This era is ending. And not with a whimper. At least, not yet. What era was this? The third French Revolution, the first of which ended with Napoleon’s defeat. Or evident defeat. In fact, it never ended. The cicadas simply hibernated for around a century before emerging again in Petersburg in 1917. This revolution too seemed for a while to have disappeared. But, like the original one, it simply migrated and hibernated. Now it senses that it is time to re-emerge. Over here.
The first Revolution saw the agrarian peasants revolt, egged on by the Encyclopaedists. The second saw the industrial proles revolt, egged on again by the newly minted Intelligentsia. This third and latest version features our modernist tattooed Barbarians, roused by the gods of ‘journalism’ and ‘academia’. My suspicion, having studied the previous two versions, is that the street is now completely out from under the control of those who supposed they could contain the flames of the pyre they stoked. Therefore, there is great hope that this attempt will backfire on them all.
I have a number of reasons for reaching this conclusion, and I thought I’d share them with you. But let me first say this: Revolutions 1.0 and 2.0 both took place within rather homogeneous population bases that the conspirators sought to enrage. Both of those population bases that made up the enraged mobs (peasants and proles) were productive members of society. Members who were being squeezed by the ruling elites to pay for their excesses, both civilian and military.
Today’s ‘revolutionary’ version is exactly the opposite. Today’s revolutionary mob is not the people who are actually oppressed. Today, professional ‘demonstrators’ are being guided by those who are actually a part of the elitists who are seeking to preserve (and not destroy) power. Their own power, that is. In other words, this is not really a revolution — it is a reaction. A reaction to the real revolution that occurred in 2016. Today’s unrest and violence seeks to fully restore power to the aristocracy of the elites. It seeks to snuff out the nascent Trumpian revolution.
Please don’t tell me I am dismissing actual and authentic minority segments when I look askance at BLM, as the two groups are antithetical. Most Blacks, like everyone else, are not anxious to burn down their own homes and businesses. So, I categorically reject any assertion that this civil strife is racial in nature. Yes, differing racial perceptions remain, but again, for the most part, those real perceptions don’t drive the media-academia narrative. ‘Systemic Racism’ as defined today is simply the camouflage of convenience that the participants wear. Which is why so many ‘demonstrators’ are well-off and white. (But wearing Antifa-Black uniforms). Their anger is only skin-deep.
While the first two versions of Revolution had authentic victims (prodded to violence), today’s fake revolution has faux victims who need absolutely no encouragement to riot. Now they cannot be restrained by their would-be masters. And therein lies the tale, the tale of the un-civil war raging within the Democrat Party’s wall of factions. A wall that has heretofore proved so effective in walling in the Stupid Party. The leaders of today’s Democrat Party evidently didn’t get Donald’s memo re-naming the GOP. Stupid is out. Anger is in. In spades. The other side is still bidding no-trump.
Unlike the rage on the Left, the anger on the right is still controlled, thank goodness. And hopefully will remain that way until the election, at least. In the interim, the Democrat Party melt-down continues, both internally and externally.
Here is the heart of it. It is the same intra-leftist fight Lenin had with Kerensky. Lenin believed that the current war (WWI) had to be lost in order for his revolution to be successful. Why? Because only then would the people lose faith in the Czar and his dynasty. Lenin’s faction of Leftists (the Bolsheviks) were thus known as ‘defeatists’. They knew that if Russia prevailed in WWI, the regime would never fall. It might make some concessions, but it would not fall. Why? Because the victorious army would continue to prop it up. The Bolsheviks sought surrender to Germany in order to destroy the Romanovs and their armies. After the October Revolution, they did exactly that. And all was quiet on the Western Front.
Kerensky, the leader of the prior March Revolution, was busy trying to wrest power from the Czar without the immediate destruction of the dynasty. He only wanted to neuter it by rendering it constitutionally impotent. But he wanted the army to remain powerful (to enforce his new dynastic will), and so he wanted the battlefield victory. Thus, he and his Menshevik faction were known as ‘defensists’. They sought to defend Russia from Germany, in order to steal Russia from the Romanovs. Under the guise of a new, weakened constitutional monarchy.
This is exactly where we are today. Kerensky versus Lenin in 1917 is today’s Biden vs Bernie. Bernie, AOC, and The Squad are pure Leninists. Bolsheviks all the way. They seek absolute power, without any trappings of the previous regime remaining. But they see that this can never be achieved as long as the ‘moderate’ Mensheviks of the party still have any sway. Obviously, they do. Just look at who got the nomination.
These Demo-Bolsheviks fully understand that if Biden-Mensheviks were to win, they would again present an obstacle to the eventual success of the Bernie-viks. The 2024 primary season would simply be a re-run of 2020. Which was, from their point of view, a re-run of 2016. They wuz robbed, again! But they know, deep in the hollow of their chest cavity, that there is no way Bernie could win this year. That doesn’t mean they hate Hilary and Joe any less. It actually makes it more delicious, really, as they contemplate Donald’s imminent re-election. Why? Because, as defeatists, they will then be able to finally purge the Democrat Politburo of any and all remaining ‘moderating’ influences. Please, don’t laugh. I know that using the word moderate in this entire exercise is Orwellian. But, for the sake of simplicity, please bear with me.
Having said all this, explaining at the macro level why the Party will fail again this year (ceteris paribus), it’s time to explore the micro level that will produce this failure. The failure that will come because the individual stones in the Party wall are no longer held together by the mortar of common belief, because there is no more common belief. It’s all self-interest now. That is good for us peasants and proles, actually, because it means there are now many elements of this Party wall that have been assumed to be permanently cemented in place but which may now finally escape the Gulag. Or the Wall may fall of its own dead weight.
Other stones, by comparison, are finally being seen as the pebbles they actually are. Pebbles that have earned the ire of other actual stones. Then there is the mortar, which has been entirely replaced by the tuck-point job that began during the Clinton regime, and which continued under Obama. For the mortar they removed was replaced by caulk. It could fill the gaps between stones, but it could never bear the weight of the entire edifice, which now totters. So, let’s look at the stones that have been the mainstays of the Party’s past, and the mortar that held them together. And a few incidental items as well, that together may signal that The Party’s over.
The first bloc of stone has been their most monolithic over time. The Black vote, of course. I won’t dwell on this beyond remarking on the anger many Blacks finally harbor against the open and seemingly gleeful destruction of their local communities by non-local non-Black progressive ‘organizers’ who seem to show up at every conflagration. Al Sharpton seems tame by now. And after three years of constant economic improvement under Donald, it was all taken away, in a flash-bang moment. Current polls (I only pay attention to the two who called it right in 2016, Trafalgar Group and Rasmussen) say Black turnout may be flagging. And of those who will vote, as many as 30% may go for Donald. Half of that alone will doom the wall, and any Humpty Dumpty atop it.
The next stone is the Latinos. Who are not a single stone, as any thinking man knows. Which immediately dooms the Left, again. This supposed bloc has had it up to here with Democrat presumption and misperception. They are sick of the whole idea that the Latino Label means anything to anyone but the caretakers of The Party Plantation. They are tired of being ignored in their particularity. They resent the idea that they must pay obligatory obeisance to a Party line that ignores their individualism. Especially when they have achieved so much without the Party’s help. Just ask a Cuban American if the Democrats really opposed Fidel. Or Raoul. Ask any second and third generation Mexican American citizen if they benefit from the illegal horde that makes all of them illegitimate in the eyes of other Americans. Then ask them how many affirmative action slots have been given to them by their political keepers. Again, look at the polls. The real polls. Donald will do better than he did in 2016, if only because of the tin ear of the Party elite.
Next, let’s look at the other foundational stones of the Democrat Blue Wall. The Unions. Four Blocs, in particular. The first bloc is the police union. Who have unanimously endorsed Donald. Locally and nationally, this has never happened before. There is absolutely no doubt in their minds who is standing with them against anarchy. The Dem’s Big Blue Wall does not include the Thin Blue Line. And they know it. And they deeply resent this betrayal. They will never go back to their faithless Labor ‘allies’. Never. Especially after the ‘ethnic cleansing’ that will occur when AOC and her minions complete their Stalinist purge of the Party after November. The long knives are already being sharpened.
The next Union bloc is the exact opposite of the heroic essential workers known as the First Responders. The Cops and their brothers, the Firemen and the EMT’s, (who also will fly the Plantation coop). This next union is known as the ‘teachers’ (NEA and AFT). They have comprised a bulwark of Democrat solidarity and remained loyal to the Politburo for 70 odd years. Which is a blessing in disguise for us. Why? Because the Left, in their frantic and desperate attempt to keep the economy locked down (to the detriment of Donald), are refusing to act for the benefit of the children. Which flies directly in the face of the image these ‘teachers’ always present when it is time to plead for more money (aka taxes) ‘for the children’. Their leaders are using the Covid-1984 scam to clamor for political payoffs before they relent and allow teachers to return to in-person teaching. Everyone can see it. What does Universal health care have to do with kids?
How long can parents stay at home to care for children who cannot physically attend school? What is the economic cost here? What is the human cost? Do the Democrats have any clue of the anger they are stoking amongst the populace as a whole? Red and Blue be damned, do they have any idea of the sacrifice they are demanding here? Parents everywhere, of every political and racial color, are outraged at this failure to live up to the image Teachers, Inc. has promoted for the past 70 years? Where is the ‘essential’ nature of this profession? We’ve all been schooled as to the heroic nature of doctors, nurses, firemen, EMT’s, etc., in this ongoing insanity. So, where are the teachers? Meh.
As I said, this is actually fabulous news. The ramifications of this are not just confined to the Elementary School level. No, they rise all through the academic ranks. Parents are rebelling, nation-wide, at the idea that education can be delivered by wire. They resent the idea that children are commodities that can be handled impersonally, at no human cost. The idea that isolation has no human toll. Whether it be at the Elementary level, or in High School, or College. The idea that education is a solitary commercial enterprise shows the sterility of the Democrat mind. Everyone is fleeing from this horror flick. Even soccer moms. Especially as they contemplate the visitation of BLM in their suburban enclaves. We must remember to send a shiny red apple in thanks to their union leaders on November 4th.
(Note: this last point, concerning the suburban women, touches the root of our long-term problem, but I won’t deal with it until the end.)
The third big union blue-bloc is AFSCME. The government employee union. You know, the one group whose employment numbers never fell when the economy was shuttered. In many places, it rose, as all those contact-tracers and Covid-tester ranks swelled their numbers. But again, their short-term gain is a long-term fall, as city, county and state budgets in those rebel-blue states are tanking (as their tax base burns and/or flees). Isn’t it funny, how the Blue and Gray are reversed now? Blues states are trying to secede, in reaction to Abraham Trump trying to free their slaves. How delicious.
In any event, these states see the red-ink writing on their wall. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. Their budgets have been weighed, tried in the balance, and found wanting. Bankruptcy awaits them, and their kingdoms will be given to another. And their successors will not deal kindly with the demands of their AFSCME slave-voters.
The next of the big union blocs is the Service Employees International Union, (SIEU). These are health care, home care, food service (and other government service) workers. The first three of these segments have all taken it on the chin in the Lockdown world. And there is no relief in sight, now that the $600/week sweetheart deal ran dry at the end of July. If their restaurant or clinic can’t re-open, they are SOL. They won’t all be blaming Donald. And neither will any salon workers. Or fitness club workers. All of whom tended to vote Blue in the past.
So much for the big stones of the old Blue Wall. Who else in the Democrat pantheon is taking a hit in the public’s perception of their supposed divinity? What other endeavours they favour are failing? Well, before I forget, remember the Census? You know, that RSVP list that was going to pad the Blue Vote rolls? Free everything for anyone who signed up. Looks like Covid, BLM and ICE have tanked that, as everyone in the Blue is afraid to answer their door, for an increasing number of reasons. Perfectly understandable reasons. Makes vote harvesting harder too. Good!
Pollsters—does anybody believe these idiots anymore? And their Siamese twin, the Media? Hahahah! Idiots. They are both in the bottom rungs of Hell in terms of public trust. Even below Congress, and that’s quite an accomplishment. Seriously. It has taken Herculean effort to achieve this, and it has all been done with Blue sweat. Amazing. May the gods bless them.
Science? Medicine? Does anyone believe there is a single factual thing embodied in either of those related terms anymore? It has almost reached the level of screaming ‘racism’. No one hears it anymore. The former faith in the white coats is gone. Killed by the Fauci-ites and their daily spin of the dial. Together, they have killed their former sacred cow, Global Warming. They have stolen all the oxygen (and CO2) in the room. People can only deal with so many crises at once. Pretty soon, they will hunker down and simply wait for it all to end. And they may be too confused to vote.
Let’s not forget the Educational Edifice. Isn’t it so satisfying to see how Americans are responding to the self-inflicted wounds that the ‘expert’ education bureaucrats have delivered to their own institutions? People everywhere are finding ways to circumvent the educational embargo, at every level. School-Pods are popping up everywhere in Suburban-Land (where people can afford this sort of solution). Where people can’t afford it, they are angry at these bastards who refuse to allow schools to open, and give their children at least a chance of survival for another day. Universities will suffer the most, in my opinion. And locking down sports is the capstone of elitist arrogance. We will live to see many educational-leadership careers destroyed as a result of their lock-step obedience to the Party Line.
Pro sports will suffer as well. I can’t believe the mindless rush of owners and players alike towards the cliff. Americans have already started to turn off the NBA and MLB. We’ll soon see if the NFL follows suit. All of which is a good thing, if only because it will remove another god from the secular pantheon of life in the Empire.
Add it all up, and what do you see? The remains of the Blue Wall, tottering on its foundation, with no cohesion between the blocs. The mortar can’t hold anything together, because it’s been removed and replaced by the flexible caulk of relativity. The caulk whose active ingredient is estrogen. So, tell me, Komrade, how do you feel about all of this pandemic danger and racism?
Well then, what is the summation here? Simply this, my friend. The mortar that once held the stones of our Nation together has been replaced by the emotionally-driven relativistic caulk that cannot hold the weight of the stones together. What was the name of the original mortar? In a word, Christianity. That was the glue that was the common bond that used to bind together the stones of all Americans. Of any party. We have abandoned our love for our fellow man. We have traded the bond of true brotherhood for the false feelings of feminism. This condition has infected vast swaths of all of us, of any color, politically or racially.
It has taken a long time, but over this time, we have squandered our common Christian patrimony. We have spent that hard-earned capital by building walls. Blue Walls that separated us by race. And Red Walls that separated us by class.
The old GOP has been destroyed, thanks to the will of Donald and the angry masses. Replaced by the will of people who have awoken to the duplicity of the old dualistic party system that kept everyone locked in place. Awoken to the reality that the feminist caulk that replaced Christianity is incapable of holding everyone together, for the common good. Is there still a Christian version of the Blue Wall? Are there any real men left that can re-build it? That is the question the captives of the Blue-States must face and answer.
Much of the Christian cement that used to hold the various Blocs together (amongst conservative Blacks, Blue Collar whites, and the small-town heartland) still exists in Donald-Land. Thus, the Red Wall is holding firm. The refugees from the Blue Land disasters are swelling the Red ranks. And in the greatest irony of all, the Blue State governors and mayors are helping Donald to ‘build that wall’. Thank you, idiots!
What is the civilizational lesson here my fellow citizen? Is it too late, for everyone? No, it’s not. But time is in short supply. We have to work with efficiency if we want to maximize our chances. To do that, we have to finally absorb the single greatest lesson of the past hundred years. What is that lesson? C’mon, man. It’s so very simple.
Too much estrogen weakens our stones. And the mortar that holds them.
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To Ianto. It became all quiet on the Eastern Front. The Western Front was going well for Germany. If USA had not got itself into the fray, Germany could well have won the war. OK, I agree that the front was west of Russia, but the great book by Eric Maria Remarque refers the Front from Switzerland to Belgium.
Most encouraging Ianto. One of days you say a word about “Catholic” Democrats, despicable as they are.
A catalog of elemental Democrat blocks without even a mention of the Esquimeaux?
Tsk, tsk.
We must remember to send a shiny red apple in thanks to their union leaders on November 4th.
The 4th? Rather optimistic
Biden will not concede to Trump
Mainstream Media will not call a Trump victory
There will be rioting in the streets from the 4th until Biden is sworn in as President
Hopefully the Thin Blue Line will be allowed to act
An interesting delve into a historic basis for what goes on around us. I hope that the Red Wall is large enough and able to reject the fear which the sow completely. My formerly most conservative child (now middle-aged) seems to have succumbed.
Pingback: The Democrats Crumbling Wall Of Support — Guest Post by Ianto Watt | Reaction Times
“The Bolsheviks sought surrender to Germany in order to destroy the Romanovs and their armies. After the October Revolution, they did exactly that. And all was quiet on the Western Front.”
Um…the war continued on the Western Front for another 9 months after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ended Russia’s participation in the War. Yes, strictly speaking the front was west of Russia itself, but it’s still general practice to call the Russo-German/Austrian front of WWI the “Eastern Front.” The Western Front was the German-French/English/later American (after the USA was led into a war it had no business being involved in by the duplicitous lies and machinations of Wilson and Col. House) front across Belgium and France.
John B(): Yes, the Democrat machine has been setting the stage for refusing to conceded under “ANY circumstances” (Hilary’s advice to Joe). The “Transition Integrity Project” and people like Norm Eisen, who wrote the book on “Color Revolutions” have been war-gaming various scenarios, and the Dems and media (see ex., Zuckerface’s disturbing video from a few days ago) have already been setting the stage for an apparent Trump victory on election night to be wiped away in the coming weeks by “mail-in” ballots coming in and being counted (i.e. the purpose of election night is for the Dems to find out where and how many votes to try to manufacture in the coming weeks to push Biden over the top).
This election aftermath will make the 2000 debacle look like child’s play.
Dennis
Re: Western Front
Richard Hill already pointed this out. It’s just that Ianto is Russo-centric.
Otherwise interesting comment
Wilson is considered one of if not the leftist President we’ve had? Didn’t the war tarnish his image with his backers.
One wonders how many Americans understand the media is comprised of LIARs (Low Information Activist Reporters).
This is a fun read and plausible but the old Stalin observation – it is not the people who vote that count but those who count the vote – must be borne in mind.
Who thinks that Biden will show-up for the debates?
ABS foresees a scenario where Creepy Joe claims he is beset by Coronavirus and can’t debate and the LIARS begin their 24/7 coverage of the faux event, even to the point where the Creep appears ready for the toe tag.
Then, putative miraculously, once no time remains for debates to be arranged and actualised, Creepy Joe appears live before the CNN cameras and claims God miraculously healed his illness and told him to save America.
Good one Watt the only editorial substitution I might suggest would be ‘riverbed silt’ for
‘estrogen chalk’. Riverbed silt from down there where the low life, scum sucking, bottom
feeding, globo-sewerage thrives, (race baiting being what it is). My only concern is how
easy it all seems gathered as they at the bottom of the barrel where a blind man with a
sharp stick could spear them much less Donald Trump pitchfork in hand.
A timely read:
The French Revolution Nesta Webster
https://archive.org/details/TheFrenchRevolutionNestaWebster/page/n125/mode/2up
A long read. Probably cogent and well-informed.
But you lost me at “Thus, he and his Menshevik faction were known as ‘defensists’.”
Kerensky was not a Menshevik. He was a Socialist Revolutionary.
That’s a quite crucial difference.
And so your whole analogy to today’s situation collapses. Otherwise, a lot of words.
The Christian mortar is weak because it’s riven with inclusions of feminism and equalism. Old-fashioned Christianity could and did hold societies together very well, but any Christian who uses words like “sexist” and “racist” non-ironically has conceded to the liberal worldview.
“Didn’t the war tarnish his image with his backers.”
Yes, that tends to happen when one campaigns on the slogan “He Kept Us Out of War” in 1916, then turns around and gets us into the war a month after his 2nd inaugural (He had already been not-so-secretly aiding the British with armaments shipments – including on the Lusitania, whose sinking, after ample German warnings before leaving NYC, was then used to such propaganda effect in the US and Britain – illegally and in contravention of international law governing behavior of neutrals, and clearly lied throughout 1916 of his intentions with regard to the US entering the war). That’s just one aspect of his duplicity. Wilson was an all-around nasty piece of work.
Kent (Ianto)
It was long and surprisingly cogent
While I claim no expert knowledge but relying on WikiPedia (I know … not good)
” February Revolution in 1917, the Menshevik leadership … supported the war effort under the slogan of “defense of the revolution.” Along with the other major Russian socialist party, the Socialist Revolutionaries … the Mensheviks led the emerging network of soviets…”
“… many social democrats viewed previous tactical differences between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks as a thing of the past and a number of local party organizations were merged…”
“…Bolshevik leaders Lev Kamenev, Joseph Stalin, and Matvei Muranov returned to Petrograd from Siberian exile in early March 1917 and assumed the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, they began exploring the idea of a complete re-unification of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks at the national level,…”
Ultimately it sounds like Lenin and zinoviev put a kibosh on this particular union according to WP
I’ll let the ywo of you sort out fact from Wiki-Fiction
Thank you Dennis
John,
“February Revolution in 1917, the Menshevik leadership … supported the war effort under the slogan of “defense of the revolution.” Along with the other major Russian socialist party, the Socialist Revolutionaries … the Mensheviks led the emerging network of soviets…”
Good call–Wikipedia probably confuses more than it clarifies. If you’re interested, I highly recommend Spartacus Educational’s website. This guy does an excellent job on the Russia Revolution. He has articles on pretty much all events and people involved, plus more.
Here’s his link for Kerensky:
https://spartacus-educational.com/RUSkerensky.htm
Though it may appear, from 100 years in the future, that the Menshevik/Socialist Revolutionary/Bolshevik divides were non-existent or minute, at the time (and for the next 75 years) those differences were life and death.
Kerensky was NOT a Menshevik, and never was. When Lenin returned, along with Trotsky and others, in the run-up to the October Revolution, many Mensheviks (for example, Trotsky) saw the hand-writing on the wall, and pledged as Bolsheviks. This melding of Menshevik and Bolshevik, though not complete, added the extra momentum Lenin needed to solidify his claim on leadership of the revolution. The melded forces conspired to overthrow Kerensky’s government, and finally did.
There are lots of lessons and probably valid analogies from the Russian Revolution compared to happenings in today’s America, but mis-attributing Kerensky as a Menshevik pretty much destroys the rest of the complicated analogy built above.
It would be like saying Bernie Sanders was a Libertarian before he joined the Democrats, and building a complicated analogical lesson on that misunderstanding.
Other than that, lots and lots of words.
And you people sneered at me for telling you to go to church. You thought I was worried about your immortal souls. Sorry, that’s YOUR problem.
Going to church is THE most revolutionary act you can commit. Trumpian Revolution, that is. Be the cement, not the caulk. Staying home and cursing the darkness is cowardly. Be courageous. Go to church even if you are non-believer. Fake it for the sake of civilization.
Nobody sneers at Uncle Mike.
Tough crowd, Ianto. I’m genuinely curious about the Esquimeaux. Normally, they are a reliable block for revolution. But this has got to be hitting their rank and file hard, in the pocketbook, where it matters. Take New York City, where so many are landlords. Between corona and riots tenants are leaving in droves and that has got to hurt. Is that going to shake their faith in revolution?
Kent
Thanks! Much of my understanding of Russia comes from “Fiddler on the Roof” and Solzhenitsyn. I might add Doctor Zhivago and Tolstoy but I can’t say that I saw DZ in its entirety and I only got half way through W&P when I lost it on a plane trip,
I read “A Day in the Life … ” in high school (had an English teacher who’d minored in Russian and got the school to let her teach a class – she could do everything but speak it). Some how there were enough “Denisovich” books to go around but some one had had the “fortitude/temerity” to “edit” every book by blacking out all of the cussing. Still, it was a hell of a book.
I read half of “Cancer Ward”which I’d be more inclined to try rereading than W&P.. Got through some of one volume of “Gulag Archipelago”…very interesting but daunting
150 years ago Dems fought and lost trying to keep blacks as slaves from over a 100 years prior. Having the blacks then ensnared in the Great Society plantation they embarked on a globalization plantation for the deplorables. Promising them high income jobs through the dint of the college degrees. It is this new servitude that is being protected from the Orange Man. Here’s to hoping for their failure as before.
John,
Fiddler on the Roof is much less “Russian” and much more “pre-Israel” history. Dr Zhivago is excellent historical fiction set in the Revolution, but the history is lost in the personal stories. Pasternak’s snapshots of Bolsheviks are spot-on. He wrote the book under the nose of the KGB, which rejected its publication in Russia. Fascinating story of Pasternak’s life, and writing the book, and the CIA’s involvement in publishing it are here:
The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle over a Forbidden Book
by Peter Finn.
Spartacus Educational provides quite readable, well-researched summaries of nearly all events and personalities involved in the Russian Revolution.
If you have the stomach for long non-fiction, excellent resources are Richard Pipes’ The Russian Revolution; W. Bruce Lincoln’s Red Victory: A History of the Russian Civil War. You can get them for pennies at http://www.alibris.com
Of course, Solzehnitsyn, even though he’s hard to read, nails the Communists, the Bolsheviks, and their human-hating, humanity-hating beliefs perfectly.
Kent-
‘Solznenitsyn (is) hard to read’…..
Holy cow. Now it’s all clear. Nothing could be further from the truth! No wonder you CIA types blew every job you got.
John,
Generalize much?
“You CIA types”?
What type is that, buddy?
“…blew every job you got..” Which job are you talking about, son?
Happy to compare operational results with anyone, including you, big boy.
See this article about the results I produced for a “job I got”:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/03/jihadists-in-paradise/305613/
Would be happy to discuss the failings of the CIA as an organization, as I have in public for years.
Please do elucidate, though, what the connection between having difficulty digesting the writing of Solzhenitsyn, and “blowing jobs” is.
Unless you are a native Russian speaker, or intimately familiar with the nuances of Russian and Soviet culture, language, idioms, folklore, history and more, then you will have difficulty fully understanding Solzehnitsyn. And his writing can be convoluted and difficult to follow.
I’ve immersed myself in the history and culture of the periods of Russian/Soviet history that he writes about, and it is a tough slog.
Let me know when you’re ready to compare operational results, though.
Thanks.
Kent-
Thanks for asking for more. I’m glad to reply. First, let’s get to the first of two habits you have. The first is your condescension towards anyone who shows the slightest inclination to speak on ground you seem to think is your sole property. In many cases, it involves the mention of the word ‘Russia’.
The second is your habit of covering your own ignorance with your ‘CIA competence’, which your attached article supposedly does. Sitting inside a shipping container watching computer monitors hardly impresses me.
Now, let’s look at the first habit cited above, and your immediate dismissal of Watt’s piece that used the Menshevik-Bolshevik situation of 1917 as a partial analogy of today’s Democrat Party turmoil. You used the excuse that since Kerensky wasn’t actually a member of the Mensheviks, the whole of Watt’s argument collapses. It’s apparent you didn’t read the rest of Watt, as you might have learned something, which you obviously didn’t (even though other readers tried to help you). Here’s the point Watt was making- you don’t have to be a card-carrying member to lead any particular group. The proof is in the fact that Bernie is not a card-carrying member of the Democrat Party- he runs as a registered Socialist when he’s on the ballot in Vermont. Watt’s example didn’t diminish the cited facts. It amplified them.
And who (but you) could deny Bernie has totally led the direction (and platform formation) of the Democrats? Exactly as Kerensky did to the Mensheviks in 1917. Which anyone familiar with Solzhenitsyn’s ‘Red Wheel’ epic (yes, I have read all four translated volumes) would know. In fact Volume IV is spent almost entirely with that little fiasco. But you don’t need to have read that tome to know, by the way. It’s in plenty of Solzhenitsyn’s other works as well.
You then missed Watt’s salient point- that while the Party leadership was very much alike in both times (1917 and now), the people they purport to lead are almost exactly the opposite. Which Watt hopes (with reason) will produce a totally different result than 1917 did.
As for the need to be “a native-speaker or intimately familiar with the nuances of Russian and Soviet culture, language, idioms, folklore, history and more, then you will have difficulty fully understanding” Solzhenitsyn, that’s bull crap. So, you’re a native speaker of all the languages of the nations you write about? You’re intimately familiar with each nation you reference? This argument is simply a twisted version of the ‘cultural appropriation’ argument leftists use. Shame on you.
But here’s the kicker- you don’t have to be a genius or a native to understand the core of what Solzhenitsyn is saying, in almost all of his works. And that core is this- mankind’s abandonment of God is what has led to all of our problems. His books simply detail these little treasons we commit.
And here we have your real problem. I have noticed, over the years, that you assiduously avoid commenting on anything that touches the spiritual. Perhaps this aversion led you to your abrupt dismissal of Watt’s article which, like so many of his, sees the need to consider both the temporal and the spiritual. Which you seem unable to do. I’ve noticed that you never seem to have met a devout Muslim you didn’t like, but you’ve never met a Christian you do. Sure, you helped track (via your monitors) that Philippino bad guy, but as the article explained, he wasn’t a real believer. His western hostages knew more about Islam than he did.
Am I being harsh here? Yes, and with good reason. The reason is that over the years, when you have written (often quite well) about the need to understand the roots of America’s enemies, you constantly refer to us as ‘normal America’. But you never explain what ‘normalcy’ is, beyond the general allusion to a nebulous past. Never once have I seen you describe America as a Christian nation, at least in our past. Or better yet, that we should be a Christian nation, in our future.
This same blindness applies to your Russian ‘expertise’, where you can see nothing of the war in Orthodoxy that is roiling the East, in a fashion similar to our NATO provocations of Russia (which, again, you properly perceive).
I could go on, but why? Until you decide to open your right eye, and quit acting like everyone but you is ignorant, you can expect this type of response. It’s all up to you.
In Mr. Clizbe’s book, “Willing Accomplices”, he describes his conversion to Islam, having met and married a Muslim woman. I wonder the extent to which this influences his views.
John,
Thanks for your thoughtful insights. You seem to have built up an unhealthy obsession and distaste for me. And a comment opened the flood gates of your disdain. That’s really too bad. But that’s life. I was only responding to one issue–your condescending ad hominem implying that I was incompetent.
And your response neither supported nor elucidated your original comment:
“Nothing could be further from the truth! No wonder you CIA types blew every job you got.”
You brought up my CIA experience, bucko. I didn’t. Only in response to your ad hominem, quoted above, did I provide you with a link to a non-blown job. You can believe all that involved was sitting in a shipping container all you want. You’d be wrong.
Since you seem to be interested, though, please see this recent interview I did with a couple of Special Forces operators on their Youtube channel, The Team House:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Iqa6vsPh-U
At minute 49:00, we begin an in-depth discussion of a few of the aspects of the successful counter-terrorism operation I led to free the Burnhams in the Philippines.
You also comment that I have a “…habit of covering your own ignorance with your ‘CIA competence’, which your attached article supposedly does.” ? Again, you brought it up, I did not. Once you did, though, it’s fair game. Still waiting for any sort of support for your claim of “blew every job.”
The rest of your comments, conflating my expertise in various geographic/cultural/linguistic subjects with my (evidently unpardonable) failure to have an easy time reading Solzhenitzyn are quite bizarre.
You seem to be annoyed that I have expertise in a wide-range of issues, but seem to be enraged when I claim to be weak in an area. Really a little strange.
Since you’ve cataloged your other concerns, none of which have anything to do with the subject at hand, by the way, allow me the right to respond to a couple:
“…you constantly refer to us as ‘normal America’. But you never explain what ‘normalcy’ is, beyond the general allusion to a nebulous past.”
I’ve avoided spelling out details of what Normal American culture is, because I believe it is self-evident. I’d suggest you acquaint yourself with American history, and the Founding Fathers: Every single one of them was an Anglo-Saxon believer in God. Nearly all were at least nominal Christians, all were at least Deists. Only two or three were Catholic. They were white, heterosexual, Christian males–WASPs. As were the first 40-some of our presidents, and the vast majority of American citizens for 200+ years of our existence. Sounds pretty Normal to me.
The American Normal culture they crystallized both rejected our heritage (British culture, religion, language), and explicitly used that inheritance as the foundation to build the shining culmination of Greco-Roman, Anglo-Saxon culture: the USA.
That’s Normal America. Just as there’s a Normal Japan, a Normal Norway, a Normal Iceland, a Normal Samoa, a Normal France, so, too is there a Normal America.
“Which you seem unable to do. I’ve noticed that you never seem to have met a devout Muslim you didn’t like, but you’ve never met a Christian you do.”
Might seem that way to you because it appears that I’m the only one who comments on Matt’s site here who has ever lived with, among, around, and worked for and with a Muslim culture/society and lived and traveled extensively among them, on their terms. As a firm believer in reality-based commentary, sometimes I just can’t avoid shining a little reality onto the subject. I guess you’re referring to occasions that I’ve responded to wild-eyed claims from commenters (or Watt) to point out that not all Islamic cultures are head-chopping, wife-beating, Christian-slaying, dwellers in the stone age, and that the standard, neo-conmen-generated “here’s what all Muslims believe, let’s go kill ’em!” is nonsense.
On the other hand, all the intra-Christian, Byzantium/Rome, Luther/Pope, Henry VIII/Pope, Pope/anti-Pope, dunk/drip divisions, arguments that consumes others here is beyond me. Fascinating, but incomprehensible. It’s also re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. For the PC-Progs who are plotting our demise don’t care a flying fiddly whether a Normal crosses themselves up and down or side to side, or not at all–they plan to annihilate us all.
Thanks, and think positive!
Highly recommend watching Reconstruction ….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97JqxwjTuf8 Parts 1 and 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsi9uJy5azE Parts 3 and 4
Kent Clizbe, Are you familiar with Philp Haney’s book SEE SOMETHING, SAY NOTHING? This is soo disturbing
on how much action (pre-Obama and much more in OBummer’s time !) was taken in selling out all the security of our nation agencies, FBI, NEA, DHS, CIA etc with overtly commanding WHIPING CLEAN much vital information collected on ISLAM’S documented activities and connections and who was working with whom in their serious DEATH TO AMERICA dedications. These activities are now grossly advanced and ingrained into all levels of our government and culture. Their many ways and levels, most covertly now to grow the cancer of Islam domination and of course Politically Correct as some “Protected Class” as they further Sharia in many parts of America). READ THAT BOOK !! and also ASK…. Why is Philip Haney’s mysterious death on the side of the road near San Francisco fully swept under the rug ? (like so many “Arkancides” !)