Wet Dreams.

She is a mighty fine governor, but let's be honest--when she speaks with the straight face that "Trump's legacy" is what America "needs", like support (I mean licking boots) of Israel, tax breaks for filthy rich, "business deals" which accelerate American industrial decline and other anomalies, like cowardice, she is right--continuing to consider these "accomplishments" as a positive legacy and talking about why GOP "failed" is exactly the reason why it will continue to fail because GOP is a party of quislings  whose only function now is to negotiate with Democrats how main constituency of GOP, people who give money to it, may hold on to its riches for a little while longer. 

GOP reminds of a crack addict who tries to act normally while having a severe case of coming down, by means of dressing in tuxedo,  while trying to convince oneself that the condition he is in is just a passing one. GOP "elite" is as treasonous as radicals from Dems and if the average Joe dies tomorrow, they will not care. Of course, they will continue to massage abortion issue and pledge allegiance to Israel, but they will do nothing for people who actually, diminishing as their numbers are, provide a residual functionality to this country. 

For starters, let's drop the pretense that GOP is a "conservative" party--I am on records for years, there is nothing conservative about GOP. It is not and hasn't been since the times William Buckley "sold" himself as intellectual, same goes for a neocon cabal, which in a classic rabbinical tradition demagogued its way into the Republican pseudo-intellectual Parnassus pushing the only button which matters for main GOP contributors--greed, and tawdry sloganeering which passed for decades as "conservatism". Evidently rooting for New England Patriots, or Texas Cowboys, being addicted to laissez faire and peeing one's pants  (or wetting eyes, or both) from seeing innocent countries and scores of innocent people being killed is considered somehow "conservative". As Kristi Noem proved in her interview, this is precisely what GOP intends to do, while feeding deplorables all those "issues" of abortion, Israel and "trade deals" which somehow should address their unenviable fate. Remarkably, MAGA and Trumpism is exactly the vehicle which may break the Republican camel's back and stop its gravy train of congressional dealings, which is ironic, really--one fraud being broken by another. But then again, normal people in America have no political and ideological sanctuary to run too. One chapitaue, left from the road, populated by Democratic Party, is the one containing Room 101 and face recognition check-points, where straight white humans need not apply or approach, until they brought there in shackles and on their knees. The other one is a circus of political treason, corruption and pathos-ridden BS being sold as a virtue, which, in the end, is merely another stop before being delivered into the "rehabilitation" camp being built behind first chapiteau --your choice, America, of how you commit suicide.

So, while I respect governor's farming background and her hard work at getting her degree in political "science" and then getting elected to US Congress and governorship, I have to really question her grasp of the current situation and how GOP will continue--it is not even for a debate--to betray its main constituents who still believe that GOP somehow represents their interests. Poor people. So, MAGA is perfect for separating GOP from power, which it doesn't need anyway, since it is the party of deserters, plus, considering the "intellectual" level of its "top" and what passes for its ideological machine--no hope for it to do anything what benefits the core of the American people. MAGA, for it also being a fraud and populist demagoguery, at least breaks, for now, the ideological impasse to which GOP led majority of its constituency, trying to sabotage any change of direction towards substantive questions about America's nationhood, real economy, GOP helped to obliterate, declining wages, loss of jobs, violence, dramatic social stratification, unchecked immigration, debilitating and criminal foreign wars, corrupt political discourse, insane cultural practices and destruction of educational system. You know, all those secondary, to support of Israel, tax cuts and abortion, issues which have absolutely no bearing (wink, wink) on lives of the majority of people. I see NO people with enough intellect, integrity and awareness in the so called Republican cultural milieu, who can provide any viable definition of conservatism and lead the party between Scylla of neocon foreign policy and neoliberal economics of GOP establishment and Charybdis of MAGA populist bullshittery, which, in the long run, is even more damaging because it cannot deliver, as Trump's presidency demonstrated so vividly, even when adjusted for DNC and media's sabotage of his chaotic reality TV show. There are NO people in GOP which can defeat democrat's insanity, because they cannot generate ideas without betraying the real nature of GOP--a party of good ol' boys who are into it to make money. Or serve Israel, like popular "conservative" Ben Shapiro, who, and you guessed it, is a lawyer and political "scientist"--a precise category of people who led the United States down the road of ruin. As Thomas Sowell succinctly put it:" Road to hell is littered with Harvard degrees." 

In related news, another wowser from Boeing: 

But it's not just the pandemic that is dragging down Boeing. The company is facing a huge challenge with its new 777X, a longer variant of the widebody 777, taking a $6.5 billion write-off on the still unfinished aircraft. Test flights of the 777X began a year ago, but safety regulators are demanding design changes to address safety concerns. And with the market for such giant, long-haul jets evaporating during the pandemic, Boeing is now pushing back the plane's entry into commercial service into late 2023. Boeing has also had a slew of other design and production problems with the 787 Dreamliner and the KC-46 midair refueling tanker for the Air Force.

Read the whole thing. Honestly, my heart bleeds for Boeing's commercial division, for people who worked there, in the end for company itself which was a leader in commercial aviation for such a long time. Now it faces a de facto financial ruin and I don't know what is the outlook. I doubt  that even the term "foggy" really applies to its future as is true to the whole United States. Just to confirm that things proceed apace. Aw, poor-poor dear Teddy Cruz as if he didn't know what was coming. 

“The first week in office, what has Joe Biden done? He’s signed an executive order ending the Keystone pipeline, destroying 11,000 jobs,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in a Tuesday interview on Fox News.

No shit, genius. Ask your party what it was busy with the last five years. Or fifty, for that matter. I am sure GOP's sterile "conservative intellectuals" will explain it to you. Or not. 

What A Shock... Not Really.

The shock is not that Biden appointed Vicki Nuland to the position of the Undersecretary for Political Affairs, it is this: 

Biden also announced his plan to name the former head of policy planning at the State Department, Jon Finer, as deputy national security adviser. These are, by the low standards set by the Biden transition, sensible appointments. The same, however, cannot be said for Biden’s nominee for Sherman’s old job, that of undersecretary for political affairs, Victoria Nuland.

It is absolutely shocking to learn that some standards, however low, actually do exist anywhere in the US political top. No way, this cannot be true. And it is not true, the only "standard" which exists at the American political top is ideological purity, professional qualities be damned. Especially in the American so called "diplomacy" which does not exist as such anymore. But even more shocking is this:

As Biden’s undersecretary of political affairs, Nuland will have immense influence over policy and personnel. Progressives in Congress and their partners in the media, think tank world, and among grassroots activists should join forces with the growing caucus of anti-interventionist Republicans on the Hill and vigorously oppose her nomination.

Seriously? There are "anti-interventionist Republicans" in existence? You mean in the party which sold America to the left and to the right and still pretends that it is a viable political entity? Oh, please. Let's admit that the United States of America is run by neocons-liberal-interventionists and that is the only political party the United States has. Republican Party is dead, it was dead for some time, but now its decomposing neoliberal and neocon corpse begins to poison already putrid atmosphere of the American political discourse. GOP is done--it is the party of treason and this is not a political construct America needs to survive. The US needs a true conservative party with a clear national(ist) ideology which cannot be conceived by the America's modern "conservative thought", which is a simulacrum of "conservatism" and has no intellectual staying power nor courage to stand up to a sanctimonious woke neoliberalism of the so called "left". For starters, "conservatives" cannot formulate what American nation is or they simply don't have courage to do so, nor are they capable to overcome rigid ideological and bankrupt economic views, since corruption is at the heart of the American political discourse. Everyone is for sale, it is just the matter of price. Plus, "conservatives" do not know history. Yes, there is this thing in America with the history. I don't know, something in the water, maybe, but there are issues with historical awareness of the US "conservatives",  the issues with cause and effect, let's put it this way. Hence cartoonish and garrulous "exceptionalism".

Note, I again do not discuss the democrats--I am on record who they are and what a deadly danger their policies represent for the United States--this goes without saying. But let's face it, GOP's face is not some "caucus" of anti-interventionist Republicans, but that of Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnel, late John McCain, and Ted Cruz. I don't think that "return" to paleo-conservatism of Pat Buchanan is the answer either. Pat's ideas about history and those very same important historic causalities are, putting it politely, a very shaky ground for development of a viable political ideology, which can unify forces who do care about what happens to the United States. Such an effort requires a serious thinking, or, rather, rethinking, and while "conservatives" have a lot of people with Ph.Ds in history and political "science" in their ranks, those people are still blood and flesh of the system which produced an astonishing number of neocons, interventionists, exceptionalists and shallow doctrine-mongers who dominate America's governing and so called "intellectual" class. So, who will formulate something, instead of bankrupt tired talking points for GOP, something which may resonate with people on the fundamental level, including those who Trump betrayed? Anybody? If not, then expect radicals and fanatics taking the lead and, please, spare me those "historic" parallels, say with Germany of 1933--Hitler, actually, was a genuinely courageous man, who went through WW I with distinction and finished it decorated with some notable orders usually not bestowed on servicemen of his lower rank. Expecting some Ivy League humanities graduate, whose only difficulty in life was in deciding what type of dormitory to choose, being able to formulate an ideology which can save the country. Right. And I am about to get at Yamaha I have at home and compose something which will make Tchaikovsky's music sound amateurish in comparison. What do you say? Ah, I cannot play and do not know notes--yes, true. But that is just a minor detail. After all who said standards? What standards? Let's compose... 

In related news, the only remaining pr. 941 Akula (NATO: Typhoon) SSBN Dmitry Donskoi (news in Russian), the largest sub ever constructed, will remain in service for another at least 5 years. I think such an engineering marvel deserves to be preserved as a museum once this monster retires. I am sure there will be no shortage of visitors wanting to experience an awe from a probably deadliest weapon humanity ever constructed. The scale of these ships is simply mind-boggling. They are also very graceful-looking subs. 

Here is Dmitry Donskoi in person. I am sure Russia can afford such a museum. I would put it in St. Petersburg. In fact, once retired, I am positive Donskoi will be able to provide a sizeable cash-flow for its own maintenance as a museum. Who wouldn't pay an equivalent of $10 to get onboard. I would.