Existential

“ Turkey stands with and will continue to stand with friendly and brotherly Azerbaijan with all our means and all our heart.
” – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan , regarding the current fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenians defending Nagorno Karabagh ( Artsakh ) April 24 , 2015 .
Marking one hundred years of commemorating the genocide of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turkey , beginning in 1915 ; a genocide denied to this day by modern Turkey .
Along with countless tens-of-thousands of Armenians from Armenia and around the world , I walked in silence that day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hill of Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan , the capital of Armenia .
It was a somber sight , a rainy day , umbrellas everywhere but still soaked .
I remember a wide pathway – a long downhill , allowing me the view of a river of umbrellas headed toward…well , we couldn ’ t see it , as we would turn a few corners before reaching the plaza and the monument .
Distressed Artsakh Str ... Buy New $ 18.99 I had visited the monument before , during one of my previous trips to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all Armenians .
Inside the museum , a map of Turkey , with villages marking Armenian populations – well , the populations prior to 1915 .
I saw two gentlemen pointing to Kayseri , discussing the city .
I spoke with them ; my maternal grandmother also was from this city .
She , unlike many in her family , survived .
The monument itself is made up of twelve slabs positioned in a circle , each slab representing a lost Armenian province in present-day Turkey .
Rising above it all is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ representing the rebirth of the nation .
In the center of the circle , an eternal flame dedicated to the 1.5 million killed .
On the day of this visit , on the 100th anniversary , this eternal flame was encircled in flowers left in offering , one by one , by the visitors – all passing by in silence .
By the time I reached it , the flowers were already piled four or five feet high .
Still , behind me the crowds were endless .
I arrived that day by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rain , until I began my slow procession with the multitudes .
However , my return to the hotel was on foot and alone – not even sure , exactly , how to get back .
I found myself complaining – rain soaked , the umbrella of little use .
I quickly stopped myself .
What a pathetic , miserable soul I am .
My grandparents and their families – like countless thousands of our grandparents – were forced from their homes , many husbands , fathers , and sons killed or forced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , children , forced to march into the Syrian desert in the heat of summer .
Starving , raped , dying .
And I am complaining about a little rain , while many , one-hundred years ago , died for lack of water .
So , I took down my umbrella and continued walking .
My paternal grandfather would tell the story of his father , taken – like others at the time – to work on road crews , perhaps for the Berlin-Baghdad railway , perhaps for some other purpose .
His @ @ @ @ @ @ @ really a job , as that implies a mutual agreement for compensation .
My grandfather saw a vision of his father dying there , begging his son to bring him a little water and bread .
Maybe it happened this way , maybe it didn ’ t .
Little Armenias : The T ... Koulaksezian , Robin Best Price : $ 23.01 Buy New $ 24.99 This great-grandfather was named after Jesus ’ s hometown – Nazareth .
My grandfather was named for one of the Apostles that first brought Christianity to Armenia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ say Tateos .
Following a supposed tradition , my father – the firstborn – was named after his grandfather .
Each in this line was firstborn , as far back as I have any knowledge .
As I was firstborn of the firstborn , my grandfather expected that I would receive his name .
I thank God that my mother refused .
Thaddeus would be OK ( well , maybe for a middle name ) , but Tateos would have been tough to grow up with in America .
Armenians are funny with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We name our children after ancient – even fabled – princes .
We name them after lost provinces .
We name them after ancient capitals .
We name them after ancient monasteries .
Also , many Biblical names .
We name our children after all of the prophets and all of the apostles ; we name them after our early Christian martyrs .
But we have more ; our Christian faith is in our names , reminding us always of our faith : There you go .
You pretty much get the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Still not enough for you ?
Many of these are also used for last names – just add “ ian ” or “ yan ” ; for example , Haroutyounian , Kalousdian , Mgrdichian .
And if that isn ’ t enough , try being Haroutyoun Haroutyounian – Resurrection , son of Resurrection ; also , Ascension , son of Ascension , or Good News , son of Good News .
And so on , as if to prove a point .
Lavash : The bread that ... Lee , John Best @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 16.20 Contemporary libertarians often assume , mistakenly , that individuals are bound to each other only by the nexus of market exchange .
They forget that everyone is necessarily born into a family , a language , and a culture .
Every person is born into one or several overlapping communities , usually including an ethnic group , with specific values , cultures , religious beliefs , and traditions .
He is generally born into a “ country.
” He is always born into a specific historical context of time and place , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know this about as well as any nation on earth .
Much of the West , and many contemporary libertarians , have no idea what Rothbard is talking about .
This is why the West is losing , and why libertarianism solely as libertarianism can never win .
Besides carrying the baggage ( as far as the Armenians are concerned ) of being a Turk , what is Erdogan ’ s track record ?
What does he do to back up all his “ heart ” when it comes to his “ friendly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Turkish president – the leader of the country that refuses to deal with its history of genocide and who has been one of the leaders in turning Syria and Libya into hell-holes , that is threatening Greece and Cyprus – has thrown his country ’ s full means behind his Turkic Azeri brothers against Armenians in this conflict .
The most potent non-nuclear military south of Russia , west of China , and east of the United States is making this threat .
Turkey , which spends almost fifteen times as much on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ threat against a country with one-third the population of Azerbaijan , and that spends half as much on the military as does Azerbaijan .
I have previously written of the history of this conflict , so will only touch on it here : Armenians have lived in Karabagh – Artsakh for us – for at least 2,500 years .
There was no such thing as Azerbaijan – other than as a province of northern Persia – before 100 years ago .
The only reason Artsakh was part of Azerbaijan was due to politically-calculated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ early days of the Soviet Union .
At the time , the region was over 90 percent Armenian – and at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union , it was still 75 to 80 percent Armenian .
Simply Armenian Ghazarian , Barbara Best Price : $ 13.13 Buy New $ 14.97 The fact that remains at the forefront of the Armenian mind in regard to this conflict is the Genocide .
Turkey offers many excuses regarding events of 1915 – fog of war , fighting on both sides , removing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as if any of this justifies the aggression perpetrated .
Armenia is all that stands in the way of a pan-Turkic empire stretching from Thrace to the eastern edges of China .
Armenia is the only non-Muslim , non-Turkic nation in this path ; it is the only Christian nation as well .
But it is more than the Genocide .
It is the memory of how Turkey intended to finish the job , in 1918 ; an intention that is a boil on the surface of the skin for Armenians , implicit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s words .
The Battle of Sardarabad occurred from 21 to 29 May 1918 , between the regular Armenian military units and militia on one side and the Ottoman army that had invaded Eastern Armenia on the other .
Sardarabad is just west of the Armenian capital of Yerevan .
Keep in mind , this is just after the Turks depopulated , via death march , much of Turkey of its Armenian population – the Genocide .
Now the Turks were advancing on what was Armenian land previously under Tzarist rule – Eastern @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no Tzar ; the Russian Revolution took care of that , and the Russians withdrew from the war and from this front .
The Armenians were successful in this battle , miraculously given the extreme poverty of the country and the countless refugees who survived the Genocide .
Had the Armenians not been successful , there likely would no longer have been an Armenia worth discussing .
In the words of Christopher J. Walker , had the Armenians lost this battle , “ [ I ] t is perfectly possible that the word @ @ @ @ @ @ @ antique geographical term.
” The Armenian Catholicos – the human leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church – refused to vacate Etchmiadzin , the home of the Church .
This despite it being directly in the path of the oncoming Turkish forces .
In addition to rejecting the proposal to flee , he would encourage the military : Later legend claimed that church bells pealed for six days calling on Armenians from all walks of life – peasants , poets , blacksmiths , and even the clergymen – to rally to form organized military @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aided in the effort as well , as “ Carts drawn by oxen , water buffalo , and cows jammed the roads bringing food , provisions , ammunition , and volunteers from the vicinity ” of Yerevan .
Outnumbered and outgunned , the Armenians would fight .
The nine-day battle would result in a complete Armenian victory , halting the Turkish advance through Armenia and to the desired oil fields of Baku .
The details aren ’ t precisely the same today , but the players and the existential nature of the crisis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Armenians lost , annihilation of the locals and the refugees would certainly have followed .
This is what today ’ s battle means to Armenians .
This is what Armenians know of Turks , and this is why the current situation is existential for Armenians .
Nothing has changed .
I will leave you with two pictures .
The first is in the region of Martakert , in Artsakh ( Nagorno Karabagh ) and directly on the border of Azerbaijan ( RT ) : These are Armenians living in this village .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and these people are now in grave danger .
Apparently , UN resolutions favor the Azeri position regarding governance of this village along with all of Artsakh , but governance by Azeris means the death or deportation ( for the lucky ones ) of this population .
What we are told is that dirt and officially recognized artificial lines on a map are both more important than the people who live there .
Ludwig von Mises had the right answer on this : … whenever the inhabitants of a particular territory , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a whole district , or a series of adjacent districts , make it known , by a freely conducted plebiscite , that they no longer wish to remain united to the state to which they belong at the time , but wish either to form an independent state or to attach themselves to some other state , their wishes are to be respected and complied with .
The inhabitants themselves decide how the lines are drawn .
The overwhelmingly Armenian population of Nagorno Karabagh did precisely this in the last years of Soviet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not respected .
History of Armenia : A ... History , Captivating Best Price : $ 6.64 Buy New $ 13.34 This is what is in the blood of those killed in 1915 ; this is the blood that is in the soil .
And it is in the blood of Armenians today .
I know the words “ blood ” and “ soil ” have a bad connotation to those who can not think beyond superficial simplicities .
It means the difference of life and death to some , every single day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life and death to all civilizations that do not understand the necessity of defending it .
This history is also in Armenian hearts and minds , as Turks – both to our east and west – pledge to stand together against Armenians , as Erdogan says , “ with all our means and all our heart.
” Jeff Deist asked the question : What are you willing to fight for ?
…what would you physically fight for , where doing so could mean serious injury or death .
Or arrest and imprisonment , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your money , and your possessions .
…we probably would fight for our towns and communities if they were physically invaded by an outside force , even though we don ’ t personally know all of the people in our towns and communities .
For Armenians , you can take out the word “ probably.
” He concludes : In other words , blood and soil and God and nation still matter to people .
To some people , at least ; to Armenians , certainly .
This is why Armenians will not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ win the battles we fight and we have very often been governed by others , but we do not lose our souls or our place .
Yes , we have as much corruption as anyone in politics , business , and the Church .
But unlike much of the West , Armenians know who they are and what is worth fighting for .
Armenians are not fighting today because of the last Genocide ; they are fighting to prevent the next one .
Albeit at potentially great loss of life , Armenia will @ @ @ @ @ @ @

“Turkey stands with and will continue to stand with friendly and brotherly Azerbaijan with all our means and all our heart.”
– Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, regarding the current fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenians defending Nagorno Karabagh (Artsakh)
April 24, 2015. Marking one hundred years of commemorating the genocide of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turkey, beginning in 1915; a genocide denied to this day by modern Turkey.
Along with countless tens-of-thousands of Armenians from Armenia and around the world, I walked in silence that day toward the Armenian Genocide Memorial on the hill of Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. It was a somber sight, a rainy day, umbrellas everywhere but still soaked. I remember a wide pathway – a long downhill, allowing me the view of a river of umbrellas headed toward…well, we couldn’t see it, as we would turn a few corners before reaching the plaza and the monument. Distressed Artsakh Str... Buy New $18.99 (as of 04:02 UTC - Details)
I had visited the monument before, during one of my previous trips to the country; a necessary stop for all Armenians. Inside the museum, a map of Turkey, with villages marking Armenian populations – well, the populations prior to 1915. I saw two gentlemen pointing to Kayseri, discussing the city. I spoke with them; my maternal grandmother also was from this city. She, unlike many in her family, survived.
The monument itself is made up of twelve slabs positioned in a circle, each slab representing a lost Armenian province in present-day Turkey. Rising above it all is a single pillar, 44 meters high, representing the rebirth of the nation. In the center of the circle, an eternal flame dedicated to the 1.5 million killed. On the day of this visit, on the 100th anniversary, this eternal flame was encircled in flowers left in offering, one by one, by the visitors – all passing by in silence. By the time I reached it, the flowers were already piled four or five feet high. Still, behind me the crowds were endless.
I arrived that day by bus, avoiding, momentarily, the rain, until I began my slow procession with the multitudes. However, my return to the hotel was on foot and alone – not even sure, exactly, how to get back. I found myself complaining – rain soaked, the umbrella of little use. I quickly stopped myself. What a pathetic, miserable soul I am.
My grandparents and their families – like countless thousands of our grandparents – were forced from their homes, many husbands, fathers, and sons killed or forced into work camps. Wives, mothers, children, forced to march into the Syrian desert in the heat of summer. Starving, raped, dying. And I am complaining about a little rain, while many, one-hundred years ago, died for lack of water. So, I took down my umbrella and continued walking.
My paternal grandfather would tell the story of his father, taken – like others at the time – to work on road crews, perhaps for the Berlin-Baghdad railway, perhaps for some other purpose. His job was to break rocks; not really a job, as that implies a mutual agreement for compensation. My grandfather saw a vision of his father dying there, begging his son to bring him a little water and bread. Maybe it happened this way, maybe it didn’t. Little Armenias: The T... Koulaksezian, Robin Best Price: $23.01 Buy New $24.99 (as of 04:02 UTC - Details)
This great-grandfather was named after Jesus’s hometown – Nazareth. My grandfather was named for one of the Apostles that first brought Christianity to Armenia – Thaddeus. But in Armenian we say Tateos. Following a supposed tradition, my father – the firstborn – was named after his grandfather. Each in this line was firstborn, as far back as I have any knowledge.
As I was firstborn of the firstborn, my grandfather expected that I would receive his name. I thank God that my mother refused. Thaddeus would be OK (well, maybe for a middle name), but Tateos would have been tough to grow up with in America.
Armenians are funny with names – funny in a good way. We name our children after ancient – even fabled – princes. We name them after lost provinces. We name them after ancient capitals. We name them after ancient monasteries. Also, many Biblical names. We name our children after all of the prophets and all of the apostles; we name them after our early Christian martyrs. But we have more; our Christian faith is in our names, reminding us always of our faith:
Haroutyoun: Resurrection
Hampartsoom: Ascension
Kalousd: Advent
Mgrdich: Baptist
Yerchanig: Blessed
Endza: Gift
Barkev: Reward
Avedis: Good News
Hnazant: Obedient
Mayranoush: Sweet mother
Shnor: Grace
There you go. You pretty much get the entire message of the Gospel right there. Still not enough for you? Many of these are also used for last names – just add “ian” or “yan”; for example, Haroutyounian, Kalousdian, Mgrdichian. And if that isn’t enough, try being Haroutyoun Haroutyounian – Resurrection, son of Resurrection; also, Ascension, son of Ascension, or Good News, son of Good News. And so on, as if to prove a point. Lavash: The bread that... Lee, John Best Price: $20.59 Buy New $16.20 (as of 04:02 UTC - Details)
Murray Rothbard would write:
Contemporary libertarians often assume, mistakenly, that individuals are bound to each other only by the nexus of market exchange. They forget that everyone is necessarily born into a family, a language, and a culture. Every person is born into one or several overlapping communities, usually including an ethnic group, with specific values, cultures, religious beliefs, and traditions. He is generally born into a “country.” He is always born into a specific historical context of time and place, meaning neighborhood and land area.
Armenians know this about as well as any nation on earth. Much of the West, and many contemporary libertarians, have no idea what Rothbard is talking about. This is why the West is losing, and why libertarianism solely as libertarianism can never win.
Besides carrying the baggage (as far as the Armenians are concerned) of being a Turk, what is Erdogan’s track record? What does he do to back up all his “heart” when it comes to his “friendly and brotherly Azerbaijan”? The current Turkish president – the leader of the country that refuses to deal with its history of genocide and who has been one of the leaders in turning Syria and Libya into hell-holes, that is threatening Greece and Cyprus – has thrown his country’s full means behind his Turkic Azeri brothers against Armenians in this conflict.
The most potent non-nuclear military south of Russia, west of China, and east of the United States is making this threat. Turkey, which spends almost fifteen times as much on the military as does Armenia. This threat against a country with one-third the population of Azerbaijan, and that spends half as much on the military as does Azerbaijan.
I have previously written of the history of this conflict, so will only touch on it here: Armenians have lived in Karabagh – Artsakh for us – for at least 2,500 years. There was no such thing as Azerbaijan – other than as a province of northern Persia – before 100 years ago. The only reason Artsakh was part of Azerbaijan was due to politically-calculated decisions made by Soviet leaders in the early days of the Soviet Union. At the time, the region was over 90 percent Armenian – and at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it was still 75 to 80 percent Armenian. Simply Armenian Ghazarian, Barbara Best Price: $13.13 Buy New $14.97 (as of 04:02 UTC - Details)
The fact that remains at the forefront of the Armenian mind in regard to this conflict is the Genocide. Turkey offers many excuses regarding events of 1915 – fog of war, fighting on both sides, removing Armenians from the front, whatever; as if any of this justifies the aggression perpetrated.
Armenia is all that stands in the way of a pan-Turkic empire stretching from Thrace to the eastern edges of China. Armenia is the only non-Muslim, non-Turkic nation in this path; it is the only Christian nation as well. But it is more than the Genocide. It is the memory of how Turkey intended to finish the job, in 1918; an intention that is a boil on the surface of the skin for Armenians, implicit and bordering on explicit in Erdogan’s words.
The Battle of Sardarabad occurred from 21 to 29 May 1918, between the regular Armenian military units and militia on one side and the Ottoman army that had invaded Eastern Armenia on the other. Sardarabad is just west of the Armenian capital of Yerevan. Keep in mind, this is just after the Turks depopulated, via death march, much of Turkey of its Armenian population – the Genocide.
Now the Turks were advancing on what was Armenian land previously under Tzarist rule – Eastern Armenia. Except by now there was no Tzar; the Russian Revolution took care of that, and the Russians withdrew from the war and from this front.
The Armenians were successful in this battle, miraculously given the extreme poverty of the country and the countless refugees who survived the Genocide. Had the Armenians not been successful, there likely would no longer have been an Armenia worth discussing.
In the words of Christopher J. Walker, had the Armenians lost this battle, “[I]t is perfectly possible that the word Armenia would have henceforth denoted only an antique geographical term.”
The Armenian Catholicos – the human leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church – refused to vacate Etchmiadzin, the home of the Church. This despite it being directly in the path of the oncoming Turkish forces. In addition to rejecting the proposal to flee, he would encourage the military:
Later legend claimed that church bells pealed for six days calling on Armenians from all walks of life – peasants, poets, blacksmiths, and even the clergymen – to rally to form organized military units. Civilians, including children, aided in the effort as well, as “Carts drawn by oxen, water buffalo, and cows jammed the roads bringing food, provisions, ammunition, and volunteers from the vicinity” of Yerevan.
Outnumbered and outgunned, the Armenians would fight. The nine-day battle would result in a complete Armenian victory, halting the Turkish advance through Armenia and to the desired oil fields of Baku. The details aren’t precisely the same today, but the players and the existential nature of the crisis are exactly the same.
Had the Armenians lost, annihilation of the locals and the refugees would certainly have followed. This is what today’s battle means to Armenians. This is what Armenians know of Turks, and this is why the current situation is existential for Armenians. Nothing has changed.
I will leave you with two pictures. The first is in the region of Martakert, in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabagh) and directly on the border of Azerbaijan (RT):
These are Armenians living in this village. We personally support the Armenian Church in Martakert, and these people are now in grave danger. Apparently, UN resolutions favor the Azeri position regarding governance of this village along with all of Artsakh, but governance by Azeris means the death or deportation (for the lucky ones) of this population. What we are told is that dirt and officially recognized artificial lines on a map are both more important than the people who live there.
Ludwig von Mises had the right answer on this:
… whenever the inhabitants of a particular territory, whether it be a single village, a whole district, or a series of adjacent districts, make it known, by a freely conducted plebiscite, that they no longer wish to remain united to the state to which they belong at the time, but wish either to form an independent state or to attach themselves to some other state, their wishes are to be respected and complied with.
The inhabitants themselves decide how the lines are drawn. The overwhelmingly Armenian population of Nagorno Karabagh did precisely this in the last years of Soviet rule; unfortunately, their wishes were not respected. History of Armenia: A ... History, Captivating Best Price: $6.64 Buy New $13.34 (as of 04:02 UTC - Details)
The second picture:
This is what is in the blood of those killed in 1915; this is the blood that is in the soil. And it is in the blood of Armenians today. I know the words “blood” and “soil” have a bad connotation to those who cannot think beyond superficial simplicities. It means the difference of life and death to some, every single day; it will mean the difference of life and death to all civilizations that do not understand the necessity of defending it.
This history is also in Armenian hearts and minds, as Turks – both to our east and west – pledge to stand together against Armenians, as Erdogan says, “with all our means and all our heart.”
Jeff Deist asked the question: What are you willing to fight for?
…what would you physically fight for, where doing so could mean serious injury or death. Or arrest and imprisonment, or the loss of your home, your money, and your possessions.
…we probably would fight for our towns and communities if they were physically invaded by an outside force, even though we don’t personally know all of the people in our towns and communities.
For Armenians, you can take out the word “probably.” He concludes:
In other words, blood and soil and God and nation still matter to people.
To some people, at least; to Armenians, certainly. This is why Armenians will not lose. We don’t often win the battles we fight and we have very often been governed by others, but we do not lose our souls or our place. Yes, we have as much corruption as anyone in politics, business, and the Church. But unlike much of the West, Armenians know who they are and what is worth fighting for.
Armenians are not fighting today because of the last Genocide; they are fighting to prevent the next one. Albeit at potentially great loss of life, Armenia will survive.
The Best of Daniel Ajamian


lewrockwell--2020-10-07--Who Targeted the President?

Who Targeted the President?

I always trust my gut .
Litigators and trial attorneys tend to do that .
When things don ’ t make sense or add up but you don ’ t have a smoking gun , you start nosing around with questioning and investigating to see if your hunch pans out .
Obviously , I don ’ t have any proof that the recent COVID-19 infections of POTUS and FLOTUS , several Republican senators , and people working on his campaign and in his administration are truly random events or something planned , but it doesn ’ t pass the “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Come on , admit it .
You are all thinking it , too .
I ’ m sure that , like me , you spent the weekend texting friends about your suspicions .
The virus appears to have targeted Republicans only and left Democrats unscathed .
Democrats are trying to characterize this as a Rose Garden or debate super-spreader — even though plenty of Democrats and Biden-supporters were at the debate and likely interacted with Republicans after the Amy Coney Barrett ceremony .
They argue that , as avid wearers of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bearing COVID .
But if masks were ironclad , we ’ d all be immune .
People can still contract the disease in spite of masks , hand-washing , and social distancing — which are only preventive measures that minimize risk .
It is odd that in a town as small as Washington , D.C. , only Republicans took the hit .
Donald Trump 2020 Camp ... Buy New $ 14.50 The timing is a second factor .
Key Republicans fell ill after the Barrett announcement , the debate , and Comey ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are full-blown into October — the final leg of the campaign .
We have Radcliffe ’ s damning evidence that Obama , Comey , and Brennan were aware of Hillary Clinton ’ s intent to frame Trump of colluding with Russia , and suddenly , Andy McCabe can not do a Zoom appearance in the Senate under the pretext of fearing for his family ’ s safety from contracting COVID .
Schumer , on cue , demands the cancelation of the Barrett hearings — all or part of which can be done remotely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hidin ’ Biden comes out of seclusion and hops on more planes in the last few days , flying to Michigan and Florida , than he has flown for most of September , when he made a only few local appearances in Delaware and Pennsylvania , flew to Cleveland for the debate , called lids on half the days in September , and did a post-debate lame train tour where he interacted with few supporters .

I always trust my gut. Litigators and trial attorneys tend to do that. When things don’t make sense or add up but you don’t have a smoking gun, you start nosing around with questioning and investigating to see if your hunch pans out.
Obviously, I don’t have any proof that the recent COVID-19 infections of POTUS and FLOTUS, several Republican senators, and people working on his campaign and in his administration are truly random events or something planned, but it doesn’t pass the “random cluster of infections” smell test. Come on, admit it. You are all thinking it, too. I’m sure that, like me, you spent the weekend texting friends about your suspicions.
The virus appears to have targeted Republicans only and left Democrats unscathed. Democrats are trying to characterize this as a Rose Garden or debate super-spreader — even though plenty of Democrats and Biden-supporters were at the debate and likely interacted with Republicans after the Amy Coney Barrett ceremony. They argue that, as avid wearers of the mask, they are shielded from Republicans bearing COVID. But if masks were ironclad, we’d all be immune. People can still contract the disease in spite of masks, hand-washing, and social distancing — which are only preventive measures that minimize risk. It is odd that in a town as small as Washington, D.C., only Republicans took the hit. Donald Trump 2020 Camp... Buy New $14.50 (as of 04:02 UTC - Details)
The timing is a second factor. Key Republicans fell ill after the Barrett announcement, the debate, and Comey’s flaccid testimony, and now we are full-blown into October — the final leg of the campaign. We have Radcliffe’s damning evidence that Obama, Comey, and Brennan were aware of Hillary Clinton’s intent to frame Trump of colluding with Russia, and suddenly, Andy McCabe cannot do a Zoom appearance in the Senate under the pretext of fearing for his family’s safety from contracting COVID. Schumer, on cue, demands the cancelation of the Barrett hearings — all or part of which can be done remotely to prevent COVID spread. Moreover, Hidin’ Biden comes out of seclusion and hops on more planes in the last few days, flying to Michigan and Florida, than he has flown for most of September, when he made a only few local appearances in Delaware and Pennsylvania, flew to Cleveland for the debate, called lids on half the days in September, and did a post-debate lame train tour where he interacted with few supporters.
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lewrockwell--2020-10-07--With Real Rates Rising, Is the Fed Preparing a Digital Dollar?

It pays today to never underestimate the venality of the people who think they run the world .
It also pays to listen to them when they say the most outrageous things .
At virtual Jackson Hole this year FOMC Chair Jerome Powell redefined inflation for the third time in my lifetime .
By removing the Phillips Curve from the landscape Powell will now guide monetary policy by the desire to create inflation expectations , a kind of first derivative of inflation under the mostly irrelevant Quantity Theory of Money ( QTM ) .
I talked about Powell ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this change in a post right after that speech .
And I outlined what the Austrian criticism of the QTM was — a myopic focus on the supply of money rather than the interplay of it with the demand for money .
The better definition of inflation expectations is to think of it as the velocity of human action .
Beyond Blockchain : The ... Townsend , Erik Best Price : $ 23.95 Buy New $ 24.95 But that growth is dependent on your starting point .
If things truly suck making things @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ll put a new roof on your house or start a new business but it may mean that you spend a little more money on better food .
Because of this systemic degradation of inflation expectations and the squeezing out of available investment capital , the Fed would always reach a point where it could not use interest rates to manipulate aggregate demand and boost GDP — Gross National Spending .
The economy always reaches a point where interest rates are irrelevant to creating confidence to take on new debt .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saturation ’ to describe where we are .
Now with Jay Powell ’ s speech from virtual Jackson Hole , we have him openly admitting this , validating the Austrian criticism .
And so , we have the new definition of inflation , freed from the shackles of the Phillips Curve .
It ’ s still all about prices today but now the Fed is admitting that the economy runs on the time preference of individuals rather than arbitrary definitions of full employment .
Powell uses the term ‘ inflation expectations ’ but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Price of Tomorrow : ... Booth , Jeff Best Price : $ 21.14 Buy New $ 18.95 This change by Powell was presaged by a recent white paper which Zerohedge and others brought to wide attention about creating inflation through helicopter money , so-called digital dollars .
This is nothing new now , we ’ ve been talking about this for weeks .
Those digital dollars will be given to you to spend and you won ’ t be able to convert them to physical cash .
Cash will be sunsetted and there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Davos Crowd wants to implement .
To roll this ball forward there has to be a major impetus to change things and that means another phase to the financial crisis .
So , with that in mind I bring you this tweet from Danielle DiMartino Booth from ten days ago , that finally showed up on my radar neatly reminding me that Twitter doesn ’ t have my best interests in mind .
Now why would the Fed be buying TIPS if not to manage inflation expectations ?
TIPS are weird because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with rising inflation and conversely with deflation .
Buying TIPS means the Fed is propping up their prices to tell everyone that real interest rates are not rising !
Pay no attention to the deflation behind the curtain !
But they are .
And rising real yields is a real problem for the Fed if it wants to keep the monetary system from melting down globally .
TIPS prices wouldn ’ t need supporting if real yields weren ’ t rising , which means inflation expectations are falling .
And what happened in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days after the end of Q3 ended with a Fed-induced whimper ?
Now we have nominal yields rising , TIPS prices supported and one of the winners over the past few days has been gold ?
Gold is supposed fall with rising real yields , and yet , it ’ s rising because this notion that the Fed is buying TIPS means we ’ re getting safe haven inflows , not investment inflows into gold .
This furthers the argument that gold only follows real yields when markets aren ’ t under stress @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fail for real , gold de-couples from financial assets of all types and trades to its own beat .
But back to this week ’ s bond market carnage .
So , did the Fed finally stop buying TIPS or have we entered another short-lived reflation trade now that Q3 is behind us , thanks to Trump surviving COVID-19 ?
The Bitcoin Standard : ... Saifedean Ammous Best Price : $ 17.32 Buy New $ 18.78 Or were the temporary positions taken by banks to manipulate their balance sheets for earnings unwound and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the yield curve because real rates are rising faster than the Fed can schlorp them up ?
I think , honestly , it doesn ’ t matter no matter how explosive all of this may actually be .
As the stimulus game of chicken continues on Capitol Hill the markets keep hoping for some sign of help .
But the best they have is that Biden ’ s chances of winning the election are fading along with his cognition .
Wall St. may be coming out trying to spin a Biden victory as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only be because Pelosi will blackmail them with endless stimulus and the promise of the new Fed e-dollar .
But what is most obvious to me is there is no appetite to give Trump any help in getting re-elected .
Whether Powell bought tons of TIPS to keep the markets from crashing into the end of the quarter or not is a mostly academic question .
What ’ s clear now is the agenda I ’ ve outlined previously as the Democrats ’ and The Davos Crowd ’ s strategy for the future @ @ @ @ @ @ @ give us all the power .
If you want to keep your house , give us all the power .
And , more importantly , accept the new reality that is coming whether you like it or not .
There ’ s a Great Reset coming and it won ’ t matter who you vote for .
Jay Powell is just the bag man , folks .
He ’ s a bystander in all of this .
The Best of Thomas Luongo

It pays today to never underestimate the venality of the people who think they run the world. It also pays to listen to them when they say the most outrageous things.
At virtual Jackson Hole this year FOMC Chair Jerome Powell redefined inflation for the third time in my lifetime. By removing the Phillips Curve from the landscape Powell will now guide monetary policy by the desire to create inflation expectations, a kind of first derivative of inflation under the mostly irrelevant Quantity Theory of Money (QTM).
I talked about Powell’s dilemma and why he had to make this change in a post right after that speech. And I outlined what the Austrian criticism of the QTM was — a myopic focus on the supply of money rather than the interplay of it with the demand for money.
The better definition of inflation expectations is to think of it as the velocity of human action. Beyond Blockchain: The... Townsend, Erik Best Price: $23.95 Buy New $24.95 (as of 03:36 UTC - Details)
Now I’m sympathetic, for argument’s sake, to define inflation expectations as the first derivative of action. If you expect things to get better than you may make choices which lead to lower time preference behavior which, in turn, boosts investment in larger projects and an expansion of the division of labor. Economic growth.
But that growth is dependent on your starting point. If things truly suck making things somewhat better doesn’t mean you’ll put a new roof on your house or start a new business but it may mean that you spend a little more money on better food.
Because of this systemic degradation of inflation expectations and the squeezing out of available investment capital, the Fed would always reach a point where it could not use interest rates to manipulate aggregate demand and boost GDP — Gross National Spending.
The economy always reaches a point where interest rates are irrelevant to creating confidence to take on new debt. I like to use the term ‘debt saturation’ to describe where we are. Now with Jay Powell’s speech from virtual Jackson Hole, we have him openly admitting this, validating the Austrian criticism. And so, we have the new definition of inflation, freed from the shackles of the Phillips Curve. It’s still all about prices today but now the Fed is admitting that the economy runs on the time preference of individuals rather than arbitrary definitions of full employment. Powell uses the term ‘inflation expectations’ but time preference is still better.
The Price of Tomorrow:... Booth, Jeff Best Price: $21.14 Buy New $18.95 (as of 03:36 UTC - Details) This change by Powell was presaged by a recent white paper which Zerohedge and others brought to wide attention about creating inflation through helicopter money, so-called digital dollars.
This is nothing new now, we’ve been talking about this for weeks.
Those digital dollars will be given to you to spend and you won’t be able to convert them to physical cash. Cash will be sunsetted and there will be no hiding from whatever policy The Davos Crowd wants to implement.
To roll this ball forward there has to be a major impetus to change things and that means another phase to the financial crisis. So, with that in mind I bring you this tweet from Danielle DiMartino Booth from ten days ago, that finally showed up on my radar neatly reminding me that Twitter doesn’t have my best interests in mind.
This is THE MOST IMPORTANT TWEET I’LL SEND THIS WEEK. The Fed so fears building disinflationary pressures it’s buying all the TIPS it can get its hands in an ATTEMPT to force inflation narrative into investors’ psyches. THAT’S FEAR @bondstrategist https://t.co/XRCoJcxh8Y — Danielle DiMartino Booth (@DiMartinoBooth) September 25, 2020
Now why would the Fed be buying TIPS if not to manage inflation expectations? TIPS are weird because both their price and their yield rise with rising inflation and conversely with deflation. Buying TIPS means the Fed is propping up their prices to tell everyone that real interest rates are not rising!
Pay no attention to the deflation behind the curtain!
But they are. And rising real yields is a real problem for the Fed if it wants to keep the monetary system from melting down globally. TIPS prices wouldn’t need supporting if real yields weren’t rising, which means inflation expectations are falling.
And what happened in the all-important 10-year Treasury market in recent days after the end of Q3 ended with a Fed-induced whimper?
Now we have nominal yields rising, TIPS prices supported and one of the winners over the past few days has been gold? Gold is supposed fall with rising real yields, and yet, it’s rising because this notion that the Fed is buying TIPS means we’re getting safe haven inflows, not investment inflows into gold.
This furthers the argument that gold only follows real yields when markets aren’t under stress. When faith in governments begin to fail for real, gold de-couples from financial assets of all types and trades to its own beat.
But back to this week’s bond market carnage. So, did the Fed finally stop buying TIPS or have we entered another short-lived reflation trade now that Q3 is behind us, thanks to Trump surviving COVID-19? The Bitcoin Standard: ... Saifedean Ammous Best Price: $17.32 Buy New $18.78 (as of 10:45 UTC - Details)
Or were the temporary positions taken by banks to manipulate their balance sheets for earnings unwound and that’s causing a shock to the yield curve because real rates are rising faster than the Fed can schlorp them up?
I think, honestly, it doesn’t matter no matter how explosive all of this may actually be. As the stimulus game of chicken continues on Capitol Hill the markets keep hoping for some sign of help. But the best they have is that Biden’s chances of winning the election are fading along with his cognition.
Wall St. may be coming out trying to spin a Biden victory as good for the markets but that would only be because Pelosi will blackmail them with endless stimulus and the promise of the new Fed e-dollar.
But what is most obvious to me is there is no appetite to give Trump any help in getting re-elected. Whether Powell bought tons of TIPS to keep the markets from crashing into the end of the quarter or not is a mostly academic question.
What’s clear now is the agenda I’ve outlined previously as the Democrats’ and The Davos Crowd’s strategy for the future. If you want to eat, give us all the power. If you want to keep your house, give us all the power.
And, more importantly, accept the new reality that is coming whether you like it or not. There’s a Great Reset coming and it won’t matter who you vote for.
Jay Powell is just the bag man, folks. He’s a bystander in all of this.
Reprinted with permission from Gold Goats ‘n Guns.
The Best of Tom Luongo


lewrockwell--2020-10-07--Trump’s Getting Covid Could Be Good News for Him, and the Country

Almost as soon as President Donald Trump announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19 , the left erupted in cheers , stopping only to suggest he was faking it to get out of future debates .
Pundits everywhere speculated on the impact of Trump ’ s illness on the presidential race , with most of the comments along the lines of : “ Will Trump ’ s presidency be a casualty of COVID-19 ?
” There ’ s another possibility .
That this turn of events will not only benefit Trump but could help snap the country out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a death sentence .
Donald Trump - Advance ... Buy New $ 44.99 In all likelihood , Trump will recover just fine .
“ Over the past 24 hours , the president has continued to improve , ” his physician , Dr. Sean Conley , said Monday .
Trump ’ s return to the White House after suffering what , by all indications , were not terribly serious health effects , will let him boast that he beat COVID-19 .
He will also be able to claim that he was right not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ act like a scared rabbit when he ’ s out in public , like a certain Democratic presidential candidate .
The contrast is not going to help Joe Biden ’ s campaign .
Donald Trump Coin 2020 ... Buy New $ 5.35 More importantly , it will be an opportunity for Trump to counter all the scaremongering that Biden and his army of sycophants in the press are engaged in .
They want to keep the public in a state of panic about the coronavirus because they think it ’ s hurting Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regard every coronavirus infection as a terminal case and ignore any fact that gets in the way of their doom-and-gloom narrative .
Yes , a lot of people have died with COVID-19 .
But as we ’ ve reported here many times , the death count “ from ” COVID-19 is almost certainly exaggerated , because the Centers for Disease Control is counting every death with COVID-19 .
And even based on the CDC ’ s counting method , the trend line is moving in the right direction .

Almost as soon as President Donald Trump announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19, the left erupted in cheers, stopping only to suggest he was faking it to get out of future debates.
Pundits everywhere speculated on the impact of Trump’s illness on the presidential race, with most of the comments along the lines of: “Will Trump’s presidency be a casualty of COVID-19?”
There’s another possibility. That this turn of events will not only benefit Trump but could help snap the country out of its COVID-mania, which treats every case as a death sentence. Donald Trump - Advance... Buy New $44.99 (as of 05:12 UTC - Details)
Here’s why.
In all likelihood, Trump will recover just fine. “Over the past 24 hours, the president has continued to improve,” his physician, Dr. Sean Conley, said Monday.
Trump’s return to the White House after suffering what, by all indications, were not terribly serious health effects, will let him boast that he beat COVID-19.
He will also be able to claim that he was right not to hide in the basement, or act like a scared rabbit when he’s out in public, like a certain Democratic presidential candidate. The contrast is not going to help Joe Biden’s campaign. Donald Trump Coin 2020... Buy New $5.35 (as of 05:19 UTC - Details)
More importantly, it will be an opportunity for Trump to counter all the scaremongering that Biden and his army of sycophants in the press are engaged in. They want to keep the public in a state of panic about the coronavirus because they think it’s hurting Trump’s reelection chances. So they regard every coronavirus infection as a terminal case and ignore any fact that gets in the way of their doom-and-gloom narrative.
Yes, a lot of people have died with COVID-19. But as we’ve reported here many times, the death count “from” COVID-19 is almost certainly exaggerated, because the Centers for Disease Control is counting every death with COVID-19. And even based on the CDC’s counting method, the trend line is moving in the right direction.
Read the Whole Article


lewrockwell--2020-10-07--Will Artsakh (Karabagh) Be the Tomb of Erdoğan?

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict certainly had its origins in the dissolution of the USSR , but it was revived by the will of the Turkish president .
It is unlikely that he took this initiative without first referring it to Washington .
This is also what President Saddam Hussein did before invading Kuwait , falling by ambition into the trap set for him and causing his downfall .
A very ancient conflict , frozen for the past 30 years Erdogan ’ s Empire ... Cagaptay , Soner Buy New $ 17.95 The Turkish people define themselves as descended from the “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” , i.e .
as descendants of the hordes of Genghis Khan .
It is composed of both “ one people and two states ” : Turkey and Azerbaijan .
The political rebirth of the former automatically engenders the arrival of the latter on the international scene .
Of course this political renaissance does not mean a resurgence of the violence of the barbarian hordes , but this past has nonetheless forged mentalities , despite the efforts of many politicians who , for a century , have been trying to normalize the Turkish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Ottoman era , Sultan Habdulhamid II wanted to unite the country around his conception of the Muslim faith .
He therefore ordered the physical elimination of hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims .
This was supervised by German officers who acquired during this genocide an experience that they later put at the service of Nazi racial ideology .
The Ottoman policy of purification was pursued on a larger scale by the Young Turks at the beginning of the Republic , particularly against the Orthodox Armenians [ 1 ] .
Murder being an addiction @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Turkish armies .
Thus , in March 2014 , they escorted hundreds of jihadists from the al-Nosra Front ( al-Qaeda ) and the Army of Islam ( pro-Saudi ) to the city of Kessab ( Syria ) to massacre the Armenian population .
The jihadists who participated in this operation were today sent to kill other Armenians in Karabagh .
These massacres ceased in Azerbaijan during the brief Democratic Republic ( 1918-20 ) and the Soviet period ( 1920-90 ) , but resumed in 1988 with the collapse of Moscow ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ period , in accordance with Joseph Stalin ’ s policy of nationalities , an Armenian region was joined with Azerbaijan to form a Socialist Republic .
Thus when the USSR was dissolved , the international community recognized Karabakh not as Armenian but as Azeri .
The same mistake was made in the rush in Moldova with Transnistria , in Ukraine with Crimea , in Georgia with South Ossetia and Abkhazia .
A series of wars immediately followed , including that of Nagorno-Karabakh .
These are cases where international law developed from an error @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conflicts , as in Palestine , which was not rectified in time , leading to inextricable situations .
The New Sultan : Erdoga ... Cagaptay , Soner Best Price : $ 11.75 Buy New $ 8.68 Westerners intervened to prevent a general conflagration .
However , the example of Transnistria attests that it was a step backwards in order to better jump : thus the United States resorted to the Romanian army to try to annihilate the nascent Pridnestrovie [ 2 ] .
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ( OSCE @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Minsk Group ” , co-chaired by the United States , France and Russia , to find a solution , which it never did : Russia did not want to choose between its former partners , France wanted to play the important game , and the United States wanted to maintain a conflict zone on the Russian border .
The other conflicts , created at the dissolution of the USSR , were deliberately fuelled by Washington and London with Georgia ’ s aggression against South Ossetia in 2008 or the EuroMaydan coup d ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at expelling Russians from the Crimea in 2014 .
The attack on the Republic of Artsakh ( Karabagh ) by Azerbaijan and Turkey was justified by the speech of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev at the UN General Assembly on September 24 .
[ 3 ] His main idea was that the Minsk Group had qualified the status quo as unacceptable , but that “ statements are not enough .
We need action .
He could not have been clearer .
In accordance with his family ’ s ideology , he put his opponents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , attributing the Khojaly massacre ( 1992 , more than 600 victims ) to “ Armenian terrorists ” , even though it was a black operation during an attempted coup in his country ; in any case , this allowed him to present in a biased manner the actions of ASALA ( Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia ) in the 1970s and 1980s .
He pointed out that four Security Council resolutions ordered the withdrawal of Armenian troops , playing on the homonymy between the Armenian population of Karabagh and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way of ignoring the fact that the Council also enjoined Azerbaijan to organize a referendum of self-determination in Karabagh .
It accused , not without reason , the new Armenian Prime Minister , Nikol Pashinyan , of being one of the men of the speculator Gorge Soros , as if this erased what had gone before .
The conflict can only end after a referendum of self-determination , the outcome of which comes as little surprise .
For the time being , it benefits those who , like Israel , sell arms to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Th ... Cagaptay , Soner Best Price : $ 3.85 Buy New $ 16.50 For Erdoğan , one war too many ?
Having said this , let us analyze the current conflict from another angle , that of international balances , keeping in mind that the Turkish army is already illegally present in Cyprus , Iraq and Syria ; that it violates the military embargo in Libya and now the cease-fire in Azerbaijan .
Baku is organizing itself to postpone the inevitable deadline even further .
Azerbaijan has already obtained the support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financing of jihadists in this field of operations .
According to our information , at least 580 of them have been sent from Idleb ( Syria ) via Turkey .
This war is expensive and KKR , the powerful company of the US-Israeli Henry Kravis , seems to be involved as it is still involved in Iraq , Syria and Libya .
As in the destabilization of communist Afghanistan , Israeli weapons could be routed through Pakistan .
In any case , in Turkey , posters flourish placing side by side the flags @ @ @ @ @ @ @ astonishing , President Aliyev received the support of his Belarusian counterpart , Alexander Lukashenko .
It is likely that he is acting in agreement with the Kremlin , which could herald a more visible Russian support for Orthodox Armenia ( Russia , Belarus and Armenia are all members of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization ) .
Strangely , Shiite Iran has not taken a position .
Yet , although ethnically Turkish , Azerbaijan is the only other Shia people in the world because it was part of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ included it in his plan for a Shia Federation presented during his second election campaign .
This withdrawal gives the impression that Tehran does not wish to enter into conflict with Moscow , which is officially neutral .
All the more so since Armenia plays a non-negligible role in the circumvention of the US embargo against Iran .
Ataturk : The Biography ... Mango , Andrew Best Price : $ 1.99 Buy New $ 16.95 On the Armenian side , the diaspora in the United States is lobbying intensely in Congress in order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a member of NATO- responsible for the conflict before an international tribunal .
In the case of a tacit agreement between Moscow and Washington , this war could be turned diplomatically against President Erdoğan , now unbearable to the Big Two .
Like Iraqi President Saddam Hussein , who brutally changed from valet of the Pentagon to public enemy No .
1 when he thought he had the authorization to invade Kuwait , the Turkish president may have been encouraged to take the blame .
[ 1 ] “ Today ’ s Turkey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thierry Meyssan , Translation Pete Kimberley , Voltaire Network , 14 May 2015 .
[ 3 ] “ Intervention by Ilham Aliyev the 75th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly ” , by Ilham Aliyev , Voltaire Network , 24 September 2020 .
The Best of Thierry Meyssan

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict certainly had its origins in the dissolution of the USSR, but it was revived by the will of the Turkish president. It is unlikely that he took this initiative without first referring it to Washington. This is also what President Saddam Hussein did before invading Kuwait, falling by ambition into the trap set for him and causing his downfall.
On his Twitter account, President Erdoğan wrote on the day of the outbreak of hostilities: ” – During the phone calls we had today, a wise and resolute stance, the “one nation, two states” approach, once again testifies, as I mentioned to Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan, that Turkey will continue to strengthen its cooperation with its Azerbaijani brothers. – As we call on the Armenian people to defend their future against their domination and those who use them as puppets, we call on the whole world to support Azerbaijan in its struggle against occupation and oppression. – The international community, which was unable to provide a necessary and sufficient response to Armenia’s provocative aggression, is once again showing its double game. The trio from Minsk, which has maintained its negligent attitude for about 30 years, is unfortunately far from being solution-oriented. – By adding a new attack to the previous ones against Azerbaijan, Armenia has once again shown that it is the biggest threat to peace and tranquility in the region. The Turkish Nation supports its Azerbaijani brothers with all its means, as always. »
A very ancient conflict, frozen for the past 30 years
Erdogan’s Empire... Cagaptay, Soner Buy New $17.95 (as of 04:05 UTC - Details) The Turkish people define themselves as descended from the “children of the wolf of the steppes”, i.e. as descendants of the hordes of Genghis Khan. It is composed of both “one people and two states”: Turkey and Azerbaijan. The political rebirth of the former automatically engenders the arrival of the latter on the international scene.
Of course this political renaissance does not mean a resurgence of the violence of the barbarian hordes, but this past has nonetheless forged mentalities, despite the efforts of many politicians who, for a century, have been trying to normalize the Turkish people.
In the last years of the Ottoman era, Sultan Habdulhamid II wanted to unite the country around his conception of the Muslim faith. He therefore ordered the physical elimination of hundreds of thousands of non-Muslims. This was supervised by German officers who acquired during this genocide an experience that they later put at the service of Nazi racial ideology. The Ottoman policy of purification was pursued on a larger scale by the Young Turks at the beginning of the Republic, particularly against the Orthodox Armenians [1].
Murder being an addiction, it reappeared sporadically in the behavior of the Turkish armies. Thus, in March 2014, they escorted hundreds of jihadists from the al-Nosra Front (al-Qaeda) and the Army of Islam (pro-Saudi) to the city of Kessab (Syria) to massacre the Armenian population. The jihadists who participated in this operation were today sent to kill other Armenians in Karabagh.
These massacres ceased in Azerbaijan during the brief Democratic Republic (1918-20) and the Soviet period (1920-90), but resumed in 1988 with the collapse of Moscow’s power.
Precisely during the Soviet period, in accordance with Joseph Stalin’s policy of nationalities, an Armenian region was joined with Azerbaijan to form a Socialist Republic. Thus when the USSR was dissolved, the international community recognized Karabakh not as Armenian but as Azeri. The same mistake was made in the rush in Moldova with Transnistria, in Ukraine with Crimea, in Georgia with South Ossetia and Abkhazia. A series of wars immediately followed, including that of Nagorno-Karabakh. These are cases where international law developed from an error of appreciation at the beginning of the conflicts, as in Palestine, which was not rectified in time, leading to inextricable situations.
The New Sultan: Erdoga... Cagaptay, Soner Best Price: $11.75 Buy New $8.68 (as of 04:05 UTC - Details) Westerners intervened to prevent a general conflagration. However, the example of Transnistria attests that it was a step backwards in order to better jump: thus the United States resorted to the Romanian army to try to annihilate the nascent Pridnestrovie [2].
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE, then CSCE) created the “Minsk Group”, co-chaired by the United States, France and Russia, to find a solution, which it never did: Russia did not want to choose between its former partners, France wanted to play the important game, and the United States wanted to maintain a conflict zone on the Russian border. The other conflicts, created at the dissolution of the USSR, were deliberately fuelled by Washington and London with Georgia’s aggression against South Ossetia in 2008 or the EuroMaydan coup d’état aimed, among other things, at expelling Russians from the Crimea in 2014.
The attack on the Republic of Artsakh (Karabagh) by Azerbaijan and Turkey was justified by the speech of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev at the UN General Assembly on September 24. [3] His main idea was that the Minsk Group had qualified the status quo as unacceptable, but that “statements are not enough. We need action. He could not have been clearer.
In accordance with his family’s ideology, he put his opponents under the greatest burden, for example, attributing the Khojaly massacre (1992, more than 600 victims) to “Armenian terrorists”, even though it was a black operation during an attempted coup in his country; in any case, this allowed him to present in a biased manner the actions of ASALA (Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) in the 1970s and 1980s. He pointed out that four Security Council resolutions ordered the withdrawal of Armenian troops, playing on the homonymy between the Armenian population of Karabagh and the neighboring state of Armenia; one way of ignoring the fact that the Council also enjoined Azerbaijan to organize a referendum of self-determination in Karabagh. It accused, not without reason, the new Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, of being one of the men of the speculator Gorge Soros, as if this erased what had gone before.
The conflict can only end after a referendum of self-determination, the outcome of which comes as little surprise. For the time being, it benefits those who, like Israel, sell arms to the aggressor. The Rise of Turkey: Th... Cagaptay, Soner Best Price: $3.85 Buy New $16.50 (as of 04:05 UTC - Details)
For Erdoğan, one war too many?
Having said this, let us analyze the current conflict from another angle, that of international balances, keeping in mind that the Turkish army is already illegally present in Cyprus, Iraq and Syria; that it violates the military embargo in Libya and now the cease-fire in Azerbaijan.
Baku is organizing itself to postpone the inevitable deadline even further. Azerbaijan has already obtained the support of Qatar, which also supervises the financing of jihadists in this field of operations. According to our information, at least 580 of them have been sent from Idleb (Syria) via Turkey. This war is expensive and KKR, the powerful company of the US-Israeli Henry Kravis, seems to be involved as it is still involved in Iraq, Syria and Libya. As in the destabilization of communist Afghanistan, Israeli weapons could be routed through Pakistan. In any case, in Turkey, posters flourish placing side by side the flags of the three countries.
Even more astonishing, President Aliyev received the support of his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko. It is likely that he is acting in agreement with the Kremlin, which could herald a more visible Russian support for Orthodox Armenia (Russia, Belarus and Armenia are all members of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Collective Security Treaty Organization).
Strangely, Shiite Iran has not taken a position. Yet, although ethnically Turkish, Azerbaijan is the only other Shia people in the world because it was part of the Safavid empire. President Hassan Rohani had included it in his plan for a Shia Federation presented during his second election campaign. This withdrawal gives the impression that Tehran does not wish to enter into conflict with Moscow, which is officially neutral. All the more so since Armenia plays a non-negligible role in the circumvention of the US embargo against Iran. Ataturk: The Biography... Mango, Andrew Best Price: $1.99 Buy New $16.95 (as of 04:05 UTC - Details)
On the Armenian side, the diaspora in the United States is lobbying intensely in Congress in order to make President Erdoğan -whose country is a member of NATO- responsible for the conflict before an international tribunal.
In the case of a tacit agreement between Moscow and Washington, this war could be turned diplomatically against President Erdoğan, now unbearable to the Big Two. Like Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who brutally changed from valet of the Pentagon to public enemy No. 1 when he thought he had the authorization to invade Kuwait, the Turkish president may have been encouraged to take the blame.
—
[1] “Today’s Turkey continues the Armenian genocide”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 14 May 2015.
[2] « En 1992, les États-Unis tentèrent d’écraser militairement la Transnistrie », par Thierry Meyssan, Réseau Voltaire, 17 juillet 2007.
[3] “Intervention by Ilham Aliyev the 75th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly”, by Ilham Aliyev, Voltaire Network, 24 September 2020.
The Best of Thierry Meyssan


lewrockwell--2020-10-07--The Specter Haunting Marxism

The Specter Haunting Marxism

Marx and Engels are still revered in certain circles , as is the system of thought they invented in the 19th century .
Indeed , on the Left , they are treated with the reverence that used to be reserved in the U.S. for the likes of George Washington , Thomas Jefferson , and Theodore Roosevelt .
But there is a specter haunting the hagiographies of these two icons of the Left .
And it is the same one haunting the hagiographies of those once-deemed-great icons of the American mainstream – the specter of racism .
Now at first glance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Weren ’ t Marx and Engels the champions of the oppressed ?
Didn ’ t they call for a revolution to overthrow structural capitalism in all its nefarious guises ?
Didn ’ t they extol the dignity of every human being in the face of state-sanctioned violence and oppression ?
Didn ’ t they stand for liberation and equality and justice ?
And didn ’ t they stand against an irredeemably evil bourgeoisie , the source of all that was wrong with the world , and call them out for their arrogance and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ... K. Marx Best Price : $ 5.57 Buy New $ 7.22 Well , no .
Quite apart from the monstrousness of the ideology they spawned , there is plenty of evidence that racist themes and tropes did suffuse the thinking of both Marx and Engels .
To put it in theological terms , they were guilty of three sins .
The first was a sin of omission .
Marxism ” s foundational writings evince a profound indifference to , or perhaps ignorance of , race as an analytical category .
The founding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it into their formal theory of history , except perhaps to note that the world was more or less naturally divided into races , some of which were advanced and some retrograde .
Nowhere in their revolutionary framework for understanding oppression , injustice , and inequality , is there any sense that race is an independent causal variable – or even a meaningful intervening one .
Nowhere in their works does one find the category of race deployed as a means of understanding exploitation or oppression , except as an epiphenomenon of class @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a hint that the category of race or the reality of race might be the product of power-laden social relations other than those associated with capitalism .
To put it the other way around , nowhere in their work is there even a hint that race might be anything other than an epiphenomenon of capitalism – that is , that race might be a driver of human history in the same way as class .
Simply put , you can search high and low , hither and yon , but you will not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thought or action in the entire oeuvre of these two iconic thinkers .
While race occasionally intersected with class in their writings , the latter ” s logic was always paramount , the logic of the former irrelevant to the point of near invisibility .
The Condition of the W ... Engels , Friedrich Best Price : $ 8.47 Buy New $ 9.95 With one exception .
The second sin of the founding fathers of Marxism was to assume that that the arc of history , bent exclusively by the dynamics of class @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inferior and superior races , necessarily involved conflict between the “ barbaric ” races and the civilized ones , and would inevitably end with the triumph of the superior races and the extinction of all the others .
So much for the original sin of omission ; now on to the actual sins of commission .
This brings us to sin # 3 : Marx and Engels were racists , plain and simple .
This claim goes far beyond the intellectual faults and fantasies laid out above .
This is a claim that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these revolutionaries admired so unquestioningly by so many – were , in fact , racists in the plain sense of the word : They hated and loathed the racialized , immutably inferior , Other .
They systematically attributed to racialized groups certain innate or biological character traits , then placed those groups on a hierarchical scale , with some being naturally inferior and others superior .
They believed that those “ races ” endowed with superior qualities were “ bearers of progress , ” while those endowed with inferior ones tended to hold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regarding the human condition , historical progress , and the communist utopia , they were racists through and through .
The Communist Manifest ... Engels , Friedrich Best Price : $ 5.00 Buy New $ 8.74 In this , both Marx and Engels reflected and perpetuated the scientific racism of their time .
This racism used skin-color variations to divide humanity into a limited number of races , each endowed with specific and immutable characteristics and ranked hierarchically , with white on top and black at the bottom .
The “ inferior ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bushman or Australian Negro , ” the Slav , etc .
– were regarded either as degenerations from a single common race of humans ( the monogenic view ) or as independently evolving distinct skin-color races ( the polygenic view ) .
Whatever the sources of this racial differentiation , it was understood to be an immutable characteristic of the human race .
Marx and Engels drank deeply at this racist trough .
Based on the historical evidence we have , this claim is simply incontrovertible .
To be sure , the evidence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Engels is scattered and haphazard .
It is to be found in their private correspondence , works that went unpublished during their lifetimes , such as The German Ideology , and major published works such as Marx ” s Capital and Engels ” The Condition of the Working Class in England .
But , whatever the genre and however scattered the references , there is a consistency to their treatment of race .
And it is this consistency that allows us to reconstruct their half-articulated “ theory ” of race and lay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their scholarly theories and their personal beliefs .

Marx and Engels are still revered in certain circles, as is the system of thought they invented in the 19th century. Indeed, on the Left, they are treated with the reverence that used to be reserved in the U.S. for the likes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt. But there is a specter haunting the hagiographies of these two icons of the Left. And it is the same one haunting the hagiographies of those once-deemed-great icons of the American mainstream – the specter of racism.
Now at first glance, that seems a bit much. Weren’t Marx and Engels the champions of the oppressed? Didn’t they call for a revolution to overthrow structural capitalism in all its nefarious guises? Didn’t they extol the dignity of every human being in the face of state-sanctioned violence and oppression? Didn’t they stand for liberation and equality and justice? And didn’t they stand against an irredeemably evil bourgeoisie, the source of all that was wrong with the world, and call them out for their arrogance and ignorance?
Capital (Classics of W... K. Marx Best Price: $5.57 Buy New $7.22 (as of 04:06 UTC - Details) Well, no. Quite apart from the monstrousness of the ideology they spawned, there is plenty of evidence that racist themes and tropes did suffuse the thinking of both Marx and Engels. To put it in theological terms, they were guilty of three sins. The first was a sin of omission. Marxism”s foundational writings evince a profound indifference to, or perhaps ignorance of, race as an analytical category. The founding fathers of Marxism simply could not fit it into their formal theory of history, except perhaps to note that the world was more or less naturally divided into races, some of which were advanced and some retrograde. Nowhere in their revolutionary framework for understanding oppression, injustice, and inequality, is there any sense that race is an independent causal variable – or even a meaningful intervening one. Nowhere in their works does one find the category of race deployed as a means of understanding exploitation or oppression, except as an epiphenomenon of class conflict. And nowhere is there even a hint that the category of race or the reality of race might be the product of power-laden social relations other than those associated with capitalism. To put it the other way around, nowhere in their work is there even a hint that race might be anything other than an epiphenomenon of capitalism – that is, that race might be a driver of human history in the same way as class. Simply put, you can search high and low, hither and yon, but you will not find race as a meaningful category of thought or action in the entire oeuvre of these two iconic thinkers. While race occasionally intersected with class in their writings, the latter”s logic was always paramount, the logic of the former irrelevant to the point of near invisibility.
The Condition of the W... Engels, Friedrich Best Price: $8.47 Buy New $9.95 (as of 04:06 UTC - Details) With one exception. The second sin of the founding fathers of Marxism was to assume that that the arc of history, bent exclusively by the dynamics of class conflict, began with the creation of inferior and superior races, necessarily involved conflict between the “barbaric” races and the civilized ones, and would inevitably end with the triumph of the superior races and the extinction of all the others.
So much for the original sin of omission; now on to the actual sins of commission. This brings us to sin #3: Marx and Engels were racists, plain and simple. This claim goes far beyond the intellectual faults and fantasies laid out above. This is a claim that these two icons of the Left – these revolutionaries admired so unquestioningly by so many – were, in fact, racists in the plain sense of the word: They hated and loathed the racialized, immutably inferior, Other. They systematically attributed to racialized groups certain innate or biological character traits, then placed those groups on a hierarchical scale, with some being naturally inferior and others superior. They believed that those “races” endowed with superior qualities were “bearers of progress,” while those endowed with inferior ones tended to hold humanity back. In their fundamental assumptions regarding the human condition, historical progress, and the communist utopia, they were racists through and through.
The Communist Manifest... Engels, Friedrich Best Price: $5.00 Buy New $8.74 (as of 04:06 UTC - Details) In this, both Marx and Engels reflected and perpetuated the scientific racism of their time. This racism used skin-color variations to divide humanity into a limited number of races, each endowed with specific and immutable characteristics and ranked hierarchically, with white on top and black at the bottom. The “inferior” races – the Indian, the “Bushman or Australian Negro,” the Slav, etc. – were regarded either as degenerations from a single common race of humans (the monogenic view) or as independently evolving distinct skin-color races (the polygenic view). Whatever the sources of this racial differentiation, it was understood to be an immutable characteristic of the human race. Marx and Engels drank deeply at this racist trough.
Based on the historical evidence we have, this claim is simply incontrovertible. To be sure, the evidence of racism in the writings of Marx and Engels is scattered and haphazard. It is to be found in their private correspondence, works that went unpublished during their lifetimes, such as The German Ideology, and major published works such as Marx”s Capital and Engels” The Condition of the Working Class in England. But, whatever the genre and however scattered the references, there is a consistency to their treatment of race. And it is this consistency that allows us to reconstruct their half-articulated “theory” of race and lay bare the racist assumptions built into both their scholarly theories and their personal beliefs.
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lewrockwell--2020-10-07--The Philosophy of Progress Is Killing Us

Over the past few years I have written about what I term a “ triumph of lunacy ” in our society—most significantly on our college campuses and in our schools , in our entertainment , in the media , but also in our culture generally .
The post-Marxist progressivist Left , after the apparent political set-back of the 2016 elections , has redoubled its efforts with a frenzied fanaticism unknown in our history , at least since a few years before the War Between the States .
What distinguishes our revolutionary period from previous upheavals is that today ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a “ counter-reality ” in which they base their thought and actions .
That reality they have manufactured out of a critical misapprehension of the nature of creation and the nature of mankind .
That counter-reality is totally subjective , anchored in fractured internal thinking processes which have been infected and warped from their inception .
That counter-reality is the inverse of the two-millennia of Western civilization ; it possesses its own language , its own precepts , its own rules of conduct , its own goals and objectives , undeterred by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ teachings of the Christian faith .
Indeed , it is the contrary of historic Christianity .
In a very substantial sense the raging post-Marxist Left and its nostrums are grounded in the “ idea of progress , ” a broad conceptual movement in history that dates back several centuries , at least to the Enlightenment of the 18th century , but which achieved a large degree of intellectual triumph in society in the 19th , most especially with the social theories of Auguste Comte , Herbert Spencer , and others .
The late @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comprehensively about it in his volume , The History of the Idea of Progress .
It posits that history is a process materially leading to the improvement and refinement of our technological and scientific environment , and , philosophically , leading to more “ individual freedom ” and the abolition of what are considered hindrances to that expanding freedom and what are perceived to be any obstacles to the irreversible expansion of “ rights ” and “ equality ” —which become over time almost inexhaustible and unlimited .
Nothing can stand against the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ If you do , you are a hopeless reactionary , a bigot , old-fashioned , and probably a racist and a misogynist .
Of course , material progress is observable , constant , and measurable , and is to be welcomed generally .
Going from oil lamps to electric lights , or from horse-and-buggies to automobiles is seen positively by most everyone .
There are , certainly , a few negatives in such progress ( e.g.
, damage to the environment , altered living patterns , etc . )
, but most of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the material enhancement of civilization .
The real problem comes when the “ idea of progress ” is made the benchmark for intellectual thought and how political and social goals are presented and achieved under its banner .
For it then becomes , depending on how it is defined , the vehicle for ideologies that use it to shape and push their agendas—whether the liberals of the 19th century , or the Marxists and Communists of the 20th .
To be “ on the side of progress , ” to be part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” is to grant to one ’ s beliefs a kind of inescapable inevitability : you can ’ t oppose what I am saying and doing , because it ’ s simply going to happen , and you can ’ t stop it !
In our society , and in Western society generally , the inevitability and positive nature of intellectual progress is more or less taken for granted .
Most conservatives , including those opposed supposedly to the current revolution on our campuses and in our streets , accept it as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disagree about what the goals should or ought to be , but the essential premise , the template idea , remains fixed and unassailable .
Thus , on Fox News most pundits applaud greater “ rights ” for minorities , both racial and sexual .
They just don ’ t agree with some of the more vigorous applications coming from the Left .
For “ establishment conservatives ” increasingly same sex marriage must be a full constitutional right—full transgender normalization and acceptance in society is desirable—women must have equal access to every position @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , no more male-only academies , no more “ Boy ” Scouts , etc . )
—absolute racial equity , even if that means special advantages , must be pursued—and “ American democratic values ” are in all parts of the globe demanded ( even at the point of an M-16 rifle ) .
The progressivist Left goes much further .
Indeed , the same demands for equality , and expanded and newly-discovered “ rights , ” in the slogans and proposals of Leftists often become props in an overpowering effort , not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” but more for the acquisition of power : a means to an end , the control of society and its structures .
Right after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the first violent riots here in North Carolina , a couple of black college students videotaped a group of exclusively-white “ millennials ” demonstrating in a frenzy in Raleigh , North Carolina .
The black videotapers noticed and commented that all the demonstrators were white , probably the sons and daughters of wealthy white ( liberal ) parents , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or UNC .
The irony wasn ’ t lost on the two blacks , who wondered : “ What do those privileged whites know about black issues ?
” Indeed , what they know is undergirded by and laden with the intellectual progressivism and post-Marxist ideology they ’ ve learned in classrooms at those very same prestigious universities .
In effect , these protesters demonstrate against “ white supremacy ” and “ institutional racism ” in a not-so-hidden effort to expiate their own sin of “ whiteness , ” inculcated into them by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ educational system .
But they are also out in the streets attempting to create a “ new world order ” in which the real objective is power , and that power recurs to global elites .
“ Systemic racism ” may be a target but actually and more significantly , opposition to it is a means of advancing the overall goal of completely restructuring and recasting society—and the destruction of two millennia of civilization and its culture , annealed by the Christian faith—on behalf of those elites .
Until conservatives understand the fundamental @ @ @ @ @ @ @ progress ” philosophically and in praxis—until they learn that beginning with the same premises on “ equality ” and “ rights ” as their purported opponents will inevitably conduct them to giving way to those opponents…and to denying implicitly , if not finally explicitly God-given creation and its natural and Divine Positive Laws–until they recognize this , they will remain prisoners of a dialectic that leads them always to eventual surrender to the Left .
The post-War Between the States Southern divine and essayist Robert Lewis Dabney summed up this type of conservatism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That quotation is apt and applies to far too many members of today ’ s “ conservative loyal opposition ” : “ This is a party which never conserves anything .
Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party , and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling , but always acquiesces at last in the innovation .
What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is to-day one of the accepted principles of conservatism ; it is now conservative only in affecting to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to-morrow be forced upon its timidity , and will be succeeded by some third revolution , to be denounced and then adopted in its turn .
“ American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition .
It remains behind it , but never retards it , and always advances near its leader .
This pretended salt hath utterly lost its savor : wherewith shall it he salted ?
Its impotency is not hard , indeed , to explain .
It is worthless because it is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of sturdy principle .
It intends to risk nothing serious , for the sake of the truth , and has no idea of being guilty of the folly of martyrdom .
It always—when about to enter a protest—very blandly informs the wild beast whose path it essays to stop , that its ‘ bark is worse than its bite , ’ and that it only means to save its manners by enacting its decent rôle of resistance .
“ The only practical purpose which it now subserves in American politics is to give @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ in wind , ’ and to prevent its becoming pursy and lazy from having nothing to whip .
No doubt , after a few years , when women ’ s suffrage shall have become an accomplished fact , conservatism will tacitly admit it into its creed , and thenceforward plume itself upon its wise firmness in opposing with similar weapons the extreme of baby suffrage ; and when that too shall have been won , it will be heard declaring that the integrity of the American Constitution requires at least the refusal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will assume , with great dignity , its final position.
” [ From “ Womens ’ Rights Women , ” Discussions , vol .
IV , Secular Discussions . ]
Will they learn before it is too late ?
Or will they—far more likely—give way like previous temporizers in the face of the lunacy ?

Friends,
Over the past few years I have written about what I term a “triumph of lunacy” in our society—most significantly on our college campuses and in our schools, in our entertainment, in the media, but also in our culture generally. The post-Marxist progressivist Left, after the apparent political set-back of the 2016 elections, has redoubled its efforts with a frenzied fanaticism unknown in our history, at least since a few years before the War Between the States.
What distinguishes our revolutionary period from previous upheavals is that today’s revolutionaries have, in effect, created a “counter-reality” in which they base their thought and actions. That reality they have manufactured out of a critical misapprehension of the nature of creation and the nature of mankind. That counter-reality is totally subjective, anchored in fractured internal thinking processes which have been infected and warped from their inception. That counter-reality is the inverse of the two-millennia of Western civilization; it possesses its own language, its own precepts, its own rules of conduct, its own goals and objectives, undeterred by the inexorable laws of nature or the historic teachings of the Christian faith. Indeed, it is the contrary of historic Christianity.
In a very substantial sense the raging post-Marxist Left and its nostrums are grounded in the “idea of progress,” a broad conceptual movement in history that dates back several centuries, at least to the Enlightenment of the 18th century, but which achieved a large degree of intellectual triumph in society in the 19th, most especially with the social theories of Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, and others. The late conservative philosopher, Robert Nisbet, wrote comprehensively about it in his volume, The History of the Idea of Progress. It posits that history is a process materially leading to the improvement and refinement of our technological and scientific environment, and, philosophically, leading to more “individual freedom” and the abolition of what are considered hindrances to that expanding freedom and what are perceived to be any obstacles to the irreversible expansion of “rights” and “equality”—which become over time almost inexhaustible and unlimited. Nothing can stand against the ideas that proponents of progress propound. If you do, you are a hopeless reactionary, a bigot, old-fashioned, and probably a racist and a misogynist.
Of course, material progress is observable, constant, and measurable, and is to be welcomed generally. Going from oil lamps to electric lights, or from horse-and-buggies to automobiles is seen positively by most everyone. There are, certainly, a few negatives in such progress (e.g., damage to the environment, altered living patterns, etc.), but most of those negatives are outweighed by the positives and the material enhancement of civilization.
The real problem comes when the “idea of progress” is made the benchmark for intellectual thought and how political and social goals are presented and achieved under its banner. For it then becomes, depending on how it is defined, the vehicle for ideologies that use it to shape and push their agendas—whether the liberals of the 19th century, or the Marxists and Communists of the 20th. To be “on the side of progress,” to be part of the irresistible “forces of history,” is to grant to one’s beliefs a kind of inescapable inevitability: you can’t oppose what I am saying and doing, because it’s simply going to happen, and you can’t stop it!
In our society, and in Western society generally, the inevitability and positive nature of intellectual progress is more or less taken for granted. Most conservatives, including those opposed supposedly to the current revolution on our campuses and in our streets, accept it as a given. They may demur and disagree about what the goals should or ought to be, but the essential premise, the template idea, remains fixed and unassailable.
Thus, on Fox News most pundits applaud greater “rights” for minorities, both racial and sexual. They just don’t agree with some of the more vigorous applications coming from the Left. For “establishment conservatives” increasingly same sex marriage must be a full constitutional right—full transgender normalization and acceptance in society is desirable—women must have equal access to every position or role that men have (e.g., no more male-only academies, no more “Boy” Scouts, etc.)—absolute racial equity, even if that means special advantages, must be pursued—and “American democratic values” are in all parts of the globe demanded (even at the point of an M-16 rifle).
The progressivist Left goes much further. Indeed, the same demands for equality, and expanded and newly-discovered “rights,” in the slogans and proposals of Leftists often become props in an overpowering effort, not as much for desired “social justice,” but more for the acquisition of power: a means to an end, the control of society and its structures.
Right after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the first violent riots here in North Carolina, a couple of black college students videotaped a group of exclusively-white “millennials” demonstrating in a frenzy in Raleigh, North Carolina. The black videotapers noticed and commented that all the demonstrators were white, probably the sons and daughters of wealthy white (liberal) parents, and graduates of prestigious universities like Duke or UNC. The irony wasn’t lost on the two blacks, who wondered: “What do those privileged whites know about black issues?” Indeed, what they know is undergirded by and laden with the intellectual progressivism and post-Marxist ideology they’ve learned in classrooms at those very same prestigious universities.
In effect, these protesters demonstrate against “white supremacy” and “institutional racism” in a not-so-hidden effort to expiate their own sin of “whiteness,” inculcated into them by “woke” professors and an ideologized educational system.
But they are also out in the streets attempting to create a “new world order” in which the real objective is power, and that power recurs to global elites. “Systemic racism” may be a target but actually and more significantly, opposition to it is a means of advancing the overall goal of completely restructuring and recasting society—and the destruction of two millennia of civilization and its culture, annealed by the Christian faith—on behalf of those elites.
Until conservatives understand the fundamental dangers in embracing the “idea of progress” philosophically and in praxis—until they learn that beginning with the same premises on “equality” and “rights” as their purported opponents will inevitably conduct them to giving way to those opponents…and to denying implicitly, if not finally explicitly God-given creation and its natural and Divine Positive Laws–until they recognize this, they will remain prisoners of a dialectic that leads them always to eventual surrender to the Left.
The post-War Between the States Southern divine and essayist Robert Lewis Dabney summed up this type of conservatism succinctly and presciently 150 years ago. That quotation is apt and applies to far too many members of today’s “conservative loyal opposition”:
“This is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is to-day one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will to-morrow be forced upon its timidity, and will be succeeded by some third revolution, to be denounced and then adopted in its turn.
“American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt hath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it he salted? Its impotency is not hard, indeed, to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It intends to risk nothing serious, for the sake of the truth, and has no idea of being guilty of the folly of martyrdom. It always—when about to enter a protest—very blandly informs the wild beast whose path it essays to stop, that its ‘bark is worse than its bite,’ and that it only means to save its manners by enacting its decent rôle of resistance.
“The only practical purpose which it now subserves in American politics is to give enough exercise to Radicalism to keep it ‘in wind,’ and to prevent its becoming pursy and lazy from having nothing to whip. No doubt, after a few years, when women’s suffrage shall have become an accomplished fact, conservatism will tacitly admit it into its creed, and thenceforward plume itself upon its wise firmness in opposing with similar weapons the extreme of baby suffrage; and when that too shall have been won, it will be heard declaring that the integrity of the American Constitution requires at least the refusal of suffrage to asses. There it will assume, with great dignity, its final position.” [From “Womens’ Rights Women,” Discussions, vol. IV, Secular Discussions.]
Will they learn before it is too late? Or will they—far more likely—give way like previous temporizers in the face of the lunacy?
Reprinted with the author’s permission.