America’s elite has adopted the fascist dream of a corporate oligarchy
There’s a tendency today to see Benito Mussolini as a pathetic sideshow, an incompetent blusterer who went from Adolf Hitler’s idol to his lapdog. Yet in many ways, Mussolini’s notion of fascism has become increasingly dominant in much of the world, albeit in an unexpected form: in the worldview of those progressives who typically see “proto-fascism” lurking on the Right.
The US war in Afghanistan was not supposed to be another Vietnam. “I don’t do quagmires,” said Donald Rumsfeld, the architect of the original US invasion, who died last week. In the end the former US defence secretary did two quagmires, airily assuming Afghanistan was “won” in the spring of 2003 when he sent American troops to fight in Iraq.
US combat troops were in Vietnam for eight years, but they have been in Afghanistan for 20. It has been America’s longest war by far.
Joe Biden has insisted the withdrawal is not quite complete, but the remaining few hundred US troops in Afghanistan are there on guard duty. The abandonment of Bagram airbase on Friday marked the true end to the US military presence in the country.
As CNN’s Brian Stelter flounders in the ratings next to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, he’s brought out the serious accusations against the Fox host: that Carlson is working “in cahoots” with notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
The identitarian left treats Muslims as children. Progressives should be outraged.
There has been a surge in the racism of low expectations in recent days. It has centred on the Muslim community. It is wrong – ‘phobic’, no less – to criticise the regressive social views held by some Muslims, left-wing campaigners claim. Any pondering of the possibility that sections of the Muslim community hold less than enlightened views on homosexuality or the rights of Jews to live as free, equal citizens is itself racist, they cry. It’s horrible and unfair. They doll up this desire to protect Muslim attitudes from scrutiny in the language of anti-racism, but it is the opposite. It is time we talked about the racism of not criticising the Muslim community, of refusing to subject Muslims to the same kind of social discussion that every other community in an open, democratic society might expect.
Afghan locals started hawking basketballs, stereo speakers, laptop computers, bicycles and helmets, desk fans, guitars, and whatever else they could get their hands on after looters ransacked a now-former American military base that was vacated by departing US soldiers in the dead of night on Friday morning.
The US left Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield after nearly 20 years by shutting off the electricity and slipping away in the night without notifying the base’s new Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans’ departure more than two hours after they left, Afghan military officials said.
Afghanistan’s army showed off the sprawling air base Monday, providing a rare first glimpse of what had been the epicenter of America’s war to unseat the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaida perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks on America.
Our adversaries can’t quite believe their good fortune. Had they thought up ways to divide and impoverish America, they could not have improved on our own collective meltdown.
This Fourth of July holiday we might pause for a moment from our festivities to ask how we collectively lost our minds over the last 15 months—and are we yet regaining any semblance of our sanity?
As Ockham’s Razor says, the simplest answer is usually the right one. The simplest explanation for the heat wave is not climate change.
Was last week’s record heatwave in the Pacific Northwest caused by a climate-altering buildup of human greenhouse gases? The once-august Scientific American claimed it was, declaring, “Unprecedented Heat Wave in Pacific Northwest Driven by Climate Change.” Other outlets like the Washington Post echoed this narrative.
It’s helpful to remember climate change commentators live by two rules: First, everything is linked to climate change. Second, when in doubt, see rule number one. This simple, two-rule test shows up in any of the activist corporate media’s coverage of climate “related” events. It’s what makes them both boring and predictable.
Sunny Sharma wants to stay in Vancouver. But he fears he and his wife, Shilpi, may have to move outside B.C. some day to own their own home.
In the almost two years since Sunny and Shilpi moved from Delhi and became permanent residents through Canada’s express-entry program, they have been patching together beginner-level jobs in technology while running a small business. That way they can continue to rent a 500-square-foot apartment in Vancouver’s West End.
A perfect segue. Seriously I could live in a Van like this.
Not sure if “Canadian” year round living is possible in this new van from Storyteller, it’s built on the Ford AWD Transit. They use sheep’s wool insulation but the grey water tank is exterior mounted and likely will freeze in the Great White North necessitating a rework, it’s certainly winter capable based on what I know of it’s Mercedes counterpart, but if the exterior tank is rated only to -1 Fahrenheit (-18 C) then that won’t cut it.
It has the electrical power to do it however as they employ a Volta power system so running an air conditioner for 8 hours is possible. Solar is almost an afterthought as you can Boondock for days with the Volta and still keep your fridge running with plenty of power to spare for using your induction cooktop etc. The batteries can be charged via the high powered alternator they supply but lack the option to charge on “idle” like the competing system from Lithionics which is overall a better bet IMHO as it’s expandable and overall less proprietary.
I see they are listing a gas heater system, likely something like this from Heatso. Storyteller has built exclusively on the Mercedes Sprinter platform till now but people are shy of the Mercedes’ scant repair centres and maintenance costs and apparently highway diesel fuel is harder to find outside NA. By many accounts the Transit is a nicer ride especially after the Sumo shock installation though the Sprinter has dominated the High End Class B van space.
The on board “Halo” shower is different and seems workable though frankly I prefer the privacy of an enclosed shower/bathroom space. It comes with a recirculating hot water system which I am assuming allows you to “recycle” the same 3 to 5 gallons of water by cleaning it via filters allowing you an unlimited shower. Recirculating showers seem to be the future and system’s like the Volta can handle the power requirement without problem and most importantly they save you a lot of water. Water is always at a premium and also weighs a great deal so tradeoffs are necessary, a recirculating shower is a good solution.
The wildfire that tore through the small British Columbia village of Lytton, levelling most of the community and killing two people, is believed to be human-caused, the B.C. Wildfire Service said.
The agency is still investigating what exactly sparked the blaze, but said it appears it started in the community and spread from there.
h/t Marvin
Canada’s contract to work with a Chinese drug company on its COVID-19 vaccine included an arbitration process for resolving disputes, but as the deal fell apart last year, the National Research Council never used the provision.
Last week’s celebration of the Chinese Communist Party was a sham
The emperor has new clothes. Arriving at a meeting to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, China’s supreme leader Xi Jinping came dressed as Chairman Mao. His light grey tunic suit, four front pockets and five buttons to the neck cut an imposing contrast to the Politburo’s Standing Committee in their familiar dark suits and sober ties. This was no subtle message; ludicrous it might seem, but it was fancy dress hiding an iron fist.
The 2021 Presidential Historians Survey yields predictable but wildly inaccurate results.
Aflock of over 100 historians, a handful of them conservative, most of them university-based, cast their votes in the 2021 Presidential Historians Survey. Not surprisingly, the results confirm what we feared, namely that fake news can quickly become fake history. This twist is especially obvious for the presidencies of Barack Obama, ranked 10th out of 44, and Donald Trump, picked 41st.
While Joe Biden careens around the country eating ice cream and behaving like a kind, but slightly dotty grandpa, it’s worth remembering the cynical way he used his son, Hunter, to generate cash for the family.
Hunter, now 51, wanted to be an artist or a writer, but he was assigned by his father the role of family breadwinner through lucrative grace-and-favor jobs and sweetheart deals facilitated by Joe’s network of connections in Delaware and, later, throughout the world.
One of the hottest issues in the 50-minute discussion between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Joe Biden during the NATO summit of June 14 was NATO member Turkey’s acquisition of the Russian-made S-400 long-range air defense system and subsequent U.S. sanctions, including expelling Turkey from the U.S.-led multinational consortium that builds the F-35 fifth-generation fighter jet. Unsurprisingly, the meeting ended without a solution. That is bad news for the Turkish Air Force (TuAF).
