The Dorner Manifesto
Victor Davis Hanson’s essay, The New Age of Falsity, vividly describes the new requirement of the modern age. It is the requirement to lie.
The requirement is imposed by the circumstance that many institutions are already built on falsehoods. In order to keep things ticking even honest newcomers must resort to the “maintenance lie” which can be defined as the affirmation of legacy falsehoods to prevent an institutional meltdown. This is without taking into account what can be called the “capital investment lies”, which are entirely new fibs uttered for the purpose of usurping new powers.
Hanson convincingly argues that meanings in public discourse are now routinely reversed in the Orwellian sense simply to keep it self consistent. For either the lie must be contradicted by the truth or all the truths must be perverted to match.
We live in an age of falsity, in which words have lost their meanings and concepts are reinvented as the situation demands. The United States is in a jobless recovery — even if that phrase largely disappeared from the American lexicon about 2004. Good news somehow must follow from a rising unemployment rate, which itself underrepresents the actual percentage of Americans long out of work.
At the same time, we are supposed to be relieved that we are in a contracting expansion, where fewer goods and services are proof of a resilient economy. In our debt-ridden revival, borrowing $1 trillion each year is evidence that we don’t have a spending problem.
“Minitrue, Minipax, Miniplenty, and Miniluv (Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Peace, Ministry of Plenty, and Ministry of Love, respectively – all ministries of the active government in Nineteen Eighty-Four” — are upon us. The system can no longer survive without a systematic inversion of the truth. To his credit, defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel is holding back from making the “capital investment lie” by “refusing to detail foreign funders and disclose other necessary financial information to the Senate Armed Services Committee.” He was asked to provide it. He refused.
Hagel maintains that he has a “fiduciary duty” to keep “confidentiality” of his and his organization’s donors … The aide details, “Committee members have specific concerns with regard to foreign contributions to the Atlantic Council by Saad Hariri (or the Hariri family), Dinu Patriciu, Kazakhstan, Bidzina Ivanishvili (his supporters/network) – and the nexus between Chevron’s investments in Kazakhstan and their involvement with Hagel at the Atlantic Council.”
There’s a kind of old school but dark nobility about that. “Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies.” Perhaps that is all we have left; what passes for integrity these days of the facile lie is where only the most honest pirate ships sail under their own flags.
But lying, however expedient, has its own unavoidable costs. It undermines the most important asset of governance: trust. Fewer and fewer believe. The number who buy its bluffs dwindles steadily. Finally lies reduce confidence in the currency, in the fairness of the administration justice and even the faith in the loyalty of its leaders. Eventually lying corrodes trust to the point where the system doesn’t work any more and then the consequences are incalculable.
Judge Andrew Napolitano observed the key problem with giving President Obama, or any of his designated representative the power to accuse, judge and kill an American by drone is this: “The core of the argument is ‘trust us.’ That’s an argument that the Supreme Court rejected because it doesn’t trust a single individual to kill”.
Trust us. But what happens to government when trust evaporates? When lies drain out the last reserves of faith?
One small example of what happens when trust is gone is represented by the murderous rampage of former LAPD cop Chris Dorner, now hunted throughout Southern California. Dorner’s online manifesto may by now have been read by millions. It has been described by the media as “rambling” yet though it may be the work of a deranged mind, it is clearly the product of an intelligent one. There is a method to his madness and he is probably using the manifesto itself to misdirect his hunters and to throw a smokescreen on his real plans.
Our interest in the manifesto is in how it uses falsehood to advance Dorner’s program.
Dorner knows where the weak points of the system are. The mistrust of the police, especially the LAPD is his starting point. He utilizes what hides beneath the veneer of political correctness and plays every race card he can think of. Black vs white vs brown vs yellow vs … did I miss anything?
He knows that every bureaucracy will reflexively protect itself. And therefore he salts his manifesto with references to going after the police hierarchy. And he gets the predictable results. Law enforcement is fully mobilized protecting itself and probably a hundred other celebrities in the vast state. It is paranoid too. Recently two innocent civilians were shot by cops who probably feared for their own lives.
He knows about the region’s obsession with celebrity and fame and mentions dozens of personalities in his manifesto. Anderson Cooper has announced he’s received a bullet riddled coin from Dorner, something the ex-cop devoted time to sending. Why did he do it? Because the LAPD dare not protect celebrities. Dorner understands the way the liability system works. There will be hell to pay and someone’s job will be lost if any of the myriad celebrities he has mentioned in his screed sees hide or hair of him.
Together these are tying down thousands of cops.
Worse, he is employing the exaggerations of the system against itself. Dorner announced in his manifesto that he has the ‘high powered magazines’ and ‘assault rifles’ which the public has been scared into regarding as the next plague on earth. Jesse Jackson recently described these as able to “blow up railroads” and shoot down airplanes. He said “semi-automatic weapons are not just about gun control, they’re about national security,”while appearing on Fox News. A Notice to Airmen has been issued for the area around Bear Lake, where Dorner was last spotted, and the whole resort town is in lockdown, what with a man on the loose armed with what Piers Morgan described as “incredibly powerful” weapons.
They are now hoist on their own hyperbole.
Although Dorner will probably fall in the end he is demonstrating how easy it is to exploit the mistrust and paranoia of the system. He is beating the system over the head with its own falsehoods. Many people are willing to believe the worst about the LAPD or eager to embrace the most vile possible construction on events, not because they are necessarily true, but because the system is no longer quite so trusted. And even when Dorner is finally cornered he will go down in certain circles as some kind of rebel, instead of as a kook.
Hanson hit the problem squarely on the head. His piece on falsity, written before the Dorner manhunt, anticipates many of its weak points admirably.
Our elites in academia and the media have some culpability. Thirty years of nihilist postmodern relativism — no absolute truth, just constructs based on race, class, and gender privilege — have finally filtered down to the popular culture. An obsession with celebrity also has meant that we increasingly worship the antics of the wealthy and famous and decreasingly worry what they had to do to obtain or maintain both.
In the new progressive age, the exalted ends of equality sometimes require that the means of achieving a place on the public stage should remained largely unexamined. If there is no consistency, no transparency, no absolute standard, then it is because the task of fairness is hard and occasionally requires extraordinary sacrifices for the greater good. And to the degree that someone is deemed cool, then cool trumps most everything else: Google executives don’t outsource. Rappers are not misogynists. Green apostles don’t have conflicts of interest. And men in camouflage with assault weapons don’t just kill less than 1 percent of those Americans lost each year to gun violence, but account for all sorts of vastly more evil things that we cannot even begin to describe.
This is not the world as it is. It is the world as the media pretends that it is. And we are dying inside that world. It is founded on maintenance lies. It is extended by capital investment ones, as in “never let a crisis go to waste”. Now we and the public enemies exist in that corrosive context. The elite has poisoned the chalice. And now it is drinking from the poisoned cup itself.
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What I want to know about is the blue pickup truck of the two newspaper delivery women that got shot full of bullet holes. Apparently from behind. By the LAPD according to the LA Times.
Both women were wounded — are they OK?
Also what was the original reason that the LAPD fired Dorner?
I am listening to the first of the audio books, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Very unsettling stuff. Not as many parallels as my Mother had led me to believe. She used to talk about our society falling to pieces as in the decline of the Roman Empire back when I was small so the late 50′s onward. The structural and moral decadence,however, do have a lot in common with our current governing body as exemplified by the so-easy lies.
If we can’t believe those in government and academia – then how do we proceed?
And have conservatives uniformly come to the understanding that both political parties are the problem? That the Republican Party holds no answers for what ails the US?
What now, I wonder?
You’ve hit upon the lynchpin of our society. The true “reserve currency” of the US is trust in our system. We can survive global wars, depression, mass terror attacks, and the occasional government scandal when we have it, but once the People withdraw their consent, all bets are off, no matter how much money Uncle Sugar tosses out in bribes.
That’s the real shame of this whole age. Because you can regain lost treasure and power, but once trust is revoked, it ain’t comin’ back. The old order is doomed for sure. The only thing keeping it spun up for now is the huge amount of inertia in the motor.
On a side note related to your last quote from VDH, Dorner’s manifesto also seems oddly obsessed with TV celebrities, for a man of his age. I wonder if that’s real (probably given the detail he uses) or part of a smokescreen.
“The question is”,said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things”.
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master-that is all.”
From: Through the Looking class, by Lewis Carroll.
Dworkin at #3 is perceptive – about the trust between citizens, and the trust in our establishment which has been frittered away, willfully in service to progressive aims. Once that has been totally destroyed – what next?
“Distrust has gone mainstream in a big way. After the Supreme Court ruled on Kelo, who still feels secure in their ownership of property, given the circumstance that it might be a nice bit of property and potentially more valuable in the hands of a corporate owner, aided by a cash-hungry municipal authority? Who, reading about the confiscation of large sums of cash and property from travelers on the bare suspicion of criminal involvement – and knowing that the income from such confiscations becomes part of the law enforcement body’s budget – cannot put aside the suspicion that such seizures are only a pretext to loot the citizenry? … And older citizens and those with chronic health complaints might have good reason – pace the example set by the so-called Liverpool Care Pathway – to suspect that under universal public healthcare, the cost of treatment might be more of a concern to the healthcare provider than the care of the individual patient? Knowing of the infamous ‘JournoList’ … one also has reason to suspect the worst of journalists as well.” http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/34597.html
Once trust in institutions and fellow citizens is destroyed … what then, oh wolves?
Blue is red and red is blue
True is false and false is true
Wise is stupid, stupid’s wise
Lies are truths and truths are lies
White is black and black is white
Night is day and day is night
We cannot speak, or have our say
There’s nothing real, it’s all for play
Do as you’re told, we know what’s best
And now we lay you down to rest
I blame technology, without which everyone would be honest. Apple knowledge has lead to where things now stand: two minutes from nuclear midnight like was warned about in Genesis and in movies. Also produced fake resumes and serious document problems (burocracy).
One small example of what happens when trust is gone is represented by the murderous rampage of former LAPD cop Chris Dorner, now hunted throughout Southern California.
I think they are merely trying to balance the frame-ups against private citizens. There’s always a chance he’s a real crazy cop on the run, but they aren’t going to tell us if he isn’t.
Jessuh Jakssun thinks that “assault weapons” can bring down airplanes? I knew the man was a stupid git, but that’s priceless. I’ve seen the cheap action movies where a guy can blow up a whole street full of parked cars, one at a time, by shooting at them randomly with a shotgun — one-handed no less. “Cheap Action Movie” is the world our lefty elites live in as far as their understanding of the violent side of the world.
The other aspect of the Dorner case is that the media refuses to play up the ideological nature of said screed. In a sane world that would be the sane thing to do. Just because his “manifesto” is preponderantly left-wing doesn’t make him an ideologue; he is a deranged lunatic, period. But we all know how such a manifesto would be treated if it leaned even the slightest bit “to the right.”
5. Sgt. Mom
And older citizens and those with chronic health complaints might have good reason – pace the example set by the so-called Liverpool Care Pathway – to suspect that under universal public healthcare, the cost of treatment might be more of a concern to the healthcare provider than the care of the individual patient?
In the concentration camps, when you appeared to weaken, it was as good as a death sentence. Modern America is not Bergen-Belsen by a long shot, so that’s not the analogy I’m making, but why should a modern, civilized and technologically advanced society want to impose a “Bergen-Belsen” regimen on our elderly? We aren’t there yet, but seem headed that way. I go out of my way to stay mobile and strong at my advancing age because I want to. But now there is an element of urgency to my desire to stay physically robust for as long as possible: I want to be well back in the line when the Lords of Health start triaging us old codgers. I want to confound them as they shake their heads in bafflement, laugh, and send me home to live a while longer.
The tinder is dry and the sparks are more frequent, give it another 9 months to 18 and there will be a spark hot enough. I don’t think we’re going to make it to the 2014 elections in one piece! If we do get that far so what (What does it matter any more)! As the cases of voter fraud/vote harvesting means the next Ronald Regan or Abe Lincoln hasn’t got a chance! 0bama proved the National system is not just crooked, it’s now broke Chicago style!
5 @Sgt. Mom
Knowing of the infamous ‘JournoList’ … one also has reason to suspect the worst of journalists as well.
Ace has an very good piece up today about the Government-Infotainment Complex using cutouts to manufacture “consensus”. This is one area of corruption that the vast majority of people never even get a whiff of, because the frauds are also the same gatekeepers who feed them their “news”.
And now we get this:
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/02/08/pro-taliban-terrorist-tries-to-blow-up-oakland-bank-and-blame-it-on-the-right-to-start-civil-war/
“Now it is drinking from the poisoned cup itself.”
Too bad this is only a metaphor. If only our elite would drink from poison cups, we would all be spared much suffering and hilarity.
pm @ 1: Both women were wounded — are they OK?
No.
As to the lying, of course there is nothing new about it, what is new is that the MSM doesn’t give a rat’s ass about it, and either therefore or independently, neither do most citizens. This seems a rather huge difference in the popular culture from even (!) thirty years ago. Of course twenty (!!) years ago the American public was introduced to The Clintons, sociopathic liars the both of them. Since then everybody has gotten into the act.
Now we have Obambus, upon whom no mere citizen nor reporter can look directly at, without being turned to stone. There is no way to tell if he is lying for his words may not be analyzed, only swallowed whole. And (somehow I know anyway, “trust me”) he does lie, in ways and to degrees that the Clintons never attempted, it is the hallmark of his regime that all public statements are absurd and entirely unhinged from any facts.
And then there’s the MSM, especially the fruitbats at MSNBC. There were NO respectable forums of such constantly hydrophobic insanity like this, even ten years ago, not even MSNBC itself. It has degenerated at an incredible rate, whether leading or following the Obamanation, you be the judge.
The lying is not new, but the acceptance of it, and the popularity of it, is.
Super Bowl Blackout Update http://tinyurl.com/ajln64o
http://www.sandc.com/edocs_pdfs/edoc_001418.pdf
Back in the day, the “network protector” was operated by a “relay” that sensed current flow. The original design, in place during both big blackouts in NYC, was built to a design by George Westinghouse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Westinghouse
So it seems the “relay” tripped the “network protector” in the “vault” disconnecting the lights from the grid.
Why? That argument and the fingerpointing continue.
So far no one is mentioning Beyonce’s generator!
http://tinyurl.com/ad5pvpu
So the question as to whether her generator fooled the “relay” into thinking there was a short to ground and that it should trip the network protector remains unanswered.
“Time to put our trust in God and the Mauser.”
Ben Viljoen
Addressing the
Transvaal Volksrad 1896
Good advice then. Good advice now.
“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times…”
Nothing has changed. We discover the thicket of lies and react like an adolescent who discovers sex, and thinks that the world needs to know. The world knows. We just need to get up everyday and cut back some of the thicket.
Historically, this kind of situation has resulted in ‘we the people’ gratefully accepting a Cromwell or a Napoleon to sweep away the detritus of a failed Political Clique. Unfortunately, after Cromwell had dealt with England’s problems, he then made war on Ireland, Scotland, and France. Napoleon’s similar devastation outside France needs no commentary. Yet our true-Red Marxist/Leninist progressive liberals have now brought the world to the situation where something like that is the most likely scenario!
But it will be worse this time around. At least in the days of Cromwell & Napoleon, most people knew how to feed themselves. Today, even the tiny percentage of human beings in the Western world who work on the land depend on a supply chain that traces around the globe. Chaos will quickly lead to starvation on a scale that would have made Stalin jealous.
Now that the collapse of our unsustainable international Political Cliques is inevitable, the big issue is the timing. Before the human race turns the page on them, will we at least get a chance to see an aged Hillary! brought down by Kim Kardashian in the next Democrat primaries? Please!
Blast @ 17 – We just need to get up everyday and cut back some of the thicket.
Reporting for duty, SIR!
CHU LIED, DOLPHINS DIED UPDATE
http://tinyurl.com/b4jwhg8
FREE KURT MIX!
P.S. Wait until they drag HALLIBURTON into this dogfight!
BP and Transocean have reached criminal plea agreements with the Feds. Halliburton has not.
BUT
Halliburton has a reputation for throwing around prolific (Texas sized?) amounts of lobbying cash for dumbass politicians (Ed Markey that means YOU). As part of the settlement of Phase One of the trial, BP hypothecated its interest in suits against Halliburton to the trial lawyers of the Plaintiffs Steering Committee!!!
Who needs British mysteries on PBS when you can have Real World British Petroleum (sic) attacks on the competence and credibility of the Obama Administration??
The early line is BP by a walkover.
Obama won. What difference,at this point, does it make?
“It undermines the most important asset of governance: trust.”
I have often wondered if stupid laws produce more lawbreaking in a general way.
I suspect so.
Military organizations have someting called espirt de corps, the way the members view their relationship wuith each other. And they also have something called morale, which is the way they view the organization. But they may even have great esprit de corps and terrible morale, because they have a very negative view of the organization and all agree strongly on that fact, as in “It’s us against our leadership.”
I think that anything that decreases a person’s respect for the government affects more than just that particular subject. So imposition of a 55 MPH speed limit may result in more tax evasion. I have spent enough time “watching the sausage being made” in DC that I have concluded that I’ll have to decide on my own what laws and regulations I will obey and to what degree. I think I know just how much thought goes into those laws and regulations and how much consideration was given to the impact on the individual – none at all.
So does this make me a bad citizen? No, I think it makes me a thinking citizen. I am very careful to obey certain laws, because I think they are necessary. I drive no more than 1 mph over the speed limit in my own neighborhood because I don’t want people speeding there. I inspect may airplane each year, and more thoroughly than required as well, not just because the FAA requires it but because it’s my rump that’s suspended in space. Some other laws I effectively ignore. I don’t think we have a choice in that regard, not any more.
Yuri Bezmenov on de-moralization and normalization;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3nXvScRazg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gnpCqsXE8g
Protecting their own!
“Sources said the Los Angeles police detectives involved in the Torrance shooting were on protective detail for a police official named in the suspect’s supposed manifest…”
Here are two articles, with pictures, regarding the Torrance police shooting of the newspaper delivery women. Estimates of 20-30 rounds being fired appear to be way low!
Strory 1
Strory 2
Torrance police also shot at a second vehicle mistakenly thought to be Dorner’s.
Perhaps the guy is just somebody who had been screwed over, felt that his life had been ruined, and decided to get even against those who he felt betrayed him.
There are millions of people out here that feel like they’ve been screwed over.
Falsity example: Today a loaf of good quality bread in local grocery store was $4.99 plus tax. Less than a year ago was about $3.50, two years ago $2.79.
Yes Dorothy, inflation is only 1 to 2 percent.
24: so if by “get even” you mean senselessly slaughter people who had nothing to do with this guy — at all — then yes, i agree. not. my god what an incredible thing to post. the first two murders by dorner occurred just a couple of miles from my home, btw.
regarding wretchard’s theory that dorner is misleading the police, and has some hidden agenda; I wonder if he is going after mayor villarigosa or some other politician.
MP @ 19: “The early line is BP by a walkover.”
This is a tough one to score on political terms. On the one hand, British Petroleum is a national champion company of the Brits, and European govts (unlike the US) look after their national champions. Plus 1 for BP. But … Soetero hates the English (doesn’t matter why); he is likely to want to stick it to the Brits any way he can. Minus 1 for BP.
On the other hand, British Petroleum has been a major proponent of the Global Warming scam — raises the barriers against new competitors, opens up new avenues for (shall we say) mutually beneficial relationships with the Political Clique. But … Barry has no further need for campaign contributions from Warm-mongers and can afford to blow that one off. That one is probably a wash.
To return to our host’s theme, responsiblity for the Macondo blowout is very easy to determine in factual terms. Officers of British Petroleum pressed their employees to contain costs by moving off location quickly, resulting in BP staff ordering that drilling mud be unloaded from the rig before the well was properly secured. Because the mud level in the tank was being drained, the rig staff did not get the normal 1-2 hours visible warning from a rising mud level that something had gone wrong 3 miles below them. The guys on the rig should be fired & blacklisted in the industry for obeying a dumb order; the guys in the head office should be tried on 11 counts of manslaughter.
However, as Wretchard & others have pointed out, facts & reality don’t matter any more.
monkeyfan @ 22 – You mean Russia trafficks in disinformation campaigns?
I’M SHOCKED! http://tinyurl.com/amfxfgt
Doomsday Methane Bubble Rupture?: How the BP Gulf Disaster May Have Triggered a ‘World-Killing’ Event (ed – Note the date! July 15, 2010 the exact day the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico permanently ended)
Pootie-Poo must have been pissed that his disinformation campaign failed to force KURT MIX to weaken and re-open the capping stack on the well. The “rupture disk” ploy failed!
The relief well was not the final solution after all. And Tropical Storm Bonnie came along and ran an agitation cycle on the remaining oil, thereby oxygenating the water to give the aerobic bacteria a new burst of energy to clean the gulf.
The beaches were open for Labor Day!
GOD IS ON OUR SIDE!
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJNqep77vBw&feature=youtu.be&t=1s
Kinuachdrach – You forget that I was the guy who wrote the first publicly available (e.g. “transparent”) “Management of change’ document for the static kill that assassinated the Macondo 252 well.
Read the fine print and you will see that the Transocean toolpusher was talking on the phone to his wife and 2 year old child when he was supposed to be watching his instruments. That’s not BP’s fault.
So, trust is the problem, eh?
Today, my government (California) proposed new, clearly unconstitutional laws that will inevitably pass the Democrat control monolithic government in Sacramento. They essentially put a target on my back, my son’s back, my son-in-law’s, and my neighbor’s. 3 of 4 four of us are US veterans, two with combat experience, together with dozens of years military service, and the fourth is just the typical Navy brat. The legislature has proposed confiscation of either all or part of our property, i.e. our weapons inventory.
What do they expect us to do?
a) Dutifully line up and turn in our weapons, “assault” thingys as they define them, our “hi cap” mags, and such?
b) Bury our reloading equipment due to new restrictions in ammo supplies?
c) Spend our life’s saving on lawyers to fight these laws, that they so easily enact with a stroke of the pen?
d) Become felons in our own state, have our liberty denied, our property confiscated, our own homes violated?
e) Fight to the death (and death it would surely be), as they define and declare us “gun nuts”, “extremists”, and “terrorists”, and send armed enforcers to attack us?
We’re innocently going about our business, raising our families, starting careers (for the younger ones), running businesses, creating jobs, just living our lives, and we’re the kooks? We’re now the outlaws?
No, we won’t give up weapons. No, we won’t hide ourselves or our weapons. We may leave the state. We won’t bankrupt ourselves playing their game. Armed resistance against governmental authority?? Unlikely, because we live our lives to a code that doesn’t include Alinsky’s rules for radicals. At any rate, it would be a defensive action.
Do these idiots understand what they are doing when they in effect define 200,000+ Californians as “enemies of the people”? When they pass their laws, what will they do the first time officers make an arrest and imprison a father, a Boy Scout master, a Little League coach, a business man, a teacher, a clergy man – what will they do and say when citizens end up dead at the hands of the enforcers they send out to confront them, to violate their constitutional rights, to violate their “life, liberty”, and property?
Will they say “good riddens to those bitter clingers, those gun nuts …”.
Oh, how silly of me. I forgot, left wing politicians are NEVER held accountable for anything.
Trust? Trust these leftists? They go out of their way to separate, divide, to persecute, and destroy anyone who doesn’t agree with their world view. They are the totalitarian beasts of the day, and yes, they are here in America.
Yes, I do trust them. I trust them to violate our civil, God given rights, and to use immoral force of law to attack citizens. I trust their determination and consistent foolishness to follow through.
“So you heard that General Mayhem told them he’d be willing to fire on US Citizens?”
“Yeah and I figure that rat bastard will kill those fools first so he can come out a national hero.” “He doesn’t want some SF Spook putting bullet in his ear.”
Richard,
Is this “Something”?
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/bombing-the-syrian-reactor-the-untold-story/
MachiasPrivateer @ 28.
Actually I posted those Bezmenov vids to remind folk -who may have not seen them- of just how successfully the Soviet campaign to subvert and destroy their rivals has been implemented in the US of A…It seems pretty evident that the ‘Scientific’ Socialist hive bug has become self-perpetuating as it eats its cannibal way through nearly every organ of domestic “authority” in our society; even though the USSR was defeated – as much by its own unsustainable instability and evil as by [past] American opposition to same. Now we are well on the way to being fundamentally transformed into…Them.
Their intellectual heirs sit in the highest offices of the land of the free.
They were voted in.
Good story in “The Forbidden Planet”
A race of beings far in advance of humans, creates the ultimate multiplier of the mind; a machine that gives form and substance to the smallest thought.
They power up their ultimate achievement, and overnight they are wiped out, every man, woman and child.
They forgot ‘Monsters from the Id.’
And here we are; the monsters that have plagued man for eons; hunger, disease, ignorance, all but beaten. And we are coming apart at the seams.
A nation whose poorest people are fat, mobile and informed of the latest happenings on the farthest corner of the planet, instantly. The poorest among us can sit down at a public library and at no cost to them, access the sum of human knowledge with the lightest tapping of their fingers. And our young seem to grow more ignorant by the year.
The plot for the movie was borrowed from Shakespeare, ‘The Tempest’
I’ve forgotten how Will ended the story; with a solution to using all that power without being destroyed, or a warning not to try?
29. Old Salt
Amen, brother. I live in NY, and personally don’t own a gun, although I want to. My wife is a bit iffy. I have been working on it, taking her clay shooting at Orvis’ school upstate.
I do agree with everything you say and find it frightening were we as a country are. In Joshuapundit’s blog today he writes about 2 cases of self professed voter fraud. Of course they voted for Obama and Holder is not going to do anything about it.
Personally, I don’t believe the voter fraud this past election is being explored enough. In my opinion, I bet some of the young techie wonks in Obama’s campaign built programs that helped find ‘enough’ votes in the black communities – those with 100 – 120% votes vs. registered voters, to make it look like a horse race, but somehow win in the end.
The smoke screen is these wonks made software that identified untapped ‘get out the vote’ voters. I think this is probably BS. Obama won, and Holder won’t ever investigate.
Whenever I think about this, I still come back to who is pulling the strings? On one hand you have people like James Rickards at Omnis who talk about currency wars (started by Bernake) and the attack that will be coming (China & Russia). I would like to dive deeper into some of his claims to see if he is simply a sensationalist, or if there is truth in what he says. I am not one who gravitates towards conspiracy theories, but in the back of my mind, I can’t help shake off that the biggest currency manipulator of all is of course Soros. Is this SOB behind this, or simply just coincidence.
Dangerous times we live in.
“Jessuh Jakssun thinks that “assault weapons” can bring down airplanes?”
Jessuh Jakssun also thinks that he’s DOL-O-MITE!
and although I’m not wild about another Cromwell or Napoleon, I’m more than ready for another Sulla to show up. Although I suppose no one anymore will have the nerve he had to send so many heads (literally) rolling down the Capitol steps.
I have not yet read Dorner’s Manifesto in detail, but if he is in fact threatening the Nomenklatura [political, police, media, and celebrity]; he has indeed found the Achilles heel of the entire systemic falsehood that our society has become. All of them are used to and dependent upon there being no Consequences for any actions they take. Deserved or not in this particular case; Consequences that cannot be lied away, bought off, or blocked by fellow members of the Nomenklatura means that they are as lost as the citizens who have found out that they have been and are being lied to.
The maintenance of control in a less than free society is absolutely dependent on the active cooperation of those being controlled. In the main, it is because they cannot conceive that the powers-that-be would do something THAT outrageous, so they do what they are told. It is a rehash, but here is what Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote in the first chapter of his history of the Soviet slave labor/death camps, “The GULAG Archepelago”
Once people lose, if not faith and belief in those who would oppress them, then fear of the consequences of resisting -v- the consequences of submission; then there are not enough guards, police, or State Security personnel in the world to protect every member of the Nomenklatura. And they know it, and they will turn on each other seeking either the resources to try to protect themselves or trying to flee. And their “Newspeak” system will crumble before the realization of truth.
Dorner may well be, and almost surely is, as mentally f-ed up as a football bat. But the panic he is sowing is because for a limited set of the Nomenklatura, he is the personified reappearance of “Consequences”. And of a judgment that they fear to face.
Above I repeated a citation of Solzhenitsyn. I will repeat myself again, and mention something I have contended here before.
We did not become a country on July 4, 1776. It was earlier, and the time and place can be pinned down with the uttermost exactitude. The Continental Congress ratified with words, what had been made manifest with deeds.
On April 19, 1775 about 700 British regulars, about half Grenadiers [the elite of line units of the time] and Light Infantry marched to Concord, Massachusetts, by way of Lexington with the goal of seizing the firearms and powder of the militia and arresting the political leaders of the Patriot movement. At Lexington there was an exchange of fire with the local militia under Captain John Parker. The losses were almost all on the militia side, and the British marched on. And no, we were not “Americans” at that point.
Later that day, the British column arrived at the village of Concord, and began to search for the items and persons that they were after. The local militia had withdrawn from the village proper knowing that they could not stand against the British force. In the course of the search, the village meeting house was accidentally set afire, and the militia believed that the British were burning their homes and moved back towards the village. The way was blocked by troops from the British 4th and 10th Regiments of Foot at Old North Bridge. The militia, believing their homes and families were under attack, broke the British position, and began the rout of the British. But no, we were not “Americans” yet.
The British column began its withdrawal to Boston, marching down the road they had advanced up. About a mile from Concord there was a road intersection, and a house known as Meriam House, and the crossroads there was known as Meriam’s Corner.
At that exact point, at that exact time; we changed. We were no longer British subjects. We were a “we”. We were Americans.
For as the column reached the crossroads, from the north the Militia companies of the villages of Reading and Billerica arrived. From the south, the Militia companies of the villages of Framingham and Sudbury arrived. And they engaged the British and bled them all the way back to Charlestown. And they were joined by the Militia companies of Woburn, and Lexington, and Danvers, and Brookline, and Salem and uncounted numbers of free farmers who instinctively knew who “we” were and were willing to defend us all.
The actions at Concord and Lexington themselves, while historic and praiseworthy, were actions of self-defense. They were directly attacked and they fought back. Just as you defend your homes, wives, and children from armed intruders in the night; they protected their own.
But at Meriam’s Corner …. The villages who sent their Militia companies were not attacked or threatened. They would have lost nothing if they would have stayed home. But they came. And they fought. They killed and they died. Because those troops were not “their” troops anymore and they were attacking “their” people. The government and King which had sent those troops was no longer “their” government and King, but was an enemy come to attack their homes, wives, and families. WE were Americans. THEY were British. And THEY no longer had any legitimate right to rule or to threaten US.
Will we go quietly in submission to orders, in service of statements we know to be lies? Will we “burn later” regretting our submission? Will we prove to be Americans or will we cower, listening for the footsteps of the coercive organs of the State?
It is a decision only we can make, and only at the time and place it presents itself to us. Are the consequences of resistance worse than the consequences of submission? What will we do, not when they come for us; but when they come for our neighbor, for the guy a dozen blocks over, for the guy across town?
On who will the consequences fall?
Subotai Bahadur
I’m reminded of Hillary Clinton’s table pounding frustration at being questioned about Benghazi: “What difference does it make now?”. Indeed. The Official Story is out, the victims are dead and buried, we won, move on.
I always felt that, in “1984,” Orwell wasn’t warning of the dangers of a totalitarian society, because they were obvious. What he was warning about was perception, perceptual traps, and how culture, informally, or gov’t and institutions, more specifically, used semantics as a form of evasion, lying.
Controlling information isn’t always possible, but indoctrinating a population so that they themselves become participants in putting a spin on that information, is. For those who don’t participate, you chip away at them with unfounded accusations of profiling and racism and not caring about the poor. Gun violence becomes, not the depraved sociopathy of youth culture but, as anti-white racial propagandist (social justice advocate) Ta Nehesi-Coates put it today at the New York Times, “public policy.” In Coates world “public policy” means only one thing: white people.” Thus the Left rails against racism even while they embrace it institutionally, and “drift” into Orwellian madness.
Orwell saw this perception being molded by the “apologists for totalitarianism,” as well as “monopoly and bureaucracy.” Those apologists were men like Ilya Ehrenburg, a man Orwell was well aware of since both were involved in the Spanish Civil War, a thing close to Orwell’s experience and heart, and since he also referred to him as a “literary prostitute(s).”
This is the brutal essence of political correctness, what Orwell may have generally tried to foretell, which I just called informal culture, and Orwell may have meant by “the general drift of society rather than by active persecution.” Political correctness is just that: a “drift,” an accidental coalescence from tropes of the ’60s into a de facto ideology. It is no coincidence that America’s version of the Soviet-era Pravda, the Huffington Post, has a headline inviting you to read Dorner’s manifesto and then politically censors it. It is no coincidence that comments below that manifesto are sympathetic to Dorner to the tune of 10 to 1; Dorner is already being looked at as a rebel rather than a “kook.”
This is an analogue to Orwell’s complaint of a “continuous war atmosphere of the past ten years,” because we are basically characterizing Dorner’s “manifesto” as a thing that sums up the Left’s phony war against white conformism, privilege and racism that stretches back to the Mayflower.
Orwell writes, “Everything in our age conspires to turn the writer, and every other kind of artist as well, into a minor official.” Today this is certainly true of the non-stop propaganda of blame and excuses against the “system” from venues as varied as fine artists, Hollywood film and celebrities, rap music and politically correct science-fiction authors who’ve entirely fallen down on their job to ferret out perceptual traps. They one and all gripe about “social justice” until the phrase has all the tin quality of “comrade.” In place of “comrade” they use buzzwords like LGBT, Rodney King, women’s rights, etc. Orwell is right that to stand alone is “ideologically criminal as well as practically dangerous.”
Thus you have a stereotype factory on the Left as regards pop culture because it is career suicide to generally do otherwise, and profitable for bands like Rage Against the Machine and Arcade Fire and a whole host of pop cultural entities, today’s version of writers of Pravda. One would think Eva Longoria is an agent of Pravda rather than an actress. For those of you who doubt her race-based political correctness, typical in Hollywood, watch her face fall in the depraved PBS segment in Finding Your Roots where she learns through DNA testing she’s not as “Indian” as she thought. “No soy Azteca. Wahhhhhhhh!” Sadly, being more rather than less white thrusts her outside her own circle of madness. If I did that in reverse I’d be tarred and feathered as a racist. “Whew, I’m not black. What a relief.” Virtually everyone in these segments tested were happy in exacting proportion to how not-white they were. Michelle Rodriguez, learning she’s 73% European, says, (albeit laughing) “I’m apalled. I wanted to be native-American.” By an amazing coincidence, this PBS show was created by the editor of Stormfront-lite, The Root, Henry Gates, Jr., of Beergate fame.
Everyone on the show elbows to the front to show how their family were second class citizens. Of, course, if everyone was, no one was. The first class citizens are there, but in contemporary terms, nameless and faceless, a monstrous shadow that nevertheless exists and taints America.
When Orwell mentions people “who finds excuses for persecution and the falsification of reality,” he could be describing the entirety of the political Left in America in 2013. With it’s endless invocations of slavery, Jim Crow, suffrage and genocide brought right into the 21st century, the Left certainly sees itself as merry men and everyone not on board as King John.
If anyone can tell me why the political Left in America in 2013 are not the true children of Minitrue, I’d like to hear why not.
Relevant quotes are from Orwell’s, The Prevention of Literature.
I have not yet read Dorner’s Manifesto in detail, but if he is in fact threatening the Nomenklatura [political, police, media, and celebrity]; he has indeed found the Achilles heel of the entire systemic falsehood that our society has become.
That is blindingly obvious. The threat that something like Dorner represents multiplied even several-fold would be very expensive to counter. There is really no defense against a hostile population that has had enough, short of imposing a police state, complete with curfews, checkpoints, and lots and lots of jails. It would simply be too expensive to implement. And at any rate it would crash the economy.
Even then suppression might not work. How has it worked for Assad who has absolutely no limits on the brutality he can apply? It’s not working too well.
The lesson to learn from this is that the greatest threat — most destabilizing thing a country can have — isn’t “assault rifles” or “high powered magazines”. It’s corruption. It’s the loss of legitimacy. It is the withdrawal of what the Chinese called the Mandate of Heaven. Lies are more destabilizing than guns, because it takes only a relatively few determined armed people to effectively threaten the nomenklatura and there has never been a realistic prospect of disarming people to absolute zero.
And even if you could disarm the civilians down to zero, Dorner proved the threat can come from the rogue person. From the inside guy. The ex-cop. The Obama admirer. This frootloop is now after them. Well I’ll be darned. And what now? Because once a state loses legitimacy and trust, then guess what, even the right wing conservative guys, some of them at least, begin rooting for a person like Dorner, in spite of themselves, even if they shouldn’t.
If you have legitimacy the entire country can be armed to the teeth and there won’t be the slightest bit of instability. If it has no legitimacy, then God help it even if the populace has nothing but machetes. Hence the single the greatest thing to fear is corruption and lies.
The establishment can beat the Republican party any day, but arithmetic is invincible. It may even beat conservativism but it will have a heck of a time holding back entropy. The republicans are no threat. It’s incompetence and stupidity and greed and lies that they have to worry about.
Now every government is corrupt and greedy to some extent. But like one Philadelphia land developer put it, “I will hire the unions but the numbers have to work”. That’s it right there. The numbers don’t work any more. The system has to realize that legitimacy means limits or they’ve manufactured their own threat. The numbers, like the man said, have to work.
wws(35),
Sulla? The way our luck has been running, we’d get Boulanger instead.
The Federal Reserve last year bought, and continues to buy, more US Government debt than the Treasury issued. The Fed already owns 80% of all outstanding Treasury debt with maturities between 10 and 30 years. At its current pace of purchases of mortgaged backed securities, the Fed will own the whole market in nine years. What does this mean?
We are right on the edge of a monetary revolution. It was discovered long ago that voters can be bribed with payments from the treasury. The politicians have now discovered that the treasury can issue endless amounts of cash for those bribes without consequence. The guys running the monetary system now are not seriously looking for debt to be paid from tax revenues. Half the adult population is not subject to direct taxation. It will not be possible to raise sufficient dollars from taxation to repay debt in a timely manner without devaluation through inflation. Revision of the tax code to allow everyone to avoid income taxes would acknowledge what the administration believes: Value is created by the treasury issuing money and not by people creating goods and services.
The current leadership believes that money is value and not simply representative of value. The unequal distribution of this “value” is immoral and criminal. The difference between rich and poor is an evil plot easily cured by issuing new money in direct deposits to service vendors like health service providers and EBT cards; budgets and debt limits are foolish gimmicks to freeze out the poor and protect the rich.
The monetary revolution will occur when the world accepts the new definition of printable “value.” The world will accept the new definition and the proliferating Dollars, and our Dear Leader may succeed, if the Dollar continues to be backed by the chimera of America as the source of stability and the ideal that the world aspires to even if they hate it. The destruction of America as an ideal and reliable superpower will result in the destructive debasing of the currency. The irony of that fact is immense and utterly lost on Dear Leader, whose goal of diminishing America assures his own domestic monetary failure. Is it falsity, or is it self-delusion?
The Dorner screed and back round:
http://www.crimefilenews.com/2013/02/fired-lapd-officer-obama-lover-and.html
Dorner attacked the children of the man who defended his position vis a vis the LAPD.
Recruiting a public defender may prove daunting, as a result.
Philadelphia…
You’re v e r y late to the game in these parts.
BTW, the Fed hasn’t reached the 80% threshold, yet. That’s still a work in progress.
Rather than Fisk your entire screed, I say that:
In a fiat money regime…
Government Spending = Taxation — at all times.
In such times, the government does not borrow money, it prints currency or debt.
Such action constituted hyper-inflation of the money supply. It’s a different mechanism of currency debasement than plain old inflation.
Conventional inflation depends entirely upon private money creation. Either a fantastic gold or silver strike — or — in the present era — the animal spirits of capitalism.
The vast, vast, bulk of money creation in the modern era is entirely due to real estate lending. These loans stay outstanding for the longest period of time — and they are ‘in size.’ All other loans are paid down much more rapidly — the effect of which is to destroy debt-backed money — which is what we use.
Government created money and debt-notes functions as a financial narcotic to the polity. For that reason, it is permitted to carry on to the ultimate extremes. It is the hyperbolic collapse in the utility of the currency at the end of the process that caused it to be termed hyper-inflation.
It is critical to bear in mind that from the beginning to the end, the source of the diluting currency (and sovereign debt) never changed. The price movements are entirely due to the sovereign’s counter-parties (the rest of the financial universe) only step-wise getting ‘hip’ to this mechanism of Wealth Taxation.
The consequent currency rejection starts off shore — among the sophisticates — other central bankers, et. al. The currency rejection builds apace. Only at the end, does the domestic public get wise. By that time, the currency is reduced to fire-starter status. There is a wheelbarrow crisis — as purses prove too confining.
The Wan is gutting the nation — indeed, the World — to stuff stash into the hands of his crews.
That is 0bombanomics in a nutshell.
This topic has been beaten to a pulp already at the BC. Click through the history.
Glad to be of help.
In today’s political environment, in the battle of ideas between the truthful and the liars, the low information voter demands legal proof to the criminal standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt”, not the civil standard of “the preponderance of the evidence”.
That is why it was essential for us to agree to let Thad Allen and his government team complete the relief well during the operations to contain the BP oil spill. Yes, we had already stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf on July 15, 2010, and then during the static kill in early April, we had dropped the pressure at the wellhead down to that of the sea outside the BOP, held it while the well was cemented, and then released the pressure inside without consequence. We even were able to remove the blowout peventer from the wellhead and bring it to the surface and take it ashore without any flow of oil. We were RIGHT! Still, that was not enough. We had demonstrated our case, but not falsified theirs.
We still had to let the goverment pursue its beliefs right to the bitter end with the completion of the relief well, where they found zero flow up the well annulus. We proved Steven Chu et al WRONG!
Isn’t that what will have to be proven at trial, that Steven Chu was wrong BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT? Yet, isn’t that what we have already proven in THE REAL WORLD?
Now all we have to do is repeat the demonstration in court, with the WHOLE WORLD WATCHING IN REAL TIME!
KARMA!
CHU LIED! DOLPHINS DIED!
That is why the government has never held a press conference to discuss the Chief Counsel’s Report http://www.oilspillcommission.gov/chief-counsels-report of the President’s own Oil Spill Commission. It proves the government was WRONG!
CORRECTION –
the line above @ 44 – “then during the static kill in early April” should read “then during the static kill in early August”. I regret the error.
Working 16 hours days, without pay for the public service part, is exhausting and brutal on one’s health. but is must be done. If not me, then who else?
Another gem in the The New Age of Falsity -
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/florida-judge-approves-birth-certificate-listing-three-parents-233555185.html
DNA not withstanding, we now over turn science to force the system to fit the political correctness of the day. Just as the ancients couldn’t image the universe without the earth being the center of it all, we’re erecting elaborate constructs of social epicycles around ourselves to comfort our own ego based communities [largely urban in manifestation].
KINDLE PROBLEM
For those of y’all who installed Kindle for PC just so you could access Wretchard’s favorite author, Richard Fernandez, be aware that Something has gone wrong with Kindle for PC. No one seems to know if it was that Amazon or MicroScrew effed up, but many people are reporting it no longer runs on their PC.
After several hours or research and work, I can report that the problem, while still unidentified as to nature or cause, can be corrected by:
1. Deinstalling Kindle for PC on your machine.
2 Deregistering Kindle for PC at the Amazon Kindle store.
3 Downloading the Kindle for PC application from Amazon
4. Installing Kindle for PC once again.
5. Registering the new installation at Amazon.
Some people report they can only get an older version of Kindle for PC to run, but that was not the case for my computer, running Windows XP.
We now return you to our regularly scheduled program of dance music.
W: “Victor Davis Hanson’s essay, The New Age of Falsity, vividly describes the new requirement of the modern age. It is the requirement to lie… Hanson convincingly argues that meanings in public discourse are now routinely reversed in the Orwellian sense…”
“Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously [the lie and the truth], and accepting both of them [Insanity]… with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth… Those who have the best knowledge of what is happening are also those who are furthest from seeing the world as it is; in general the greater the understanding the greater the delusion; the more intelligent the less sane… If one is to rule, and to continue ruling, one must be able to dislocate the sense of reality… If human equality is to be forever averted; if the “high,” as we have called them, are to keep their places permanently; then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity…” George Orwell – 1984
“Even the names of the four ministries by which we are governed exhibits a sort of impudence in their deliberate reversal of the facts; the ministry of peace concerns its self with war; the ministry of truth with lies; the ministry of love with torture: and the ministry of plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy; they are deliberate exercises in doublethink; for it is only by reconciling contradictions that power can be retained indefinitely.” George Orwell – 1984
George Orwell understood that, in order to control millions of people, totalitarian government had to somehow make them accept lies. Intelligent people will naturally see the truth and comprehend when government lies to them – and so that’s the rub – how does totalitarian government deal with intelligent people when they must be lied to? Orwell provides the answer – intelligent people must be conditioned to reject the sanity of common sense – reject self-evident truth – accept the lie and the truth in their minds simultaneously with the lie “always one leap ahead of the truth.” Orwell’s 1984 character, Julia; an enemy of Big Brother’s Totalitarian government, “did not feel the abyss opening beneath her feet at the thought of lies becoming truth;” where “the heresy of heresies was common sense.”
Common sense means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously (the truth and the lie), and accepting only the truth, with the truth always one leap ahead of the lie.
That Dorner dude thinks he’s the Punisher.
MP @ 28: “… the Transocean toolpusher was talking on the phone to his wife and 2 year old child when he was supposed to be watching his instruments. That’s not BP’s fault.”
This might be worth discussing, because it ties back to the Age of Falsity. If we do not honestly identify the true Inital Cause of any event, how can we know what needs to be fixed to ensure future stability? Correct diagnosis is the essential first step to an effective cure, whether it is for a sick body or for a sick political system.
A key safety factor in rotary drilling is the fortunate fact that liquids are almost incompressible. When gas or oil enter the bottom of a well being drilled (a “kick”), drilling mud is forced out of the top of the well — almost instantaneously. This is a well-known “Uh! Oh!” moment that occurs regularly in drilling exploration wells. Because it can take several hours for the ascending oil & gas to bubble up to the top of the well, the rig crew have lots of time to react & control the situation, using conventional tried & true mechanisms.
British Petroleum executives made a decision on the Macondo well to disconnect that traditional, very effective alarm mechanism. They ordered that mud be pumped off the rig before the well was secure, making it very difficult for the rig crew to recognize the increase in apparent mud volume when the “kick” occurred. Very difficult, but not impossible.
Do we blame the guy on the front line who could perhaps have compensated for his superiors’ stupidity through extraordinary vigilance? Or do we blame his BP superiors who in effect disconnected the alarm system?
Of course, once BP’s executives had started the disaster ball rolling, Murphy’s Second Law came into effect. (“That which has gone wrong will get worse”). There were other later poor decisions, in the various companies and in the Soetero Administration. Doesn’t change the fact that the prime mover was a stupid initial decision by executives of British Petroleum — identifiable individuals who bear personal responsibility.
Kinu #50:
“If we do not honestly identify the true Initial Cause of any event, how can we know what needs to be fixed to ensure future stability?”
I study failures, and will admit that I have seen fixes to design problems that have been implemented without anyone admitting that they screwed up. I recall in particular one case with an F-111 problem in which a discussion between our shop and the engine guys over a problem devolved into an intense discussion on screw thread design. The engine guys did not want to admit that the TF-30 design was at fault – yet again, and they were feeling rather overwhelmed at the time – but we got together and fixed the problem anyway. It had to be fixed; more airplanes were going to blow up otherwise.
However that’s engineering and people can implement fixes because they can see what is going on right in front of their eyes. At the more esoteric level things can be hopelessly obfuscated. After the loss of the Shuttle Columbia, the investigation team concluded that NASA had never had implemented true organizational corrective action from the loss of the Shuttle Challenger of 17 years before – and that they never would. In reality, the end of the Shuttle program had to come because NASA could never be trusted to operate such a system again. The answer was to take the matter substantially out of NASA’s hands.
I just read where a new GAO report says the Obamafucated Missile Defense System ain’t gonna work. If an Iranian missile gets through and takes out a US city no doubt the eventual response as to why the unsuccessful mods were made will be “What difference does it make now?”
The answer is to take the matter substantially out of the liars’ hands.
k @ 50: Do we blame the guy on the front line who could perhaps have compensated for his superiors’ stupidity through extraordinary vigilance? Or do we blame his BP superiors who in effect disconnected the alarm system?
Contributory negligence all around.
–
Have we heard exactly what did go wrong with Dorner at LAPD? The only hints I’ve heard suggest to me that he was almost as nuts there as he is now. A pity of course, he seems smart – and crazy (y’all know the classic joke). Just like everything in our country today, in the whole world today.
Speaking of which, we’ve seen a few survivors of the Algerian gas plant attack, but have we seen any of the 30+ survivors from Benghazi? Nope.
–
rwe @ 51: The answer is to take the matter substantially out of the liars’ hands.
Yabut how. The same thing you describe, the same thing we see in the government, is the same thing I’ve seen in my IT/STEM worlds the last twenty years. I suppose it’s timeless, it’s just our experience that developed over that time. You see it once it’s exceptional, you see it everywhere for decades, a pattern begins to emerge. The only answer I’ve ever heard is creative destruction, Schumpeter/Kuhn. But that tends to assume a frontier, an outside, freedom to do. That is increasingly difficult.
@39…”but it will have a heck of a time holding back entropy.”
Entropy lives.
(I have noticed the increased use of the concept, thanks)
ta
MHH
k @ 50 – A key safety factor in rotary drilling is the fortunate fact that liquids are almost incompressible. When gas or oil enter the bottom of a well being drilled (a “kick”), drilling mud is forced out of the top of the well — almost instantaneously. This is a well-known “Uh! Oh!” moment that occurs regularly in drilling exploration wells. Because it can take several hours for the ascending oil & gas to bubble up to the top of the well, the rig crew have lots of time to react & control the situation, using conventional tried & true mechanisms.
But the problem with Macondo 252 is they used HALLIBURTON nitrified cement with a much greater than normal nitrogen fraction. At 18,000 feet the nitrogen is a supercritical fluid and has significant compressibility. It is not a Newtonian liquid. Typically, nitrified cement is used for non-critical applications such as being used for footings for the large diameter casings near the mud line.
The person who raised the question about this, based on his experience, was a BP employee and the Transcoean and Halliburton employees have a duty to advise BP if there are potential problems, not to simply report a good cement job. Indeed it was a Transocean employee who came up with the “bladder effect”, to explain away the negative test devised by BP and run at their specific instruction.
Of course, the responsible Transocean employees are DEAD, including that toolpusher. We have no penalty greater than a death by fire!
The term of art is merchantability http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchantability
There is a very good reason Jesse Gagliano has started taking the Fifth!
The accident was marked by what even the Chief Counsel calls a “nitrogen breakout”.
You may have noticed that at sea level conditons, on the deck of the Deepwater Horizon, nitrogen is a GAS, not a liquid! Ordinary air is 78% nitrogen.
You really ought to consult with the National Academy of Engineering.
http://machiasprivateer.blogspot.com/2011/12/deepwater-horizon-nae-report.html
BREAK
And now for the dance part of today’s program, we will have the Feds BEGGIN’ for mercy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es6xywE9NP0
I discovered Belmont Club about 12 years ago. Since then I’ve read a lot of other authors, a blizzard of fact and opinion. In all that time I’ve yet to find a blog its equal.
That goes for all of you leaving comments here, too. I think I’m in the presence of some very knowledgeable people. I’d like to think I belong here, though I flatter myself to do so. It is conceit to assume equality with smarter people.
They include walter adams, Old Salt, RWE, Blast From the Past, Don Rodrigo, Subotai Bahadur, Fail Burton and more. I read Mr. Fernandez, then I read all the posts. It’s a hundred excellent blogs in one site.
Thank you, Wretchard.
46 @Don51
Shouldn’t we just call that what it is? Lysenkoism.
MP @ 54: “But the problem with Macondo 252 is they used HALLIBURTON nitrified cement with a much greater than normal nitrogen fraction.”
True — but irrelevant to the Prime Mover issue of why the rig crew did not notice that the well had taken a kick until hydrocarbons reached the surface. The crew did not notice because they were running blind — at the direct instruction of a British Petroleum executive.
All the rest — nitrified cement, blowout preventers, etc — fits under Murphy’s Second Law.
Maybe the broader issue here is Wretchard’s theme of the Design Margin. When we look into most accidents/disasters, there is no doubt that multiple things went wrong. Car drivers do dumb things every day without causing an accident — because other drivers were paying attention and reacted, their brakes worked, the drivers following them were at a safe distance, the road surface was well maintained, etc, etc. It’s what the Framers called Checks & Balances. If the Beautiful People decide to dismantle the Checks & Balances, as British Petroleum executives did when they ordered the premature unloading of the drilling mud from the rig, they are cutting the Design Margin and inviting disaster.
That about uses up my quota for this thread. Let’s hope we all survive to continue the discussion at some future time.
“That Dorner dude thinks he’s the Punisher.”
Just like his mentor. It was incredibly obvious that Obama’s presidency was going to be all about reparations from the get-go.
Obama is a scourge, to put it in Shakespearean terms. So, now, is this guy – and those who are to follow.
James Schall wrote recently about what’s gone wrong. It can be understood as the setting against one another of the two great commandments, Love Thy God and Love Thy Neighbor. Fulton Sheen wrote, “Socialism is the love of neighbor without the love of God; it is the organization of society on a technical, scientific basis, rather than on charity. Love is not love unless it is directed to a person.”
Now we are no longer individual human beings but members of groups to be manipulated “scientifically” as was done during the last century.
Why would anyone expect the outcome to be any different?
“Recently two innocent civilians were shot by cops who probably feared for their own lives.”
I got up Thursday morning a little later than usual and saw five helicopters floating above a point a couple of miles down the street. Later I found out two women were shot for the crime of impersonating a 270 pound black man. They shot up another car not far from that one with an expert grouping of three shots that must have just missed the head of the driver who had the misfortune of driving a dark small size truck.
At the South Western Yacht Club on Shelter Island in San Diego, a mile away from the crummy little bar that I am typing at right now, Dorner tried to jack a boat then reportedly fouled the prop on the dock line. “I aint saying that he isn’t a dangerous man, I’m just saying he aint much of a sailor, that’s all.” Before the election of Obama, I noticed a ground shift amongst my African-American friends that they had lost all trust in the administration of GWB and blamed him and Cheney on everything including for personally being responsible for 911. For them, trust had been eroding for a long time.
This whole business is just getting ready to turn into a veritable police state with shoot first, ask questions later action by the police or the operators of drones. Just wait until 20,000 armed illegal alien invited Latino gang members realize what havoc they can wield. One gang alone, the Florencia gang has 2500 armed and dangerous members ready to be activated at the drop of a hat. That is a full regiment. Why are they here ready to commit murder? Because what is good for illegal drugs is good for the fascist state. They are the necessary shock troops to keep the proles hiding behind the curtains.
White people are evil and must die. Just ask your government representative.
Oh, and my prediction is that Dorner surfaces on the arm of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton and claims that the LAPD tried to assassinate him. Why not? Lies are contagious.
MachiasPrivateer and Kinuachdrach…all of the above. It brings to mind of an earlier disaster. Three Mile Island.
The similarities are striking.
1. Non-engineers in management making critical operational decisions. (Non engineers can include, paraphrasing Subtoi, TWANLRE, Those who are no longer really engineers when assuming management slots).
2. A lone operator being the last link (at TMI this person was a force for good)
3. Misreporting by people who knew, and in the name of journalistic freedom, did not want to know, nothing.
4. The grab by left wing nuts to make a non-existent connection to the detriment of the nation (anti-nuke crowd)
All of which, at both incidents, served to hamstring the national energy economy.
Same kooks, different Crisis Not Wasted.
PS I am enjoying what is clearly a professional discourse by a couple of real engineers. Thnx. (GaTech ’71)
ta
If the Dorner manifesto pushes all the right buttons, where did the buttons come from? They came from the narrative sung to us by the ruling classes; “you deserve what you desire and you are entitled to get what you deserve”.
Never mind that the narrative is false and cannot possibly work. There are politicians, government programs, educational systems, media industries, grievance industries, green industries, human rights industries, identity group industries whose efforts are used to constantly reinforce this narrative.
The narrative plays because the population goes along with this siren song. Even if people stop believing the narrative those who run society will keep pushing it because it works for the ruling class. Al Gore knows that he deserves whatever he desires and that he is entitled to get what he deserves. So does Obama, all of Hollywood, everybody in Congress, every unionized public sector worker and every person who lives on credit.
I’m beginning to think that the only constant in our goofy world is the never changing taste of a canned sardine.
The Ten Commandments endure because they only concern matters of great importance. Murder, for example being the greatest harm that you can do to a person’s physical being.
Why is adultery listed? Usually this is explained as the most harmful act to the structure of the family. I would add that this sin is listed because it involves the greatest harm you can cause to another person’s psychological makeup – betrayal from someone you trusted. You can do a lot of things to people to arouse all kinds of emotions but betrayal, that awakens terrifying demons we did not know we had.
Chris Dorner was betrayed, at least that is how he experienced it. He believed in his role as the defender and protector of the innocent only to have it all taken away. Now the Balrog has been awakened and there is no reason anymore only horror.
Dorner paints himself as a warrior which indeed he is, or was. He reminds me of the scene from the movie The Rock where Sean Connery has a conversation with the deranged General Hummel:
Hummel: Did they bother to tell you who I am and why I’m doing this or are they just using you like they do everybody else?
John Mason: All I know is that you were big in Vietnam, I saw the highlights on television.
General Hummel: Then you probably have no idea what it means to lead some of the finest men on God’s earth into combat and then watch their memories get betrayed by their own f** government.
John Mason: I don’t quite see how you cherish the memory of the dead by killing another million. And, this is not combat, it’s an act of lunacy, General Sir. Personally, I think you’re a f** idiot.
General Hummel: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Thomas Jefferson.
John Mason: “Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious,” according to Oscar Wilde.
[Hummel strikes him, and he falls to his knees]
John Mason: Thank you for making my point.
General Hummel: Where are the guidance chips?
[Points his gun at Mason's head]
General Hummel: WHERE ARE THE GUIDANCE CHIPS?
John Mason: I’ve destroyed them.
General Hummel: That was a bad move, soldier.
…
Money as has been pointed out ultimately is based on trust. It is a good thing that our American currency reminds us to trust the one authority incapable of betrayal.
RE #43 blert
You completely missed the point of my comment. And contrary to your statement, the subject has not been “beaten to a pulp” on Wretched’s site, I am not “late to the game,” and you were not helpful. End.
Recent NYTimes editorial called for Senator Menendez to step aside from chairmanship of Senate Foreign Affairs Committee until the investigation of Dr. Melgen was complete.
Second item: Secretary Panetta 2 days ago admitted that Obama had not asked for updates on attack on facility at Benghazi after they first discussed it at 5:00 p.m.
Could these be the beginning of a turning of the tide? Is a preference cascade coming that will bring Obama’s house of cards down? Be still my heart
He may fall, F, and he certainly will fail. But he’s become irrelevant. This is about us now, who will defend the truth and refuse to live the lie. That and how long it will take before we stop retreating from what it means to be human and start moving forward again.
Actually I think that the Dorner Manifesto, rather than being an example of hitting all the PC buttons right, is in reality an example of the exact opposite.
When they do an SF movie in Hollywood, they will have parts in the script where it says “Insert Technobabble.” And it a barely matters what its says, because no one can say that failing to adjust the grid voltage and dip the plate voltage for a Tachyon amp will cause a warpfield collapse and create a black hole. There ain’t nothin’ there but a plywood panel with some flashing lights, and all that matters is the story, and if you actually understood the technobabble you would realize that.
Dorner produced PCbabble that ultimately proves there ain’t nothin’ there. Taken to their logical conclusion, all the Left are Dormers, only most likely without the guns and associated skillset
Soon after Western Electric developed the touch tone phone and were about to deploy it for its first field installation they invited a bunch of USAF officers in who were being trained on the WE ICBM guidance system and rather obviously needed a break. After showing them the wonders of touch tone, one of the officers took at look at it, picked up the handset, and pushed down all of the buttons. That took the entire system down; the engineers had never thought anyone would push all the buttons. Dorner pushed all of the PC buttons.
66 @RWE
Obviously the tachyon amps in your universe are hollow state.
Michael Hoskins @ 60
Kinuachdrach @ 57 wrote …why the rig crew did not notice that the well had taken a kick until hydrocarbons reached the surface
First off, there was way over a thousand barrels of mud in the well to eject before the nitrogen breakout would reach the rig. That mud that was pouring down like rain on top of the drill shack and the men inside chose to call the BP company men instead of following Transocean POLICY to shut in the well first, then ask questions. The alarms Kinuachdrach mentions are flammable gas alarms and NITROGEN is not a flammable gas. The Transocean men ignored a very important clue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VILWkqlQLWk
But even that is just a sideshow. The stated purpose of Phase Two of the trial is not the blowout and its causes, rather it is the “subsea intervention”. As of May 1, 2010 POTUS took responsibility and appointed a National Incident Commander, Admiral Thad Allen. Uncle Sam kicked BP to the side of the road and said, in effect, “I’m in charge here!”. For two decades Uncle Sam has been collecting fees from industry to pay for just such an event. Now they had their big chance for a STARRING ROLE!!!
So the COMPETENCE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is what will be on trial. And Admiral Allen will be exposed as a HUMBUG by TOTO (AKA Kurt Mix).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0rc_XzxiTg
And we’ll see if The Great and Powerful Oz (coming to theaters March 8, 2013) is really so great after all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVaGzl7B-oQ
Don’t bet on him!
Philadelphia @41
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-09/feds-bailout-europe-continues-record-237-billion-injected-foreign-banks-past-month
^^^^^
Here we have a perfect example of foreigners abandoning US Dollar denominated assets — en masse. Such a trend was predictable many, many, month ago — here at the BC.
At ZeroHedge, the debacle is entirely mis-interpreted, of course.
Flight is mistaken for a pan-European ‘bail-out.’
Only domestic bankers stand pat with US Treasuries and government backed mortgage pools.
========
As for foreign (Europe, China and Japan) bankers: they’re in a position to get out while the getting’s good.
Japan is no longer running an account surplus. The Fukushima fiasco has caused Tokyo to massively increase fuel oil imports.
A while back, Red China signed up for a minority stake in KSA’s latest Yanbu refinery project.
We now read that Japan has also, with secrecy, signed a KSA supply assurance deal. The secrecy surrounds exactly what in the world the nature of the deal was. All of the details remain fuzzy.
One might speculate that Japan has agreed to finance a fundamental expansion of KSA heavy crude capacity. Until now, it’s been going begging in the market place. (There’s not enough world wide capacity to refine crude that is quite that heavy and sour.)
In which case, look to see Japan upgrading domestically so as to refine heavies — from all over.
==========
Red China is vectoring her surplus into gold and whatnot; ditto Russia.
==========
As for Europe: when going insolvent one is compelled to liquidate the best/ most liquid assets first.
The structures/ balance sheets of big European banks are a fright. It would take two generations for them to earn their way out of their hyper-leverage.
At some juncture, the Euro currencies crises will reach the core. Germany’s export engine will sputter to a halt when it becomes apparent to all that her counter-parties can’t pay their tabs.
Even to this hour, the general public is befuddled.
It is still not accepted that the Euro, per se, is a fraud. Because of their big microphones, the central bankers that be have conned most of the planet into thinking — and acting — like the Euro is but one, single, currency.
It’s not. The Euro is a rigid exchange rate — of fiat currencies — where each one is required to hold fixed at a 1:1 exchange rate.
Sort of ‘faking it until you make it’ as a macro-economic policy.
( There’s a lot of that going around, BTW.)
All of Europe’s central banks still function in the old way. They still keep track of who owes whom — across the borders, of course.
And, they’re still printing up separate bank-notes, and keeping tabs on them, too.
German Euro notes have a serial number suffix of X
French Euro notes… U
Italy… S
Greece…Y
Spain…V
Belgium…Z
Austria…N
If all Euros were merely Euros then Athens could print up some (Greek) Euros and hand them over to Berlin. However, Berlin only wants German Euros in payment for German exports.
At bottom, the Euro regime expects and insists that — at the end of the day — every Euro signatory work their way back to balanced currency accounts.
In reality, Athens, Madrid, et. al. blew the easily financed money/ printed debt on political pork — with nill returns on said ‘investment.’
Hence, Europe’s star is shrinking in a pre-nova stage. It will pick up speed until the blow-off.
America, in contrast, has enough mass to generate a super-nova… and residual black-hole.
That’s something exciting to look forward to.
b @ 69: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-09/feds-bailout-europe-continues-record-237-billion-injected-foreign-banks-past-month
That’s – remarkable. Did the cash go for something, like repurchasing US bonds they held? Not that it matters, really.
What’s remarkable is that I didn’t think it necessary anymore, that the ECB had learned how to do the Bernanke Bop.
Josh @70…
I guess it’s not common knowledge outside of The Street: American subsidiaries of foreign banks were b y f a r the biggest investors in American real estate debt.
They held out-sized positions in
Freddie
Fannie
Ginnie Mae (GNMA = full faith and credit backed mortgage debt, pooled units)
Etc.
Hence, now that the Fed is buying in mortgage debt, its counter-parties are foreigners.
These sellers are buying Euros with their proceeds — and taking the money back home.
This has caused the Euro-bloc exchange rate to lift vis a vis the US Dollar — and, consequently the rest of the planet.
(For those not on Wall Street: when American traders buy ‘Euros’ they are buying Euros issued by German, French and Belgian banks — with the Germans way out in front.
No-one wants to have their ‘Euros’ in PIIGS banks.
Even the mere p r o s p e c t that Paris might slide under Berlin — exchange rate wise — freaks the market out. This is reflected in short term money /debt spreads.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-09/guest-post-us-economy-now-dangerously-detached-reality
^^^^
Faking it until you make it…
Or stepping out onto a wall of lies…
Corruption of control circuits…
The MSM has taken us off the map.
I haven’t seen a cop in a couple of days. Wretchard implies they are protecting movie stars. I hope so honestly. It would be a bummer to think that one nut has managed to clear the streets of olicemen this far from the city. Aren’t they the first responders?
Its wronger than wrong. Its like the sudden appearance of obama voters when even my most die hard liberal friends have long since quit coming up with excuses for him.
At some point a person has to admit something is not quite right.
Blert@71:
Why is Germany repatriating her gold …with a 2020 year delay !
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-01-17/germanys-gold-repatriation-unlikely-assuage-public-concerns
thanks
SF
b @ 72: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-09/guest-post-us-economy-now-dangerously-detached-reality
Another very good one, blert, thanks. I quote:
Recently I was asked to give a presentation on the current state of the global economy to a local group of concerned citizens here in Northwest Montana. I was happy to oblige but when composing my bullet points I realized that, in truth, there were no legitimate economic numbers to examine anymore. You see, financial analysts have traditionally used multiple indicators of employment, profit, savings, credit, supply, and demand in their efforts to divine the often obscured facts of our financial system. The problem is, nearly every index we used in the past, every measure of capital flow and industry, is absolutely useless today.
You also say:
I guess it’s not common knowledge outside of The Street: American subsidiaries of foreign banks were b y f a r the biggest investors in American real estate debt.
Is that true? I know Paulson in 2008 made a snide remark that it was all China’s fault, they should have demanded higher rates on all the derivatives and CDOs that supposedly sanitized all that debt. Just who holds the direct debt, I don’t know. Everyone, basically. But then it turns out that the Chinese consider virtually all paper assets to be depreciating assets, and danged if they ain’t turning out right.
–
But speaking of manifestos, I was just listening to the evening news. It snowed in New York City, and Mayor Bloomberg, local officials, and the MSM are in panic mode. OMG, SNOW! OK, if we get an eighth of an inch of rain here in Los Angeles all the news shows open with STORM WATCH, but we *know* we are ridiculous. What of Bloomberg? He loves to bully the city to keep their sugary drinks down to 16 ounces, so what happens when Mother Nature defies him and burries the city in even 17 ounces of snow? He despairs, panics, and advises everyone to crawl under the bed, lest anybody get any on them.
This, I deem the Bloomberg Manifesto:
“Do Thou what I say, all else is unclean!”
- even the driven snow.
Josh…
It’s because he’s afraid that the snow can’t be driven.
NYC has snowplow incompetence.
SF @74…
Now that WWIII is over (aka Cold War) Berlin can’t quite explain — even to itself — why its central bank’s gold is all westward: New York City, Paris and London.
After all these years, Berlin is going to have to construct a new bunker complex — in the general Berlin area — probably the government district — which means finding a place not already bunkered in by the Nazis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiUTfTQ0m9M
That’s not an easy thing to do.^^^^^^^
There’s so much tunneling underneath Tempelhof that converting it to new use is largely stymied. It still has an (FW190) aircraft assembly line down below.
All of which is to say: Berlin is not really physically ready for receipt of all of her gold.
National pride will demand that some top-of-the-line vault be built for what will be a new era.
It will be an era when Berlin will become, like London and New York, a vaulter for other central banks, too. It will have to have essentially all of the provisions long provided by the Fed’s New York City facility.
It will have to have the scale required to hold all of the gold — now and foreseen — for the Euro bloc nations. That would make it even larger than the Fed’s.
While that is underway, Berlin is only ready to receive but a fraction of its national reserves. By moving them to Germany, they become immobilized from the market/ unavailable to meet the delivery terms required by practice.
==========
The source agitating for the ‘Berlin shunt’ is, of course, Moscow.
ZeroHedge is a relentless fount of anti-Fed, anti-Capitalist, screeds — run by a Russian expatriate who is on the outs with the SEC, IIRC. You won’t find him damning Putin, though.
==========
Displacing German gold back to Berlin is not what the Bundesbank would desire. Like all central bankers, it regards gold as just an irritating asset that yields no interest, and whose price is always a policy embarrassment.
==========
The tungsten bar fable is a joke to the Bundesbank. Indeed, it rings as a classic Commie Active Measure. Outside of Red China, no caster would’ve been allowed the latitude to carry on the bad work.
==========
As for the bullion, itself; it’ll have to be re-cast, certainly. It will not due to have 400 troy ounce bars all marked up with American or French identifications, purely as a point of national pride.
Once the re-casting scales up towards thousands of bars — one must stand in line at the (already) busy foundry. Right now, there’s a global bottle-neck.
==========
And then, there’s the fact that it’s not very practical to heft the bullion up out of New York City to cast it in England, then on to Berlin. It’s simply cheaper for the Fed to slyly purchase newly mined gold and have the British cast it to modern specifications. There are other nations holding gold with the Fed. Those that are still accumulating would purchase ex-German gold – while still in the vault – from the Fed. Such purchases would, obviously, refund the Fed’s account, the one used to satisfy Berlin.
==========
(Most of America’s ‘deep gold’ reserves are now ‘not good delivery.’ They were cast many, many, decades ago (in a hurry) when 99.95% was considered good enough.
America even has un-melted gold coinage sacked up in Fort Knox. FDR was in a hurry. At the time, no-one anticipated that there would be any problem with mint bags of brand new coins. Today, if the government permitted it, such coins could be auctioned off at a pretty penny.
However, such an auction could also be a ‘currency relations’ fiasco. It would bring straight into the public eye just how FDR screwed over the America public by currency games.
The gold mining industry is producing enough fresh metal to meet the Bundesbank’s policy requirement without forcing old bullion through the foundry.
It doesn’t hurt that America and Canada are number one and number two gold producers — year in and year out.
Glad to be of help.
I know its wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_gold_production
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-10/russia-flips-petrodollar-its-head-exporting-crude-buying-record-gold
One might think that ZeroHedge was cribbing from the BC.