Holiday Thread

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Weird Stuff

Here is my Taki post. I have been doing a lot of commentary on the various struggles within conservatism. Their struggle is interesting as they are feeling around for an answer but first making sure to avoid any of the right answers. It is a lot like how crime is discussed in conservative media. They first make sure to remove all reverences to race and then try to explain crime. The same thing happens in these spats over how to revive the corpse of conservatism…

Here is a very useful map of Ukraine. It shows the military groupings, the various conflicts on the front and the important towns and roads. Once you get the hand of the symbols and legends, you see they the happy talk from the West with regards to the Ukrainian army is nonsense. Like an amoeba surrounding and consuming one cell organisms, the Russian army and local militias has broken up and is now consuming the Ukrainian army operating in the Donbas.

The map also reveals the reckless stupidity of the Kiev regime. They should have pulled out of the Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. Those troops cannot be supported and therefore have no way of surviving the Russian advance. Instead they are left to be annihilated as another “heroic last stand” publicity stunt. Thousands of Ukrainian lives have been lost so that the west can own the Russians on Instagram, which should be a special sort of war crime…

Happy Memorial Day!

To keep Z Man's voice alive for future generations, we’ve archived his writings from the original site at thezman.com. We’ve edited out ancillary links, advertisements, and donation requests to focus on his written content.

Comments (Historical)

The comments below were originally posted to thezman.com.

84 Comments

harrypalmer #305697 May 31, 2022 2:02 pm 0
Near the end of Voegeli’s Claremont piece, he writes:“In the latter case, the counter-revolutionaries need to explain why their principles are superior to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison’s. The failure to provide such an explanation would not only show an indecent disrespect for the opinions of mankind but vindicate fears that the counter-revolutionaries are no less enthused about chaos and averse to clarity about ultimate objectives than the revolutionaries they war against.”I’m sympathetic to this point. What would you say to a griller who is fed up and knows things are bad and getting worse? Usually the answer here is, vaguely, “form communities”, buy ammo, wait, drop out, don’t vote, don’t watch sports, etc. Ok fine, but then what? Two all-important questions are never really answered: 1) post-collapse (or equivalent), who is the polis, and 2) what is the form of government?
Bilejones #305604 May 31, 2022 8:24 am 0
The question that I’m sure has occurred to many. “. . . but how does a mentally-ill eighteen-year-old member of the five-second-attention-span cellphone/Instagram/TikTok generation write a 180-page “manifesto”? I ask this after reading about the kid who murdered all those people at a Buffalo, NY grocery store. Did he have a ghost writer?” Was asked herehttps://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/im-sure-someone-else-has-probably-asked-this/ But they’re Libertarian’s so what do they know?
The Wild Geese Howard #305635 May 31, 2022 9:43 am 0
I read the excerpts from that manifesto. They sounded like a Wokester’s fantasy of how a deplorable might think.
VeryVXXC #305560 May 30, 2022 2:32 pm 0
Z re Taki post Bum fight; LOL 😂 There are 2 types of conservatives;The conmen and The Marks.The Marks watch FOX News, The Conmen are on FOX News.
RoboFascist 1st #305559 May 30, 2022 2:26 pm 0
This Pat Tillman Memorial Day let us rewrite the Arthur Jensen Corporate Cosmology speech (Network) almost 50 years later…Jensen: “You have meddled with the forces of nature Mr. Beale!! and bankers slobs are crawling all over my back!! The Saudis have told us to drop dead and we can’t get them on the phone! It is ebb and flow… tidal gravity of bullshit, lies, thefts and mass murder.”Jensen: “You are an old man who thinks in terms of porn, television, the ATM, republicans and democrats. There are no republicans, there are no democrats… there is no morality… there is no west! There is only anti-Christ shitty world, prescription medications if you can get them, other drugs from the street, carbohydrates, propaganda, fake FBI created race riots, smart phone aggravations and the price of gasoline.”Jensen: “That… is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of our world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their counsels of state… Karl Marx? They get out their cell phones, bank account statements from Panama, update their slut lists and compute the price of black market arms just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies Mr. Beale. The world is governed by the immutable bylaws of criminality, bribes, bunnies, bullshit and retail and jingoistic suckers.”Jensen: “And I have chosen you Mr. Beale to preach this truth and annoy people with it.”Howard Beale: “You mean like James Garner in the Americanization of Julie Andrews.”Jensen: “Exactly.”
Frip #305576 May 30, 2022 6:02 pm 0
That was great.
RoboFascist 1st #305583 May 30, 2022 7:25 pm 0
Thanks. This is one of the few places to get back to reality.
Frip #305580 May 30, 2022 6:41 pm 0
I’ve never watched Network. I was reading about it after your clever post Robo. The writer compared it to the movie Killing Them Softly from a few years ago. I think I’ll watch both this week. Thanks.From some site called Aphelas: “A similar point was made recently in the movie Killing Them Softly (2012; IMDb), although the intention this time was not to convey it through a cynical caricature, but to lay it down in a much more solemn manner.The final scene of the film is set in a bar. In the background, a television set is broadcasting Barack Obama’s Victory Speech (watch it). At one point, Obama is heard saying “… to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one…”. Upon hearing this, Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) tells the man with whom he’s supposed to be doing a transaction that the “One People” thing is nothing but a myth created byThomas Jefferson. He goes on:“My friend, Thomas Jefferson is an American saint because he wrote the words ‘All men are created equal’, words he clearly didn’t believe since he allowed his own children to live in slavery. He’s a rich white snob who’s sick of paying taxes to the Brits. So, yeah, he writes some lovely words and aroused the rabble and they went and died for those words while he sat back and drank his wine and fucked his slave girl. This guy wants to tell me we’re living in a community? Don’t make me laugh. I’m living in America, and in America you’re on your own. America’s not a country. It’s just a business. Now fuckin’ pay me.”
Götterdamn-it-all #305582 May 30, 2022 7:15 pm 0
What part of New England are you from?
RoboFascist 1st #305585 May 30, 2022 7:41 pm 0
Beware cynicism and bitterness. They will visit upon you and bring other friends. To objectively look back and yet rise above the insanity… to find solutions. Let us rewrite the narratives with graffiti and embarrass anti-Christ shitty world. That is a first step in becoming dangerous like Jefferson.
The Wild Geese Howard #305601 May 31, 2022 8:11 am 0
Killing Them Softlyis an extremely depressing slog to sit through for two hours. There is not a single likeable character, though it is interesting to see James Gandolfini play a washed up hitman. Better to simply watch the final scene on YouTube.
Majorian #305555 May 30, 2022 1:22 pm 0
“Here is a very useful map of Ukraine. It shows the military groupings, the various conflicts on the front …”The map is really wonderful and much more responsive than the ones based on google maps, but truth be told lacks nato-style symbols for army groupings (corps, divisions, maybe even battalions, and if mechanised/armoured/recon etc). Without these it is impossible to divine what the incoming manoeuvres will be. With these added on the contrary, that has to become the go-to map of the conflict.
VeryVxxc #305556 May 30, 2022 2:01 pm 0
Actually no, if you review the Stalingrad map from about Nov 1942 to Feb 43 you can guess the outcome. The difference is time and violence. The Russians are doing what they did in Syria- slowly and at leisure elimination of resistance with a great opportunity to flee or surrender to the enemy. Evacuation of civilians, sparingly using firepower, avoiding casualties on their side above all. This is much or most of the history of war especially outside the West. Pitched battles aren’t just costly- they’re often indecisive. Unit symbols not essential.
NateG #305553 May 30, 2022 12:51 pm 0
The Kiev government reminds me of some small town drama troupe. It seems like they’re performing at some auditorium and have no idea of all the carnage going on. The longer they stay in power, the more suffering there will be. I think they’re too dumb to realize that the longer they stay and continue this, the more likely they can end up like Mussolini.
The Wild Geese Howard #305602 May 31, 2022 8:12 am 0
They are. Zelensky’s government is his former media production team.
TomA #305541 May 30, 2022 11:42 am 0
Many of the politicians and opinion leaders in the Conservative Movement are suffering from a delusion borne of desperation. They cling to an ideological fantasy because they know they are losing and cannot accept defeat until the Progressive battleaxe strikes them full-force in the skull. People like Shapiro and Bongino will bend over backwards until their head is fully up their ass promoting vote harder and won’t wake up until they start losing elections by manufactured double-digit margins.As for Ukraine, the Cloud People have successfully demonstrated that they can get white guys to slaughter white guys by the tens of thousands, which is a win for them. This model will be repeated in Europe and the US unless we wise up and refuse to kill each other. They want war between patriots and LEOs/NGs, and all alphas dead in the process. They absolutely don’t want those alphas to wake to the real threat and act accordingly. That is the seminal lesson of Ukraine.
karl von hungus #305552 May 30, 2022 12:38 pm 0
i don’t know, i see ukraine as a fail for the GAE, a big one.
TomA #305569 May 30, 2022 3:50 pm 0
The dead bodies in Ukraine are quite real, numerous, and past tense. You can find countless video evidence on the internet. And it’s been going on since 2014 in the Donbass, not just the past 3 months. Let me know when the GAE has a body count and we can talk success or failure.
karl von hungus #305575 May 30, 2022 5:45 pm 0
that’s a pitifully simplistic metric; in fact, it is a straw man argument. are you really going to go all in on it? if you are, it will save me the time i usually spend reading your comments.
TomA #305586 May 30, 2022 8:48 pm 0
A relatively small cadre of Cloud People control all of the power centers in the Western world. That’s not gonna change until those people change. It’s insanely delusional to think that these puppet masters are going to displaced by voting harder. And they control trillions in monetary muscle, so trying to out resource them is equally delusional. But they are human, and that means they place a high priority on staying vertical.
DW #305587 May 30, 2022 10:05 pm 0
In related news, as was anticipated, the US decided not to play with fire and the danger of own annihilation and stopped any silly talks about sending HIMARS to 404 and it is all for the better. The US still wants to send some kind of MLRS (maybe even same HIMARS) but with much shorter range munitions. As Dmitry Medvedev noted today:«Разумно. Иначе при атаке на наши города Вооруженные силы России исполнили бы свою угрозу и нанесли удары по центрам принятия этих преступных решений. Часть из них находится совсем не в Киеве. Что дальше – объяснять не надо»Translation: Makes sense. Otherwise, upon attacks on our cities, Russia’s Armed Forces would have delivered on their threat to strike these criminal decision making centers. Part of those centers is located absolutely not in Kiev. What would follow–no explanation is needed.Courtesy A. Martynov and MOA.TomA this would be interesting. Russian politician talking about decision making centers.
Anonymous Fake #305594 May 31, 2022 5:53 am 0
Watching modern war turn into “WWI with drones” fought with the cheapest gear, including the cheapest and nastiest humans willing to put up with it, is going to degrade the war business in the long run. Natalism on one side, and espionage on the other side, is where we can expect warriors to go. Formal war is for genetic trash now.
Bilejones #305595 May 31, 2022 7:31 am 0
The West is doomed. At its core it’s simple.The men of Europe created societies around the time of the enlightenment where the average yeoman saw himself a sovereign and the rulers as tolerated/appointed/elected administrators tolerated to the degree to which they behave themselves. We live in countries heir to this view.The self selected barons of Davos see themselves a feudal Lords accountable to no-one.It is no accident that it is the White middle class targeted across all facets of society, they are the sole obstacles to the New Serfdom.
Anonymous White Male #305540 May 30, 2022 11:40 am 0
Am I the only one that thinks that the Russian position after slightly over 3 months is incredible? We have been taught to consider success as the Fall of France, the 6 day War, or Operation Desert Storm. Military operations that succeeded remarkably fast. This is not the usual history of warfare. What the Russians have done is actually a well thought out strategy. Unlike the “victories” of the US that resulted in a loss because of political concerns that had nothing to do with war.
The Wild Geese Howard #305603 May 31, 2022 8:16 am 0
It is even more so when we consider the fact the Russians are attacking with a much smaller attacker/defender ratio than long-term historical norms.
ChetRollins #305536 May 30, 2022 11:30 am 0
> Happy Memorial Day! https://murdochmurdoch.net/murdoch/the-greatest-generation/
Frip #305547 May 30, 2022 12:09 pm 0
When you cast your eyes upon the skylinesOf this once proud nationCan you sense the fear and the hatredGrowing in the hearts of its populationAnd youth, oh youth, are being seducedBy the greedy hands of politics and half truthsThe beaten generationReared on a diet of prejudice and mis-informationOpen your eyes, open your imaginationWe’re being sedated by the gasoline fumesAnd hypnotized by the satellitesInto believing what is good and what is rightYou may be worshipping the temples of mammonOr lost in the prisons of religionBut can you still walk back to happinessWhen you’ve nowhere left to run?The beaten generationAnd if they send in the special policeTo deliver us from liberty and keep us from peaceThen won’t the words sit ill upon their tonguesWhen they tell us justice is being doneAnd that freedom lives in the barrels of a warm gunTheThe -1989https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ustXRPke9lM&ab_channel=TheTheVEVO
Bored Ape #305531 May 30, 2022 10:54 am 0
Damn, but I’m sick of Subscribestar. I’ve been with you since you started there, and like a good dissident should, using the most basic of sysops, I pay with a gift card purchased with cash, use a fake name and a VPN.I get repeated rejected payments every month. That and they are tight with all the usual doxxing suspects. Is there a valid alternative to these clowns?
thezman #305533 May 30, 2022 11:07 am 0
Hang in there for another few months. I am working on the new site which will have its own payment methods, crypto, cash, check, card, etc. I’m shooting for the fall.
JDaveF #305529 May 30, 2022 10:48 am 0
If the USA was serious about reducing crime involving guns – which it is not – Black males ages 15-35 would be disarmed. Gun crime would plummet.
Hoagie #305557 May 30, 2022 2:04 pm 0
The only way to disarm black males from 15-35 is to literally cut their arms off.
The Borg #305592 May 31, 2022 5:40 am 0
Proposal accepted
ProZNoV #305564 May 30, 2022 3:26 pm 0
Remove gun suicides from the “gun violence” statistics and you’d also see a huge drop. (In “gun violence” stats, not suicides. Men get *hit done).
RoBG #305706 May 31, 2022 2:22 pm 0
What you say is true. It’s also true that the suicide rate is exponentially greater than it used to be.
Tired Citizen #305589 May 31, 2022 12:48 am 0
Remove the black race from the world and you have almost no crime ANYWHERE…
Bilejones #305596 May 31, 2022 7:39 am 0
The reduction will be in violent crime.The usual scammers, fraudsters, forgers and grifters will survive,Right up to the point when they’re all sent back to their shitty little country and that is walled in both physically and digitally,
Armenio Pereira #305527 May 30, 2022 10:26 am 0
Everything’s working according to God’s plan.Be grateful if you can – be disrespectful if you must.God is(Change)– You are(an agent of Change)As above – So belowNothing more – Nothing lessThe food you deemed so tasteful not long ago soon to become loathedmanure, yet so precious for the land to remain fertile.Nothing remains precious forever – Nothing remains noxious foreverSome things anew – Some things decayEverything changes –The Everlasting Dissatisfaction remains.
Point #305526 May 30, 2022 10:12 am 0
Instagram-famous, i.e., dead.Works in multiple areas.
karl von hungus #305524 May 30, 2022 9:49 am 0
why bother to revive or otherwise “save” conservatism when it has so manifestly failed, for so long a time? let the normies have it as a woobie, and be shed of it. and shed of anyone who identifies as “conservative”. whatever comes next has to be competitive (in the Darwinian sense) with the hive. and it won’t be old pharts leading the new wave, or even really understanding it.
Pickle Rick #305548 May 30, 2022 12:17 pm 0
To hold the views we have today isn’t conservative, but rebellious and revolutionary. I’m flying a Confederate flag today, not an AINO flag.
karl von hungus #305554 May 30, 2022 1:08 pm 0
good on you, sir! kvhkvhkvhkvh
Enoch Cade #305562 May 30, 2022 2:43 pm 0
Same here, my good man! The only soldiers who ever fought to defend my homeland against a brutal invader wore butternut and gray, and I am proud to say that many of my ancestors stood in the Confederate ranks, in regiments from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Texas.
B125 #305523 May 30, 2022 9:49 am 0
ISW (which I follow to see the progress of the war) is becoming increasingly unhinged. It sounds like a mentally ill, raving lunatic is writing this. From the May 28 report:“Russian President Vladimir Putin is inflicting unspeakable suffering on Ukrainians and demanding horrible sacrifices of his own people in an effort to seize a city that does not merit the cost, even for him.The Russian invasion of Ukraine that aimed to seize and occupy the entire country has become a desperate and bloody offensive to capture a single city in the east while defending important but limited gains in the south and east.”“Putin is now hurling men and munitions at the last remaining major population center in that oblast, Severodonetsk, as if taking it would win the war for the Kremlin. He is wrong. ”ISW describes itself this way: The Institute for the Study of War advances an informed understanding of military affairs through reliable research, trusted analysis, and innovative education. We are committed to improving the nation’s ability to execute military operations and respond to emerging threats in order to achieve U.S. strategic objectives. ISW is a non-partisan, non-profit, public policy research organization.Lol. Yeah the West is led by insane bloodthirsty morons. The thirst really comes out when it comes to Russia. Don’t forget they feel as much hate towards you as they do towards Russia they just can’t show it as openly.
DDoffs #305539 May 30, 2022 11:37 am 0
Gen. Keane is all over the media promoting anti-Russia propaganda — the morning he was on radio in NYC saying that Ukraine would win the war if only the US would send more money and more armaments. He then “reassured” Americans that US defense contractors could create new weapons to make up for those sent to Ukraine. Of course, no one — left or right — ever challenges him as to his current connections to the defense industry.
Jack Dobson #305546 May 30, 2022 12:08 pm 0
The human press releases from Raytheon et al became obvious and unavoidable with the first Gulf War. I think the recent (and apparently accurate) reports of the collapse of the Ukrainian forces in the east and south are geared toward increasing arms sales before the window of opportunity closes.
pyrrhus #305577 May 30, 2022 6:25 pm 0
Gen. Keane is pretty much your standard military whore, and makes a good living at it..
trumpton #305545 May 30, 2022 12:05 pm 0
Institute of Kagans
David Wright #305521 May 30, 2022 9:42 am 0
Well the future will show many war memorials for all the Ukranian dead heroes. Just like Americans and Memorial day I would rather not be remembered , not for the ways we have used them as war fodder. The saddest of all government holidays indeed. Oh and that future Ukraine will probably get an annual visit from deposed Zelensky laying wreaths at military grave sites and then back to one of his many foreign mansions. The Americanization of Emily speech;https://youtu.be/reUstMn4bM8
Citizen of a Silly Country #305520 May 30, 2022 9:41 am 0
I notice that the Founder’s wing of the conservative movement doesn’t focus too much energy of Freedom of Association. Funny that. Liberals and conservatives start with the same fundamental assumption that all groups are equally capable. That’s why they are fundamentally the same party. Once you understand that, a lot of things fall into place. I once described myself as a Darwinist when someone asked me if I was a Republican or Democrat. While I’m obviously a dissident, I always thought that calling myself a Darwinist was a good way to explain my political beliefs to Normies.
pyrrhus #305578 May 30, 2022 6:27 pm 0
HBD is the standard term for those of us who believe in biological reality…The commies call us eugenicists, though that has nothing to do with HBD…
Tired Citizen #305590 May 31, 2022 12:52 am 0
If you tell a normie you are a dissident, they look at you perplexed because they don’t know what it means.
fwm #305519 May 30, 2022 9:36 am 0
Thank you for all that you do, ZMan, Happy Memorial Day. /F
Citizen of a Silly Country #305515 May 30, 2022 9:31 am 0
What the Ukrainian leadership is doing in the Donbas us criminal. Their army is getting slaughtered and has no chance of winning. They should pull them out and reorganize to fight another day. Instead, they order them to stand their ground. The only reason to do that is to buy time to build an army in the west, but they’re not doing that, so it’s just murder.
trumpton #305518 May 30, 2022 9:35 am 0
They are doing it so the EU can impose the new non-carbon poverty life on their citizens. That is the entire point. A new “green curtain” across the west and US. They are stringing this out just for that purpose. They don’t give a damn how many Ukranians are slaughtered. If Russia clears up too quickly they will not have time to sanction themselves completely. Hence the massive arms supply, just to keep it going so they can bully the holdouts to accept the new normal of energy poverty and de-industrialization.
Jack Dobson #305537 May 30, 2022 11:32 am 0
“They are stringing this out just for that purpose. They don’t give a damn how many Ukranians are slaughtered.” Exactly. Ukrainians are not calling the shots, although there are reports they are now onto the US/EU/Zelensky. Ukrainian men are dying needlessly en masse for utopian insanity gussied up as nationalism, because apparently there wasn’t enough of that last century. But, hey, what’s tens of thousands of war dead when the carbon footprint is reduced .00000000000001 percent?
pyrrhus #305579 May 30, 2022 6:30 pm 0
Indeed, it we are lucky, green energy will get us all the way to the 18th century…though the Davos elites will probably try to keep their private jets functioning in their Swiss stronghold, but without success…
trumpton #305588 May 31, 2022 12:06 am 0
You are forgetting they are setting Russia and China/India/far east to still have a functioning petroleum based economy. So there will always be a fuel/industrial base to draw from for their private jets protected by the state boots. For you, not so much. Its going to make 50s communism look like a consumer utopia for those that are not dead.
karl von hungus #305525 May 30, 2022 9:51 am 0
i am reading articles mentioning the ukraine military is not following orders reliably any longer; they are onto the game and are choosing to not play.
Felix Krull #305528 May 30, 2022 10:44 am 0
Renaissance Horizon had a good video on the latest rumors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psVTmprAaOA
karl von hungus #305543 May 30, 2022 11:56 am 0
the ukrainians who are not nazis are going to have to start fragging those who are nazis.
Pratt #305561 May 30, 2022 2:39 pm 0
What is a Nazi these days? Totally meaningless agitprop term, with the dogs on all sides fighting hard to appropriate it for their domestic purposes.
Jack Dobson #305544 May 30, 2022 12:01 pm 0
Thanks for that link, Felix, that’s quite an impressive presenter there. It obviously speaks volumes that a metalhead on YouTube is likely to be censored because he tries to relay accurate facts as he best understands them.As for the underlying claim, forced service is not uncommon in wars, of course. People routinely are used as cannon fodder as things grow dire. It is likely Russia will make hay of the brutality when the inevitable war crimes tribunals begin in Moscow. We probably will have to watch this guy and others like him on alternative video platforms to hear the trials because YouTube will not allow the Westerners to see and hear what atrocities were done in their name.
Felix Krull #305551 May 30, 2022 12:37 pm 0
Yes, he’s quite a character. He makes good stuff on elections in smaller Euro countries; short ten-minute summations of the political landscapes that beat anything on the MSM into a cocked hat. Probably takes him a couple of hours research for each, tops.
thezman #305534 May 30, 2022 11:12 am 0
I first thought this was just propaganda from Russian sources, but on closer examination, it is something else. What Ukraine is doing is taking these conscripts and mercenaries to the front line. They are supposed to engage the Russian recon units. The Russians engage, retreat and hit the Ukrainian positions with artillery. Meanwhile the professional Ukrainian army is in defensive positions behind the line, firing artillery at the Russian batteries. It is incredibly cynical, but it is part of making this a war of attrition to raise the cost to the Russians.
Citizen of a Silly Country #305570 May 30, 2022 3:55 pm 0
Sounds like the Russians are attempting to push into Severodonetsk.It also sounds like the Ukrainian units are wearing out fast. Apparently, water is an issue. They also don’t have enough ammunition. Finally, the troops aren’t getting rotated, so the same guys have been taking a pounding for a month and they’re starting to wear out.The artillery is the big difference. The Ukrainians have no answer, so the Russians just slowly move forward and rain death from above.Not sure how long average Ukrainians are going to accept being killed for no good reason. At some point, they’re going to realize that the West is sending them to die just to so the West can also kill a few Russians.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFPGThOiQvM
thezman #305571 May 30, 2022 4:11 pm 0
One thing about this that has surprised me a bit is just how patient the Russian has been thus far. Their style is to destroy armies, not take territory, but they are relying, in part, on militias that are literally fighting for their homes in these areas. I thought they would be more willing to take risks and seize turf as a result. Instead, they have been doing the slow grind in order to destroy the Ukrainian arm.I do wonder what would have have happened if the West had given the Ukrainians the good artillery and rocket launchers, rather than the older equipment. I suspect the Russians would have brought in heavy bombers and this would be a very different war altogether.
Citizen of a Silly Country #305574 May 30, 2022 5:27 pm 0
The Russians have definitely been holding back a lot of their best troops and equipment. It’s interesting that they’ve never felt the need to use any of it, such as heavy bombers.The big question in this war is how far the Europeans will go. They’ve been scrambling to fill their nat gas storage tanks for the winter and seem in decent shape for that, but they still need Russian energy – and that can’t change for years. (Actually, so long as they don’t talk about nuclear power, that will remain the reality.)How long will the Germans allow their industry and general living standards to suffer for a lost cause. Obviously, if they truly believe that the Russians are the most dangerous country in the world, they’ll suffer what they must, since it wouldn’t really be about the Ukraine but European security.The Russians have been playing very nice with the Germans so far.Sorry for the sidetrack, but that last sentence reminds me that if people should have learned anything from all of this, it’s that Putin – at least as a leader (who knows in personal life or with domestic life) – is surprisingly moderate, even a bit too nice. He’s going out of his way to avoid casualties on both sides in the war, and he’s doing everything he can to avoid sticking it to the Europeans.Again, not saying that he’s a nice guy. Nobody rises to power by being a nice guy. But the idea that he’s some out-of-control, blood-thirty mad man is laughable, even by MSM standards.
Xin Loi #305584 May 30, 2022 7:25 pm 0
What would the Russians give, and the Germans take, to switch sides? Königsberg (Russia’s to give)? Danzig? Breslau? The obvious multipolar way out of this mess is to reverse Stalin’s annexations (illegitimate the day they happened) to make a Euro-Ukraine, and have Russia take the rest. But the Poles! They see a chance to play for big stakes here and to hurt the hated Russians. They may wind up on the short end of the stick.
trumpton #305514 May 30, 2022 9:30 am 0
To see which way the Ukraine puppet govt are jumping observe the latest story that adult males can buy their way out of conscription and to leave the country. These demons are constantly trying to squeeze the last drop of blood with multiple graft schemes before they too exit with the loot. Their pockets must be overflowing by now. What is a tragedy for the Ukranians caught up in it is going to create a large number of billionaires for the ring leaders skipping out to safer areas.
Jack Dobson #305512 May 30, 2022 9:04 am 0
Thanks for the map. Assuming it is not a product of Western or Russian propaganda, it his most helpful. I came across the most delusional take yet on the Ukraine from Victor Davis Hanson at American Greatness earlier today. Whatever the facts on the ground actually are, they do not in the least resemble what Professor Hanson posits; even the Western propaganda outlets are considerably more dire. Just another note to make on who not to trust at all ever again (not that I trusted Hanson previously). Pentagon spokesman John Kirby is the Bagdad Bob of the current unpleasantries, but VDH easily could write his material.As for your Taki post, the Claremont piece you linked in it also was a case study in delusional hopium. My favorite part is:“How, then, do conservatives navigate the foggy question of whether or not a republic is too far gone to be conserved? The least bad approach, I submit, is a variant of Pascal’s Wager: faced with a quandary in which we do not, and fear that we cannot, know the answer to an important question, we should select the answer that will have the least damaging consequences if we turn out to be wrong.”Yeah, we have no clue as to whether the republic can be salvaged, just as we are uncertain we also will die.Think happy thoughts, my friends, and happy Memorial Day.
thezman #305513 May 30, 2022 9:21 am 0
The old guys of Conservative Inc are having a tough time navigating the war. Hanson was a neocon, so there is that, but he also tends to still look to the NY Times for moral guidance. You are supposed to be on the side of those plucky Ukrainians fighting for democracy. That clouds the vision in ways it is tough for dissidents to understand. Ukraine is another one of those shit tests that sort the dissidents from the dissident curious.
trumpton #305516 May 30, 2022 9:31 am 0
You can’t fix stupid gullibility.
Hoagie #305522 May 30, 2022 9:48 am 0
I like VDH. He gives a generally well thought out perspective on most subject apparently the Russia/Ukraine war is not one of them. I also believe him to not be an enemy of America which today is half the battle. I disagree with just about everybody on the right about the ongoing BS war. That’s because I don’t believe we have a dog in this fight nor should we. In fact watching all the misinformation and fake propaganda is giving me a new perspective on how easily people are tricked into seeing what they want to see. That’s why every day I click onto The ZMan. I rely on the guys here to add a realistic perspective to the raging bullshit I get from the junta, the media and the TV. Oh, and both the “conservatives” and the radical left which has literally as well as morally consumed the former democrat party in its march through the institutions. When a SC justice can’t define what a woman is even as she is one we are lost.So, good morning and Happy Memorial Day. Today we honor those brave souls who lost their lives fighting in the name of our country. Sadly, the country they died for has undergone a “fundamental change” by leftists and no longer is what it was: a beacon of hope in a world of tyranny, that shining city on a hill and the land of the free and home of the brave. We have democrats, leftists and all those who are motivated only by hate for the white man, the Christian and those who follow the science and recognize there are two sexes, not 57 to thank for that. Before they design to separate us from our firearms are we going to fight back or are we going to join that historic line and march into the train cars, the camps and the ovens?That’s the only real question remaining about the survival of our country.
Carl B. #305530 May 30, 2022 10:53 am 0
“Get on the bus, citizen. There’s plenty of food and a warm place to sleep at your destination.”
Stranger in a Strange Land #305532 May 30, 2022 10:56 am 0
Well stated Hoagie. Could not agree more
JerseyJeffersonian #305565 May 30, 2022 3:27 pm 0
As a poster here put the contemporary situation, “Sociallydistance, take the Jab, get in the boxcar”. As a real patriot once said, “I know not what others may choose, but give me Liberty or give me death!”
Dennis Roe #305581 May 30, 2022 6:55 pm 0
Amen to that When I think of the men who put lives on the line, sacrificing some or all ….for it to come to this, a hebrew prison plantation, I feel sick, physically ill. So many good people…gone, for what?
DLS #305535 May 30, 2022 11:15 am 0
VDH has become an intellectual Hannity, albeit with less grifting. They both repeat themselves to the point that you know exactly what they are going to say before they start. Unlike Hannity, VDH occasionally peers out past the liberal plantation, but is too cowardly to actually walk off. He has too much to lose at Stanford and elsewhere. With that said, I was still surprised at how bad his Ukraine take is.
btp #305542 May 30, 2022 11:52 am 0
He could have hedged a bit, right? Instead, Putin’s looking to re-create the Soviet Empire, see? His goals can’t be the reasonable ones he outlined, because everyone knows that can’t be right. Quite tiresome, really.
LineInTheSand #305549 May 30, 2022 12:23 pm 0
Although I have affection for VDH, Charles Murray, and Steve Sailer, they are ultimately terrified of being cancelled. However, I hope that they function as ferryman to our side of the great divide, but must eventually be left behind in the journey for truth.
Mayne #305593 May 31, 2022 5:50 am 0
How can a voyeur understand sex? It can’t. Neither can a drooling wannabe politician understand modern warfare. Or just about anything else. The men that understand fighting are those that can do the fighting. Not the gelded satraps of Conservative Inc
karl von hungus #305517 May 30, 2022 9:33 am 0
you have to wonder if his scholastic views are any more worthy of serious consideration. i never read the guy anymore and haven’t for years. he is a used up old crank at this point…
Majorian #305538 May 30, 2022 11:34 am 0
I’m of the opinion that it is the dolichocephalic, quasi-equine shape of his skull that gives Hanson his commanding aura of thoughtful authoritativeness. He manages to keep fit as well and that contributes also.I have come to observe that many of his human type are in high status positions. Their personal, psychological make-up is also very similar. Very calm, take-their-time, usually good at sports, generally well-liked, sought-for company, intelligent and capable, yes, but deep down quite vane and shallow. Also assiduous collectors of honours and trinkets.
Jack Dobson #305550 May 30, 2022 12:34 pm 0
I call that look “porpoise head.”


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