet the public mischaracterizations and libelous accusations have been particularly egregious in his case.

The second reason Peterson gives for his retirement is generalized disgust with the DIE ideology and its erosion of academic standards. Peterson simply wants nothing further to do with the woke hegemony and has come to regard continued association with the university as tantamount to complicity with the woke regime.

In addition to academia, Peterson also pans Hollywood and the corporate world. The selection of actors in Hollywood is based on identity rather than excellence. The same goes for screenplays and the granting of awards. In every respect, the criteria for success have been utterly corrupted by DIE ideology.

Peterson also calls out the corporate world for its compliance with wokeness. Why, he asks, do capitalist companies accede to woke dictates? I’ve given my own explanation for this elsewhere. Wokeness serves as a demarcation device, a shibboleth for identifying cartel members and distinguishing them from the nonwoke competitors, who are to be starved of capital investments.

Peterson rightly calls the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) index a Chinese-style social credit score for corporations, a characterization that I drew several months ago and most recently in an essay on the Great Reset published in November 2021. The collectivist planners use the ESG index to squeeze nonwoke players out of the market and to drive ownership and control of production away from the noncompliant. The ESG score is an admissions ticket for entry into the woke cartels.

In addition to these objects of Peterson’s ire, we might also bemoan the woke infiltration of the media, professional sports, the music business, the fashion industry, advertising, book publishing, live theater, museum curation, and even religious belief and expression. Wokeness, in fact, is a religion in its own right. It has pervaded nearly every aspect of culture and society, subverting, displacing, and rendering obsolete and anathema the once cherished values of nearly all our institutions.

Where academia is concerned, the water has long since gone under the bridge. The West has been undergoing a ghoulish cultural revolution for several years, replete with struggle meetings and self-criticism sessions. Academia not only generated this cultural revolution but was the site first ravaged by it. Higher education is long gone, and Peterson’s retirement from it is somewhat anticlimactic. Nevertheless, given his intellectual prominence, Peterson’s resignation represents a high-water mark for the ravages wrought by DIE ideology on our society. Author:

Contact Michael Rectenwald

Michael Rectenwald is the author of eleven books, including Thought Criminal, Beyond Woke, Google Archipelago, and Springtime for Snowflakes.

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Watch “M&Ms Introduce First Trans Character Who Identifies As A Skittle” on YouTube

Posted by M. C. on January 27, 2022

https://youtu.be/uJcpzXAxOoY

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Navy’s $13 Billion Carrier Sows Doubt That It Can Defend Itself

Posted by M. C. on January 26, 2022

The combat system for the Navy’s newest and costliest warship, the $13 billion Gerald R. Ford, “has yet to demonstrate that it can effectively” defend the aircraft carrier from anti-ship missiles and other threats, according to a new assessment by the Pentagon’s testing office.

It also said that during 8,157 takeoffs and recoveries through last year, the carrier’s new electromagnetic catapult system made by General Atomics demonstrated a reliability of 272 launches “between operational mission failure,” or “well below” its required 4,166. Similarly, its system to snag landing aircraft  demonstrated a 41-landing reliability rate “well below the requirement of 16,500,” the testing office said. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-25/navy-s-13-billion-carrier-sows-doubt-that-it-can-defend-itself

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Pentagon Vs. State: Biden Team At War With Itself Over Russia-Ukraine Invasion Narrative

Posted by M. C. on January 26, 2022

While the US Embassy in Kiev released a statement urging Americans to leave Ukraine due to the threat of a Russian invasion, the Pentagon continues to back down from the scare stories. The government of Ukraine continues to pour cold water on Biden Admin scare stories. Is this whole thing a dangerous propaganda play? Also today: Most expensive US Naval ship can’t even defend itself, which countries are most corrupt, and Fairfax County Schools declare war on new Republican governor (and parents) over masks.

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Stop the Neocon From Starting a War – LewRockwell LewRockwell.com

Posted by M. C. on January 26, 2022

Beaten in Vietnam, Iraq and now Afghanistan, the US is seeking a cheap victory in Ukraine.  But the northern rim of the Black Sea is not known for its low-hanging geopolitical fruit.  And Russia always surprises. 

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/01/eric-margolis/sto-the-neocon-from-starting-a-war/

By Eric S. Margolis

Amid surging tensions over Ukraine, the head of Germany’s navy had the courage to voice Europe’s fears over this totally unnecessary, contrived crisis.

In a speech to an Indian think tank, Vice-admiral Kay-Achim Schonbach proposed the Western powers ‘respect’ Russian leader Vladimir Putin and accept that Crimea would remain in Moscow’s hands.

The German admiral’s remarks produced a major uproar in Washington and tut tuts in Europe where hatred of Russia has become a state fetish.  Most aggrieved were the British and Americans who deeply fear an alliance or at least entente between Germany and Russia that might undermine US domination of the continent.

Germany, Europe’s leading military force and mainstay of NATO, has hollowed out its military power.  Thanks to unqualified female defense ministers, Germany’s armed forces have degenerated into parade troops.  Armor and aircraft, once hallmarks of German military power, have become feeble toys, lacking in munitions, spare parts and capable crews.

Polls show Germans have very little interest in confronting Russia.  Memories of World War II are still raw.  Today’s Germans live in a nation that was 50% destroyed by US and British bombing.  Millions of Germans come from families driven out of eastern Europe. 

There is not a lot of sympathy for Ukraine’s current government that was installed by a US-financed and stage-managed coup in 2013-2014.  Germany’s US-dominated media and government support Washington’s hard line on Ukraine but many ordinary Germans and French don’t agree. 

America’s media and politicians strongly support the military confrontation with Russia, a low-cost way of being loudly patriotic without actually doing anything serious. 

Only Poland, the Baltic states and American neocons really hunger for war – provided it is waged by the US.  US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, a rising star among the pro-war neocons, is pushing the confrontation with Russia – yet another bureaucrat with no military experience.

Military men quickly understand the logistic and climactic problems of fighting in the Black Sea region, but not Washington’s desk warriors and their European satraps.  The US has been unwise to provoke a confrontation with Russia in its backyard.  Though Russia has lost much of its Soviet-era military power, it would be a mistake to underestimate its combat capabilities and overestimate those of NATO. 

Remember, Napoleon (who was seriously defeated in Russia) prayed ‘oh Lord, if I must go to war, please make it against a coalition.’

Washington’s sofa samurais are playing with fire. 

See the rest here

Eric S. Margolis [send him mail] is the author of War at the Top of the World and the new book, American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World. See his website.

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Is Washington Under Alien Control?, by Philip Giraldi – The Unz Review

Posted by M. C. on January 26, 2022

Biden and Blinken get everything backwards in terms of US interests

https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/is-washington-under-alien-control/#comments

Philip Giraldi

The drama currently unfolding in which the Biden Administration is doing everything it can to provoke a war with Russia over Ukraine is possibly the most frightening foreign policy misadventure since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and the 1967 Lyndon Johnson attempt to sink the USS Liberty and blame it on Egypt, either of which could have gone nuclear. I can well recall the Robert Heinlein sci-fi book The Puppet Masters, later made into a movie, which described how alien-slugs, arriving by way of a flying saucer landing in Iowa, invaded the earth and parasitically attached themselves to the central nervous systems of humans and became able to completely control their minds. What the humans know, they know. What the slugs want, no matter what, the human will do. And the tale gets really scary in geopolitical terms when some Secret Service Agents are “occupied” by the invaders and they are thereby poised to capture the President of the United States. I would point out that the movie came out when Bill Clinton was president, which should have provoked some concerns about whether it was fact or fiction.

Well, does anyone currently wonder why I think of The Puppet Masters when an incoherent Joe Biden in particular makes a speech? And also consider the befuddled look of Secretary of State Tony Blinken or the bewildered expressions of Vice President Kamala Harris or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, all of which might also suggest that the slugs now completely control the Administration. The Biden and Blinken possibly slug-controlled automatons are now stating their conviction, based on no evidence whatsoever, that Russia is about to invade Ukraine and they are threatening sanctions like Putin “has never seen before.” There will no doubt be more slug-derived pronouncements to reinforce that warning in the next few days after the latest round of talks breaks down. Evacuation of US Embassy staff families in Kiev is already underway, deliberately escalating rather than attempting to defuse the crisis which could lead to nuclear war, destroying the human race and replacing it with the alien slugs.

See the rest here

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Biden Regime Thinks 7% Inflation Not High Enough – PaulCraigRoberts.org

Posted by M. C. on January 26, 2022

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/01/25/biden-regime-thinks-7-inflation-not-high-enough/

Paul Craig Roberts

Blocked by US federal courts from imposing its illegal vaccine mandates, the criminal and insane Biden regime has resorted to imposing mandates by prohibiting unvaccinated (however that condition is currently defined) truckers from delivering goods to the US from Canada and Mexico. For a country that has offshored so much of the production it needs, reducing deliveries by stupid and ineffective “Covid policies” guarantees inflation.

The corrupt and stupid Transportation Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas justified the Biden regime’s interference with commerce as the regime’s “commitment to protecting public safety.”

This is extraordinary. With it now a proven and uncontested fact that the “vaccine,” no matter how many jabs, does not protect against Covid but does cause injury and death, the dumbshit Secretary of Transportation is protecting us by reducing the supply of goods and driving up the inflation rate!

Now we will learn the true cost of globalism. Having offshored almost everything including food production, Americans are going to experience what life is like in a third world country.

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/us-close-borders-unvaccinated-canadian-mexican-truckers-saturday

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Commodus Americanus | The Z Blog

Posted by M. C. on January 26, 2022

https://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=26470

by thezman

Note: The Monday Taki post is up. Not related to the topic of the day, but a topic that is I pray Allah will make more important every day. The Sunday podcast is up behind the green door and it is mostly about the moral crisis of this age.


There is an old expression, “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations”, that has haunted powerful people since forever. A variation on this is “The first generation makes it. The second generation maintains it and the third generation blows it”. While not an iron law of the universe, it is an observation that has held up over time. Whether it is business empires or political empires, the work of the great man somehow turns into a curse that plagues the lives of his descendents.

The funny thing about this bit of reality is that it is well known and many very smart people have tried to come up with a solution, but the problem remains. In the business world, expert planners work with business owners to help them mitigate this disaster, but only about 10% of family business make it to the grandchildren. The trust system was designed with this in mind. The grandchildren will never amount to much, but at least they will have an allowance to sustain them.

It is fair to say that popular forms of government were invented to address the problem of private rule going sour by the third generation. Caesar Augustus was the great founder of the empire. Tiberius Caesar Augustus was solid, but he suffered from the predictable maladies of every second generation ruler. Caligula is arguably Rome’s most famous lunatic. Of course, we have Claudius, an interregnum of sorts, before we get to Nero, who was literally the end of the line.

The promise of popular government is the elites are in a competition with one another to run the society. The people get to pick the winner, based on their interests. This way the great man does not hand control over to his disinterested son and his disinterested son does not leave things to a maniac. Every generation gets to figure out who is the most fit to rule society. The theory takes the natural hierarchy of society and allows it to keep renewing itself through merit. That is the theory.

Reality seems to be that old adage at the start. We see this with the current ruling classes of the West. They are looking like Commodus, the heir to the great Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, the last of the five good emperors. Unlike his father, Commodus was much more interested in spectacle and what we would today call bourgeoise degeneracy. It was his excessive self-indulgences and reckless disregard for order that brought an end to the Pax Romana.

Commodus is a good emperor to study when thinking about what is happening with the managerial elite of the American empire. When you look around at this elite, you see a lot of people like Commodus. They were born into privilege, dotted on by parents who dreamed big dreams for them. They came into the world expecting the world to comport to their desires. Most important, you see that appropriation of authority that was never earned, but passed down from the prior generation.

The news currently tells us that we are on the brink of war with Russia over Ukraine and one of the best minds on the job for the Biden team is Jake Sullivan. There is nothing in his resume that says he should be running a hot dog stand, but he has been told his whole life he is fit to rule, so he believes it. Victoria Nulland is another member of the foreign policy brain trust. Her career is best described as one disaster after another, but she was born for the role in every sense.

Look around at the elected class and you see the same pattern. There are no men who went from the middle class to elected office on their own merit. In fact, it is hard to find anyone in national politics who has ever had a job. No one in the leadership of both parties has a line for “private sector” in his resume. The reason for that is they have never done productive work. Instead, like our old friend Commodus, they were groomed from birth to take up positions in the ruling class.

Taken as a whole, the Commodus comparison becomes clear. Marcus Aurelius never would have set foot in the Coliseum, but his feckless son thought himself as Rome’s first entertainer, so he spent a lot of time performing. Our current ruling class looks more like carny folk than the men who built the empire. This is where you see the other comparison to Commodus. Like the doomed emperor, our ruling class cannot stop indulging its increasingly deranged whims.

See the rest here

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