The 51st State … Valentin Vatsev

51st-US-State
 

"Mr. Vatsev, the major US media that is openly sympathetic to Hillary Clinton is already talking about her as the next US president. What can we expect from Clinton on foreign policy? What is your forecast?

I would be happy if Trump wins, because his victory would be very symbolic. That would be proof in practice, that the monopoly on power in the United States (US) – an absolutely great country, could be broken by an ordinary person because in terms of the establishment of the US, Trump is an ordinary man, despite being a millionaire, an eccentric, and he has even been married to Slavic women, which is the tip of the eccentricities in the Anglo-Saxon world, but he is an absolute outsider to the high elite of America. So, here we have the question of principle: can an ordinary miserable outsider (bad unclear origin, laughable education, non-prestigious background, “new vulgar money,” he has not built any library or church or cultural centre, he does not speak French, he is not even gay etc.) enter the Bohemian grove in the world that defines the future of the great country? And it really is a very narrow and closed world of several thousand people with tribal traditions, cultural ancestry, old families and “old great, albeit invisible, money.” Literally, a few hundred families coordinate for years ahead who will be next. And suddenly, here comes some Trump. How vulgar! But I think that he cannot become a president and if his chances increase enough, troubles and mishaps might start happening to him because the stake is too high. It is too much power, we are talking about great power. Those, who are in power now managed until recently, albeit indirectly, to control the Republican Party. In other words, the tribal union that defined the Clintons as the favourite for the real power of the United States (though indeed, there was a time when they did not allow them into  the Bohemian Grove), controlled the leadership of both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Republicans managed to emancipate themselves from the effects of this non-partisan leadership and shifted, but I think that their potential will not be sufficient to bring Trump to the presidential position. Again, I would love to see Trump elected, but I think the stakes are so high that for such things, some shoot and kill. For smaller things, the Kennedy clan (a really old, rich and influential family) was almost completely destroyed. So it is more probable that in reality, Mrs. Clinton will be the next president. From her, I expect a forceful conversion of the European Union into the 51st US state. I expect an extremely acute and forceful politics, not because Hillary Clinton is a special person. She is a complicated, sharp, rude person and psychologically ready for this type of activity, but the explanation is not in the soul …"  Vatsev

————–

Something for the Euros to munch on, I am still contemplating the idea of mooseburgers, moose tourtiere,  moose chile, etc.  How about a standing moose rib roast?  pl 

PicejuXsj

https://southfront.org/hillary-will-make-the-eu-the-51st-us-state/

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91 Responses to The 51st State … Valentin Vatsev

  1. rjj says:

    does horseradish clash with moose meat?

  2. Allen Thomson says:

    > moose chile(*)
    We made pretty good chili with the venison, but not with the moose that I remember. That’s a significant oversight that, should the opportunity arise, I shall set aright.
    Moose tourtiere could work with a bit of experimenting. Standing moose rib roast sounds — daunting.
    (*) Just out of curiosity, do our correspondents distinguish between “chile” and “chili” and if so how? I tend to use chile for the pepper and chili for the stew made with it.

  3. Kooshy says:

    Colonel, Europe and Europeans are ready for Clintons, they love the idea of free security paid by American tax payers, and free trade on thier Chinese manufactured luxury goods. Who else can afford a 22000 LV purse. They wouldn’t even mind to become 52nd state after Israel as long as we pay thier security expenses buy thier expensive goods and they can spend thier summer in Saint-Tropez and winters in Val d’Isère.

  4. MRW says:

    LOL. You’re doing I’m doing: cooking.

  5. turcopolier says:

    MRW
    How about braised rib of moose? pl

  6. FkDahl says:

    Moose is inherently lean and wild, I suggest taking a nice cut, slice it thinly, and fry it with butter(+++), mushrooms (morelles or chanterelles) , shallots and diced carrots, deglaze the pan with red wine, fortify yourself with more red wine, and serving it with e.g mashed potatoes …
    Go slow on the other cuts, sous vide could work…

  7. turcopolier says:

    FKDahl
    Is this a recipe for Euromoose? Ever had any tourtiere? pl

  8. OIFVet says:

    Finally a Bulgarian who is not on the payroll of the America For Bulgaria Foundation. How do I know? Simple. Such an interview would never be given by anyone who has taken a grant by the Foundation, and it was published by A-Specto, one of the rare media outlets in Bulgaria that is not funded by the Foundation.

  9. FkDahl,
    That sounds like the various “Jaeger” preparations of meat I enjoyed during my six years in Germany. There was often juniper berries in the mix. Damn I miss that.

  10. Degringolade says:

    Natchitoches meat pie is the only way to go

  11. Nancy K says:

    My husband had a yak burger in Tibet and found it very tasty. He also likes venison and loves wild boar.

  12. Nick Smith says:

    “and he has even been married to Slavic women, which is the tip of the eccentricities in the Anglo-Saxon world”
    This is a wonderful line. It’s the kind of thing that redeems hyperbole

  13. Jamesdoleman says:

    I wouldnt vote for Trump as dogcatcher.
    As a “euro” (Scottish) I can’t believe America would either.
    A disgusting man

  14. Anonymous says:

    Babak has insider info on recipes of space-coocked brains. His research on americans abducted by undocumented guest space invaders has paid off, now he’s a book coming off, Babak’s Master Space Chef Handbook, teaches how to reach Mars on a diet of fellow “spacimen” brain alone.
    Major Tom was one of the first to experience brain cooking. That was about the time he started asking “Iis theere Moose oon Maars?”

  15. charly says:

    You do understand that until very recently the EU spend more money on defense than the rest of the World* combined and that the only country we had to fear was to the West of us.
    *Rest of the World not including US

  16. Will says:

    EU would be the 52nd state. We already know that our treasure is spent and our blood spilt for the settler 51st state that has no defined borders.

  17. Bill Herschel says:

    Moose are on the decline. If you want to hunt them, hurry up.
    Personally, I currently live in an area where deer are endemic. They kill more people via car accidents and lyme disease than people kill them. I have never hunted and am not a hunter, but I would willingly kill deer if it were possible.
    However, I do like Fenimore Cooper a lot. A ton. I highly recommend his first novel, The Spy. He is not an American Hugo, but he is on the same page.

  18. charly says:

    Do they still have those anti Nato demonstrations?

  19. FkDahl says:

    The German Jäger I’ve head – while very tasty – are more of a generic cream mushroom sauce IMHO. This is a “cleaner” version, preferably cooked in iron skillet over open fire, with mountain cranberries (aka lingonberries) tossed in.

  20. FkDahl says:

    Euromoose yet… see this for idea http://harvner.blogg.se/
    Tourtiere- you mean the Quebec version? Non…

  21. Bandolero says:

    Kooshy
    If HRC will be elected POTUS – not a given – I expect most of Europe to embrace their new leader. However, then what?
    I expect interests will be coming back dominating the playing field. And I expect they will clash over Russia and China. I expect the key battle ground fault line to be once again Germany because it’s the biggest EU country and it’s position is once again in the middle.
    HRC will once again have Germany as a de facto colony like the old FRG but I expect at this time it’s not going to happen. While at the mass media surface Germany still looks a lot like the de facto FRG colony swallowing the GDR under the hood there was some change. For German business China and Russia catched up with the US – if China has not already overtaken the US which is quite possible. The political force accompanying this trend tend to see “free security paid by American tax payers” not to embrace this as a nice gift but as a disturbance of their eastern business. That has political consequences. In Germany we just saw three of 16 regional governors – from mainstream parties, 1 SPD, 2 CDU) officially come out against further sanctions on Russia. We also see quite good results – about 10 to 20% – of the new Russia-friendly right wing AfD party. The economic driving forces behind this cannot be ignored in Germany, everything else will ignite a big clash with uncertain end, so the power in German politics has to accommodize and is doing that.
    Should a POTUS HRC try to change that too hard without changing the underlying economics she will run into a serious problem in German which would be to push Germany more in the Russian direction. Other EU countries have mentally already arrived in the Russia-friendly world, take eg Hungary, and Czechia and Slovakia are not far behind. And across the EU we see similar growing Russia-friendly trends, FPO in Austria, Le Pen in France, brexit in UK, 5 star in Italy and so on.
    So, my point, if HRC becomes POTUS she will have lot’s of difficult work ahead in the EU.

  22. trinlae says:

    There is now a boar meat store in Kathmandu (Lainchaur), but probably most yak-burgers in Nepal are buffalo. (Hygienic, refrigerated meat markets are now plentiful, but roadside butchers still the norm.
    Among the Buddhist Sherpas, dzopkio (yak-cow breed) meat is occassionally seen when the animal “has an accident” such as “falling” to its death.

  23. johnf says:

    On us Euros, I’m not so sure that we’re breathing heavily in anticipation of climbing into bed with Hillary and engaging in terminal nuclear ecstasy.
    The East Europeans are restless. They didn’t realise that entering the EU and NATO meant being the frontline in a nuclear confronation with Mother Russia, as sanctions cut off many of their traditional trading partners in the east. They especially do not like the millions of refugees and, not having been bred in a supine state of political correctness, have no qualms about airing their views. The Czechs have recently been in Damascus.
    In Western Europe Greece openly flirts with Russia while it, Italy and Spain groan under the economic heel of the German-controlled Euro, while Germany’s main bank and propper-upper of the Euro creaks on the edge of the abyss thanks to its hunger for Texan sub-prime loans. The German Foreign minister – whose party is due to do well in next year’s elections – repeatedly asserts that Germany has no intention in getting involved in some Ukrainian stand-off with Putin. Also due to do well in the elections are a rightwing party who are virulently against immigration, blame it on The West’s repeated wars in the ME, and think Putin is great. (Trumpism isn’t just an American phenomenon). France too faces elections in which the pro-Putin Le Pen is due to do very well.
    Britain is the most fascinating country of all. Our new PM is notorious for holding her cards extremely close to her chest. Her Chief Advisor is a dyed-in-the-wool realist and anti-neo-conservative. Nick Timothy hates foreign interventions. He is backed up on the Tory backbenches by a solid phalanx of realist senior Tory MPs, many of them ex-Army or Foreign Office – Julian Lewis, Crispin Blunt, Rory Stewart, Adam Holloway – all of whom have very stern views on Syrian intervention. Both “Conservative Friends of Israel” and neo-conservatives seem to be virtually non-existent in her Cabinet, unlike the previous one where they firmly ruled the roost. Which way will Theresa jump?
    There was an interesting straw in the wind last week at the height of the East Aleppo hysteria. Our buffoonish Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was leaping up and down demanding we bomb the Russian Embassy. All good hyperbole. But also, quietly, in two speeches, not one, he slipped in the addendum that we were against, definitely against NFZs. Boris was brought in to the Cabinet as a stop gap – a sort of living body shield to soak up all the incoming fire from hysterical Remainers in the post-referendum aftermath. He has an enormous personnal scandal hanging over his head which is due to inevitably break when various legal deadlines are passed. Having served his purpose he will be discarded.
    Who will take his place as Foreign Secretary? I don’t know, but it would be worth putting some money on David Davis, already in the Foreign Office, ex-Army and until recently a stalwart member of the backbench non-intervention group.
    Euope is changing – in both foreign and domestic policy – in the same way as the US is changing. I think we have passed the point where we are prepared to be servile to the US. We’ll be polite about it – at least the West Europeans will be. But we now have our own redlines.

  24. Ghostship says:

    Why should we pay the security bill for the United States’ most reliable and effective “beachhead” on the Eurasian continent. All that’ll happen is that Europe will be destroyed all over again when the United States goes to war with Russia to assure its absolute control on global power.
    Most Europeans learnt after the last European civil war 1939-1945) that war between industrial powers should never even be contemplated – something most Americans need to be educated about.
    As for Hillary, she’ll be quite happy to keep Europe as vassal states and continue to interfere in our elections using NED/DNI/IRI/George Soros.
    BTW, it’d be a bit strange having the 51st state with a population of 743,000,000 with two senators and 60 representatives according to apportionment calculator I used – now who said “no taxation without representation”?

  25. Ghostship says:

    By the way, they’re called elk in the UK. ‘Moose’ is a dessert, what you spread on your hair and a small rodent in Scotland.

  26. Ken Roberts says:

    I just read the whole article. Much more there. This is amazing. Would that we had such brilliant performance artists. Slam poetry or grand political analysis I’m not sure. Maybe they are the same, if well done ? Anyway, thanks, and enjoy the moose, eh ?

  27. Ulenspiegel says:

    Yep. I would suggest to try a moose version of “Wildgulasch”, a stew from boar (Wildschweingulasch) or venison (Hirschgulasch), IMHO it should work very well.
    And as FkDahl suggested, mashed potatoes as filler, dumblings also works nicely. The “correct” vegetable would be red cabbage.

  28. turcopolier says:

    Ghostship
    Intriguing.
    Would that be the way Bobby Burns would have pronunciated the name of the wee critter?
    “Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie,
    O, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
    Thou need na start awa sae hasty
    Wi bickering brattle!
    I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee,
    Wi’ murdering pattle.”
    And what about the big deer thing with horns in Scotland, the one you shoot with a very expensive rifle whilst a gillie emits hieland cries of joy nearby? And then you smear the animal’s blood all over your face. Don’t worry. There will be another Scexit referendum soon. pl

  29. turcopolier says:

    Ghostship
    IMO you could have two senators for each of the bigger new states but the little guys like Monaco, Belgium (never was a good idea)would have to accept SOME limitations. pl

  30. turcopolier says:

    FKDahl
    Bien sur! when I was a kid in HS up in Maine, the recipe was basically Quebec style and made with upper and lower crusts. the filling was some kind of ground meat. Every family had a slightly different combination. There were chopped onions and potato in the mix and the spices varied with the family taste. Interestingly, this delightful dish is even better eaten cold out of the fridge the morning after the Reveillon. pl

  31. Fred says:

    Very interesting reading. The line about the FBI as political police? Well that explains Comey.
    “The US is rather the point where the centres of transnational capital prefer to live and keep its legal registration. These very people may be US citizens and alumni, but transnational capital has no homeland. ……Today, we are witnessing the full domination of finance capital …..” My friends on the left used to complain about financial capital but have forgotten all about the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999. Now they are all open borders kind of people.

  32. I have been following with some envy the accounts of elk and moose hunting that have been appearing here recently. The English equivalent is deer hunting – no elk or moose around here as far as I know – and that has changed very much for the worse in recent years.
    A while ago hunting with hounds in the UK was banned. Scotland’s a different case but that ban wrecked deer conservation here. Before the ban the hunt servants and the farmers kept a close eye on the deer population. The stock was culled as necessary and poachers didn’t get much of a look in. That also meant theft was kept down. There were too many eyes around noticing who was where and what they were doing.
    Since the ban that informal oversight and control to some extent went by the board. The result was of course an increase in amateur shooting and butchering. One hears of attempts to kill deer with shotguns and there are accounts of animals shot and wounded and then left. The best of the stock gets killed and as for butchering, I remember some time ago seeing some outbuildings where deer were butchered using a chain saw among other implements and the remains dumped in an open pit. That would not have happened before the ban. There’d have been no need for it.
    Poaching increased and became more professional. That had a knock on effect on theft from farms and on rustling. The farmers for whom the hunt had been the centre of their social life found that changed. The deer stock deteriorated and as for the humane intention behind the ban, on any calculus of cruelty to animals the old system resulted in a fraction of the cruelty that is inflicted on the animals today.
    It was a textbook example of how big government can put paid to a functioning part of a local economy and society without even noticing it. And of course no attempt was made to put any substitute conservation or policing system in place. To be fair I don’t suppose that could have been done. To replace a self-financing or free voluntary system of control with paid officials and all the attendant regulation would have been impossibly expensive and intrusive.
    I hope things are better organised in the States. By the accounts I’ve been reading here they seem to be. Though I do find it difficult to get my head around the concept of using high powered rifles from a canoe. Perhaps your canoes are more substantial than the ones I see around here.

  33. kooshy says:

    In Iran Pork is forbidden for muslims to eat, so ham is not available in regular sandwich shops. Last time I was in Iran I learned that is not true for Boar, you cold by Boar cold cut and sandwiches, which was quite good, also plenty of Ostrich meat.
    Colonel, BTW since you spend time in Yemen and Arabia, did you ever make or think of making Camel chile.
    in southern Iran camel meat is popular and available.

  34. turcopolier says:

    English Outsider
    The social circumstances of hunting deer, wapiti, pronghorn antelope or moose in the US are so different from social concepts in the UK that they are IMO hardly comparable. Private game parks are quite rare and private land that has not been “posted” with notices that hunting is trespass there is considered huntable. the states regulate game and fish populations individually but in general a license is required. The fee for this license funds the state’s fish and game apparat. Game wardens are law enforcement and are usually armed. there is a season established for each regulated species and in the case of White Tailed Deer the license has attached to it one or more “tags” to be attached to the animal’s carcass when it is taken to a local game station which is often located at something like a petrol station. there, the kill is registered and weighed for statistical purposes. Depending on the game services estimation of the population the number and sex of the “tags” varies from year to year. I remember one year in Maine in which the license was for one buck and two does. it varied. the typical American deer hunter is a fellow in a red and black checked woolen jacket complete with a game pocket in the back for rabbits or birds. When I was a kid dried blood in the game pocket made you a real mensch. the type pf firearm is regulated and varies from state to state. In deer season, some communities very nearly come to a standstill for any other activity. the hunting ethos is such in the US that someone who abandoned a wounded animal or a carcass would be universally scorned. pl

  35. FourthAndLong says:

    I must be well beyond halfzeimhers — I don’t get the ‘moose’ reference.

  36. Tigermoth says:

    What’s going on here? Donald Trump sounding like a leader!
    Donald Trump: “A moment of reckoning.”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFQcZMGe4p0

  37. mike allen says:

    Bill Herschel –
    My sister-in-law, the HS English teacher, always derides me for being a fan of Fenimore Cooper. She calls him a mass market purveyor of maudlin teenage fantasy. Not so, I claim. I once made a 3000 mile trip to Cooperstown to browse the local bookstores there for some of his lesser known works.
    I believe the spy novel you mention was the first ever American spy novel. As you probably know, Cooper got much of the material of that novel from John Jay who, although very much older than Cooper, was a family friend. Jay, one of our Founding Fathers, was also a member the Committee of Secret Correspondence back in 1775 and 1776. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_of_Secret_Correspondence Jay is also considered America’s first Counterintelligence Chief. He surely must have told Cooper of the string of spies that George Washington ran during the Revolutionary War.
    Have you read any of Cooper’s maritime novels? His experience as a midshipman in the War of 1812 was largely limited to the Great Lakes. But it gave him an as good or better insight into naval affairs than Melville, and the friends he made there gave him the basis for his stories on maritime commerce and smuggling.
    His many non-fiction works on upstate NY politics of the early 19th century are harder to read. Unless I suppose you are a resident and historical buff.

  38. steve says:

    Best moose I ever had was smoked. Thought it was excellent, though it could have been the good company and the excellent booze that came with it.
    So exactly how long do you have to have money before you are an old wealth family vs nouveau riche? Trump is second generation wealth. He lived on an estate and drove around in his mother’s Rolls Royce. I have always though of the true nouveau rich as the first generation. I had thought that the Kennedy brothers were really just second generation wealthy also since it was the father who generated the wealth.
    Steve

  39. mike allen says:

    English Outsider –
    As I recall shotguns for deer were de rigueur in many coastal counties of eastern North Carolina when I was stationed there in the sixties and later in the 70s. The reasoning was safety as there were too many homes tucked into or near woodlots with children probably out playing in the yard. A miss or ricochet by a hi-power rifle was thought to be dangerous in that situation.
    Hunters there typically used slugs instead of buckshot and had no trouble with just wounding a deer. A hit with a 12 gauge shotgun slug was enough to bring down a deer no matter if it did not hit a vital. And a slug would not be deflected by the heavy brush.

  40. turcopolier says:

    FourthAndLong
    Yes. You missed it. This moosology started with a comment by one of my cousins about a dead moose. pl

  41. dsrcwt says:

    I’ve never tried the chainsaw trick, but I’m told some hunters use them to quarter large game like elk and moose to get it out of the bush. Of course, you have to use vegetable oil instead of bar oil, or you ruin the meat. I have a butcher’s handsaw and can split a 300lb pig in half in 30 seconds, so I’ve never seen the attraction of a noisy, juddery chainsaw.
    Re: home butchering, have a look at Scott Rea, on youtube. He does nose to tail butchering and classic British butchering, with a focus on game.

  42. dsrcwt says:

    We make ham from the breast of Muscovy ducks. I think it is even better than pork ham. I’m told that in Judaism there is some disagreement about whether Muscovies are kosher, I don’t know if Islam has similar issues, but I imagine any duck would work.

  43. dsrcwt says:

    We have a recipe for moose mincemeat that I’ve been eager to try. We don’t get moose here, but I have a little Columbia Blacktail in the freezer that I’m going to substitute. For dessert after your tortierre.

  44. Ghostship says:

    No, nothing quite so intellectual. It was a bit more recent. “Hoots Mon” is a song written by Harry Robinson in 1958, and performed by Lord Rockingham’s XI which featured a couple of Scotticism as the “lyrics”, “Hoots mon, there’s a moose loose aboot this hoose” and “Hoots mon, it’s a braw, bricht, moonlicht nicht.” It was quite popular at wedding discos back in the eighties and nineties if my memory is correct. You were supposed to dance the Twist to it, then stop and shout the lines at the top of your voice, then resume dancing.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wioh5qUj7fM
    You mean the red deer.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_deer

  45. Ghostship says:

    Belgium(pop. 11.2M) is almost as populous as Ohio (pop.11.5M) and the Flemings and Walloons could never agree on a single senator. Maybe that’s a plot for a future series of the Scandinoir thriller, The Bridge.

  46. I should have been more precise. Shotguns loaded with shot. I believe slugs require a different certificate in the UK. This is more difficult to obtain.
    In the instances I referred to I suspect a shotgun would have used more to drive the deer off than for any hope of a kill. That’s why the old system worked better. The farmer would get in touch with the hunt and tell them that the deer were getting troublesome. They’d sort it out. Didn’t always work, no doubt, but it worked better than what happens now.
    Poachers use rifles but are less likely to stay around to dispatch wounded animals.

  47. BGreene says:

    “Laughable education… millionaire… ordinary man…”
    Seriously? UPenn Wharton is now laughable? Oy. Millionaire? His FEC filing puts him in the top 10% richest billionaires (1800 total in world). Do you if there was even one disputable asset they press wouldn’t have run with it 24/7?? Ordinary? He was featured in stories on CBS/ABC/NBC evening national news in the 1980’s. He had a huge bestselling book. He’s an American icon whose name is synonymous with wealth and success. He had the top-rated television show on NBC prime time. If this is ordinary then I no longer know what the word means. Carl Icahn, a titan of finance and industry (and in the top 3% of wealthiest billionaires) said the U.S. is at the edge of the abyss, and only someone like Trump can pull us back from it. Icahn is a life-long staunch Democrat, but obviously an American first. Funny, Icahn’s opinions are so revered that he can shift global markets by his comments on CNBC or Bloomberg, yet in this election it doesn’t seem to matter.

  48. turcopolier says:

    English Outsider
    Except in foxhunting country in Virginia there really are not such institutions as “hunts.” there are hunting clubs in rural areas but the actual hunting is done in small, often familial groups with perhaps two or three people and a dog for birds in the field. When I shot my first deer my uncle Roger and I carried that 120 lb. doe on a pole for at least a mile to get to the car. We were afflicted with city people come to hunt in deah seezun. (Downeast speech) Massholes and New Yohk City people. After failing to find or shoot anything baggable they would go to one our fahmuh naybuhs to buy a deah fum among those hangin’ in the bahn. (More Msine speech) pl

  49. turcopolier says:

    dsrcwt
    here is a good recipe a lot like the ones I make when in the mood. http://thethreecheeses.com/2011/07/tourtiere-butter-pastry/ BTW my mother used the same stuffing for turkey. It was terrific. pl

  50. Babak Makkinejad says:

    The gist of your line of argument is that economic self-interest of European states could work as a brake on US policies in Ukraine or in the Levant.
    World War I made that argument invalid and I see no reason to expect EU states opposing US policies; they do not have it in them; in my opinion.

  51. Babak Makkinejad says:

    In his remarks below
    http://lobelog.com/the-middle-east-and-the-next-administration/
    ambassador Chas Freeman (Retired) expresses his expectation that US – under Clump (Clinton or Trump) – will be escalating militarily in the Middle East.
    He observes that: “The only part of our government policy apparatus now capable of planning and with the money and moxie to act on its plans is our armed services”
    and further that:
    “But, with the cult of the warrior ascendant in our culture and few Americans dying, the Washington playbook is likely to prevail. We will continue on autopilot but deploy more firepower.”
    I personally expect UK to follow US – Boris Johnson is a very intelligent man and his remarks – however buffoonish – are reflecting the position of the sitting UK Government.

  52. Mark Kolmar says:

    kooshy/all — I got camel meat from a local (Milwaukee) halal butcher some months ago, in large cubes most likely from the top round or top sirloin in beef terms. It has a peculiar, sweet flavor, and is very lean and dry. A little goes a long way. Recipes in English were few, so it was down to my own sensibility.
    Simmered in beef stock with onion, ginger, garlic, cayenne, and sweet curry spices with bitter notes (green and black cardamom, fennel, cumin, coriander). The extended cooking time (over 24 hours) offered plenty of opportunity to adjust. I felt it needed a more sour complexity to round out the flavor, and added dried limes. Tomato should work.
    For chili, which may be worth a try next time, the peppers would lean toward the earthy, fruity ones such as morita and pasilla. The sweetness of the meat still might be cloying in chili, though, in which case beans would make it worse.

  53. Lord Curzon says:

    Charly,
    Only because the UK kept it up. Now we have decided to Brexit, the rest of Europe is going to have to take long hard look at budgets vs defence commitments.

  54. Old Microbiologist says:

    I am not in complete agreement with you on this. The refugee invasion brought on by US mandated wars and subterfuge by the globalist elite such as Soros, is rapidly losing acceptance in even up to now, loyal vassal states like France and Germany. I live in Hungary and here we have been actively resisting US mandates for over 4 years now. It may require a dissolution of the EU however, but the resistance is strong and growing. Sadly, our current government here is just as corrupt as the Clintons will be, but this resistance continues and is spreading into neighboring countries, all of whom are worse off since joining the EU. Roughly 50% of Hungarians would welcome communism back as things were better for the average citizen. Hungary and other former Soviet block countries in a Eastern Europe have not ever been equals in the EU and it has hurt this country badly. Like in the US, a small elite grouping as become fabulously rich at the expense of the population but the majority have not prospered at all. Attempts to dictate laws to countries like Hungary which are anethema to social norms here, are disastrous. Americans fail to understand the pride that the peoples of countries like this have in their unique values and customs and forcing change is extremely difficult. One in particular is a deal breaker and that is forcing acceptance of any Muslims. Hungary has a very bad history being invaded and occupied by Turkey and over 350,000 Hungarians were killed and thousands were taken as slaves. Muslims are not, nor will ever be welcome here. Say what you will, but this is the way it is and nothing Brussels or the US says will change this. It is the same in other countries in the EU as well. Remember the Bosnian war was not very long ago and is still smoldering. Some things will take a very long time to heal.

  55. Babak Makkinejad says:

    You won’t need to try to convince about the depth and width of anti-Muslim sentiments in Eastern Europe that had suffered the Ottoman Empire. But in case of Hungary, a small country, I just do not see them being able to resist the Borg unless they be willing to – as you have suggested – break out of EU.

  56. Mark Logan says:

    A common theme develops! Most everybody makes some kind of stew or pot roasty sort of dish. For us westerners accustomed to grain fed fattened beef and whatever it’s the way to go. Bear, in my limited experience, never wanted to hunt the things and have only been treated a few times, is for me somewhat of an exception. These were fat well-fed bears, bear in mind (npi), but I found it to be quite good all on its own.

  57. charly says:

    Even without the UK the EU spend a lot on defense. Also everything you spend on defense is in reality just a tribute to Washington, so why spend?

  58. Old Microbiologist says:

    Yes, it is a delicate balancing act fending off the Borg while accepting bribes from the EU. I think the Muslim issue would not be a serious problem if it wasn’t being shoved down their throats. There are in fact, albeit a minority, quite a few about and I see no discrimination at all, particularly in Budapest. The larger problem is accepting economic refugees and that is totally unacceptable to them. Things are tight here and adding the burden of funding any refugees is impossible. Like in the US with veterans there is no ability to support them at all. The minimum wage here is 400 huf an hour or roughly $1.50 yet costs are similar as in the US. Utilities are actually 5 to 8 times higher, but food is less so it is a wash. Minimum social security is roughly $200 a month so things are very tight got a large part of the population. The current administration is so corrupt it boggles the imagination, yet in many ways it is worse in the US. Here it is obvious but in the US it is more subtle. We will see what happens in 2018 at the next election. The current PM is eager to threaten leaving the EU but like you say it very likely won’t happen. Sadly, the PM is not elected by popular vote but by a Parliamentary majority so until FIDEZ loses their majority we are stuck with them. The US is a minor player here although McCain and Nuland have visited an inordinate amount in the past couple of years. Apparently to no effect though.

  59. Walrus says:

    Staying in Somerset (UK) I was invited to lunch at a farm old enough to be included in the Domesday book. They announced they just had newborn lambs and a fox problem so they planned “to get The Hunt in” shortly. I maliciously suggested that they might instead try the Australian way which is often done with a shotgun or .22 at night, from a truck with a spotlight, or in daytime with a .223 – quicker than The Hunt.
    They looked at me as if I had just farted. I was not invited again.
    As for deer, like ducks, I segregate them into “decorative” and “edible” categories. I could shoot both ducks and deer from the verandah at times, but i prefer to buy them at the supermarket.

  60. aleksandar says:

    I agree with Old Microbiologist If ours elites are pro US, people everywhere in Europe are slowly turning against USA.
    Too much wars and to much interference in european politics.
    The idea of “of free security paid by American tax payers, ” is just nonsense as we are not afraid of Russia. 2000 years of propaganda, we are used to it.
    Ordinary people ask themselves ” For what reason, Russians want to conquer Europe ? ”
    And answer is quite simple ” none “.
    That’s all

  61. kooshy says:

    Mark, I never tried the camel meat, but I was told it’s like you said, sweat and rather on hard dry side. it’s mostly consumed in southern desert cities of Iran. The most famous dish that I can think of made with camel meat is a cereal breakfast dish called “Haleem” (means Meek, mild), a barley or oats porridge slowly coked over night with camel, or ( now days ostrich = in Persian is called “camel bird”) or other meats like turkey. It is similar to quaker oats with meat, they add a little sugar or syrup and cinnamon, IMO it is a heavy meal for breakfast, I don’t know if one make it to work having that for breakfast, is often used during religious mourning holidays.

  62. johnf says:

    Speaking as some one who lives in Somerset and has often hunted at night with hand-held spotlight and two fast lurcher dogs, I too have been chased by irate farmers in their Range Rovers.
    My favourite hunted meats – roe deer fillet, pigeon breasts, jugged hare, and pheasants I have “accidentally” run over in my car. On occasions I’ve eaten badger – forehocks – and rooks (breasts and legs).
    As everywhere else in England, in the world of hunting class warfare is alive and kicking.

  63. Balint Somkuti says:

    Two words for president Clinton.
    MOLON LABE!

  64. Balint Somkuti says:

    “The current administration is so corrupt it boggles the imagination”
    In some respect u r right. Have you been here before 2010? Situation was even worse. Remember cacao proof computers for klinder garten?

  65. sillybill says:

    I can’t for the life of me imagine using a chainsaw, what a mess! You’d have to spend almost an hour cleaning the chain afterwards to keep it from stinking.
    My non professional butcher friends and I use an axe and a hammer for splitting the breastbone of hogs, deer, and goats and just the axe for removing the ribs from the backbone. I just googled butcher saws and they look like hacksaws and pretty cheap – I might try it.
    I keep thinking of the scene in ‘Animal House’ with the dead horse in the Dean’s office, how will they get it out the door? Janitor pulls out a chain saw…

  66. jonst says:

    That’s what your study of European History, say the last 1000 years, tells you? The only nation Europe has to fear is to the “..West of us”. That is a rather unique, anyway, view of history.

  67. mike allen says:

    forehocks?? of wild boar? Do they still have them in England? Or were you referring to forehocks of badger?

  68. Babak Makkinejad says:

    I think up to 2 generations ago, most men performed heavy manual labor; thus the need for very heavy breakfast. My Polish colleague told me how his grandmother fed her husband with a breakfast of stakes and eggs in the morning.
    By the way, there is a halim recipe with eggplants as well.

  69. Babak Makkinejad says:

    I think you are likely underestimating the extent to which Europeans – East or West of the Diocletian Line – wish to be and remain to be “vassals” and “serfs” of the United States.
    Using NED/DNI/IRI/George Soros would just be over-kill; in my opinion.

  70. Babak Makkinejad says:

    It is some sort of Egalitarian Envy – as far as I can tell – endemic to any country with mass-politics and representative system.
    I am not a Fox-Hunting Man but it was clear to me that the opposition to it was solely and completely rooted in envy and a desire to humiliate and to deny some perceived aristocrats their amusement.
    So much of religious and political actions stem from envy that it is not even funny any longer.

  71. Yeah, me too. They were Boston Irish–the archetypal outsiders back in the days of the old WASP establishment–and Joe Kennedy was said to have been a rum-runner during prohibition. Hardly ‘old money’.

  72. Dubhaltach says:

    In reply to Kooshy 14 October 2016 at 05:00 PM
    And you have concluded all of this tripe on the basis of your profound personal knowledge of Europe and Europeans? Amazing how utterly homogeneous the 508 million of us plus the nearly six million Norwegians are isn’t it?

  73. OIFVet says:

    The colonial comprador class is indeed beholden to the US. My personal observation is that anti-Americanism is growing among the underclasses, and it’s growing fast. It has to do both with the migrants swamping Europe, and the unpopular trade deals that Euro elites try to shove down the people’s throats. I wouldn’t be surprised if violence erupts here and there, as anti-government and anti-US sentiments grow in line with the general economic and social discontent. It won’t be pretty when it happens.

  74. Babak Makkinejad says:

    How many countries (states) in the European Union have independent analytical capacity and capability for the analysis of the World affairs?
    I am only aware of such capacity in UK and then distantly, in Italy.
    [I am unfamiliar with French sources, but I have not seen names of French analysts and scholars popping up – at least in relation to the Middle East and the wider world of Islam.]
    Without independent analytical capacity to analyze the world and form opinions – however wrong they might turn out to be – independent policy cannot be formulated.
    Furthermore, without such “native” capacity to analyze and form opinion, mass media in any given country will be dominated by translations from or regurgitations of US, Russian, and Chinese sources.
    The net result is that neither at the government level nor at the popular level, the so-called Borg Narrative could be challenged and alternatives proposed; there are no alternative understandings of the world available for such undertaking.
    I do not think it was the USA that did this to EU states; it was their own choice to be flying blind – as it were.
    When Denmark becomes an Enemy of Shia, it most certainly is not due to profound study of Muslim religion and politics over the last 1400 years. Actually, quite far from it. Someone told the Danes to hate Shia, and they clicked their heels, saluted, and proceeded to do so.
    Likewise, for example, in Spain and Portugal.
    That is an interesting feature of the European Union states, most of them seem to completely rely on US output; from Think-Tanks, to Intelligence Agencies.
    We are, in my opinion, in a very analogous situation to the decade before World War I when the Peace of Vienna had collapsed, the economic foundations of that peace were also gone, and the war, by sheer inertia, was avoided until 1914. Analogously, today, the Peace of Yalta has collapsed (25 years), the economic foundations of that peace are also gone (Financial Crisis of 2008), and small wars are raging here and there.
    Yes, there is not a single European country, save Russia, that is actually putting proposals to avoid a repeat of 1914. None of the EU states, single or collectively, are putting any alternative policy to that of the United States. None, nada, zilch.
    Who or what is responsible for this absence of alternative policy but the absence of native EU analytical capacity?
    There are other Europeans on this forum that may choose to correct me if I am wrong in my observations and estimations.

  75. Fred says:

    Old Microbiologist,
    “…. Americans fail to understand the pride that the peoples of countries like this have in their unique values and customs and forcing change is extremely difficult….”
    Back in the US we are under constant attack by the Cultural Marxists. American history (under their ideology) can be summed up as – slavery, Jim Crow, the Great Depression (caused by capitalism) and the repression of LGBT and lest we forget the ongoing oppression of women.

  76. johnf says:

    Badger.

  77. mike allen says:

    JohnF –
    Hope it was good. Thought you were pulling our leg at first, but then I googled ‘badger recipe’ and saw that there is plenty of badger cooking going on in our State of Wisconsin, which is nicknamed appropriately enough the Badger State.

  78. charly says:

    The rest is, or was at least a few years ago obviously much weaker (and in Russia case, had the gas weapon) so it was unlikely they would attack military

  79. johnf says:

    Latest developments in Urope. In a follow up meeting to the recent US/Russia summit on Syria, Kerry with his faithful side-kick (and how many more kicks can he take) Boris, tried to muster the Uros for slaughter, and if not slaughter, sanctions.
    NFZs – or, as they seem to be known now, Non Bombing Zones – were ruled off the table from the start.
    “At the end of four hours of talks in London among the countries backing the Syrian opposition, the British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, was forced to declare that “there is a lack of political appetite, to put it mildly” among western nations for going to war in Syria.
    Johnson has been canvassing support for a no-bombing zone, but there is little support for the proposal either in the White House or Downing Street, largely due to fears it will lead to a Russian counter-strike and a deeper conflagration. Syrian opposition figures are hoping to persuade Hillary Clinton to adopt a more robust attitude, should she become US president next month.”
    Kerry tried for yet more sanctions but didn’t seem to get any traction there either:
    “It is understood that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, a key figure in EU sanctions, is willing to countenance tougher measures, but she is having difficulty persuading her SPD allies in the coalition that they work…
    (Johnson) added: “No option is in principle off the table, but be in no doubt that these so-called military options are extremely difficult and there is, to put it mildly, a lack of political appetite in most European capitals and certainly in the west for that kind of solution at present.”
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/16/us-and-uk-consider-tougher-sanctions-against-syria-and-allies
    Without Britain there to enforce discipline within the EU, Hillary is going to have difficulty getting any sort of support.

  80. johnf says:

    A local market town, Castle Cary, held an annual Badger Dinner until 1965.
    Now, according to the metropolitan middle classes, badgers are the most cuddlable mammals on the planet after meercats and cats.

  81. Kooshy says:

    What is the benefit of reason for having US bases all over Europe almost in every country, why don’t you European members of NATO are. It allowed to have your military bases in USA.
    Frankly, Iranians had the same frustration with regard to thier sovereignty as an old nation State, (at least on thier forign affairs) that is, before they revolted for self determination, IMO, just for thier pride, so they don’t have to be upset if someone brought that up.

  82. turcopolier says:

    kooshy
    There actually are a few NATO country bases in the US for the purpose of administering their military programs and training. http://www.congressionalresearch.com/96-462/document.php?study=German+Military+Presence+in+the+United+States+The+Case+of+Holloman+Air+Force+Base There is also a German sovereign base at Dulles Airport and I think there used to be one at Ft. Bliss at El Paso. pl

  83. Tidewater says:

    Tidewater says to Dubhaltach and Babak Makkinejad,
    It seems to me that the ten rules of Danish Jante Law, plus the punitive clause, “Perhaps you don’t think we know a few things about you,” reflect the persistent Euro-dithering in re standing up on one’s own hind legs.
    And just how far-reaching is Jante Law in Europe? And Socialist Britain? One thing–Post Brexit Britain is not going to put troops into the old base near Tripoli (Wheelus) to protect another long term incursion.
    I think Valentin Vatsev should read what Digby Baltzell wrote about “The Protestant Ascendency.” I don’t think “Anglo Saxon,” as Vatsev uses it, refers to anything but the folks in the northeast who won the Civil War, and built up enormous treasure and power the century afterwards. “Anglo-Saxon,” as referring to America, is only a regional term! Baltzell was from an old Main Line Philadelphia family, and he is the one who invented the term “WASP.” I have heard one of these nice and perceptive people opine that John O’Hara, born a Protestant, who spent his life writing about ‘uppercruster pukka’ (JP Donleavy on the Anglo-Irish) WASPdom, didn’t get Philadelphia Main Line society quite right. I could guess he ignored the Quakers, Quaker schools, and noblesse oblige. Some of these old Quaker schools take some of the initiative and competitive getaheadedness out of their students. So it’s not easy to analzye WASPdom, but then contemplate the larger picture, all the way across the rather different Protestant states of the Old Confederacy, all the way to the Sabine River in Texas, and then argue that a numerically few, relative to their power, mostly ‘Anglo-Saxon’ families run America.
    I wonder how Vatsev got his information. That family remark is pretty much a cliche, I think. Has he been reading Cleveland Amory? Steven Birmingham? Maybe he ought to read Alvah Johnston’s ‘The Legendary Mizners’, which is a good start on Palm Beach. (And which I just ordered to play it safe.)
    Valentin Vatsev also has it backwards about Willi and Nikki and the phone call that never came. They communicated by telegraph. Why, if so concerned, did the Kaiser nearly get himself interned in Norway, after he went off in absentia during the crisis on a cruise through the fjords on his pitching tub of a yacht, ‘Hohenzollern’. It was Willi who wanted war; not Nikki. I think some of Nikki’s telegrams have come to light that were suppressed.
    The idea that the Establishment killed JFK and Bobby Kennedy is, in my view, all wrong. Noone seems to want to focus on how reckless both of these men were. Bearing in mind that JFK had a remarkable journey through Germany just before the war began, how could he be comfortable riding around in an open landau like the Grand Duke Franz Ferdinand. They would shoot down into open automobiles in Berlin during the street battles between Communists and Nazis in the run-up to Hitler’s accession to power. And JFK had heard about that first hand. The first time I ever saw JFK he was riding up Broadway in an open convertible. At some point,during that parade, I think he even sat up on the back seat of the convertible. The first remarks made between me and the fraternity brother I was with, seeing this President of the United States for the first time in real life, were something like, “Isn’t that a bit risky!’ A sudden, sharp surprise that there was the possibility of a rifle shot from a building. I think that for a moment or two I glanced up at the windows of the buildings around. Funny about that! That was the first time I ever saw him and that was the first thought I had, nothing about his good head of hair or his suntan. I saw him, felt something was wrong, said it, and later on saw his coffin come down the Capitol steps, so the last time in real life. How could I have been surprised when it all happened? I don’t think JFK thought he was going to make old bones.
    As for Bobby Kennedy, his entire conduct in the buildup to yet another crisis over Cuba with the Soviet Union scheduled to start in December, 1963, was as a get-it-done task master, a young man in a big hurry, with shirt tail hanging out and tie half-tied, which told his staff he worked harder than they ever did, who was going to move mountains and conquer Cuba. (Instead his boys conquered Laos.) He was inexperienced and contemptuous of routine government-type standard procedure. He created an alternate second line of communication with important, purported players in the counter revolutionary group. He communicated with top counterrevolutionaries from a home phone and had these not entirely vetted or known entities visit him at Hickory Hill. In the end, the whole Cuba group was completely penetrated. Noone knew what was really going on except that like the white rabbit, it had to be in a hurry. Willam Harvey is said to have blasted both JFK and Bobby in the Oval Office for this and other hazardous conduct. Thereby completing the destruction of his career.
    Bobby Kennedy continued his recklessness while running for president. He put together an amateur security detachment. A football player on it? Rafer Johnson? Who were the others? I’ve never heard anyone say how stupid the whole game-plan was. The hotel kitchen where he was shot could have been cleared in about a minute just before his arrival, and again before his departure. Professional chefs and staff are that good. I’ve heard of a head chef clearing out his entire kitchen to argue with his girlfriend on a cell phone. They go out fast and come back in fast, and one minute later everything is continuing smoothly. Robert Kennedy should never have gone into that crowded, completely unknown, unexamined space. It was crazy! There is always insinuating innuendo about who did what to whom in the Kennedy brothers disaster. They did it to themselves.
    Trump’s education was just what he wanted –he specialized in real estate. Wharton ranks with Harvard and Stanford on GMAT scores. (In 2017 the average GMAT score at Wharton was 732.) Wharton is the toughest business school in the US to get into, though Darden likes its students to have been out in business, done something, and come back to school for fine tuning. I admit, though, I can’t help wondering where Trump’s travels have taken him, besides ‘serious’ Scotland. He has had the money. He has even had his own plane. I’ve looked at his golden quarters in the tower, which is probably where he gets his glow, but I have not seen a library. Perhaps Vatsev is talking about over all humanistic intellectual curiosity? Still, Trump’s education is not ridiculous.
    I don’t get it about the “Owl.” Owl, to my mind is a Harvard club. It is said to be for rowers and lacrosse players, in other words, a jock house. What is that about? It’s still at Harvard.
    I don’t think Vatsev has much of a clue as to how America works. His idea that a number of families run the show reminds me of South Carolina before the War. Where some four hundred families held the power. But that was different. If you had three hundred slaves you had three/fifths of a vote from each slave. Add up a few plantations. Who needs a tedious, argumentative, town hall meeting? When all you need are just a few gentlemen’s agreements about whose turn is next.
    My idea how America is run is probably very naive, but nevertheless I believe that political power must most often start, as with Tim Kaine, with City Council and then the state legislature. Lose one of the eight hurdles that Kaine got over–he could have been finished. People tend to forget men like Henry Howell.
    I hope this is not the flower beneath the foot.

  84. kooshy says:

    Thank you sir I did not know

  85. johnf says:

    Where Germany goes Europe goes:
    “Germany Struggles to Find United Stance on Russia
    Russian aggression in Syria has divided Merkel’s coalition government. The chancellor isn’t opposed to more sanctions, but the Social Democrats favor a conciliatory approach — and are preparing to use the issue in the coming election campaign…
    It isn’t yet clear who will be the SPD’s lead candidate in next year’s general election, but a fundamental policy decision has already been made: The center-left Social Democrats intend to distance themselves from Merkel’s Russia policies and to invoke their tradition as a party of peace.
    They are doing so out of age-old conviction, but also out of tactical considerations. Large segments of the German population, particularly in the eastern part of the country, feel closer to Russia than to the United States. And many — in western Germany too — fear a new Cold War. As such, the SPD leadership believes that voters would be amenable to revisiting a policy of détente with the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin…
    Many governments in the European Union would also like to see a new approach to Russia. Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has managed to get the issue on the agenda of this Thursday’s dinner meeting of EU heads of state and government. On Monday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that Europe is not considering new sanctions on Russia…
    The SPD isn’t just interested in avoiding new sanctions on Russia due to its role in Syria. The party would also like to see the lifting of sanctions imposed two years ago after the Russian annexation of Crimea and Moscow’s support of separatists in eastern Ukraine…
    Surveys regularly show that more than half, and sometimes up to two-thirds, of Germans believe that sanctions on Russia should be loosened or lifted completely. Sympathies for Putin are likewise astoundingly high.”
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-political-leaders-divided-on-approach-to-russia-a-1116979.html
    (The new right wing party in Germany, the AfD, is likewise keen on a deal with Putin.

  86. Fred says:

    Tidewater,
    “I believe that political power must most often start, as with Tim Kaine, with City Council and then the state legislature. Lose one of the eight hurdles that Kaine got over–he could have been finished.”
    That is a good way to have people who may actually know how government functions and not bring too much stupid to higher office. Now you can skip a bunch of steps when running for Federal office by being a small city counselor then Mayor (Corey Booker), academic (Elizabeth Warren) or wife of a politician (Debbie Dingel and that other woman) or by being a community organizer (Barack). Of course we open things up for comedians, too (Al Franken).

  87. turcopolier says:

    fred
    Kaine made his way at each successive level by being an inoffensive well-mannered SJW. Good manners count for a lot in Virginia and his wife’s family coached him in that. He is actually much more Left than HC. A lack of “breeding” is a major disadvantage here along with Blacks, Latinos and unmarried Type A women in the Washington ‘burbs. pl

  88. mike allen says:

    Can’t be any worse than the roast dog, snake soup, or 100-year-old eggs I sampled in the far east. Next trip east I’ll have to stop in Wisconsin and try out the badger stew.

  89. Tidewater says:

    Tidewater to Fred and turcopolier,
    The Richmond Times Dispatch sponsors a town hall meeting called Public Square. The 52nd one was held a couple of years back, as I recall, at the University of Richmond. Tim Kaine gave a forty minute lecture, more of a conversation, without notes, on the history of presidential and congressional war powers. I have watched a lot of it. I found the whole thing fairly interesting, inasmuch as I paid attention to the way the young audience seemed to be trending. I think that you can get a sense of Kaine’s style, how he carries himself, talks, and connects with people. I can’t help wondering why he never took up jogging.
    I found out about the ‘Public Square’ by checking out an article by A. Barton Hinkle, who is on the editorial board of the T-D. This article is published on Reason.com and is titled “Tim Kaine, the Affable Idealogue/ Not a centrist as described by some.” Reason.com gives a series of useful links to Kaine’s background and career.
    Hinkle says about Kaine: “But is he the centrist recent coverage has made him out to be? Hardly.”
    Now I don’t know enough to really try to assess Tim Kaine. It needs to be said that there is something in Richmond called “Project Exile.” This was a federal initiative that I suspect Helen Fahey pushed forward. Helen Fahey is the now retired United States Attorney of the federal district of Northern Virginia that includes Alexandria and Arlington. Kaine backed this initiative, as did other Richmond leaders. If you had a felony conviction– or was there a little bit more to it? –and if you were caught with a gun, you got an automatic, five year federal conviction. Boom. Five years. Not to be whittled down. So, good for Kaine, on that one. That’s centrist. But he doesn’t get the credit for that, that others, including Helen Fahey, should get.
    Incidentally, Helen Fahey prosecuted a black guy from SW Washington, D.C. named Charles Satcher, who murdered a young woman named Elizabeth Borghesani (sp.) This is a peculiarly disturbing case; and, of course, we here remember “Jackie”– UVA’s fabulous fabulist of Rolling Stone fame? (Who I would love to get a peek at. But only the jury, and that in a video deposition.) Jackie and her Sisters had taken the Satcher case to heart; in one demonstration she was holding a sign with reference to a stair-well, where this unbelievable horror was enacted. The sign seemed to me to indicate that she,too, had been a victim. For the last day or so, the lawsuit brought by the UVA student advisor (Eramo) involved in the “Jackie” incident, has been in Federal court here in C-Ville. This is the case against Rolling Stone and Sabrina Rubin Erdely.(sp?) You may already know this; I gave my tv to my Russian friend. I don’t miss it yet except for the crime/detective programs, though internet video is OK.
    Another connection here is interesting, at least to me. There is a lawyer here in C-Ville who is, or was, involved in a Rolling Stone civil lawsuit; there are a number of them. This lawyer is from an old Richmond family, and not, I guess, all that interested in local politics; he was robbed on a Richmond street by black kids, it is years ago, now. I don’t know the details. I know some of his classmates. At a 50th reunion they were all stunned to catch up. He told them his story. After he was robbed, he was shot several times, for no reason, and left to die on the sidewalk. It may have been after dark. It may have been winter. He was noticed, lying in the shadows, taken presumably to MCV, and barely survived. (I used to be familiar with that emergency room. There was a dumpster around the side in the alley that a lot of horrid hospital stuff went into; I had to watch for some cats that hung around back there where I hurriedly parked. I used to wonder, what exactly was the diet?
    He had a long time in rehabilitation. After he was able to begin to put his life back together, he decided to run for city council. He won a seat. Don’t know how many years he served. Or what he accomplished. (I can guess what he focussed on.) But he was the one who was defeated by Tim Kaine in Kaine’s bid for city council. By one hundred votes. I assume he just went back to his law practice and resumed his previous social life. But he had had an American political career.
    I was talking to a younger member of the House of Delegates, who came from an old political family, who had represented an area, perhaps more than one county, to the east of Richmond, on the Chesapeake Bay, for a number of years. I couldn’t help noticing how he had come to be genuinely interested in all kind of complicated agricultural matters. Listening to a conversation between him and the young man who married my niece–the writer Mary Winston Nicklin– the Virginia agricultural matters were also of great interest in France. I went and got another drink.
    But I managed to ask him a few questions later. He had said something that I noticed about his maiden bill. If they call it that. This was the first time he stood up in the Virginia House of Representatives and put forward a bill. I asked: Did he have a Young Winston moment? Did foam fleck his mouth and were there strange male grunts and noises made, perhaps shouts, etc. He said ‘Yeah, they did do something.” What they –the smart and scary old guys– began to do was to ask questions which required him to display a basic knowledge of their reality–revenues, taxes, appropriations, the budget, monies available, what was possible…Like a kind of orals exam. They were brisk and polite; but the questions just came coming, and he began to sense he was in a kind of test-match. In fact, I came away from that thinking, Wow, it actually WAS a kind of Young Winston moment. He got his bill passed.
    My take on Tim Kaine is that he may indeed be an SJW, but having a very real determined commitment to making very sure that he is representing African-American interests in his bailiwick, the black people who have after all elected him there, seems to me to be both ethical and plain common-sense in a largely black old southern city which only recently has returned to a slim white majority. I think that there may have been at least four black members of Richmond City Council who voted for him for mayor; as well as a few more white council members. So he was acceptable to the black leaders. That gave him the job. I assume he continues to hold their approval. The black community of Richmond, incidentally, I think, is quite serious about its leadership.
    Barton Hinkle is an interesting writer. I haven’t read enough of his work to form an opinion of his left/right stance. There seems to be an edge to what he has to say; he seems, how to say it, a bit magisterial; he seems to have a large quotient of WARINESS! 😉 I am curious to read more. (So I have just resubscribed to the T-D, and I am glad.) The T-D seems to me to be a pretty good newspaper these days. I came to realize that I have been missing out on one of the real pleasures of my past existence. This was to be sprawling out on a sofa with the Sunday editions of the NYT, WashP, RichTD, Columbia State, and sometimes Atlanta Constitution, Charlotte Observer, and Charleston Post and Courier)piled around me. I always read at least three every Sunday. Also, contrary to what people say, I found the old newspapers very comforting to have around in many different ways. (Rolling on some paint, for example.) And they are going to come in very useful now that I seem somehow to have become associated with three very fine cats. Didn’t E.B. White write about the powerful pull of the Sunday newspaper?
    Tim Kaine was Lt. Governor when Mark Warner was Governor of Virgina. They were old friends before Kaine got there! I think it is correct that they became friends at Harvard Law. Kaine said he was Governor Warner’s Ed McMahon. 🙂
    I wish that Mark Warner was running this year. With Tim Kaine still as his Ed McMahon. Get his turn later. Warner’s older, anyway. That’s fair. Will Mark Warner one day, four years from now, take the nomination away from Tim Kaine?
    Ivy Day in the Committee Room. That just went by. October 8, I think. Has to do with Parnell.

  90. Tidewater says:

    Tidewater to Tidewater,
    Ivy Day is October 6.

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