Monkey business at the OPCW.

OPCW refers to Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. FFM refers to Fact Finding Mission.

We are told that the FFM already took some biomedical samples, which were analysed and revealed the presence of sarin. Moreover, they say that the results of this investigation are final and not subject to any doubt. But let me ask you where, how and when were these samples taken? Was the chain of custody, established by the OPCW itself, complied with when safekeeping the evidence? It would be good to receive answers to these questions, especially since the mission, as we know, has never gone to Syria. I’m asking these questions for a reason. In my remarks on April 13, I already said that the Russian military, who collected the materials testifying to the use of chemical weapons in Aleppo, are being forced to bend over backwards trying to explain how they found the fragments of ammunition, to whom they reported and even asking them to present some obscure logbooks. They kept asking us about this during a special video conference, and posed an ever greater number of questions during a meeting on the sidelines of the Executive Council. And this in spite of the fact that our specialists already have a pretty much clear general picture of what actually happened there. Still, four months later, the FFM has not yet come up with any conclusions. I emphasise that they have been analysing this for four months and are still unable to come with any conclusions. Then here, all of a sudden we see such incredible efficiency and conclusions that are not subject to any doubt. So, think for yourselves why we are insisting that the results of a full-fledged comprehensive investigation should inspire confidence not only to a group of Western countries, but to all other states as well.

The fact that the delegations of some countries, primarily from the Western group, are always shying away from accepting the decisions proposed by us and the Iranians suggests that they are, in fact, not interested in establishing the truth.

~ Ambassador Alexander Shulgin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OPCW, April 19(?), 2017.^[1]

Notes
^[1] "Russia Responds After US Blocks Inspection of Syrian Air Base. US 'blocked a decision aimed at a prompt initiation of a mission to find out what really happened in Khan Sheikhun', according Russia's OPCW Ambassador Alexander Shulgin." By RI Staff, Russia Insider, 4/23/17.

Best headline of 2017.

Earth Goes Dark as Thousands of Russian Warplanes Block out the Sun
NATO says unprecedented number of Russian warplanes are terrorizing international airspace.^[1]

Close second:

FACT: Eastern Europeans so 'Worried' About Russia That They Spend Next to Nothing on Defense.
Their mouths say one thing, their budgets another.^[2]

Money quote:

The likes of Latvia will tell you that Putin is a Soviet revisionist imperialist just dying to gobble up the Baltics, so they're spending 1.41 percent of their GDP on defense.

Not 30 percent, not 20 percent, not 10 percent. Not even 5%.^[3]

Let me guess. Uncle Stupid will take care of everything.

Notes
^[1] By Rudy Panko, Russia Insider, 4/22/17.
^[2] By RI Staff, Russia Insider, 4/17/17.
^[3] Id.

Pearls of expression.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has a simple message for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons: Stop with the bullshit.

"Lavrov Dismantles UK-Led Sarin 'Investigation' in 30 Seconds. Lavrov blows the whistle on the OPCW and its 'investigations' in Syria." By RI Staff, Russia Insider, 4/25/17.

Teaching your kids.

Here's a tweet on an unrelated issue by public school teacher, LoraJane Riedas, in Tampa, Florida, who didn't like "many" of her Christian students wearing a Christian cross ("gang symbols"):

The public school kids were not invited to the White House egg role this year. #microaggressions . . . .

    — LoraJane Riedas (@LoraJane) April 20, 2017^[1]

I'd like to believe that auto-correct is this math teacher's enemy but I rather doubt it.

An Englishman, Simon Murray, once wrote a book about his five years in the French Foreign Legion (does anyone else have a Foreign Legion?). An aristocratic friend came to visit him and, while discussing the entertainment preferences of some of the other Legionnaires, the friend remarked that it never ceased to amaze him how some men would put their most precious possession where he would not deign to put the ferrule of his umbrella.

I think of that story when I contemplate citizens who meekly shell out taxes for government schools and then send their most precious possessions to those schools to be indoctrinated by morons like this woman who are hostile to the fundamental moral foundation of this Christian nation and are themselves sad products of the same system.

Notes
^[1] "Lesbian Teacher BANS All Crucifix Necklaces From Her Classroom…Now She’s In Trouble!" By Just An American, Right Wing New, 4/23/17 (links omitted).

How is this not treasonous?

I don't lightly throw around the word "treason." It's the most serious crime there is, worse even than murder which only affects one or a few. But "treasonous" gets us thinking about the issue of who's "us" and who's "them" without getting all steamed up over legal definitions. As things go these days , even such a general inquiry is a much neglected one.

Here's a passage from an article about a French fellow who's done some serious analysis of French realities, particular French real estate:

[Guilluy] aims only to show that, even if French people were willing to do the work that gets offered in these prosperous urban centers, there’d be no way for them to do it, because there is no longer any place for them to live. As a new bourgeoisie has taken over the private housing stock, poor foreigners have taken over the public—which thus serves the metropolitan rich as a kind of taxpayer-subsidized servants’ quarters. Public-housing inhabitants are almost never ethnically French; the prevailing culture there nowadays is often heavily, intimidatingly Muslim.^[1]

Just noticing the ethnic decomposition of major Western cities is such as to make a reasonable person who thought he lived in "his" nation wonder when it was that the government decided to welcome a tidal wave of foreigners that has, in some cases, made him a minority in his own capital city, as is the case in London. In the words of John Cleese, London is no longer British.

One hears the "f" word at every turn these days but never the other "f" word, namely, the word "foreigner." It's the word that can never be uttered for to the beautiful people of our moribund civilization it's a dirty word, without meaning. We're all law-abiding pals with a love of tortillas, halal food, monkey brains, and genital mutilation, aren't we? Huddled masses!

Not foreign.

In the military, it's woe to the man who falls asleep at his post. The idea is that he exists to keep the enemy out of the area he and his comrades control. But there's no longer a place for such thinking in the minds of beautiful people with oh-so-much education in the things that aren't. No. For them immigration is a sacred thing.

But look at the result. Public housing that was built for French people at the time is now exclusively housing for foreigners bent on being parasites and taking over. Native Frenchmen, in this case, were pushed aside, as is also the case now in Sweden where white Swedes are pushed out of public housing to make way for foreigners.

Some might argue that stupidity does not bootstrap one into the realm of treason, but this isn't stupidity and the slow but huge increases in the presence of hostile foreigners is no less an unopposed or encouraged invasion because the invaders come with diaper bags and without visible weapons. It's not stupidity; it's a deliberate betrayal under the banner of the loathsome slogan, "Diversity is our strength." Even circus contortionists don't dare to attempt that kind of twisted thinking.

The people who have done this deserve the punishment reserved in more sensible times for "treasonous" behavior. Each person's last words "But I didn't know!" can be duly noted for the record.

Notes
^[1] "The French, Coming Apart." By Christopher Caldwell, City Journal, Spring 2017.

Whackjob Sweden.

In early 2017, the Swedish police were instructed to increase their preparations for war. They were not told who this potential war would be against, although the authorities like to talk about an alleged threat of an invasion from Russia.

It is not, however, the Russians who now routinely burn cars and commit gang-rapes in Swedish cities. These crimes are largely committed by recent immigrants, many of them Muslims coming from war zones. These immigrants have for decades been allowed in by the ruling political elites, applauded by the mass media and supported by the EU and the UN.^[1]

Löfven strikes back.

Notes
^[1] "Europe: Combating Fake News." By Fjordman, Gatestone Institute, 4/5/17.

Please consider a contribution to Fjordman. There's a link to do that at the bottom of the Gates of Vienna page here. Thank you.

Tommy Robinson can also do with some help. A link for that is on the main page of Gates of Vienna. For that, I thank you as well.

Sabotage of our nuclear forces.

What is left mostly unsaid is that this was a deliberate decision to hobble our nuclear forces in the future and to make it very expensive and difficult for others to fix. It only becomes more expensive and more difficult with each passing year, so hopefully more mature and responsible minds with the long view will get to work this year to give the future options and not problems.

"The Crisis in Nuclear Husbandry." By CDRSalamander, U.S. Naval Institute, 3/29/17.

H/t: Woodpile Report.

Our corrupt, clownish leadership.

All dissent is a Russian operation. Anything bad that happens to America has nothing to do with our corrupt, clownish leadership, but is Putin’s fault. This is where all of this is going, and it’s further evidence that the American empire has entered a much more pronounced and dangerous period of decline.

"Our corrupt, clownish leadership" seems harsh but these times call for clear assessments.

The Republicans have yelled about Obamacare from the git but come time to come up with a replacement that's not a modified version of that leftist monstrosity they've got nothing in their bag of tricks. Not only didn't they have a colorable scheme of what might be a better approach, but what they did come up with was hush hush and rolled out as just another exercise in jamming it down the throats of the people. Take it or leave it, suckahs.

No discussion beforehand. No attempt to show how something as simple as allowing insurance to be purchased across state lines could stimulate competition and lead to more options. No focus on the problem of the uninsurable and what we should do as a nation, whether pretend it's a problem to be dealt with by insurance or a matter of taking care of people in a bad way as a matter of public policy. Ryan knows best!

No discussion of the aberration of employer-provided health insurance as an artifact of WWII price controls.

And sure has shootin' no discussion of the known defects of socialized care elsewhere in the world.

Similarly, the seemingly sacred rule is that no other national problem can be dealt with other than in a "comprehensive" manner. Nope. Can't just build a wall to stop illegal immigration as in stanch the flow of newcomers before we decide how to get rid of the other invaders who got here earlier. We have to come up with the perfect plan for Indians to come take American jobs and seasonal agricultural workers to come from Brunei and deportation and the wall and sanctuary cities. Got cancer? How's that dandruff?

Tax system a bit cumbersome? Why, of course, we must have a "comprehensive" reform such that the deductibility of hobby expenses must be carefully examined. Just take a pen and change corporate tax rate – now the highest in the universe – to 15%? No, no, the clowns have never heard of the 80-20 rule.

These things take time. Arterial bleeding there, Rufus? We hear you but, first, what's the history of diabetes in your family?

"U.S. Propaganda is Embarrassingly Bad (and Why it Matters)." By Mike Krieger, Liberty Blitzkrieg, 4/19/17.

H/t: Zero Hedge.

The leftist capture of the Democrat Party.

Pretty much "must read":

The left makes its opposition to the Constitution, the election process and the rule of law into a crisis. And then it uses that crisis to demand a new system. It has pursued this approach successfully in local areas and in narrower causes. This is not the first time that it has embarked on such a project on the national level. But this is the first time that it has the full support of a major national political party.

And that is the true crisis that we face.^[1]

The radical left assault on Trump and our constitutional system was visible within days of the election. What has become obvious was a virulent, dishonest campaign to delegitimize Trump's presidency in every way possible.

I'm not a fan of his actions respecting Syria, Russia, China, and North Korea but this goes beyond difference of opinion on policy matters and Trump's personal fidelity to his stated objectives. The radical left and its friends in the Democrat Party simply do not want America. They want dictatorship.

Notes
^[1] "IT’S OFFICIAL: Democrats Now the Party of Radical Revolution." By Daniel Greenfield, Doug Ross @ Journal, 4/14/17.

Beyond the pale.

That mission turns into a hunt, a search for these two guys [New York National Guardsmen]. Long story short, our unit – my guys, Dog Company – finds one of the guys in a field some distance away [in the Tangi Valley of Afghanistan]. His arms had been hacked off. He’s naked. His uniform has been ripped off. His heart has been cut out, or at least that’s what we suspect because there is a hole in his chest right where his heart should be. At this point in time, we had a lot of assets in the air, and we were getting reports that his fingers were being sold in the local bazaars as war trophies.^[1]

The speaker is Army Captain Roger Hill.

Think of this story next time you hear senior American military officers talk about rules of engagement. About how punctilious we must be in fighting these primitives.

We must limit the application of our laws to people of our own civilization. The Muslims cheerfully treat infidels in their midst as second-class citizens. Why do we pretend that they are our civilizational equals?

If we're going to be there or anywhere we have to fight till the surviving enemy begs for mercy. Mostly, we don't belong anywhere in any Muslim nation and no Muslim belongs in ours.

Western elites are cowards and dance around the pathology of Muslims which is Islam itself. Not radical jihadi, Islamist, terroristic, salafist savagery but Islam. Muslims have to be told they can expect nothing from us until they are housebroken. Secular states from which all remnant of Islam have been removed are welcome in the community of nations and can have their oil fields back. If it takes 500 years for that to be achieved anywhere, so be it.

Notes
^[1] "‘Dog Company’: Bronze Star Decorated Army Captain Explains How Politically Correct Lawyers Are Betraying Our Troops." By John Hayward, Breitbart, 4/12/17.

The popularity of Assad.

When Assad did stand for reelection in 2014, after 14 years of unopposed rule, in a contested election that was judged "free, fair, and transparent" by an international commission of observers, headed by Jimmy Carter--Assad won 88% of the vote if such a thing is possible. That's 3 percentage points higher than Putin's highest point of genuine popularity. Could it be?

* * * *

The neocons were shocked (Like the "liberated" Iraqis not greeting our invading forces in 2003 with flowers.) But Assad's popularity is really not so hard to fathom. For while both he and his father, Hafez al-Assad, did rule as dictators--even brutal dictators at times--they were also "enlightened" dictators in the sense that they well understood that even dictators ultimately only govern with the consent of the governed; and that it was therefore in their interest to respect the rights, especially the religious rights, of all of their citizens, while simultaneously emphasizing the unifying feeling and concept of a shared secular identity among their citizens as "Arabs" and more specifically "Syrians."^[1]

Notes
^[1] Don't Blame Assad for Syrian Gas Attack Yet." By Dr. William Wedin, Russia Insider, 4/8/17.

Assad did it.

Source: Comment by John Connor on "Don't Blame Assad for Syrian Gas Attack Yet." By Dr. William Wedin, Russia Insider, 4/8/17.

You know you're in trouble when . . .

When, that is, you pay close attention to a press conference after the foreign ministers of two major nuclear powers hold a meeting in Moscow.

To be interested in what government officials say is not a sign that world affairs are humming along as they should under the firm hand of rational, normal human beings. It bespeaks a concern that something is unbalanced and that irrational or illegitimate force is a possibility in the near term. At least in my view. What strikes me as "must watch" isn't what anyone else should go along with.

I have these thoughts about what I saw:

1. 
   U.S. Secretary of State, Tillerson came across as an arrogant man, a classic example of America, the arbiter of the fate of mankind, the Dudley Do-Right before whom the waves must part.

   We've got conclusive evidence that Bashar al-Assad planned, directed, and executed the recent chemical weapons attack in Syria and that Assad has a history of such awful behavior. Even criminal prosecution for war crimes is being considered. The days of Bashar al-Assad and the Assad family are limited.

   Awareness of or concern for what might follow after successful completion of Job Number One = zero. Assad did it, he's trash, he's toast, sauve qi peut, bichez.

   And, yes, K-Mart shoppers, Russia did decide to stick its fingers into the giant fur ball, maelstrom, NASCAR pileup, cat fight, and National Organization of Wymen convention that is American presidential politics. For which, mind you, further sanctions against Russia would be warranted.

   They are evil geniuses and they provided crucial evidence of Hillary's health problems and grotesque corruption in the form of laughable "speaking fees" and "contributions" to the Clinton Foundation. No one in West Virginia had any clue beforehand that Bill'swife (with a sidekick with disturbing Saudi Arabian connections) wanted a war on coal. And no one else had figured out that she was lying through her teeth about the loss of at least three fine Americans in Benghazi and that she had cackled with delight over the death of Muammar Gaddafi.

   No sociopathy here.

2. Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, by way of stark contrast, came across as a sensible and healthy individual not at all arrogant. He is fully committed to an investigation of recent events in Syria rather than going off halfcocked a la You Know Who.

   "Ready, aim, fire" as opposed to "fire."

   He noted the Syrian request for an investigation by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons with approval.

   Mr. Lavrov also noted the history of the U.S. over many years of being fixated on regime change. E.g., Serbia (with U.S. bombing of a TV station and other civilian targets and the Chinese embassy), Libya, and Iraq, I think he mentioned. He sensibly argued that what takes place in Syria should be determined by democratic means whereby the people of Syria can determine what they want.

   The matter of regime change should be considered in the light of what has happened when that approach was implemented before.

The press conference:

As various commenters around the web have asked, What happened to improving relations with Russia and abandoning moronic ideas about playing God in Syria?

A tragedy is about to unfold with this degree of American arrogance and deceit at work.

More Pearls of expression.

This article should be used as an example of the absolute meaning of the word "farfetched".

Comment by Constantin2 on "Why Did Assad Use Nerve Gas?" By Stephen Bryen and Shoshana Bryen, American Thinker, 4/6/17.

Pearls of expression.

Now she [Hillary] is stating that she lost the election because she is a woman. Wrong! She lost because she was the wrong woman.

Comment by Cheater on "Within Hours of 'Sarin Gas Strike' West Already Knew Who Is to Blame. How Come? First condemn, demonize and point the finger at -- then call for an investigation." By Rob Slane, Russia Insider, 4/6/17.

So It Would Seem Dept.

Trump also prefers getting his information from cable channels news rather than from the daily briefing from the intelligence community.

"Analysis Trump's Real Target in Syria Strike Wasn't Assad." By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz, 4/10/17.

Pearls of expression.

I re-read the article several times and I cannot find one fact/source that would indicate whether it was Assad--or the Easter Bunny--who ordered the nerve gas deployment.

Comment by gynojunkie on "Why Did Assad Use Nerve Gas?" By Stephen Bryen and Shoshana Bryen, American Thinker, 4/6/17.

America knows best.

Lost in oblivion [i.e., totally ignored], also predictably, was Russia's deputy UN ambassador Vladimir Safronkov shattering to bits the West's "obsession with regime change” in Syria, which is “what hinders this Security Council."^[1]

For a few minutes there it looked like the U.S. was abandoning its absurd objective of paving the way for Assad's replacement by some jihadi animal faction. Now it looks like we're back to the Obama Doctrine – Assad, must go!

The "brutal dictator" thing that's brought up in connection with Bashar al-Assad is juvenile. The presidents of South Africa and Zimbabwe are far more deserving of removal, the South African guy having a peculiar blind spot for the murder and dispossession of white farmers in his country.

In addition to which, the U.S. – with its fellow British, German, French, Norwegian, Saudi, and Qatari "coalition" members – aids and abets jihadi scum, draws in more jihadi scum from all points of the compass (turning the Syrian war into anything but a civil war that John Bolton thinks it is) and turns Syria into a free fire zone. Then, when Assad and his followers fight back in this war against them initiated by the U.S. and other civilized nation it seems, every last civilian casualty is laid at Assad's doorstep.

As though no civilians died in Fallujah when the U.S. waged war there or any other place where we've gone to war. Yes, Assad's the one. Assad the killer.

Get rid of him and our work is done.

Notes
^[1] "Syria: The Toxic Meltdown." By Pepe Escobar, Sputnik, 4/6/17.

Assad as cretin hypothesis.

Nobody thought to ask the obvious question [about the chemical attack on Khan Sheikhoun]: “Why would [Syrian president] Assad do such a thing?” Syria was en route to a new round of peace talks. More importantly, she was about to enter negotiations in which the usual American, British and French demands that “Assad must go!” were to be, for the first time since the Syrian Civil War broke out in earnest, quietly put to one side. Having won the war on the ground, the Assad regime was on the brink of clearing away its enemies’ unrealistic preconditions. Finally, a serious conversation about Syria’s future could begin.

And yet, we are being invited to believe that, with all this at stake, President Assad ordered the use of Sarin gas on his own citizens. Somehow, instigating a reprehensible war crime against women and children was going to strengthen his moral authority. Somehow, by revolting the entire world, he would improve his chances of being accepted as Syria’s legitimate ruler. Somehow, by embarrassing the Russian Federation, his country’s most valuable military ally, he would enhance Syria’s national security. The whole notion is absurd.^[1]

It is.

Notes
^[1] "Gas Attack In Khan Sheikhoun! But why would Bashar al-Assad blow himself up?" By Chris Trotter, The Daily Blog, 4/5/17.

Assad lynch mob.

I have returned from a trip to take care of some family business. I appreciate loyal readers who've continued to check in here in the last month.

The story of the hour is the rush to judgment on who was responsible for the deaths in a Syrian town said to be due to some kind of gas. The one responsible is none other than Assad, Mad Dog Ophthalmologist. The amount of intellectual dishonesty one has to wade through in listening to very eminent men convinced of this fact is stunning.

On grounds of cui bono alone a reasonable person would have to conclude the opposite, namely, that Assad gains nothing by reckless chemical weapon use against civilians, or even military ones. The very indiscriminate nature of chemical weapons makes them a poor choice and Assad's forces have been doing very well with conventional weapons alone. Why mess with success?

Chemical weapons are also such as to make Western statesmen suffer hysterical collapse. Aiding and abetting al-Qaida and ISIS scum in a war that has cost over 400,000 civilian casualties in Syria and otherwise doing our utmost to keep the attack on Syria a going concern is not morally reprehensible but something like 60-120 civilian deaths and other casualties in this town are enough for WonderNikki to show photos in the U.N. and threaten that the U.S. will go it alone if the U.N. doesn't drink our bathwater. Wasn't the U.N. supposed to be the sacred collective security and peacekeeping mechanism after WWII? Our democratic values apparently include ignoring such nonsense and doing whatever the hell we want wherever we feel like doing it. Bombs away, suckahs!

Seymour Hersh and Richard Lloyd, former UN Weapons Inspector, and Theodore A. Postol, Professor of Science, Technology, and National Security Policy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology cast much doubt on the "Assad the Monster" thesis with respect to the 2013 Sarin attack in Ghouta. Yet, hardly 48 hours after this new incident important people, including Donald Trump unfortunately, are wringing their hands and exclaiming about "little babies" as though all on-the-scene investigations by impartial observers had been concluded in a day and the results were in. Some moron U.S. Senator thought the presence of fixed-wing aircraft, which could only have been Syrian Air Force planes, was the long and the short of The Case Against Assad. QED, Mothertruckers! He managed to get in something about barrel bombs too IIRC. The stark horror of unaesthetic ordnance!

Maybe it's just me but that doesn't do much for me in the absence of chemical analysis of the gas, and crater and bomb casing analysis.

The grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri, took longer and had more integrity in the matter pertaining to Officer Darren Wilson, and the stakes there were nothing like what they are in Syria with its seeming infinite opportunities for the U.S. and Russia to go at it with very modern and destructive toys.

It's as though this incident took place and someone immediately whispered "Execute Plan A" and important Americans instantly began to fall over themselves to be the first to declaim about the innate evil of Assad and the unwisdom of leaving him in place in the New Syria. Oh, sure. Assad doesn't remember how close it was he came to being at war (overtly) with the U.S. Why not make a gas attack just for the hell of it? And infuriate Putin in the process. The man whose artful diplomacy headed off further catastrophe in Syria, even given the flexible nature of "catastrophe" in Syria since 2011 when this mad attack on Syria go going.

Like Will Farrell in "Zoolander" I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here.

I take a little trip and suddenly (?) everyone goes nuts.

I am beginning to think that President Trump is very easily distracted and does not think strategic like in matters of statecraft. It's vital that the U.S. step back from mindless military involvement and this "let no sparrow fall/oh look, a squirrel!" kind of strategic thinking is not something I find reassuring.

Have your peeps contact my peeps if you know what vital U.S. interest is implicated in our war against Syria unless Syria has the only supply of sanctimony on the planet and our strategic reserves have been pumped dry. (98% utilization just in the last 24 hours, I estimate.)