Editors’ Round Table on Sarah Palin: An Innocent Abroad
by Srdja Trifkovic
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At Christmas a couple of years ago I was given a daily planner called The Worst Case Scenario Survival Calendar. It gives you advice on how to deal with seriously dire emergencies, like free-falling from 10,000 feet with a parachute that wouldn’t open, facing shark attack far from shore, being bitten by a cobra with no antidote on hand, or evading a roaring grizzly in the wilderness. The advice was tongue-in-cheek serious: based on real-life situations and special forces’ manuals, each daily snippet told you how to improve your chances of survival perhaps a hundredfold—from one-in-ten-thousand, say, to one-in-a-hundred. The booklet was fun: you don’t really believe that you’ll ever be in need of such advice, but you read on nevertheless, tickled with vivid images of horrors that happen to “others.”
The forthcoming general election is a Worst-Case Scenario Survival situation and it is happening to us. November 4 calls for the Guide approach. Let me come to the point and speak plainly.
When we look at this season’s four key names—Obama, McCain, Biden, Palin—we know what three of them signify.
Let us start with Senator Obama, that perpetually self-inventing Kenyan-Hawaiian nobody who came from who-knows-where. He may be an American citizen after all, but his disdain for the still-real and historic America is on full display even when it is wrapped in smilingly patronizing condescention for its majority population. The purpose of his presidency would be to re-educate that population in the spirit of self-loathing – his cult-like following among many white yuppies gives him great hope – and to neutralize the incorrigible segment by whatever means the postmodern theurapeutic state has on offer. Abroad, we’d have the “Concert of Democracies” led by Washington deciding whom to bomb, with Zbigniew Brzezinski pulling the strings. Under Obama, America’s overall odds, at home and abroad, would be no better than those of a Dresden firefighter on February 13, 1945.
Joe Biden is the archetypical Homo Beltveicus. He’d be Pol Pot’s running mate if that served Joe Biden’s quest for power, money, and then some more of the same. He proves that in Washington we have the best Congress and the worst hair pluggers money can buy. An interventionist to boot, Biden enthusiastically supported Clinton’s bombing campaign against the Serbs in 1999, which prompted John McCain to declare three weeks into the war, “We need Joe Biden for secretary of state.” When Tim Russert asked, “Is that an offer by President McCain?” McCain replied: “Absolutely!” Almost a decade later he is on the same page with McCain on supporting Kosovo’s independence and in his visceral Russophobia, as evidenced by his recent trip to Tbilisi.
In case of a Democratic victory Biden’s chances of succeeding Obama would be no better than one-in-fifty, however – not that it would matter much one way or another. Barring a Dallas-like scenario that Hillary Clinton wished him in the primaries’ final days, Obama is good for another quarter-century of CV building and self-reinvention before finally making the Hajj.
John McCain is an unstable ignoramus who has never seen a war he wouldn’t gladly escalate. He is also obtuse, unendearingly eccentric, and morally challenged. (Let us not waste time dwelling on those traits; the evidence is ample and available to the curious.) If elected he would invent new missions and embark on new cakewalks, because he cannot do otherwise and because he’d be surrounded by foreign lobbyists (Scheunemann) and McCain clones (Lieberman) who reflect and support his mindset. He is an authentically dangerous man. His only saving grace, and the reason to vote for him under the Worst Scenario rules, is his age.
Mortality tables used by the life insurance industry and by the Social Security Administration indicate that average life expectancy for a 72-year-old man is at best about 11 years. That figure declines to about one half of that, however, when we factor in two significant variables: (1) four cancer scares, including melanoma (plus a long history of early and middle age smoking); and (2) a choleric personality (as per Hippocrates), which is dangerous when coupled with the pressures of a top office.
The probability of McCain dying before the end of the first term is a little over 20 percent before those variables are factored in, but they jump to somewhere between 33 and 40 percent when they are taken into consideration. Furthermore, the actuarial morbidity tables may significantly increase the odds of Veep Palin becoming President following the onset of an incapacitating condition that would force McCain to resign.
That leaves us with the probability of one-third or better that President Sarah Palin would be sworn in before the expiry of McCain’s first term. What would she do? I don’t know, but I am pretty certain that her foreign policies would not be any worse than those proposed by the three men. The Washingtonian “foreign policy community” would try to manipulate her, of course, but she is a tough nut to crack. Over the past few years she readily confronted an Old Boys’ Network and defeated Frank Murkowski, the sitting Republican governor, in the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary. Before that she resigned a State sinecure, protesting the “lack of ethics” of fellow Republican members, and went on to destroy the political careers of Randy Ruedrich, GOP State Chairman, and Gregg Renkes, a former Alaska Attorney General.
Mrs. Palin’s alleged weaknesses are her strengths. Being an innocent abroad, in the dangerous world modelled on Hobbes and Darwin, is preferable to having “experience” in the obsessive attempt to tame and conquer that world. The Weekly Standard cabal and their ilk will be hard-pressed to make President Palin obey a bunch of Manhattanite intellectual pseuds, let alone to internalize their foreign policy schemes that are evil, stupid, and harmful to our troops’ safety: unlike any laptop bombardier, she has a son on his way to Iraq. I’d say that it is at least 50-50 President Palin would act as a foreign policy realist who’d refrain from new “missions,” “engagements” and “force projections.” That translates into cca 20 percent chance of America conducting a sane foreign policy, for the first time in decades, some time before 2012.
Most of our daily choices are morally ambiguous. The one based on The Worst Case Scenario Survival Calendar, which I am presenting herewith for our readers’ consideration, is no exception. In a fallen world the alternative is plague-on-all-their-houses quietism that suits the bad guys.
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1 Comment by M Koprivica on 9 September 2008:
Classic! You left me laughing, angry and sad at our state of affiars and what we are left with to select from….
I headed out to buy ‘The worst case Scenario Survival calendar’ to help
2 Comment by Jerry Cline on 9 September 2008:
Mr. Trifkovic makes a compelling case to vote for Palin and against Obama. We may never have a better chance than now to get a real person in office. Palin’s victories over her own party’s establishment, and the fact that her husband belonged to a conservative 3rd party for so many years (and who is still not a registered Republican) are signs of hope. When will we get this opportunity again??? If McCain loses, it will be blamed on Palin and her “wacky” conservatism. Yes, if elected, she may very well turn out to be a disappointment. However, there is at least some hope with her, something we have not had in many years. We have nothing to lose.
3 Comment by TJF on 9 September 2008:
Srdjo my friend, I’d like nothing better than to believe any of this, but without a scintilla of evidence, you are asking for more than a suspension of disbelief but something more like a lobotomy. We had this same conversation 8 years ago when by mobilizing the Serbs you helped throw the election to Bush in Ohio.
There is nothing in Palin’s background to suggest that she has the strength and intelligence to stand up against intrenched interests. All of her fight against corruption can be explained as a combination of show-boating and disloyalty. Her son going to Iraq may just as well turn her into a bigger hawk than GW Bush–McCain’s son has obviously not turned him into a dove. Finally, actuarial tables are voodoo, unless everything possible is factored in. Members of the US Senate generally beat the averages, and while McCain may seem choleric, his fits pass quickly since ultimately he really does not seem to care much about what happens to anyone but John McCain. I would bet that he has 3 chances in four or better of surviving a first term. The Albanians are already rubbing their hands in glee.
Resignation–Stoic or Christian–in the face of ugly reality– is not quietism. It is certainly preferable to doing something for the sake of doing something. There are sound practical reasons to vote for McCain. He is a more moderate leftist than Obama and would be probably at odds with the Democratic leadership of both houses; he is not a vicious racist who would do his best to penalize us for being white; he would probably name a more competent cabinet than Obama. But the possibility of Sarah Palin succeeding as Ditz-in-Chief may be scarier even than the election of Obama, if only because “reformers” without hard experience are the easiest people to fool. Think of William Jefferson Smith in the film: putty in the hands of the cynical Claude Rains. Ignorance may be bliss for the unwashed electorate, but that attitude has given us Jimmy Carter, and George W Bush. I wonder if we can afford another bungling amateur.
4 Comment by Leo on 9 September 2008:
Whether we conduct a sane or insane foreign policy,we are losing our real ability to conduct the aggressive or robust one both parties bluff they can continue.Reasonable minds can debate what Russia accomplished in the Georgian affair;no one doubts the US got exposed and defeated.More importantly,the socialization…err…”federal takeover” of basically bankrupt Fannie and Freddie is(I predict) a catastrophic blow to imperial ambitions and the resources needed to run the world.Because American power is increasingly based largely on the ability to bluster and talk bull,Obama would probably be more influential and dangerous than the internationally despised second citizen of Tblisi.McCain seems to be visibly dwindling,even as Palin saves his campaign.I agree with your conclusions,and it seems to me events are in the saddle and even a healthy McCain can do little now to reverse direction.
5 Comment by Ljubinko Jovicic on 9 September 2008:
A single warmonger McCain I prefer to Richard Holbrooke, Madeleine Albright, Wesley Clark, and Joe Biden.
SEMPERIDEM
6 Comment by Srdja Trifkovic on 9 September 2008:
The fact that there is even the slimest ray of hope in our otherwise dismal politics is itself a miracle not to be dismissed lightly. OK, she’s a woman — Küche, Kinder u. Kirche should come first — but should we pound on every mother we know with a job? BTW, give me Maria Theresia, Catherine the Great, or E I R any time in preference to their predecessors or successors…
7 Comment by Red Phillips on 9 September 2008:
Here is a rallying cry for Palin sympathetic paleos who have now been convinced to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket.
Vote for McCain/Palin! McCain may die!
8 Comment by TJF on 9 September 2008:
These women inherited their positions as sole heirs to men, not by competing for them. Catherine was a monster and Elizabeth one of the worst things to happen in the history of England. Vote for McCain if ou want McCain, but it would be, I think, quite wrong to support someone you believe to be evil in the hope that he might be replaced by someone possibly not so evil. There is a difference between hope and naive recklessness. Palin is a leap into the abyss. On election night, I confess, I shall probably be praying for a McCain victory. Obama is the most frightening candidate in our history, but this reminds me of a story that Leopold Tyrmand used to tell. Tyrmand was a Polish-Jewish novelist who survived the Nazis and the Communists, and he used to say that having lived under both tyrannies, he had to say the Communists were worse, because if you did happen to survive the German occupation, they pretty much left you alone in your private life, while the Communists did not believe you had a private life. That is pretty much why I prefer the Republicans. Still, I don’t recall Tyrmand ever saying he would have voted for Hitler, given the chance.
9 Comment by Daniel Maxwell on 9 September 2008:
Off topic a bit:
“We had this same conversation 8 years ago when by mobilizing the Serbs you helped throw the election to Bush in Ohio.”
I was not aware we had a sizable population of Serbian folks here in Ohio. Interesting. Not alot of Orthodox Churches around here, except Greek.
10 Comment by Derek Leaberry on 9 September 2008:
It would be amusing to see Todd Palin explain to Bill Kristol and David Frum that Sarah would not be doing the neo-cons’s bidding.
11 Comment by Red Phillips on 9 September 2008:
For the record, I am not one of the Palin sympathetic paleos who plans to vote for McCain. I was just trying to be funny.
12 Comment by TJF on 9 September 2008:
Mr. Leaberry seems to assume, probably correctly, that as a good wife Sarah Palin would take orders from him. Good news for their marriage, but shouldn’t such a subordinate position be a bar to high office?
13 Comment by roho on 9 September 2008:
Damn!………..This logic is attuned to eating at a lousy resturant, with a lousy cook for 4 years, just because you think that the nice waitress might get promoted to cook?
In this scenario, the resturant went out of business in the second year for bad food and bad financial management! The owner tried to burn it for insurance money, died in the fire, and the waitress moved to Canada where her survival instincts said “Follow your husband’s career!”
14 Comment by Srdja Trifkovic on 9 September 2008:
To Daniel Maxwell: In 2004 Serbian-Americans voted for Bush en masse because of his opponent’s promise to the Albanian community to put Kosovo’s independence (”the last unfinished business in the Balkans”) at the top (!) of his agenda. It is by no means an exaggeration to claim that in Ohio their votes decided the outcome locally and therefore nationally. There are cca 80-100,000 people of Serbian origin in the state, and sizeable communities with churches, clubs, etc. in Akron (church built in 1919), North Canton (1948), Columbus (1967), Lorain (1923), Steubenville (1906), and Youngstown (1926). The cathedral is in Parma (souhern suburb of Cleveland, since 1919).
To TJF: I am certainly not going to vote for McCain — the Tyrmand parallel is apt — but I am going to be somewhat less distressed by the outcome if he wins. Writing this column will certainly be more, er, interesting with him in charge…
15 Comment by Tom Piatak on 9 September 2008:
Dr. Trifkovic,
Yes, St. Sava’s is on Broadview Road in my hometown of Parma, at the bottom of a hill affording a good view of downtown Cleveland, and it is quite an imposing edifice. I passed it often growing up, whenever we drove from our house in Parma to my grandmother’s in Cleveland, just north of the border with Parma. (We would also pass, in this relatively brief drive, two Roman Catholic churches, the Byzantine Catholic cathedral, a Ukrainian Catholic church, a Russian Orthodox church, a Polish National Catholic Church, plus a Lutheran church, a Baptist church, and a Pentecostal church).
16 Comment by Srdja Trifkovic on 9 September 2008:
To Tom Piatak: What, no mosques on Broadview Rd? Ohio seems to be unpardonably mono-cultural!
17 Comment by Leo on 9 September 2008:
McCain has put himself on a cracked limb with his constant blabber about the “surge”.By February 2009,the American people are going to be clamoring for his exit strategy.McCain will win this election on what are referred to as “cultural” issues;the Palin surge proves it.McCain can’t and won’t sell his stupid foreign policy to the American people or the world.My fear has always been “multicutural” and messianic Obama could sell the Democratic Party’s imperialism as progressive,anti-racist,humanitarian,etc.
18 Comment by jack bailey on 9 September 2008:
I couldn’t agree more on everything. The biggest proof to me that she won’t listen to the neocons would be if she went to the Reagan library and shook Nancy’s hand. (never been to california, always wanted to go, todd wanted to come along etc.). It’s worth at least 2 additional points in the national polls. Therefore voting for the Republican ticket is not necessarily a vote for McCain. It may very well be a message to him that he is only a caretaker, especially if it turns to be a landslide. By the way, I believe there is also a Serbian church in Cincinnati.
19 Comment by Boba Borojevic on 9 September 2008:
Just like a man, woman is capable of enjoying life.
In addition to bearing children, a woman has to be good looking / beautiful, charming, clever (and educated) in order to be considered successful. To her credit, Sarah Palin is a very beautiful young mother.
She looks like a very ambitious lady. And here is where I see a problem. Ambition, politics and leadership under extreme pressure can produce a vicious, divisive and destructive woman in charge of the nation similar to the “iron” Lady Thatcher, with this “obsessive attempt to tame and conquer that world.”
20 Comment by Akira on 9 September 2008:
I think you underestimate McCain’s vitality. Trying to be as objective as possible, I’d have to say the man has almost superhuman stamina, psychologically, physically and politically.
I don’t think he’s power-hungry, so I’d say he’s motivated by a desire to serve his country.
I’ve already criticized him for his statements about Georgia, Kosovo, “Global Warming”, and some other foolish opinions of his. Nevertheless, I’m sure he’s a man of conscience and a patriot.
Obama and Biden are both contemptible.
I think Obama would be a greater threat to peace than McCain would. You portray McCain as very warlike. I don’t agree. I think he agrees with, “The best way to have peace is to prepare for war.”
Obama is more unstable, because first of all people like Akhmedinijad and Nassrallah would feel they can challenge him more, daring him to go to war after setting himself as the Messiah of Peace and the Mother of All Diplomats. Also, he’s likely to try to overcompensate for his perceived weakness by taking rash measures (remember his talk of nuking Pakistan?). One day he said (something like) “Iran and Venezuala and North Korea — these are tiny countries! They pose no threat!” The very next day he went on about what a grave threat Iran is to world peace. He’s a lunatic, an idiot and/or devoid of conscience.
Palin’s ignorance and (pit-)bull-headedness may very well be preferable to Obama’s incredably high regard for himself, or McCain and Biden’s connecions to all the “great thinkers” who infest Washington “think”tanks, but that’s not saying much.
Years of Palin as either VP or P would be very grating, to say the least, but in all seriousness Obama disgusts me so much that the mere sound of his voice literally induces nausea within seconds. He’s also becoming more shrill and bitchy every day. I think he’s wa~~y out of his league (or as he would put it, “this is above my pay grade”), and I won’t be surprised if he has a breakdown before November and ends up calling Larry Sinclair at 3 in the morning looking for some blow.
Right now I’m just enjoying the way that Palin seems to drive Obamaniacs and gliberals off their nut. I hope she has a few more chances to say “nukyuler” before the election.
21 Comment by Akira on 9 September 2008:
Leo, re: ” ‘multicutural’ and messianic Obama could sell the Democratic Party’s imperialism as progressive,anti-racist,humanitarian,etc.”
I agree.
Dems have no moral authority to attack Bush & co. since Clinton went to war with Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Bosnian Serbs, and Yugoslavia.
The US is not wrong for getting rid of the Taliban and Saddam. The problem is with the drive to create heaven on Earth. And people like Clinton and Blair are more guilty of that than Bush is. Also, these US alliances with Karzai, “moderate Muslims” etc will weaken the US and the West in the long run.
I’m sure that if Prez Obama were to go to war in or against Suadan, Pakistan, Serbia etc (to unselfishly make the world a better place of course, with no regard for US strategic interests…), the criticism would range from muted to non-existent.
22 Comment by Robert Pinkerton on 9 September 2008:
Dr. Trifkovic @#16, the Cleveland area’s major mosque is on the east side of West 130th Street, <1 mile north of the intersection of West 130 and Pearl Road; I believe it is in Parma, if not Parma Heights. So is the area’s Hindu temple in the south of Parma.
Akira @#20, I could not agree with you more. From Plato on forward, through New England’s Christian Socialists of the XIXth Century, through Europe’ and Asia’s blood-soaked secular socialists of the XXth Century, to the strident cultural-Marxist bullies whose hectoring disturbs our rest, the impulse to build the Kingdom of God Upon Earth has been responsible for immense misery. For it would seem that trying to make angels of human beings, too often turns them into something like unto demons, and attempts to raise “New Jerusalem” too often result in one person’s eutopia being hellish dystopia to another. (These people try to “refine” human beings: One cannot have an age of gold with men of brass.) Nietzsche called their number in Twilight of the Idols, Crane Brinton traced their effects on societies they are able to afflict in his chapter, “The Reign of Terror and Virtue,” in his Anatomy of Revolution, Georges Sorel pointed to the role of optimism in the thinking of these pests in the “Letter to Daniel Halevy,” which is the preface of the Peter Smith edition of Reflexions on Violence. “Improvers of Mankind” are pests.
23 Comment by Tony Wawrzynski on 9 September 2008:
The former imam of the mosque in Parma Heights referred to by Mr. Pinkerton was deported several years ago because of his apparent ties to the usual groups and his inflamatory rhetoric.
24 Comment by Akira on 9 September 2008:
Tony, just to clarify, Imam Fawaz Damra wasn’t deported for his connections or his rhetoric, but for lying on his immigration application.
He was connected with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and with a group that preceded al-Qaeda, but, unfortunately, I think if he’d disclosed those connections on his application (with a note like, “I thought they were just engaged in charity work”) he’d still be in the U.S. today.
If Muslims were deported for their connections or their rhetoric, then there’d probably be not a single Mohammadan left. (But then the U.S. would have no ambassador Khalilzad at the U.N.! What a tragedy that would be.)
I admire Damra’s O.G. honesty, back in 1989:
“The first principle is that terrorism, and terrorism alone, is the path to liberation. This has its point of departure God, the Great and Almighty’s, words: “And make for them whatever you can of fighting men and horses, to terrify thereby the enemies of God and your enemy.” The second principle is that “settlement is decided by the sword.” ”
Then he went all Taqiyya:
During much of the 1990s Damra was lauded for his outreach efforts to the Jewish and Christian communities in and around Cleveland, and he was popularly viewed as a moderate Muslim.
He characterized his earlier comments about Jihad against Christians and “the sons of monkeys and pigs, the Jews,” as “the result of youthful prejudices he had developed growing up in the harsh environment.” Since there’s a fool born every minute, I’m sure his “change of heart” would have been accepted if he’d come clean on his citizenship application.
REFERENCES
Investigative Project on Terrorism re Damra:
http://www.investigativeproject.org/profile/110
PBS:
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/227/imam-fawaz-damra.html
25 Comment by Akira on 9 September 2008:
What do those actuarial tables say about one’s chances of surviving an enforced residence of indeterminate length, crippled, beaten and tortured, on a sub-subsistence diet, in a filthy cell, mostly in isolated confinement, in lower than Fifth World conditions?
26 Comment by St. Patrick's Purgatory on 9 September 2008:
What an enlightening, maddening and utterly edifying – for better or worse – discussion this has been.
I must say I agree in the main with all of the well-reasoned arguments put forth which stake out the poverty of choices before us.
However, I must also add that, while I in no way subscribe to situational ethics, I cannot for the life of me believe there is any honor in standing idly by – or voting for a fringe third-party/not voting – while two individuals so injurious to all that we hold dear may steal the election. Suffice it to say I will not inquire as to the robustness of virtue of the man who jumps into the sea to save me from drowning. It is sufficient that he saved my life at risk to his own, and I can only pray that he will continue to perfect himself through grace and study.
No monarch, prince, or politician has ever – or will ever – possess all of those qualities and virtues we wish they could; I agree wholeheartedly with the notion that this world is not the Kingdom of God, and we as a people would be far better off if we desisted in trying to make it so. The same logic should apply to the candidates in this election. McCain is what he is, but Biden and Obama are far, far worse in every regard. Mrs. Palin may be a disappointment, but she very well may not be. We have the remotest possibility of everything to gain with McCain/Palin, while the surest confidence of everything to lose with Obama/Biden. This distinction is so glaring it requires no nuance.
Appeals to Christian quietism/stoicism are fine, but I don’t believe for a minute that the poverty of choices this year vindicates doing nothing while our nation’s/culture’s death warrants are being typeset.
Finally, I must state that, as a serving intel officer in the USN, I find it most distressing when anyone – liberal, neocon or paleocon – pontificates about the conduct of our forces in wartime. This near-hysterical jibberish about killing thousands of Iraqis/Afghans/you-name-it, as if it were a quantifiable strategic objective of the campaign, is rapidly becoming nauseating instead of merely tiresome. You quote or otherwise perpetuate statistics that I’m happy to inform you are quite off the mark and only serve to discredit your otherwise noble intentions. Try not to fall for hyperbole, no matter what your view is on our unfortunate state of international affairs.
Those of us in uniform have equal disdain for armchair hawks as well as blogosphere pollyannas. Until you’ve been deployed at risk to life and limb to a miserable part of the world for a seemingly futile or wrongheaded objective by people to whom you’re merely an expendable tool, you have no idea…
Keep up the tremendous good work on behalf of our culture, religion and society. This blog, its authors and commentators are truly doing the Lord’s work.
27 Comment by Suvorov on 9 September 2008:
Dr. Trifkovic,
How many Serbs are there in Chicago? I think I saw the figure 300,000 somewhere. This is off topic, but do you remember the “Match of the Century” which took place in Belgrade in 1970?
28 Comment by Derek Leaberry on 10 September 2008:
What amuses me even more, Dr. Fleming, is how an intellectual pipsqueak like Bill Kristol would fare with an Alaskan roughneck like Todd Palin, man to man.
29 Comment by Trifkovic on 10 September 2008:
The Palins, I submit, have an instinctive and healthy dislike of the Kristols and the dominant elite class that goes way beyond any detail of policy. This is not “a suspension of disbelief” but a reasonable assessment. It is based on a number of indicators (cf. Pat Buchanan’s latest) that are convertible into quantifiable variables.
30 Comment by james1 on 10 September 2008:
@20Akira
“I’m sure he’s a man of conscience and a patriot”
The guys a complete Zionist stooge. Remember the USS Liberty his daddy helped cover it up and McCain blackballed a congressional investigation into it.
I don’t know what the hype about Palin is all about.
She’s just another AIPAC politician there won’t be any change she’s just another lemming politician.
There will still be Chabab Lubravitch rabbis and prayer meetings in the Whitehouse, lighting Menorahs but no Christian crosses, globalism and absolute subservience to Israel.
31 Comment by Swede on 10 September 2008:
If presented with a choice between Obama/Biden and McCain/Palin one would have to be an idiot not to vote for the Palin side. She has a good chance of becoming president if McCain gets a stroke or disabled in some way.
If the same situation would arise in Europe I believe people would vote for a third option like Baldwin, Nader or Barr. If these outsiders would unite and form a third party they would have a real chance of taking home the victory. Not because a third party is necessarily good, but because the alternatives are really bad. Actually you cold pick any random person on the street and it would, with a very high probability, be a better option than the Dem or GOP finalists this year.
32 Comment by SC on 10 September 2008:
@Swede – I like your comment but would qualify it: not if the street one picks the person is in San Francisco or even New York (my residence) – or heaven forbid, Miami (que?).
Re: the current GOP, see this rant:
http://www.takimag.com/taki_tv/article/the_gops_big_tent/
33 Comment by JL on 10 September 2008:
The democrats and Obama want to go to war for biblical ideals? The “alcoholic conveniently find Jesus draft dodger frat boy” in the white house went to Iraq claiming it to be a mission from God. Sarah Palin also said that invading Iraq was a mandate from God { see the video of her in front of her church on youtube}. She also likens herself to Esther who saved her people from the Persians. As for dangerous?
Chanting ” drill baby drill” continues our love affair with the Muslim world , in the middle east and in the Balkans…let alone allows the rest of the world to speed past us on energy technology. Remember our steel industry?
The republicans had the keys to the kingdom for 8 years and blew it….big time. I will not reward the arsonists.
34 Comment by john taldone on 10 September 2008:
There is every reason to believe Sarah Palin will become a shill for the neocons. Palin repudiated her past support for Pat Buchanan faster than you can say AIPAC. Moreover, she belongs to a church that subscibes to the Christian Zionist rapture message.
35 Comment by J. M. on 10 September 2008:
Sara Appalin is in no way a departure or a shift in the policies of the White House. She´s as poisoned of the zionist heretical Weltanschaung as Bush or McCain are, so why should I vote for her platform in November?
It´s hard to understand why a third political forced hasn´t come, in view of the current mess in almost every field.
36 Comment by Ken Zaretzke on 10 September 2008:
It would be interesting to see a debate/exchange between St. Patrick’s Purgatory (#26) and TJF. Can we be so lucky?
37 Comment by james1 on 10 September 2008:
@35J. M.
If there is a strong third party force it will be a phoney one.
Case in point is Mayor Bloomberg and Joe Liebermann talking about creating a third party two Zionists one a billionaire would that be better.
This is what happened with the so called Neocons Trotskyite communists who became right wing conservatives after the USSR broke of relations to Israel.
38 Comment by Derek Leaberry on 10 September 2008:
When you see Bill Kristol salivating over the Sarah Palin nomination, you know to be scared.
39 Comment by Boba Borojevic on 10 September 2008:
Re: # 38
When Americans see Clintons, Albright, Holbrooke et al. as Obama’s (foreign policy) advisors they should be super scared!
40 Comment by Alex on 10 September 2008:
So Serbs helped to usher in George W. Bush, what an accomplishment. The man who enthusiastically recognized Kosovo.
I fear that Serbian-Americans, like their Greek-American Orthodox brethren, voted Republican as they felt that GOP adherence somehow signalled their “establishment” in America.
Clinton was no friend of the Balkan Orthodox states, to be sure, but George Bush’s machine certainly is not their friend either. Mrs Palin, lacking any knowledge of where the Balkans even are, will likely be a maleable figurehead to this same machine.
One thing about Mrs Palin. Her ignorance is excusable. She grew up in a small town in a remote state, with limited means, which she used to raise a family, all both understandable and admirable. Dubya was born with a Silver Foot in his mouth, with every opportunity for the acquisition of both knowledge and tact, and in the course of his tenure has combined unlimited ignorance with equivalent arrogance. In some ways, she merits a chance. She could not do any worse than the sitting President and may in fact do far better.
41 Comment by Wayne Allensworth on 10 September 2008:
I think I’m with Tom Piatak and Srdja on this one. I have some of the same reservations about Mrs. Palin others have expressed, but I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. I don’t recall where I saw it, but someone wrote something that should be relevant to patriots in looking at Sarah Palin, and that is that she is from some place. She has a home she apparantly feels attached to, and, at least to someone from my own working class background, she seems familiar. That’s saying a lot for a major party candidate these days.
Maybe she won’t be everything all those who have rallied to support her think she could be. That even seems likely given how the game is played. But what I’m hearing from people who have decided to vote for the Republicans–even from people who once swore they would never vote for McCain or who voted for Ron Paul in the primaries–is a) The thought of Obama as president is so repellant to them they will do what they thought they never would (and a large part of this is reaction to the Rev. Wright “sermon,” and the citizen-of-the-world, global man, Obama-as-messiah cult); and b) Many say they will vote for Palin, not for McCain. The first group didn’t need Mrs. Palin to go that route (though they might appreciate the help), but I don’t think the second group is merely using her as an excuse.
I think McCain will win the election, but either way, I think things will be “interesting” for Srdja and, indeed, for the rest of us.
42 Comment by MilesGloriosus on 10 September 2008:
Alex wrote:
“One thing about Mrs Palin. Her ignorance is excusable. ”
You mean they’ve never heard of the internet in Alaska? Surely, Mrs. Palin had access to encyclopedias.
In this day and age there’s little valid excuse for ignorance…especially from someone Mrs. Palin’s age and who aspires to higher office
43 Comment by jack bailey on 10 September 2008:
Serbs may or may have not decided Ohio last time but this time they have all the reasons to do so. I would like to see Biden try to make them vote Democrat. On the other hand all Sarah Palin has to do is go to one of the Serb church cookie sales. Ladies at the sale look just like her. Try to beat that.
44 Comment by mike h on 10 September 2008:
Oh my!
Thanks, Dr. Trifkovic, for a thoughtful & thought provoking article
45 Comment by John Willson on 10 September 2008:
Wayne Allensworth @41: Good point about Sarah being from someplace. I like her even better since my wife just told me that Obama said today that you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. What he is I would not say on a public forum. But I still am not going to vote for McCain. That and $4.72 will get you a bad cup of Starbuck’s coffee, but those of us who read and write for Chronicles have to stand, well, someplace.
46 Comment by Akira on 10 September 2008:
Re Alex: “So Serbs helped to usher in George W. Bush, what an accomplishment. The man who enthusiastically recognized Kosovo.”
That’s not really relevant, since there are no third parties, and Kerry or Gore would have been even more supportive of “Kosovo” than Bush is.
[For Ronbots lurking about, I'm sure Super-Ron would have also been enthusiastic about "Kosovo". I can just imagine him, "Well, I don't see what the problem is. It has nothing to do with America. I mean, remember Mossadegh! You know if they wanna split, well I'm all for state's rights... Was Mohammad a Libertarian?"]
I was also disappointed that Bush and Harper recognized “Kosovo”, since by at least remaining neutral, they could have distanced themselves from Clinton, Blair, Chretien, Schroeder etc’s rubbish Balkan policies. But what are you gonna do?
Unless you’re going to withdraw from politics or cast a protest vote (Paul, Kucinich, Keyes, Communist, The Prohibition Party …), the presidential choices have only been Bush, Gore, Kerry, McCain and Obama. And since three of those people are insane and/or idiotic narcissists, the choice has already been made.
47 Comment by Eagle on 10 September 2008:
Regarding Serbian voters in Ohio and what they were or were not capable of delivering. All should be reminded that Biden and McCain are admitted close friends and were the co-sponsors of the Senate bill authorizing Bill Clinton’s aggression against Serbia back in 1999. This fact combined with the fact that both parties have now betrayed Serbian interests (and the interests of other well-meaning, European-leaning Christians) should serve as gudiance to them: follow Dr. Fleming’s advice and don’t bother voting for that vote is only a vote to sanction a system that is destroying both Serbia and the US. The men in the dark room behind the oval office will continue to dismantle Serbia and whatever else it takes to prod Russia into aggression, regardless of which traitor and/or nitwit occupies the frontman post.
48 Comment by Tony Wawrzynski on 10 September 2008:
Akira,
Thank you for clarifying my point. I had forgotten what the technical cause of Damra’s deportation was. It was similar in principle to nailing Al Capone for tax evasion. At any rate, he is a nasty piece of work and I am glad he is out of Cleveland and the country.
49 Comment by Sean Scallon on 10 September 2008:
Truly a miserable situation we all agree, but as for myself, cannot allow the wishful thinking that McCain will die or only serve one term to influence my vote as much as we might think that Palin is the best of the lot. Obama may well be horrible, but I remember the same kind of apocalyptic talk about Clinton as well. Besides, it would be much easier to mobilize right thinking opinion against Obama than it would be McCain/Palin, as eight of Bush II-Cheney has shown.
By the way, guess who’s going to be tutoring Mrs. Palin on the ways of foreign policy? None other than the traitor and double-agent Randy Scheuneman, McCain’s to-be National Security Advisor.
50 Comment by Etienne Gervaise on 10 September 2008:
@19 Boba
Margaret Thatcher is not regarded as some supreme intellectual by the English. In fact she was swept into office by despair among the London young working class whites who switched from Labour Party loyalists because of 20% interest rates, 40 year mortgages and 20% unemployment. She came up with a plan to carry out former Prime Minister Ted Heath’s policies. Heath was maligned by the press as a gay sailor.
51 Comment by St. Patrick's Purgatory on 10 September 2008:
Mr. Zaretzke @ 36 -
Please don’t get the wrong impression; the line was written in the small hours and should read, “They quote or otherwise perpetuate… which I would be happy to inform them…” I did not intend to indict anyone associated with Chronicles, least of all Dr. Fleming. My point was merely to speak out as a serving military man who, like the early Christians Dr. Fleming does well to remind us, serves the emperor faithfully and does so in the ardent belief he is protecting his country and serving its interests. Sometimes I think this perspective is lost in the relentless chatter of character assassinations, uncharitable references and the pathological and morbid fascination with how awful everything and everyone is – and all of the time.
Whereas I can always count on Dr. Fleming to articulate with panache those ideas which lie dormant in my brain, I feel Dr. Trifkovic is most successful in achieving an equilibrium or magnanimity in his discourses; in other words, Dr. Trifkovic can often find at least one thing honorable, decent or balanced to say about almost anyone. This is very refreshing and speaks well of Dr. T. My only complaint – if that is the correct word – about Chronicles is that it oftentimes comes across as miserable beyond redemption. But I may very well misunderstand the subtlety and tongue-in-cheek tone which translates poorly by my lights, and I pray that that’s the case.
But I have no debate with Dr. Fleming. My mastery of Latin may approach his, but my Greek is scarcely sufficient to order dinner in a restaurant. Be that as it may, many unlettered folk have something of value to say, and many firmly believe – even if they are not bothered by intellectual rigor or polished language – in most of the ‘permanent things’ as Russell Kirk so succinctly described them. We must never let our smug cleverness allow us to think otherwise.
52 Comment by Etienne Gervaise on 10 September 2008:
As this tedious campaign rolls on, Little Barry Hussy is revealing himself to be a dull-witted tool. Limbaugh is making him the laughingstock by dubbing rimshots over his (and Biden’s) soundbites. The 7 1/2 minutes of stammering that EIB excerpted from a 42 minute Obama speech is all over Youtube as proof that he cannot think on his feet.
Of course the ugly truth is that Americans will usually vote for the stupidest candidate — the sitting retard draft dodger in chief proves my point every time he strings three words into mangled syntax. If I was wrong, then Ron Paul would be duking it out with Mike Gravell.
All that being said, Chuck Baldwin is on the Virginia ballot, and I will vote for him, or maybe Bob Barr.
53 Comment by Etienne Gervaise on 10 September 2008:
For the real dirt on Sarah Palin check out this scurrilous website
http://judicial-inc.biz/89palin_is_not_snow_white.htm
She has enemies in AK
54 Comment by Wasilla on 11 September 2008:
Etienne Gervaise, you really should be careful about believing everything you read on the internet. Having lived in Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah’s hometown for over 30 years, that web site is a joke. About 3 months into Sarah’s first term as mayor she sent out a memo to certain City employees requesting their resignations and reapplication for their job, if they were interested. She did this because they foolishly were loyal to the former mayor she defeated and refused to accept her guidance. That especially includes the police chief she fired. Trust me, no one intimidates Sarah, not even the police chief Irl (his mother’s spelling) Stambaugh. It was good riddance with him. Incidentally, her husband, Todd, is 1/4 Yup’ik Eskimo and she is on very good terms with that side of his family. I know this woman and she does not use racial slurs. That’s preposterous! As for her enemies, unfortunately, we have leftists up here too.
As for the rest of the information provided by a well known archenemy of Sarah’s, Anne Kilkenny, here’s what FactCheck has to say about her.
Since Republican presidential nominee John McCain tapped Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, information about Palin’s past has been zipping around the Internet. Several claims are not true, and other rumors are misleading.
A few of these claims were included in a chain e-mail by a woman named Anne Kilkenny. We’ll be looking into other charges in that e-mail for a future story. For more explanation of the bullet points above, please read the Analysis.
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/sliming_palin.html
55 Comment by james1 on 11 September 2008:
@53Etienne Gervaise
Judical Inc isn’t exactly reliable source. Case inpoint is there piece on the Dunblane massacre in Scotland which they said Jews used to pass gun control laws although guns are not an issue in Scotland and the most dangerous weapon someone could get was a pellot gun.
Theres also the BS piece they did on Russia/Georgia.
56 Comment by Justitia on 11 September 2008:
Link to McCain’s “League of Democracies” speech.
http://www.johnmccain.com/informing/news/Speeches/43e821a2-ad70-495a-83b2-098638e67aeb.htm
I’m done with politics. Debate the parties, the candidates, the VPs, the voting records, the policies, which is the “lesser of two evils”. America is a rotting corpse and no election is going to change that.
57 Comment by Tim Manning, Sr. on 11 September 2008:
The Republican Party is a moderate socialist party that strongly supports the USA oligarchy that does control nearly every meaningful aspect of U.S. business and government. The party has not changed by the appointment of Palin as a candidate for VP.
What the Republicans have done is to throw those who are truly leaning toward conservative government a bone to distract from their “we-are-running-the-empire-as-usual” scheme of operation. They have not deliberated and changed even one single policy that might make them look even a little conservative. To support them in this charade is to actually encourage them in this entirely soiled political process. Palin is a pawn who would have less power as a VP than as a State governor.
There is much to admire about Gov. Palin and to be asked to run for a well known political office can blurr even the most sincere politician. I was asked by the head of the Republican Party in eastern Virginia to run for a congressional seat in the Hampton Roads area. I declined. Such notions feed ever the strongest healthy ego.
The two main parties are broken and cannot be fixed. The Republican Party needs to loose this election to feel enough pain to just maybe reconsider their socialist liberal/fascist positions. My guess is that losing this election may not even be enough of a train wreck to lead the Republicans to conservative reforms. NeoCon’s are moderate socialists and radical fascists. It will harm the conservative cause to vote Republican.
58 Comment by MilesGloriosus on 11 September 2008:
By the way, guess who’s going to be tutoring Mrs. Palin on the ways of foreign policy? None other than the traitor and double-agent Randy Scheuneman, McCain’s to-be National Security Advisor.
Still further reason not to vote McCain-Palin.
That with just the appointment of Palin to be his running mate, conservatives fall into line behind the ticket like spaniels after a ____ in heat, proves how predictably malleable even the most critical thinkers can be.
59 Comment by Steve Setzer on 11 September 2008:
@46 Akira
I think you misread Ron Paul; at least, as one of the Ron-bots, you misunderstand what I think and what others like me think.
It is not the business of the American government to care whether there is war in another country far from our shores. “We are the friends of liberty everywhere, the guardians only of our own” as John Quincy Adams wrote.
It may be the business of individual American citizens to care greatly about war in the Balkans, and to work to preserve Christian societies against barbaric onslaughts. But individual rights and government responsibilities are different things, and Serbia has no more claim on our Air Force budget than the KLA did.
60 Comment by FulghumInk on 11 September 2008:
I am so glad I visited this website!!!
When I listened to Mr. Trifkovic on the documentary Islam: What The West Needs to Know, I knew this was a fellow worth reading, listening and, attending to his thoughts.
After reading this article, I can’t express the degree to which I am happy to vote for Palin-McCain and in that order!!!
What a wonderful patriot we have in Mr. Trifkovic!!!
We are all the better for your thoughts and your influence, sir.
Thank you!!!
C.A. Fulghum
Pinehurst, NC, USA
61 Comment by Martin F on 11 September 2008:
I like much of what Baldwin and the Constitution party stand for but I do have a problem with this part of their preamble to their platform:
“This great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been and are afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”
Our founding documents have nothing to do with the Gospel – the Gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. No where in our founding documents can you find Jesus’ name or the term “forgiveness of sins” which is the very heart of the Gospel.
With this bit of falsity, the Constitution party will forever remain a bit player on the political scene.
62 Comment by Etienne Gervaise on 11 September 2008:
@54 James
I know Judicial Biz is the web’s equivalent of National Enquirer, but it’s good for a laugh at times. Their linkage of kinky sex procurers and their elite customers is something the MSM will spike. But this sort of stuff goes on all over Europe as well as Aruba, with collusion of both the perps and also the police who sweep these sordid affairs under the rug. The site is not afraid to name names; consider the scripture which says “those deeds done in secret will be shouted from the housetops.”
Like anything else, you have to pick and choose. Anyway the batallion of lawyers scouring Alaska looking for dirt on Palin will be dishing it up soon.
63 Comment by NGPM on 12 September 2008:
John McCain represents the amen corner of one of the most deranged and vile administrations in history. To vote for him is irresponsible and stupid, even granting a 40 percent chance of a Sarah Palin presidency. The other 60 percent just isn’t worth it.
Barak Obama, on the other hand, represents the most vile and disgusting corners of contemporary American society: hippies, yuppies, the self-inflated, the self-loathing, and academics who presume to be intellectual elites while denying that 2 + 2 necessarily equals 4. To vote for him is to express open contempt for this country and its history (and truth be told, over the last four years I have developed a large measure of contempt for this country, but mostly because of what it has become due in no small part to the idiots in the Obama clique).
Sarah Palin may be a good person, but as a politician I am not willing to give any Republican the benefit of the doubt. “Read my lips: no new taxes!” Haven’t we been down this path? Why on Earth does anyone still vote in this country??
64 Comment by NGPM on 12 September 2008:
“Catherine was a monster and Elizabeth one of the worst things to happen in the history of England.”
Off-topic, but kudos to you, Dr. Fleming, for saying what I have been wishing in vain to hear from any learned historian probably since I made the foolish decision to major in history at the University of Miami.
65 Comment by Fr. John on 12 September 2008:
“… the Cleveland area’s major mosque is on the east side of West 130th Street, <1 mile north of the intersection of West 130 and Pearl Road; I believe it is in Parma, if not Parma Heights. So is the area’s Hindu temple in the south of Parma.”
Well, we now know where ‘civic improvement’ project sites will be located, come the Restoration….lol
What amazes me in all this ‘discussion’ is that those who seem to have some vague Angst, or a merely shallow veneer hiding ‘Hate’ over the concept of the “Kingdom of God” being built on Earth, is that such is the explicit command of the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy Kingdom come, THY WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH as it is in Heaven.”
That comma in the clause does not deny that what ALREADY is a reality in the celestial realm, is commanded of us to fulfill, in the earthly. People complain about ER1, yet it was her reign and rule that allowed the American Colonies to be founded, built, and thrive, even if it were in the midst of sectarians who didn’t want to worship in an Anglican manner- nevertheless, without her, James I would have been hard presed to have allowed further colonization, without a stable currency, a defeated Armada, and an Act of Uniformity!
While Dispensational heretics may deny that part of the Scriptures as ‘not applicable for this era’, (and atheists, Jews, and Jewish atheists may gnash their teeth in unrighteous indignation) it avails little when we realize that Christendom is ALL ABOUT building the “Kingdom of God” – not in the oil fields of pagans and idolators, nor by forced treaties, and force of arms, but by evangelism here at home, forging a unified Folk of like culture, language, and race, among those who share a common Christian, Trinitarian faith. Clearly, such a view is diametrically opposed to the NWO “Multicultists”- which is even more reason to acknowledge its’ veracity!
Russia’s recent rapprochement with the MP and ROCOR, (based on common racial, linguistic, historical, and cultural ties[!]) clearly shows that Medvedev and Putin are serious in mounting a challenge to the Judaized American plan for talmudic supremacism, and Bush and the Neo-Cons know it! Otherwise, all the empty rhetoric, and clangor of the War Machine over a little piece of land in the Israeli-dominated Caucausus, with a puppet ruler, would not have mattered to Bush et al….
Thanks, Dr. Trifkovic. Perhaps Sarah Palin IS a ‘Deborah,’ after eight years of Ahab and Jezebel, a King’s fool, and McManiac, after all….
66 Comment by james1 on 12 September 2008:
@59Fr. John
Doe’s no one in America not find it odd that the people setting the most radical government policy, think tanks, newspaper owners , editors, journalist, opinion pieces both left wing and right wing just happen to be Jewish?
In the Balkans those supporting Islamic terrorism against the Serbs Holbrooke, Clark, Albright and other senior officials were Jewish.
The so called Neocon’s wanting us to go to war with Iran and led us into Iraq were Jewish. Neo-conservatism itself is a Jewish political movement.
The Bolshevik revolution government, revolutionary financiers and Karl Marx himself was Jewish as well as the 90’s Oligarchs who near destroyed Russia.
And most recently the Georgian fiasco launch by Georgia against Russian peacekeepers with the Georgian government and the man who orchestrated the assault being Jewish.
Why are there no Christian crosses in the Whitehouse? Isn’t Bush supposed to be a Christian fundamentalist?
No matter what the administration government staff and appointees is at least 50% Jewish.
67 Comment by Walter Hallstein on 12 September 2008:
Palin: War With Russia Possible
Posted September 11, 2008
In her interview today with ABC News’ Charles Gibson, Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin stated in no uncertain terms “we cannot repeat the Cold War”. However, in a follow-up question about a possible hot war with Russia, the Alaska Governor’s answer was an unsettlingly non-committal “perhaps”.
The interview revealed today further aspects of Sarah Palin’s position on foreign policy, first explored in her RNC speech last week. She said she had already spoken to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and had given him assurances of her commitment to Georgia, and believed “we’ve got to keep an eye on Russia”. She said she was in favor of NATO membership for both Georgia and the Ukraine, and when asked if this would require the US to go to war if war broke out between Russia and Georgian again, the governor said “Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally”.
[...]
Yes, sir if “you put lipstick on a pig it is still a pig”…
68 Comment by jack bailey on 12 September 2008:
You have misenterpreted what she said. She said that if a NATO country was attacked US would have to go to war with Russia. Any president is under obligation to do so and so are all the NATO members.
69 Comment by Jacob Aitken on 12 September 2008:
I think what both Gov Palin and the commenter were pointing out is that Palin would welcome Georgia/Ukraine membership *even if* it meant war with Russia. In other words, the possibility of thermonuclear war over some small corner of the world doesn’t bother her.
70 Comment by Jacob Aitken on 12 September 2008:
And I think such a policy is lunacy, btw. If Georgia membership entails war with Russia/nuclear war, then any sane human would deny membership, at least for the moment.
71 Comment by jack bailey on 12 September 2008:
Again you are misinterpreting. Once they are in NATO, they would have to be defended if attacked. But for those that are not in NATO,there is the outstanding policy that countries with teritorial disputes cannot become NATO members. Therefore Georgia cannot be accepted until the dispute is settled. Same goes with Ukraine, if the Russian speaking parts decide to secede before Ukraine becomes a member, such Ukraine cannot become a NATO member. And by the way, neither can Croatia, should Serbia ever decide to press the matter of Krajina again. All that Palin did here was reiterate the current bipartisan policy, while the media used it to enforce the psychobabe image. Granted neocons may wish a war with Russia but I would not put Palin in their cabal for the time being.
72 Comment by james1 on 12 September 2008:
@61Walter Hallstein
Western bias towards Russia is unbelievable. Georgia is not a democracy as pointed out in a previous Srdja Trifkovic article.
Western media criticise Russia by saying the Kremlin claims opposition groups are aligned with western intelligence although they’ve never quoted a senior government official as saying this yet Georgia and Ukraine routinely criticize opposition figures by claiming there KGB agents who want a more balanced approach towards Russia.
Interviews have been edited to make Russia look aggressive http://exiledonline.com/is-cnn-getting-kicked-out-of-russia/ or not shown at all http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=269.
Other statements by government officials have been taken out of context and used by western media as aggressive sound bites.
I think we are giving to much credit to Mrs Palin that she’s capable of independent thought and critical thinking. She’s just another politician who implements policies her advisors tell her to do not having a clue what there about. She’s essentially a manikin with a voice box.
The US and global economy is in serious trouble. Has she or McCain proposed any policies on tackling this issue like low interest rates loans for small businesses. The same canbe said for the Brezinski/Soros sock puppet Obama.
@65jack bailey
I don’t think the Palin comment is misrepresentated. As @61Walter Hallstein mention her NATO comment has to be seen in conjuction with her RNC speech which is exactly the same viewpoint of old man McCain.
73 Comment by james1 on 12 September 2008:
@61Walter Hallstein
Western bias towards Russia is unbelievable. Georgia is not a democracy as pointed out in a previous Srdja Trifkovic article.
Western media criticise Russia by saying the Kremlin claims opposition groups are aligned with western intelligence although they’ve never quoted a senior government official as saying this yet Georgia and Ukraine routinely criticize opposition figures by claiming there KGB agents who want a more balanced approach towards Russia.
Interviews have been edited to make Russia look aggressive http://exiledonline.com/is-cnn-getting-kicked-out-of-russia/ or not shown at all http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=269.
Other statements by government officials have been taken out of context and used by western media as aggressive sound bites.
I think we are giving to much credit to Mrs Palin that she’s capable of independent thought and critical thinking. She’s just another politician who implements policies her advisors tell her to do not having a clue what there about. She’s essentially a manikin with a voice box.
The US and global economy is in serious trouble. Has she or McCain proposed any policies on tackling this issue like low interest rates loans for small businesses. The same canbe said for the Brezinski/Soros sock puppet Obama.
74 Comment by james1 on 12 September 2008:
@65jack bailey
I don’t think the Palin comment is misrepresentated. As @61Walter Hallstein mention her NATO comment has to be seen in conjuction with her RNC speech which is exactly the same viewpoint of old man McCain.
75 Comment by james1 on 12 September 2008:
@61Walter Hallstein
Western bias towards Russia is unbelievable. Georgia is not a democracy as pointed out in a previous Srdja Trifkovic article.
Western media criticise Russia by saying the Kremlin claims opposition groups are aligned with western intelligence although they’ve never quoted a senior government official as saying this yet Georgia and Ukraine routinely criticize opposition figures by claiming there KGB agents who want a more balanced approach towards Russia.
Interviews have been edited to make Russia look aggressive http://exiledonline.com/is-cnn-getting-kicked-out-of-russia/ or not shown at all.
Other statements by government officials have been taken out of context and used by western media as aggressive sound bites.
I think we are giving to much credit to Mrs Palin that she’s capable of independent thought and critical thinking. She’s just another politician who implements policies her advisors tell her to do not having a clue what there about. She’s essentially a manikin with a voice box.
The US and global economy is in serious trouble. Has she or McCain proposed any policies on tackling this issue like low interest rates loans for small businesses. The same canbe said for the Brezinski/Soros sock puppet Obama.
76 Comment by Eagle on 12 September 2008:
This is what it’s come down to?
Newsreaders of an abysmally low IQ asking questions of major political candidates of equally low IQ, neither of which completely grasp the implications of what they pretend to address.
In the background we have nitwits like the “Soviet scholar” Condi pretending to be in charge of diplomacy and equally silly senators parading around ex-Soviet republics pretending to care about the people there.
Are there no adults available to play the parts of real and responsible statesmen and members of a genuinely inquisitive fourth estate?
I have met real adults. Some still do exist in this country. Why are only the children allowed to pretend in these serious matters??
77 Comment by james1 on 12 September 2008:
@68Eagle
There was Ron Paul but people didn’t vote for him instead they voted for John McCain who encompasses the things most people didn’t like about Bush foreign wars and illegal immigration which McCain endorses more so yet people voted for him in droves.
Puppet politicians for a puppet mass population.
78 Comment by Christian on 12 September 2008:
We have to have some faith in someone and Sarah Palin has more potential than any American polictician in a long time… No way AIPAC has more influence on her than any others, so keep the faith.
79 Comment by Jacob Aitken on 13 September 2008:
Jack @ 65
I appreciate your points of clarification, and that would be wise of NATO if they were to abide by that, but do men like NATO and McCain really abide by that? If I recall correctly, the bombing of Serbia violated some parts of NATO’s charter.
80 Pingback by Srdja Spoke Too Soon « The Paleocrat on 13 September 2008:
[...] us with a case-in-point. Following the lead of the magazine’s other editors, Trifkovic submitted his two cents worth on the “Palin Problem.” What had been dubbed “The Editor’s Roundtable” focused on the [...]
81 Comment by robert m. peters on 13 September 2008:
I lived for nearly fifteen years in Austria and Germany, most of that time being in Germany. I was there when the NATO air/land battle plan migrated from as escalated mutual destruction to defense forward.
Post Vietnam and into the Carter years the Germans in particular came to believe that the Americans would not sacrifice St. Louis for Hamburg if the Soviets escalated to theater nuclear weapons, i.e. SS-20 strikes, meaning that if the Soviets struck Hamburg with a nuclear weapon that the U.S. would not retaliate with nuclear weapons against a launch site in the Soviet Union because the Soviets would then strike the U.S. itself in retaliation to such a strike. I believe that the Germans were correct in their assessment.
While in theory all NATO countries would come to the aid of a fellow member in the event of an attack, in reality, they may not be ready, either psychologically or even militarily, to effectively counter such a move. NATO’s military actions in Serbia and in Afghanistan are certainly not to the scale that meeting some Russian move would require, and the jury is very much out on the outcome in Afghanistan.
I hold that deep down that most NATO members believe that the existence of and expansion of NATO will assure a peaceful Europe. I believe that such thinking is naive because, over the long run, grand alliances have lead to war, not away from it, and because there exist a cadre, let’s call them the neo-cons, who would not shrink from war. Thus, I must conclude that the expansion of NATO is a march to war.
82 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 13 September 2008:
Beoynd words!
To be more precise beyond words that I command in my vernacular.
What a great article. What a vibrant, prolific exchange of remarks (Kurosawa aside).
Curious how the good point made by TJF can work both ways, namely:
“There is nothing in Palin’s background to suggest that she has the strength and intelligence to stand up against intrenched interests. All of her fight against corruption can be explained as a combination of show-boating and disloyalty. Her son going to Iraq may just as well turn her into a bigger hawk than GW Bush–McCain’s son has obviously not turned him into a dove. Finally, actuarial tables are voodoo, unless everything possible is factored in. Members of the US Senate generally beat the averages, and while McCain may seem choleric, his fits pass quickly since ultimately he really does not seem to care much about what happens to anyone but John McCain. I would bet that he has 3 chances in four or better of surviving a first term. The Albanians are already rubbing their hands in glee.”
So much more the reason to find a person (black, white, male, female) that is in some fashion unspoiled. Being a governor of Alaska, Palin projects that image extremely well and actually carries the ticket more so than McCain. Her decission to clean house among the Republicans first goes to her credit. Sure you can argue any issue on God’s green Earth in both directions but the likelyhood of getting somebody relatively unspoiled (not exposed to the boy’s only clubs of the Washington D.C. high ceiling, oak panelled and pillared entrances, where colorless attache cases change hands as the votes get doubled, trippled as much as bought and sold. This relative naivete, and lack of political overexposure are strong weapons in Palin’s favor. I admit that the scales are only slightly tipped in her favor and your argument, however valid has a handful of stronger counterpoints.
For my own personal ignorance I am unaware of any BELVETICUS at any point in time other than to conclude it should be a noun in the first case (nominative) as per standard Middle School (Gymnasium Latin) for the extension of US.
Dr. Trifkovic would you kindly englighten me. Others obviously know what it means – but I am totally in the dark.
83 Comment by james1 on 13 September 2008:
@70Jacob Aitken
NATO worked in conjunction with the KLA in the 99 war. They were coordinating attacks with NATO aerial bombardment, even transporting KLA soldiers by helicopter members of the KLA were members of the US armed forces reminiscent of the recent Georgian assault on South Ossetia.
NATO targeted civilian infrastructure like railways killing civilians a war crime and definitely not part of the NATO mandate.
@71robert m. peters
NATO aided the creation of a state that is the leading centre to organised crime in Europe, drug smuggling, sex trafficking, international terrorism, etc. It is the cause of instability not stability in Europe and there hostile actions towards Russia who we could quite easily have a strategic partnership not just military but economic is a bulwark to this.
George Soros help finance and lobby what has become Kosovo and help create this Georgian mess.
84 Comment by Jacob Aitken on 13 September 2008:
@ 72
I don’t dispute what you are saying. But if you are offering that as extra evidence, thank you. I am favorable to Serbia, fwiw.
85 Comment by Alex on 14 September 2008:
NATO is indeed a swindle. I see the free hand Turkey got to invade a sovereign nation, Cyprus, and to threaten another NATO member, Greece, until recently. NATO’s Drang nach Osten also can have no other benefit but to corral and to strangle Russia.
Stupid stupid stupid!
86 Comment by Michael Averko on 14 September 2008:
This isn’t pretty:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26691018/
87 Comment by robert m. peters on 14 September 2008:
I have listened closely to the words of Mr. McCain. It seems that he advocates that NATO should expand with the intent of replacing the UN so that the veto of Russia and China, among others, would no longer be a factor in pursuing the interests of the elites and their factions which control this empire, the current configuration of NATO, the World Bank and the WTO among others. A piece of that plan, if my understandings reflect a correct piecing of the emerging puzzle, would be a North American Union to go along with the EU. Israel is already a defacto member. Would Japan be included?
Whatever its political objectives, this new entity, now emerging, would be anti-Russian and ultimately anti-Christian. It would, I believe, have little difficulty in subsuming most, although not all, of us Protestants into an apostate church, loyal to the entity and its objectives. The “left-hand” of the entity has already usurped much of the Anglican and Episcopal clergy and no little of their laity, as well as much of the Catholic laity in America and Western Europe. The “right-hand” of the entity is right busy manipulating evangelicals and fundamentalists and is quite successful in the endeavor.
It would seem that the Angle of Light is out and about, spreading his darkness as counterfeit light. He suckered Adam and Eve. It looks as if their offspring are still suckers. As it is written: “Even the very elect….!”
88 Comment by james1 on 14 September 2008:
@75robert m. peters
Since the French revolution they have always been anti-Christian which continues today in the Balkans, Russia’s south and Central Asia.
Zbignew Brezinski whose father aligned his Polish nationalist movement with foreign Bolsheviks to fight white Russians in the civil war is a strong advocate for the planned break-up of Russia.
He also is a big supporter of the NAU.
American used to have a good foreign policy especially under Lincoln where it advised and help develop infrastructure, a joint partnership.
Now it’s perusing the British Empire economic policy of globalisation where foreign companies exploit the natural resources on the cheap and companies outsource jobs for cheap labour.
89 Comment by Jacob Aitken on 14 September 2008:
In an issue of Chronicles a few months ago, Dr Fleming noted that the leftist-elite in Western Europe and America hate the Serbs (and by extension, other slavic peoples) because the slavs love their history and define themselves by their Orthodox faith. While I am not Orthodox, I consider myself a sympathetic outsider and am interested in seeing how the Orthodox in the East resist this ______ like they did Islam.
90 Comment by Andrei Vidal on 14 September 2008:
This phrase is unbelievable:
“Zbignew Brezinski whose father aligned his Polish nationalist movement with foreign Bolsheviks to fight white Russians in the civil war.”
You mean the same Polish nationalists who stopped the Bolshevik advance into Europe at Warsaw? The ones who tried but failed to create an anti-Bolshevik federation from Ukraine to Finland? Please provide evidence of any sort of “alliance” between Pilsudski and the Bolsheviks.
91 Comment by Leo on 14 September 2008:
Keep in mind that what McCain says and what McCain can do are now impossibly far apart.The United States can no longer dominate.The Russians have correctly and patiently waited for the US to overextend and decline.The Russians openly state this;they have a much more realistic appraisal of American power than idiots like McCain or Palin.Obama,the messiah of “multiculturalism”is the greater threat…to America and Europe.McCain is just a loudmouth without an army.Obama is like the Pope(cf. Stalin)…he doesn’t need an army to rule.
92 Comment by Michael Averko on 14 September 2008:
Andrei Vidal
Pilsudski refused an alliance with the Whites. This despite the latter recognizing Polish independence. This is a matter of historical fact and not interpretation.
Pilsudski sought Polish borders from “sea to sea” (Baltic to Black). At the time, a number of individuals saw the Whites as representing a more productive political option than the Bolshes. Hence the logic behind Pilsudski not supporting the Whites.
93 Comment by Kearney Smith on 14 September 2008:
Trifkovic’s assessment is right on the mark.
We have to play the cards we are dealt.
It is not a case of being able to walk away unscathed.
We may feel good for a day after thumbing our noses,
but we and future generations may very well pay a
long-term price for that very short-term gesture.
94 Comment by Akira on 15 September 2008:
James1: “McCain’s a complete Zionist stooge”
Interesting…
Do they pay him in shekels?
Do you mean he’s a Zionist in the sense that he believes Jews should have a homeland, or are you saying that he helps kidnap Christian kids to use their blood for Matzohs?
I he a stooge in the sense of a traitor to the US, or has he been duped by those crafty Jews?
From which of the Elders does he get his marching orders? Has he actually kissed Satan’s @$$ in a midnight mass wearing nothing but a yarmulke? Do you happen to have photos?
Are you alleging that while he was supposedly in a Vietnamese prison, he was actually being kept in high style by a cabal of Hollywood Jews?
Hamas called. Your fascinating “thoughts” on this election are awaited with bated breath.
95 Comment by Akira on 15 September 2008:
James1,
LOOK OUT!
I just saw a dirty bearded Jew hiding in your closet eyeing thee most covetously.
I recommend you move to Eritrea. Apparently their Jewish population is: 1. (So they say… In fact 50% of their government is made up of The Jooooz! There’s nowhere left for you to hide. … North Korea? Nope, he’s really Kimberg Jong-ilam, a tailor from Minsk.)
96 Comment by james1 on 15 September 2008:
@94Akira
Covering up the dilebirate Isreali assaualt on the USS Liberty an act of treason and his allegence to AIPAC who’s officials have been indited for spying on the US make him a Zionist stooge.
He supports mass open immigration to the US yet supports Jews only immigration to Israel.
See Kevin MacDonalds work on how Jewish organisations supported the 1965 immigration act.
He fully supports going to war with Iran which Jewish groups, columnists are lobbing for.
97 Comment by David Collins on 15 September 2008:
Iliya Pavlovich @ 82
Homo Beltveicus simply means Beltway Man – that is, an experienced Washington insider.
98 Comment by Iliya Pavlovich on 17 September 2008:
Thanks David. I dropped the “T” and searched for BELVETICUS, yes I am familiar with the I-495 and I-295 beltways. It does make complete sense that Joe BideT is a true Homo Beltveticus. Any person that enters the pillared buildings with one bag and exits with another should be classified as Homo Beltvetcus financialis or (monetaris)
99 Comment by Jim on 17 September 2008:
How can I agree with almost all the statements above and still reach a different conclusion about participating in the election? I suppose it’s because, knowing our penultimate cause (restoring Western civ) is doomed, I want to slow its demise as long as possible in order that our paleo remnant may have some chance of living out our lives and perhaps our children’s lives in as much freedom as possible.
Yes, McCain and the Neocons are bad and yet I see only worse on the Obama side. This thread seems most to worry about McCain and the likelihood of more war. 1) Will a Democratic congress continue its moribund acquiescence to war for another 4 years? If they lose the presidency, they will surely take the fight to congress. 2) What makes you think Obama will not be sucked into the same wars? They both believe the US is the world’s policeman. Obama sounds less bellicose now in order to win the election, but will surely have to react to a world situation that is out of our control — thanks to Bush and the neocons, but also thanks to Clinton for not pushing the WMD inspections to a conclusion and not pursuing Osama, and perhaps back to the ‘52 Republicans for choosing Ike instead of Taft.
But there are other issues at stake in 2008 and on significant numbers of them McCain is far better. Think 2nd Amendment, abortion, reparations, welfare entitlements, all of the social/cultural issues, etc. Sure, McC is not Buchanan but he’s not a radical leftist like the Obama-nation. I don’t see the point of not voting for the Republicans but hoping they win.
100 Comment by rjrafferty on 20 September 2008:
Yes, but if John McCain dies in office and Sarah Palin becomes the Prez…wouldn’t that mean that Nancy Pelosi becomes the Vice Prez? Gulp.
101 Comment by Etienne Gervaise on 26 September 2008:
@54 and 55
Wasilla and James.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d vote for Palin on the grounds that she really said “So Sambo beat the bitch.” I grok that sort of truthfulness (not to mention humor) because I live by the motto “Quite Frankly I’m Glad You’re Offended.” It’s on the back of all my undershirts.
By the same token I’d vote for Obama because he’s a smoker and I think he ought to light up during tonight’s debate, and then grind out the dog-ends into the carpet. Of course his handlers won’t let him do it, but I’ve seen old newsreels of King George VI puffing away and it made him no less royal to me.
I’m aware of lies on the net, which is why I cancelled my subscription to the Washington Times, Izvestia, and Pravda and switched to World Weekly News instead. The gutter press is what it is: a profit center for people I consider to be lazier than prostitutes.
102 Comment by Elijah on 28 September 2008:
Just when I had my mind made up up jumps McCain with his mention of Kosovo and correct me if I am wrong, his support for Albania and Kosovo.
Go figure.
I want to personally thank Srdja for all the work and info he gave us Serbs who were fighting the evil Clintons, Holbrookes, Albrights and don’t forget the likes of Cohen and Rubin.
I would like to know if there is any of the media out there that has the guts to give us the real reason for the war in Bosnia, the vilification of the Serbs, the truth about Srebenica and the bombing of the market.
How can they bomb people for 78 straight days and pass it off as a ho-hum day?
Where in the hell is Christianne Ammapour?
Sorry for varying away from the main topic but as Serb I wonder if there will be a Serbia in 50 more years?
The Serbs who abhor the decision on Kosovo are in a dilemma–Obama and Biden will surely back the KLA and from what I heard last night(Sept.28th) so will McCain.
Palin? Hey, she has as much experience as Obama.
BTW, what is a community organizer?
Srdja, keep up the great work, maybe Karadzic will go free and the Serb bashers will please refrain from using the genocide word.
Eli
103 Comment by Mammothman on 2 October 2008:
Considering even McCain has roped her in from mentioning pre-emptive strikes in the Middle East (damn demanding media!), the slim well-shellacked white hope extolled in this column, who made all the paleoconservatives drool while supporting a blatant and cynical affirmative action, is now looking rather quaint, I’d say.
Imagine popping out kids and toting a gun while spouting platitudes not quite qualifying one to lead the most powerful nation in the world..
Admittedly, we’ll see how well the campaign aides earn their paycheques prepping her for the VP debate. But in the interest of edification, you could try cloaking your future columns in a Seuss-like pamphlet so that one of her handlers could place it on her desk, ensuring she is kept current of worthy opinions.
104 Pingback by Political Mavens » Trilliance on 7 October 2008:
[...] off my chair laughing from reading this endorsement of the innocent broad, all emphasis mine: Editors’ Round Table on Sarah Palin: An Innocent Abroad by Srdja Trifkovic…continue [...]